Game & Rough
Diggory Hadoke
How early do you start?
A friend wrote recently saying she had been busy shooting partridges with Richard Faulds using a Purdey sporter given to her by Nigel Beaumont. she's off the mark already (not to mention spoilt) but I am not even thinking of game shooting yet. I did get a crack at the ducks last weekend with a £40 1950s Browning 2-shot semi-auto (just for a change). I accounted for two Canada geese and four ducks.
My first driven day is on 25th October, which is an invite and early for me. I do most of my shooting in December and January. Why? After the lull of the summer and the diversion into pigeon shooting I should be rearing to go as soon as the red-legs are ripe. Ours go into the incubator in February, so by now they have been in teh woods for months and are fat, strong and fully feathered up - ready to rocket skywards if only we can find them in teh hundreds of acres of maize thet is too unripe to harvest yet.
So, why the delay? I just like it to be cold when I go shooting. I want to be tweed clad and I want to see my breath. I want to feel the ground crackle underfoot and i want the trees to be leafless. for me, that is the essence of English game shooting and that is why I book my days in the later part of the year. the birds are harder to find and fly better. They are more educated and wiley and you may struggle to shoot as many but you have to stretch for each one, rather than select the better ones from a huge flush. It just pleases me more and that, after all, is why we do this; to please ourselves.
Signs are promising at North Mymms, the hatch has been outstanding, the survival rate the best on record and the birds look fabulous in the woods. No floods, mink or other disasters this year - all went according to plan. The lake is covered with wild ducks and geese and the new stands are cut ready for teh guns - there is just that maize problem to deal with. the first driven day is September 20th but I'll be at the Game Fair.
