Raising the bar

After No1 son of mine decided to ridicule my previous effort of drawing the drives on computer, I have upped my game for the Small Valley Drive below sketched in all its glory.

Worse is to come for Captain of Shoot, No1 Son of Mine commented on seeing original paper drawings I see captain of Shoot has had his crayons out.

The little whippersnapper has some horrible jobs to do next he is on the shoot.

A mixed bag

OK I admit it trying to do drives one by one was somewhat time consuming, so you can have the whole lot in one go. Feel free to come up with better names for the Drives.

OUR SHOOT

I will have to nominate Captain of Shoot for beater of the year, for two years him and his dog have more or less beat single handed, plus the work he puts in every Sunday, we keep up a feeding regime through out the year I think he deserves recognition.

Still plenty to do before our first shoot on the 8th Oct, but we will take a breather on the 6th for a pre season dinner to say thank you to Wives and Partners.

Two concerns 'Bottom end and Cover crop drives' both have failed crops due to the bad weather earlier in the year we have worked hard to make sure what is there is keeping the birds, so far it appears to be working, let's hope it continues.

The Dogs no longer come with us on a Sunday, but it wont be long before they get going, I'm pretty sure they are as much looking forward to the season as we are.

What to do

Sunday just gone was quite an important day on the shoot, it was the day we decided where the drives were, how we will bring on the birds to the guns and where best to place them.

This is always a good day as your anticipation levels rise tenfold, you just know 'not long now'.

Our first drive of the day is always the ducks, two ponds have been created in a valley, reeds between the two. I will at this point tell you dear reader, that this shoot has come about through one man, Captain of Shoot has created what the rest of us guns enjoy.

The 450 odd acres we shoot over have been a labour of love for the dear old Captain and a great job he has made of it. The farmer and his wife to are wonderful people who have allowed us this privilege The hardest part is for guns 7 - 10 as they need to get behind the ponds without disturbing the duck. The thing that is not seen in the sketch is the different heights and the distance the guns will be apart.

Below a rough sketch of the drive

We managed five of the drives all now pegged out, this year we can pick and choose the drives we do, this is a first for us, it appears that it is to be my job to rough sketch all the drives, so I will be having to choose some imaginative names over the next few weeks. Please leave your suggestions in the comments.

It's a start

Welcome, it has taken nearly four years but at last, a blog about our shoot. Plenty has gone on, in those years but I aim to start from this season. Perhaps one of the most important jobs has now been started!!

The sloe gin for Boxing Day.

I should out of politeness introduce myself, I am Vice-Captain of Shoot, along with Captain of Shoot, Haystack the keeper and Silage the under keeper, we make up the working & feeding party of 'Our Shoot'.

Over the coming year and beyond you dear reader shall hear more of us and the Guns both regular and passing that join us on those very special Mondays.

You will come to know, in particular the shoot reports as they will be titled 'Another Day They Can't Take From Us', you will find that we have strong opinions about our sport and those that would destroy our enjoyment.

But enough for now, I shall post as often as I can and recall some of the trials and tribulations of 'Our Shoot' and the fun of it all.