[Music]
Lots of strange things about today.
Don't let the heather fool you.
This is a partridge day not a grouse day.
Don't let the tweed confuse you.
These guys aren't peers of the realm.
They are Texans.
We are in for a 250-bird day in some of the most spectacular scenery in the central Highlands
- and it is all put together by one of the most laid back lairds in Scotland, Ali Findlay.
We have mixed terrain here.
We have some high river banks over the river Spey.
We also have the moorland so hopefully we will have a nice mixed day of different types
of birds.
High birds as well as more like driven grouse type drives.
Have you been here for years?
My family came here in the 1960s my mother bought it on the idea my father would like
a grouse moor to entertain his friends on so thought it would be a good idea to buy
a highland estate.
She retired about ten years ago and I took over then.
So I have been here running it and we have been developing it over the last ten years.
The beaters and picker-uppers turn up promptly.
Among the irascible Colonel.
Ali comes over to warn me about the Colonel - but it's too late.
Very nice foot wear you have got there Colonel.
Now that is because I have got gout - you bloody well know that.
They are revolting.
Why don't you wear a hoody top.
You must go and see the guests.
The guns arrive and Ali does his job explaining where to shoot and who to miss.
Just keep it safe and make sure when you are shooting behind.
Now one of our jobs today is to do showcase a great British cartridge.
We want to show that Hull Cartridge's Imperial Game is ideal for a driven partridge day.
Think of this a bit like a Fairy Liquid commercial, where we ask happy shoppers - or in this case
happy shooters - to take the taste test, or whatever it is.
When it comes to cartridges, these guys have been putting up with an inferior Scottish
brand, on this trip coloured blue.
Like the colour of the British Empire on the map, Imperial Game are red.
And isn't that the breakfast of champions?
It was tougher shooting before, but the cartridge has worked great.
Excellent.
Do you do shooting like this in the USA, pheasant, quail, driven like this?
Not driven.
We generally work dogs, work fields, so it is a different type of shoot as far as the
birds get up versus the birds coming over the hill top like that where you are shooting
up which is a lot of fun, a lot of fun.
You put in the hours.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, the first drive on a partridge day is tricky, especially when you are used to walking
up chukar.
Happily, the Americans are warming up to their roles both shooting partridge and shooting
a line about cartridges
One of the finer shells I have ever shot.
Imperial Cartridges.
Ali Findlay is not helping.
Finally, I get someone to say what they really think about the Imperial Game
So you gave these cartridges a whole game.
So was there any difference.
I think a lot of it seemed to be a little bit tighter powder maybe.
You could get the higher birds with the whole cartridges.
It was the most testing drive when you got the cartridges to use.
Probably, yes, very good.
There.
One of our former colonial subjects endorsing an Imperial product.
No need to scater any tea about the harbour - Hull makes the right cartridges for visiting
Americas to shoot straight.
Meanwhile, the shooting is going well.
The first three drives are low-ground.
There are times when the birds pour off the hillside, and you begin to understand why
the most popular gun brand in the USA is called 'Browning'.
Still - the bag is mounting and the pickers-up, including the Colonel, are hard at it.
By the halfway mark, when we drive on to moorland to stop for soup and a sharpener, the Ralia
gamekeeper gives his mid-match report.
Happy boys, yes it is all going fine.
The bag is ticking along nicely as well.
It is all good so far.
For the casual onlooker thinking heather surely grouse, so how does that work?
This moor was heather here, but it was badly affected with ticks years ago so the guys
declined maybe 30 years ago and have never really come back.
So this shoot was established instead and driving partridges over the low heather.
On the last couple of drives we move back to farmland.
The magnificent autumn colours here, the birds framed against the dramatic skyline of Scottish
hills - it's a lot more to look at than ssouth-of England partridge shooting.
In the States for the most part we shoot rising birds, walked up rising birds.
So any time you have got birds coming straight towards you it is a totally different game
and we really enjoy it.
I was going to say Lachie why would you put these poor Americans through this it seems
to be very unkind?
These birds are very good for them Charlie it is a learning curve they need to have.
These guys enjoy this.
It is something they don't get to do at home.
They have also come a long way to get a considerable amount of shooting in a relatively short period
of time.
So it shows them a lot of sport in a relatively short time that is the real plus point.
Everybody happy?
Absolutely, delighted.
Lachie has to drive this lot off for a bit of retail therapy at House of Bruar nearby.
Before he goes, let's have a ringing endorsement from the Americans about which is their favourite
British cartridge company.
Which one, gentlemen?
Hull Cartridge!
There you have it.
Hull Cartridge.
Eight out of ten partridge who expressed a preference said they like to be shot with
Hull Cartridge Imperial Game - a clean kill every time you knock them on the beak.
For more about Hull Cartridge, visit hullcartridge.co.uk.
And if you want to go shooting at Ralia, email Lachie at ls@highlandsporting.com