SD Shooting Land

JAYB

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I am please to be able to announce a bit of a breakthrough. I will be acquiring the lease on a small piece of land, commencing next April, for the exclusive use of SD members.

The land is about 250 acres of forest with Roe and Sika, it is not a large block of forest but it is in a forest of several thousand acres, so the potential is there. In fact I used to shoot the vast majority of it a few years back; a friend of mine had the hind / Doe shooting.

It is situated in the Highlands, about a thirty minute drive from me, not too far from Bonar Bridge in Sutherland. I have negotiated with the owner of the block with regard to the price and terms and I will have to sign a contract with Till Hill with regard to the shooting conditions. These conditions will include that anyone shooting here will need insurance. So basically there is only one overriding condition applicable to all will be the insurance, the remaining conditions will be dealt with on an individual basis, with regard to experience etc.

At the moment I anticipate the cost being somewhere in the region of £40 / £50 per day and the going rate for the carcase if you want it.

I now await any questions.

John
 
Well done John. Thanks for all the effort in obtaining the lease for the SD members.
Now I will have to get a map to find out where it is.
Jonathon
 
Great news for getting newbies some stalking, or a place if some of us fancy a change of scenery.

We done John.

Best rgds

Tahr
 
i think i speak for most Neewbies when i say thanks , you may see me and dad up there
 
good show

GOOD SHOW JOHN.

Whilst i am not an expert i am pretty proficient and again would offer up my services to mentor any newby.

swampy
 
There are a few B/B's nearby, and my lease is just round the corner, so we may arrange something there as well. I have a 7 bed farmhouse and a 5 bed cottage on my lease.

Both John and myself have our eye on another two places at present, so watch this space.
 
There are a couple of places locally that will provide a decent deal for any stalkers we can put their way.

Like Malc said there may be more!

John
 
Great news, well done John.

I go for a weeks wildfowling every November up that way so the possibility of a day or two stalking whilst I am up there would be something to really look forward to.
 
John

Tell us more !

How long is the drive from Inverness airport?

What are the lardering arrangements / Gamedealer in the area?

Can all species / sexes be taken?

What condition are the clear cuts/ access tracks - what sort of vehicle will be required for extracting the carcasses?

How's that for starters? :)

Rgds Ian
 
John

Well done! Getting hold of land is hard enough, but getting hold of land to give new stalkers a chance is doubly so, so well done again!

I don't know Bonar Bridge itself but I recognise the name from the signs on the A9 at Tain when I go up to Sutherland each year.

Lots of questions asked already, but here are a couple of others I thought of:

Is there any idea at the moment of the deer population currently on the land?

What help required if/how/when the estimate of deer population is done?

Leading on from this, any thoughts yet on the type and size of management plan to be put in place? (thinking here of cull numbers by species, by sex, etc).

What requirements so far as high seats (numbers, position, structure, etc)?

Is there a distillery closer than Tain ;)

Although it's a long drive from Oxfordshire, as you put your plans together let me know if there is any help you need, although I am guessing you won't be short of willing volunteers!

All the best

willie_gunn
 
Congratulations and well done!

Good to see this sort of venture and it should prosper if members support it by taking part in all aspects including work parties. To that end if you need a hand with anything give me a pm. I'm about 4 1/2 hours south so better a couple of days work than a 1/2 hour job!

Bob
 
Good to see all the interest in this little piece of woodland, I shall try to answer some of the questions, here goes, Ianf first.

It is about an hours drive from Inverness airport,

The larder is non-existent, unless you hang a fly net in the woods :D but there is a gamedealer about a 10 minute drive away,

With regard to species etc, if it is a deer and it is in season on our ground it can be taken,

There is a forestry track that runs right through the wood and it cuts our piece in two, the rides are to the best of my recollection well kept. As for extracting carcasses we used to do it with the Mk 1 man propelled legs, made you warm on a cold day! A quad would be very helpful but it is not particularly difficult or long. I do have a quad if you need me. I think I have some photo's somewhere of that wood although I cannot guarantee of our block.

willie_gunn, you are quite right about the location when you are at the roundabout atTain, by the bridge, turn left an twenty minutes later you are in Bonar Bridge.

The deer population well, I have not gone into specifics with Till Hill but, when I shot there last Fountain Forestry run the show and the main leaseholder was a Dane. Now he and his friends used to come for the Roe bucks, I do not think the Sika stags got much attention from them, but never the does. I don't know if Fountain sent their own people in or not. I have no idea of the current cull figures, all I can say is that from the sum that the owner got previously it must be OK. Did I mention, there will be one non- site member in there on occasions, the owner has never stalked so I am to take him under my wing, but he will not be a big harvester of game, more to see how it is done really.

The deer population will be at best fluid, extremely fluid, as I recall the fence surrounding the whole forest was at best porous. I shall have to speak to the Till Hill man nearer the time, but I do know he has other things on his mind just now. So the management plan will have to wait a bit.

I do not think there are any high seats on there, so that will have to be rectified, I was thinking along the lines of something quite substantial and weatherproof as having sat in highseats in this wood before I can tell you that after an hour or so you are a frozen lump in the winter time. So if we are going to do it we need to do it right first time, that way we only do it once. So plans of decent airborne villas would be appreciated.

Tain is the closest distillery you drunken bum!

The present thinking is that the block could be decided into two separate stalking areas, one either side of the track, but that will need to be looked at. Maybe Malcolm and I will get in there and have a good poke about in the next few weeks.

I'll look for some photos.

John
 
I have found some photo's but they are pretty crap. It was in the days of the digital dark ages and I had got a 1 mega pixel camera, but I insisted on using it. Hence most of the photo's binned and the good ones are crap.

DSC31038.jpg


2005_0116001.jpg


DSC31035.jpg


DSC31055-1.jpg


Sikahind.jpg



These photo's are just a general view of part of the forest, not our block in particular.

John
 
John

Thanks for the additional info - the photo's are very tempting!

Re: the high seats, somewhere (if I haven't lost it in the house move) I have a Swedish hunting magazine with lots of plans for high seats. The text is all in Swedish but the measurements are all okay. I'll try to dig it out, but might not be for a week or two as I'm off to foreign climes for work on Saturday.

willie_gunn
 
Tillhill

Well Done,

I was offered this lease (or very close) by Tillhill late last year and could not take it on. Did visit though and plenty of signs of Sika and Roe.

:p
 
If Karma exists you should have a lot of goodthings coming your way for your selfless act on behalf of others. These are the sort of things that restore the faith in human nature :D
Dave
 
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