When we all look ahead to the new game shooting season, certain images will invariably spring to mind. Morning coffee and bacon rolls in dank stone bothies or sheds, collars pulled high, while excited spaniels and labradors charge about outside in the sleet and snow, their breath fogging in the frigid air. The delight of frozen fingers wrapped around hot cups of soup at elevenses. Then retiring at the end of the day for hearty pheasant casserole, steaming tweeds and dogs thawing next to a log-burner in the corner.
Game shooting and cold weather go together like pork pie and pickle. But for a lucky few, the shooting season starts in late summer when the heather is in bloom and the weather calls for Sangria rather than soup.
Shooting Times Editor Patrick Galbraith and I once shot walked-up grouse together on the Glorious Twelfth and to say that it was warm would be an understatement. The puce faces, sweaty brows and rolled-up sleeves in the team photo — taken just before lunch after a lengthy yomp through deep heather and saturated peat — look like those belonging to a group of overweight Bikram yoga practitioners. There isn’t a tie in sight.
Challenges
The truth is early-season grouse or partridge shooting offers a completely different experience — and set of challenges — to what we typically associate with game shooting in the UK. And having the right kit on a warm or even hot autumn day is just as important as remembering your thermals and gloves in January. So what should you wear on an early-season day when the weather is fair?
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