OT: The Glorious 12th

[Paul Ehlers]

This isn't about Parkers, but a good portion of us here are hunters. I thought you might like seeing this. If the moderator feels it needs moved or deleted, please do so.

I've been watching this show for a couple of years. I sure wish an American outfit could produce a show of this quality.

This one has it all; Guns, Dogs, Shooting, Habitat & it's management, Wildlife, Tradition, Stunning scenery etc.

Oh how I wish I could experience a day on the moors!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQw8laShM1g

[Jacob Duke]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

[Rick Losey]

they have done several good shows through the years

[Bruce Day]

Thanks but I'll settle for the northern plains and hills.

[Ken Hill]

Great video! Thanks for posting. I can hardly wait for the pheasant season to open in Nov.

Ken

[Stephen Hodges]

That was great, thanks. Beautiful country in its own right, very different than what I am used to but nice. A lot of history there. I love the fact that they have gamekeepers and actively control predation, as well as keeping the Heather in the Moors productive by burning it. Reminds me of what we do here to blueberry barons. They to need to be burned to stay productive.

[edgarspencer]

I haven't watched the video thru to the end yet, but know I will enjoy it. Much of both sides of my family originated in Scotland, and I still have close relatives living there (Mull).
When we were kids, my sisters and I would spend between 3 weeks and all summer there. I remember the 12th as well as I remember my birthday.
It wasn't until I was in my 40s, did I actually get to shoot over there (Hunting on Mull was originally only for dwelling landowners) There would be upwards of 400 grouse lined up by the barn before lunch.
I have had somewhat of a 'moral realignment' since then. I know that much of the game are flight pen raised, and it's not entirely different than a pay-to-shoot preserve hunt here, except possibly for the cost and the numbers. I am now troubled by the drive to knock birds out of the air, barely notice whether they were killed cleanly, or were the pickers-up finding them. Driven shoots were akin to "shooting fish in a barrel" on some beats, which shouldn't have been hunted.
As I age, I take a much greater pleasure in watching a single or double rise of a Ruffy, watching a good dog working, and just walking alone in the Maine woods with a good gun and a sandwich in my pocket.
Call me Mr. Softee I guess, but Bruce's picture is more appealing to me, and that's coming from a bona fide Anglophile.

[Bruce Day]

I hunt hard for wild birds and some lucky days limit out, many days not. But hey, it's all on me and my dogs, nobody else.

Thanks Edgar.

[Dean Romig]

Maybe a few blueberry barons should be burnt, even at the stake.... But you probably wouldn't go to prison if you simply burned the barrens...:corn:





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[Rick Losey]

Reports from Scotland say that some estates will not be shooting this year due to low grouse numbers.
This year's weather has not been good and grouse numbers are way down in some areas

may not be our style - but its a tradition in trouble from bird populations and politicians and i wish them well - its a great country with wonderful people in the countryside


my preference will always be a finger lakes/ southern tier ruffed grouse over a setter

but that is more endangered than the red grouse on the 12th

[John Dallas]

Remember that the Red Grouse of the British Isles, (and our Ruffed Grouse) cannot be pen raised. All are wild birds. All the Brits and Scots can do is improve and maintain habitat and serious predator control. As near as I can figure, today's driven grouse in the UK are about $200/bird, plus tips.

[Kevin McCormack]

THANK YOU BIG D !!! And damn the fees - what else are we spending our money on?!

[Rich Anderson]

That video gets me motivated to bring the grouse guns to the front of the safe and get them out on the sporting clays course. Our grouse season starts in a month, it's always very thick and hard to see both the dog and a flushed bird but after all its the opening day and a walk in the woods with Daisy and a fine shotgun is not to be missed.

[King Brown]

Dear Mr. Spencer: I'm a Mr. Softee, too. Your sentiments are mine.

[allen newell]

Edgar, I share your feelings on this subject. The older I get, the more reflective and less focused on the killing aspects of the hunt but more on watching Sophie, my English setter work the birds, and just enjoying what nature has given us to celebrate.

[edgarspencer]

Allen, King, It's not that I don't enjoy traditional activities, and while I've only shot in one 'real' driven grouse shoot (there were as many pen raised pheasants) it is quite like those portrayed on well written shows like Downton Abbey, Monarch of The Glen; as much a social event as a sporting event. Opening day; the Glorious Twelfth, much more so. Many of the guns are invited guests, who shoot once a year, borrow a gun, which may or may not fit, and blast away. I appreciate that no killed game, collected, goes to waste, but it's not the shooter who concerns himself with those details. It's the beaters, Pickers and dog handlers job. As many I've seen could get as much joy shooting clays as live birds; not because they are a better or worse target, but because so many have the same respect for a molded piece of pottery as they do the creature they are attempting to down.
The smaller, more casual shoots of a half dozen real sports, on private farms and holdings are much more my style (not like I'm about to get invited back).
Those of you who know Peter Horn will know his venues in Eastern Europe are seemingly similar to Scotland, but there seems to be a bit of reverence thats is lacking in the Highlands. JMO

[John Campbell]

... The older I get, the more reflective and less focused on the killing aspects of the hunt but more on watching Sophie, my English setter work the birds, and just enjoying what nature has given us to celebrate.

Precisely!

And concisely.

Thank you, Mr. Newell.

[Richard Flanders]

Our grouse season opened here on the 10th. I had an offer to go out chasing them but at this time of year they're still together in family groups and are 'stupid'. You can walk right up on some ruffie groups and they just stand there looking at you. Hunting birds like that just doesn't seem fair. I was out sighting in a new globe front sight on my .45-90 high wall on the 12th and walked into a group of sharptails that exploded all around me. There was at least 15 and I think mostly juveniles. Sure would have made for some good shooting, but I can wait a bit longer.

The airstrip I was on is a good spot for birds. On July 16 I was followed by this family of Hawk Owls, which are pretty rare up here. I've only ever seen one other in all my years here. This family followed me for a while, hoping, I think, that I would kick up sharptails for them to chase. I imagined it as something like, "ok kids, look alive, this is how you do it"... They would fly ahead of me and land in a tree and wait; when I got past them they'd fly ahead of me again. Very cool. In the picture the YOY are the three in the middle, the adults above and behind. This was not an experience one ever forgets and one that falls into the category discussed here, that just getting out into the field and walking and just 'being there', with or without dogs and a gun is enough, is plenty really. This picture below will forever, and I mean forever, be imprinted in my mind. I may forget all of your names(!), but I will never forget this view right here... ever.

[edgarspencer]

I had an offer to go out chasing them but at this time of year they're still together in family groups and are 'stupid'. You can walk right up on some ruffie groups and they just stand there looking at you. Hunting birds like that just doesn't seem fair.
.

This is very much the same reason I feel the season is too long, in Maine. It runs to the end of December, when there is so much snow on the ground, they are all feeding in the tops of the yellow birch and alders. A guy only needs to stand below and pick them off as he goes up the tree.

[Rich Anderson]

Anyone who would shoot a grouse out of a tree is a killer NOT a hunter.....it's an ethics thing.

[allen newell]

My brother and I grew up hunting grouse and woodcock around Bow and Hooksett, NH with our dad and his setter (Skyrocket's Ruff Grouse). Dad field trialed too but grouse and woodcock have always been my first love and lasting memory. Preserve hunting is fun too and I won't denigrate it. It's good experience for introducing the dog to birds but hunting native grouse and woodcock with your own bird dog and as Edgar says, carrying a sandwich in your pocket (and some water for you and the dog) beats it all. I do hope to get up to northern Maine this Fall. Sophie is 16 months old now and has had close to a hundred birds taken over her on point (with three other "paying " friends at Markover and Addieville last year. Her real trial will be this season on native birds. It's been fun watching her develop these months.