As a Brit I will add my pennies worth. Driven shooting is growing in popularity in the UK. It is mostly pheasant / partridge based, and plenty of estates are rearing and releasing phaesants to cater for demand. This is every thing from walked up rough shoots which release 100 odd birds and have half a dozen days with 6 or 8 guns, a few dogs and a couple of children acting as beaters. Tend to walk in a line and have a few standing guns. Most guns will have a few shot during the day and the bag will be 20 ish.
In between we have the syndicate / farmer type shoots where there is a part time gamekeeper, a few hundred birds are put down and there will be 6 to 8 shoots a years with the bag being anything from 50 to 120 odd birds. Most guns doing this type of shooting will spend a few thousand a year on their sport - most of it going on birds, feed and wages for beaters / keepers. Most syndicate members will take a couple of guns on each shoot - one for themselves and one for a guest, and shooting is very much a reciprocal thing. These shoots often require quite a but of time input from the guns - doing work on the ground, managing vermin ec.
And then we have the much more commercial shoots where a farm or estate has a shooting business, and days are sold to guns - there are many roving syndicates who take paid for days. It is all about the experience and you are generally well looked after with good food provided during and post the shoot. Cost is generally by the day and in proportion to number of birds, quality of the shoot and shoot lunch etc. 30 to 40 a bird is pretty typical.
Grouse are more a speciality as there are limited areas of heather moorland, and is ever decreasing due to pressures from forestry and Wind turbines. A driven grouse moor is a very expensive luxury. Grouse cannot be reared, so its all down to maintaining optimal habitat for grouse to get the numbers required for a driven shoot day. This requires manpower and even a small moor will cost the owner 1m a year to maintain. Some of this cost can be recovered by letting days to guests - going rate is 100 plus a bird.
There is walked up grouse shooting available for a lot less - typically 50 to 150 a gun - at the low end, its best described as an armed walk, and you might come home with a grouse or a snipe or two.
We do have a lot of pressure from the Anti's - not sure if the shooting world has helped itself. But the anti's keep making noise and irritation. Often its jealousy etc. But what does amaze me is on a shoot you get people from all walks of life.
