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The UK and England - a simple yet wonderful wingshooting break.


Saeed regularly knocks BA and others on here frequently have a go at Boris and his ‘bimbo’ (or is that Saeed as well?? Said with a smile!) but despite all its perceived shortcomings, the UK has a few things that in my opinion are world class and pigeons / pigeon shooting and English pubs are among them! Sure the USA has its sports bars with dozens of big screens, burgers and dozens or beer brands which is all great, and Argentina has more doves than anywhere else, but here I am talking about the “quintessential British country public house” with its low ceilings and wooden beams, a roaring open fire, wood and brass and plenty of real ales and other traditional draught beers to choose from. And as for the feathered sport, the common old wood pigeon, Columba palumbus, is, I think, one of the fastest and most agile sporting birds out there and a real challenge to even the best shotgunner! Typically around half a kilo in weight, 40 cms in size and a wing of up to 60-70 cms and as Archie Coats once said “a eye on every feather” (meaning how well they can see)!

I have shot grouse in Scotland, pheasants and partridge all over England, all kinds of feathered game throughout Africa including high volume pigeon and dove, pointed greywing and driven guinea fowl, but in my opinion it is hard to beat simple decoyed woodies over rapeseed and other crop drillings or stubbles. Decoyed pigeon is truly testing sport. Now, combine a few days of decoyed wood pigeon with a classic English country pub - and substitute BA for a Range Rover Vogue, in British racing green of course, and a road trip from Germany under the English Channel on ‘Le Shuttel’ with a great sporting friend and we have all the best ingredients for a wonderful week’s late April pigeon shooting over spring crops in Suffolk, England.

I booked this through Anglia Sporting. I have known Nick, the Owner of Anglia Sporting UK, since he set up the business some 15 years ago and my wife and I, and indeed many friends, have been on sporting trips arranged by Nick in Norfolk and Suffolk over the years - driven pheasant and partridge shoots, rough shoots, walked up pointed days, snipe and woodcock days, duck and geese at dusk, roe and muntjac stalking and more. And this time it was to be 5 days of decoyed pigeon over crops and crows at the piggeries (more on this later)!

An email from Nick to confirm the booking, a 50% deposit and we were good to go! No lengthy contracts and waivers and pages of disclaimers. Nope, a short email straight and simple.

Wood pigeon are prolific in the UK and are year round residents in increasing numbers, often breeding twice a year. Most of the pigeons diet is vegetable and Suffolk has a lot of arable land and crops and lots of pigeon as a result. Nick has built on this and offers fully organised pigeon days - basically he and his team pre-scout the flight paths and then build the hides / blinds in the best spots and set out the decoys and flappers using plastic decoys and shot birds and you are then left in your hide to enjoy a morning or a day at the pigeons. Nick collects you at the end of the day and helps pick up the bag and deals with the birds and the gear and then you get to do it all over again the next day and the next and the next. Most days is a different location unless one spot is getting hammered by the pigeons (often the case with peas), then it makes sense to leave the hide there and shoot multiple days at the same spot to try and get on top of the birds for the farmer but that is usually the exception.

A great sporting enthusiast and close friend would be joining me and, as we planned the trip one February evening over a meal and a good bottle or two of red, we debated what shotguns to take. His Krieghoff OU and my Browning 325 OU or should we go with classic English side by sides? The latter won. We would shoot classic guns. My friend opted for his 12/65 Purdey and I for one of a pair of 1920’s William Evans boxlocks. Plus, I have a Churchill XXV 12/65 in the UK waiting to be collected, which I had shipped to a gun dealer near where we would be shooting. Anglia Sporting also arranged 12/65 one ounce shotgun cartridges for us as well, so we did not have to worry about trying to buy them on route or in Germany, where they are hard to come by. Thanks Nick

Modern shotguns are great and serve their purpose, but there is nothing quite like shooting classic side by sides - the wood, the blue of the barrels, the checkering, the hand engraving and the excellent handling of these guns combined with the knowledge that these guns were hand crafted close to a century ago! Nostalgia pure! Although I am not sure that Messrs. Purdey, Evans and Churchill would have been overly pleased with the idea of us shooting wood pigeons and corvids - both vermin in the eyes of the farming community - with their ‘bespoke’ shotguns. But heck, you only live once so we would shoot pigeons and crows with premium guns and in the evenings we would enjoy traditional Suffolk fare and great local ales. Plus, with the hotels blessing and a modest corkage fee, I would take a bottle of vintage port for us to enjoy after dinner and my companion some quality scotch.

Then on Thursday before the Sunday departure, my friend pulled out leaving me solo. Shit happens as the saying goes. A few phone calls to Nick and the hotel to advise the change in numbers and every thing was back on track other than instead of a Range Rover it would now be my trusty Landy Tdi!!

The drive from Germany, through Holland, Belgium and into France and the short shuttle link into England was uneventful other than long lines of cars at the passport and customs checks before boarding the car train. Brexit! The only good thing to come out of Brexit is that you can now buy Duty Free when entering or leaving the UK!













I arrived at Walberswick, Suffolk, and The Anchor Inn, my home for the next week, late Sunday afternoon and after settling into my room and a short walk on the nearby beach to stretch the legs after the journey, I enjoyed a great pub meal washed down with a pint or two of Adnams ale and then it was off to bed in anticipation of the sport in the days ahead!




















The first morning out was a 5 a.m. meet at Hinton Hall farm, fortunately only 10 mins drive from The Anchor, where we would be shooting corvids (read crows, rooks, magpies and jays) over livestock (read pigs!). I say ‘we’ as there were 9 guns in total shooting and we had a blast!

Everyone was on time and after introductions - Ali, Ed, Reef, Thomas, Sam and so on - and a safety briefing, we were driven to our hides and we were shooting. Nick had already set some decoys and within 30 minutes crows, jackdaws and seagulls started to fill the skies! The shooting was wonderful and between us we managed 200 birds before stopping for a full cooked English breakfast back at the shoot lodge. Superb!

It was fascinating shooting at a piggery. The shots did not phase the pigs at all, on the contrary, the noise brought the pigs out of their huts to see what was going on. And then when one of the shot birds - pigeon or corvid - happened to drop into one of the stalls, the pigs would run over to the fallen birds and start eating them! Yep, the pigs, big and small, cleared up the shot birds, feathers and all! Quite a sight!






































In the afternoon Nick let me sit on another part of the pig farm and with a few pigeon and crow decoys out, I shot through to 5:00 pm taking some 27 birds including a couple of seriously high shots on flighting wood pigeon! Nick warmed that the afternoons are often quiet but I was more than happy being outdoors and enjoying some simple sport.








And then it was back to The Anchor for a pint of Pale Ale and a superb dinner of tempura oysters with chili vinegar dip and then that great British traditional ‘Bubble and Squeak’ with haddock! Life is good!








The next day was a later start at 10:30 which gave me a moment to check my Landy over - an oil top up and otherwise all good. I love my Landy!

We set up a pigeon pattern on a strip of set-aside, flowers, weeds and grasses which was attracting the woodies and Nick left me to get on with it. An hour in and 6 woodies and a magpie down and a farm hand turns up in his Claas tractor with a trailer full of muck and starts spreading on the strip I was shooting! Plan B - a crow blind on the nearby piggery and some crow shooting. Or not. It was a very slow afternoon so I opted to drive to nearby Framingham and collect my Churchill shotgun from Jason Harris, a most knowledgeable gunsmith and real gentleman and owner of Trulock & Harris Gunsmiths.

It was then back to the hide and more pigeons shooting, but it was slow and I struggled to hit double figures.

















The following days were filled with crows at the piggeries in the mornings and pigeons over crops and set aside in the afternoons. I shot well and enjoyed good bags of birds both corvids and woodies. Late afternoons and early evenings, I enjoyed walking around the small historic village with its sites, its one newsagents (read small food shop) and its pubs. I discovered four pubs in the village which was like one pub for every twenty five locals! The local church was full of history with headstones dating back to the early 1800s!








One particular afternoon it was overcast and very breezy and the woodies presented terrific sport - racing with the wind over the decoys and dropping 30 - 40 yards ahead after the shot! Those that I missed turned on the after burners and winged away at tremendous speeds jinking and diving. What truly great sporting birds!

Let me digress here and spend a moment or two on the guns that I was shooting during the week. As I mentioned earlier, I opted to shoot classic guns rather than their modern counterparts.

I was shooting the No. 1 gun of a pair of William Evans 12/65s, made in London, from the Post WW1 era of shotgun making ie the 1920s. Boxlocks rather than sidelocks, with excellent fast handling and a joy to shot! The pair is recorded as having been ordered in November 1922 and completed and delivered in July 1923. Ninety nine years old and still going strong!





In addition, I shot a 1932 Churchill XXV sidelock. A classic gun under the Churchill name designed and first produced between 1913 and 1915, with 25 inch barrels and its raised inverted V rib, revolutionary at the time being so short yet with excellent handling ability and also a joy to shot. And even with short 25 inch barrels, the Churchill had no problems at all dropping 30 and 40 yard crows and pigeons out of he skies! Cased with accessories the Churchill XXV is just a wonderful classic sidelock from a classic 1900s maker !





Glorious guns with close to 100 years of shooting history on them! I just love it!

One afternoon, I took the breasts off of a couple of young woodies that I shot and took them back to The Anchor Inn. In the kitchens, I asked Wayne the Chef, if he would possibly cook them for me that evening. He was delighted to and as a starter I enjoyed seared pink wood pigeon breasts on a bed of green asparagus and spinach leaves over grilled garlic bread! Delicious!





The final morning at the crows was cold and overcast and the crows stayed on their nests. It was slow going and I struggled to get double figures on the birds plus a rat that raced across one of the pig pens. Ten birds and a rat to round off the week.














We were planning on going out Friday late afternoon after a muntjac but with the wind and cold we put that plan aside. Next time.

I guess I was shooting 2 - 1 during the week, whereby if I had not been so selective on picking challenging birds I could possibly have been shooting better. This was a wonderful left and right I took on two pretty high jackdaws! Those two shots made me smile.





In, addition to shooting, I enjoy wine and have had a reserves account at Berry Bros & Rudd in London since the mid 1980s. That dates me! They have done me well over the years and I have purchased some great wines and port from them. In the past it was easy to have wines delivered to Germany where we are based. However with Brexit that is gone and its now taxes and returns and paper and additional charges and more costs. So the long and short was that I had all of the wines drawn from my reserves and delivered to me c/o The Anchor, where I was staying, and I drove it all back with me - stopping in Folkstone to claim back the sales tax. The tax refund paid for the shooting and hotel! I am now going to close the wine account with BBR after some 35 years plus! Another Brexit balls up IMO! Their loss more than mine as there are great wine merchants on the Continent too!

So a Brexit tax refund paid for my shooting and I came home with a ‘new old’ shotgun, a couple dozen cases of wine and glorious visions and memories of crows and pigeons falling from the Suffolk skies to land in pig pens or on rape seed and peas!

A great week of uncomplicated, easy wing shooting based out of a really great pub / hotel on the East coast of England!

Thanks to Nick of Anglia Sporting for putting it all together and thanks to all AR members / readers that took the time to read through this report.





I have already booked for 2023!


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Thank you for a great story and even better pictures.

Pete

Sounds like a great trip ... wing shooting completes many of us and so few hunt reports make it across these pages ...
Thanks for taking the time

I certainly don’t envy you doing that journey in a Landrover 90!
Guess isn’t so far but too uncomfortable for me.

A classic Wing Master

Sounds like a great time.