Opportunity knocks for a new shoot

It’s important to do your homework before taking on any new ground, says Liam Bell

or fellow Gun. Someone to bounce ideas off; someone to double-check stuff with when you are back at home and having a proper think about it.

Check the ground cover, look for warm roosting, flushing and holding cover and see if you can get a feel for whether birds will actually hold there or not. High banks and deep valleys are very impressive, but they are next to useless if they are cold and bare and the birds won’t go up there, never mind hold there long enough to be driven back home.

The woodland — and game crops if there are any — needn’t be huge, but do need to be big enough to hold the number of birds you are planning to put down. Neither do they necessarily need to be on banks, because you can still present perfectly good birds from flat ground, if they are fit and healthy and the Guns are well placed.

Have a look at the pens, if there are any. See if they are repairable and find out who owns them, in case the previous tenants are expecting to be paid. If not, are they planning to take them down? This rarely happens, but it is still worth checking. Building a new pen is quite an expense if it hasn’t been budgeted for.

When you’ve had a look, and if you are keen to sign, go over the lease with a fine-tooth comb.

Unworkable

Most leases are fairly standard and have been put together by agents and land management firms, which does mean that some of the conditions could be irrelevant and others overly restrictive and unworkable.

In addition, many owners will have added their own conditions and it is usually these that will need discovering and thinking about. I knew of one lease that stipulated all rabbit control was the responsibility of the shoot. On the face of it, that doesn’t seem too bad, but it transpired that the shooting tenants were liable for any crop or tree damage the rabbits caused. Another allowed unfettered access at all times to the local hunts — regardless of timings, seasons or location.

“Check the cover, see if you can get a feel for whether birds will actually hold there”

Other restrictions are more workable and understandable.

It is fairly common now for new leases to prohibit the shooting of woodcock and for there to be some sort of restriction on the releasing of reared mallard. It may not be a complete ban, rather a restriction on numbers and stocking densities.

Deer control, crop protection, access for vehicles for work and on shoot days, lamping and the availability of a shoot room or barn for storage and lunches — all these are all things that need sorting out before you sign.

There will never be a perfect shoot and I don’t want to put anyone off if they are considering taking one on. But it is always better to know what to look for and what you might be up against before you do.