Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Gearing up for the new shooting season
Shooting sports are hoping for a good year after coronavirus hit last season. reports
THE 2021-22 game shooting season got under way in the West Country with partridges from the beginning of this month. On October 1, the pheasant shooting season starts, the most important quarry for the majority of shoots in Devon and Cornwall.
But after last season was badly disrupted by coronavirus – with lockdowns forcing the cancellation of many days and overseas visitors unable to travel – the prospects for the new season are being anxiously assessed in some quarters.
The YouTube country sports channel, Fieldsports Britain, reported earlier in the summer that shooting estates were keen to ensure they had diaries full of bookings this year, to help make up for lost business in 2020-21 which had been extremely damaging for some. Presenter Charlie Jacoby said: “We’ve certainly heard of gamekeepers who have lost their jobs, their trucks and their homes in the carnage [of Covid] as well as shoots going under or struggling with debt.”
Shooting sports are worth around £250 million a year to the economy of the South West and disproportionately benefit rural areas. Those figures, last calculated in 2014, are expected to be even higher today, and game shooting makes up a large proportion of that revenue in the West Country. Shooting brings an economic and social boost during the autumn and winter months, when traditional tourism winds down and rural isolation can be a problem for many.
It is not only the shoots that benefit directly. Hotels, pubs and restaurants all cater for visiting guns, while rural employment, on shooting estates, helps to provide work, both full-time and part-time as well as bringing social benefits for those who beat, go picking up or help out with catering and other jobs.
While coronavirus case rates remain high, increasing confidence provided by the vaccine has helped to boost bookings for shoot days as the start of the season has drawn closer. Earlier in the year, however, fears of new lockdowns made some people nervous of making bookings and paying deposits they might lose if the shoot had to be cancelled
It’s make your mind up time... support your small shoots, or watch them go GAMEKEEPER DAVE WHITBY
because of a new virus spike.
Gamekeeper Dave Whitby told Fieldsports Britain that people who shoot game should support shoots if they wanted to see them survive and thrive. “There’s a lot of small shoots hurting,” he said. “They’ve still had to pay their rent, they’ve still got their costs, the fixed costs are there and even if they haven’t released a single pheasant, they’ve still got the outlays.
“So it’s really make your mind up time. You’re either going to support your shoot, those small shoots who have struggled last year, or you are going to watch them go. And maybe if you end up supporting and you lose a few quid, then maybe in years to come that shoot can support you with better days and giving a little bit of leeway where possible.”
The after effects of the worst of the coronavirus pandemic are not the only challenges facing game shooting as the new season gets into its stride. In response to unprecedented challenges to the legitimacy of the past-time – often led by celebrities using social media to whip up opposition – the major shooting and countryside organisations have banded together under the Aim to Sustain umbrella.
Announced at the Game Fair in July the new over-arching group, which brings together nine partner organisations, seeks to protect and promote sustainable shooting, biodiversity and the rural community.
One of the central planks of sustaining game shooting is seen as the improved take-up of game meat as food.
All the major pro-shooting organisations have already pledged to voluntarily stop using lead shot over the next five years, in part because of pressure from supermarkets and other game retailers who fear customers are being put off by the perceived risks of ingesting lead with game meat.
Spearheading the drive to boost game meat sales is British Game Assurance, which changed its name from the British Game Alliance earlier this month.
Chief executive Liam Stokes said: “Assurance is at the heart of everything we achieve... Assurance is the reason supermarkets and outlets of all sizes want to sell more game and widespread adoption of assurance is how shooting will prove it can be trusted to self-regulate.”
For many the 2020-21 season will be a defining moment for game shooting. Frustration at the stopstart nature last year means many regular game shooters will want to make the most of the season ahead. But the sport will be under scrutiny as almost never before. A successful season is needed to put commercial shoots back on an even keel.