doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com The Glorious 12th 2026

Thanks, but I wanted to know how that compares, as I asked. Density doesn't help me relate.

Nickerson, in '88, shot 3390 grouse on the moors. In his best season Lord Ripon killed 3435 . . . . with a 12 bore. Nickerson used a 28 bore to take just a few less.

CZ, do you have any idea how those numbers would compare to today? I understand that it's impossible to know how many shoots were undertaken to do those numbers.

Well, I think Lou Browning explained it to me best probably 20 years ago, he said,” don’t worry about the estates that you can never get on. Worry about developing a relationship with the best estates that you CAN get on.”

That was fantastic advice. And the reason is, because in a country with a landed gentry, especially when the moors are adjacent to one another, people can just shoot among friends every day of the season if they want to. Shoot mine today, shoot yours tomorrow.

Etc..

If a person shot well, and Nickerson shot well, and you started today, let’s say and shot (25 brace) 50 birds a day for the next 60 days that’d be 3000. They don’t shoot on Sunday, and most Moores only shoot a couple days a week per section, so if you had enough friends and enough money, you could probably pound out 4000 birds in a season.

That said I shot adjacent to a moor that was closed, where the Saudi royal family only shot it once every five years when the volume of birds was at its maximum, and they were taking 5000 brace off that more in a couple Days. Shooting 4 guns per butt, each person, double gunning. running the birds, one-way, and then running them back the other.

Obviously birds that have been flying all day long are quite tired and fly slow.

I guess that's as close to an answer as I'm going to get on this thread.

Thanks, CZ.

Truth of the matter Stanton, is it’s not worth my time to bother to produce a quality response. I have 20 years plus experience on this website. I know what it turns into. It isn’t worth it.

I’m the only person left here that celebrates it and actually shoots red grouse. The rest are mostly people looking for an opportunity to mock and deride.

If the question is the unanswerable who is a better shot Nickerson or ripping?

Lord Walsingham shot himself to financial ruin.

I think Ripon and Walsingham were more dedicated shots than Nickerson.
So the first two guys probably shot at more birds, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Nickerson had a higher season. Long percentage of first shot kills.

Another year - how fast do they fly by now. This from last year:

My wife is from County Durham in the UK. I really enjoy visiting the Pennines when we go over to visit her folks. I have also been lucky enough to attend the Game Fair twice and traveled all over Scotland. It truly is a beautiful area of the country.

Stan;

I think in regard to your thoughts on grouse numbers today versus what they were on Nickerson's shooting estate and the shooting estates of his friends/colleagues in the past, it is likely a function of estate management as much as the cycles of grouse populations up and down for the entire country. Although I do not know that. Both you and I, with me here in South Carolina and you in Georgia, have lived in the days with large populations of wild Bob White quail and now good populations of them are only in properties where quail habitat is managed to support quail. So we can understand the need to manage for good grouse populations. It is been a long time since I read Nickerson's book and I do not remember what he said about proper estate management for grouse.

For those of us who subscribe to COVEY RISE magazine, the entire issue just shipped is about Scotland and shooting there with several well written articles by Simon Reinhold and one article about a shooting estate.

I have a question about Nickerson: Who owns his matched pair of Purdey/Woodward 28 bore O/U's now??

Kind Regards;
Stephen Howell

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Stephen.

I'll try to look back through my copy of Nickerson's book soon. Concerning the 28 bores, I had in my mind that he had a trio of them, but I could be mistaken. I'll see, soon.

So, the rest of us, the unwashed masses who don't get to shoot driven grouse, don't deserve an answer from you. Thank you anyway for gracing us with thy presence, O Great One.