There is a day ticket shoot opening in Wales where you can shoot pheasants, for a fee. Here is WHY…
Field Sports are under attack in Wales, with Natural Resources Wales banning driven Pheasant shooting on national land – the Welsh Government Woodland Estate. This was announced more than three years ago. (See this old article about banning shooting on Welsh public land from The Guardian.) More recently it has been hammered home with a statement from the Welsh Environment Minister Hannah Blythyn, in which she states that the Welsh Government is utterly opposed to the shooting of game birds for sport. The SACS UK organisation (Shooting and Country Sports) are angry as a poked wasp’s nest. See their refutation here: https://www.sacs.org.uk/news/welsh-pheasant-shooting-debacle
The National Gamekeepers Organisation were very seriously angry, too…
This has resulted in some areas where the traditional breeding and subsequent shooting of game birds has had to just stop. With some tracts of woodland that are private but fall within the half-kilometre limit raged about in this article from fieldsportschannel.tv. It is alongside a definitive list of the 2022 GENERAL LICENCE rules. All about how you can shoot a ring necked parakeet but not a monk parakeet and how you are not allowed to ‘shoot a pigeon to eat it’. And all as a result of the Chris Packham brigade.
As you may also know, Wales is where folks go if they want to get as far away from ‘civilisation’ as possible and live in the woods. There are wild campsites where you can hammock under the trees and have a fire… like http://www.thewildmanwoods.com/
And now we have learned of a new ‘day ticket’ venture that will be opening October 1st 2022 for the start of the pheasant season, the equivalent of a ‘put and take’ fishery but for slingshot hunters/bushcrafters.
They are breeding pheasants with a classical release pen but are inviting no more than parties of four at a time, to their thickly wooded seven acre site. You can camp amongst the trees and take pheasants. (Subject to passing hunting approval.) Located about twenty miles north of Newport, near a tiny place called Pontypanndi, it is just over a mile up a gated-with-a-combo-lock farm track. The sign says “LLareggub Coetir” (Brits can say ‘Larrygub Woods’) the prices are keen for a day ticket but there are rules and a few minor extra costs.
PRICES
DAY Ticket 7am to 7pm £10
OVERNIGHT 24Hrs with camping £25 inc one bag of logs. (more available at £3 a bag)
PHEASANTS £5 per brace, max two brace per shooter, per 24hrs.
RULES
NO LITTER
ONLY uncoated steel ball ammo to be used, 8mm min to 12mm max, NO glass, NO lead, NO STONES NO SLINGBOWS/ARROWS, NO DARTS/FISHING RIGS
NO wood to be foraged nor brought in
Compost toilets to be used. There is one at each end of the woodland. Soil abusers will be banned!
Damage to trees or breaking of these rules will result in a ban.
You will have to be a ‘member’ and this is included in your first day ticket and involves a few minutes for an insurance-compulsory safety briefing with the shoot manager. You will need to take two passport-sized pictures, one for your membership card and one for their records. Also, you will need to prove you are an humane shot with some skill before your card gets the “Natty Stamp”. That is the little code meaning you are an approved Slingshot Hunter. It means a little pressure, as you have to hit the 25mm spinner at 10 metres within three shots while watched. This is not deemed necessary if you are a pro-tier ESF shooter or can prove any trophy win at any HFT hunters’ course shoot in the UK within the last three years.
Each bird has a small anodised aluminium staple/game tag on its wing and as well as using them to tally your bird count, (there is a drop box on site or you can post them in, later) you will also get added to the venue records, with a view to awards like ‘Pheasant Reaper of the Year’ as yet not fully decided.
What has been decided though is that these tags shall add up to free gifts from the shoot sponsors, WASP Slingshots, who said; “We are delighted to back such a revolutionary idea with our sponsorship of the bag-prizes at LLareggub Woods and know that our products are ideal for safe, humane slingshot hunting. Always wear your safety glasses!” The prizes are all G10 models of their classics, from Keyrings to Target Masters.
LLareggub want a presence on the better field-sport friendly FB groups and social media in general and have seen this as a way forward. I called up the owner (name withheld) and he said; “Wales has its fair share of serious slingshot shooters and we know that there have been many target shoots, first in Bassaleg and then in Fochwri. The bird shooting ban has hit us hard as rearing gamebirds is what we do, (or did, he added ruefully) and now we cannot have shoots at our cover – with guns anyway.” Before adding, “And oddly, it started with us looking at your website – or rather just the Slingshots & The Law page. That set me thinking. There are also some big day ticket trout and salmon fisheries in Wales and there is glamping and woodland camping. We took legal advice based on what your site said and while we do expect some grief from antis, we are covered. There is no scatter of shot from a catapult. It’s a head shot or it’s a miss. So we fit the humane dispatch regulation.” Before concluding, “We hope to cater for those who never managed to find that ‘perm’, and who want to spend some quality time camping in the woods. Just on a day ticket if they like. Keeping the people-count low means you will have space for yourself for a bit of Shinrin-Yoku, and have a cookout of fresh pheasant. Just remember to keep the tags, as TAG-BAGS MAKE PRIZES!”
Admitting freely that they are following the model set by the famous airgun farm in Essex, Larrygub are also going to set up a small HFT targets-only-no-hunting course in another of their smaller properties that members can use, daytime only, for a one-off extra fee of £30 per season.
Best part of all is that they have swagged a top manager in known shooter Jay Morgan. He was told about the job going by Terence Hogan, who had in turn been asked by the owner as he knew of him through social media. Terry’s a loveable top bloke and everyone knows him, after all. Jay got led up the mountain and said, “It was a dream come true, a proper actual job just in catapults. I must be mad, but I am looking forward to it. I haven’t been doing the gamekeeping bit rearing the birds but I have done the specialist instruction in shooting sports training course and I reckon I can tell if a shooter is fit to take a pheasant.”
Access details and website will be published soon but in the meanwhile, you can apply direct to Jason to get on the membership-wanted list. Expect a full feature in the upcoming issue SIX of Slingshot World, available at absolutely no newsagents at all..but just here: https://slingshot-world.ecwid.com/
