Grouse Report 2015 - Has Anyone Been Shooting Yet?

2506Shooter

Active Member
Has anyone been up on the grouse this year? The forecasts were terrible but I haven't seen any reports of how the season started. I'm trying to calibrate my expectations for my first (very modest) day next weekend so I'm not too disappointed if it's awful!
 
I do some grouse counting and it seems a trend for many around the Peak District to be around 60% down and therefore not shooting this year.
 
A day on the moor will never be 'awful', u just might not get as many bangs as usual but thats the way grouse goes. Grouse numbers have been good for a long time now there always was going to be a bust

Bet many would rather an 'awful' day at the grouse just once in there life's.

The keper was writing in this weeks ST saying some areas are actually doing ok generally the further south, further east and drier lower moors are doing better but still never going to be a bumper year. But the highrer wetter mooors are very poor
2 moors i usually go to aren't shooting this year althou 1 may possibly put a very late day on yet
 
You're absolutely right, I don't mean awful; I'm just speaking in relative terms on the most straightforward metric. I have spent many lovely days on the hills and in the fields and woods with gun or rifle, and not fired a shot. However, I'm sure you must admit to a tinge of disappointment on occasion when a trip doesn't live up to expectations?!
 
On a related note, I noticed that my local butcher had quite a few grouse yesterday, and given that I'm home alone later this week, I'll take the opportunity to eat grouse for the first time. It's one of those things that I'd said I'll taste when I shoot one, but given that there's no realistic prospect of that happening on the horizon, I may as well support my local butcher.
 
High percentage of old to young getting shot, so not a good start and not a good year ahead.

I take it you mean that this is a bad thing because it indicates that fewer young birds have fledged successfully, since in a "normal" year, shooting a good proportion of older birds is preferable?
 
A day on the moor will never be 'awful', u just might not get as many bangs as usual but thats the way grouse goes. Grouse numbers have been good for a long time now there always was going to be a bust

Bet many would rather an 'awful' day at the grouse just once in there life's.

The keper was writing in this weeks ST saying some areas are actually doing ok generally the further south, further east and drier lower moors are doing better but still never going to be a bumper year. But the highrer wetter mooors are very poor
2 moors i usually go to aren't shooting this year althou 1 may possibly put a very late day on yet

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a very small walked-up day a week last Saturday (15th) in Cumbria; unkeepered moor, a handful of guns and dogs, and a hope of half-decent weather....

Grouse were seen, 5 shots were fired in total - bag at the end of the day? Nil. Enjoyment had by me? Huge.

Spectacular scenery, good company, the opportunity to do something different, dogs covering the moor.....it really was a very enjoyable day, and the lack of a bird in the gamebag certainly didn't detract from that for me.
 
Just back from my week in North Yorks.
We had great sport and saw plenty of birds, our kill ratio old to young was 1-4 so they bred well.
The owners and keepers are expecting another record breaking year!, although seeing the group shooting the day after us was pettyfull one bird per 12 shots on driven august birds is shamefull.
I know Derbyshire and both sides the pennine spine upto and including scotland have generaly had poor breeding and a huge amount of moors are not shooting.
 
Poor Numbers up here due to a cold very wet May.
The shooting finished last Monday in the north pennines:-| nr me.
 
Just go with an open mind to enjoy it, sure u will have a cracking day, just hope the weather holds for u. Nothing better than being on the hill on a nice day, but can still get some pretty miserable days even in Aug up on moor and NO shelter.

Grouse are unpredictable at the best of times even when numbers are plentiful, just cross ur fingers and hope u get in the busy butts for a couple of drives, u'll never forget it
 
The Perthshire estate I count on actually counted more birds this year compared with their bumper year last year, but this was due to a high number of residual birds from last year, brood sizes were certainly down year on year.
 
Been on quite a few moors in North Yorkshire and Weardale/Teesdale this year with mixed numbers showing. Some neighbouring moors have vastly different bird densities with some cancelling most dates and others having plenty of birds. I think it will depend on which moor you are booked on, good luck.
 
Unfortunately looks like my day at the beginning of October has been cancelled, not enough birds on the moor just north of Penrith
 
Very varied reports....some estates record bags, others cancelling. Lots of late/second broods. Some places able to shoot only because of good stocks. There may be better shooting later after the late broods get a bit older. Snow in June didn't help!
 
Well, a good day near Appleby-in-Westmorland. Weather was very Cumbrian! The bag was a fifth of what it was on the same day last year, but still a very enjoyable day. Not quite the 2000 brace apparently shot nearby one day last week! The moor has cancelled half of the days this season to preserve stock for next year.
 
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2000 brace?! That can't look good to the anti brigade.

My day in Nov is cancelled unfortunately, I hear Northumberland is having a shocker. Apparently Whitfield has cancelled all its days, and a number of surrounding moors.

Good luck to all those who do manage to get out!
 
I agree it does not look to good from PR but that is 100% sustainable and they will shoot the same (usually more) next season. How many game shoots can say they are sustainable that no mater wot size the bag is.
Also i know that area and quite common to see a pair of HH over that moor, never seen as many kestrals for years as u do on that fell side

While it may not look good to outsiders when u actually understand how grouse shooting works some moors NEED to have these very big days. The moor mentioned shoots very few days yet carries a large stock of grouse. Plenty of moors in that area shoot 4 figure brace days surprisingly often in a normal season.
If u asked most grouse keepers they would far rather have as few days as possible shooting as large as bag as needed, so they can get the season over as quick as possible and get the grit out and get on with the vermin before the snow comes in and let the birds settle down and recover for winter

The biggest problem most of the better NE moors face is shooting enough grouse quick enough, if the weather closes in and still too many beaks to feed on moor even with modern medicated grit numbers will crash. A
lot of moors are shooting phenominal ammounts of grouse per season nowadays.

I heard of 1 marginal moor outwith the main grousy area, 5 or 6 years ago (in fact possibly longer ago :old:) broke the record for season but still had far too many grouse on hill, had 10 keepers days where doing various other poachers tricks to try and bring numbers down, ended up not shooting grouse for 3 seasons as number crashed that winter.



PS Just as an aside most keepers (but esp grouse keepers) are never overly happy to have bags broadcast with the estate name next to it, not top seceret (althou that moor is more so than most) but usually best to keep it slightly vague, thoose in the know will know which moor ur on about.
 
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