Pretty Paul’s first day Beating for 3 years. Shame it was a misty day and he didn’t get to see the nice views.
Finn had couple retrieves from the field next to council wood; need to work on him getting out farther when sent from a distance!
Managed to bag a Woodcock, ‘which was nice’.
Team bag for the day
?? Pheasant
2 Pigeon
1 Woodcock
Warm and clear day – not great for shooting, but probably made a nice day for the four beaters and one dog. Craig fired one shot all day and missed – PLUM !
Team bag for the day
8 Pheasant
1 Duck
1 Pigeon
Pyrgo House was built in 1852 on the site of the former Pirgo Palace, a royal residence of King Henry VIII from 1541 and demolished by 1814.
The later House lasted less than a century, with a few pieces of stone laying strewn about in the woods.
Shame those two stone stags are not still there with the view south overlooking the Thames in the distance.
 
Last trip of the season and took Nick out for a morning flight. As it was late in the season and we had to keep our feet wet we went to Limbourne, which was covered in light fog. Just enough for me to make hard work of finding the yellow bin and the route on to the marsh.
One of us clipped a Wigeon that went down a little way out on the marsh opposite. It must have moved about as he had a tough retrieve, eventually picking it much further out than I thought it was.
And muddy it was, too.
Richie and I met Graham, who was already out on the marsh, for the morning flight at Gardeners.
I watched a couple of Mallard get off the creek near me and with hindsight I could of had a pop at them. Not a shot fired.
Not sure of the day’s total bag for the shoot bag, but I know I got a brace of Mallards with one shot during the evening duck flight.
123 for 330 odd shots, so they are getting better.
Dinner at Nick and Sam’s later with Paul and Toni. This year’s Sloe Gin gone in one night; very nice though.
No shots by me and to top it off we couldn’t find Richie’s Teal. Having walked right around the Delph we spotted a pair of Fox eyes in the field. So we decided it wasn’t worth ripping our cloths on the new barbed wire fence for a lost cause.
Dave Snowling dropped a very high duck.
Stick video here
Just over 100 for over 400 shots …
First shoot meet – left Harry at home as it will be cover crop early in the season. The birds flew well of the first drive, best I’ve seen them on the first day.
Sunny and warm in the morning; chucked it down from about 11:00 and we all got cold and wet. Laurie made a good call to finish after 6 drives and we all retired to the new post shoot pub, Prince Albert, opposite the LB.
They finished with a bag of 86 and I brought a brace of red legs home.