The Šilherovice Pheasantry

(UK Partners: Prestige Sports)

We would like to present to our prospective shooting guests a brief history of the region, the estate and the development of the Šilheřovice Pheasantry. Our aim is to bring to your attention the efforts, skills and diligence of our ancestors, who shaped the local landscape and imprinted a new socio-cultural use on it, including new shooting traditions.

The Šilheřovice Pheasantry is located 9 kilometers from the City of Ostrava, a well-known industrial and social centre of the Czech Republic. The Pheasantry was founded in 1852 by the Rothschild family. For almost one century, until 1945 the Šilheřovice Pheasantry was the property of this banking family, with whose name an enormous industrial and economic development of the whole of the Ostrava region is associated, with coal mining and steel making, in particular.

The size of the Šilheřovice Pheasantry today is 3,000 hectares. Around 40,000 pheasants are shot annually on the estate. A total of 18 so called subdivisions are currently being used for the shooting of pheasants, most of them situated in a broken terrain offering hunting guests demanding shooting at high flying pheasants.

Besides pheasant shooting, roebuck, fallow-deer and wild boar are also available in the Šilheřovice hunting grounds, being carried out individually with the assistance of a hunting guide; wild boar can also be shot driven. Šilheřovice is a picturesque area full of beautiful natural scenery and historical landmarks, such as the classical chateau with a number of Victorian style buildings. In Šilheřovice, you can also find a landscaped park with the hunting-seat/castle.      

We are convinced that this region will remain in the future a harmonious complex sought after by domestic and foreign lovers of hunting.

A new era begins for Šilherovice

Huw Clarke and Vladimir Blahuter planning for the future  of Šilheřovice

Prestige sports, Huw Clarke and Dai Alcock together with Vladimir Blahuter of the  Šilheřovice pheasantry have perfected a marriage between the long standing Czech traditions of the estate and the highly successful British management techniques, which will ensure that the estate continues evolving as one of the most prestigious shoots in Europe. Šilheřovice remains to this day the largest privately run shooting estate in the Czech Republic.  We are convinced that the continued development and use of modern breeds and methods can be successfully integrated into Šilherovice producing the best possible shooting which the discerning sports person expects in today’s marketplace. We aim to deliver not only quality but also extremely good value for money.

 Prestige sports and Vladimir Blahuter are very proud to be contributing to the history of this great sporting estate, and we are sure we can leave our legacy for present and future generations to enjoy.

For prices and booking information please email, you will be surprised at the costs alongside comparable shooting in the UK.

prestigesportshd@aol.co.uk

Pheasant shooting on Šilherovice

Firstly it should be remembered that because Prestige sports are involved with the grass root management of this estate, unlike other shoot agencies we have direct influence on our clients shooting.  Being in attendance on shoot days ensures that the day runs smoothly with no language barriers. The tradition of group hunting is being upheld today on the Šilheřovice Pheasantry. Before each shoot, the guns will draw a shooter‘s number. This number being the guns shooting location, which are changed after each drive. The aim is to rotate all guns in various shooting locations. At the beginning of a shoot, each gun is assigned two personnel: a loader, who handles the guest’s guns, counts and records the achieved shooting results after each drive, and one assistant the so called “carrier of cartridges”. Their assistance is there to enable the guns to concentrate maximally on the shooting itself. A daily shoot usually consists of 6-7 drives. The large number of hunting subdivisions on the 3000ha Šilheřovice Pheasantry guarantees that no drive is repeated during a several day long stay of a shooting party, as was the tradition in Victorian times.

There is no minimum number of guns required. The limiting threshold is a minimum daily bag of 300 pheasants. At the request of a shooting party, it can be arranged that a daily bag in excess of 3000 pheasants can be achieved. The ideal size of a shooting party in the local conditions is 5-10 guns. The average daily bag of a shooting party on the Šilheřovice Pheasantry ranges from 1000 to 1500 pheasants.
Refreshments are served and laid on tables during the breaks between the drives in the specially built traditional pergolas.

The culmination of each shoot is the final display of pheasants at the shoot lodge. They are arranged in traditional ornaments which are intended to pay respect to the birds, and to present the bag to our guests at Šilheřovice. This presentation is accompanied by the ceremonial sounds of the huntsman’s horns.

It is both an honor and privilege to stand alongside friends at one of these ceremonies knowing that you have followed in the footsteps of many great people, and have contributed to the continuing history at Šilheřovice.

History of Šilherovice

The forests and fields of the Šilheřovice country estate, including the park, encompassed in the past a 4,000 hectare large contiguous and fenceless game preserve with large numbers of deer, hair, wild rabbits, quail and pheasants. Farming and forestry was subordinated to shooting. A system of group shooting of furred and feathered game,  was gradually introduced, improved and refined.                        

The project of the Ossicina Pheasantry in Štípky, which was developed in 1851
by forester Exner at the request of the owner of the country estate, Mr. Schalomon Meyer Rothschild, serves as an evidence of broadminded plans of the founder in the introduction of pheasant breeding in the hunting-grounds. Complex systems of group shoots were developed and introduced in individual parts of the Pheasantry.

The forest composition and spatial layout of the forests were aimed towards shooting and the breeding of pheasants, all with a goal to create a varied mosaic of trees in the main centers of the Pheasantry by alternating low-growth plants with clusters of spruce and broad-leaved trees. These silvicultural measures were intended to increase the carrying capacity of the biotope, increase the area of cover for pheasants, create more diverse opportunities for hunting and increase the demanding ness of shooting.

The Rothschild family managed the Šilheřovice forests until 1938. During World War II, the whole region became a part of the German Reich and the Šilheřovice country estate was transferred under sequestration. After WWII and as a result of the land reform, the forests fell under the administration of the Czechoslovak State Forests.

Since the last century, the Šilheřovice Pheasantry has been a traditional meeting place of hunters from all the continents. The Šilheřovice shoots are recognized for their excellent organization and high social standard.

Šilherovice Today

The present size of the Šilheřovice Pheasantry today is 3,000 hectares. It is divided, as in the past, into four individual parts, namely Štípky, Juliánka, Vodnáč and Davídka.  Compared with the past, some significant changes have occurred in the way the pheasants are shot in the hunting-grounds. The intensive shooting of pheasants in the flat section of the Pheasantry called Vodnác has been abandoned and pheasant shooting is now taking place in the remaining parts of the Pheasantry, which offer more demanding conditions for shooting in a rugged terrain without any manicured forestation. That evokes in guns a feeling of shooting in a natural environment without artificially created drives. Such shooting in a rugged terrain along with the high quality of the game, offers demanding high flying pheasants. As a result, the overall experience of the shoot will meet with the expectations of even of the most demanding and experienced guns, who visit Šilheřovice.

There are currently 18 hunting subdivisions on the Šilheřovice Pheasantry, which are used for shooting pheasants, most of them situated in a rugged terrain. The quality of pheasants has always been a very important aspect of the pheasant breeding on the Šilheřovice Pheasantry in its more than 150 years long history.  The production of pheasants comes from its own game farm.  Emphasis is put above all on the healthy condition of the pheasants,  their hardiness and ability to adapt to relatively harsh conditions of life in the wild. Besides pheasants, guests can currently shoot in the hunting-grounds for Roe deer, fallow-deer and wild boar. The physical conditions of the hunting-ground provide an excellent environment for these species.  The Šilheřovice Pheasantry offers also so called combinational hunts. These last for several days and consist of shooting pheasants combined with hunting for wild-boar, Roe deer and fallow deer. Wild-boar shooting is considered to be an “enrichment of the shooting experience” for the guests of the Šilheřovice Pheasantry, who come to shoot pheasants year after year.

Accommodation in Šilherovice

Supporting services are an important part of shooting on the Šilheřovice Pheasantry. They can be arranged to an individual client’s requirements and are aimed at creating comfort and complete satisfaction for our shooting guests. Anything is possible for our guests to achieve a memorable time at Šilheřovice.
Shooting parties usually stay at the Golf St. John Hotel (“Hotel Golf u svateho Jana”), which is located directly in the hunting-grounds of the Šilheřovice Pheasantry.

Lunches are served during, or after the hunt, either in the hunting-grounds at the hunting lodge of Šťípky, or, at the request of the shoot party in the hunting-seat/castle, which is also located on the Šilheřovice Pheasantry.

Transportation is provided by Šilheřovice of the shooting party from their accommodation to the hunting grounds and back, as well as the transportation of guns during the shoot.

Golf Hotel u Sv. Jana      www.golf-hotel.cz/
Hotel Imperiál                 www.imperial.cz/
Zámek Zábřeh                 www.zamek-zabreh.cz/
Pension Svatý Florian     www.pension-florian.cz/
Buly Aréna – Kravaře      www.bulyarena.cz/

Connectivity of Šilherovice

Šilheřovice is conveniently located close to the Ostrava-Mošnov Airport, with direct flights to Prague, Moscow and Vienna.
Starting from 2008, direct flights will be expanded to include many other countries, such as Germany, the UK, Belgium, etc.
The distance from the airport to the Šilheřovice hunting-grounds, is aprox. 25-30 km and can be covered by car in 30-40 minutes.

The ideal flights from the UK are the Heathrow early morning flights to Prague with a minimal wait for the connecting flight to Ostrava airport, flying with Czech airlines.  Private planes can be arranged if required.

A euro shotgun certificate is necessary for shooting in the Czech Republic and the appropriate hunting licenses will be obtained by Šilheřovice for individual guns.  Shotguns must be handed to customs and the carrier informed at your departure airport.  Your guns can then be collected from customs at your destination airport.  Cartridges are supplied by the estate.  

For rifle information please email for recommendations.

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For any other information and booking requests on this great sporting experience at Šilherovice in the Czech Republic please send an email to :-

prestigesportshd@aol.co.uk

Hoping to see you here at Šilherovice soon,

Huw Clarke and Dai Alcock

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