Clocking up the miles in grouse countdown

There are more steps than selfies for Simon Reinhold as he works on his fitness and shooting skills during a testing session on the pigeons

- Simon Reinhold

I like to think I’m a reasonably tolerant individual, but one thing that is guaranteed to make my teeth itch is referring to pigeons as ‘the grey grouse’. I’m of the view that all quarry species deserve our respect and our best efforts to ensure their quick demise and, as a result, produce the best possible meal at the end of the process.

The woodpigeon is one of the finest flyers that we have to test ourselves when protecting crops and should never, in my opinion, be relegated to the status of ‘practice bird’ for something else.

To get the most out of our sport, we must be completely present in the moment to savour the all-around experience, not only the successful shot. It is for this reason that the Macnab, the supermarket sweep of field sports, seems to me to be more to do with the result — a social media selfie on our way into an exclusive club — not the process.

The better Shots will be prepared on their first day in the field, whether it be grouse or otherwise, and this will show when compared with those who have not put in any effort during the close season. But it has more to do with regular shouldering of the gun than it has to do with time spent specifically in a pigeon hide. Correlation and causation are two very different things.

Decoying pigeons in summer into laid corn is not, as is often supposed, the best preparation for either driven or walked-up grouse.

Having said that, there was one specific circumstance where an evening’s pigeon shooting did help me adjust before one trip north to the moors. After a busy summer’s day running between armouries at work, I had an evening to myself trying to keep pigeons off a difficult field.