Where do you see commercial game shooting in UK in 20 years time?

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User00047

Well-Known Member
Interested to see what other people think is going to be the future for this industry?

I think it is going to be a transitional time because I don’t see the big 200 bird day surviving much longer. I think that walked up shooting is going to become much more popular and also more expensive and will take place instead of driven big bag days.
I think gamekeepers jobs are going to be very different in the future because they won’t need to rear/care for anything like as many birds.
I think some big shoots will basically fold as a commercial enterprise and focus on other areas for income.
 
The antis will have their way, not because they are strong its because there is a general apathy among the hunting/ shooting crowd that collectively watch the antis become stronger.
Thus necessary commercial shooting will be replaced by poisoning or helicopters after permissions are banned. Good luck with it.
As far as birds, well all we need do is to look at what happened to fox hunting.
 
Still a huge demand for commercial type driven shooting. I live a miles from the edge of one high profile shoot, they shoot either a 300 bird or 500 bird day (unless for the owner when it is far bigger), and shoot every day, often with two teams out on the estate.

It is good arable farming land, bar the dry valleys (dales), a large amount of ground, good cereal growing land, is given over to game. There are numerous large game plots, they drive out of maize, but there are hundreds of acres of mixed small seed / kale etc grown to keep the birds amused and hold them, these are blanked into maize blocks on a shoot day. They have also totally changed the woodland, most valleys had woods running from top to bottom. The owner felled everything from the bottom of the dales to 3/4 of the way up the side. Then planted new woodland on the level land about the dale, again on good cereal growing land. After felling the stumps were grubbed out, and the dales reverted to grass, which is mown close to aid picking up. Hard tracks run along every dale, with parking areas, turning circles etc. A huge amount of money has been invested in the shoot, and a shoot day is a very slick operation.

I am undecided, I did a couple of days beating there, it is not shooting as I knew it, most drives they do not even get close to the end, horn is blown when the headkeeper decides the guns have had enough shots. I did two back to back back days and they did the same drive twice, not pushing it all out on both occcasions.

The air is full of finches, and woodpigeons, thousands upon thousands of Woodpigeon, it is good for some wildlife, lots of kites and buzzards, and it may surprise some, foxes. The head keeper is no fox hater, maybe because he used to like his hunting. There are few to no deer, which I suspect are shots on sight, purely to stop them spoiling drives.
 
I don’t think demand is going to fall.
I think legislation will change and make it unprofitable and inconvenient to release/rear so many pheasants and game birds as there are currently
 
Hmm.
I truly believe large scale game shooting is soon to be consigned to history - the mood of the general public is shifting inexorably towards the viewpoint where what is perceived as wholesale slaughter (hard to argue against that one - see Mudman’s post) for “sport” is no longer acceptable.
I fear the average man in the street does not and will not appreciate the effort that goes in to shooting land’s management; the wider benefits to flora and fauna, the local community nor indeed the looming lack of employment for those currently involved in it.
Add to this toxic mix the increasing highly publicised efforts of the ever-so-nice Mr P and his cohorts, some large and hugely wealthy “charities”, the BBC, the incoming government et al and the result is inevitable - sadly.
Stalking on the other hand, if carefully presented, can perhaps offer some reasonable defence - too many deer, huge damage, RTAS - all the usual suspects to show it’s continuing need in some form at least but the hard truth is there is simply no tenable “need” in the public eye for shooting pheasants which have been released solely for that purpose. Can you imagine Joe Public’s reaction if Bambi was reared and released specifically to be hunted down and shot?
Very “Private Fraser”-esque I know but I fear it is the reality.
🦊🦊
 
Foxyboy43 said:
the mood of the general public is shifting inexorably towards the viewpoint where what is perceived as wholesale slaughter
Click to expand...
there are a lot more green antis in the general public these days.
Foxyboy43 said:
I fear the average man in the street does not and will not appreciate the effort that goes in to shooting land’s management;
Click to expand...
the average man was born and bred by feeding on plastic wrapped tucker these days..no skin,no hair,no scales.
Foxyboy43 said:
Can you imagine Joe Public’s reaction if Bambi was reared and released specifically to be hunted down and shot?
Click to expand...
Well it is done quite a lot in other places, shares in mesh wire isn't a bad thing.
 
There is no need for pheasant shooting to be in the bin in the future - even "large" commercial shoots. Compared to what goes on around here though 200 birds isn't large.

What needs to happen is a recognition from the shooting community that pheasant shooting isn't without negative impact, and it is no longer protected from prosecution or being caught with it's pants down. There are people everywhere in the countryside these days and it seems to me that there are the minority that still think it's okay to break the law, as if they are above it. Or take a blinkered view that everything is perfect and nobody from the shooting community does anything wrong ever - just look on here when someone posts a story about raptor persecution - the posts that pop up saying how it could have been faked are quite frankly pathetic.

Only last year a keeper not too far from here got caught pole trapping around his pens.

releasing birds in the middle of the season... Still happens.

Pens in woods with no cover other than paddled mud, riddled with rat holes.

Pens next to roads that will inecitibly be covered in feathered strawberry jam after the birds are released.

Dumping unused shot birds.

etc etc.

"Commercial" shoots that run on a shoe string for maximum profit are inevitibly cutting corners.

additionally pheasant shoots need to staff themselves adequately and charge a price that allows them to function as a business in the 21st century, mitigate their negative impact and allow the sort of staff welfare that promotes professional conduct, less and less people are getting in to gamekeeping because the wages are **** and they are treated like ****.

Accept that things like non-lead shot are the way the world is going and stop being backwards yokels and saying things like "My awld mooooother ate lead for breakfast every day and she lived to a ripe old age of 90!"

Stop refferring to anyone that questions your industry as "antis" as if it's a war of us and them - the vast majority of the public are neither pro nor against they just need to be educated about what is good about the industry and satisfied that you are working on the negatives.
 
What ever Field sport you choose to participate in . I think it vitally important we all stick together and support each other , one thing for sure if the antis get rid of Game shooting they wont stop there they will continue to we are all banned from killing anything .

Chill
 
I forgot to add, there are probably 40-50 staff out on any shoot day, beaters, pickers up, drivers, keepers, cooks etc etc, this is just about every day of the season. Due to the casual nature of the employment, with some only doing a day or two every week, there are probably well over 100 people regularly involved with making a shoot day work. Many retired, many women, there is an understated value in the social cohesion and well being that being involved as participant in these types of shoots brings. It is not only about the money, big shoots bring great value in other ways to many people often in isolated locations.

They are nothing like the 30 bird a day farm shoots I am used to, but I can lots of benefit to the big shoots as well. (Not least to those who have shoots surrounding them who shoot good days with very little effort).
 
You’ve hit double with both darts there. It will be gone as per what it is (and I personally hope so too because I find it unappetising in the reared bird format); but hopefully transitioned to a structure whereby all natural bred birds through very extensive land management programmes (and not and the cost of persecuting raptors or cage trapping crows etc) - providing natural commercial sporting opportunities via excellent upscaled rough shoot methodologies. Likely to put costs to a level where it is very prohibitive, and much smaller bag days, but that’s the way of the world we live in, polarisation and rich becoming mega rich, the average and poor ending in the ‘please Sir’ category.

It’s already becoming more and more popular on some estates doing natural partridge days of course.

Rough shooting is likely to continue for ducks, partridges, woodcock and the odd non-reared pheasant - and that’s actually the most enjoyable and pleasant way to shoot and take game for the table - in a friendly and non-commercialised manner.

Saying this, I do hope the put-and-take fisheries are put under as much pressure as commercial shooting, as it’s much the same.

Happy Easter 🐣
 
Unfortunately those who want to bring an end to all forms of shooting don’t care one jot for those whose livelihoods depend on it, or about the positive social benefits that nearly everyone involved enjoys.
They don’t like it, ergo it will have to go, the same with every single protest group in these internet connected days.
 
Given that it is now the hardest field sport to justify to the thick masses I think it’s days are numbered.

If it still exists in 20 yrs it’ll be a shadow of what it is today, simulated possibly ?

Either way , it’s days are numbered
 
Smellydog said:
Dead.
Hopefully bag limits will be set so folk can have an ethical sustainable good day out instead of heartless greedy bastards showing off!
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I imagine gamekeepers walking about with a small team of maybe 4 guns, who bring their own dogs…pointers may be popular ?, and take turns shooting. Maybe large areas could have multiple keepers walking around with multiple teams of sportsmen on any day. Charged per day, not per bird, with emphasis on great sport and maybe keep the hospitality element with the fancy lunches and bigger meals in the evening.
The kind of guns on these days wouldn’t need official bag limits because they will be more interested in working their dog or maybe interested in the variety of game as opposed to the quantity?
Instead of shooting 200 pheasants, they may be more interested in 20 birds of 5-10 different species.
 
Buckaroo8 said:
Interested to see what other people think is going to be the future for this industry?

I think it is going to be a transitional time because I don’t see the big 200 bird day surviving much longer. I think that walked up shooting is going to become much more popular and also more expensive and will take place instead of driven big bag days.
I think gamekeepers jobs are going to be very different in the future because they won’t need to rear/care for anything like as many birds.
I think some big shoots will basically fold as a commercial enterprise and focus on other areas for income.
Click to expand...
There is enough people out there to keep it going as they can just rock up have little or none knowledge of the countryside and how things work. Turn up pay go home and talk about it at a company lunch...quite a lot like stalking :rofl:
 
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