A few for the pot

When I was a teenager in the late 1950s, virtually everybody who shot game had been introduced to the sport through rough shooting. Back then, there were a few small ‘working-men’s’ syndicate shoots where the members did their own keepering, while the larger estates usually ran private shoots for the benefit of their titled owners.

It sounds inconceivable now, but in those days there were still plenty of rough shoots available, with lots of smaller farms still eking out a living from as little as 30 acres. However, as the old boys began to retire, the changing face of global commerce made it difficult for their sons to earn a viable living from the smaller acreages. Some diversified while others found