Have you done a driven pheasant/grouse hunt in the UK or Spain?

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dogcat1

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Tell me about your driven hunt experience in the UK or Spain!
Fun, exciting, boring, over the top, under the bottom....???
Thanks!
 
I've shot driven pheasant in Scotland and it is an amazing experience. I was in Fife not far from St Andrews. I would absolutely go back. The challenge is finding a group you like to fill all the pegs. I did also shoot two days where I was an addition to a group just buying a peg and while the shooting was fun the whole experience was better going with a group I knew and having a dram at night discussing the day.
 
I shoot driven birds regularly in the UK and eastern Europe. While both locations are great fun, shooting in the UK is absolutely the best. One of my best friends lives there so I can shoot with his group. Their traditions surrounding the hunts are fantastic and give the day a real sense of significance and theatre. There's something very serious yet enjoyable about putting on a tie and decent clothes for a hunt there. The breakfast/coffee with the guns, Elevenses, lunch and post hunt activities are wonderful. It is very expensive but well worth it if you love proper shotgun sports and bird hunting. Note, the shooting in England can be very challenging to Americans/me raised on flushing/walked-up birds. Driven pheasants and partridge in the UK are often very high and moving fast, so I'd suggest fine-tuning your shotgun game on a challenging sporting clays course prior to the shoot.
 
Thanks. Being wild birds I would expect some serious high fliers.
 
I have been on a number of driven hunts in the UK. I absolutely love it. A shoot with proper high birds is some of the most difficult shooting you will ever do.

I am working on a driven partridge hunt in Portugal next year.
 
dogcat1 said:
Thanks. Being wild birds I would expect some serious high fliers.
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The gamekeepers and beaters know how to use the terrain to create the high bird scenarios. Some of the hunts in Wales are just incredible/incredibly challenging.
 
And being the land of etiquette and tradition, shooting birds lower than about 40 yards is considered very poor form
 
A driven bird shoot is a good day, but for me, only enjoyable with good company. I have done the paid peg scenario and meet the other guns on the day and whilst the shooting was enjoyable the overall day is no where near the same.
 
Tango said:
And being the land of etiquette and tradition, shooting birds lower than about 40 yards is considered very poor form
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I am lost. "Shooting birds lower than about 40 yards is considered very poor form" but in the same "land of etiquette and tradition" a deer at 300 yards is unsporting. Doesn't those sportspersons realize that an apparently missed bird is probably hit by some pellets
 
I live in the UK and enjoy shooting driven pheasant on smaller days. Shooting the odd wild Woodcock on a pheasant drive is even more fun! But as the pheasants are released each year I don’t get the same enjoyment that I get from deer stalking or wildfowling for truly wild quarry.

Smaller less formal driven pheasant days with friends are more enjoyable than big days in my opinion
 
ofbiro said:
I am lost. "Shooting birds lower than about 40 yards is considered very poor form" but in the same "land of etiquette and tradition" a deer at 300 yards is unsporting. Doesn't those sportspersons realize that an apparently missed bird is probably hit by some pellets
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Some of the etiquette doesn't quite make sense to Americans at first glance on paper, but I can assure you, it's all incredibly sportsman-like and challenging with a very solid emphasis on safety, conservation and game meat utilization. As I mentioned, it's very challenging technical shotgunning, so you want to be tuned-up and on your A game there. I've been on shoots where noob guns arrive thinking it's going to be shooting fish in a barrel.....they're quickly humbled. I recommend the experience very highly if you're a shotgunner and have an interest in/affinity for traditional hunt culture.
 
I've done red-legged partridge in Lincolnshire, and going back in October, also in Kintyre in Scotland. The shoots were fun, and reminded me of the culture around quail in Georgia. A good bit of pageantry, reasonably challenging shots, and a lot of pomp and circumstance after the shoot. We always bring our wives and they have a ton of fun. From what I've been told, there are some excellent places for high birds around the country, though the pinnacle of bird shooting in the UK, or so I've been told, is to snag an invite to a grouse estate.
 
I spend a lot of time back in the UK and enjoy driven bird days for pheasant and partridge. I've taken many US friends over to the UK to enjoy driven bird days, everyone has always thought of it as some of the most amazing days out.

There are a lot of different types of shooting, from small walked up shoots, average driven shoots to large day double gun shoots for high birds. Yes we have a culture of shooting sporting birds.

Are you looking to plan a trip? It's easy to take your shotgun with a visitors permit, you can find shooting days listed on the Guns On Pegs website.


If you need any help setting up a trip I'd be happy to help, PM me.
 
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Tango said:
Some of the etiquette doesn't quite make sense to Americans at first glance on paper, but I can assure you, it's all incredibly sportsman-like and challenging with a very solid emphasis on safety, conservation and game meat utilization. As I mentioned, it's very challenging technical shotgunning, so you want to be tuned-up and on your A game there. I've been on shoots where noob guns arrive thinking it's going to be shooting fish in a barrel.....they're quickly humbled. I recommend the experience very highly if you're a shotgunner and have an interest in/affinity for traditional hunt culture.
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A UK hunt is absolutely recommended, but one should be prepared for a unique cultural and shooting experience.

An acquaintance of mine, a gamekeeper at a large estate in Sweden sometimes organizing driven hunts for pheasants mostly for hunters from continental Europe, Swedes, Danes, the occasional Norwegian and whatnot, and according to him almost everything that moves get blasted. But, then he once had a proper English hunting party incoming.

Short story. He got everything organized, got a lot of birds in the air flying in the exact right direction, but then, not one single shot fired.. So he eventually got up to these English hunters asking what this was all about, NO birds?? And the English guys were like, ??? we did not see any pheasants..did we..??

The birds came in way to low for these guys to ever consider releasing a shot. So this gamekeeper had some fast thinking to do to make things right the next drives.
 
Tango said:
Some of the etiquette doesn't quite make sense to Americans at first glance on paper, but I can assure you, it's all incredibly sportsman-like and challenging with a very solid emphasis on safety, conservation and game meat utilization. As I mentioned, it's very challenging technical shotgunning, so you want to be tuned-up and on your A game there. I've been on shoots where noob guns arrive thinking it's going to be shooting fish in a barrel.....they're quickly humbled. I recommend the experience very highly if you're a shotgunner and have an interest in/affinity for traditional hunt culture.
Click to expand...

I couldn’t agree more. I’ll never forget my first drive. At the time I was a master class sporting clays competitor, and so reasonably competent with a shotgun. I was on the line between two friends, both instructors at Holland and Holland. They schooled me quite badly on that first drive, but were gracious enough to coach me into respectability. After that I made a practice of time on their tower at the London shooting grounds before embarking on a shoot. It’s a shot most Americans never see, even on a clays or FITASC course.
 
As I mentioned before I've done driven pheasant in Scotland. A trip to a quality grouse moor or to shoot partridge in Spain would be extremely high on my list. But the prices of that are eye watering.
 
I did a Driven Pheasant hunt last year in England. It was a dream of mine and not even planned. I was hunting Roe Deer, Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer as well as an add on Sika. We got done early and my guide said would you be interested in a driven "You had me at hello" He was a member of a private club and I was a guest. I didn't have any 2fores but I did have dress pants and shirt. The protocol and traditions were very interesting. A shot of Single Malt at 9AM was interesting. The dogs and the beaters was quite a show. We hunted 5 properties and killed 152 birds for 12 of us. I killed 37 pheasants and 1 Pidgeon. Great group of guys and some beautiful shotguns. The best part was my guide said this is on me and you"re welcome. I will do this again!
 
Accidental Villain said:
A UK hunt is absolutely recommended, but one should be prepared for a unique cultural and shooting experience.

An acquaintance of mine, a gamekeeper at a large estate in Sweden sometimes organizing driven hunts for pheasants mostly for hunters from continental Europe, Swedes, Danes, the occasional Norwegian and whatnot, and according to him almost everything that moves get blasted. But, then he once had a proper English hunting party incoming.

Short story. He got everything organized, got a lot of birds in the air flying in the exact right direction, but then, not one single shot fired.. So he eventually got up to these English hunters asking what this was all about, NO birds?? And the English guys were like, ??? we did not see any pheasants..did we..??

The birds came in way to low for these guys to ever consider releasing a shot. So this gamekeeper had some fast thinking to do to make things right the next drives.
Click to expand...
I've run into this on some smaller shoots in Eastern Europe. Many of the birds are presented at ridiculously low levels. Hitting a bird would turn it into a ball of bloody feathers, so guys simply pass
 
UK driven shooting can be tough, high fast birds, I shot a double gunned 500 bird day at Water Priory in Yorkshire with a good friend (team of 10 guns) both of us are very experienced life long shotgun shooters, it could be quite humbling at times but also an amazing experience. There are a couple of video's below I found on YouTube, so people can understand what a day could look like.


 
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