Pheasants on your land & cost per year?

EPointer=Birdss

So lads I was thinking as the title suggests how much you guys spend a year to have pheasants on your lands?
Other threads where lads mention shooting 1st birds & still being in single digits as well as our mixed bag limit of 3 etc mid way into a season has me puzzled.
I spend a small fortune annually for my hobby & hours spent not included. Upwards of grand easy a year I'd say all said & done. This includes building runs, vermin, feed, poults, traps etc & am always building new hoppers, trying new things & generally plotting & scheming of newer things. I also travel abroad a lot with work, have other interests & a better hall to contend with.
Presently I've shot 16 pheasants this year & been out less than 10 times. Each day I've left birds off come end of the day as have reached my limit. I still am hunting the boundaries with my buddy who also has 16 shot funny enough & granted they are well thinned out there but Ive counted another 50 - 60 cocks roosting in & around the release runs.

So is it financial contraint or effort that stops others having similiar levels of sport & for those that do what kinda money do you spend??

This has been effort over 10 years of breeding, buying habitat development, poacher discouragement (just got one fckrs license revoked!) & cooperation with land owners who are very sticky about lads on their lands.

cubbyleader

Well we don't rear any birds around my way as there is only 5 or 6 lads that shoot the land and we are happy only taking a few each every year and we wouldn't really have the money to release birds and the fact that a neighbour used to rear a few birds each year and never really got any return on them kind of turns me off but that's just my situation

EPointer=Birdss

cubbyleader wrote: »

Well we don't rear any birds around my way as there is only 5 or 6 lads that shoot the land and we are happy only taking a few each every year and we wouldn't really have the money to release birds and the fact that a neighbour used to rear a few birds each year and never really got any return on them kind of turns me off but that's just my situation

We have 4 lads that do the work. 1 or 2 others that chip in as needed but take out very little. 2 lads supplying the primary funds. Getting poor return is an offshoot of work put in. Financial constraint is obviously a limiting factor.

Of a total of 40 cocks shot this year here 4 have been tagged so far hence released. The wild population hasn't done bad with all the bad weather but the released population still hugs the centre of the grounds which is heavily fed, trapped & controlled.

Not having birds hence shooting less birds makes it hard to get a good dog trained up. Unless your blessed with a good woodcock population come December of course

mallards

Reading your post EP, sounds like my shoot is a carbon copy if yours.

cubbyleader

Between me my two brothers and my father we have three cocks shot and a few more missed which is bad compared to other years. And I know what you mean about the dogs we have a young springer and a pointer both in there first year and id like to have more birds shot over them

springer90

Hi EP . . Im a long time reader on this thread bt nt much of a poster . . Bt this one did catch my eye. . I was thinking the same as u kinda . . I see people sayin they havnt shot any pheasants yet or maybe one or two . . Thats crazy as far as im concerned. .

I shoot every weekend and im nt afraid of a bit of hard walkin. . Im in 3 gun clubs and between the 3 clubs we release the guts of 1500 birds . . And my total subscription for the 3 clubs is 330 euro . . Which is in my opinion ok for the places i gt to shoot . . I myself look after 3 release pens . . Its nt a chore to me either cos i quite enjoy it. . And i gt the benefit from it with the birds on the ground during the season. . With that this year alone iv depth into my own pocket buyin electric fences and a small army of hoppers etc . . Iv shot up on 24 pheasants so far but so have a vast majority of other members that bother to out n walk the fields . .

At the end of the day a shooter will gt out of shootin what they put in . . My dogs for instance have been on the go since sept n will end the last week of march when our fox drives finish just before birds begin nesting . .

Were always sometin . . Some ppl might look at shootin 24 pheasants n say its crazy bt its nt if you stock n look after the land . .

Its simple, birds will nt be there in any sort of numbers if they are n stocked and encouraged to do so with vermin control feed etc .

EPointer=Birdss

mallards wrote: »

Reading your post EP, sounds like my shoot is a carbon copy if yours.

Except you have that coveted duck pond, partidge & turkeys mallards

EPointer=Birdss

springer90 wrote: »

Hi EP . . Im a long time reader on this thread bt nt much of a poster . . Bt this one did catch my eye. . I was thinking the same as u kinda . . I see people sayin they havnt shot any pheasants yet or maybe one or two . . Thats crazy as far as im concerned. .

I shoot every weekend and im nt afraid of a bit of hard walkin. . Im in 3 gun clubs and between the 3 clubs we release the guts of 1500 birds . . And my total subscription for the 3 clubs is 330 euro . . Which is in my opinion ok for the places i gt to shoot . . I myself look after 3 release pens . . Its nt a chore to me either cos i quite enjoy it. . And i gt the benefit from it with the birds on the ground during the season. . With that this year alone iv depth into my own pocket buyin electric fences and a small army of hoppers etc . . Iv shot up on 24 pheasants so far but so have a vast majority of other members that bother to out n walk the fields . .

At the end of the day a shooter will gt out of shootin what they put in . . My dogs for instance have been on the go since sept n will end the last week of march when our fox drives finish just before birds begin nesting . .

Were always sometin . . Some ppl might look at shootin 24 pheasants n say its crazy bt its nt if you stock n look after the land . .

Its simple, birds will nt be there in any sort of numbers if they are n stocked and encouraged to do so with vermin control feed etc .

Well this is it.
I'd say I shoot an average of 30 cocks a year & spend a good portion of Dec after woodcock. That said I'm only taking out normally 50% tagged birds so 15 of 150 or so paid for. 10% return. Pittons really for the investment but I take what I want & often shoot tags from earlier seasons.

Was hoping to join new club next year for a few hrs on a sunday when home near the new house. Have been met with usual cagey BS. Little do they know what I'd actually add to their shoot. :rolleyes:
Have already started gathering materials for a run to leave off a few birds for training the dogs.

mallards

EPointer=Birdss wrote: »

Except you have that coveted duck pond, partidge & turkeys mallards

Ahhh, but probably like yourself, I started with twelve pheasants in a release pen you couldn't swing a cat in and half a dozen hoppers and not a clue how to run a proper shoot. :-)
Adding a bit here and there over the past twelve years and changing things around if they didn't work the year before and now, if I'm lucky, I could shoot a pheasant, partridge, woodcock, snipe, rabbit, duck and even a turkey if I'm very lucky:-D

Birdnuts

mallards wrote: »

Ahhh, but probably like yourself, I started with twelve pheasants in a release pen you couldn't swing a cat in and half a dozen hoppers and not a clue how to run a proper shoot. :-)
Adding a bit here and there over the past twelve years and changing things around if they didn't work the year before and now, if I'm lucky, I could shoot a pheasant, partridge, woodcock, snipe, rabbit, duck and even a turkey if I'm very lucky:-D

How are the Turkeys doing Mallards??? - know a lad who raises a free range flock and had serious health problems and lack of thrive with them this year with all the bad weather over the past 6 months.

mallards

Birdnuts wrote: »

How are the Turkeys doing Mallards??? - know a lad who raises a free range flock and had serious health problems and lack of thrive with them this year with all the bad weather over the past 6 months.

Been a couple of years now since they were last seen so I'm sure they have died out. Just don't have the set up at the minute to hand rear them. incredible birds though:-)

owelfisherman

mallards wrote: »

Been a couple of years now since they were last seen so I'm sure they have died out. Just don't have the set up at the minute to hand rear them. incredible birds though:-)

im going to breed my own this year.partridge and pheasant .i plan to release 50 pheasant 20 partridge.i know it will cost money but sure what dosent.how many breeding birds will i need to produce that number?

mallards

owelfisherman wrote: »

im going to breed my own this year.partridge and pheasant .i plan to release 50 pheasant 20 partridge.i know it will cost money but sure what dosent.how many breeding birds will i need to produce that number?

I held back 11 hens and one cock one year and produced 70 young out of the first batch of eggs alone. Let them out after that first batch to rear their own. Had a pretty good year for birds too if I remember correctly. Also two pairs of partridges should give you the eggs you need.
Cheers
Mallards

Stevegeraghty

I put alot of work in over the summer,building pens,feeders! I've even already started planting shrubs inside the pen for next year yet I havnt shot a bird yet!
I fly around on the quad most mornings making sure feeders ar ok (not jammed/empty/knocked over/busted up)
But with work and the early evenings I just havnt got a chance to go out yet
I hope for 3/4 days in a row over Christmas

Barneyc

Stevegeraghty wrote: »

I put alot of work in over the summer,building pens,feeders! I've even already started planting shrubs inside the pen for next year yet I havnt shot a bird yet!
I fly around on the quad most mornings making sure feeders ar ok (not jammed/empty/knocked over/busted up)
But with work and the early evenings I just havnt got a chance to go out yet
I hope for 3/4 days in a row over Christmas

I have just read wil Garfits book he basically bought 35 acres of old sandpits and basically made it into a wildlife heaven. out of that few acres he runs a sucessful shoot getting a couple of hundred birds. Although he rears alot of birds its shows the importance of habitate in holding birds. i think if shooters payed a bit more attention to providing habitat that rearing it would pay off in the long run.

PS would seriously reccemond the above mentioned book to all shooters

mallards

Yeah I read that book myself. It's pretty good and you can appreciate the amount of work it took to get there. If I remember correctly he uses his flight ponds for carp fishing and lets it out to a club. That and his tree selling business helps subsidies the shooting part. Habitat is extremely important in my opinion, you won't find a Pheasant in the middle of a green field unless at least the hedges are in great order.

Barneyc

mallards wrote: »

Yeah I read that book myself. It's pretty good and you can appreciate the amount of work it took to get there. If I remember correctly he uses his flight ponds for carp fishing and lets it out to a club. That and his tree selling business helps subsidies the shooting part. Habitat is extremely important in my opinion, you won't find a Pheasant in the middle of a green field unless at least the hedges are in great order.

I come from a small farm back ground only abt 35 acres but there is one hedge no longer that 200m whic has been left to grow for years its now has a nice dense mix of trees and shrubs. without rearing birds that ditch alone is good for 7-8 birds every season. i plan on carrying out further improvement in the folloowing years planting corners of fields etc.

blackpearl

I am in 3 clubs between them 1,800 birds put to ground a lot of time spent feeding and vermin control most of the year,hard work but you get out what you put in I shoot 3 days a week shoot between 80 to 100 birds a season walk hard hunt hard.the cost of the 3 clubs works out at 370euro for the year.

helqui

Between myself and my mate we spent over 700 quid this year between birds hoppers etc we released just 50 birds onto say 300ac... our returns are pretty low year on year as they never seem to hang around... next year we will be sowing game crop to see if it makes any difference.... also we have had the privilage this year of a couple of buzzards taking up residence on our shoot(thats for another thread i guess)... you are very lucky blackpearl as in my area there are various gunclubs all very tribal tbh and closed doors... its a matter of the least amount of guys i the club the more birds for them... very short sighted...anyhoo

blackpearl

the clubs I am in are 50 members plus but a fair few of them drive around till they see a bird and then go hunting for me this is sad when the birds get scarce they don't bother much,thank god because that's when the real hunting people enjoy their shooting.the area I hunt around had one of the best wild bird stocks in the country but now sadly their are very few of them about but plenty of buzzards, as you said your self thats for another thread.