Driven Grouse and Partridge in Scotland for American Hunters

No. We arrange hire guns and cartridges for you and you shoot under the UK’s borrowing exemption, so no permit is needed. Most of our American guests choose this: no airline firearms paperwork, nothing to declare at the border, and no six-week wait.

If you would rather bring your own guns, you need a UK visitor’s shotgun permit, and the application must be made by a sponsor resident in Great Britain. Hendry, Ramsay & Waters acts as your sponsor and submits it to Police Scotland for you; Police Scotland says a typical application takes up to six weeks, so we ask for your details at least six weeks before you travel. The Police Scotland fee is £48 per visitor, or £240 for a group application. You will need a copy of your home firearms licence or, where you hold none, a letter of good character from your police or government. Check that your airline currently carries firearms before you book flights.

Edinburgh, Glasgow or Inverness, whichever is nearest the moor or the shoot. Edinburgh has the most direct connections from the US; Inverness is the airport for the northern moors. We advise on transfers or a hire car once the shoot is fixed, and can arrange airport transfers as part of a multi-day package.

On a driven day you stand in a line of butts while a team of beaters brings the coveys over you: fast, low and unforgiving, and the most sought-after day in British shooting. A driven day needs a full team, usually eight or nine guns, and is priced per brace on the bag agreed for the day. On a walked-up day a party of two to six guns walks the moor behind pointers or spaniels and shoots the birds they flush; it is priced per gun per day, costs far less, and is the way most American guests first meet the red grouse.

Scottish shooting is priced in pounds sterling and quoted for your party, not sold from a price list. Driven grouse is priced per brace on the agreed bag and is the most expensive driven bird in Britain; walked-up grouse is priced per gun per day; driven partridge is priced per bird on the bag you want shown and gives the feel of a grouse day at a much lower cost per bird. Hotel, transport and gun hire are added at the level you choose. The dollar figure follows the exchange rate on the day you pay. Send us your dates, party size and the bag you have in mind and we will quote the trip in full, in pounds, with no obligation.

Grouse: 12 August to 10 December, with driven days concentrated in August, September and October. Partridge: 1 September to 31 January. Pheasant: from 1 October. The best month to combine sports is October, when a red stag in the rut, driven grouse and driven partridge can all be shot in the same week.

Yes. Many of our American guests take a day on the moor and a red stag or roe buck in the same trip; see our guide to Scottish stalking for American hunters. Some parties go on to Spain for driven partridge, where the season runs to 31 March. Tell us your dates and we will build one itinerary.

Hendry, Ramsay & Waters (Scothunt) is a Scottish sporting agency based in Fife, with driven and walked-up grouse on estates in Scotland and the north of England and several of Scotland’s finest partridge shoots. We arrange single days and multi-day packages for guns from the United States, the UK and Europe, and we handle the shoot booking, the permits, the accommodation and the transport. Fill in the enquiry form or contact us; we are on UK time, so a message sent in the US evening is answered first thing.