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THE PEOPLE.
The Guns. 
Sadly, they will not become your friends out beating, unless you happen to already know someone. It is very unlikely that you will exchange more than ‘Good morning’ with a gun. This is a great shame as many of them are reputedly filthy rich and spend money like water. (Not on tips to the beaters though). Many of the guns are young and handsome, most are English but there is a healthy invasion from Sweden, Spain and the USA. This is brilliant for the local economy, as they mostly stay the nights locally and eat, drink an d party with a vengeance.
Don’t laugh at their clothing! They wear tweed jackets and tweed knickerbockers with colourful socks (this years colour: purply pinkish) in one or several shades with matching tassels.
Red and orange tassels are also very popular. The tassels hang outside the Wellington boots, like curtain ties with tassels. Guns definietly wear Aigle boots. They DO NOT wear bobbly hats! Foreign lady guns may wear smart hats with peacock feathers but English guns don’t usually go that far. Guns require much fortification with Port and Soup and Whisky. This is probably because they stand still all the time, it must be horribly cold in such unsuitable clothing!
Guns usually arrive in large, very upmarket 4-wheel drive vehicles of Warrior type. The preferred colour is black. Celebrity guns tend to have blacked out windows as well, which is a bit unnecessary as the beater usually don’t know who they are anyway. No-one else is likely to see them all day.
The beaters are allowed to moan about the guns lack of shooting ability . Comments like ’10 shots to every kill’ abound. Beaters like good shots, as they get the days ‘bag’ more quickly, with less drives. Sometimes skilled guns are so keen they want another drive all the same and then pay £ 30 extra/bird shot! This is unpopular with the beaters, who don’t gain anything by this, but finish much later.
LOADERS (Stuffers).
The guns often have loaders so that one of their shotguns can be in their own hands and the other be loaded and handed over fast by the loader , or stuffer, in order to shoot more birds, faster. The stuffers dress much like the guns and are also fortified by plenty of drink. They are paid by the guns, not by the shoot and are their personal servants for the day. The loaders receive tips and presents and look down on the humble beaters, who, in turn consider the stuffers stuffy..
 To be a loader you must know how to load a gun speedily and how to clean it after use. You must also be good at saying things like’ Good shot, Sir, Well done! Lovely high bird’ with conviction. With guns who have never been out before, a tactful bit of assistance from an experienced loader may be gratefully appreciated ( Follow through, Sir, don’t stop when you pull the trigger etc) Loaders duties also include picking up all the empty cartridges, as well as ensuring their gun is equipped with amunition, has his guns to hand annd so forth. Loaders who forget the ammunition at base are fined a bottle of port and have to hear about it for the rest of that day..
PICKERS-UP.
If you go beating you will meet the pickers-up. They are also employed on shoot-days by commercial shoots. Keen dog-handlers may nourish an ambition to go picking up. Our reporter has taken a recent opportunity to leave the beating line in order to observe the picking up. There is a very big difference: Picking up is rather lonely and unsociable, compared to beating.
The pickers-up mostly have two dogs each. These sit obediently at their feet. The picker upper him/herself stands some distance behind the gun. It appears that they should only pick up the birds shot by that gun. So, they may have a very busy day or a very dull day, depending on the ability of the gun.
Pickers-up rarely pick up guns, they only pick up dead or half-dead birds. If they birds are half-dead they have to be rendered fully so by a blow to the head by the picker –upper. This is one of the reasons why many people prefer beating to picking up. Pickers-uppers carry blunt instruments called Priests for hitting injured (pricked) birds on the head with. I was once shown such an instrument by a remarkably pretty , petite picker-upper .. To my total astonishment she pulled out a sturdy bit of wood and showed me how her thoughtful boy-friend had put a heavy bolt through it for her to make it heavier and more lethal…
Picking up is better paid than beating and the dogs love it. If you have working dogs you will probably really enjoy seeing them work..
Non-working dogs also love to help with picking up, it is just that they seldom hand the birds over.
A dog that sits down 20 metres away and quietly eats the pheasant is not a total success.
Pickers-up are very professional. They stand there quietly all day. This is very different from the beaters who gossip and moan and share bottles of port and sweets in the beaterwagon, whilst hanging about endlessly.
The pickers-up dress like the game-keeper and the guns, except they wear wellies. These are necessary as the shot birds frequently fall on the wrong side of rivers and waterways. Pickers-up are never mistaken for guns, however, as they can be distinguished by wearing dog-leads around their own necks, as well as an always present dog-whistle. The shooting type dog has a nylon lead that looks rather like a horses’ lead-rope and picker-uppers wear two of these around their necks. They also have metal gadgets about their persons. These are designed for carrying dead birds by the neck. A good picker-up must be quite strong and able to carry many dead birds. It may be possible to bring a pack-pony on big days, this would have many advantages.
Good dogs are a must. The most popular picking-up dog is the labrador. Black is the prefered colour (probably to match the guns’  cars). Yellow labradors are fine but chocolate is a seldom seen colour out on shoots.Perhaps it washes out in the rain?
There are also many spaniels of various types and colours. All the dogs must be really well trained to sit quietly and then take off like rockets when they see a bird falling. staring at the sky. The dog must then find the bird, even if it is far away and the other side of rivers, fences etc. When the bird is found it seems the dog should bring it back at top speed and hand it over at once to the picker up. Pickers up are sometimes heroic and rescue their dogs from rivers when the dogs get swept away. 
Beaters are seldom required to be heroic..
Picker –uppers are paid £5/day more than beaters, for keeping the dogs. Picker-uppers and beaters get on well even if the picker-upper has a slightly higher standing in the shooting hierarchy. This is somewhat nullified by the fact that it is possible to carry on without them, or to have very few, whereas the beaters really are necessary for the days shooting to be a success.
Beaters invariably get the soup and the lunch before the dog-handlers. This is a small source of joy to the beaters who also finish earlier. On some shoots the poor picker-uppers have been seen searching for dead birds by torch-light long after the beaters have left for home.
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