Really to appreciate the topography on offer at the three valleys shoot you need a pheasants
eye view.
Here are the guns setting off for the first stand.
If this doesn't lick them into shape for the game shooting season nothing will.
It's the perfect game shooting outing.
Why perfect?
Because instead of instead of a damp November day or a freezing January one, you can do
this in glorious summer sunshine, put a simply enormous number of cartridges through your
shotgun and think how much it will improve your shooting for the start of the game season.
We try and aim for a market where people really want to emulate a full days shooting and all
the bits and pieces that go with it.
It's also excellent to teach young people the etiquette of driven game shooting.
As part of my shooting school, of course, I have access to instructors which are all
CPSA registered so we can accomodate the ability of people on the shoot so that if they need
an instructor, we have one of our own instructors here.
We are at the Three Valleys Shoot between Dorchester and Sherborne in Dorset where,
during the summer, the gamekeeper hangs up his horn and his clicker, and hands over to
the DBW Clay Company.
You're standing next to the keeper, how does this erm.. a bit of pressure I think!
Unlucky mate!
Are these high?
These are very high.
Absolutely.
Derek's been a great help, he's so experienced coming from the Crichel Estate and bringing
all his knowledge to the simulator days and he has passed on a lot of knowledge to the
game day so it has been a really good relationship.
In all other respects, it's like a normal shoot day.
The guns assemble and drive out to the stands.
Derek brings his game shooting experience to bear on the day and shows a variety of
birds today.
I've got a complete understanding of what grouse shooting is about and trying to simulate
it and as you say, there are some people who have tried it , it is quite difficult with
clays.
But I just happen to be on top of this hill and I'm thinking this is the place to do it.
We can fire the clays at a very flat angle, so they are going at a very, very fast speed
just as grouse would be about 10 feet above your head.
They are hanging nets on the back of the grouse buts because this is as close as a real grouse
drive as you can get in the South of England.
Half way through the drive the guns turn around and shoot behind them.
The nets protect them from high speed birds.
So how does the DBW Clay Company produce such an array of different kinds of shooting?
The answer is what Derek calls -the beast!.
Run by Nick and his family, it throws birds from different positions around the shoot,
with the traps set to provide everything from ground-hugging grouse to screaming-high pheasants.
It has twelve traps on it, of which half of them have got DTL bases, mainly Beaumont traps
which are very powerful traps and that gives us great, huge distances in terms of firing
the clays.
The beast is driven by a computer and I can run it with literally myself and one person,
Nick but for Health and Safety reasons we need to have other people in attendance.
Back on the valley floor and the guns are raining up shots on clays raining down on
them.
Pack after pack go over.
There is plenty of banter, plenty of good shooting and lots of catering.
All of it home cooked by the Perrett family who own the farm.
You have got to ask for the scones, cream and jam at elevenses washed down with Pimms.
For the guns its a shoot day but without the feeling of cold water trickling down your
neck or icicles forming on your toes.
Lots of shooting, very happy yes.
For Derek, its a chance to do what he loves.
Provide good guns with good shooting.
It is dead easy to ask did you enjoy yourself, the chances are they are going to say yew
whether they have or not because that is the nature of the beast but when you actually
get people walking over to you and say, Derek, thanks, brilliant day, I want to do that again
- you've ticked all the boxes.
There are a variety of packages for shooters and one more advantage, it's a lot cheaper
than going pheasant shooting.
For more information, visit www.dbwclayshoot.co.uk