Very often you will see a person’s true character when you drive game over them on a peg. It’s difficult for anyone to hide it. If you are greedy, lack respect for your quarry, or have a tendency to moan, it’s likely to show. We can learn a lot about our companions on a shoot day. Fortunately, we can also see the shining quality of good shots as well as the dullness of poor shots, but the peg is not the place to learn what the best shots know - it is the examination, not the lesson.
All of the best shots of my acquaintance share some things in common. Firstly they are incredibly knowledgeable about their quarry, its habits, behaviour, and very often this knowledge extends from feathered game across the sporting scene to deer and fish. The knowledge crucially includes the conservation of the habitat in which these species live - how it changes through the seasons and over time, what is necessary to improve it, and the greatest threats to its existence. You can’t learn this on ‘peg 4’.
I relish every driven game shooting day I am fortunate to be involved in. I think that its accessibility to all, regardless of your background, is one of its great strengths. But there is so much more to the sport than handing over your cash and gunning down game indifferently kicked off a cliff.
If you are coming into game shooting how can you give yourself the good grounding you need to become the best shot you can? Where is the best place to start? The spectacularly accurate shots, humble yet knowledgeable, who I consider the best I know have all spent a good deal of time in pursuit of wild quarry. For most, this means time spent shooting pigeons for crop protection and there are several reasons that pigeons provide an excellent foundation for sporting men and women.
The first is that they provide almost every angle of shot you could imagine and even some that you wouldn’t. I have shot them flying backwards in a strong enough wind, and even one upside down as it barrel-rolled into my decoys in its haste to lose height. Even if the pigeons fail to decoy, you may spend the afternoon perfecting your ability to shoot fast crossers as they pass in front of you.
Roost shooting pigeons (although February the traditional time for it is entirely the wrong point in the calendar for building up to pheasants) can be a stern test for even the best game shots. The main advantage of pigeon shooting for those coming into the sport over other wild birds is that their high numbers mean that when they do cooperate, you practice your foot movement, core movement, gun mount and swing many times during the course of a day. If you do enough you will come to read the line of your quarry so that you know exactly what it is likely to do and therefore what you need to do. Your movement is a result of the bird's movement and you must be fluid and flexible for a successful shot as no two will be the same. An afternoon roost shooting in a good wind can feel like the best drive of your life lasting for two or three hours.
Chasing wild game alone with your dog is difficult to find these days for all but the very fortunate, but it forced me to think about whether a piece of ground might hold a snipe or a duck. Whether the pheasant would break left to the marsh or right to the warmth of the conifers. Understanding what a pheasant naturally wants to do particularly given the wind direction is one of the hallmarks of what is often summed up as ‘fieldcraft’. Fieldcraft is what separates the best driven shots from the good. The ability to read the wind and topography and know what they mean for the birds on that drive. Fieldcraft is difficult to fully define but it is a heightened state of awareness of your surroundings and is largely made up of past experience and a good deal of failure. The key is having the wisdom to know that the new knowledge offered by failure can be more valuable than any success.
To this day I relish the chance of being asked to be a walking gun on a drive. The chance to try and outwit the clever cock pheasant in January who has spent all season successfully going against the flow, climbing up and over the back of the wood. Walking gun is the bridge between formal, driven shooting, and the shooting of my youth and if you get the chance (it seems less common than it used to be) I urge you to take it.
While driven shooting receives the most attention from the modern double act of marketeers and influencers, some of my most enjoyable days in the field have been spent in the company of wise and passionate people on 'walk/stand' days with a various bag, correspondingly various gundogs, and more often than not, a traditional shoot vehicle break down. Sometimes these days finish with a pigeon flight, sometimes a duck flight, either way, it is an opportunity to sharpen your wits and try to understand your quarry better and fully immerse yourself in the day. If there is anything you don’t understand remember: there is no shame in not knowing, but there is in not finding out.
These small syndicate days are arguably the most accessible game shooting you will find and it is hard to beat as an all-round experience. There may also be some pigeon shooting available too - the best education and ultimate test of your fieldcraft and ability.
