Bickton Family Shoot

Shooting has increasingly become more and more commercial over recent years, giving way to the Anglo Saxon trait of bigger is better. Many shoots are modelled on stuffy golf or livery clubs where women and children are never seen and the only qualification for entry is a large cheque book. At Bickton we want to be inclusive, encouraging the day to be a family orientated where the emphasis is on your enjoyment of the experience as a whole, not the bag. You will find the Bickton atmosphere less formal and more relaxed which makes it the ideal place to experience game shooting for the first time or to simply enjoy being in beautiful countryside participating in your favourite sport.
The Estate
The Bickton estate has been in our family since General Sir Eyre Coote acquired it from the crown estates in 1770 after his outstanding defeat of the French at the battle of Plassey, India. At approximately 500 acres it is made up of a mixture of ancient water meadows and mixed woodland, at the heart of the estate is the River Avon which gently flows though the centre with its associated trout streams, this provides a natural habitat for our duck and wildfowl that overwinter such as teal, tufted, widgeon and snipe. The woodland runs along the steep sides of the Avon Valley giving the perfect launching sites for challenging pheasants. We substitute the environment with a mixture of strategically placed cover and conservation crops.   The Shoot
The shoot at Bickton is a mixed shoot, taking advantage of the abundant water from the river Avon. The estate and shoot management are purposely kept low key so that we can provide a natural habitat for our game. We put down a mixture of duck and pheasant with a few partridge. During colder spells we get many different species of wild duck that make challenging shooting.   The Location
Situated just of the New Forest on the Hampshire/Dorset boarder one mile south of the town of Fordingbridge and five miles north of the market town of Ringwood, Bickton is blessed with ancient water meadows and steep sided valleys. Only 85 miles from central London we are within reach for many.  Postcode SP6 2HA, Lat: 50:54:49N (50.91352) Long: 1:47:21W (-1.78912) Grid: SU149126. The nearest railway station is Salisbury or Southampton and we are equally spaced between Bournemouth and Southampton Airports.