Dear Pigeon Shooter,
If you’ve read the rest of this website, you’ll know that the Estate is home to the Morghew Shoot, which offers driven pheasant, partridge and duck shooting during the game season, from September through January inclusive. For the rest of the year, from the beginning of February through to the end of August, we also offer pigeon shooting over 1000 acres of arable land and in the region of 100 acres of woodland.
This will be the second year of pigeon shooting at Morghew Park, our farming operation having initially sustained unprecedented crop damage from pigeons during the 2009 season.
I think most of our Guns would agree that the first year went well. I estimate that we must have accounted for at least 1500 birds, whose demise will have benefited our rape and wheat crops significantly, and several guns visited us on numerous occasions.
Freedom to Roam
Not surprisingly, our first season has been a learning curve, and I’ve had ample opportunity to reflect on the nature of our proposition to both experienced and novice pigeon shooters. Unlike other estates, where Guns are sometimes restricted to a single hide or a single field, we offer our Guns the freedom to roam over 1000 acres of remarkably unspoilt Wealden countryside, and set up their hide and decoys pretty much wherever they like – always respecting the restricted areas on which every Gun is briefed at the beginning of the day. It is this freedom to roam that we believe makes a pigeon day at Morghew so special. One of our Guns made this very point last season, when he said:
‘ For the last eight hours, I’ve felt as if I own the place. I’ve gazed at beautiful views, shot some demanding pigeons, watched a steam train trundle past and thought not once about the desk at which I sit for five days of the week.’
Experts and Novices
Unlike driven pheasant shooting, pigeon shooting is all about field-craft, and it’s this, rather than technical shooting ability, that makes the difference between experts and novices. For this reason, we will be catering for experts and novices differently this season, as follows:
An Expert’s Unaccompanied Day - £50 + VAT weekdays, £70 + VAT Saturdays
This begins at 9.00am with a cup of coffee in the guns’ mess. After checking your shotgun and insurance certificates, we will furnish you with a map of the Estate and then drive you around it for 20 minutes or so, in the course of which we’ll suggest a promising location where you might like to start your day. Then it’s up to you, and of course you’re welcome to move around and alternate between shooting flightlines and shooting over decoys. We’ll expect you to have a vehicle and your own equipment – hide, seat, decoys, and so on.. At the end of the day, we expect you to sign out with the shoot captain by mobile phone. Otherwise, we have to come looking for you…
A Novice’s Unaccompanied Day - £75 + VAT weekdays, £95 + VAT Saturdays
This begins in the same way as an expert’s day (above), but we will lend you all the equipment you need, and we’ll set it all up for you in a promising spot. One of our Estate staff will then be available to move you and your equipment once – if you feel you want a change of scenery or have spotted a site that you hope may be more productive. At the end of the day, it will be up to you to return the equipment to the guns’ mess before signing out by mobile phone with the shoot captain.
Accompanied Days
Individual Guns and teams have the option of spending the day in the company of one of the Estate’s current or former game keepers. One of these is Mr Brian Masters. Brian is a life-long devotee of game and pigeon-shooting who knows every inch of the Estate. He is ideally qualified to instruct novices on the techniques of pigeon-shooting as well as using his knowledge of the Estate to help experienced teams to maximize their bag.
The cost of an accompanied day depends on the number of guns in the team. Please call to discuss.
Booking and Conditions
To discuss all this further, or to make a booking, please call Tom Lewis on 07802 609 661. We take payment by credit card over the phone at the time of booking to confirm the reservation, and we do reserve the right to have more than one individual or more than one team shooting pigeons on any one day. This is almost invariably an advantage to all concerned, as shooting at various locations on the Estate has the effect of keeping the pigeons moving around.