The Mountgarret Shoot

A 4 x 4 vehicle is recommended although the well maintained estate roads connect most drives. We also have a courtesy Land Rover Station Wagon available each day with a driver, if you require this some prior notice would be appreciated. There is a further Land Rover Station Wagon but prior notice is required. 

The days will be run at a leisurely pace with walking kept to a minimum. We particularly cater for single guns and small parties with ample days available for full teams.

At the end of the day each gun will receive chilled oven ready game of their choice. A reasonable amount of birds in feather may be taken free of charge on any shoot day.

Meet: 8.30 a.m.

Location: Shoot Lodge, Stainley Hall Farm, South Stainley, Nr Harrogate HG3 3NE

Breakfast: Full or optional

Brief and Draw: 8.45 a.m. 

Leave for first drive: 9.15 a.m.

Lunch: 3.00 p.m. in the Shoot Lodge. 

End of the Day: Approximately 4.00 p.m.

Breakfast and lunch are included in the shoot fee. Non shooting guests are most welcome to join us for all meals and refreshments when a small donation to our Shoot Fund would be appreciated. Some prior notice would also be appreciated for catering arrangements.

I am very confident the continued changes and improvements I propose will bring the Mountgarret Shoot to a new level and we can all look forward to some excellent shooting. 

We rear both pheasant and partridge from day old chicks.

The Strains we release are French Common Ring Neck and Manchurian pheasants. This mix of strains are ideal for our terrain.

We catch up all our remaining stock at the end of the shooting season for ourselves, other shoots and hatcheries. By moving as many old birds as possible our ground will have a good rest before our poults are released in June/July.

We have some classic pheasant drives which most guns find quite challenging. During the last few seasons our birds have been so impressive in the way they have flown that a number of my guns have commented that they are as good, if not better compared to most lowland shooting they have experienced elsewhere.

We buy in our day old's from a UK Hatchery. All are released no sooner than 10 weeks old and well before the start of the season. This way they are able to learn to fly and become acquainted with their wild habitat, it also gives us mature birds from day one.

Our wild bird cover produces some excellent partridge shooting with a mix of field drives and birds driven over trees. As many of my Members and myself enjoy our partridge, which can be very testing, I can assure everyone that we will see as many if not more partridge, either on partridge drives or early and during a pheasant drive, than ever before on each day throughout the whole season. 

I have agreed with Mark Eddon, the new Sporting Tenant at Ripley Castle that we can shoot a number of duck drives on the Lake at Ripley Castle throughout the season. There is a tendency for guns to consider duck shooting as a lesser sport compared to pheasant and partridge, that is of course until you have experienced the duck at Ripley Castle. 

I totally agree that surrounding reared duck sat on a pond, then putting the dogs in, is most definitely not sporting shooting as I know it and I do detest this practice. However these ducks are quite different and have built up a reputation for quality driven duck made up of approximately 60% reared and 40% wild. The ducks are driven towards the guns, about ¼ mile away from the pegs and they fly over the guns once or at the most twice. 

We also have a small lake on Mountgarret which attracts a number of wild duck and geese. If they are there, we will shoot them. 

On an Exclusive Day it is the option of the host if he/she wishes to include a duck drive on the day.  

In addition to our normal variety of game species, in order to keep everyone “on their toes” we will be releasing into each pen a small number of Reeves and white pheasants.  The idea is definitely not to shoot them but if you do there will be a fine decided by the team of guns on the day, with all fines being donated to our Charity fund

We are rearing athletes so in addition to not “cutting any corners” in the diet of high quality pellets from chick on the rearing field up to 8 weeks for pheasant and 10 weeks for partridge. Over the last few seasons we have incorporated split maize into their diet once taken off pellets at the rate of ⅓ split maize to ⅔ wheat. I do feel this has made a significant contribution to the flying ability of our birds when they are growing and building up their muscle strength. Even though the price of wheat and maize can vary considerably from year to year, no matter what it costs we will be feeding a diet of split maize and wheat to all our birds throughout each season.