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Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,164 Likes: 11
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,164 Likes: 11 |
To day,12 August saw the opening of the grouse shooting season in the U.K. Perhaps Lapogus can comment on the outlook for this season. Its a very expensive sport with prices quoted in the U.K press at 150 pounds[$255 U.S] per brace shot or $76,500U.S. for a 300 brace day! Far beyond the means of most people!
Last edited by Roy Hebbes; 08/12/14 07:36 PM.
Roy Hebbes
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,410 Likes: 313
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,410 Likes: 313 |
Annual posting of George Earl's "Going North, King's Cross Station, London", 1893 for the Glorious 12th of August "Perth Station, Coming South", 1895 Archibald Thorburn "Red Grouse in Flight over Marshland 1922" "Down Wind; Partridge in Flight"
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Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 753
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 753 |
always like seeing those station prints Drew - thanks for an American grouse hunter, it is hard to take seeing a hundred grouse in a morning and being told the shooting was canceled on the estate because the population we so terribly low. Parasite control and other measures have helped many estates rebound since I was there.
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,373 Likes: 6
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,373 Likes: 6 |
Ditto on those first two prints - both are worth well over a thousand words! And good luck to those fortunate enough to find themselves on a grouse moor this season. $125/bird might incent me to miss the few birds I might be able to hit
Such a long, long time to be gone, and a short time to be there.
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,982 Likes: 106
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,982 Likes: 106 |
$76,500 for a day of shooting Red Grouse......a bit out of my league! A 300 brace? What's a brace? How many birds per brace? WOW!
Socialism is almost the worst.
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,410 Likes: 313
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 9,410 Likes: 313 |
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,982 Likes: 106
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 2,982 Likes: 106 |
Thanks Drew. After reading about it and seeing a brace is a single bird, I think I asked a dumb question. Sorry. This Red Grouse shooting makes live pigeon shooting in the USA seem cheap, a real bargain. Holy Cow!
Socialism is almost the worst.
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 12,743
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 12,743 |
From the Oxford Dictionary;
Brace: "(plural same) A pair of something, typically of birds or mammals killed in hunting: thirty brace of grouse"
Last edited by 2-piper; 08/13/14 06:47 AM.
Miller/TN I Didn't Say Everything I Said, Yogi Berra
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,375 Likes: 105
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,375 Likes: 105 |
Correct. A brace is two birds. And a 300 brace day on grouse would be HUGE. On the less expensive driven birds (but still pricey!), pheasants and partridge, 300 birds (150 brace) is a pretty good day. The price is typically split between a line of 8 guns, so it's not like an individual is going to be out of pocket 5 figures a day. But 4 figures for sure, and that's just for the birds.
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,373 Likes: 6
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,373 Likes: 6 |
Great article Drew. Some very interesting observations from Lord Walsingham. He used different loads for different drives, depending on the wind, and did not like the way Whitworth barrels sounded and switched back to Damascus. (A reminder that all these guys shoot thousands of rounds a year without ear protection. Eh, what?). The guns are all 12 bore, with cylinder 30 in. barrels, not choked. My cartridges were loaded by Johnson, of Swaffham; those used in the down-wind drives containing 3 1/8 drs. Hall’s Field B powder to 1 1/8ozs. No. 5 Derby shot; those used in the up-wind drives (where the birds, of course, came slower) had 3 drs. only of the same powder, with the same shot; not hardened shot in either case. I find I never go out shooting without learning something. If I had the day again, I should cut off the extra eighth of an ounce of shot, not on account of recoil or discomfort of kind – from which I never suffer, although always using black powder – but because I failed to get as much penetration at long distances as I do with an ounce only. . . .
Another thing I learned was that Whitworth steel barrels are not desirable for a heavy day’s shooting. The explosion in them makes quite a different sound from that given off by Damascus barrels: there is more ring about it, and I can imagine that this might prove a serious annoyance to anyone who minds the noise of shooting. I have no recollection myself of ever having had a headache from gun-firing. Moreover, the Whitworth barrels become hot much more rapidly than the Damascus; and this is a serious drawback, especially to a man who shoots without gloves. I can well imagine that they last much longer, and are in many ways suited for ordinary light work; but am now replacing them with Damascus, as in all my other guns.
Last edited by Doverham; 08/13/14 08:22 AM.
Such a long, long time to be gone, and a short time to be there.
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