News Shooting

Grouse shooting in the UK has a bumper season

Grouse keepers and shooters around the UK are reflecting on one of their best years in decades, with some moors shooting right up to the last day of the grouse season.

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In parts of the UK’s uplands, numbers of birds have been high.

In England, a large swathe of the uplands from the Northern Dales up to the North Pennines has experienced exceptional seasons, with many daily bags upwards of 200 brace.

Shooting Times columnist Lindsay Waddell, headkeeper on the Raby Castle estate in Co Durham, said: “It has been an exceptional year for most of us in the North Pennines. The only fly in the ointment this year has been the wind, both the strength of it and the direction. If your moor was suited to driving birds in a south-westerly wind, you would have been fine. If it didn’t then you’d have been in trouble from day one.”

In Scotland, estates in the drier Angus Glens, the Lammermuirs and the Grampians fared particularly well.

At the Glenogil estate, several years of light shooting and focused management saw the estate enjoy its best single day since the 1930s with a bag of 447 brace.

The availability of grouse shooting this year has meant that more days have been put on than in recent seasons, leading to a major boost for the upland economy.