The vast county of Yorkshire with its varied landscape contains hundreds of good shoots so this list represents just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to driven shooting in the white rose county. Bolton Abbey This 30,000-acre plus sporting playground on the banks of the Wharfe is owned…
Gameshooting
Chefs and moor workers give public a taste for wild game
“Our group is about showing working life on the moors and at this time of the year, all the estate workers are really busy round-the-clock getting ready for the grouse season,” said Helen Savage, Co-Ordinator of the Lammermuirs Moorland Group. Fresh game is already supplied to the restaurants of Michelin…
It won’t be a vintage year for red grouse
Grouse moor keepers and sporting agents across England and Scotland are warning that this year’s grouse shooting season will be a disappointing one thanks to the bad weather that hit the first half of the hatching period earlier in the year. Keepers are reporting reduced covey sizes — in some…
BASC highlights “Glorious Twelve” benefits of grouse shooting
BASC has released an infographic pictured here to illustrate the benefits of grouse shooting. Chairman of BASC’s Gameshooting and Gamekeeping Committee Ian Grindy said heather moorland managed for grouse benefits conservation and wildlife. He said “BASC is highlighting the 12 benefits of grouse shooting so that people can make their…
Ever thought of setting up your own shoot?
I have often thought about running my own shoot. Many years ago I did, in fact, have a small shoot of my own where, with the help of a few friends and paying guests, we enjoyed some great days out in the field, even if the bag at times was…
Ex-RSPB conservation director says driven grouse shooting should be banned
The RSPB has taken a neutral position on the matter of driven grouse shooting. However, in his book Inglorious – Conflict in the Uplands, which is to be published tomorrow – just two weeks before the Glorious Twelfth – Dr Avery says that the sport should be banned. The controversial…
Shooting businesses in Yorkshire
There is more to Yorkshire’s sporting heritage than grouse moors, high pheasants, beautiful scenery and pulling the trigger. Scores of shooting businesses make the shoot days tick and here’s a selection… Shooting businesses – food and drink Yorkshire Game If you’ve bought game that originated from estates in Yorkshire then…
Is Yorkshire the ultimate fieldsports county?
Glorious grouse Let us start with the grouse. Ripley, Danby, Bolton Abbey, Dallowgill and almost anything with dale or moor or gill in the name will do. The moors in Yorkshire might not have the Celtic romance of the Highlands but they have a cracking population of grouse with less…
How should you prepare for the grouse shooting season?
A: It is so nice to hear that you, along with many others, are getting into grouse shooting again. The last five or six grouse shooting seasons have been excellent. This is mainly due to good management and good investment by the shoot owners, meaning the moors have become much more…
Roxburghe Hotel Kelso review
I can’t resist humming the theme from Mike Hodge’s Get Carter whenever I head north on the East Coast Mainline. When I make the journey, sometimes with a shotgun in the guard’s van (not for use in retribution for my brother’s murder, of course), I travel full of curiosity for…
Batcombe shoot, pheasant and partridge shooting in Somerset
In the modern framework of driven game shooting there are a number of ways to run a shoot. There are the larger commercial affairs, which cater for teams of paying guns and can lay on anything up to 100 days a season. These shoots will typically put on 250-300 bird…
Scottish Land Reform Bill could soar the price of shooting and stalking
Ordinary deerstalkers and gameshooters could be the first to suffer following the publication of the Scottish Land Reform Bill last week. The bill, which aims to widen the ownership of land throughout the country, includes proposals to end the exemption on business rates for shooting estates, which landowners have not…
Have you booked your Shooting UK Event?
Shooting UK has now launched three exciting new events for the readers of Sporting Gun, Shooting Times, Shooting Gazette and The Field – and of course, visitors to the Shooting UK website. Whether you want to find out what jobs a gamekeeper has to do throughout the year, how you have a…
Rural Maps: cartographers mapping out sporting estates
It was the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century that saw the birth of rural mapping. Distribution of these dissolved estates by the Crown prompted beneficiary landowners to commission records of their landed properties. Often colourful and frequently used as status symbols, they were drawn by country surveyors…
Llandinam shoot: Pheasant and partridge shooting in Powys
Every time I get in the car to go shooting and the journey involves skirting around Welshpool, I know I am heading for some dramatic scenery and correspondingly good birds. This shoot is named after the village of Llandinam, which sits beside the River Severn as it meanders north-east through…
The Knoll Shoot, Somerset
Take a peaceful part of the Somerset countryside, add a dedicated team and a generous dollop of showcase drives for those with tight chokes and the ability to match. The result is the perfect recipe for the ultimate day’s shooting. The first frost of the year greeted me as I…
Wild game shooting at Vine House Farm shoot, Lincolnshire
The Lincolnshire Fens bring to mind large tracts of commercial arable farming; acres of flat land planted with nothing but cereal crops and not a tree in sight. So hardly the place for a shoot, let alone a wild-bird one. But this patch in the south Lincolnshire Fens has just…
Labour promise to “reduce animal cruelty on shooting estates”
Party leader Ed Miliband said: “Our Labour values tell us that we have a moral duty to treat the animals we share our planet with in a humane and compassionate way. No other major political party has such a proven track record of decisive action for animals at home, on…
Partridge shooting at Pawton Manor, Cornwall
I was in Cornwall this summer and enjoyed the ferry ride across the Camel estuary from Rock to Padstow. The sun was shining, Padstow was awash with tourists, or ‘emmets’ as they call them in this Celtic corner of England, and the cash tills were ringing. I couldn’t help but…
How Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) will affect your shoot
By Richard Barnes Many farmers are wrestling with the changes under the latest Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform. Like it or not, just about everything we do is influenced by the European Union, from general licences for the control of woodpigeon to how farmers are paid to tend their land.…