We're here in beautiful sunny Cenicientos in Spain
and we're walked up partridge shooting.
It's my fourth time shooting partridge here
in Spain. But, this time we're doing it a little bit differently. One of the
enjoyable parts for me today was taking Jerome and Martin on their very first
walked up day. I've shot walked up birds all over the world, so it's quite a
familiar style of hunting to me. But, these boys are used to driven shooting
where the birds are brought to them, so I wasn't entirely sure if they're going to
be quite prepared.
It did take them a little while to get on to the birds. But,
the great thing is once they relaxed and got into it they started getting more
and more success so today it's been quite an adventure.
The rolling terrain, the hills, the brush is really difficult going. But, the morning was absolutely
stunning a beautiful sunrise it really does feel special.
Ian, Martin and myself, we're very good friends we worked together too and you know we like to
experience these things together. Walked up game shooting is very much a new
experience for me. I did have a small experience when I was a bat gun once. Here
it's very different, obviously we're walking towards birds hoping they'll be
flushed out in front of us and yeah it's really good fun.
I haven't done a walked up day before I knew it was going to be fun but it was actually a whole lot more
fun. All the shooting I've done has been standing on pegs before this and it was
really nice to be actually walking through the terrain trying to seek out
the Partridge, watching what the dogs are doing and just having to concentrate
because they come out from nowhere and it's a very good challenge.
The walked up partridge shoot, you'll be in a long line about 20 metres apart and your
walk along with the dogs and they flushed the Partridge out and it's very
very fast shooting so the bird comes up and then you have to take that shot
really really quickly before it by the flies way or sometimes it flies towards you.
Now, it was pretty tough going this morning, I just wasn't getting on to them
quite quick enough. But, as the morning progressed I got better and closer and
eventually I was starting to connect with the birds.
The partridge, they hunker down in the thick stuff and they wait until you're right on them before
they break and when they do you have absolutely no idea which direction
they're going to fly in. It's very very exciting.
Ian is obviously quite an expert shot as I think we all know and I was trying to
sort of watch what he was doing. Jay I think was a little bit like me and him
experienced. We definitely got somewhere around Birds me and Jay possibly shared
a couple. Between the three of us were always a little bit competitive, Martin I
think is claiming a couple of my birds. We decided that we'd just share them didn't
be generous and nice to each other. But, he definitely tried to shoot my birds.
But I'd already killed them, but we won't tell him that. It's a great sport, you've got
to be very very quick and clearly being an expert shot is a help but if you
don't do it you don't learn. As the day wore on I managed to get a couple of
very impressive pairs. But, unfortunately for me my final success of the day. I
still got to enjoy watching the rest of the guys shoot as a walked as part of of the line.
It's not just about the shooting here, it's also about being part of Spanish
shooting tradition. As always shooting for me is about the company took a
couple of great shots and it's very rewarding when they're nice good clean
kills but ultimately spending comedy friends and enjoying yourself.
We've had some very fun eating and drinking and a good energetic walk and
doing something a bit physical was actually a very very nice way to get the
day going. After today I will be definitely doing some more walked up
it's another new part of the sport that I've discovered it's great the whole
thing is set up in a very professional but very friendly way. The sport is of
the very, very highest quality that makes me want to come back on a regular basis
and of course when you've had a great experience you don't mind sharing that
with other like-minded people.