All the fun, none of the hassle

For those with land but limited time and capital, allowing someone else to run a shoot there in return for a 'host's day' is becoming increasingly common

- Lucy Higginson

BRITAIN is a pricey place these days for anyone trying to do things the traditional way. As many of us have learnt, finding ways to borrow, swap, upcycle or run things as a cooperative can make life more affordable and fun. Whether it's sharing a hunter with a friend, arranging a house-swap holiday or reimbursing someone for clipping your dog with jars of marmalade, it pays to be imaginative. The same can be said for the shooting world, where you can sometimes find farmers or landowners accommodating a small-scale shoot for nothing more than a 'host's day' in return.

“I can think of three arrangements like this near us off the top of my head,” says Bennet Hoskyns-Abrahall, whose family does something similar at his father's home at Earby in Yorkshire. “We used to run a little shoot at home, and it was fun but never great,” he explains. “We couldn't afford a gamekeeper or to put many pheasants down, and my brothers and I were all away at university and weren't able to manage it properly.”

Then some years ago, a local keeper (“a great chap we've known forever”) took the venture on, parcelled it up with a bit of neighbouring land and has “with a huge amount of time and effort” built it into a nice little shoot with the family given half the line a couple of days a year as thanks. “I suppose he could pay us some rent instead but it wouldn't be half as much fun,” reflects Hoskyns-Abrahall, who is also able to shoot some rabbits and deer there from time to time.