Setting up and running a rough shoot

[Wilf102]

Can I get some ideas of costs and other requirements for setting up a rough shoot? There are no leasing costs, just a bunch of mates with access to 250 acres of land, mainly pasture, for occasional days walked up rough shooting. Thinking of putting down pheasants and possibly partridges. Don’t know much about the later though. It’s in southern Endland. No pens yet either.

 

[enfieldspares]

The important thing is holding whatever you do put down. So that may mean suitable cover, or small corners of fields, or bits of rough set aside, or even good hedgerows (all with good bottom) and everywhere with plenty of well replenished feeders. So you'll need a feeder filler rota.

Flight ponds...they could be simple scrapes...also with feeders if not in fact fed. Pasture might give you hares too. For minimum effort buy birds as fully developed as you possibly can. Even old ex-layer hen pheasants if possible? Release at start of early dusk into a 100% fox proof pen! Ex-layer partridge trickle out in late daytime in the field...a few here...a few there...a few elsewhere.

It is difficult without knowing what the land is like to advise much beyond that. Last partridge roost on the ground. Pheasants roost in trees. If you've no suitable roosts you probably won't have success in holding pheasants. The Game Conservancy now called Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust might be a useful first enquiry?

 

[Tim.243]

What does the land hold at the moment, pheasants need to roost also they like cover so if any of that is on the neighbouring ground that is where they will head.

Hard to give you answers with so little detail....

Ideally your pen will need to be in a warm wood not near a foot path or (I have walked around here for years track)

Decent access track to get the food/water there.

Birds follow the sun in the morning!

Foxes!

Labs don't like brambles lol

Long list, birds will hear you coming after you have shot it once and be on their toes.

From last season to this coming one I have off set the ducks, less partridge, more pheasant's and more cover strip.

More detail better key board answers is it in a nut shell...



Tim.243

 

[jimmy milnes]

Vermin control, we're doing a grey partridge scheme local to me and basically if it's not game and it's within the law to do so it goes at the first opportunity.
Good luck with your venture
Jimmy

 

[flyingfisherman]

I know it might p155 on your bonfire but my experience is as follows...

Syndicates are a great concept.. The reality is that a minority of the members will be of any use. You'll put a lot of time and effort in to the various aspects, which cover (but are not exhaustive) things like liaising with land owners, vermin control, maintenance, recruiting members, organising said members, chasing them forever for money, telling them every day of the season where they need to be and how to do the drive that they've done 40 times before, only to find out that they cancel on the morning of the shoot and don't turn up, for no other reason than its a bit wet or something better has come up. You'll be the one responsible for the syndicate members when they drive across fields by accident, or they don't come on their allocated work days of feed days. Nobody will really appreciate what goes into running even a small syndicate and probably never really thank you for it. You'll pay the same as the rest of them, put stupid amounts of hours in and all to go and kick a few pheasants out of a few bits of rough.

You'll ponder things and think 'whose the fool here'..

All that being said, you'll have some laughs, meet some great people and do some cheap shooting, but be aware.. it all comes at a price.

I'm yet to witness a syndicate where the workload is shared equally and if a syndicate ever seems like 'good value' its generally because someone is getting (willingly) shafted and the syndicate rely on their good nature.

Go do it for a few years, you'll see what i mean. I don't regret doing what i have done but at some point you will realise that its a labour of love.

Things that make a successful syndicate;

Good, warm cover
Good Vermin Control
The more Dogging In, the better
Willing Landowners
Released Partridges are a waste of time in small numbers and on small bits of land..


I'm not a negative person, but these are all first hand experiences from various syndicates.

 

[NigelM]

Habitat, feeding and vermin control. You have to get all three right for it to work. When those are sorted it's worth putting some birds down as they will likely stay and you will know where they are when you want to shoot.

How friendly is the farmer to allowing some field margins, covers, even some maize strips? Have you got any woodland, even little 1/2 acre blocks? Will the ground take any ponds or splashes and will he allow you to dig them?

I put down 500 pheasants on 180 acres and we shoot about 300 birds a year on average over 5 days driven and a few Saturdays walked up over the pointer. The habitat is spot on after 10 years of playing with it, 60 acres being in HLS schemes. We hold them well and I use about 4 tonnes of wheat which is in feeders and spun and a tonne and a half of Barley for the duck which is put down 3 days a week. The pen cost about £1000 in materials and a few days work but has lasted very well.

On vermin control, depending on the month, I'm out 1 to 5 nights a month. Come the spring I'm trapping Magpies (Larsen), Crows (Ladder), Stoats and Weasels (tunnels), but I live on the ground and it's easy to do when walking the dogs.

You don't do it because it's cheap, the cost in feed etc. and especially the time means you do it because you love it. It's a lifestyle thing. It would be cheaper and easier to pay as a single gun on a few 100 bird days, but I enjoy the satisfaction of making it work myself more than the shooting if the truth be know.

 

[BenBhoy]

Vermin control, we're doing a grey partridge scheme local to me and basically if it's not game and it's within the law to do so it goes at the first opportunity.
Good luck with your venture
Jimmy

Few years on Jim; how them greys do?

 

[jimmy milnes]

Not doing too bad cheers, lockdown hasn't helped though, same old story, folk wanting to walk where they like with a "oh fido loves to chase the birds attitude" didn't help breeding

 

[Deermanagement]

PM me with an email address and I can send you a spreadsheet for the costs of running a small shoot. You can add, change or deduct as necessary.

 

[3xspringer]

I know it might p155 on your bonfire but my experience is as follows...

Syndicates are a great concept.. The reality is that a minority of the members will be of any use. You'll put a lot of time and effort in to the various aspects, which cover (but are not exhaustive) things like liaising with land owners, vermin control, maintenance, recruiting members, organising said members, chasing them forever for money, telling them every day of the season where they need to be and how to do the drive that they've done 40 times before, only to find out that they cancel on the morning of the shoot and don't turn up, for no other reason than its a bit wet or something better has come up. You'll be the one responsible for the syndicate members when they drive across fields by accident, or they don't come on their allocated work days of feed days. Nobody will really appreciate what goes into running even a small syndicate and probably never really thank you for it. You'll pay the same as the rest of them, put stupid amounts of hours in and all to go and kick a few pheasants out of a few bits of rough.

You'll ponder things and think 'whose the fool here'..

All that being said, you'll have some laughs, meet some great people and do some cheap shooting, but be aware.. it all comes at a price.

I'm yet to witness a syndicate where the workload is shared equally and if a syndicate ever seems like 'good value' its generally because someone is getting (willingly) shafted and the syndicate rely on their good nature.

Go do it for a few years, you'll see what i mean. I don't regret doing what i have done but at some point you will realise that its a labour of love.

Things that make a successful syndicate;

Good, warm cover
Good Vermin Control
The more Dogging In, the better
Willing Landowners
Released Partridges are a waste of time in small numbers and on small bits of land..


I'm not a negative person, but these are all first hand experiences from various syndicates.

Been there done that cost me a fortune! You are 100% right

 

[jall55]

Habitat, feeding and vermin control. You have to get all three right for it to work. When those are sorted it's worth putting some birds down as they will likely stay and you will know where they are when you want to shoot.

How friendly is the farmer to allowing some field margins, covers, even some maize strips? Have you got any woodland, even little 1/2 acre blocks? Will the ground take any ponds or splashes and will he allow you to dig them?

I put down 500 pheasants on 180 acres and we shoot about 300 birds a year on average over 5 days driven and a few Saturdays walked up over the pointer. The habitat is spot on after 10 years of playing with it, 60 acres being in HLS schemes. We hold them well and I use about 4 tonnes of wheat which is in feeders and spun and a tonne and a half of Barley for the duck which is put down 3 days a week. The pen cost about £1000 in materials and a few days work but has lasted very well.

On vermin control, depending on the month, I'm out 1 to 5 nights a month. Come the spring I'm trapping Magpies (Larsen), Crows (Ladder), Stoats and Weasels (tunnels), but I live on the ground and it's easy to do when walking the dogs.

You don't do it because it's cheap, the cost in feed etc. and especially the time means you do it because you love it. It's a lifestyle thing. It would be cheaper and easier to pay as a single gun on a few 100 bird days, but I enjoy the satisfaction of making it work myself more than the shooting if the truth be know.

Totally get this !

Shooting a bird you have produced from an area you have created or nurtured is great !

Especially when you raise a few broods