A passionate shoot
Richard Faulks visits the shoot on Bob Sewell’s family farm, a refreshing change from large, corporate days
Bob Sewell’s family farm covers 110 acres of the River Chater valley in Rutland. He and his son, John, have managed to squeeze in nine drives, though on a shoot day there’s no sense that space is limited. North Luffenham Shoot has evolved from a oneday- only family affair into a syndicate of like-minded, fun-loving shooters. Bob was asked by friends in 1999 if they could join him and his family on their day, and being a gregarious sort he agreed.
“This is mine and John’s relaxation and day off,” he explained, and when you spend a day with them their love of shooting is obvious. They seemed relaxed, while running the shoot impeccably. Bob explained that this syndicate’s shoot days are the polar opposite of large-number corporate days, which he feels are beginning to ruin the sport. “If it becomes a purely financial arrangement, then the guns can rightly expect to say, ‘ We’ve paid X so we want to shoot Y.’ If we shoot 50 or 110, it makes no difference, it’s all about fun and I love having all of the guns here.”
Anecdotes
You could describe Bob’s, and now John’s, approach to keeping and beating as ‘old school’ – and it’s all the better for that. Having learned to shoot with his grandfather (Bob’s father wasn’t keen on shooting), he trained as an underkeeper at aged 15, firstly with Eric Stora at Burghley Estate, then Teddy Lavender at Bulwick and finally under Benny Jenks at Belvoir Estate.
These men clearly made a lasting and positive impression on Bob. There are far too many entertaining anecdotes to include in this article, but this is my favourite: as a young lad, Mr Jenks finally acknowledged young Bob’s presence (it had only taken a year and a half) and took him out to set some snares. Mr Jenks set off on his bike with Bob running alongside and led him out into the middle of a large grass field. Mr Jenks looked down at the grass and said, “Just there lad.” “Where do you mean?” asked Bob. “There, lad,” was the reply. “But which way?” asked Bob again, as there were no visible tracks or markings.
Mr Jenks put the tealer in the ground and the snare was set. They agreed to meet at the keeper’s cottage at 6am the next day. Confused and sensing that Mr Jenks was playing a prank on him, the young underkeeper set off at first light, 3.30am, to
see if he could catch Mr Jenks putting a fox into the snare. When he arrived, the snare was gone from the middle of the field but, to Bob’s amazement, down in the hedgerow
there was a fox dancing around in a snare (this was back in the day when ‘drags’ were used on snares rather than firm fixings, which are now required). After a cup of tea with Mr Jenks at 6am, they set off together and headed for the field. On arrival, Mr Jenks look surprised to see that the snare was gone and Bob had to point out the fox dancing in the hedgerow. Bob turned and asked, “You had that in a bag, didn’t you, Sir?”
Mr Jenks turned to Bob, looked him straight in the eye and said: “Bob, I would never do a thing like that!” Mr Jenks passed away a year later and Bob still wonders whether he’d missed something in that field. However, the ethos and knowledge passed on from these men has been invaluable.
Change of role
Although a fine shot in his day – he managed to kill 56 pheasants in as many shots once at Merryvale on a cock day – following a car accident Bob no longer shoots. He’s happy to hand over shooting duties to John, now a fine shot, too. Today, putting on a shoot day is Bob’s passion and he gets as much pleasure from seeing people enjoying the day as he ever did when shooting. Only invited people get into the syndicate and they’re chosen because they fit in with the group; only once has somebody been asked to leave and that was for safety reasons – he kept trying to control his wayward dog with his gun closed. “You can’t apologise to somebody who’s dead,” says Bob.
Shoot days begin with tea in the farm house, before peg drawing and a briefing in the yard. There are 12 Guns and odd numbers move up three pegs and evens move down three. Individual cards are
“Shoot days are the polar opposite of big corporate days ”