As the shooting season runs from October to January, with the majority of shoots taking place from November onwards, the weather experienced within one season can be extremely varied – not to mention challenging!
We speak to our shooting expert Graham White, who is Headkeeper at Holylee Estate in the Scottish Borders, to find out what he thinks makes the optimum environment for a day’s pheasant shooting.
The ideal weather for shooting at Holylee
At Holylee, we are a very challenging shoot with steep sided valleys generating very testing birds.
Thus we need a decent breeze but don’t want it too windy otherwise the birds become impossible which is demoralising for both the guns and the beaters. We like a decent breeze with an overcast day so the sun isn’t getting in either the birds or the gun’s eyes and we like it cold.
It needs to be winter and some snow on the tops of the hills doesn’t bother us at all. We don’t want heavy snow during the day but snow around and about helps the birds to be where you expect and want them to be. Temperature is important though and we need it to be winter rather than what we had this year which has almost been summer all year round.
Find out more about Graham and his advice for shooting by visiting his expert profile.