The GunsOnPegs Podcast

As we head into a brand new shooting season George and Digby delve into the results of the 2024 Game Shooting and Shoot Owner Census to answer the biggest questions in shooting: How much does a pheasant cost this year, and how does it compare to last year? What is the average bag size that guns shoot, and has that number changed over time? And, perhaps most importantly, what is the most popular fine for shooting the white pheasant?

Does shooting etiquette, clothing and tradition matter?Giles Catchpole is a fieldsports journalist and humourist whose work has graced the pages of numerous magazines over the years. His Shooting Types books - collaborations with renowned sporting cartoonist Bryn Parry - are found in downstairs loos in the right sort of houses up and down the land, owing to his His unique combination of sharp-eyed observation and a witty style. Writing as 'Uncle Giles' in Shooting Gazette, he was a guide on matters sartorial and ethical for many a shooting man and woman for years.  All of this makes Giles the ideal chap to join Chris and George for a chat about some of the finer points that the conventions, codes and customs of the shooting world throw up, and answer the question that will ring down the ages: why does any of it matter?'

Live from the Game Fair 2024! A special edition, in which Chris and George sift through the deluge of nominations for Shooting Heroes that they received, and highlight a handful who deserve particular recognition, either for outstanding efforts or because they represent a wider group of people who make a difference in the countryside day-in-day-out. At the end of the episode they choose a shortllst of two and ask the audience to help select a final winner for the day's shooting and the day's fishing on the test so kindly donated by our listener, James.To round things off the pair share a Desert Island Shooting with a difference.

What does the new Labour Government mean for shooting and the countryside? The day after the King's Speech Tim Bonner, head honcho at the Countryside Alliance, joined us at GunsOnPegs HQ to give his take on this question and many others surrounding the change of government. Tim looks into his crystal ball and highlights a few potential storm clouds on the horizon, but also a few rays of hope as well.Tim gives us an overview on how organisations like the Alliance try to influence policy makers through relationship building and gives his assessment of the new Ministers who will drive decision-making in the new government. Tim also offers up some tips how the shooting community as a whole can ensure that shooting has a long future in the UK 

What does it take to bring Grey Partridges back from the brink of local extinction? Our guest for this episode, Charlie Mellor, is Head Gamekeeper at the Norfolk Estate in Sussex, where he manages the Peppering Project, the Duke of Norfolk's widely lauded effort to do just that. Charlie was born to be a keeper, and is now responsible for one of the most important shooting projects in the country, demonstrating that well-managed shooting estates can have enormous biodiversity benefits, not just for game birds but for entire ecosystems. He shares his deep knowledge of managing the landscape for grey partridges with Chris and George, as well as diving a little deeper into the significance of the Peppering Project to the other species which make their homes on the estate, the local community and the wider shooting community.