A lot- Joseph. For me, at age 77- make mine hot coffee black please. But I'm not a member of the British upper class- perhaps over there that is an accepted thing to do. You and I have the same 2 chances of being invited to such a shoot- slim, and none. Right now, my $ is riding high on None- Win, Place and Show.
You guys seem to be thinking "The Shooting Party" and the way driven shoots used to work a century or so ago. There is still some trading back and forth among the wealthy . . . you invite me to your shoot, I invite you to mine. But the fact is, most driven shooting today is commercial. You're invited because you pay. But the traditions are still the same: Game keepers, beaters, pickers-up . . . it's something like a military operation (with very traditional aspects) to run a proper driven shoot. And how much you spend depends mostly on the number of birds bagged (divided by the number of guns doing the shooting) as well as on the accommodations. It's not going to be cheap . . . but then neither is visiting one of the high dollar pheasant lodges in South Dakota. Nor a visit to a quail plantation in Georgia. But what you get if you shoot something like a 200-250 bird driven day: The opportunity to shoot a lot more than you ever would at pheasants in South Dakota or quail in Georgia. (Those numbers are the total BAG for the day, not the number of birds you get to shoot at.) Not unusual to go through half a flat of shells on a driven day.
Where I've shot, there's always wine at lunch. But I've never seen anyone overindulge. And depending on how well you shot on the morning's drives, a glass of "barrel straightener" may improve your results in the afternoon.
Last edited by L. Brown; 01/12/19 10:21 AM.
