As Gil touched on, the highly touted Scottish and English driven shoots are all pen raised and released birds, I assume Spain's as well. But, the way they are managed makes the difference. The birds understand what it means to fly. Put and take birds don't.
I expect some of our contributors from the UK will chime in here. My experience in Scotland has been that the birds are VERY early release. The places that offer driven shooting either hatch and raise their own birds or else buy very young chicks. Initially protected in pens, but gradually more and more time out and about on the property--with gamekeepers who kill any furry predator they find. (The feathered ones are protected.) Driven shooting for pheasants doesn't even start until October, and I've never shot them before November; most of the time, early December. By that time, they're very strong flyers. If you've heard about the "Glorious 12th", referring to the 12th of August, that's for red grouse only. Those are all truly wild birds. I don't have that particular book by Valdene, and I've never heard of stocking woodcock for a shoot. We see (and shoot) a few of them when shooting driven pheasants and partridge in Scotland in December. I'm not sure woodcock can be raised successfully in captivity, so maybe they were trapping them before release, or something like that.
If you want a bit of an education into how the Brits go about raising and handling their driven birds, a book I'd suggest is "Private Thoughts from a Small Shoot" by Laurence Catlow. Catlow acquired some property and set up his own shoot, mostly just for him and a few friends. He goes into great detail on acquiring the young pheasants, building pens, and getting them ready for the shooting season. Makes for an interesting read. The commercial places operate in a similar fashion, but on a much larger scale and on a lot more land. On Catlow's shoot, and on many small British "syndicate" shoots, you alternate between shooting and beating. On the commercial shoots, the guns are paying for the privilege and there's a team of beaters and another of pickers-up to collect the several hundred birds a line of from 6-10 guns may shoot in a day.
Last edited by L. Brown; 11/24/15 09:10 AM.
