Layers not to be trifled with

Ex-layers provide fine sport in Cumbria, on a shoot where every pheasant is hard won

- LAURENCE CATLOW

Thank goodness for ex-layers and for Forest Hall. I say this because, with the prospects for the rest of the season looking more and more uncertain, the ex-layers we put down at Forest Hall gave us the opportunity for a day’s sport early in October which, in its rough and ready and informal way, was rather wonderful.

It was wonderful to be out with a gun in the (socially distanced) company of friends, it was wonderful to see pheasants fly again and it was, of course, wonderful to shoot the first birds of another season. I shot two of them and two was enough for me.

If things fall apart and new lockdowns are imposed and the rest of the season is a write-off, at least I had a day’s shooting and managed to put a brace of birds in the bag. I am praying that those grim possibilities never turn into reality, that the months ahead unfold in a manner as nearly normal as COVID-19 allows.

You will be reading this article the day after what should be our first High Park shoot and I am hoping that I shall be able to tell you how it all went and that it all went well. We shall have to wait and see.

Forest Hall is a high-ground shoot near Kendal. I have shot there for years, as have most of the Guns. In the beginning we released poults, but no one lived near enough nor had enough time to look after them properly or take charge of essential vermin control.

Foxy spot