Simulated shooting days, once the sport’s equivalent of a driving range, have upped their game, offering many of the pleasures of a traditional shooting weekend – on a budget. Jamie Blackett advises.
Why you might want to organise a simulated game shooting house party
How to repay hospitality? It is a perennial question for most guns and a nagging, guilt-laden one for the impecunious town gun trying to balance the mortgage and family commitments. “Budget = x; better make that x-y if we are going to take the children skiing. That might give me eight guns staying in the Pig & Whistle in Lower Dripping in the Marsh, provided we have the set menu for dinner and a 50-bird day at Hedgeskimmer Hall. Mmm, risk of being all over by elevenses if they give us bag-filler drives too early in the day. Better not invite Greedy Gus and the Low Bird Specialist just in case…” (You might also like to read: the best simulated shoots in the country.)
A drive at Coombe End, near Cheltenham.
Or perhaps you are the best man trying to organise a stag party without leaving all the groom’s friends in debt.
For some time there has been the opportunity to balance the option of a day’s game shooting against the more predictable but less sporting alternative of simulated game shooting. This used to be a ‘turn up and pay’ arrangement, a dubious substitute for a weekend’s pheasant shooting, but as demand has grown, simulated shooting has become more sophisticated. Now, the opportunities to buy hospitality and shooting that are much closer to the real thing at an affordable price have developed.
Simulated game shooting still lacks the excitement of pitting one’s skills against wild birds, the unpredictability of driving game and the deep satisfaction of working with dogs. Yet there is no denying that it is becoming more popular as modern clay traps allow ever more exciting ‘drives’. Some are suggesting that it would be better for the sport if those who want to fire off industrial quantities of cartridges do so on clay shoots, while game shooting reverts to traditional days and smaller bags.
Extending the season
There are clear benefits for landowners from diversifying into the simulated market. It can help to spread fixed costs by extending the season by several months and guns who are new to the sport may trade up to the real thing after gaining confidence shooting clays in the seductive atmosphere and idyllic scenery of a well-run estate. For the host, there is the advantage that, barring mechanical breakdowns, clays don’t refuse to fly into the sun, baulk at taking on a cold north wind or tip out of the back of the drive when a fox shows up. You know that on every drive every gun is going to fire lots of cartridges at ‘birds’ that are neither too high nor too low.
Enjoying dinner at Bryngwyn, where the hospitality is “fantastic”.
Charismatic landowners
It is no surprise that two of the leading exponents of simulated game country house weekends are charismatic landowners who have brought ancient estates back from the brink with grit, determination and a distinctive entrepreneurial flair: Auriol, Marchioness of Linlithgow, chatelaine of Bryngwyn in the Welsh Marches; and Ted Coryton at Pentillie Castle in Cornwall. Both run high-end pheasant and partridge shoots that now lend their names to simulated shoots as well. Coryton says, “We have been doing simulated game for about 10 years. We try to make it as realistic as possible. The main limiting factor is that you can’t fire clays through trees so the drives are similar to the pheasant drives without being identical. The entertainment and hospitality are very much part of it. ”
Bed-and-breakfast stays
A gun who is a regular at Pentillie comments. “I have been four or five times. It is the most super social day. There are 16 guns, you draw numbers then the day is managed so that you share one of the eight pegs with a different gun on each drive, shooting for half the drive then loading the other half. It feels as if you are on a pheasant shoot all day. The breaks for breakfast and elevenses between drives are really memorable – one is by a mausoleum housing Ted’s ancestors on a spectacular viewpoint looking across the Tamar and one is in a boathouse down on the quay. It is really special staying in the house. I have stayed there on a self-catering basis, where the house becomes yours, or on formal weekends, which are the real deal. I have often given bed-and-breakfast stays at Pentillie to friends as Christmas presents, which have been much appreciated.”
Elevenses at Bryngwyn.
Another keen gun takes teams to Bryngwyn two or three times a year for game and simulated days and says: “There are lots of places offering simulated game these days but few offer accommodation. Staying at Bryngwyn is really good fun and the breakfasts are superb. It is very good value for entertaining.”
Combined packages
Most estates offer simulated game out of season but, unusually, Lady Linlithgow offers combined packages. She says, “It is good for teams practising in our grouse butts with their loaders before big game days.” A regular visitor comments: “The option of a simulated day at Bryngwyn beforehand is a must, especially for teams coming from abroad. Guns not ready for the quality of birds in Wales can practise standing in the right terrain with clays coming at a realistic height.”
A simulated day at Pentillie Castle, Cornwall, where they try to make it as realistic as possible.
The organiser of a roving syndicated says, “Bryngwyn is very, very good hospitality, it just keeps coming. Dinner is fantastic, the roast beef is just superb. We like the simulated day at Bryngwyn on the hill and in the valleys. The Home Counties can’t compete with the terrain, it is very hard to make clays look like something they are not on flat ground.”
Closer to London, Coombe End in Gloucestershire and Bereleigh near Petersfield in Hampshire have also built on their reputation for pheasant shooting to offer simulated game shooting with a stay in the big house and all the trimmings. Both run simulated days in early summer, allowing guests to experience these estates in their summer glory. Ed Darbishire of Ian Coley Sporting, the shoot captain at Coombe End, says, “Staying in the partly mediaeval house at that time of year is very special and the guns really appreciate the gardens at their peak and enjoy shooting in beautiful Cotswold parkland.”
The shooting director at Bereleigh says: “We run it exactly like a normal shooting weekend, the difference is that at that time of year we might barbecue a fillet of beef and eat outside enjoying the stunning views over the South Downs.”
Dining-room at Coombe End.
The simulated game-shooting weekend looks as if it is here to stay. And maybe it will help to ease concerns about the game mountain by giving an outlet for their enthusiasm to those who want numbers above all else, helping the industry to rebalance itself and focus on quality and the ineffable pleasures of traditional game shooting.
Simulated game shooting house party venues
This article was originally published in 2019 and has been updated. For more guides to country sports, subscribe to The Field Guide To monthly newsletters and receive a complimentary guide to dogs from Country Life magazine.