b'TURN A WALK INTO AN ADVENTURE.hard-to-describe thump of the ammo striking home.Check the hunting, not target stance, whole body just angled, thus lined-up rock solid.As for the Bisley HFT club, well, itthem to stay in their coverts. But theyhe entered the field. Just slowly and a bit too has to adhere to a bizarre buildingdont and no amount of aniseed additiveaimlessly, rather than a beeline. It was standard on site that demands that allin the wheat bird feeders will stopenough to make the birds step into the buildings fit in with the South Africanpheasants from wandering. hedge and he stopped still just as he got Verandah and Stoop style. It all looks likeThus, a careful mooch along the edgeto the trees. I waited, wondering what he safari land in Surrey. of the wood that has pheasant pens in it,was doing.Anyway, it was clear that our showwill not be the brazen property trespassThen it was clear. The pheasants had executive knew flap all about pheasantsof the poacherous criminal lamper butgone into the woods edge and along the and thus had no idea that while Grousemay well be as productive for the one- hedge but had not gone fast. No running, yah are wild bred and keepers controlfor-the-pot catapult hunter. The thing is,just cautious. And the threat stopped predators on the moorlands to conservethat combination of knowing about theas Mark waited just in the woody edge, them as game birds, your pheasant islocation and being able to shoot there. staying still. It was clear that the birds bred like a chicken. She didnt knowNot all landowners are each othershad just moved a bit and were now doing about that class stratification in gamechums! I know a coarse fishery on a farmtheir wood chicken thing.shooting, any more than I did, as athat has their open sided barns fill with townie. pheasants when the shoot next door has Which finally gets to the point thata drive. The fishery farmer dislikes the pheasant breeders, game keepers andshooting of birds as he has a return-the-shoot owners have the deepest personalfish coarse lake and not a bash-em-on-reasons for absolutely detesting usthe-noggin counted fishery for trout. catapultists! As I sat on the Make &A farm near me has an MOT garage as Take table, I saw a few of the passers-bywell as selling logs and horsey stu . I looking at first incredulous, then angry inspotted a cover crop near the buildings. a way I couldnt fathom until later. StuI know is meant to attract and keep Because catapult hunters can cleanpheasants happy. But the wood over the up. Silently and repeatedly in broadroad, the pheasant reserve? I dont know daylight (let alone full on rascally illegalif they own it.lamping) and the folks involved inSo dont ask where.making pheasant shoots happen, utterlyArriving at the spot, we could see the hate poachers. And there we were, atfield was well populated with birds, just their show. They were livid. feeding and milling about at the edge of They spend their year working tothe wood and along the hedgerow. Still make shoot days happen and havinga bit early in the season, so they were raised their birds from six week oldonly medium nervous of us on foot. I chicks bought from farms, they wanthung back. Mark let himself be seen as 032 SlingshotWorld030-033 SSW005 the mooch.indd 32 26/11/2021 14:53'