Our pheasant shooting is vastly different from yours, we have no bag limits and our season runs from 1st October through to 1st Feb.
Some counties allow game to be taken on Sundays too. Most birds are reared and at 7 weeks put out into pens, these have no top netting so the idea is that you allow the poults to grow into fully fledged birds whilst feeding them, controlling foxes, mink etc and letting them get used to the area.
Last year we took over an old abandoned shoot, only 70 acres and made the mistake of putting our pen near the boundary for access. It also meant that on sunny days and last year we had lots, the birds were in our neighbours fields rather than our woodland.
This year we have built a larger pen in the middle of the wood near a coppiced area and we will put about 150 - 200 birds in their by late August with about 75 in the other pen.
Next year we will put all the birds in the big pen to allow the ground to rest at the old pen. Birds wont be shot until nearly November this season to allow them 8-10 weeks to go wild again. All spring and summer we keep feeding the birds to ensure we build a population of wild mature birds to breed. This means that we also have to carry out pest control all year.
Now multiply the numbers by 10 and you have the average shoot over here.
My boss down in Hampshire releases 300 pheasants and about 100 ducks but every august the pens are surrounded by older birds from previous seasons looking for extra free food. It does work and he has 1500 acres to shoot which has a fairly strong population of grey leg partridges.
Everyone here shoots what they think will do the job, a lot stick with the side by side 12 bores as they are ok if you are stood still and the birds are flushed over you by the beaters but on our shoot its almost all walked up with a couple of guns rotating as stops.
Thats why I use the 28 or 20 bore as I like to use something light and I need to control my dogs when working. I find that an 18 gram load for the 28 is easier than an ounce for the 20 or 12!
