The Complete English Wing Shot

by George Teasdale Teasdale-Buckell

On the other hand, if it were not for the game preserver, hunting would also be impossible in provincial countries and where money is scarce. No foxes could live if the fields were devoted to poultry. The farmer’s charges in the absence of game would cause three-parts of the hunts to be abandoned in face of enormous poultry bills. Half the quarrelling over game and foxes is exaggerated in the telling, and the rest is caused by a misunderstanding of mutual interests. Outside the Shires, and perhaps Cheshire and Warwickshire, hunting could not exist without the game preserver; and outside East Anglia and the grouse moors game could not exist without foxes, more especially partridges could not, at least not for long.

It is quite a mistake to suppose that grey partridges are interfered with by the red legs; of course, where dogs are used, red legs are not a blessing, but everywhere else they appear to greatly increase the sport. The two varieties often nest side by side, but the grey partridge cock would not tolerate any such proximity from his own species, so that the simplest plan of making two partridges grow on one acre is to have both sorts.

Straying away, in the winter and the spring, from cold or high ground, is a great and objectionable habit of partridges. On some estates nothing seems able to prevent it. In such cases the French penning system described in the previous chapter seems to be made on purpose.

The driving of partridges in flat country is very much more easy than grouse driving, on account of the hedges. They hide the beaters and the guns from view as both go to their places for short drives. But these same hedges often prevent proper flanking for long drives, and there are a thousand pitfalls ready for the inexperienced driver of partridges to fall into. Of course the chief factor in all driving plans is the wind, if there is any. Success generally comes to those whose minds and plans are the most flexible; for a plan that would be best one day would almost certainly be the worst upon another.

In a short chapter on partridges in general it would be obviously impossible to go into the minute details of driving, or to specify as many of the pitfalls as have come to the author’s notice. Broad principles briefly stated are all he has space for, and really almost everything else alters with the locality. First it is necessary to drive the birds with a view to their concentration. That is to say, every drive should be arranged in such a manner as to make the next drive to it as perfect as possible. The guns, then, will be posted where they can do least harm to the next drive—not necessarily where they can do most execution in the one under consideration. Consequently, the choice of stands for any one drive must be regulated by the distance the birds at the particular time of year are likely to fly after passing and being scared by the line of guns. This distance will grow longer each week of the shooting season. In September birds that would be likely to drop in roots three fields behind the guns, might easily go six, seven, or eight fields in November.

It is impossible to drive partridges very far directly up wind, and it is almost impossible to turn them very much when going fast and high down wind. Roots are even more important to big driving bags than they are to “walking up.” At least, without roots most of the birds will come together, and shooting will be quickly over in each drive, whereas, when partridges can be first driven into a turnip-field, and secondly induced to run, they then become scattered, rise in small lots, and give shooters and loaders a chance.

The nearer the guns can be placed to the rise of the partridges, the less distant the latter will fly. In a high fenced country noise is often essential to prevent the birds in one field going back over the heads of beaters in the next. The partridges generally decide where they are going before rising, or as soon as they are up, and consequently the flanks of your line or semicircle of beaters will be useless unless the birds know of them either before they rise or the instant they are on the wing.

Another point to be considered is, that partridges will not drive backwards and forwards over the same fence many times, and if it can be done, a fresh one should be lined for every drive. Often the nature of the ground and the disposition of the hedges will not admit of this. Ideal driving possibly only exists in the imagination, but if it can be arranged that for every drive there is a turnip-field to drive out of near to the guns, and another to drive into at the distance of the birds’ flight behind the guns, then particularly heavy killing ought to be possible in proportion to numbers of partridges present.

When there is no great amount of wind, backwards and forwards drives, with the guns shifted up or down the fence slightly each time, are very deadly with two sets of beaters. With one set only, on the contrary, the plan of taking the birds all round the beat in four or more drives, according to its size, is a good one, because it prevents either beaters or “guns” having long waits or unequal distances to walk. Excellent driving results have been obtained on an estate as small as 500 acres, but this would not be possible without big root fields.

The best sanctuaries for partridges, and those of greatest assistance to driving, are newly planted larch and fir coverts. Where estate planting is wanted, then by extending it over a series of years, instead of doing it all at once, it adds to the encouragement and to safe nesting-ground of partridges and pheasants too, but the necessity of wire fencing it against rabbits renders it of no use for ground game, which is all the better for both its true purposes. In a grass country partridges will remain and breed wonderfully well if about 5 acres of wheat are cultivated to every 200 acres of grass land. On just such land the author has killed two-thirds of a bird to the acre within twelve miles of Charing Cross on the north side.