Do you have any tips to help with walked-up shooting?

Most of the shooting I do is walking through beet crops so it would be good to pick up some tips from other shooters like yourself from time to time.

WALKED-UP SHOOTING
John Bidwell
Probably the reason you see so little in print about this side of the sport is because most game shooting done these days revolves around driven birds.

This in no way belittles walked-up shooting; far from it ? walking ditches and hedgerows with a dog is one of the purest forms of shooting you can find, and also one of the most enjoyable because it relies a deal more on your own fieldcraft rather than on someone else?s skill in putting birds over a set of pegs.

However the actual shot ? when it comes ? is not always as challenging as, say, a sporting driven bird which is probably curling on the breeze as well as climbing, or maybe even dropping imperceptibly.

Killing a walked-up bird cleanly relies on the shooter recognising that it?s rising after being flushed, and in all likelihood quartering away too.

The exception to this is when walking in hill country when the flushed birds ? particularly partridge and grouse ? might follow a downward slope to escape.

Instead of shooting above them, you now need to get below them.

The golden rule when walking up is to always carry the gun in a safe manner and shoot with your weight over the front foot when a bird springs from cover.

I?m sure you have already noticed for yourself that when a bird ?jumps? you have a lot more time than you think to stop, watch the bird, then mount the gun before it gets out of range.

The important thing is to keep calm and not let the whirr of wings seduce you into rushing the shot.

If you want to sharpen up on going-away birds then why not take yourself off to a gun club and enjoy some quiet practice on a Down-the-Line layout?

To make things more realistic, don?t pre-mount the gun but call for the target with the stock just out of the shoulder. Enjoy!