The Firle Shoot

The Shoot Day Captain welcomes guests for a breakfast of DIY bacon and/or sausage baps, teas and coffee and juices. Menus are available for guests prior to the day. Mid morning refreshments will comprise Bullshot with or without alcohol, sloe gin, soft drinks, sausage rolls and cake or flap jacks. Water is always available throughout the day. . Lunch will be two courses plus cheese and biscuits. In September and warm days in October the main course will be delicious cold meats and salads. Wine is provided but guest may bring their own wine if they wish. Pre-lunch drinks, and lunch will be taken at our shoot hut on the hill until around bonfire night after which we shoot through and return to the meeting room for lunch at the end of the day. Excellent accommodation available in Alfriston .

The South Downs which emerge near Eastbourne and roll through Sussex and Hampshire to Winchester in the west provide magnificent terrain for shooting throughout their length. On top of the downs we have lovely hills and valleys with a mixture of open grassland, cereals and gorse banks which are supplemented with extensive game crops. All guns are pegged in the bottom of valleys. On the north face of the main escarpment we utilise the inlets (coombes) for pheasant shooting. This lower part of the shoot is all undulating which allows us to show excellent birds. We also are blessed with a Chalk Pit which can be a challenge !

The shoot co-operates with the tenant farmers of the estate who all have Countryside Stewardship Schemes (CSS) in place, some in Higher Tier. Many of our game crops are designed as CSS winter bird cover and form part of the schemes. All our woodland release points and rides are managed in consultation with the woodland scheme operators. Ground nesting birds are prevalent on the chalk downs and predators are controlled in sensitive areas. All our shot game returns to our chilling unit (sometimes twice a day in the early autumn). The game is collected daily by a Sussex game processing business and is distributed through local and London markets along with some exports to France.

The sporting rights at Firle were taken by two partners in 2003 from The Firle Estate. The Estate has been owned by the Gage family for many centuries. The partners appointed a Head Gamekeeper and a full time Beat Keeper who live on the estate. The club officers include a shoot manager and shoot secretary . Each day will be hosted by the Shoot Day Captain assisted by another volunteer to help with gun placement etc. The team are proud to have built the shoot into a high quality, well respected operation.