.....wotsit

The Gauntlett Shooting Company

A DAY WITH A DIFFERENCE

The June day had dawned fine and as I headed west, with the city a mere memory in the rear view mirror, my spirits were rising.  A day's shooting on a beautiful private estate in prospect - and a day with a difference.  But exactly how different?

It had all started with an invitation from my firm's biggest suppliers to do some 'simulated game shooting'.  Real game shooting I had enjoyed for years, but how can you simulate that unique excitement and atmosphere?  Someone called Bruce Gauntlett was about to show us.

Finding the estate would have been difficult had it not been for the discreet signposting off the main road, but we drove up to the majestic house in good time and order to be met with a warm welcome and a cup of coffee.  So far just like the real thing!

Once all were assembled and refreshed, the order of the day was explained by Bruce and his team.  Three drives then lunch, followed by two more drives in the afternoon and a duck flight.  The only difference was that it was all to be done with clay pigeons, so not a feather in sight all day.  Since there were 16 of us and the drives were pegged for 8, each drive was done twice.  So every chance for us to cheer, jeer or load for our colleague on the peg.

The first drive was described as a warm up and that it certainly proved to be.  I was glad that I'd brought a glove because the gun was soon too hot to hold barehanded as the birds poured over.  The great thing about this sport is that there is never any shortage of game.  The birds seemed higher than most I see normally but we were threatened with worse to come.  And so it proved on the next drive when we were stood at the bottom of a precipice.  Despite my darkest fears, the warming up, the opportunity to experiment, and perhaps the wee nip after the first drive, soon paid off and I was connecting with a satisfactory proportion of my birds, as well as a few of my neighbour's - and vice versa!

And so to lunch which proved all that the magnificent setting promised.  It was clear already however that, excellent as lunch was, it was not to be 'the best drive of the day'.  With all of us sitting round one large table it was an ideal opportunity to get to know our company hosts, as well as the owner of the estate and his wife and the Gauntlett team.  All very jovial but more shooting awaited so it was out into the sunshine again.  How nice to know that you will not be struggling back into wet waterproofs to face a bitter wind and failing light.

The duck flight proved perhaps the highlight of the day and provided a fitting finale.  The clays were thrown to represent ducks dropping in to the lake in front of the house, and with only four people shooting at a time there was an opportunity for a little lighthearted competition with the watchers counting the plops as the missed birds landed in the water.

Tea followed before we made our way home at the end of one of the best day's shooting I can remember.  I'm now busy persuading my syndicate to have a similar day.

The Gauntlett Shooting Company

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