How far does the shoot boundaries extend - they cannot shoot willy-nilly over the nearest 100 miles of moorland. The moor is divided up into say 5 or 6 shoots and shooting your neighbour's grouse just is not cricket.
Grouse are smaller than pheasant and larger than partridge which they resemble. They are found in coveys, large and small, sometimes singly, sometimes of 20 birds or more. Later in the season they often pack in large numbers. They feed mostly on heather shoots, occupying bleak moorland. They are very hardy birds living in cold conditions, breeding and maturing early. They take to their wings within a week of hatching and in spite of endemic disease on most moors, they are one of the strongest flying birds.
Although not in the strictest sense of the word artificially reared, the moors are keepered and the grouse population kept artificially high e.g. the heather is burned to encourage the growth of new shoots, every form of winged and fourlegged predator is rigidly exterminated etc.If left alone the population would stabilise at a much lower figure and natural immunity to endemic disease develop in most cases.
Birds are shot in two ways; walking-up or driving shooting.
How far does the shoot boundaries extend - they cannot shoot willy-nilly over the nearest 100 miles of moorland. The moor is divided up into say 5 or 6 shoots and shooting your neighbour's grouse just is not cricket.
You need to know all access points onto the moor. How far can you get a Landrover up the track? Most of the access to the butts will be little better than dirt tracks. Remember also, grouse shooters are often sickly creatures and hate walking uphill. Nine times out of ten there should be some means of getting a Landrover up to the butts.
Lines of shooting butts are marked on the 2 1/2" scale maps as are shoot boxes. All these lines have to be marked onto the O.S. map; there could be as many as six lines of 12 butts. Once they are marked it is possible to determine which stretches of moor belong to which line of butts i.e. what particular stretch of moor is beaten for each butt line. Once all the facts are marked on the map, you can determine the direction the beat-line will take, the size of moor you have to beat for each line of butts and indeed even the line of butts that will be used. Ensure all butts have been checked and correspond to those marked on the map. Also some may be "double butts"; can be shot form the front and the back and used for two beats.
With this information in hand, obviously moving across the moors and directing sabs becomes a lot easier.
As in hare coursing, counter-beating or flank beating can take place. However this should not merely be an opposing line of sabs parallel to grouse beaters. The aim is to move or funnel grouse in a particular direction. Taking into account wind, land gradient and position of shoot butts, a line of around 45 degrees to grouse beaters and shoot butts should be formed. This should be as tight as possible - as birds approach and are turned down the sab line, so the noise should progress down the line. If the whole sab line is a block of noise all the time, not only will you simply turn the grouse back but you will wear your voice out. So the grouse have to be funnelled away from both shoot butts and beaters. Controlled noise and constant attention are required for counter-beating to work as it should.
As the grouse beaters advance on butts and sabs so the counter-beat line will have to slowly retreat, as beaters meet the front end of the sabs line, so these sabs should move down the line. Alternatively, they should fall back to the butts and block the line of fire of the shooters.
If it proves impossible to form a static counter-beat line at an angle than a line of sabs should be placed approximately 200 metres out from the butts. This line should be very tight and noisy; the object being not to turn the birds back into the beaters but to make them rise up into the air, out of range (50 metres) of the guns. This however is a somewhat dodgy tactic, the best means of defense of the grouse is low flight hugging the hill gradients. By forcing them up higher, they are denied this natural defence. Sabs have to ensure birds DO fly high and must watch that shooters do not shoot behind their butts after the birds have flown over and started to descend.
The "ultimate" tactic is to occupy butts and block the line of fire at both the front and the rear of the butt. The shooting butt is usually made of natural materials i.e. timber, turf, stone and is usually shoulder height. Its prime task is to provide camouflage for the gun-wielder, hence their tweedy attire. Clearly then no shooter is going to want white sheets, banners, piles of non camouflaged bodies, lots of silvery reflective items, screams and shouts etc., as it just might ruin his camouflage cover. By standing in front and on top of the butt it becomes more difficult to shoot accurately. Sometimes shooters will put away their guns when sabs resort to this tactic, others will attempt to carry on; groups must be prepared to assist areas that persist in shooting around sabs. Good communications and quick thinking should take care of most trouble spots. This tactic is not as stupid as it may sound. The majority of shooters will not shoot in close proximity to people, and indeed the BFSS official line on such confrontation is to advise shooters to put away their guns immediately, and in fact to lock it in a secure vehicle (well you can never be too sure these days, with crime as high as it is!). If shooters persist in shooting past you, bring up the fact that the shooter is refusing to toe the accepted line of the god-like BFSS.You never know, it might work!
During the day, guns and beaters will move to different lines of butts on their moor. Always keep with the guns, just as you would keep with the hounds on a fox hunt.
Remember the Country Code.
Care has to be taken that sabs proceed at the same speed as guns and that guns do not switch direction, leaving the sab line too far away to swing back in front of them.
Wild pheasants are now almost a thing of the past and the shooters now breed and rear their own birds to satisfy their demands. Shooting syndicates are set up to ease the cost and in many woods can now be found the rearing pens. You will come across them as you pre-beat woods on fox hunts.
From incubation the chicks are kept in large sheds and as they get older they are placed in larger and larger pens until they are old and "ripe" enough to be released from their holding pens into the countryside. Feed is kept permanently for them in hanging containers, i.e. old plastic drums to ensure the pheasants remain in the area where they are to be shot. Also, an aniseed solution is put around coverts, the smell from this appeals to the pheasants and they stay in the vicinity.
The shoots take place regularly and will be advertised in shooting magazines and locally. Most shoots take place just before Christmas. A large shoot will generally take place with beaters and the shooters remaining stationary. Several beats will take place during the day. Smaller shoots may be of the walk-up fashion.
Pheasants have been known to follow a trail of the feed for some distance and remain if enough food is left. They will particularly follow an aniseed trail which can be sprayed from a garden spray. The aniseed fluid, bought from chemists, should be mixed with spirits such as white spirits. Grain soaked overnight in aniseed as a trail will also work.
On a walk-up shoot, position yourself ahead of the shooters and beat away at the same speed as the shooters walk, always watching to see if they change direction.
