Focusing on the experience rather than the bag, smaller days are growing in popularity among guns but the challenge for estates is in making them pay, writes Liam Bell
The first golden age of shooting was defined by Victorian and Edwardian excess. It was a time when game was king, and the size of the keepering team you employed, the number of birds you shot and the names on the guest list were arguably more important than the height or speed of those birds that ended up in the bag. Then the First World War, taxation, the economic depression of the 1930s and the consequent splitting up and selling off of estates put paid to this era of abundance. But that’s not to say that shooting ceased or that estates stopped employing keepers. It was simply that those who carried on scaled back. And if the old gamebooks I have read are anything to go by, the owners and their guests appear to have enjoyed the smaller days just as much as they had the bigger ones.
Second golden age
Shooting’s second golden age arrived in the 1980s, when private and syndicated shoots began to be replaced by commercial operations that let shooting by the day. True, some shoots offered let days well before then but it wasn’t until the ’80s that it started to catch on and become the norm. Development and research improved hatching, rearing and releasing techniques in much the same way as the use of broody hens and modern cartridges and guns had changed things 70 years earlier.
These refinements reduced costs with the result that shooting became more affordable and accessible. As it did so guns, quite understandably, wanted to shoot more often and the owners of commercial shoots, and estates that let the odd day to help cover costs, were happy to oblige.
At the same time shooting became increasingly predictable, the thrill of the chase replaced by the number of bangs and the number of birds in the larder at teatime. Yet it is part of human nature to crave bigger and better, and it would be wrong to demonise commercial shooting: the affordability and availability it brought were both huge positives without which our sport would be less popular, more elitist and certainly less future-proofed.
From the 1980s small shoots began to be replaced by commercial operations
A change of pace
Commercial shooting has opened up game shooting to anyone who can afford it, and although there are some who price themselves out of the market to all but the high rollers, these larger shoots indirectly subsidise the smaller ones. (Read our tips on improving your game shooting.) Chicks, poults, equipment and feed would all be far more expensive if the game farmers and suppliers didn’t have the security of the orders from the ‘big boys’. Nor would the returns of many a small shoot be as high without the odd bird wandering across the boundary from their bigger neighbours.
However, it seems that for many the larger day has peaked with guns starting to look for something different: smaller, wild days and multi-species days where the guns are involved in the hunt. Days that are less predictable and less formal, where you have to work for each and every shot. Yet driven shooting is not on its way out. Far from it; in fact it is more popular than ever. It is just that some guns are beginning to move away from larger days and opting for something that gives them more of a buzz. And, dare I say it, more value for money.
The driver for change does not need to be seen as a victory for the wokerati – any well-run shoot should be able to show a net biodiversity gain. Cost, variety, setting and company are just four of a myriad of reasons guns are seeking a change of pace. These sporting men and women still enjoy shooting and still want to spend time with their friends, they just want to do it differently.
“There are so many other elements of a great driven day’s shooting that are just as important as the number of birds,” asserts Joe Dimbleby, a keen countryman and regular shot. “It is unique as a way of introducing people with shared interests, often leading to new friendships. Shooting offers the opportunity to experience hidden pockets of beautiful landscapes in different parts of the UK with the chance to see wildlife that is sadly absent from much of our countryside. It’s also a great excuse for culinary treats from shoot breakfasts through to Elevenses, tea and dinner. None of these joys are diminished by the size of the bag at the end of the day,” he says.
Elevenses is a highlight of shoot days large or small
Colin Roper manages a premier Cotswold shoot and has a syndicate that takes several smaller days a year at a fixed price.
“If they see or shoot fewer birds than expected there are no complaints and there is no extra charge from the estate if they shoot more,” he says. “While there is huge demand for these smaller days (and I think many more could be sold than the syndicate currently takes), relying on the smaller days to run the shoot at a profit would mean that guns would either have to accept that they are going to shoot fewer birds per person or be prepared to pay more.” One of the attractions of these days is the informality. “The lads enjoy it, the guns enjoy it. Everyone is pretty chilled. The quality of bird is still there but without the fuss. There is no drawing for pegs: you stand where you are put, you bring your own lunch and you stop and start when you want to.”
Judging from the number of shoots and estates offering these days, there is a consensus that the market for them exists. One obvious reason is that proper rough shooting is becoming more difficult to find. The shoots putting on these smaller days have spotted a gap in the market and have made the conscious decision to get off the hamster wheel of more birds and more days and revert to either a private or syndicated wild-bird shoot of sorts or are scaling down and charging guns by the day rather than by the bird: a fixed price for a day’s sport with a rough guide to numbers, instead of selling days at a fixed price per bird. This represents more of a division of costs, a reverse budget of sorts.
There is a growing demand for multi-species days
Pricing structure
The current accepted business model of selling days by the bird has made it almost impossible for small or mediumsized shoots to compete with the larger shoots that have the benefit of economy of scale. If the smaller shoots don’t have the ground to show high birds (and charge a premium), it is highly unlikely that they will break even, never mind make an actual profit. And part of the they can’t and don’t make a profit is the price-per-bird pricing structure.
Anglers don’t pay per fish if they take a week’s fishing, they pay for the week. Naturally prime weeks are more expensive but there are still no guarantees. The same goes for a day’s hunting. Visitors aren’t charged per hedge, with the offer of a refund if the hunt comes up short. Wildfowlers buy permits for a day. Pigeon shots do likewise. Charging by the bird is unique to driven game shooting.
Former gamekeeper turned shoot manager David Morris, who runs David Morris Sporting on the Shropshire/Worcestershire border, has similar thoughts. “While you need to have some way to agree upon and set a price, it is important not to get too fixated on numbers,” he says. “I like teams to go away having maybe shot a few more than they were expecting. But equally, on the rare occasions that they don’t reach the bag, as long as the guns have had plenty of shooting and the birds have flown well, I don’t think that should matter. In my experience teams of guns are happy to accept the birds have beaten them.”
The ideal situation would be a shoot “being able to make a small profit from running smaller driven and walked-up days”, he says. “A fixed price might be the easiest way to achieve it but finding a way to agree on a value that is not based on bag size is a challenge.” Morris has recently taken on the lease of “a wonderful bit of ground” that adjoins his current shoot and lends itself particularly well to walked-up and mini driven days. The vast majority of the birds they shoot on this new piece of ground will be released pheasants and partridges. “We won’t be specifically targeting snipe and woodcock or teal on these days, as it is too easy to overdo it with wild birds and we understandably don’t want to over-shoot them.” He plans to monitor numbers closely and if he thinks he is close to reaching a self-set limit, he will take them off the list, as they are on his driven days at Hopton Court.
A day with a difference
Morris, like many others, believes there is a huge market for these mini-driven-cum-walked-up days and would love to be able to offer them alongside his larger days. “But I do have reservations about how commercially viable they will be, and finding a price point that suits both the shoot and the paying guns is the next challenge,” he says. If agents and shoots price their smaller days by the bird, as opposed to by the day, they will lose money. They have to be sold by the day (with the emphasis on the experience) to make it worth their while. Thankfully, most of the guns who are buying these smaller days see them as just that: a day’s shooting with a difference – waiting for whatever comes, with few guarantees, plenty of exercise and the thrill of the chase revived.