Expensive birds ... & lots of them
I have to confess that the start of this years shooting season has gone really rather well – maybe not in terms of the number of days out, but certainly in terms of the number of birds. A month ago in Monmouthshire we had a total of 261 on the day (185 pheasants & 76 pheasants). On Friday, over in East Sussex we got 147 pheasants & 169 partridges. lets just say that currently the freezer is bulging with game.
Ah, a day in the countryside … rolling chalk downlands
& the scene behind your humble correspondents peg at the end of the first drive after lunch – on days like that, you simply can’t have enough shells in your cartridge bag
followed by the pickers up doing their stuff
The only downside to all of this that I am rapidly getting a taste for some very very expensive shooting. To put that into some sort of perspective, a smart driven day will cost circa £30 + VAT a bird shot. Given the current economic climate there are plenty of people trying to offload shooting that has already been paid for or is part paid – prices being quoted by some of the sporting agents are apparently as low as £15 per bird. However even had that sort of price, I still need to keep buying those lottery tickets
Comments
Well you could always go cheap and cheerful like we do but that would require putting in work and thats really a no no at the moment.
I know of a shoot in Hampshire that has put its walked up days up from £85 last year to £125 this year and there is still a list of people waiting for a slot. I think that between you and us we could clean up this year!
Posted by: TimC | November 10, 2008 10:25 AM