Thanks for posting this great film.Those British documentaries from the 70s and 80s are a real antidote to many of today's offerings, which seem to think viewers can't concentrate for more than 3 seconds without constant scene-swapping,emotion-inducing music and exaggerated voice overs.
I beat every day of the season starting with early partridge 25 quid and a brace of birds the keeper let’s me control the rabbits around the farms on the estate too England’s still a great place depending where you live and who you know
Oh dear, where have England's lovely Hen Harriers gone? Christ I miss the good old days of seeing them above my local woods. Thanks for ruining it gamekeepers.
Seen it before I was shooting ,beating Ferreting in that era.Still an absolute gem of a documentary,when you look now at present day I thank my lucky stars that I was able to share those times with such wonderful characters.I have been in the sport for 50 Years now sadly I see it being whittled away bit by bit,and it saddens me deeply
Yes fortunately I was paid to participate for the old fellas and their guests. Was good fun. That always looked After us considering we were strangers to them.
My uncle Jimmy Thompson (originally from king's lynn) was a gamekeeper at Sandringham and went on shoots with Prince Phillip etc. He told some funny old stories.
One rural profession that hasn't disappeared because the wealthy will always need a knowledgeable guy to stock an estate. Rough shooting wouldn't allow for the amount of game the rich folk want , I respective the skills that the country jobs require and pace and rhythm they work to. I,ve shot on stocked and Rough shoots and preferred the latter its more satisfying but I,m glad posh folk want an impressive haul it creates jobs for the real people
Our Family jumped the pond in 1620 we had castle in devon in 1200-1500s all ruins now but carried on this tradition have rack full of shotguns from .410 16 20 12 10 and even a old 8 gauge working on a old perkins black power front stuffer from London now i still hunt pheasant , quail, partridge and chukkars and ducks almost 60 yo old now and will continue until my eyes or my legs give out!! :)
You only got to watch the stupidity of the rich land owner, and the money wasted, just so he can shoot. Spending all that money and time, just so he can destroy the end product. You see, that's where the poacher was different, 99 out of 100 poachers, did it because their family was hungry, where for the lord, its just for fun. Game keepers, the rich man's gofer. I've ran in to your kind once or twice while taking hare, and partridge etc. Always the same attitude, like you own everything God created on "your patch" of earth. Many seasons have past by since those days, and I no longer own a gun, rarely trap anything, unless someone in my family has rats or squirrel problems. One thing I do remember, is how narrow minded and ignorant you keepers are, and how when a keeper and his mates outnumbers the other, how brave and brutal they are. A totally different story when the numbers are even. England, and all Britain, has changed so much since then, less and less of anything to shoot or catch, except vermin of course, and plenty of two legged vermin today too. The keepers being shown here, are making some obvious schoolboy errors while going about their daily routine, so it tells me they don't know much, which is usually the case. Every so often though, you use to come across a gem of a keeper, but they were as rare as rocking horse shit. Not now because times are different, so methods of learning and doing are different, and most of all people are very different.
The rich old boy where we used to go to beat for shoots and forming the line in hare coursing used to have this Van come mid time and it had steak baps.. spirits and beer in plastic cups was weirdest mix of toff with chav. And we all got drove to field on back of a tractor pulling flat back where we all stood sat..he certainly looked after us..some protesters came one day and he paid me and some other beef looking lads to intimidate them away. lol
Shooting reared non-native birds and killing all the wildlife that are a threat to the eggs and chicks is absolutely ridiculous. I know for a fact that so called 'gamekeepers' kill birds of prey.
