George Digweed sometimes comes to our Moor he’s a larger than life character usually puffing on a big cigar. He doesn’t walk to the butts always gets a lift in the Argo I’ve seen him hit fast moving birds that no other guns would attempt, no wonder he’s a multiple world champion and record holder.
Beaters Days
- Thread starter AustinW
- Start date
Digweed came to our place a few times, but not recently - I’ve been going 8 years now and don’t recall him there. A couple of the mega-high drives humbled even him apparently. He wouldn’t even lift his gun to some of the birds. We’ve had Nigel Farage here a few times, and some other politicos and celebs. Mostly local businessmen though although we also get our fair share of clueless city boys out in their St James’s suits and barely used guns chancing their luck. 10:1 or worse is fairly common here.
One of the High drives today …. Beaters are the people in the diagonal across the pic, Guns are specs in the greener field below. I am about 50 metres above the guy who took the photo trying to flush birds out the heather and bilberry. Height difference to the guns from the photo point is about 120metres. The birds are super hard to hit because 1 They are still very very high, 2 they are dropping rapidly, 3. They are going extraordinarily fast.
Fylde plain and Blackpool in the middle distance, Irish Sea, and on a clearer day Snowdonia on the horizon.
Videos of the same drive
Last and final beaters day today....just a few, mainly for keepers kids etc.
1st of Feb! Another season gone!
Scary!
Just a trip to Mull for the last few days of the hind season, Calmac permitting, out on the 10th, nice break to look forward to...
1st of Feb! Another season gone!
Scary!
Just a trip to Mull for the last few days of the hind season, Calmac permitting, out on the 10th, nice break to look forward to...
For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would get pleasure out of doing this sort of thing. Sick.
So you won't be doing it anytime soon. Fine. Perhaps start your own thread somewhere else?
For those who do enjoy shooting and the countryside, and for whom this thread is intended, a good day was had by all, particularly my charge for the day, the son of one of the keepers, who shot well with a 28 bore, including getting his first partridge...
And it was his 10th birthday...a day to remember for him!
The early mist lifted, leaving a fine day..
157 head, and I'll be collecting some this week to get this years supply into the freezer!
All over for another season. No more early starts, getting kit ready the night before so as not to disturb house at 6, scraping windows on car( no longer necessary as I can start new limo via app from kitchen!). I'm lucky as I've got a couple of places I can go and enjoy the day without crawling through cover, but still enjoy the company and crack, all in glorious countryside.
Very envious of those able to get up onto grouse moors....many happy memories!
Roll on next season!
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Yup that’s it for me too, although the shooting season continues for some for another 3 weeks on the foreshore of Morecambe bay and the Ribble estuary. Mildly hungover this morning after last nights end of season do, after 5 back to back to days. I was beating on 2.5 of them, and shooting/generally helping the keepers get everyone in place and safe on the other days.
Day #1 was a bought day by the landlord of the neighbouring estate, which is also a shooting estate so I guess some sort of swap. Anyway a mostly clueless team who averaged less than 10:1. There was fella over from Dubai with them who’d never handled a shotgun before, he blasted away all day fired something like 200 shots and far we can tell hit just the one. Though I have seen such a smiling happy guy. He was full of it. Bag 102.
Day #2. Keepers walked up boundary day. 12 of us regular beaters and a neighbouring keepers walking mostly through boundary woods and rushy fields. Long day and about 10miles walked with guns, cartridges and heavy game bags. Top tip for the beginner: do not shoot a hare early on. They are a bastard to carry about all day. I warned my pal not shoot one, but he did and suffered until he could drop it off. Lots of woodcock, snipe and hares about, plus the usual pheasant and partridge that have gone feral. Ducks and geese in the mix too. Great day. Bag 164.
Day #3. Bought boundary day but keeper decided to give the team some of the big drives. Just another beaters day for me then but my 36th day of the season. Bag 155.
Day #4. Farmers, neighbours and helpers-outers day. About 30 guns it seems like. I was mostly there to help organise things with that many people but did shoot when I could. Starts with huge long walked up bit covering from the heather on the fell down to the river valley. The line must be 1/2 mile long and about 1mile to walk over. It’s like one of those huge big hare drives I used to be involved in years back. It takes ages as there’s shots going off all along the line so we spend more time waiting while birds are retrieved than walking. I was next to a guy with an old experienced pointer which was a fantastic experience. It was quite rangey but gave every bit of cover a sniff and if it moved on there was nothing in it, but if it went on point every single time a pheasant or two came out once a bod or another dog went in to flush it. Finished with a couple of high drives after lunch which sorts the men from the boys. Bag 180.
Day #5. Beaters day proper. We split into two teams of about 12guns each and shoot 1 beat 1 in turn over 6 drives. There’s a few people who only beat too. Lots of young lads out with dads to have a go including a 7yo who it turned out shot better than me with his .410.
. The usual chaos trying to get that many people to listen and all do the right thing at the right time but we get there in the end. Hundreds of dogs it seemed like too. Rules are if it’s safe shoot it so the bag creeps up as no one is being particularly selective. Nevertheless the bag was on the low side at 275.
Most of which goes off to a game dealer for processing. Sadly I think a lot of it goes into dog food rather than as dressed birds. I rediscovered my complete lack of form with a gun although the last time I shot was this time last year so it’s hardly surprising; my contribution to that bag was very low. I also somehow managed to get too heavy a load in my cartridges- I wanted 30g 6 but walked out the shop with a slab of 32g 5 and didn’t notice until I fired my first shot. Bruised shoulder and middle finger now. Surprising how much difference 2g makes.
It’s been great days and I did a little speech at the do to in response to the keepers thanks to us. It’s a great community up there on that little of bowl of land in Lancashire.
I dont take my phone or camera with me but I’ll see what I can find from others to share.
Day #1 was a bought day by the landlord of the neighbouring estate, which is also a shooting estate so I guess some sort of swap. Anyway a mostly clueless team who averaged less than 10:1. There was fella over from Dubai with them who’d never handled a shotgun before, he blasted away all day fired something like 200 shots and far we can tell hit just the one. Though I have seen such a smiling happy guy. He was full of it. Bag 102.
Day #2. Keepers walked up boundary day. 12 of us regular beaters and a neighbouring keepers walking mostly through boundary woods and rushy fields. Long day and about 10miles walked with guns, cartridges and heavy game bags. Top tip for the beginner: do not shoot a hare early on. They are a bastard to carry about all day. I warned my pal not shoot one, but he did and suffered until he could drop it off. Lots of woodcock, snipe and hares about, plus the usual pheasant and partridge that have gone feral. Ducks and geese in the mix too. Great day. Bag 164.
Day #3. Bought boundary day but keeper decided to give the team some of the big drives. Just another beaters day for me then but my 36th day of the season. Bag 155.
Day #4. Farmers, neighbours and helpers-outers day. About 30 guns it seems like. I was mostly there to help organise things with that many people but did shoot when I could. Starts with huge long walked up bit covering from the heather on the fell down to the river valley. The line must be 1/2 mile long and about 1mile to walk over. It’s like one of those huge big hare drives I used to be involved in years back. It takes ages as there’s shots going off all along the line so we spend more time waiting while birds are retrieved than walking. I was next to a guy with an old experienced pointer which was a fantastic experience. It was quite rangey but gave every bit of cover a sniff and if it moved on there was nothing in it, but if it went on point every single time a pheasant or two came out once a bod or another dog went in to flush it. Finished with a couple of high drives after lunch which sorts the men from the boys. Bag 180.
Day #5. Beaters day proper. We split into two teams of about 12guns each and shoot 1 beat 1 in turn over 6 drives. There’s a few people who only beat too. Lots of young lads out with dads to have a go including a 7yo who it turned out shot better than me with his .410.
. The usual chaos trying to get that many people to listen and all do the right thing at the right time but we get there in the end. Hundreds of dogs it seemed like too. Rules are if it’s safe shoot it so the bag creeps up as no one is being particularly selective. Nevertheless the bag was on the low side at 275.Most of which goes off to a game dealer for processing. Sadly I think a lot of it goes into dog food rather than as dressed birds. I rediscovered my complete lack of form with a gun although the last time I shot was this time last year so it’s hardly surprising; my contribution to that bag was very low. I also somehow managed to get too heavy a load in my cartridges- I wanted 30g 6 but walked out the shop with a slab of 32g 5 and didn’t notice until I fired my first shot. Bruised shoulder and middle finger now. Surprising how much difference 2g makes.
It’s been great days and I did a little speech at the do to in response to the keepers thanks to us. It’s a great community up there on that little of bowl of land in Lancashire.
I dont take my phone or camera with me but I’ll see what I can find from others to share.
I used to beat regularly on an estate near me and as well as the end of term beaters shoot, the keeper offered regular beaters the opportunity to shoot vermin on the estate any day in February (as long as we notified him first). As well as crows and magpies, I had some of the best pigeon shooting there, particularly 'on the roost' in the forest and surprisingly, I usually had the whole place to myself. Happy days, although sadly, the estate changed hands and it no longer operates as a shoot.
One of the other beaters gets more or less whatever Deer stalking he wants on the estate. But he’s bloody useless at it and it’s a long running joke about how he never sees deer when he goes out, yet on a shoot day we will typically see a dozen or more.
The estate is an upland area so not much arable land - rough pasture for sheep mainly, a few cows, and open fell which is a mix of bog, heather, blueberry and white grass. And of course the usual woodland which is rather poorly managed. All of which means not many pigeons sadly, but lots of crows. They are getting increasingly hard to control it seems.
Birds of prey in abundance - Buzzards aplenty - they soon learn to circle 300-400 yards down a drive to spot shot birds that drop a long way back, Peregrine and Sparrow Hawk sightings most days, occasionally a Hen Harrier. Osprey take up residence for a week or two on their migrations most years to fish on a couple of nearby reservoirs.
The worst vermin on the estate though are Seagulls that nest and roost on the moor. It’s a foul stinky polluted area of a few hundred acres. They used to be able to get a special licence to shoot a specified number and to destroy so many nests but that doesn’t happen now. In the past the estate would invite a dozen or so people up there with semi-auto shotguns and a slab of cheap of cartridges with instructions to shoot as many gulls as you could. The gull population has been booming now for years and it’s a problem. No amount of disturbance seems to bother them. In fact they are quite aggressive. The grouse population is under threat for so many reasons and the gulls just make it worse. They look for and eat loads of grouse eggs and chicks. Grouse shooting on the estate has all but stopped now as there’s too few for it to be sustainable mainly due to the gulls. Nevertheless there is a full time grouse keeper doing his best to preserve the moor. It’s nearly all SSSI which severely limits his options. No burning for example.
The estate is an upland area so not much arable land - rough pasture for sheep mainly, a few cows, and open fell which is a mix of bog, heather, blueberry and white grass. And of course the usual woodland which is rather poorly managed. All of which means not many pigeons sadly, but lots of crows. They are getting increasingly hard to control it seems.
Birds of prey in abundance - Buzzards aplenty - they soon learn to circle 300-400 yards down a drive to spot shot birds that drop a long way back, Peregrine and Sparrow Hawk sightings most days, occasionally a Hen Harrier. Osprey take up residence for a week or two on their migrations most years to fish on a couple of nearby reservoirs.
The worst vermin on the estate though are Seagulls that nest and roost on the moor. It’s a foul stinky polluted area of a few hundred acres. They used to be able to get a special licence to shoot a specified number and to destroy so many nests but that doesn’t happen now. In the past the estate would invite a dozen or so people up there with semi-auto shotguns and a slab of cheap of cartridges with instructions to shoot as many gulls as you could. The gull population has been booming now for years and it’s a problem. No amount of disturbance seems to bother them. In fact they are quite aggressive. The grouse population is under threat for so many reasons and the gulls just make it worse. They look for and eat loads of grouse eggs and chicks. Grouse shooting on the estate has all but stopped now as there’s too few for it to be sustainable mainly due to the gulls. Nevertheless there is a full time grouse keeper doing his best to preserve the moor. It’s nearly all SSSI which severely limits his options. No burning for example.
Did you shoot the 'Pulpit' butt?
Cracking write up about your busy last week Austin 
I, like you, shot like a newby on both the keepers day and our shoots last walkabout. Only I don't have your excuse of not having shot for 12 months
Bestest parts of both days was the weather - it stayed dry and bright for both days, and the company
Also, I won the sweep at the keepers day shoot
. And the final walk on our shoot was over my patch, which produced a dozen birds to hand - something that hasn't happened all season, on any section of the shoot! I'd said to the shoot captain that my bit wasn't worth doing as I'd seen nought there when out topping up feeders during the week, only to have birds burst out from cover over the whole length of the field
Have given the dogs a rest this past week, but they knew when Saturday came around and stood glaring at me at 0830hrs, demanding to know why we weren't on our way out with the gun
Our grey friends will get some attention in the coming week - 5-6 days of freezing days soon has them coming round for the tailings in the stubble.
SteveT
I, like you, shot like a newby on both the keepers day and our shoots last walkabout. Only I don't have your excuse of not having shot for 12 months
Bestest parts of both days was the weather - it stayed dry and bright for both days, and the company
Also, I won the sweep at the keepers day shoot
. And the final walk on our shoot was over my patch, which produced a dozen birds to hand - something that hasn't happened all season, on any section of the shoot! I'd said to the shoot captain that my bit wasn't worth doing as I'd seen nought there when out topping up feeders during the week, only to have birds burst out from cover over the whole length of the field Have given the dogs a rest this past week, but they knew when Saturday came around and stood glaring at me at 0830hrs, demanding to know why we weren't on our way out with the gun
Our grey friends will get some attention in the coming week - 5-6 days of freezing days soon has them coming round for the tailings in the stubble.
SteveT
Ummm. Not sure what you mean here. No, afaik nowhere on the estate called Pulpit Butt.
Duke of Westminster's estate in the Bowland... Pulpitt butt is a famous one. I photograohed the grouse shoot there for The Field.
The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.......William Shakespeare
Aah no, we aren't on the Duke of Westminster’s estate. We are to the south and west of them: Bleasdale.
Are you down near Footherly? I used to run my dogs down there with Brian Plummer and David Hancock. I called on many farms in that area and had the run of the place! Some deer to shoot over towards Swinfen too. It has become very built upon with a massive influx of townies who are rapidly turning the place into a rubbish dump.
Interesting and somewhat depressing reading
www.c4pmc.co.uk
RSPB lose 59 of 61 tagged curlew chicks after their predation fences once again prove useless
The RSPB are, once again, proving their mastery at incompetent conservation. Their latest abject failure comes in the Forest of Bowland where an experiment with tagged curlew chicks were to be protected by their ‘predation fence’. Out of 61 chicks that were tagged, only 2 survived. That’s right...
www.c4pmc.co.uk
Very depressing indeed. Organisations like RSPB need to face up to the hard choices that need to be made about conservation and get rid of the dogma that gamekeepering = bad.Interesting and somewhat depressing reading
RSPB lose 59 of 61 tagged curlew chicks after their predation fences once again prove useless
The RSPB are, once again, proving their mastery at incompetent conservation. Their latest abject failure comes in the Forest of Bowland where an experiment with tagged curlew chicks were to be protected by their ‘predation fence’. Out of 61 chicks that were tagged, only 2 survived. That’s right...
I used to have (about 15years ago) a bit of farmland shooting just near J33 of the M6 which was on a flight line for curlews to/from the Bowland moors / marshes of Morecambe bay near Cockerham. Early and late hundreds of them flew over us. Their call is one of the best sounds there is imho. Nowadays I hardly see any Curlew. Oystercatchers seem to be going the same way.
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