excuse my ignorance but to achieve a percentage you first must have total of birds put down divided against birds shot .If you don't put birds down you can't have a percentage you only have birds shot.ps we don't have any big shoots nearby
Firstly gents I didnt post my returns to be accused of poaching birds from other shoots or having my abilities questioned.
I wish that I was surrounded by large shoots who flooded the area, unfortunatly its the opposite and I am surrounded by land which feeds, plants crops and doesnt release.
Yes I do have one small 30 acre wood which is miles from the main shoot which is close to a large shoot, but we only shoot that a couple of times a year due to access.
I invest a serious amount of time undertaking predator control running trap lines for months, constantly walking the ground not driving like most modern keepers do. Fox control is a constant battle and not just an hours flash with a lamp once a week.
I am lucky to have excellent mixed woodland with new investment always on the cards and have farmers who are in the higher level set a side scheme and am looking at another 20+ acres of game crops because of it in the next year.
The shoot habitat is a diverse mix of ancient native woodland/15-20 year old plantations and softwood blocks along with a mix of traditional rotational arable and permanent pasture mixed in along with acres of sssi and wetland habitat.
So all in all its an almost ideal situation for game and along with sound tradional keepering methods I can, weather permitted, gain extra stock from wild birds.
I make sure that feed is constantly available and will top hoppers up in the dark to do this if necassary and have enough feeders so that the birds dont have to fight along with hand feeding on certain drives.
Top quality wheat is fed along with a constant mix of cracked maize blended in and no I dont use spices or aniseed.
I get my arse out of bed early to dog in every shoot day and have lads who help me with this and will chase down every last runner even if it means a half mile slog at the end of the day.
We shoot every week from the end of October and if needed I could shoot 3 days back to back without covering the same ground and though not overly large days we shoot 60-90 a day
Yes I wish every years return was as high and of course I have had alot lower but for the record last years was 78.9% and I would lay that down to the fact that I was fortunate to be trained on a very traditional estate where it was dilled into me to spend as much of your waking life on the ground as possible and to do the job right with true dedication and passion and to constantly improve the habitat and security for game.
Cockerdog