Outside Days » Driven

Reprise: Idiot’s Guide to Booking Shooting

Howard — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:35:29 +0000

I make no apologies for dusting off this old chestnut and republishing. When the loonies, kooks and crazies stop asking questions that would require the publication of numerous volumes to answer, I’ll leave this one in the archive. Until then…

Subtitle: The Things I Really Need to Know to Make Your Day Work
We start booking shooting for one season before the previous season closes, and are in full swing planning for the season to come by the time March becomes lamb-like. Much as I love extended email conversations and playing phone tennis, tag, and catch with all of you, it helps if you’ve done a little thinking before we start. We work with so many different shoots, each offering a selection of different opportunities, that it’s hard to know where to start when the email says ‘looking for some shooting…prices and dates please’.

Knowing what quarry you’d like to shoot, where or when you’d like to shoot helps narrow the choices. Grouse are a possibility in northern Britain from August 12th to December 10th, but you can forget shooting in the Outer Hebrides until September, or being within an hour of London ever.

Do you care how many times you pull the trigger? How high the birds are? How far you will have to preambulate between pegs? Is your dog just for show, or do you expect to use its services on the day? Are you solo, or blessed with an entire team of compatriots eager for the off? Can you shoot any day except the first Tuesday of each month, or are you a weekend warrior? Gourmand content only with linen tablecloths and a selection of fine wines? Cottage pie or casserole in the shoot room? Fish and chips at the pub? Or sausage rolls and soup on the tailgate of the Landrover?

Do you have to be back on your doorstep for dinner at 5? Looking to stay in a sporting lodge complete with singing laird and scotch pancakes? Fancy a pub with a roaring fire that allows your dog to stay? Or maybe a B&B whose landlady has an encyclopedic knowledge of local watering holes?

I’m sure you get the picture. The more specific you can be, the closer to your dream spec I can tailor the day. Of course, giving me plenty of notice always helps…

Glorious Grouse from August 12th to December 10th

Howard — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 16:01:38 +0000

Two months into the grouse season and we are down to our last three days. From the Outer Hebrides to the Cheviots, the Lammermuirs to the Yorkshire Dales it has been an amazing season for grouse. Despite last winter’s cold spell, there have been record numbers in places across the country. Even so, demand has outstripped availability with days, whether walked up, over pointers or driven, being snapped up within hours of offering.

I warn every novice grouse shot that it’s an addictive sport, but that doesn’t stop you from making that ‘once in a lifetime’ trip…and rebooking (you know who you are). It’s easy to see how fortunes have been spent in pursuit of the king of game birds.

In two short months, we’ve enjoyed/encountered sunburn, frost, floods, fog, gales, men in skirts, and a long list of unmentionables. To the owner of the spare right boot left behind on the moor, it’s made it back to Wiltshire and is waiting for collection.

Next year’s waiting list starts here…well, the queue does.

Idiot’s Guide to Booking Shooting

Howard — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:00:44 +0000

I’m sure you get the picture. The more specific you can be, the closer to your dream spec I can tailor the day. Of course, giving me plenty of notice always helps…

Sim Species Expansion

Howard — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:00:54 +0000

Many of you have shot simulated game, whether I’m the one flinging clays over your head, or you’ve tried it with somebody else. We’ve just trialled a new venue and format for these fun out of season days, and can now offer 4 species simulated game days from spring next year. It also adds a second venue with completely different landscape to our downland days, tucked in the trees, hedges and ditches of the New Forest.

Hours of stomping around the estate’s fields and woods, heaving clays into empty space, we have derived a strategy that lets us show: driven partridge over high hedges; duck looping crazily and springing unseen from a flight pond; high pheasant soaring majestically over the tree tops; and grouse charging at butts across the heather and bracken.

Butt and blind construction is underway, and I can’t wait to see what you make of it for next season. All sorts of hospitality and corporate packages are possible, and there is something to suit everyone’s pocket. The secret’s out and booking has already started.

Walked up..and Up…and UP Grouse

Howard — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:40:50 +0000

What better way to start the season than three days spent tramping behind the dogs? Grouse over pointers makes you appreciate the beaters on driven days, and the quarry everyday.While the Yorkshire moors are producing record counts and predicting a fabulous season, in the Highlands we were being more selective, taking only old cock birds and leaving the young to fly on.

Unintentionally, the trip turned into a bit of a father and son event, and it was wonderful to bask in the glow of shared experience. With Will holding down the fort for the next generation, his father had to work hard to keep up. By day three, Mike’s prowess was being challenged by a son who shot his first grouse on day one. I look forward to years of shooting in their company. With muscles screaming after months of disuse, we hauled ourselves across the hill after the dogs, and in hot pursuit of the keeper. By day three, the sight of the boat waiting lochside to retrieve us came as a welcome suprise to the guns. And yet no sooner were they speeding away from the hill, than they were discussing their return.

An entirely wild quarry, grouse breeding and rearing success determines the availability each year. We sell shooting on a first come first serve basis, and with grouse that can mean waiting until August to find out if there are grouse for you to shoot. Your patience is well rewarded, but we do advise booking early to avoid disappointment. This is as true of driven grouse as it is of walked up. Any late availability is always posted on our mailing list.

Driven Pheasant Stage Two: From the Rearing Field to the Bath

Howard — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:26:35 +0000

As you stand on your peg waiting for the high bird of the day to glide over you (and hopefully fall at your feet), stop to consider the commitment and effort of the keeper who got it there. That commitment doesn’t start with abuse of the beating line, hours of dogging in or even religious filling of feeders. Every egg hatched in an incubator (and there are hundreds of thousands each year) has been carefully washed by hand to reduce the risk of disease and infection from the off.

After collecting and handwashing the eggs, they are stored until sufficient numbers to fill the incubator have accumulated. The time-worn method would be sticking them under broody hens for 24 days, but modern efficiency and the reduction in keeper numbers (not to mention broody hens) means the incubator dominates.

Game Corporates Simulate Driven Days with Clays

Howard — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:47:17 +0000

Game clays offer corporate institutions the opportunity to swap the confines of an office meeting for rural vistas and salty banter. Simulating the experience of a driven shoot, game clays offer novices insight into the sport and more experienced shots the opportunity to hone their skills out of season.

The team who came down last week fired 4000 cartridges in two drives between 12 guns. We just discovered CCI’s latest clay, the Stardust, a florescent orange clay that explodes with a puff of pink powder when hit. By combining these with pink and white clays and awarding points for hitting certain clays and not others, a fierce competition was born.

Unseasonable May weather has given me a tan worthy of David Dickinson, but leaves the trappers muttering about hazard pay for their sunburns. A number of you have let us know our comment facility is on the fritz…we are working on it, but the computer genius behind the Outside Days website has gone walk-about on the Pennine Way so it may take a few days.

Driven Shooting

Christopher — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:29:01 +0000

Between August and January, driven shooting can take the adventurous gun to fabulous locations all over the British Isles.

Walked Up Shooting

Christopher — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:28:05 +0000

The origins of walked-up shooting lie in our prehistory as hunter-gatherers. From quail in Texas to partridge in France, foreign opportunities abound. But some of the best opportunities to pursue a range of winged quarry are to be had in the British Isles.

Outside Days shoots into the Blogosphere: Adventures of an Intrepid Sporting Agent

Howard — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:57:24 +0000

For the more technically literate among our friends and clients, you may feel this addition to our website long overdue. Over the season, many of you express interest in what I do with the rest of my time (aside from attempting to appease my wife). Distaining from shoot reports (snore), I will post the more amusing of the incidents and anecdotes that are the sporting agent’s lot. Shooting availability for specific dates will be posted here, including any last minute bargains or spots in a line.