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

[Liveonce]

The next 20years
Game shooting will be replaced by simulated game shooting.
Clay shooting will only be available at the commercial grounds, the small clubs having gone.
A licence will be required to shoot, pigeons, rabbits, deer etc.
All cartridges will be non toxic.
All cartridges due to the biodegradable wads will have a use by date.
The closes the majority will come to using a firearm will be on a computer game.

 

[User00047]

I’d love to know just how profitable it is to run a commercial shoot?
Does it make economic sense to do something different with the land?

Also worth looking back 20 years…I bet nobody saw the fiasco around pigeon/crow shooting coming did they?
We thought that was here to stay!
“It’s necessary pest control” we said.
Over night….gone

 

[nun_hunter]

Interesting to note that many of you believe that demand alone is enough to keep it going as it is.
The people “demanding” big days are generally extremely wealthy and those people are in the minority.
There’s a growing argument about “re-wilding” and questions are asked about which species we should see in the woods and fields and moors….releasing non-native species into the countryside is not going to be popular and this includes pheasants.
With many people so disillusioned as to believe that wolves could solve our deer “problem”, it doesn’t take much for the common man to believe that pheasants en masse are enormously detrimental to the ecology of the British countryside and that they should be limited to such a degree to make commercial shooting obsolete.

I think you have a very good point here and if grants and funding for rewilding outweigh the profit from a big commercial shoot then landowners looking to keep their land and lifestyle will move to whatever pays.

My view (and shared by many) is that the big bird commercial shoots are for the jolly awful rich folk who just want to show off how much money they have by turning up with an expensive gun, in an expensive 4X4 and shoot as much as possible to prove they're better than the person next to them.

I am of course aware that this doesn't apply to all shoots but similar to fox hunting, their PR isn't great, maybe because they don't care or realise what the majority think. Another factor I think is that because the majority of the population can't afford to do it and are struggling financially they are happy to try and stop it, just like flying private jets or owning yachts, it will always be divisive, but even more so when it involve killing animals for fun.

 

[ashray]

some very large shoots that used to have 300+ days dropped to 150 bird days and have now shut down completely .game keeper and beat keeper both laid off. this was a 50+ year old shoot on a large estate .its not the only one to finish this year .i think oxford/berks/bucks have lost 12 large shoots so far this year ,birds/feed/transport/wages/houses etc all too expensive and the returns are not that good .no game dealer taking the shot birds so no return on those,<it was a £1 a brace ,so on a 30000 bird shoot at least the return was 15000 but thats gone ,<if all birds were shot >

 

[User00053]

Good number of estates not unlike deer stalking leased out their pheasant shooting including providing housing and infrastructure to commercial enterprises for decades and really taking hold early eighties.
Richard waddington saw the potential of leasing grouse moors to sell driven grouse shooting to the American market shortly after ww2 followed by others and demand probably still outstrips supply or did.
People I have encountered who take days shooting do it for a variety of reasons but mostly to travel and experience different places and flavours among fellow sportsman and friends which what commercial shoots can offer and tailor days to suit demand with much repeat business. Some individuals try and fail but quality still in demand with some shoots nigh on impossible to buy a day unless very lucky.
Obviously you need to be totally dedicated with a good level of wealth to afford and enjoy that kind of shooting on a regular basis and is a trapping of wealth along with the other finer things in life like royals or imperial stags or whatever.
Numbers to me not an issue either shoot all or none but can understand those who dislike for whatever reasons.
Think within next few decades big changes afoot

 

[User00047]

Unfortunately the same wealthy people that shoot pheasants in large numbers generally own the thousands of acres that it requires. They won't rewild, they'll solar farm as that's better income plus like money making schemes. Any woods felled are better off back in production for crops,a yearly turnover not in decades time.

Yes possibly

If you think that once their shooting is banned that they're going to allow stalking for the pittance that it generates, I doubt that. Contractors do the job quicker and better than amateurs.

What? Who mentioned stalking? What are you on about?

Re bird shooting, the countryside doesn't support game regeneration for a variety of reasons eg lack of cover,no insect life, human disturbance, vermin numbers among others. Even walked up days will degenerate into armed vermin rambles,no income so will cease.

It can if properly managed by humans

Countryside will be a poorer place without bird shooting IMO but I think it's coming. No idea of timescale but I doubt my grandkids will die being shooting men like I will. It will certainly change the look of the countryside physically and species wise.
Hope to all that's holy that I'm wrong

I agree bird shooting and the management of the ground is currently beneficial to a variety of wildlife as a whole, but it’s very difficult to prove this to the general public….All they see is the stereotype 500 pheasants getting shot in a day by a bunch of city toffs in Range Rovers.

 

[enfieldspares]

Doesn't really bother me anyway, in 20 years time I shall be growing daisies

I am growing them already. And moss and dandelions. Why miss the "pleasure" by waiting until you're dead? It's supposed to be a finely maintained back lawn....but it's not. Still at least no plantains...yet!

 

[Ratel]

I am growing them already. And moss and dandelions. Why miss the "pleasure" by waiting until you're dead? It's supposed to be a finely maintained back lawn....but it's not. Still at least no plantains...yet!

Plantains are a source of food for some birds and others use the moss for nests, keep growing them.I have prolific daisy beds also on my quarter acre lawns, I love them. Unfortunately none grow in our churchyard so I will only grow lusher grass and the odd bunch of primroses.

 

[Bowland blades]

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.

Well if you look at the decline over the last 40 something years things dont bode well for organised days and paying guests . Pure gamekeeping courses at the colleges have been in a stage of transition to gamekeeping / environmental . It's frankly reckless for a younger adult to take such a course as " gamekeeping " as a stand alone qual around pheasant breeding and other driven shooting