Bloodless sport for the pheasants.
We were watching Countryfile (recorded) it appears the pheasant shooting industry is in trouble with bird flu.
I can't say I have a great deal of liking for killing things without a good reason but there's a lot of demand and employs many in areas where there isn't much work.
There is still the 'killing things' point though.
I got to thinking and had an alternative idea
Why don't the pheasant and grouse shooting estates go over to 'shooting' drones with narrow beam light pulses? Obviously there's more to it but if the drone, when 'hit' gave a puff of smoke or feathers and did a rapid descent to a soft landing most of the sport would be unchanged. The 'learners could be allowed wider beams, multiple pulse torches or longer 'bursts' and windage, gravity, range, adjustments (otherwise more experienced shooters might be upset at the change of where the hits are achieved).
The torch could look like a shotgun (long tube for the narrow beam) give off smoke, and even go bang in your ear if required. No bird deaths, no spreading disease, no bits of lead or flying bits of steel in the environment. No loud bangs frightening the sensitive. No accidental deaths. Relatively unaffected by weather and doesn't have to be seasonal, but still a good reason for standing around in the highlands. No need to worry about raptors killing pheasants. It even gets the 'greens' off your back.
You can still wear tweeds, drink, eat, fall over, outdoors, day or night. Beaters would be able to make the drones dodge, evade, follow logical flight paths. even shoot back (just light though). Dogs could still retrieve. Why do we need pheasants, grouse etc? Estate workers would still be needed, skill sets widened (repair, cunning software, tree climbing retrieval. First Person View flying). I wouldn't recommend actually shooting drones so they should last a long time and could even parachute down if that floats your boat, and a drone should, with a bit of mass production, be cheaper than raising a few birds. Properly developed it should be possible to differentiate between bull's eye, inner, outer and a 'clip'. Who shot what could be coded into the torch light pattern. Delboy's pump action could be replicated even anti-aircraft simulation Feel free to copy this to estate managers, lairds, gamekeepers and anyone able to construct drones. A couple of decent small industries there, and a purpose for going out into the weather without killing anything. I'll not patent the idea, I don't need the money but I'd appreciate a knighthood later as it'll keep my ears warm outdoors in the dark.
You could even have a clay pigeon equivalent, have the drones chase the shooters, FPV dog-fights or have 'machine-gun' torches (but those might be specialist markets).
Seriously though, workable do you think?
JH 09/12/2023
