High Pheasant Shooting

[Salopian]

A couple of good articles in the good shooting magazines about High Pheasant shooting.

A very well written one by George Digweed in The Field November edition .

Can you really hit 60 yard high pheasants , would you really want to try?

One very well known shoot actually rejoices in the fact that their ratio is 12 shots to one pheasant  ! ! !

Obviously oblivious as to how many birds are maimed, pricked, and left to die an agonising death.

It is my belief that many of us are and will continue to be challenged by 40 yard high pheasants .

Sixty yards high is not big and certainly not clever.

What is your opinion ?

 

[ChrisPackham]

I have no issues with high pheasant, the three days I did last year I found everyone was selective and no one obviously shot at ridiculous birds ( team average was between 3 and 5 .4 to 1), the extreme high stuff 80+ i find difficult to stomach and won't do another day, I hardly fired a shot as most things were out of range.

in my personal opinion the problem has come from people using clay guns (ou) to shoot game and so shots have had to make the birds more challenging, to me this is the wrong way round, it would be better to limit guns to game guns (sxs) only and showing sporting birds at 40 - 50 yards tops.

 

[westley]

I have no issues with high pheasant, the three days I did last year I found everyone was selective and no one obviously shot at ridiculous birds ( team average was between 3 and 5 .4 to 1), the extreme high stuff 80+ i find difficult to stomach and won't do another day, I hardly fired a shot as most things were out of range.

in my personal opinion the problem has come from people using clay guns (ou) to shoot game and so shots have had to make the birds more challenging, to me this is the wrong way round, it would be better to limit guns to game guns (sxs) only and showing sporting birds at 40 - 50 yards tops.

I really do not believe that the make, type or bore of your gun is relevant. What IS relevant is how you use it,  and,  if you are out of your 'comfort zone', then have the balls NOT to shoot at that bird. Like quite a few on here I have seen some of the best shots that this Country has to offer, what makes them 'best shots' is their ability to take or leave a bird, they do not believe is sporting or killable  and they have the capability of killing it cleanly,  when they do decide to shoot. I hear on a regular basis of game shoots hosting .410" gun days, using the small bore guns on driven game      WHY   ?  Ask these same people to have a day out 'on the hill' to shoot a Stag and give them a .22 rifle and apart from the legality issues, they would not even consider it.

 

[chippy]

We had a big argument on here a couple of years ago about this. I said 70 yard birds were out of range but at least half the members on here could bring down 80 yard  pheasants time after time. Apparently without pricking any.

 

[Jonny English]

Your average Joe Bloggs is only competent at game to 30 yards realistically. Lots of shoots you go on when you look down the line, anything 20 yards up is pretty common to be shot, get 30 yards up or across and it's amazing how many get away. I believe any birds in excess of 30, definitely 40 yards the shooter needs a different level of skill and practise from the majority of game shooters you come across on scene. So to take that to 50-60 yards plus you need to have a certain set of skills and be practised at it.

 

[Clynt]

To be very honest spending 10 years plus picking up on some tasty shoots , I have seen as many birds pricked and feather split inside 40 m as I have seen outside 40-60m !! top guns with experience,correct chokes and shells for the job can bring down serious range birds with ease ..... placement at the front end is what counts , and picker ups with the knowledge to be aware of where to be ??  there is little point puffing top of trees stuff , but if you are going on a tall day restrict your self to tightish chokes and patterns and learn your capabilities ...on clays first ??

Just a note today I and Martyn Myers shot a 80m +fast bateu with 32g plastic wadded no 6 ( FOR FUN !!!) those who saw it will confirm what happened boom gone total devastation 20ft + lead doubt if much game wise could have flown through that ???

 

[FlyingTrotter]

Good articles - it's a contentious subject which links with the growth of the bag size 

i have a fairly large bag /high bird day next week but amazingly 400/8 is far from large on a prestige shoot these days - perhaps more than bird height (you select the birds to shoo at) I struggle with the move towards bigger and bigger bags 

 

[Hamster]

TJust a note today I and Martyn Myers shot a 80m +fast bateu with 32g plastic wadded no 6 ( FOR FUN !!!) those who saw it will confirm what happened boom gone total devastation 20ft + lead doubt if much game wise could have flown through that ???

Sorry not arguing that 60+ meter live game can be brought down, it can but the question is it clever or necessary since the ratio of wounding simply has to rise. 

Also have to point out that your example of a battue is a poor one, these will smoke at silly range if you get the lead right and have enough choke, this is a product of their flimsy construction coupled to the fast spin rate and pace. They tear themselves apart like buggery in other words. Try smoking a going away standard at 70 yards. The same thing can be observed on Mini clays at any range with almost any choke, one hit and the thing disintegrates like it was wearing a suicide jacket. 

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Good and timely post Salopian. I have always smirked at 80 yard pheasants.  :mellow:  There is just no need for this because if you want to test your marksmanship the answer is clays. 

Part of the trouble arises from the reality that estimating range up in the sky is simply not possible, just because it looks like a dot to you doesn't mean it's 80 yards, it could be that another person sees and thinks it as a 55 yard bird. 

An underside standard looper at 60 measured yards will look fearsome but it remains killable simply because all you need is a single 8 shot pellet ANYWHERE on it, this will cause it to fracture in a nano second and to self destruct 10 inches further. This looks spectacular but of course to cause a pigeon or pheasant to collapse AND DIE at the same range you will need 6 or 5 shot and unless you use 40 gram shells you simply will not be able to guarantee the density for multiple hits.

Delighting in pulling off super high birds would be absolutely fine by me if I wasn't smart enough to also know beyond a single shadow of doubt that others are merely getting peppered. This is how scatter guns work. 

 

[wylye]

The overriding factor in this discussion is commercial pressure. There is a demand in the market for extreme pheasants from a large group of very wealthy people who can easily afford £50+ to shoot very high birds. They do it two or three times a week and so become proficient at hitting - and killing 60-70 yard birds. They pay £3000 - £4000 each per day and regard it as good value for money for what is their chosen sport with like minded friends and colleagues. No commercial shoot with the topography and infrastructure to host these kind of days is going to walk away from £30K. Have a look in Shooting Gazette today, the article on top pheasant shoots is interesting and mouth watering!

 

[ChrisPackham]

Just as a contra view, and on the basis that this is a small sample as I shoot much less than many on here ( more than a dozen or so days is just too rich for me) but in the main I have found people take the birds that they are confident in and tend to leave anything deemed to far away / high (or too close for that matter).  I still think that if ou were less common for game shooting then the extreme high days would die off as people wouldn't want to shoot 42g no3 through a sxs for very long.

 

[Wonko the Sane]

An improperly stocked/fitted gun is an improperly stocked/fitted gun is an improperly stocked/fitted gun.  Whether it is an O/U or SxS is of no consequence whatsoever.  If "traditional" game guns were stocked appropriately they would be as common as O/U's.

 

[Darkside]

Just as a contra view, and on the basis that this is a small sample as I shoot much less than many on here ( more than a dozen or so days is just too rich for me) but in the main I have found people take the birds that they are confident in and tend to leave anything deemed to far away / high (or too close for that matter).  I still think that if ou were less common for game shooting then the extreme high days would die off as people wouldn't want to shoot 42g no3 through a sxs for very long.

People would just buy live pigeon sxs to do it!!! I had one, 32" full full  3" chambers

 

[westley]

People would just buy live pigeon sxs to do it!!! I had one, 32" full full  3" chambers

Wasn't a .410,  was it ??       :angel: