Finding a home for shot game

[Jarvis 277]

Just wondering the situation around the country with shot game and if game dealers are taking it or are you having to pay them to take the birds. The biggest game dealer near us in Northamptonshire retired the other year and nobody has filled the void. Talks on shoot days now sound like most now have to pay  the dealers to take them. We are only a small shoot, shooting 100-120 birds every other week through the season so we are managing to share our birds between guns and beater and the rest get made into sausages and eaten/ sold at the next shoot. What are other shoots doing if the dealers aren’t taking them?

Jarvis 

[The one 8,476]

Where i paid 10 pence a bird for ferret food last year im getting any amount for free this year a month ago i took 200 and as usual i was a bit greedy and had 30 hanging in the garage with no room in the freezers i offered a few to folk at work but they wanted them plucked and dressed so the second word was off . It was the same swapping them for fish from my mates they want them dressed them i've the fish to clean . A week after i took the birds the keeper was on the phone asking if i could take more . My mate told me the local shoots took 1300 birds to game dealers and got £130 

I plan to fill up both of my 6 foot freezers with birds on there last shoot in January as its easier to get dog food than ferret food during the summer . i see there's a guy selling skinned pheasants on a ferret  site on facebook at eighty   pence each and folk are biting his hand off if you want to go down that route ?. 

[Chaff 3,609]

Just had a knock at the door a mate with 2 brace, ask if I wanted more so he bringing round 10 brace friday, so the sausage machine will be out on Saturday

[Jarvis 277]

That’s the problem a lot of people don’t want the work of plucking etc themselves, they’d rather go into Aldi and buy a chicken for £2.50 all done. With big bird days getting more and more popular it just swamps the dwindling market!

[shovel leaner 7,650]

The game dealers I know are shifting the shot birds , but not paying for them . They have got it sussed !!! You are in business and your base product is free !!! Can’t be bad eh ! They pluck and dress the best and any that are a bit damaged get the meat stripped and they go into big game meat blocks that get exported to France to go in pate or terrines . The Frogs can’t get enough. I keeper a small shoot and I’ve managed to process a lot myself and give the guns and beaters a lot . But the surplus goes to the game dealer and we get nothing for them . I am just happy that the bird are going in the food chain at the moment. But a lot of folk will try game as long as they don’t have to pluck it . I’ve got a dry plucker which makes light work of it . I can do a partridge in about 30 seconds and a pheasant about a minute or so . I think we have just got to be a bit more willing to process them ourselves and f@@k the game dealers . Problem is if you start selling them then you have to have your premises checked for hygiene and then it becomes a non starter. 

[shovel leaner 7,650]

On a slightly different note , they are paying good money for duck . I’m going to start doing more duck next year , simply because I can then get my surplus pheasant picked up and not have to take them the 20 miles to the game dealer , and all the guns and beaters go mad for them . If you can show “good “ duck , I think that is the way to go . 

[Phil Lloyd 10,738]

3 hours ago, shovel leaner said:

On a slightly different note , they are paying good money for duck . I’m going to start doing more duck next year , simply because I can then get my surplus pheasant picked up and not have to take them the 20 miles to the game dealer , and all the guns and beaters go mad for them . If you can show “good “ duck , I think that is the way to go . 

Its criminal really,..never thought it would come to this with pheasants,...but, as you say, there is still a bit of a market for the Ducks...

[shovel leaner 7,650]

19 minutes ago, Phil Lloyd said:

Its criminal really,..never thought it would come to this with pheasants,...but, as you say, there is still a bit of a market for the Ducks...

It is criminal!!! My local dealer is taking birds and his chiller is empty, he is selling them as fast as he gets them . Someone’s buying them !! I won’t forget this , and if things sort themselves out and the market picks up , I will not have any loyalty to him . 

[Born Hunter 17,763]

For the table duck knocks spots off of pheasant imo. I've got a fridge full of mallard now. And the thighs are 100% worth the effort.

Up there with venison for best wild meat imo.

[morton 5,368]

On 15/12/2018 at 06:24, Jarvis said:

Just wondering the situation around the country with shot game and if game dealers are taking it or are you having to pay them to take the birds. The biggest game dealer near us in Northamptonshire retired the other year and nobody has filled the void. Talks on shoot days now sound like most now have to pay  the dealers to take them. We are only a small shoot, shooting 100-120 birds every other week through the season so we are managing to share our birds between guns and beater and the rest get made into sausages and eaten/ sold at the next shoot. What are other shoots doing if the dealers aren’t taking them?

Jarvis 

Don,t make use of it then don,t fecking shoot it.

[Jarvis 277]

2 hours ago, morton said:

Don,t make use of it then don,t fecking shoot it.

To respond to your illiterate comment, we do have a use for them. At no stage in my post have I said birds are going to waste on my shoot, I was merely asking the situation around the country and if people are having to diversify...

[Deker 3,478]

On ‎17‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 19:37, morton said:

Don,t make use of it then don,t fecking shoot it.

Oh dear! 

[terryd 8,411]

FB group called Giving Up The Game where folks look for or give away game

[micky 3,325]

No one wants Game in the feather any more though I think Grouse fetch a price and Pigeons still make a few bob . I was in Leicestershire over the last few days working  and I could have sold any amount of Rabbits for good money as no one can get any and the Restraunts are changing there xmas Menus , I think the amount of birds being shot and dumped will kill shooting because the numbers being wasted is obscene  

[The one 8,476]

Rabbits are making nearly a fiver each ducks nearly £2 and pheasants are making nothing here