Walking It Up

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I really enjoy shooting and I particularly like to shoot alone, with an unstructured, unplanned sort of a day, and that is where walked-up shooting really scores for me. I like just to be able to go where I feel like going; part of the skill, to my mind, is selecting the piece of ground and then working it according to the weather conditions, wind and what is actually on the land, in terms of crops, cover and species. It’s how I started shooting as a boy, 50 years ago. Of course walking-up a few bits of cover with friends is good too, but for me the greatest satisfaction is in training and working my dog and the fact that the end result of the day is purely down to me.

Common pitfalls

The most common miss on a walked-up target is over the top (above the bird). There are two reasons for this: the first is having the head up off the stock; and the second is swinging through the bird. Having the head up off the stock, because of a rushed gun mount, or so that you can see better, means that you are not looking along the barrel but rather you are looking