doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Dave Carrie Shooting

Yes, I understand the Ripley Castle shoots are very good. Are the birds there super high, is that their specialty?

Thanks for your help.

Interesting. Having lots of practice at high, long range, birds does help. I was a guest this Fall at a farm shooting dove from the bottom of small gulley between two hills with hedge rows on the tops of each. Birds were going from my left to my right and were right at 35 yards and were centered right over me because they they were cutting across the hedgerow at a natural vee on both sides.

They looked like they were higher from where I was. 35 yards is too long for me with the .410 and that was all I had with me. I limit my shots to 25-30 yards with the .410 I was shooting So I started moving up the hill side until birds directly over head were about 30 yards. It took eight or ten shells until I got the sight picture down and started killing birds. After that I ended up hitting about one out of two shots in my narrow shooting window. Even managed to go back down to the bottom of the ravine before I was done but had to add almost two feet additional lead. Never could have done it if the birds were not all flying down the same highway which gave me fairly constant targets to master. Had they been coming from all angles I'd still trying to figure out how to hit them.

It depends on the drive. I stop at 50 yds because after 50 I'm shooting your birds. Not good manners.
And I like my ctrg/bird ratio below 2.

Partridge over the hedges with a tail wind are fabulous. Much more interesting to me than High pheasant. But, the whole affair is about "testing birds", and that's based on your skills.
Your loader/caretaker will point out the birds you should go for.
The hospitality at a good shoot is phenomenal. The hotels and service, sublime. Here, you can tell when the service is phony glad handing. There, the whole idea is to anticipate, and fulfill your smallest wishes for you without your notice.

CZ:

Thank you for your insight with Ripley- good information- my guns are 2.5" so I'm a bit leery of the high pheasant situation. The partridge do sound fun and I also agree with what you are saying about the hotels and service all around. I'm certainly a neophyte when it comes to UK shooting having only been once, but really enjoyed it- so I'm wanting to branch out a bit with shooing there. Thanks again...

Dave Carrie has got to be one tough sob to stand there and shoot those heavy loads over and over. If I'm not mistaken, in one video where he explained some of the loads they were using, he said he was shooting a 42 gram #4 shot load, which is perilously close to 1 1/2 oz., probably at 1300 fps or so. Brutal recoil even in a heavy o/u.

He loves his custom-ordered Miroku MK 60, I believe it is.
JR

DLH
If you want to have a go, pm me.
I'm planing 4 days on the grouse in Scotland around 9/1-9/8

We could start in the south on pigeons and partridge and head north.

His daughter shoots a K80. Looks a bit out of place on a driven pheasant hunt, but those are usually heavy guns.

You guys that are enamored of shooting driven birds really should read "A Shooting Man's Creed" by Sir Joseph Nickerson. It is a modern day accounting of what is required, and how one should behave, on driven shoots in Britain, Spain, Scotland, etc.

There is a lot of paper devoted to the guns, loads and techniques. The shooting done by Sir Joe with 20 and 28 bore guns is very eye opening.

Really a great book, IMO.

SRH

Dave is a good friend of mine .
The loads that he shoots are the ones he prefers, which does not necessarily say they are correct. Cartridge companies want to sell heavy loads custom loaded for sheer profit making .
Before going down this road find out what a 50-60 yard Pheasant looks like and if you wish to shoot lots of them and where? Then pattern test your number 4 or 5 shot cartridge at that range .
If in doubt, leave it out .

What gun does he use? Is it a Miroku MK 60?