It’s getting expensive ☹️

[Stavross 13,705]

Well we have had our first shoot meeting of the year and everything has gone up, the birds are the biggest jump, up 50p a poult to 4 quid each , as I’ve said before we are only a small syndicate and are putting a 1000 birds down this year so that sort of increase make a big difference to us, we have all agreed to pay another £50 each to cover the cost of the birds and with 4 members dropping out we have decided not to replace them and instead offer days to people to come and have a go for £70 ( stand one / beat one ), this could be a good idea or it could go terribly wrong, depending on the people we get, we will just have to see how that goes, the feed has gone up as well, medicated £25 quid a ton more and the grower almost £15 a ton, this is rapidly becoming an expensive pastime for the private syndicates 

[shovel leaner 7,648]

In my experience, paying guns , who aren’t members will have to be watched carefully. They will “fill their boots “ with little regard for future days . Unlike syndicate members who may think “ i will leave that bird , there is always tomorrow “ , for them there is no tomorrow and they will shoot you out of house and home and piss off syndicate members. Lay the law down before they pay and spell out the shoots ethos and how many they can shoot . Otherwise it is a good way of offsetting costs . ATB

[Stavross 13,705]

That was my argument for replacing the members, but on the other hand we think we can fill the places with people that shoot members know and with inexperienced guns, we did a few days last season where a couple of people came and paid a few quid to see what it was all about and to be fair they were over the moon if they shot a brace

[wilbur foxhound 480]

Why don’t you let a day,and get your members to beat and pick up on the day it would help towards the payment of birds and wheat,wf

[Stavross 13,705]

We discussed that and could of let a day to cover a big chunk of our extra costs but some members didn’t want to give up there shooting and there would of been some excuse why they didn’t turn up to beat for a team of guns

[wilbur foxhound 480]

6 hours ago, Stavross said:

We discussed that and could of let a day to cover a big chunk of our extra costs but some members didn’t want to give up there shooting and there would of been some excuse why they didn’t turn up to beat for a team of guns

They seem to be the hungry ones,by letting a day it would give more money to buy more birds and food,a bit short sighted ,I could never understand people that couldn’t give up a day to help out,but they would manage to be there on that day if they were getting to shoot,wf

[Stavross 13,705]

31 minutes ago, wilbur foxhound said:

They seem to be the hungry ones,by letting a day it would give more money to buy more birds and food,a bit short sighted ,I could never understand people that couldn’t give up a day to help out,but they would manage to be there on that day if they were getting to shoot,wf

Yep, you are not wrong, the other lad that runs the shoot could of sold a day for £2000, he already had a team of guns lined up for it with a cap on numbers they could shoot, we could of put another 500 birds down and with the extra £50 we are paying per gun I think we could of given the members 7 days shooting for about £55 a day, I don’t know anywhere you could get shooting like this for that money, but each to there own, it’s a private syndicate so we all have to agree on how the season is going to be run, I think if we let the day we would of struggled for beaters with the miserable old buggers coming up with lame excuses why they couldn’t come

Edited June 2, 2019 by Stavross