ChrisPackham
Well-known member
Does anyone else avoid this? I really dislike the duck drives, as delicious as they are there is something that feels wrong about shooting reared duck, maybe it's a childhood feeding ducks in the pond..
Driven Duck
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Like many other things, there are duck drives and then there are duck drives!!!
I've shot duck drives that were crap, but managed to pick some good birds and leave the rest. I've shot some duck drives that were fantastic, where most of the ducks were wild, that every duck was sporting and challenging!!! I picked up for three guns on a duck massacre where if had been a gun, I would have struggled to pick half a dozen birds I'd want to shoot out of the 800-1000 put off rack pond!!! That was the worst kind of driven shooting I've ever seen!!! There is NOTHING worse in driven shooting than a team of guns knocking the sh*te out of circling reared ducks trying to land back on the pond!!!
I've shot duck drives that were crap, but managed to pick some good birds and leave the rest. I've shot some duck drives that were fantastic, where most of the ducks were wild, that every duck was sporting and challenging!!! I picked up for three guns on a duck massacre where if had been a gun, I would have struggled to pick half a dozen birds I'd want to shoot out of the 800-1000 put off rack pond!!! That was the worst kind of driven shooting I've ever seen!!! There is NOTHING worse in driven shooting than a team of guns knocking the sh*te out of circling reared ducks trying to land back on the pond!!!
AND, in that you are fortunate. If you wish to try the 'Sport', take yerself down to Wrightington Hospital Lake, having 'armed' yerself with your new 12 bore S x S and a few of them 'Bismuth' cartridges in 5 shot (42 grams are around £1600/1000) Oh, and do not forget a loaf of sliced bread. Chuck some bread on the water and wait until the ducks come to feed. When you have a suitable number in front of you, let rip with both barrels. Shooting them this way should reduce the chances of any pricked birds and they are easily gathered with a fishing landing net. A word of warning though, you will only be able to do this a few dozen times in the season as the birds will 'wise up' and will wait until you have gone, before they get the bread !
I once witnessed beaters throwing stones at the ducks, in order to get them to leave a frozen pond and fly over 'the Guns'. At that point I walked off the shoot, never to return.
ChrisPackham
Well-known member
In my experience they are used by a sub standard shoot and a poor keeper to 'get the numbers up'
EdSolomons
Well-known member
Not all driven duck shoots are like this at all. Yes there are some crappy ones, however one of the ones I go on consistently provides some of the best sport I see all year and that includes a huge amount of very expensive, and often deemed to be "the best" pheasant shoots in the country.
personally I find it far more acceptable than shooting pheasant and partridge at 90% of shoots in the country where most shots seem to think it is acceptable to plough into bird as between 20 and 35 yards away.
horses for courses.
personally I find it far more acceptable than shooting pheasant and partridge at 90% of shoots in the country where most shots seem to think it is acceptable to plough into bird as between 20 and 35 yards away.
horses for courses.
Couldn't agree more. There are ducks and ducks......
I shot a high pheasant day in Wales last week and it was fantastic. Mixed in on two drives were a sprinkling of very high ducks. The guns agreed to shoot a couple each 'if it pleased them'. No problems there.
Conversely I have seen 8 guns pegged round a 50 meter wide pond and then 300 ducks flushed. They flew up 10 meters and were annihilated. I put my gun down and took cover before I got shot !!
I shot a high pheasant day in Wales last week and it was fantastic. Mixed in on two drives were a sprinkling of very high ducks. The guns agreed to shoot a couple each 'if it pleased them'. No problems there.
Conversely I have seen 8 guns pegged round a 50 meter wide pond and then 300 ducks flushed. They flew up 10 meters and were annihilated. I put my gun down and took cover before I got shot !!
Dbac300566
Well-known member
I have two ponds on the farm,shoot mallard and teal.All birds are wild and very sporting ,bloody teal near on impossible a dark bird against a dark sky and dropping straight in with no warning.Would not mind having a go at these tame ducks for a change,bring a good bag of birds home for a change.
Problem is Ed, there are far more 'crappy' ones than good. It has been one of the reasons that I have all but given up live bird shooting now, probably no more than 3 days a season. That has come after over 50 years of game shooting experience and I have to say that I miss it far less than I expected. I am not prepared to elaborate on open Forum, but at times I do despair.
I really can not believe that you would !
salop sniper
Well-known member
Personally I love duck flighting, on our small DIY shoot we put none down but feed the pond, some nights none come other nights 10-20 come.
Only 3 of us shoot it in an evening and we never take more than 6, more commonly 2-3 and they definitely get eaten. Shots are sporting as the birds appear from no where some times a brief quack before they bomb dive the pool so the shot is taken on the dropping / incoming bird quickly.
As said above duck shooting is a wide umbrella and some definitely not as sporting as others. I would love to have a go at wild-fowling out on an estuary with a guide but need to save up for that first.
ATB
Matt
Only 3 of us shoot it in an evening and we never take more than 6, more commonly 2-3 and they definitely get eaten. Shots are sporting as the birds appear from no where some times a brief quack before they bomb dive the pool so the shot is taken on the dropping / incoming bird quickly.
As said above duck shooting is a wide umbrella and some definitely not as sporting as others. I would love to have a go at wild-fowling out on an estuary with a guide but need to save up for that first.
ATB
Matt
You may find it a lot less cost than you think. Contact BASC, most Wildfowling clubs have some sort of 'have a go' arrangement.
Driven duck,reared Mallard are poor sport. Flighting wild duck is a totally different thing. Wildfowling is a noble sport requiring much fieldcraft,knowledge and patience. Reared Mallard are totally different,we put some on a pond many years ago and nothing could make them fly on shoot days. Dogs in the water,conoes dragging buntings,nothing. They just flopped over the buntings and swam around happily quacking away. I have been on shoots where some do take off and just flop onto the fields where they are pegged by unsteady muppet dogs and are added to the bag. Those that do fly up high(like Orville) circle the pond wanting to land again and are shot at repeatedly. Not my idea of sport. But I am a tad old school.
EdSolomons
Well-known member
Again, don't tar all driven duck with the same brush...
Jeremy Baker
Well-known member
As Ed says depends on where one gets to shoot duck.
Also I would add another factor is the guns ability to pick sporting birds.
We shot a mixed drive on a driven day and the Guns let the ducks up to a good height before taking them on.
The drive is featured on the Fieldsports channel on youtube.
There were some excellent birds to be had and we left the floppy lower birds
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