Shoot report: Duncombe Park
Guns needed to be on top form to tumble the high birds at this, the latest addition to the Mount St John Sporting portfolio
Adrian Dangar joins a day with Mount St John Sporting
The addition of the Duncombe Park shoot in North Yorkshire to the Mount St John Sporting portfolio in 2014 was quite a coup – and not just because the vast estate doubled Mount St John’s (MSJ) territory overnight. The shoot takes its name from a magnificent stately home standing in 300 acres of parkland close to the market town of Helmsley, long-time seat of the Duncombe family whose senior member takes the title Baron Feversham. Beyond the park lies more than 13,000 acres of breathtaking countryside, including the Deer Park, Riccal Dale and Beckdale – names that are familiar to shooting men and women from across the world, for the Duncombe Park shoot has been building an international reputation for excellence ever since the 1960s, when Prince Radziwill acquired the sporting lease and set about entertaining his glamorous friends with ultra-high birds long before the genre became fashionable.
I am reminded of those heady days when greeted on arrival at the new shooting lodge by Martin Nicholson, who has been involved with the shoot throughout his life and now drives the game cart. “I’ve loaded for most of the royalty in Europe,” he tells me with more than a hint of pride. “The King of Spain, princes and dukes – they’ve all shot here, you know.” The guns assembling this autumn morning may not include royalty but there is certainly an international presence with representatives frwom Australia, the USA and Britain – close friends who have shot together for many years and are drawn back each season by the special delights that Helmsley has to offer. With a headkeeper in John Masterman who has been at the top of his game for 37 years, and in Trevor Bailey an experienced and knowledgeable shoot manager, expectations for the double-gun day ahead are high.
There is to be no warm-up drive for this team, which Bailey knows can shoot straight. “They’re an accurate lot,” he reveals as the visitors line a steep and narrow ravine for the first drive at Ricos. “But believe me, these birds are going to take some hitting.”
Forgive my scepticism but it’s an unseasonably mild day and so still that we can hear the clatter of woodpigeon settling into the yellowing canopy ahead of us and the tinkle of an unseen ribbon of water trickling through limestone underground. The stands have been opened up since my previous visit – one of many improvements wrought by Bailey and his team – but at the narrow head of the gorge tall hardwoods lean over from precarious footholds to rustle together in a leafy embrace. The pigeon are soon unnerved by large coveys of partridges that flit quickly and silently above their resting places and depart noisily on rattling wings.
steady stream overhead
Early birds favour the top guns but a loneranger of a partridge peels off to sweep down the line only to be felled by a spectacular shot from Texan Cornelius Dupre, who is to punch above his weight throughout the day with his pair of 28-bore over-and-unders. Thereafter the canopy becomes crowded with successive waves of stratospherically high birds, during which it is impossible to distinguish who is responsible for those that tumble from the sky. As is usual for Duncombe Park, there is no sudden flush, just a steady, sky-high stream of partridges and pheasants to heat the barrels and put guns and their loaders through 30 minutes of such intense action and concentration that there is almost a sense of relief when the horn’s blast calls time on the opening drive. As almost every bird killed represented a sensational shot the team’s ratio of 11:1 at Ricos does not come as a surprise but the statistic should be taken as an endorsement of quality, not a reflection of accuracy.
Dave Smith starts to gather cartridges, which are scattered like confetti about each peg. It’s a job that would be easier were it not for the skilled team of loaders assisting today, including the headkeeper of Hawnby and Arden moor, Mike Wilkinson, who tells me that the grouse-shooting arm of MSJ Sporting has enjoyed a record-breaking season. “The secret of loading is to do everything fast but put the cartridges in slow,” he tells me. “I load from my fingers rather than mouth, bag or pocket and will be wherever the gun is but I like him to present his left hand (if he’s right handed) as a palm so I’ve got a target to crunch the gun into. If he does that I’ll keep up with him nine times out of 10.” Wilkinson emphasises the importance of safety and establishing where other shoot personnel are standing before the start of each drive. “If asked, I can be a spotter, coach or advisor,” he says, “but I can never be a marker. That’s not a loader’s job.”
Fresh off a plane from Nairobi, Nicholas Britten-long finds form on the following Angel drive, executing a succession of high crossing partridges with such efficiency that the youngest member of the team later admits to being on the receiving end of “the sort of look you only ever get from your headmaster”. His neighbour need not have worried, for the volume increased steadily throughout the drive, keeping loaders and guns preoccupied with birds immediately in front and overhead. No one is more accurate on these high specks in the sky than Mark Sheardown from Kent, who is assisted by the loading skills of the headkeeper’s wife, Sue Masterman. Sporting agency EJ Churchill has put this day together and its representative, Sean Scott, is kept on his toes loading for Sydney businessman Graham O’neil, also having an excellent drive.
The birds are flowing steadily from a game-crop concealed behind a steep brambly bank towering above us, which looks like perfect fox cover to me. “There was a fox in last time we shot this,” says Bailey, as if reading my thoughts. “He came straight through the line and all the guns stopped shooting and raised their hats to him.” Such attitudes are entirely compatible with an estate the history of which is closely entwined with the Sinnington Hunt, which is afforded a regular welcome by the shoot and supported by many of those helping today. These include beatkeeper Jim Wilson, grinning from ear to ear in his retirement year after a life’s work in glorious Riccal Dale and, on spotting me, quite unable to resist a jibe about foxes. The younger generation is represented by Bailey’s 15-year-old grandson, Charlie Taylor, on a day off from college. “I’ve been beating since I was eight,” he tells me, “although Granddad used to put me in a bread basket on the front of his quad bike and take me on his rounds when I was three months old.”
Excitement has been building all morning over the signature Sheep Pens drive, where guns will face the dilemma of deciding which birds are beyond range from the hundreds that soar over the line. We break for elevenses first, pausing in a clearing that offers a stunning view across green fields and tawny autumnal foliage to the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey, which prospered between the 10th century and Henry VIII’S dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. Fortified by sloe gin, everyone is now ready for Sheep Pens, where the lower pegs are positioned above ramparts gouged from a steep bankside at the foot of another limestone gorge where oak, bramble and ash flourish amongst pale scars of weathered rock. During a drive that lives up to expectations, Mark Sheardown disdains several birds that most would be thrilled to shoot and everyone dispatches
A sky-high stream of partridges and pheasants put guns and their loaders through 30 minutes of intense action
some that will surely live long in their memory. Humbled, one gun remarks dryly after the event, “What’s incredible about that drive is that anyone hit anything at all.”
The entire morning has been spent in the Deer Park, which has been the responsibility of beatkeeper Rob Marsden for the past 11 years. Marsden’s day began with hunting in stray birds at dawn but he is well pleased with three drives that have turned out better than he dared hope. So good, that were it not for the mild temperature, swarms of midges and trees in changing leaf, today’s birds could easily have passed for January veterans. “We wanted a bit of wind, really,” he says, “but they’ve flown incredibly well despite the weather.” Credit for their performance must go to Marsden, the Deer Park’s extraordinary topography and to the shoot’s policy of releasing well-grown poults early on in the year.
subtle improvements
Guns arrive at their pegs for the final drive of the day after driving half a mile up an immaculately manicured Beckdale to find a spacious new parking area, which ensures that the green floor of the dale is not scarred by deep ruts during winter. This is just one of many subtle improvements implemented by the new regime, which has also created several new drives bringing the total at Duncombe Park to more than 70. As a large part of the estate is utilised by the Forestry Commission on a long lease, there have been some delicate negotiations between forestry and shooting interests.
The midges come out in swarms on this breathless afternoon but are soon forgotten by swarms of a larger variety as more pheasants than we have seen all day stream over the dale, many of which are folded up with what appears to be consummate ease. “They’re not quite so high here,” says Bailey, but they don’t look that easy to me. After the last bird has been gathered guns and shoot staff linger to chat and appraise what has been a remarkable day. The beatkeepers are noticeably relaxed and enthused following a period of uncertainty that surrounded the recent change of regime, and Marsden’s earlier comment, “things are on the up here” is plain for all to see. It’s time to head home but not before complimenting the headkeeper on the day and the long, continuous streams of game that are the hallmark of this shoot. John Masterman looks up from the game cart and smiles. “You don’t rush quality,” he says.
To enquire about shooting at Duncombe Park, or any of the other shoots in the
Mount St John Sporting portfolio, call
07710 631227/01845 537973 or go to: mountstjohnsporting.co.uk