Hatchpen Shoot

Professional catering providing excellent lunches, with a stunning shoot lodge and excellent facilities.

Guns can expect a varied and challenging day, with exceptionally well-presented birds offering exciting shooting across a range of drives and terrain. Widely regarded as some of the most challenging birds you’ll find in the Eastern Counties.

Beautiful rolling countryside on the edge of the Chiltern Hills, reaching almost 760 feet at its highest point. The shoot is set across a mixed arable and livestock farm and is very compact, meaning minimal driving between stands on most days. The varied terrain provides exceptionally challenging birds, all just 30 miles from Marble Arch.

Yes, conservation is an important part of the shoot and wider farm. We participate in a number of environmental stewardship schemes, alongside actively managing hedgerows, woodland, field margins and cover crops to create and maintain valuable habitats. This work supports biodiversity and encourages a wide range of farmland birds and other wildlife across the estate.

The shoot is run by David Rand, who has been at the helm of Hatchpen since 1978. Over the years, the shoot has been continually developed and refined to provide superb sport across every drive.

David was mentored by Noel Cunningham-Reid, widely regarded as one of the great names in showing partridges, and his influence has played an important part in shaping Hatchpen into the shoot it is today.

On the rare occasion David is not present, the day is run by his sons, Rob and Charlie, while Harriet Rand looks after all bookings and hospitality.

Hatchpen has a long sporting and agricultural history. The shoot forms part of the former Newsells Estate, which was renowned for its game shooting and once recorded an exceptional day of 327 brace of wild grey partridges.

The Rand family has farmed the land since 1936, with David Rand establishing the present-day Hatchpen Shoot in 1976. Over the past 50 years, David has continually developed the drives, cover and landscape, building on the sporting traditions of the old estate while creating the shoot that exists today.

Still very much a family-run shoot, Hatchpen combines nearly a century of Rand family farming with a sporting history that stretches back considerably further.