Grouse Shooting

Red grouse are unique to the uplands of Britain and are closely associated with heather moorland. As the mascot of the Scottish rugby team and the emblem of a famous brand of whisky, the grouse might be thought to be a Scottish bird, but its natural range extends down to the southwest of England.

Although well adapted to surviving the winter in some of the bleakest parts of the country, the grouse does not have an easy life. It is predated by foxes, crows, stoats and birds of prey, and is prone to diseases such as Strongylosis and Louping Ill. This combined with unpredictable weather in the spring makes grouse numbers and therefore shooting extremely unpredictable. Traditional management, combined with new techniques for the control of strongylosis, has done much to maintain the population in much of northern England and Scotland, but only token populations now remain in the Lake District, the southwest of England and parts of Wales.

Paradoxically, it is due to shooting that the red grouse itself is not on the endangered species list, and that many of the birds that share its habitat have not died out altogether. Where actively keepered, grouse numbers can be locally high giving enough for a shootable surplus in certain years without reducing the breeding population. Grouse are wild birds and are not artificially reared, so moorland keepers need long experience to manage effectively-often generations from the same family.

Grouse can fly at speeds of up to 80mph and require a high level of skill to shoot. They have been one of the most sought after game birds for over a century and command a high price from sportsmen all over the world. Furthermore, they are excellent to eat and their relative scarcity makes them a valuable commodity. Grouse shooting is carried out with a high level of care and responsibility and is arguably the pinnacle of game shooting in the world.

We have access to some great moors in the UK and can arrange single or multiple days. To ensure your grouse shooting trip is as memorable as it should be for the right reasons, we will happily arrange appropriate local accommodation on your behalf, and transport for those coming from abroad, so that no detail of your trip is left to chance.