One gun, one dog and hedgerows that run on for kilometres with no property boundary. €300 a day, from September to the end of January.
Alone or up to 10 guns
No beaters, no pegs. A lone gun or a few friends move through the cover behind the dog. It points, you approach, the bird flies. You shoot or you don’t. You walk six to eight kilometres in the day and the pace is the dog’s.
This kind of shooting only works on continuous land. Elsewhere in the Bourbonnais, the dog points at the edge of a hedge that belongs to the neighbour and has to be called back. Here, it can work a whole morning without meeting a property boundary. (We have set this out in a journal article on walked-up shooting.)
For those who slept on site, in the dining room. Others arrive for coffee.
The keeper presents the day’s sectors and the areas to leave undisturbed. The first sector is often on the edge, where the hedgerows run down to the Aumance, while the dew still carries the scent.
The morning’s bag is laid out in the courtyard. We lunch together.
A more wooded sector in the afternoon, looking for pheasants that have taken cover.
Back to the château before dark. The billiard room and reception room stay open to those sleeping on site, before dinner.
The day costs €300 per gun, with breakfast, lunch and access to the land included. You can come alone. The estate receives at most 10 guns a day, which leaves each of them whole sectors. A keeper can accompany you on request: for a first visit, it saves time, as he knows where the game sat the day before. A companion who does not shoot comes at no extra charge.
A dog is strongly recommended. It is the dog that makes this kind of shooting. Those who come without one shoot behind the estate’s pointers and retrievers.
As a guide, expect seven to twelve birds per gun over the day, depending on the shooting and the dog’s work. This is not a promised bag. The birds have been on the land since the summer. They run, take cover in the hedges and cannot be approached without a working dog. That is precisely what you come for.
Accommodation is optional: €150 a night for a room in the cottage, €200 for a room in the château. Shotgun only, licence validated for the current season. Other conditions are on the small game shooting page.
From September to the end of January, by the day. September and October weekends go first. The château confirms the date within 48 hours.
Book my day