You go left to right here sir.
It's a beautiful day in early December the 1st December as it happens and we're
here at Woolsey Park estates near Rugeley. and what a fabulous day, beautiful
bright sunshine, nice brisk wind bit of snow last night so perfect winter
conditions. I'm shooting with a new team of guns today, actually not new to
shooting, but a team I've not shot with before. It's quite exciting meeting new
people sharing experience, so far it's been a great day the first couple
of birds have already come out and with the wind it seems like they're gonna be
a little challenging today. I've got my Deerhunter Upland Suit on, AYA Number
one, Hull Cartridge Imperial Game. So I think I'm all set so fingers crossed
you're going to come my way.
What a fabulous start to the day, to have a good peg on the first drive always
make for a good start. The wind is kind of blowing from right shoulder here so
the birds are kind of breaking coming through and then getting pretty high as
it came over me. I've got some lovely birds missed a couple more finished a
few off so yeah a really good mix back to the beginning of the day but the guys
that did brilliantly, Steve knows this ground perfectly he's got a good team of
beaters and the dog man in this double turnips always make sure they retrieve
the birds as well thing fabulous starts a day looking for a little bit more.
So what an incredible drive, even with this bright sunshine the birds the
flying incredibly well today maybe it's a breeze it's kind of swirling around
for my right shoulder over towards my left but they seem to be picking it up
getting very very high in the sky and they're making fantastic targets now on
occasions like that I have been named from time to time to struggle but not today
it seems like I just I've got the rhythm maybe the more relaxed who knows
whatever it is and really enjoying the shooting and it's nice when you switch
them off when you kill them in the sky of course I've had to finish a couple up
with a second barrel it's not the very important thing to do but overall for a
second drive absolutely phenomenal great to be able to shoot well it's great with
a company that we have everybody's in good spirits and yeah this is a perfect
day in the great British countryside so if this is the beginning can't wait to
see what's coming later.
How's that for you Martin?
So here we are the final drive of the day. This is Tilly's Gates which is one
of Steve's signature drives. Great deep walking behind us goes on for about five
six hundred yards back so plenty places from birds to gather the beaters went out
about 15 minutes ago so they've got quite a lot of ground to cover but this
is one of my favorite drives don't get me wrong there's plenty to pick from here
lots of different birds at different heights but you can get some real
towering pheasant some real challenging birds off this drive.
let's hope I'm up to the task.
So a fabulous finish to an incredible day it really is a privilege to be able to
come pheasant shooting, that's great British shooting tradition
and bringing together so many different people from so many different walks of
life and the beaters and the Pickers up who really make this day happen without
although work behind the scenes we wouldn't have the marvelous showing of
birds we've had today. Steve and his under keepers and all the guys that support
him the shoot all the work the goes in during the summer, building the pans pest
control feeding the birds making sure they survive and prosper when they first
get delivered here into the woodlands, right the way through to the girls in
the kitchen who lay on the hospitality and it really just make you feel quite
privileged it's a very special experience. We've shot with a great team
of guns today the crack and the camaraderie has been
fierce lots of joking lots of storytelling
lots of compliments about shooting and lots of Mickey taking about shooting as
well but that's really what we're here for.
It's tying together lots of people from different walks of life all coming
together for the same celebration this is a historic pastime one without which
these woodlands wouldn't exist it just wouldn't be here without driven shooting
so I feel quite lucky to be here what a great day and epic showing of birds and
yeah another day they can't take away from us, this really has been special.
So, there's another day done and dusted. We've had a good day, there hasn't been much
wind but what there was was nice in the morning it helped them, it swirled around
a bit so it was good. The guys have shot pretty well today, they've added
in a ratio of about five and a half to one so it's been a good tidy day I
think they've enjoyed it we ended up doing five drives where I was only
planning really on doing four so yeah I'm very happy with the day I'm very
happy with the guns a lot of the guns it's the first time that have shot here
and I think they're going away with them happy thoughts of Wolseley, so I'm a happy
boy and I reckon it's beer o'clock. So, thanks a lot and we'll catch you again soon.