Nettlebed Estate

The Nettlebed Shoot is a private shoot on the 2,300 acre Nettlebed Estate, five miles from Henley-on-Thames in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in South Oxfordshire.  The shoot currently shoots over 1,000 acres of the Estate.

Nettlebed's location is unusual, in that it is completely rural, and yet just 35 miles (about an hour's drive) from Central London, offering a beautiful and very good quality day's shooting for those based in London or the South-East without having to rise unnecessarily early to travel, or face the extra cost of a hotel stay.

The Estate is family owned and the shoot is family-run. Your host for the day will be a family member who will accompany and guide you throughout the day.  

The Estate is a mixture of woodland, pasture, open farmland and parkland. This variety offers a mixture of drive-types which can vary from challengingly high birds, to snap-shooting amongst beautiful beech woods to rolling, open field drives.  The shoot benefits from some long-sighted woodland planting undertaken by Colonel Peter Fleming in the early part of the 20th Century, designed specifically to improve the shoot.  

We are a family shoot, which lets days throughout the season. The days on offer are two-hundred (200) bird days, or at the end of the season 150 bird days, mostly pheasant, but with a few partridge on offer for the quick-witted gun! The drives are pegged for nine guns, and we can arrange loaders for you if you wish. (£60 per loader) If you would like us to procure cartridges for you we can (advance notice required.)

Number of Drives

We generally shoot four drives before lunch and two after. The number of drives may vary.

In the short winter days we suggest shooting through (i.e. having a short break at mid-day and proper lunch after the drives) - however this is optional. 

Vehicles:

We recommend bringing a 4x4 of your own, or if possible, two of them.  We have a Land Rover Discovery which can take maximum five guns, and if you cannot provide a 4x4 of your own we also have use of a long-wheelbase Land Rover Defender with benches (but no windows) in the back, which can seat about seven in (somewhat agricultural) style. 

The dates shown on the site are not set in stone - if you would like a date near, but not on one of the dates listed, we can often be somewhat flexible.

Friends, spouses and dogs are all very welcome throughout out the day.

What you can expect on the day: (note, we can completely customise the day to suit you - all of these parts are optional.)

08:45 - We meet at a farm near the centre of the Estate for coffee and biscuits.  This is the 'base' for the day - cars can be left here, and we return here for lunch and tea.  We have a newly renovated 'shoot room' at the farm, which is a lovely, big, light, open room used for entertaining on shooting days.

9:00 - We move off to start the day, getting to the first drive for 9:15

11:00 - We often stop for a quick drink between the third and fourth drive at about this time.  On very cold days some warming soup can be very welcome at this point!

13:00 - Back for lunch, unless you wish to shoot-through, which on the very short mid-winter days, is a wise option.

14:00 - Back out for the afternoon drives

At the end of the day we come back for tea.  The keeper will at this point appear and offer birds for you to take home.

Contact:

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.  We look forward to having you spend your day's shooting with us. 

***** And now for the boring and technical stuff *****

We like to think that we have a friendly, and relaxed attitude at Nettlebed, which makes the day more enjoyable - but, there are some procedural, less exciting details which are necesary, and therefore must be covered.  Here they are: 

Payment

We ask that you pay 1/3 of the cost of a day upon booking, and the balance a couple of weeks before the day itself.   If you are booking a single peg on one of our few per-peg days, then we ask that you pay the entire cost on confirmation.  Your peg is not secured until you have paid.

We do not charge VAT.  

Lunch

We can provide 'Good Ordinary Claret' at lunch, if you would like to bring your own wine, please do.

Please provide numbers for those attending lunch at least a week before the day.

Overage/Underage

We aim to have 200 bird days. (150 at the end of the season)

We have a 10% overage/underage policy - we will not charge you if you go up to 10% over the bag.  

We will not deliberately let you over-run that 10% without giving you plenty of advance warning.

Similarly we aim to show you enough birds so that you can shoot the bag.  However, with all due respect, we cannot guarantee that number if your team has (shall we say) issues with accuracy...  

Cancellation due to weather

We have never had to cancel due to weather yet - but if you would like to mitigate this unlikely risk, we suggest that you obtain your own cancellation insurance (available through GunsOnPegs, or other insurers which are easily found via Google.)

Personal Liability / Safety

We, as no doubt do you too, take safety very seriously when shooting.  At the beginning of every day there is a safety briefing, and we expect novice guns to have had, at the very least, some tution from a recognised shooting school. If in any doubt about the ability or experience of a gun, we will be very happy to recommend a loader who can help new guns enjoy their day safely.

However, no-one can predict every situation  We therefore demand that all guns have personal liability insurance to cover them whilst shooting with us.