It can be every bit as glorious

For some, grouse shooting is the crème de la crème of sport. I have never had the pleasure of a day on driven grouse, but I have experienced the atmosphere while loading for my stepfather on a day in Yorkshire as a teen. Plodding through wild country to our wind-lashed dry-stone, mossy butt and hunkering down out of the weather was an experience in itself. 

As we waited for the mayhem to begin, the air was fizzing with anticipation. First, only one or two feathered, brindle cannonballs hissed past our ears. My stepfather missed both and berated himself furiously, if ridiculously: “CRIMINAL. Muppet, muppet. Eurrgghh!” 

Soon after he was handed a chance at redemption as a covey broke around us. Poking our heads above the parapet as they streamed past felt like taking flak as the gunner in the front cupola of a Lancaster bomber. Even as a hoarse-voiced and fumbling loader, this was outrageous fun. 

While driven grouse is often considered the pinnacle of shooting, at well over £200 pounds a brace for most, including me, it may be unattainable. Walked-up grouse, however, are a different story. During a little recent research, I found an estate in the far north of Scotland advertising a walked-up grouse shooting over pointers for four Guns, with an expectation of around eight brace for £1,300. They specified a bottle of whisky was included, too. 

If not cheap, this is far from unreasonable. You and your closest friends could have a rugged day on the moors in a Scottish wilderness for less than the cost of a Browning Maxus, although you do have to get yourself there. It is also worth bearing in mind that a top North Yorkshire shooting ground starts sim day prices at £425 per person, before VAT. 

Unparalleled pleasure 

I have been walked-up grouse shooting on a number of occasions. It would be fatuous to say I would choose it over a driven day, but it is an almost unparalleled pleasure in its own right. Last year I had an outing on the Isle of Lewis. We yomped through the eye-popping, amethyst oceans of heather all day, with the August sun on our faces one moment and vainly trying to shelter from a monsoon the next. 

Sprocket, our pointer, would orientate herself towards what our hearts most truly desired and remain quivering and taut until we were within shooting distance. When we were within range, we would disturb our quarry — hoping to get a few shots away as the old cocks zoomed off, hugging the contours of the undulating moorland like a screaming katabatic wind. 

The angles and the variety of shooting offered by walked-up grouse are extraordinary. Often you are shooting down from a knoll into a shallow valley or flat as they fire away over blanket bog and tundra. Of course, you must always be safe but, given the total openness and emptiness of the theatre for such endeavours, a wider variety of shots are available to you. I love the process of calibration, but I do find working out the appropriate lead to give a rising bird taking flight from 10ft below your boots a challenging task. 

I heard a rumour that on some driven grouse shoots in northern England they were now transporting rotund or aged Guns to their butts by Argocat. Part of me feels that if you can’t make it to your peg unassisted, you might be better hanging up your gaiters and meeting the Guns for lunch. But perhaps this is the churlish talk of a man who still has his knees and hips intact. 

Walked-up grouse could not be further from this cocooned experience. Last year, we walked well over 10 miles during the day, clinging to heather up steep banks, disappearing into mires of sphagnum moss to within a hair’s breadth of the top of a welly, and desperately seeking shelter in the lee of the wind to gulp down a squashed ham roll to keep our energy up at lunchtime. Authentic stuff. 

On Lewis, I did not bring my closest companion, Muckle the red setter, as he gets seasick and wouldn’t have appreciated the crossing over the Minch. This was a great sadness as it is my dream to shoot a grouse from a point from him, but very little is worth dog vomit on a ferry. I have seen him point on unarmed strolls across uplands, straight as a weathervane with a front paw lifted and trembling, so I’m certain he could replicate this when it mattered. 

This year I have been fortunate enough to be invited for a walked-up day with some old Army friends in Northumberland and there are no sea crossings to ford on the A1(M), so I’m hopeful this will be our chance. 

It is not only the sport that makes grouse shooting so thrilling — it is the whole experience. Unlike a pheasant or a partridge, a grouse is not reared but truly wild. Where there may be some controversy as to whether pheasants may damage biodiversity as a result of their omnivorous tendencies — hoovering up grubs, amphibians and reptiles — grouse are an unimported part of the landscape which, except for a period as chicks, eat almost exclusively plant matter. 

The knowledge that the predator control, muirburn or flailing that is undertaken by gamekeepers in upland areas improves the habitat not only for red grouse but for curlew, lapwing, plover, dunlin, dotterel and many more is deeply comforting. Plus, often getting to sample the rich meaty fruits of your labours for supper is beyond wonderful. 

Every extra kilo 

But what kit is necessary to make sure that you are properly equipped and provisioned without being overburdened? I am no longer the slim, rural athlete I once was and tip the scales at a solid 105kg. This means that every extra kilo I carry during the day turns me into even more of an ungainly lump and raises my chance of a sprained ankle during a stumble on a hidden heathered hummock or obscured peaty precipice. 

When you’re out all day in changeable conditions, it’s well worth trying to optimise your gear. The total cost of this kit (p26) is just over £1,200, but the memories will be priceless. 

 GATEWAY 1 FIORDLAND II 

Contact gateway1-footgear.com 

Price £304 

A good pair of boots is the difference between a super day and a dreadful one. Getting your feet wet early on is a familiar nightmare that really adversely affects the event. For all-day walking on deep, uneven heather with scattered boulders, it is essential to have the ankle support of a tall boot. The Fiordland IIs provide cushioned wrapping for my weak ankles, which gives me the confidence to plant my feet firmly on the really rough stuff. The dry, sharp understorey of heather shreds synthetic footwear, so the leather construction is essential. The Fiordlands have big, thick, heavily incised soles that make sure you don’t bruise your foot on jagged rocks and maintains traction in deep slop. You can get by with cheap boots for walking your dog in Battersea Park but not if you want to do anything serious in them more than once. 

 SEELAND BUCKTHORN GAITERS 

Contact seeland.com 

Price £49.99 

Dried heather frazzle tears at your plus-fours, snatches at your socks and, without a good set of gaiters, spiked twig after twig jump into the tops of your boots to work themselves downwards, causing havoc against your shins and calves. Twigs in your socks can be a real impediment to your progress across the moor, as you have to keep stopping to remove them. You can pick up a pair of gaiters for little more than a tenner at outdoor shop — but don’t. They will be shredded in hours, leaving you looking like a polyester Morris dancer. Buckthorn gaiters are waterproof, extremely durable and partially breathable. They will keep out the undergrowth and prevent your laces from being snagged and undone. 

KOFS SCEPTRE SXE SPORTER 12-BORE 

Contact sportsmanguncentre.co.uk 

Price £535 

It is prudent to take a light gun on the moor with you for walking-up grouse, as you may be carrying it for six hours or more. As a 13-year-old, I once uttered some blasphemous words about how lucky the beaters were because they didn’t have to lug a heavy gun around all day. I was quite rightly clipped on the ear and told to pull my socks up, but it illustrates how a weighty gun can come to feel. At 6lb 7oz the Kofs Sceptre (see p25) weighs over 1lb less than a Beretta Silver Pigeon and costs barely a third as much. The reputation of Turkish gun manufactures has been on a steep trajectory in recent years — and rightly so. They are sturdy, reliable guns that can be beautiful and certainly don’t break the bank.

HARKILA RETRIEVE LEATHER CARTRIDGE BAG 

Contact harkila.com 

Price £169.99 

When I’m rough shooting I wouldn’t always take a cartridge bag with me and you may not need to if you have a big pocket. But it’s mortifying having to jog across to your neighbour to ask for some cartridges, so better safe than sorry — particularly when it can be hours between visits to the vehicles. This Härkila number is a good bridge between rather smart — it is grouse shooting, after all — and fiercely functional. The full-grain leather wears beautifully and, unlike some nubuck bags, it doesn’t mark or scrape easily, and reacts well to water. The bag holds 125 cartridges and you can adjust the canvas strap to a length where it will sit comfortably on your back. 

HOGGS OF FIFE KINLOCH TWEED FIELD WAISTCOAT 

Contact hoggs.co.uk 

Price £129.95 

I run hot and the weather for walked-up grouse in the early season can still be fairly clement, so a full coat with anything approaching quilting is going to have me sweating and an unattractive beetroot-red in the face. Unless the weather is looking really driech, I would usually plump for a sleeveless jacket over a shirt or thin jumper. The Kinloch tweed waistcoat is perfect for this time of the year; its Teflon coating shrugs off light showers and it has cavernous front pockets. It also features side-seam vents to help keep you cool and give you unrestricted movement. The Bracken tweed pattern is handsome too.