A Brief History
A Brief History
It all started thirty four years ago in 1990 when three friends and myself formed a Syndicate to shoot the Nidd Beat of Mountgarret Estate which we still shoot today, with the lease on Ripley Castle Shoot following three years later.
My Mountgarret Shoot is made up of two driven pheasant and partridge shoots. Our parkland, farmland and woodland shooting at Mountgarret and Nidd cover 4,000 acres.
Our Shoot employs 3 full time Keepers at Mountgarret and Nidd plus our secretary. These together with a number of part time staff, which includes retired keepers and tradesmen who are invaluable to the Shoot, plus on each shoot day approximately 25 beaters and pickers up, make up our team who are dedicated to making each shoot day a success.
After shooting driven game for more years than I would like to admit to, mainly in God’s own County, our beautiful North Yorkshire countryside. I have found that every shoot is different and have their own way of presenting a shoot day. On our shoots, although the shooting is important, there are a number of other factors which I feel are just as important on the day.
The majority of us take a day’s shooting not only for some challenging birds but also to forget about work, enjoy the countryside and meet old and new friends. With this in mind my fellow Shoot Hosts, Stuart Thompson, Christopher Orme, Steph Bennett and Debbie Clayton and my Head Keeper, Callum McIntosh and his team at Mountgarret and myself always try to create a relaxed atmosphere for everyone to enjoy their day by ensuring everything runs smoothly with excellent hospitality together with some memorable shooting.
At a time when many shoots of our quality and size are run purely as a commercial enterprise fielding only full teams. The Mountgarret Shoot is quite different with approximately 80% of our days being sold by the gun per day specifically catering for individual guns and small parties. On a scale which provides a large variety of drives together with the type and size of bag to suit all budgets, maybe I would prefer to describe our Shoot as a large Syndicate providing something to suit everyone.
Our days are offered with bags from 200 to 350 birds when we field 9 guns. No overages are charged and we always aim to exceed the target bag each day. Together with a few 175 bird end of season Clear Up Days.
As very much of an “experiment” this season we are fielding a number of 6 gun days.
There is much discussion on the size of bags and the number of game birds being released. On Mountgarret our average bag over the last few years has been 260 birds per day. If we field 6 guns not 9 with a target bag of 175 birds, “in theory” this would give each of the 6 guns a similar number of birds and shots to what they would experience on a 260 bird day.
You never know what something is like until you have tried it, so we need to see if my theory is correct.
I have decided to field 1 No. 6 gun 150 bird partridge day and 6 No. 6 gun 175 bird pheasant and partridge days. As this is very much unknown territory these days are offered at a 20% discount on our current prices.
The remaining 20% of our days are available to full teams. These are ideal for Roving Syndicates or Corporate Teams and I find many of these days are taken up by Shoot Members to entertain their friends and business clients. This is the nearest we come to commercial shooting.
I do stress that although we plan to field 77 days this season, it remains very much my hobby and every day is in its own way special, no matter what the type of day or the size of bag maybe.
Today we all seem to live under quite enough pressure and stress, although the actual shooting and the sporting quality of our birds are very important, one of my main priorities on the day is always to enjoy ourselves in the good company of like-minded people, whilst experiencing some memorable quality shooting. I feel it is important that the guns have an opportunity to meet each other before the shoot day starts. With this in mind, on each day we meet for breakfast before the brief for the day. Well behaved non shooting guests and dogs are also most welcome to join us on any shoot day!
We endeavour to run our shoot days in a safe and business-like manner, trying to include the good points and hopefully avoid the bad ones we have experienced elsewhere. Walking to the pegs is kept to a minimum wherever possible and we run our days at a leisurely pace with “no rush” being one of our priorities.
I ask that everyone reads my risk assessments detailed on our website. Shoot only at birds you are comfortable with and please respect your neighbour’s birds.
I have tried to describe what I hope you will experience on a shoot day with the Mountgarret Shoot. However our website www.mountgarretshoot.com gives an in depth background to the Shoot and I do hope you enjoy viewing it.
I look forward to welcoming you to the Mountgarret Shoot and hope you will find your day is “Just how a Proper Driven Shoot Day should be” or should I say, this is what we always try to achieve!
Frank Boddy - Shoot Host