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Sir,
I occassionaly pay some of my hard-earned money to have a day’s shooting. I have been quite amazed at the problems mentioned by the beaters on these pages. I had previously not given any real thought to how the birds were made to fly over me, I had not understood that there were so many jeaulousies and opinions involved. I thought the whole thing was more professional.
I feel let down that my chosen sport is dependent on an inferior class of person. Game-keepers should avoid employing these types on shoots, and female beaters are seemingly best avoided altogether.
Yours, Edward. 20.05.10
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A troubled Beaters’ Day: Are blondes favoured by Gamekeepers?
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Dear Sir,
Not all Beaters’ Days are as happy as you say in your Beating Line article. Our shoot had few birds, baked beans for lunch, and worst of all, a terrible athmosphere. It was due to our Gamekeeper Jack, giving the radio to a young blonde, Amy, who has only been out 3 times. One of our regulars, Marianne got very upset. I don’t know why, Marianne is nealy 60 and has only been beating for 6 years. For some reason she imagined it was her turn to be a Bogi. Well, frankly no chance! Obviously a 19 year-olde blonde , wearing only 4 layers is is more suited than a 59 year-old greying person of indeterminate sex wearing 6 layers!
The people involved nearly came to blows, the radio was either dropped or hurled over a precipice and never seen again, a massive argument with our chief Bogi followed because Marianne got very upset by him calling her Lucy .She imagined he would know her name, after only 6 years!
Our Gamekeeper, says he will provide boxing gloves next year. We are quite looking forward to this encounter and bets are being placed.
The Guns had a good time, especially Mariannes husband who shot three birds. The sweepstake was, of course, totally by chance, won by Amy. She took home £236 and has promised to come every day next season.
All in all, not quite what you describe in Beating Line!
Regards, Miranda, by e-mail, 02.02.10
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A Grateful Beater.
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Sir,
I think the beaters complain too much. I have personally experienced being thanked by the guns twice this very season and I have only done 18 days beating this year, as I have another job. Also, we get good food, at my shoot, otherwise I wouldn’t go. it saves quite a lot of house-keeping money, if you get a decent meal regularily.
Yours, Marion, 31.01.0
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Beaters Look After Shoots, but do Shoots look after Beaters?
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Sir,
We, the undersigned, strongly support a move for better wages for Beaters. We work all hours, until dark. We sometimes have six drives. We get no more for a hard day in the bitter wind and rain than we do for a pleasant short day.. We get very little soup, at some shoots, horrible dried bread and then sausages and baked beans for lunch.
We take home £ 25 per day. We have to be available from 9 a.m, until the end of the day. We don’t normally complain but this year we feel fuel prices are up, we’re struggling to make ends meet and the Guns are just taking advantage of us. Are we some sort of lower class of citizen? It seems so.
How many beaters in Britain have been personally thanked by a Gun? Let alone offered a Bad Weather Supplement?
Yours,
Annalisa, Belinda, Robbie, Peter and William. 02/12/09
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Sir,
I occsionally beat for a shoot near Taunton. This season we’re on half wages, for twice as much work, as they have ut the umber ofbeaters back. We get a brace of pheasants worth £ 3.50 instead..
Many people enjoy the beating scene but we’re being taken advantage of.The Gamekeepers don’t care, they are only concerned with doing their own jobs.
Yours ,
Catherine 02.12.09
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The Beaters Day Sweets:
We had the most super Beaters’ Day at our shoot. The Athmosphere was terrific, masses of bird, thousands, good laughs in the Beaterwagon, mad rabbit hats, mad dogs, sloe gin, fast gin, any amount of Best Port...
Best of all we had Chilli-Chocolate Sweets!
A lovely tin of well wrapped Roses Chocolates was passed around after Soup. The flavour was surprising, but they went on down a treat. Jilly particularily liked them and had 10. We were counting.
These are made by injecting Strong Chilli Sauce with a syringe, through the wrapping paper. They are sensational.
Name witheld, by request, aged11.
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Wolfie Replies to the Beaters Day Tale below :
Dear Friends,
Here you can see him, one of my Obsessed friends called Labrador! They rially only like Dead Birds. It is not quite normal..I worry a little about these type of friend. Maybe they can go to a Training Class and get help?
Yours, Wolfi 27.02.09
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Toby, Fleur Blackmore’s Labrador, photo, Fleur.
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The Stress of Picking Up
Dear Sir,
I feel you have glossed over the stressfulness of a picker uppers job!!
You have failed to mention the regular occurance of the guns bringing their own dogs (shudders at the thought). A Gun's dog is either tied to a peg during a drive, barking and whining the whole way through, or allowed to run riot and weave in and out of the guns, generally causing chaos. They run after a bird, pick it up, drop it and then run after another at the other end etc.
When a gun brings his own dog, us picker uppers have to make sure that our own dogs leave him some birds to pick (thats hoping he shoots some in the first place) but we also have to hide behind a tree and watch them like hawks so that when they have finished and gone back to the Range Rovers for drinkies, we can come out and pick up all the ones he's missed!
God forbid, we may have a wayward dog who picks up a bird that a Gun wanted to pick with his own dog - he will turn around, mid drive and roar at the top of his voice "There is a dog here you know!". Red faced, apologetic and deflated for doing our job, we then have to walk back half mile and sit out the drive until he has gone in hiding.
Equally each gun wants to ensure that you picked up all the birds he shot - he will often come over and ask if you got that hen bird that he pricked up the tail and saw it gliding three miles down the valley - Always say Yes! Some guns are very optomistic on the amount of birds they have shot - when they see you walk out the wood with half a dozen birds they will often say "Oh No - I shot at least 20!" - then you have to go back in the wood and pretend to search for the remaining ficticious 14 birds.
As I say - the stress levels of a picker upper are equal to that of a junior doctor!
All the best, Absolutely loving this site
FB, Dulverton by e-mail
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OUR BEATERS DAY
BY FLEUR BLACKMORE, action photos by Fleur too.
Beaters Day today! Well, we woke up to snow and sheet ice I really didn't think I was going to get there as my car just wont get up our lane when its iced over (we live in a dip!).
OH was shooting and Son couldn't get to school so he was keen to go too as he beats there when he can, in the end we all squeezed into OH's two seater pick up truck with the dogs in the back - it was pretty hairy!!
There were only four of us picking up (me in charge today) and just about everyone else had a gun - there must have been at least 20 of them!
At the beginning we have a sweepstake, where everyone puts in a pound and guesses what the bag will be and how many shots (remember that bit!)
So we all traipse off to the first drive in convoy, there were many more birds than I thought and I think everyone got a shot, the guns were placed out far and wide as there were so many of them!
It was bloomin cold or so the beaters said .....
Not many shot where I was but Flyn picked a cock bird.....
Second drive, very few birds but everyone stayed jolly. Third drive and lots of birds and lots of shots (I put a high number of shots on the sweepstake so I was willing them to shoot at anything!!)
Flyn bringing in a hen.......
Then back for soup but OH and I decided to whizz home and get my car as the roads had started to clear by now.
It really turned into a beautiful day..
Next drive and my son had the gun (with OH supervising!) unfortunately he wasn't in a very good place and there wasn't really a good shot for him to go for
(son on the left, OH on the right)
But on the last drive he hit three birds!! OMG he was chuffed to bits, this is his first time shooting live game. It really made the day
All back to the shoot room for a lovely meal. And guess what....I won the sweepstake on the shots!!
Feeling very guilty that I didn't get any pictures of Toby picking a bird, so just a rather boring one of him to finish off to relieve my guilt!!
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