October seems to have crept up on us from nowhere this year. A slightly delayed start to the season for us here at the Royal Berkshire meant that we were waiting for September 1
st with baited breath and in the blink of an eye we are already shooting Pheasants!
Whilst it has been great to welcome our long-tailed friends to the party, the Partridges throughout September have performed so well nation-wide for us. Our teams have enjoyed days right here with us in the home-counties surrounding Berkshire, as well as in the far reaches of the North, on some of the infamous West Country shoots, as well as on the Downs of East Sussex.
September saw some of the finest weather I can remember for early Autumn for a long time, with the majority of days being blue skies and bright sunshine. A few days were affected by a lack of wind but shoots tried their hardest to get the best out of their birds whatever the conditions. One very memorable day at the end of September down in Wiltshire, stands out for being absolutely torrential rain from the minute we arrived at the shoot to the minute we left, but it was only our clothes, not our spirits which remained dampened by the end of the day.
Our Roving Syndicate has also enjoyed some fabulous days sport. It is truly enjoyable bringing together groups of like-minded people to shoot and make friendships which will last a lifetime, they are also a great way for those people wishing to open their account on live game to join a team under the expert guidance of one of our instructors. Our Roving Syndicate day on October 13
th offered just that with two novice game Guns enjoying a great day here in Berkshire and being well and truly ‘bitten’ by the game-shooting bug.
As we roll towards November, our focus is certainly changing from partridges springing over valleys and hedges to pheasants clattering out of woodland or looming into view high above an open valley.
One of the questions we are repeatedly being asked is whether the imminent new non-toxic shot will be ‘up to the job’ on these higher, more challenging birds. Without revealing too much I can safely say members of our team have been involved in testing and trialing new developments from various manufacturers and the feedback from in-field testing has been very encouraging, with the ammunition in question being more than ‘up to’ tackling tall pheasants and partridges, producing clean dispatches with minimal felt recoil.
I think the advice I personally would give is to get your gunsmith to check your gun(s) over and see which ammunition is going to be suitable for you to use. Then, once you have found a product, get out in the field and use it! The only way you are going to become confident in a non-toxic cartridge is by becoming familiar with what it is capable of.
As a closing note – We have lots of enquiries coming in for bookings for the rest of this season. We are fast becoming fully booked so if you would like to get out in the field before February 1
st please do contact us before we run out of availability. We do, however have the option to extend your season into February and March with our Spanish shooting estates and if you would like more information about shooting in Spain do not hesitate to get in touch.
Best of luck to all out shooting in the coming weeks and stay safe.
Matt
gordon@rbss.co.uk
matt@rbss.co.uk
01491 672918
