This is a good question.
Driven shooting is a disciplined sport and it needs to be learned properly if it is to be enjoyed and if your participation is to be enjoyed by your peers!
At the peg, 'your bird' will be in a 'window', flying towards you and over your peg. Shootinga t birds quartering you or flying towards or over the people either side of you is 'not done' (actually it is done and causes lots of bad feeling when it is so don't YOU do it).
On to high birds. The sport in driven bird shooting is challenging yourself to kill challenging birds. Nobody here would shoot a pheasant at 2 yards right?
So, how about five yards or ten or fifteen?
If you are ahalway competent shot, I would say that you should probably not be shooting at pheasants less than 20-25 yards away, ever. What is the point? It becomes 'just killing'.
so, depending how competent you are, you will want to challenge yourself to shoot birds that are achallenge. If teh gamekeeper cah show the birds so that they aere 30-40 yards over the guns, it produces exciting, challenging shooting, which is great sport.
Each person should know his level of competence and shoot accordingly.
There are some shoots which specialise in showing very high pheasants. some shooters kill these cleanly with impressinve regularity. If this is their level, they are in teh right place, doing the right thing. If your level of competence and equipment on pheasants a 50 yards is not up to teh job, you are better not doing it yet.
I like to see my birds hid hard and killed. I can do this with fairly good regularity at driven pheasants on the 30-40 yard range with my normal game guns.
I have shot 'high pheasants' in Wales and I know what is stretching my competence and what it trying my luck. I discipline myself to the former whan choosing shots. I have surprised myself at what I can kill regularly with 30g of No.6 in I.C barrels.
What I don't like to see is pickers-up half a mile from the Gun line coming back with armfuls of birds that took lead and flew on pricked, to be picked up hundreds of yards away. Just my personal opinion.
