Fieldsports Journal Magazine Fieldsports Mag Winter 2012 Back Issue

With the pheasant and partridge season in full swing, there’s spectacular sport to be had across the country. We join a team of Canadian Guns for a truly unique day’s shooting – four shoots, four drives, four species of gamebird, all in one day. Meanwhile, Alex Brant visits Bodidris Hall, David Nickerson shares his expertise on the art of driving and Simon Ward advises how to bring pheasants down from the heavens.

George Digweed tackles stratospheric pheasants at Bleasdale and Chris Batha explains why it’s worth paying a little extra for quality cartridges. Looking back, Rupert Godfrey reflects on driven shooting in the 19th century when huge bags were the norm, David S. D. Jones looks at attempts to introduce pheasants to the islands off Britain and Brian Dunn visits Hall Barn, where the record pheasant bag was shot 100 years ago. Further ashore, Peter Ryan discovers the wonder of driven shooting Down Under and Tony Ball ventures to South Africa in pursuit of doves.

Plus, the Duchess of Northumberland describes her ideal shoot day, we look at a spectacular pair of guns – the result of a collaboration between Robin Brown, Simon Gudgeon and Keith Thomas – and Holland & Holland shooting instructor Steve Rawsthorne offers advice on the perfect deer rifle for the UK.