Honesberie Sporting
We are thrilled to partner with Josh Harris, Honesberie Sportings exclusive partner. Offering world-class shooting experiences internationally.
What is Game Shooting?
Game shooting is where you shoot live game rather than clay pigeons. “Game” generally refers to pheasants, partridges, and grouse. Game shooting has become increasingly popular in recent decades and can be enjoyed as walked up, rough, driven, wild and reared birds.
There are a number of different types of game you can shoot as well as different methods of carrying out game shooting days. We offer a number of different experiences for all levels of shooting.
Rough Game Shooting
This is the most common method of live quarry shooting. Shooters use their trained dogs to flush game out of the hedgerows, woods or other cover as they walk along. These dogs also retrieve the game.
At Honesberie Shooting we can teach you the etiquette and safety of the sport in your lesson so you can enter the field fully prepared to enjoy your day.
Driven Game Shooting
This form of shooting is much more formal than simply walking with your dog alongside the hedgerows, and is usually confined to duck, grouse, partridge and pheasant shooting.
On the shoot day, a team of shooters, or Guns, line out at numbered pegs. Meanwhile, under the gamekeeper’s instructions, a group of beaters and their dogs move through areas of woodland or covert, flushing the game ahead of them.
The aim is to get the birds to break cover and fly high over the line of Guns to provide sporting shots. Shot game is retrieved quickly by a picker-up who sends his/her trained gundog to where the shot game falls.
Game Shooting Season UK
There are many game birds, wildfowl and mammals that can be shot legally within the UK but seasons restrict shooting of given creatures at certain times of the year. This prohibits their hunting outside of these seasons. These seasons are in place to ensure numbers are not depleted. Here is a list of the game and their respective seasons.
- Pheasant: October 1st–February 1st
- Partridge: September 1st–January 31st
- Grouse: August 12th–December 10th
- Ptarmigan: August 12th–December 10th
- Blackgrouse: August 20th–December 10th
- Snipe: August 12th–January 31st
- Woodcock: October 1st–January 31st
- Duck & Goose (Inland): September 1st–January 31st
- Duck & Goose (Below High Water Mark): September 1st–February 20th
To find out more about our game shooting please see our Game Shots Page and our Simulated Game Days page.