Shooting Gazette – September 2019

42 SEPTEMBER 2019 WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK

“I

f I weregiventhe

choiceof only

shootingonebirdI’d

go forpartridgeover

pheasanteverytime.Whether

barrelling overhedgesin the

HomeCountiesor soaringover

valleysin theWestCountry,

they’re suchanenjoyable

quarryto shoot”.Sosays

AndrewBlowers,andI forone

agreewithhim.

Andrewownsandrunsthe

Mornacott shootonExmoor.

Heboughtit a littleover 10

yearsagoandwitha huge

amountof timeandeffort

has turnedit intothehighly

regardedshootit is today.

Althoughprimarilya

pheasantshoot, Andrewhas

alwaysaddedpartridgesto the

mix. “Welovethemas anadd-

onto ourpheasantshooting

and,overthelastfewyears,

we’ve increasednumbers such

thattheynowrepresentaround

30 percentof ourbirdstock,”

he says.Mornacott’sseason

doesn’tstart untilOctoberbut

theyoffermainlypartridgedays

forthefirstfewoutings.

I amnotsurewhatexcites

me aboutpartridge,and I am

talkingthehumblenon-native

redleghere,Alectorisrufa, rather

thanournativegrey.I am

toldtheyarenotas fast as a

pheasant,althoughin truthona

windydaytherecan’tbe much

to choose betweenthem,and

theyarenotas proneto slide

acrossthewindas thebigger

THE RISE

OF THE

What makes this quarry so special? Chris

The numbers of redlegs in
the UK now far outweighs
ALAMY those of our native greys.

game bird. But they are small,

much smaller than hen pheasant

and that alone makes them

challenging. And they are just

so charming, small, pretty and

on you in a fl ash. They are not

so shabby on a plate either.

I suppose part of their allure

is simply that they are not as

ubiquitous as the pheasant.

Three or four times more

pheasants are released than

partridges, so most of us lift

our guns to the larger quarry

on a more consistent basis.

They fl y differently,

too, and provide a

greater variety of

shot than pheasants,

especially on mixed

shoots where the

partridges come

over the line

early in a drive,

springing on

the Guns,

often taking

them almost

unaware.

They say

that redlegs

tend to come

over in ones

and twos

compared with

the large coveys

that typify the

grey, but they

come over in

groups suffi ciently

often to add that

problem to the

shooter. Picking a

bird and sticking

with it is an art

and it pays to

remember that

to shoot a