Ripley Castle Shoot
The Ripley Castle Shoot
The Shoot covers The Ripley Castle Estate, The Hob Green Estate, The Cayton Estate and other areas leased from neighbouring farmers. On a typical shoot day we would normally shoot drives on more than one of the estates covered by the shoot.
Our main drives are classic, as historically, both the parkland and farmland of the estates were landscaped and woodlands planted to produce good quality sporting birds. The mature woodlands and lakes make excellent use of the many natural contours, which are an attractive part of the estates.
In recent years we have planted strategically placed wild bird cover which can produce a quality of bird equal to if not better than most other lowland estates.
The Keepers: Ripley Castle
David Cockshott, whose family go back many generations of living and farming on the Nidd Estate, has worked on the Shoot since 1997. He took up the position of Head Keeper in 2006 and has certainly made a significant difference to our Shoot. David is assisted by three experienced Keepers, Robert Binnington, Matt Pillar and Dan Snuggs.
The team is also assisted by a number of part time staff during the rearing season. In addition to our Keepers on a Shoot day we have a friendly and efficient team of beaters, pickers up and other staff which can total over 25 on each shoot day.
Bird/Shot Averages: Ripley Castle
As with any Shoot the bag each day can vary dependent both on the weather and the ability of the team of guns. At Ripley Castle we try to present good quality sporting birds which will test most game shots.
The following bird shot averages illustrate the improved sporting quality of our birds in recent seasons.
| September |
October |
November |
December |
January |
Average |
|
| 2005 |
2.55 |
2.75 |
3.08 |
3.33 |
3.38 |
3.18 |
| 2006 |
2.88 |
2.83 |
3.13 |
3.48 |
3.65 |
3.23 |
| 2007 |
3.22 |
3.28 |
3.53 |
3.64 |
3.77 |
3.41 |
| 2008 |
3.47 |
3.49 |
3.52 |
3.41 |
4.08 |
3.61 |
| 2009 |
3.78 |
3.79 |
3.81 |
4.19 |
4.23 |
3.82 |
| 2010 |
3.48 |
3.42 |
3.74 |
3.63 |
4.00 |
3.68 |
| 2011 |
3.81 |
3.65 |
3.62 |
4.05 |
4.11 |
3.85 |
| 2012 |
3.14 |
3.29 |
3.91 |
3.49 |
4.01 |
3.59 |
| 2013 |
3.77 |
3.47 |
3.44 |
3.98 |
3.78 |
3.66 |
| 2014 |
2.91 |
3.06 |
3.13 |
3.50 |
4.07 |
3.34 |
| 2015 |
2.72 |
3.46 |
3.65 |
3.89 |
3.83 |
3.69 |
| 2016 |
3.01 |
3.15 |
3.43 |
3.73 |
3.78 |
3.49 |
| 2017 |
2.93 |
3.80 |
3.61 |
3.50 |
3.70 |
3.60 |
| 2018 |
3.07 |
3.39 |
3.61 |
3.72 |
3.81 |
3.58 |
| 14 year average |
3.20 |
3.34 |
3.51 |
3.68 |
3.87 |
3.55 |
These returns do give an indication of the weather conditions which can vary each month, year on year.
Whatever the calibre of the team, we always try to exceed the target bag on the day. However, if the weather is against us i.e. strong winds, torrential rain or very warm, still and sunny days when nothing really wants to fly, there is little we can do about it. One should not be out in the shooting field if you are not prepared to accept the good days as well as the not so good ones.
The Birds: Ripley Castle and Mountgarret
We have rearing fields on both Shoots where we rear and hatch pheasant and French partridge. Our duck are purchased as 7 week old growers.
Pheasant
In 2019 we decided not to produce our own pheasant eggs from our laying field but to have a total change of stock by buying in eggs from France.
The Strains we release are Manchurian, Melanistic, Hungarian and American Cross. This mix of strains will be ideal for our terrain.
We catch up all our remaining stock at the end of the shooting season for other shoots and hatcheries. By moving as many old birds as possible our ground will have a good rest before our poults are released in June/July.
We have some classic pheasant drives which most guns find quite challenging. During the last few seasons our birds have been so impressive in the way they have flown that a number of my guns have commented that they are as good, if not better compared to most parkland shooting they have experienced elsewhere.
French Partridge
As with our pheasant we buy in eggs from France and day olds from a UK Hatchery. All are released no later than 10 weeks old and well before the start of the season. This way they are able to learn to fly and become acquainted with their wild habitat, it also gives us mature birds from day one.
Our wild bird cover produces some excellent partridge shooting with a mix of field drives and birds driven over trees. As many of my Members and myself enjoy our partridge, which can be very testing, I can assure everyone that we will see as many if not more partridge, either on partridge drives or early and during a pheasant drive, than ever before on each day throughout the whole season.
Duck
We release our growers at 7 weeks old into the same area as our wild duck. There is a tendency for guns to consider duck shooting as a lesser sport compared to pheasant and partridge, that is of course until you have experienced our duck!
I totally agree that surrounding reared duck sat on a pond, then putting the dogs in, is most definitely not sporting shooting as I know it and I do detest this practice. However our duck are quite different and we have built up a reputation for quality driven duck made up of approximately 60% reared and 40% wild. We drive our duck towards the guns, about ¼ mile away from the pegs and they fly over the guns once or at the most twice. In order to avoid the indiscriminate shooting which can occur, each gun is given only 25 non toxic cartridges or 50 on a windy day, so they make sure every shot counts and it is always interesting to see the better bird shot average achieved compared to previous seasons when there were no restrictions on the number of cartridges. Some geese may come over with the duck.
As we build up our stock of duck bred in the wild we will reduce the number of reared duck released. We have an excellent nesting area for wild duck and I feel that as this is one game species which breeds well for us in the wild I propose releasing less reared duck each season as our wild stock becomes established.
I reserve the option to include a duck drive on any Members Day, however when a duck drive is included, as I value duck at 20% less than partridge and pheasant and as I do not want the total number of duck to dominate the day, the make up for example of a 300 bird day with 5 drives giving an average of 60 birds per drive:
4 drives of partridge and pheasant = approx. 240 birds : 1 drive of duck; 60 duck + 20% free = approx. 72 duck
Total quantities are approximate and as we always try to exceed the target bag on each day, this is an example of how we achieve a bag without duck dominating the total bag.
On an Exclusive Day it is the option of the host if he/she wishes to include a duck drive on the day.
Exotics
In addition to our normal variety of game species, in order to keep everyone “on their toes” we will be releasing into each pen a small number of Reeves and white pheasants. Unfortunately our supplier of white partridge was taken out by bird flu so there are only a few remaining. The idea is definitely not to shoot them but if you do there will be a fine decided by the team of guns on the day, with all fines being donated to our Charity fund
Feed
We are rearing athletes so in addition to not “cutting any corners” in the diet of high quality pellets from chick on the rearing field up to 8 weeks for pheasant and 10 weeks for partridge. Over the last few seasons we have incorporated split maize into their diet once taken off pellets at the rate of ⅓ split maize to ⅔ wheat. I do feel this has made a significant contribution to the flying ability of our birds when they are growing and building up their muscle strength. Even though the price of wheat and maize can vary considerably from year to year, no matter what it costs we will be feeding a diet of split maize and wheat to all our birds throughout each season.