Wildfowling and Rough Shooting in Ireland DVD

For centuries the Irish lakes and rough terrain have been a haven of wildfowl and game of many species. In this video we follow the complete shooting season, including duck, snipe, partridge, pheasant, rabbit and vermin control.

Lough Neagh, the largest piece of inland water in the British Isles, attracts thousands of duck every year. Pochard, tufted duck, scaup and golden eye all make testing shooting. Young guns, Barry Turner and Martin Doyle shoot the Lough almost every Saturday during the shooting season, and the viewer can look forward to a spectacle of marksmanship – be introduced to Dumper, the best retrieving dog that I have ever seen, and gain much information about the Lough – a wildfowlers paradise.

Occupying over 4000 acres of good shooting land in North Antrim, S and R Sporting agencies offer shooting breaks to sporting guns from all over Europe. We were fortunate to be invited to shoot and film on 150 acres of bog land where pheasants were almost as plentiful as the heather in which they live. Brothers Seamus and Cathal McAleese show off their Springer’s – all three dogs giving a fine performance of hunting and retrieving.

On another day we travelled the six miles to the scenic island of Rathlin where last season 10,000 red leg partridge were released. We witness the driven beat, and with birds flying at up to sixty miles an hour, the kill rate was one in six shots – sometimes reaching one in ten.

In order to preserve game on the shooting land, vermin control is as necessary as rearing birds. The fox hunts are carried out with military precision, with often a dozen guns taking part. The old age practice of ferreting rabbits is also featured.