GAME SHOOTING: MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS. By John Marchington. With photographs by the author.

1976 1st edition. 8vo (140 x 222mm). Pp104. B/w photographs. Tan boards, spine titled in gilt.

"This is a book for everybody who shoots game, from the small rough shooter to the large syndicate organizer. ...John Marchington ...concentrates here on the management and economics of the sport. With inflation [1976] creating enormous problems for all shooting enthusiasts, his advice on holding down costs will be very welcome. Some of his proposals break new ground... Good management ...need not reduce the enjoyment of the sport, but is essential to preserve the standards of shooting while at the same time cutting overheads". Chapters include: Introduction - economics and management, the plight of the sport; Forming a new shoot - ambitions and costs, burdens of an organiser, profit and sport, ground and members, a hypothetical shoot, the search for economies, insurance, VAT; The ground - impossibility of perfection, how to search, hidden problems, negotiating the rent, the lease, the small print; The economics of driven shooting - pressure of inflation, where the money goes, possible savings, keepering efficiency, economies through large-scal rearing, purchasing, etc., vehicle economy, selling the bag; The organisation of driven shooting - firm control, forming the team, vetting them, insurance, sharing the work load, shooting dates, planning, stops, acreaging, outside days, bag adjustment, shooting lunches, tipping, rain; On a lesser scale - a new wind through game shooting, the road to major economies, part-time keepers, arithmetic of buying in poults, rearing, poaching, scaling down in all departments, hypthetical figures, self-help syndicates, management and general details, examples; Keepers and keepering - Cost effectiveness, finding a keeper, supervision, rearing, releasing, foxes, preventing straying, feeding; Rough shooting - definition, the ground, leases, size of the team, simple improvements, rearing, wet areas; Grouse, partridge and other game - graouse and their reasonable future, partridges and their less certain future, statistics, Game Conservancy partridge research project, snipe, and habitat improvement, woodcock, ptarmigan, hares; Of general concern - Safety in changed circumstances, poaching, planning, quality before quantity, how to acieve it, sporting agencies, the future for shooting. Appendices give: A schedule of Game Conservancy booklets; A specimen letter setting out the basis of syndicate membership. A useful book with a surprisingly contemporary ring to it.