I was lucky enough to get invited to go and watch a game-day today - as a guest of a friend of ShootClay - I haven't shot ANY game before - so as I went through the day I took some notes, and some pictures to record what happened to this first time Game Shooter.It should be noted that I know every little about Game Shooting and so I went to learn - some of the terminology may not be 100% correct - and what follows is largely my opinion.Meeting point was a small hotel near Hungerford in Berkshire, and the shoot took place on a nearby estate of about 2000 acres. We started with tea & coffee followed by a decent Breakfast - with a briefing by the Shoot Captain and the routine drawing of pegs. There were 9 guns, plus the Shoot Captain, and myself as an observer and shortly after breakfast we headed off in vehicles for the first of four drives.First drive was in a valley between two fairly dense copses - guns spread out in between the two treelines, and after a short wait for beaters to finish blanking out an area of woodland, birds started flying high and fast across the opening. I stood and watched pegs 1 to 3, some great shooting on some fairly high pheasants, a few partridges and one jay. Beaters seemed efficient and quiet and flushed birds in three or four distinct waves, not too many birds at once - but steady.Short journey to the second drive of the day - a much wider field on the side of a hill - with the guns standing just beyond the treeline looking up the hill. I stood behind with one of the picker-ups, Mark - and his team of three black labs - this was awesome to watch for a beginner - each dog was super-alert, ears pricked for any birds dropping and Mark was quick to send the dogs off for any runners or pricked birds. Being in the treeline, I couldn't see many of the shots fired, but everyone seemed pretty happy with the quality of the birds.Quick pauses for elevenses, soup and sausage rolls - and a few sloe gins for the non-drivers - then onto the third drive. Guns were lined up across the side of a field, with beaters working in from distance through a copse across a small lane. I worked as loader for one of the guns who was working behind one end of the main line - plenty of high birds, right on their tails at about 30/40 yds (by my estimation). My guns Perazzi was working overtime, and he bought down some excellent birds.Then lunch - back at the hotel for a decent lunch and a glass of wine - then off for the fourth and final drive of the day. My host gave me a surprise and asked me to swap places with the guy I had just loaded for. I had no gun with me, so I used his Perazzi, 32 inch barrels, full choke - and he loaded the 32g 5's for me. We were back at the first location - but facing the other way - I had peg 4 right in the middle of the line in what looked like a pretty favourable position.We had a long wait - but down the line a few high birds started coming across. After about 10 or 15 minutes of holding what felt like a fencepost compared to my Beretta 686 - I had the first bird over my peg. Missed it once behind but caught it cleanly with the second barrel. Then the fun started, I shot about 30 or 40 cartridges (maybe more) and bagged 14 pheasants and 1 partridge, including a lovely left and right directly over my right shoulder. I thought I'd breached etiquette at one point by shooting a bird high above the next peg, but my fellow shooter just congratulated me and got on with it.After much back slapping and reviewing of the drives and the day - everyone headed back to the pub for coffee and tea before departure. We had people taking flights back to Europe and the US in the next days, and quite a few driving some distance. I was nowhere near guessing the correct bag for the day - which I think was in the mid 300's.I have to be honest - I was really hesitant about getting involved, I had never shot game before and I was worried that my shooting wouldn't do it justice, but I have to say that the gun on my peg was very gracious with praise and very generous to let me get involved. Both the Shoot Captain and fellow guns were excellent fun, very generous with advice and conversation, and willing to let a newbie get involved. I'm convinced I'd like to do it again, but I'm not sure of the expense involved - I'll keep watching for opportunities to get involved next season.One thing for sure - I can see why Game Shooters get hooked.Genuinely - I hope I captured the fun I had today, and that I have done the day justice - I was very lucky to get invited to watch, and then to get involved was a complete surprise to me. No doubt I will have dropped the wrong term somewhere in here so forgive me if I have and let me know what I should change.
My first Game Shooting experience – 6th January
- Thread starter ExSCA
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optima
Well-known member
Can't see much wrong with your terminology there matt,glad you enjoyed the day and as you say can be quite addictive,i'm off tomorow on our syndicate day
Top day by the sounds of it /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif Need a bit of lead them phezzies dont they/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-surprised.gif I can see a perrazi gracing the Shootclay cabinet in the near future with 32" tubes, naturally /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif
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Brilliant shoot report Matt. Welcome to the game shooting club. I am so glad you enjoyed it. You will be hooked now. It is a fantastic sport and you were very lucky to be able to shoot in a prime peg. I am so pleased for you.
MeMeMe
Well-known member
Excellent Matt - glad you enjoyed it! I don't understand the fence post term relating to the perazzi? Can you turn this into Simpleton for me please? 350 bird days for 10 guns - around £1000/gun I believe?
Perrazi = only good for holding up chicken wire /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif/wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-laugh.gif Joke people, think hes refering to the extra length of the 32" tubes and possibly weight over his 30" beretta 686 /wp-content/forum-smileys/sf-wink.gif
MeMeMe
Well-known member
I've got some chicken wire if he wants it to go with his new perazzi?
MeMeMe
Well-known member
I suspect it will all be more expensive next year - wheat prices have done no favors, although stock levels are looking better than they where and with birds having wandered this year I suspect some returns will be below where they need to be forcing tough pricing decisions for the 2012/2013 season.
MeMeMe
Well-known member
Maxum
Well-known member
Well done Matt, sounds like you had a blast 
Your report sounds spot on now all you need to do is win the lottery and invite us all down for a days shooting ;-))
Your report sounds spot on now all you need to do is win the lottery and invite us all down for a days shooting ;-))Few pictures from yesterday – got caught up quite a lot in the day and didn't take as many as I had originally planned – also didn't take my decent camera for the bulk, so this is just a little point and shoot. /wp-content/forum-image-uploads/shootclay-admin/Game-Day-January-2012-2012-01-06-002-1024x757.jpg/wp-content/forum-image-uploads/shootclay-admin/Game-Day-January-2012-2012-01-06-003-757x1024.jpg/wp-content/forum-image-uploads/shootclay-admin/Game-Day-January-2012-2012-01-06-005-1024x768.jpg/wp-content/forum-image-uploads/shootclay-admin/Game-Day-January-2012-2012-01-06-007-1024x754.jpg/wp-content/forum-image-uploads/shootclay-admin/Game-Day-January-2012-2012-01-06-010-1024x748.jpg/wp-content/forum-image-uploads/shootclay-admin/Game-Day-January-2012-2012-01-06-013-761x1024.jpg
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Maxum
Well-known member
Looks a very nice shoot to be on.
