Grouse shooting advice, description & resources

Red Grouse (Lagopus lagopus scoticus)  is a sub species of the willow grouse found in America and Eurasia. First, a little biology........ The hen lays eggs around late April to the end of May. Incubation takes just over 3 weeks so a lot of chicks are around in the first couple of weeks of June. If there is a good stock of over wintering breeding birds, then the weather in June is probably the most critical in determining the harvestable surplus of birds available when the season opens on August the 12th. The young  chicks need plenty of insects to feed on, so warm weather with the occasional shower (moisture for the breeding insects) is probably the best weather in June and July. Too much or too little, and the stocks decline.

Grouse cannot be reared to maturity and therefore the birds are truly wild. Keepers make an estimate of the spring population in April to check the breeding population. If breeding density looks OK, then any shooting dates reserved continue to be   kept provisional until the main  count.  Birds are counted around mid July- late July by which time the majority of young birds are flying moderately well. If there are low numbers of birds , then the estate may cancel all or some of the days reserved for shooting to ensure there are plenty of birds available for the following season. Grouse can be difficult to count precisely and even more difficult to assess for condition. The best moorland keepers are by nature extremely cautious and it's not by accident that if you press a keeper, an estate or a sporting agent for a precise prediction of quantity and quality of sport for the date you have booked, you will be told that your answer will be given at the end of your shooting day! We can only give you our best estimate for prospects - no more! After all, that is part of the allure of this quarry - its unpredictability in a wild and untameable landscape.

I am frequently told (complained about)  the high cost of grouse shooting, so a word or two regarding this will hopefully explain. The main season lasts 6 weeks during which time the estate has to recover the cost of paying all the keepers for the remaining 10 1/2 months and the annual capital cost of the ground itself as well as the other fixed overheads. In general, once every four years or so, there may be no shooting (and therefore no income at all) due to low stocks of birds. Now, if you had to run an enterprise on that basis - would you charge less than the estates?!        

There are 3 main types of grouse shooting:

1.Driven grouse   2.Walked up grouse  3. Grouse over pointers

Driven Grouse - teams of 8-10 people shoot from grouse butts. Most driven grouse days in Scotland would be for 50 to 60 brace of grouse to be shot for the whole team each day, but sometimes days of 100 or 120 brace may be available. This is formal shooting and at the start of the day, guns draw numbers in the line and they move up 2 or 3 numbers after each drive so that their position in the line will change throughout the day. There may be anything between 4 and 8 drives during the day and walking is usually limited, so you don't have to be super fit. The sport is fast and furious in stunning scenery and is one of the few forms of shooting in the UK which is unique.

Grouse seldom fly high - they flush in front of the line of beaters which may be walking in line for a mile or three in front of the line of guns waiting in the stone or heather-built butts. The birds use the contours of the hill, flying along and dropping off the side of the hill to maintain speed. Guns should try to take birds well out in front - waiting until they are really close is a big mistake as the coveys pass so quickly that there would be no time to turn and try to take the second behind the butts. 12 or 20 gauge shotguns are usually used with UK shot size 7 being the norm.

Driven grouse costs anything between £150 and £180 per brace. So one gun in a team of 10 shooting a 60 brace day may be paying in the region of £950 for the day's sport. 

Walked up grouse

A line of 4 to 8 guns (6 being probably the best number) walk in line and flush the birds themselves as they walk along. The  dogs accompanying the line would be primarily for retrieving shot birds, but spaniels and Labradors which work the line fairly close to the guns can be extremely useful especially if the weather is hot when birds may sit very tight and be reluctant to flush. On hot days, it's often a useful tactic to walk very slowly and stop every now and then - the grouse often flush when the line stops because they cannot tell where the guns are.

Windy, cool, blustery  days are not good for walked up grouse - the birds will rise well out in front of the guns, often out of range. You need to be particularly fit for this kind of sport and this is where the lighter 20 or 16 gauge shotgun is a real advantage. This is probably the most difficult form of walked up shooting because you get little warning when birds flush and within a couple of seconds, they have covered 10 metres or more. It's sod's law, that the most prolific flushes will be when you are just crossing a ditch or looking away in the wrong direction at that Eagle flying across the Glen!

One fault I find quite common with guns new to grouse shooting is that range estimation is often inaccurate. Also, grouse cannot carry much shot and clean kills can be made at ranges much greater than for say, pheasants and pigeons. Grouse can be killed cleanly at 35 yards and I have watched an experienced gun kill grouse consistently (with a 20 gauge) at ranges of at least 40 yards (something that's fantastic to see). It's a good idea when walking to guess 30 or 35 long steps to that next stone or burn so you are more familiar with range on an otherwise featureless heather moor. When the next covey bursts from the heather, you will have a better idea estimating if they are within shot by the time you mount your gun.

Travel light for this kind of shooting - cartridges, water , camera , lunch and a spare sweater.

Walked up grouse costs around £800-£1,000 per day for a group of 4 to 8 guns for 10-15 brace of grouse.

Grouse over Pointers

Any of the 3 breeds of Setters or English Pointers are used for this kind of shooting. There is an increasing use of the Hunt Point Retrieve breeds such as the German Short Haired or Wire Haired Pointer, and this is also often called shooting over pointers, despite not being truly correct.

The action of the HPR dogs is quite different (they usually range shorter and work a little slower) and are better suited to working heavy cover. To see the real pinnacle of Pointer work, you should be on one of the moors in the far North of Scotland or on other lightly stocked moors elsewhere. At this point, I should mention that there has been a fashion for running pointers on heavily stocked moors - this does the sport no service and often spoils the dogs. There is nothing clever about shooting 30 brace of grouse (or more) in one day over pointers to 2 or 3 guns . It's a fine sight to watch a pointer quartering 4 or 5 hundred metres to either side of the guns and then suddenly to lock on point and stay there for the 10 minutes or so for the 2 guns to walk up to the dog before flushing the birds. As a rule of thumb - I would say that if  7- 10 brace can be shot over pointers, that's a good day - if it's possible to shoot more than 15 brace in a day, the moor should be walked up and if more  than 30 brace can be shot by a walked up group (no pointers), then that moor should be driven.

For pointer shooting, a group of 2 to 4 guns walk together with guns broken behind the quartering dogs. If a bird has been missed by the dog (this should seldom happen), then no one shoots at it - only birds being pointed are shot at. When the dog goes on point, the handler will walk up to the side of the dog and two guns only walk up to 10 metres or so on either side of the dog . The dog will press forward on instructions by the handler and should drop to the flush of birds. At this point, only the two guns at either side of the dog will shoot. A retrieving dog such as a Labrador or spaniel (not the pointer) will then go in to collect the bird. 

Very often, there will be two pairs of pointers or setters out with the party. The pairs of dogs are changed every 20-30 minutes to rest the working pair.

You need to be equally fit for this kind of shooting and as for walked up grouse, travel light. This form of shooting is better than walked up grouse for novice grouse shooters and is easier shooting because the dog warns you when it has found grouse.

Grouse over pointers costs around £850 to £1,000 per day for a group of guns looking to shoot around 10 brace of birds in a day. The cost per gun is higher than walked up grouse because in addition to the keeper with his retrieving dogs, there will be a pointer handler plus 2 to 4 pointing dogs, there may also be a 'dog boy' or 'dog girl' who walks with spare team of  dogs. 

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