After half a year of being hidden in its cabinet, my trusty shotgun was brought out this week and I headed north to do some shooting. The quarry wasn't grouse, but the humbler woodpigeon and the destination Norfolk as opposed to Yorkshire.
The pigeon is, however, a much-underrated challenge. Like grouse, it is entirely wild. It is a fantastic, acrobatic flyer, and to persuade a pigeon to come to a set of decoys on newly cut oil-seed rape requires a level of fieldcraft that's unknown in other forms of shooting, with the possible exception of wildfowling. Pigeon shooting represents, perhaps, the ultimate challenge for a sportsman.
Hopefully, by now, I've given you an idea of the reasons why I missed so many. Happily, Harry, my son, was performing brilliantly. His advice to his father was brusque and it became hard to tell whether he was taking more satisfaction over his performance or mine. To cap it all, we watched a peregrine stoop and take one of the birds I missed. Harry's joy knew no bounds. I'll be a very old man before he lets me forget it. I'll be an even older man before I forget the happiness of sitting together in a hide, chatting and sharing a sport we love.
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Chelsea Flower Show 2025: What else to do in SW3 if you're coming to the world's greatest flower showThere's more to Chelsea than just the Flower Show so we've rounded up some of the best places to eat, stay and shop.
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Uniquely unique? The Yorkshire grain silos transformed into a home that's a symphony in glass, steel and curvesAmid the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire, on the edge of the Castle Howard Estate, The Silos is a property for which the word 'house' simply doesn't cut it. And that's not the only way in which it's made us throw out the dictionary.
