Ian Coley’s grouse masterclass: technique, safety and manners in the butt

More than half a century after his first day in the butts, Ian Coley MBE has written down what he tells the Guns he coaches before they go to the moor. Writing in Fieldsports Journal, the coach to Olympic gold medallists Richard Faulds and Peter Wilson sets out a grouse masterclass that runs from the shooting ground to the tip at the end of the day, and for anyone who runs a moor, loads for guests or picks up behind the line, it is the brief they would want every visiting Gun to have read.

“Grouse are totally different to shoot from anything you’ve shot before, but they’re not the impossible birds people make them out to be,” Coley writes. “In normal conditions, they are coming at you, and they are very sporting to shoot. But you do have to handle a gun in a different way to your pheasant and partridge days.”

Why does Ian Coley tell Guns to practise before the moor?

His first instruction is to get to a shooting ground, ideally one that can throw targets in front and behind. Coley names his own ground as one that replicates grouse rather than putting up standard targets, and says a number of others around the UK do the same. “It’s well worth investing in a few lessons, and in the days leading up to the big day, practise your gun mount in front of a mirror,” he writes. “More than any other game, grouse arrive fast, and you don’t want to be let down by a slow or unsteady gun mount.”

Clothing follows the moor. Coley tells Guns to wear very natural colours, to think of the purple heather of August and September and never to wear white or light colours; to carry clothing for warm days and for cold, wet ones, good waterproofs whatever the forecast, a midge net, plenty of water for themselves and their dog, and a stick. He has, he writes, “seen grown men driven off the hill by midges”.

On cartridges he is plain: there is no need for big loads. He uses standard game cartridges of one ounce (28g), one and a sixteenth of an ounce (30g) at most, with reasonably open chokes, and has never favoured one make of gun. “Any standard game gun will do a perfectly good job,” he writes, adding that barrels should be kept to 28in or 30in.

Where are the safe zones in a grouse butt?

Safety comes before technique. Coley tells Guns to take proper notice of what they can see on arriving in the butt for the first time, and where their safe areas are, and to put the swing sticks far enough forward that the gun can never point at a neighbour to either side or when turning to the back. “Never step back to the rear of the butt when shooting behind,” he writes. “This is entirely the wrong thing to do. Stay forward, and only turn to shoot at the back once the bird has passed through the line to a safe distance, taking the gun out of your shoulder into the safe position first.”

He then gives the Gun a marker to work to: a point 50 to 60 yards out in front, which is where the gun is mounted and the grouse is shot, quickly, within a normal range of 40 to 45 yards, leaving time for a second barrel at a reasonable distance. The marker, he explains, stops the Gun shooting at a bird when it is too close.

How does Coley shoot an incoming grouse?

The heart of the masterclass is the difference between grouse and everything else a game Shot has learnt. “When shooting incoming grouse, many people do actually shoot in front when they first start, because they try to swing the gun as if they were shooting driven pheasant or partridge,” Coley writes. “You don’t have to do that. It is all done by gun movement: keeping the gun moving, looking at the grouse. Mount your gun just underneath the bird as it comes straight at you – any movement will bring the gun in front of it naturally, so there’s no swing needed.”

His picture for it is the bird’s feet. “I tend to say to people: imagine you’re trying to shoot at the grouse’s feet rather than at the body of the grouse when it’s coming low at you,” he writes. “That’s probably quite different to what everybody starts off doing, but that is the way more success comes.”

When a pack swirls in, sometimes 100 or 200 birds strong, he tells the Gun to pick one and stay with it, because shooting into the middle of a group in the hope of hitting something, known as browning, is “both unsporting and ineffective”. Weight stays forward on the front foot, adjusting left or right as the bird commits, and the decision is taken early. “A grouse covers 20 yards in under half a second, and if you hesitate at all the grouse will be on top of you and through the line,” he writes. “So once it’s in your safe zone and in range, take the shot. Trust your eye and pull the trigger.”

The wind decides the rest. Grouse will generally bank and go with it rather than into it, Coley writes, “so understanding that fieldcraft will get you more shooting than luck ever will”.

What does the masterclass ask of loaders, keepers and pickers-up?

This is where the piece matters most to the people who run the day. Coley calls fieldcraft absolutely essential on the moor and recommends an experienced loader for a first day in the heather, because grouse are wild birds that demand respect and will tend to move away from people rather than keep coming. Grouse on a Scottish hillside, he suggests, are more aware of people than the birds on some English moors, which see more walkers going through and are “a little softer”. A hill behind the butt breaks up the Gun’s outline, so he tells Guns to think about what the grouse are seeing, to keep a low profile later in the season and to mount smoothly rather than jump up, or the birds will be pushed on to the neighbour.

The manners are as firm as the technique. “There’s no place on a grouse moor for a greedy Shot who wants to shoot everything coming his way,” he writes; a bird crossing to a neighbour who has not had a shot is let pass along the line. “And remember, there’s no grouse shooting without the keepers, beaters, flankers and pickers-up; be respectful of them and say thank you properly at the end of the day.”

On tipping he is candid that the old rule of thumb has gone. “I remember a time when we used to say a tip was £5 per 100 birds. Those days are long gone, I’m afraid to say,” he writes, telling Guns to ask their host what is appropriate and to base it on how much they enjoyed the day and the conditions the keepers battled. “Remember that lots of people put a lot of work into your day – so please take the time to chat to the team when you see them and show an interest in their work. I cannot emphasise the importance of this enough.”

Picking up is the Gun’s responsibility too. Coley wants every Gun to keep account of where birds fall, so the pickers-up can be told how many were shot and where, and to try to pick their own birds after the drive. “I see so many people walk away without even trying, and that’s wrong, in my opinion,” he writes. “It’s about respect: for your quarry and for everybody around you.”

What happens next

The grouse season has until 10 December to run, and the late drives Coley describes, when the birds are wilder and a low profile in the butt counts for more, are still ahead of most moors. His closing advice is to enjoy every part of the day, from meeting the keepers to the walk to the butt, and not to worry about the ratio. “You’re there to enjoy the greatest place on earth, so enjoy the moment above all else,” he writes. The full masterclass, with Sarah Farnsworth’s photographs, is on Fieldsports Journal now.