The evolution of shooting vehicles

Shooting vehicles have undergone some fairly serious evolution over the last hundred years or so. While the basic construction of a shotgun hasn’t changed all that much, and we still wear the styles and fashions popularised by Edward Prince of Wales in the 1920s, the way we get to - and around - shooting estates has changed beyond recognition.

Horsepower

When it comes to traversing rugged landscapes, horsepower has always been important. The original shoot vehicle was a horse-drawn wagon called a shooting brake, used to transport teams of guns and their hangers-on, plus their guns, ammunition and shot game around grand estates. They were generally large enough to transport a full team of guns and while progress was pretty sedate, and probably fairly bumpy, it was jolly elegant.

With the advent of the internal combustion engine, the horses were put out to pasture and the shooting brake became motorised. The first such machines appeared in the early 1900s, and while many of the first shooting brakes were converted from vehicles designed for other purposes, one early model was created by the Scottish firm Albion Motors. This was followed in the subsequent years by models from the likes of Rolls Royce. These early motorised shooting brakes were characterised by ample seating - up to 8 people - and plenty of space for shooting kit, so perhaps with more in common with the gunbusses seen on many shoots today.

The golden age of shooting

Many consider the 1920s something of a ‘golden age’, with Edward Prince of Wales, a noted trendsetter, helping to popularise shooting among the landed gentry and the country set. Shooting brakes grew in popularity in tandem with shooting, and the design began to be refined. The term shooting brake gave way to the ‘estate car’, with the two terms being used interchangeably for a while. 

These were designed to perform similar functions to shooting brakes, namely, transport shooting parties, their clobber and the bag around estates, but had the added bonus of being usable on roads. The change in terminology reflected the increased range of uses for the vehicles, such as ferrying guests from the station to the big house, which is where we get the term ‘station wagon’, another term for an estate car.  Even today, modern estate cars are often seen on shoot days, with the capatious boot good for transporting clobber and dogs.

The rise of the true off-roader

The Second World War saw huge innovations in off-road capability. The Willys Jeep in particular, with its go-anywhere, do-anything, functional and easily repaired design, and 4x4 system, helped popularise this style of car. After the war, the success of the Jeep, which Eisenhower had described as one of the six most important pieces of equipment in winning the conflict, gave rise to its British cousin, the iconic Landrover. Designed not for warfare, but for rebuilding after the conflict, the Landy could do everything from pulling a plough to running a band saw, and farmers and estates bought them in their droves. 

It is easy to see why the Landrover became popular among the shooting community - like the early shooting brakes they had great carrying capacity, with bench seating sufficient for a full team of guns or beaters, while leaving ample room for guns and dogs.

Evolution of the shoot vehicle

Since those days the 4x4 has adopted many different guises, from big Japanese flat-bed pickups like the Toyota Hilux or Mitsubishi L200, so versatile and, in the case of the Hilux, famously indestructible, to luxurious SUVs - the so called “Chelsea Tractors”, as likely to be seen pulling up outside Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge as outside a cowshed. The shooting community has adopted them all with varying levels of enthusiasm: pickups are popular with those who wouldn’t dream of spending a day in the field without a faithful canine companion or two, while smart and comfortable SUVs find favour with those who attend the flashier kind of shoot. 

These days most shoots will play host to a motley collection of vehicles at all points of the spectrum from the rather-too-shiny Range Rover Sport to the dented and dinged pick-up, caked in mud and God-knows-what-else. 

The shooting vehicle of the future

For the last few months we have been following the story of the INEOS Grenadier, a machine that draws inspiration from those hard working iconic 4x4s of the war and post-war years, with plenty in common with the estate cars and shooting brakes of old, all the gadgets you would expect to find in a modern SUV and then some. 

Built on a ladder-frame chassis, like so many iconic offroaders, and following a “form follows function” design principle that can be traced right back to the earliest shooting brakes, the Grenadier combines practicality with comfort. While we are yet to see what the vehicle is like inside, the exterior design and engineering include enough echoes of the vehicles that found favour with Guns and Gamekeepers alike for us to see it as a future icon of the shooting world.

This article is part of an ongoing partnership between GunsOnPegs and INEOS Grenadier. To find out more about our partnership visit The Grenadier Hub.

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