In which it is proven that hunting is not all about killing things

Good morning everyone!

At some point last year, I set out to organise some roughshooting for my three friends and I as we had come to the conclusion, after seven dogged but almost entirely unsuccessful wildfowling seasons, that we just weren’t able to make the best of our wildfowling club membership. This is really because of distance and availability, the ducks favour locals due to their propensity to turn up at the appropriate time rather than because they’re free that Saturday. Our little group doesn’t care about big bags, and we have limited budget and availability. What we like though is to earn our game, and we prefer one rabbit that we had to ferret around for than 20 reared pheasants that were made to fly over us. Now in the South-East, that’s not an easy thing to come by, but I placed an advert on this site and a couple of options emerged.

The first was a small commercial walk-one, stand-one day in Sussex which we went on in November. It was fine, nothing wrong with it, the price was decent, but there was a lot of cavalcading around in 4x4s involved, and it was all a bit “pick your own strawberries” as far as the shooting was concerned. Good fun, but somehow, shooting a right-and-left on pheasants within clear sight of the release pen just wasn’t really satisfying. You want to at least pretend to be shooting wild game… So friendly as that was, we decided not to return it wasn’t what we were looking for.

The second opportunity however was courtesy of a very generous member of this site who I will not name as he may not want everyone knocking on his door as a result, although he may choose to reveal himself. We shall call him C. Now C didn’t know my friends from Adam and knew me only through my posts on the site, and yet he invited all four of us to join him and his friends for a day’s mixed roughshooting, and despite my best efforts to repay his hospitality with gifts of some description, ended up providing us with this day in exchange for nothing but big smiles and handshakes. In the run-up to the day, I received enthusiastic phone calls about huge flocks of mallard and wigeon, falls of woodcock, and my excitement and anticipation just grew and grew. In addition, when C. saw that I’d acquired a drilling, he tacked on an early morning stalk for a muntjac before the main event, and camera trap pictures of big old bucks duly followed! So it was an excited party of four that met up at the inn that C had recommended on Friday night.

Saturday morning saw me standing in a rainy, windswept pub car park just before 7am to finally meet C. in person. We shared the van with a couple of spaniels who were so quiet that I didn’t realise there were there until we arrived at the stalking ground. The conditions were frankly awful: very strong winds and rain. We crept and peered through some more sheltered wooded areas but there was nothing to be seen. Nevertheless, I had a chance to walk around looking for deer with my drilling, and what a pleasure it was to just break the gun to hop over ditches rather than to have to unload of a bolt-action! It also brought home the need for a sling. After the stalk, back to the pub to pick up the three others, and off we went to meet the other guns and beaters.

We met outside a church, and you couldn’t ask for a friendlier mix of people (and dogs!) of all ages and backgrounds. Over the course of the day we trudged up hills, through thick brambles, had our faces scratched by thorns and whipped by branches, all whilst being constantly buffeted by high winds. Great views over the landscape from some of the high spots, we saw a few woodcock, a fox who crept by unsaluted on the crest of a hill, and some pretty wild pheasants, as well as some pigeons flying at warp 8 on the wind who were missed by a mile. We shot a few ducks on the pond, ended with a duck flight along a lake until, as is the way with these things, we realised that we just couldn’t see a thing anymore. I’m not going to go into bag numbers and so on, because I don’t know, and I don’t really care. The point was that it was welcoming, it was proper ferreting around for some difficult game, there was no cavalcade of Range Rovers, and every bird felt earned. It was what we had set out to do, and we loved it. What’s more, we shall be back!

They say a picture says a thousand words, so here’s one of my friends A. and R. who had each just shot a duck. Look at those grins. I think that says it all.

Smiles_100115.jpg

So thanks very much to C (you know who you are) from four very grateful people whose day you made, and who you have reassured that sort of shooting we were looking for is out there!

Oh, and a drilling starts to weigh a bit on the arms at the end of a day like this. It’s really just quite a lot of steel to carry around.
 
I forgot to mention that I had permission to shoot a fox or a muntjac with the rifle barrel should one turn up and offer a safe shot (I had a couple of rounds in my pocket). It didn't happen, but just knowing that it was on cards added an extra dimension and thrill to the day... Drillings are just cool.
 
Nice write up mate that's proper shooting is that!! I was talking about your drilling in the pub Friday night with an old shooting friend and ex keeper and the more we spoke the more I realised just how likely it is that I'll be acquiring one in the future!! :D
 
Nice write up mate that's proper shooting is that!! I was talking about your drilling in the pub Friday night with an old shooting friend and ex keeper and the more we spoke the more I realised just how likely it is that I'll be acquiring one in the future!! :D

When they do one in the following spec I'll be banging on Chris Potter's door:

Barrel #1 (Lower) 20 bore full
Barrel #2 (Middle) 6.5X55SM moderated
Barrel #3 (Upper) 22 Long Rifle moderated

Let the search for a dual post scope commence!

K
:D
 
Nice one PM and 'C', that's what it's all about! :thumb: :D

Never having had a combination gun I was wondering how they condition them on FAC's these days? Do you have to have something like 'deer, fox, vermin, game birds, flocking birds' etc? Or do they just cover it with Deer and any other legal quarry?

I met a guy on a boar trip several years back who had one I think with 2 x 7x57 barrels and a 16ga. barrel. His was only conditioned for deer and fox (I don't think they had 'any other legal quarry' back then) so it made me wonder at the time where he'd stand if he wanted to use his shotgun barrel on shotgun type game?

Alex
 
Well essentially they were only interested in the rifle part which has the same conditions as my main stalking rifle, so deer and AOLQ. But as I have an SGC too, that covers use as a shotgun. However it's on my FAC, not on my SGC.
 
Taken from my cert, although mine is a rimfire. ;) When I applied I had to specify what each barrel calibre was though.

The .22 Air Rifle, 22RF Rifles, .22WMR Rifle, .22RF/2O bore Combination Rifle/Shotgun, Sound
Moderators and the ammunition to which this certificate relates shall be used for shooting
vermin and any other lawful quarry, and for zeroing on ranges, or on land over which the holder
has lawful authority to shoot.
 
Absolute pleasure to have you and the boys up on Saturday P.M , everyone enjoyed your company and admired the drilling and as I said on Saturday as long as everyone has a good laugh fires some shots and comes home safe
I'm a happy man. Atb Chris
 
Absolute pleasure to have you and the boys up on Saturday P.M , everyone enjoyed your company and admired the drilling and as I said on Saturday as long as everyone has a good laugh fires some shots and comes home safe
I'm a happy man. Atb Chris

We came home safe, but slowly, as that wind we had all day blew down the overhead cables on the railway line. Glad you're happy, and again thanks very much to you and all the others!
 
These sorts of Rough shoots are improperly named. There is nothing rough about them - they are the best type of shooting ever. A few good friends and some good new friends, a few dogs, a couple of children and at the end of the day some good memories of birds missed, falling in bogs, a picnic and if you are lucky a bird or two in the game bag.

And no PM I am not going to swap my 6 lb combination gun for your drilling. A sling is fine for stalking, but gets in the way for any other type of shooting. And yes crossing ditches, fences etc is sho much less faff than a bolt action!

Klenchblaize - with a 26" barrel you dont need a moderator
 
Sounds fantastic PM, a proper day's sport. I'm sure driven birds are enjoyable but a day out walking the land bot knowing what or how much you might see/shoot has got to be the better way. I'll add it to my "to do" list, although a few sessions on clays might be wiser to begin with having never held a shotgun before.
 
I've had some wonderful Weekends like this in deepest Devon with a bunch of friends from the 'smoke' and that extend into the wee hours in the local pub. Heaven for all concerned unless you're the unfortunate roe that always finds it's way into the game cart that is the back of a tidy Series 1 Landy!


K
 
These sorts of Rough shoots are improperly named. There is nothing rough about them - they are the best type of shooting ever. A few good friends and some good new friends, a few dogs, a couple of children and at the end of the day some good memories of birds missed, falling in bogs, a picnic and if you are lucky a bird or two in the game bag.

And no PM I am not going to swap my 6 lb combination gun for your drilling.

I have no idea why it's called "rough" shooting. It's like "coarse" fishing. Essentially it's snobbery. But I love it, I'd much rather do this than go on a driven shoot for reared pheasants. Regarding swapping your gun for my drilling, that was never an option because it's MINE and you can't have it!

One of the guys on the photo has decided that after 20 years he's going to upgrade his Simson shotgun, so you may meet him in March at the next Holt's preview if you're around for a free glass of wine and some window shoptting.
 
But as I have an SGC too, that covers use as a shotgun. However it's on my FAC, not on my SGC.

I think that you're covered using the shotgun bits of the Drilling on anything lawful because of the AOLQ on your FAC for the Drilling.
It seems unlikely that the SGC has any relevance at all to use of the Drilling, which is a S1 firearm, other than to permit the purchase of ordinary shotgun cartridges.
Does that seems a sensible analysis?

Do you like my italics for Drilling? The English half of me wonders whether we shouldn't be referring to it as a triplet. What do they call them in France?
 
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I think that you're covered using the shotgun bits of the Drilling on anything lawful because of the AOLQ on your FAC for the Drilling.
It seems unlikely that the SGC has any relevance at all to use of the Drilling, which is a S1 firearm, other than to permit the purchase of ordinary shotgun cartridges.
Does that seems a sensible analysis?

Do you like my italics for Drilling? The English half of me wonders whether we shouldn't be referring to it as a triplet. What do they call them in France?

Sounds about right to me but I don't think it's worth over-analysing, especially as these things don't always make much sense. In France, a drilling is called un drilling. A double-rifle drilling is un express-drilling. A two barrelled combination gun is un mixte.
 
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