He has early memories of collecting pheasant in the dead of night on his father's farm outside Wetherby. He began shooting when he was only 10-years-old and now does it regularly to help local farmers with problem animals on their land.

Now 23, he works as the factory supervisor at Yorkshire Game, at Brompton-on-Swale, near Northallerton, who supply a range of game products to restaurants and shops all over the country.

"We collect game from down at Ripley Castle, near Harrogate, right up to Alnwick Castle in Northumberland.

"There are some unusual bits of game on offer. Ripley Castle have some North American turkey in the grounds. They'll shoot one or two every year and some estates shoot mallard, snipe and woodcock," he said.

Fashionable London restaurants are now desperate for some of the animals not known for appearing on the average menu.

"We even deal with grey squirrels. Most of them get sent down to chefs in London at restaurants like Claridges and The Ivy. They take large volumes of venison as well as small game that you don't see regularly, like wigeon and teal," he said.

"We have chefs phoning us up asking if we have anything in stock before we even get the animals in."

Mr Lister had originally planned to go travelling after leaving school and then to university to study engineering. But a serious car crash in October 2003 outside Masham made him re-evaluate his plans.

"I was out of work for almost two months and couldn't afford to go travelling. Thankfully, Yorkshire Game said I always had a job with them," he said.

He started right at the bottom, skinning deer on gruelling 13-hour shifts. "I was coming home, going to sleep and going straight back out again," he said.

After learning game butchering skills, he began to move up the ranks. "Once they know you've got knife skills, you move up slowly but surely," he said.

Mr Lister, from Masham, who supplements his wage by shooting with two friends in Wetherby and York, said they do it to help farmers and also to sell what they shoot. "I just enjoy shooting and do it to help farmers with problem animals. If a farmer needs the rabbit population thinning out, or if they need some deer taken out, we'll help.

"If you can take 100 rabbits off the land, you're helping the farmer as well as saving the quality of the grain which is nice because a lot of them are having a bad time of it just now.

"We'll get £1 a piece for a head shot rabbit. Some weeks we'll do 50 or 60 rabbits, others we'll do as much as 150. But it definitely isn't enough to live on," he said.

Mr Lister said with fuel costs and cartridge prices going up, many people shooting for themselves are having a hard time.

Mr Lister believes game is becoming more popular in Britain as people realise just how healthy the product is.

"It makes me happy from a shooter's point of view that it's becoming so popular now. It's good to know that the animals you're shooting are being used rather than just disposed of.

"I get the chance to shoot, process the animals and see the product at the end. I see it from start to finish which makes it all the more worthwhile," he said.