PUT down those golf clubs and go for your gun: shooting is fast becoming the social networking sport of choice.

A survey of 2,000 companies and 14,000 directors shows that shooting is soaring in popularity. A decade ago, toting a shotgun did not even feature among the most popular recreations listed by company directors. But the survey ranks shooting as the seventh most popular recreation, almost level with gardening.

“Though golf remains the directors’ favourite recreation, shooting has come from nowhere and continues its rise, despite the current politically correct climate,” said Allister Heath, editor of The Business magazine, which conducted the survey.

Nor is shooting’s popularity solely down to City bankers blasting off on corporate days out. The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) saw its membership rise to 128,000 last year, up from 110,00 in 1996; the number of affiliated syndicates has jumped to 940 from just 370 in 1996.

A recent survey by economic consultants Pacec estimated that 480,000 people now participate in shooting and the sport generates 70,000 jobs. Many of the newcomers are women.

“We have constantly been increasing our membership, it’s across the board,” said Christopher Graffius of BASC. “It is far more accessible than it was.”

It’s true, though, that landed gentry and business big hitters still lead the way. The Duke of Northumberland is rated in this month’s edition of The Field as “a top contender for Britain’s very best all-round game-shot”. Michael Spencer, chief executive of the money broker Icap, is also an enthusiast.

Rupert Lowe, the chairman of Southampton FC, is ranked as one of the finest shots in the country. And Marco Pierre White, the celebrity chef, is such an avid “gun”, as shooters are known, that he takes out his 12-bore up to four times a week during the season.

But shooting also ranges more widely, partly because farmers have diversified in search of new sources of income.

“Often renting land to a syndicate can be very profitable for them,” said Graffius, “so there are more opportunities for syndicates to shoot than in the past.”

Others suggest that people have discovered shooting is an easier way to network than golf. “When I play golf, most people go in one direction and I go somewhere else,” said Dylan Williams, founder of the Royal Berkshire Shooting School. “The ability to talk to people is negated.

“Whereas here (at the shooting school) you can invite who you want and give them a great day out where they will achieve a great degree of success very quickly.

“People in business say they would shoot even if they weren’t very good at it, because of the people they meet.”

Baron Phillips, a City PR man and keen gun himself, agrees. “It’s become the new networking tool, whether it’s old blue bloods or new money.

“In golf, if you’re no good it’s painfully obvious. In shooting, if you keep missing birds nobody minds, so long as you enjoy the day out in the countryside. There have been stories of groups from American investment banks being sent packing after the first drive of a shoot because they are spending all their time on their mobile or BlackBerry.”

Others believe the attractions of shooting go beyond the boardroom. Jonathan Young, editor of The Field, said: “It may be down to people moving out to the countryside. Wives join the tennis club and socially they are fixed. Then the boys turn round and say, what are we going to do? And the answer in many areas is shooting.”

However, more women are also discovering they like the thrill of firearms. Among them is Caroline Stevens, a divorced mother of two from Hampshire, who took up the sport recently.

“I got hooked when I was on holiday in Ireland and was invited on a woodcock shoot,” she said. “It was being up on the open moors, dogs running in the woods, the tension — the whole atmosphere just captured the imagination.”

Stevens paid £60 for a one-hour lesson at a clay shooting school — and discovered a lot of other women were also taking up shooting. “They were divorced women and other women with time on their hands, wanting to do something in a mixed atmosphere.”

Stevens has since obtained a gun licence and bought a Beretta 12-bore. “I love it,” she said.

Campaigners for animal rights are concerned some shoots are so commercial that they have turned into massacres, rather than sport that produces food for the pot. Some 35m birds are reared each year just to be shot.

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