Covid-secure partridge shooting at Steventon Estate

A couple of months ago I wrote about a summer-time visit to a shooting estate in Hampshire - Steventon. I wrote that it can sometimes be a bit strange looking at drives outside of the season, so I was delighted that the shoot manager Keith Gorsuch invited me down for a mid-September partridge day. The day would not only give me the chance to see some of the drives that I’d not had time to look at back in the summer, but it would also be my first experience of a socially distanced shoot day. The day had been specially laid on by Keith, partly to showcase the shoot to “the gentlemen of the press”, but mostly as a dry run for his COVID arrangements.

There’s no doubt that Keith and his team have given this some very careful thought. A few days before the shoot I received an email asking me to fill out an online ‘Track and Trace form’. This was followed a day later by another email containing lengthy briefing notes on the various measures that would be taken on the day to ensure social distancing and all-round COVID-security. The documentation included a copy of the risk assessment, as well as copious notes on everything from dealing with your empty cartridges to game handling and transport between drives. From this I learned that there would effectively be various ‘bubbles’ operating throughout the day; guns, pickers up; and beaters’ bubbles of six, each with designated meeting points that would also double as lunch areas, and separate transport arrangements for each group.

 

 

Steventon is not far from my family home in Hampshire so it was a relatively leisurely start to the day, and upon arrival at the estate, where Jane Austin lived while writing Sense and Sensibility, we were greeted by Connor, Keith’s son, who wore a mask and was armed with an infrared thermometer with which to check for fever. Having parked in one of the specially marked and numbered bays, I sauntered over to the area designated for guns to greet - from a safe distance - those I would be shooting with.

 

The team consisted of Patrick Galbraith from the Shooting Times, representatives of the sporting agents EJ Churchill and William Powell, Roy Lupton of Fieldsports Channel fame, plus Olympic Double Trap bronze medallist Steve Scott, the aforementioned Connor Gorsuch, myself, and the estate owner, Peter Harrison. To say that I felt somewhat out of my depth would be an understatement. I fervently hoped that they were as out of practice as I was. In addition to the guns there was a small gaggle of cameramen there to capture my ineptitude for perpetuity.

 

I was fortunate to draw a peg next to the owner of Steventon Estate, Peter Harrison

 

Given the dry conditions underfoot we would be using our own cars to travel around the shoot, but we would walk between the first three drives. In a change from normal practice, Keith drew our pegs for us by shuffling some playing cards. I ‘drew’ the ace in the pack so would start my day on the far right hand end of the line. I actually quite like being on the end of the line early in a day, as one often gets a great view of proceedings and in a line with so many good shots, I knew that this would be a treat.

The first drive saw the guns arced out in a field of barley stubble, some hundred yards from a tallish headline. My peg was somewhat further up the hill than the main line, so the view of the drive was spectacular. The weather that day was warm - around 24 degrees - but a strong wind was blowing down the line of guns, away from me, so I was slightly out of the shooting. I opened my season with a two-barrell miss, fishing for a wide one like a rusty opening batsman. Never mind - the display of shooting from the rest of the line, taking on birds that, having been driven into the wind, were curling down over the line and presenting some glorious shooting.

 

The view from my peg on the first drive

 

The second drive was almost a mirror image of the first, taking place in the next field over but with the guns lined out with their backs to the first and somewhat closer to the scrubby treeline which cloaked what is a pretty steep bank by Hampshire standards. Whether it was a quirk of the rolling Hampshire landscape I don’t know, but just the other side of a belt of trees from the first drive the wind seemed to have gained a few mph. Here I was far more in the action, having moved up three pegs to number four. To account for the wind, now blowing from high numbered pegs to low, we were all asked to stand two pegs down from our ‘drawn’ peg, leaving me on a peg marked two. Are you keeping up?

 

I almost certainly didn't hit this one
 

With the partridges fighting and curling right-handed in the wind the shooting was challenging, especially for one’s first day of the season. Once I had got the measure of them I was able to bring a few down, including a nice right-and-left and one over my right shoulder that I shall have fond memories of for some time to come. When the horn blew I had a good number of shells to collect up, and not-too-shabby number of birds to pick. One of the delights of shooting over stubble is that one doesn’t have too much trouble finding the shot game, well camouflaged though it is. It was also nice to see that the pickers-up maintained a distance until the guns were making their way to the elevenses table that had been set up before moving in to sweep up anything that was missed.

 

But I definitely got that one

One of the elements of socially distanced shooting that needs careful consideration is that of hospitality, a key part of a shoot day. Taking elevenses in the field is a good solution to this, though it is somewhat weather dependent. We were fortunate that it was really shirt-sleeve weather. Actually, it was more shorts and flip-flops weather than plus-fours and woolly socks. The repast (beef consommé, sausages, fruit cake) was distributed by Peter and Keith, surgically-gloved, masked and armed with serving tongs, and while we ate I was able to ask Keith a bit about the measures he had taken in preparing for the day and putting protocols in place.

 

“I had a visit from BASC,” he said, “to help carry out a risk assessment, and I also looked at the CLA’s advice and some documentation from a sporting agent, so I was able to cherry pick the elements from each that best suited our shoot to create a bespoke protocol for the day.” He explained that the BASC visit had been very businesslike and helpful, adding- “I’d recommend it to anyone.” Like the rest of us Keith had been wondering how a socially distanced shoot day might feel. “I don’t mind telling you, George, I was worried,” he said, “that it might all be a bit strange, but I think it has been ok so far, don’t you?” I couldn’t have put it better myself, and added that I was just happy to be able to get out at all, something that has looked unlikely at a number of points since March.

 

Lunch has been another element that has required careful thinking about and at Steventon they’ve got it nailed. In normal years lunch would be taken in the farmhouse, but this year the team have erected a marquee inside one of the farm barns. The interior is nicely clad in hessian, and decorated with hops, giving a lovely rustic feel. As you can see from the picture, they’ve taken the 2m rule to heart. With tables with roughly the same square footage as my flat in London, and just four to a table, it did feel quite odd, but in many ways it created a slightly more intimate (if one can be intimate at such distance) feel than being crammed around one table.

 

 

Following a very fine meal of moroccan spiced lamb with couscous, we headed back into the field for the final drive on a different part of the estate. Here the guns were lined out parallel to a belt of trees and again, the partridge wanted to follow the treeline, at least, by the time they reached me at noumber two. Guns One, two and three were presented with crossers some distance out, made more challenging by the fact that they were beginning to descend to get under the wind - knowing that even the best shots find a dropping bird a challenge made me feel somewhat better about my slightly embarrassing ratio. William Powell’s Ollie Severin, my neighbour at no.3, put the William Powell Sovereign 20 bore that he was using to good use, pulling down some lovely birds over the treeline. Further down the line there seemed to be some more conventional driven birds, and from what I could tell, some very good shooting on the part of Steve Scott in particular. 

I had to leave promptly in order to get back home for my kids’ bedtime, so back in the farmyard after the final drive I hastily necked a cup of tea, stuffed my keeper’s tip into the little brown envelope provided, said my goodbyes and thank yous, and hit the road. And so concluded my first day of the season, and my first experience of COVID-secure shooting.

 

If there were any worries that COVID-precautions would have a negative impact on the experience these have been firmly put to bed for me. Keith and his team have planned everything out brilliantly, and seem to have made every effort to ensure that guns, beaters and everyone involved in the day are safe. The protocols didn’t impinge on the flow of the day, and everything ran with military-precision. It was only really noticeable at elevenses and lunch, but great food and good company meant that it was quickly forgotten. Another sad impact is that one doesn’t get the chance to chat to or properly thank the keeper, beaters and pickers-up who work so hard to get the birds over you, and ensure that everything is picked and I’m not sure I can see a way around that, beyond a socially-distanced shout. However, if you’re still wondering how to ensure that your shoot or syndicate is COVID-secure, this should act as a blueprint. If you’re worried about the impact of COVID on your enjoyment of a day, you can put those worries aside.

 

 

As for the shooting, well, Steventon is a glorious Hampshire estate, and being a native of that county I have a particular love of the rolling landscape. Even though this was the first time through, the partridges flew strongly in the wind and many were quite frankly far too good for me, and even for some of the far more talented and practiced shots in the line, without naming names! That said, there was plenty of variety, with birds suited to most skill-levels. If you would like to shoot at Steventon - and I highly recommend it - take a look at the estate’s profile on GunsOnPegs for availability - there are dates available for partridge shooting from now until the end of September, and then mixed pheasant and partridge days from 1st October.