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Beaters Day


Scully
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After beating on big BIG shoot all season yesterday was our beaters day. After putting birds over shooters all season and seeing how the birds fly on this shoot I can only describe the day as one I'd been looking forward to with a mixture of excited anticipation tinged with a mild dose of fear!

The day was mostly white with a hard frost and clear blue skies and the scenery of the white Pennine Fells almost within touching distance to the East and the equally white Lakes Fells to the West, was simply stunning.

There was sixteen of us shooting ( not all the beaters shoot ) and we planned to shoot six drives on a stand one beat one basis and so drew teams and pegs, ( move up three and turn on ten ) and after a safety talk we all made our way to the first drive via the beaters wagon and various vehicles.

I was standing on the periphery of this drive, which wouldn't have made a difference any other time but this late on in the season I wasn't expecting a great number of birds over me, and those trees in front at the top of the banking looked a long way up. I had brought my 32" barrelled Renato Gamba Daytona as I'd been pleased with it on the high tower at Westlands so unslipped it and made ready.  I was caught napping by a jinking woodcock and each time I raised my gun to a crosser the very experienced next gun down beat me to it, but I swung through a nice cock which landed just in front and another which curled up to land behind me, and missed a hen. The far end of the line sounded like Warcop range, but I ended the drive having fired only five shots. I wasn't disappointed though; it's all swings and roundabouts and the lads down that end had smiles a mile wide. Great to see. The pickers up collected the birds, we collected our spent cartridges and after reliving the drive on we went.

Beating this one, which was hard going on the sloping banking, but judging by the gun shots it had been enjoyed. 

We paused for a brew from the beaters wagon, and had a gander at others guns ( 20's seem to be very popular ) and retold the drive again. Everybody was in very high spirits and the atmosphere was alive with excitement! A mate asked if I'd brought plenty of cartridges as it turned out I was on the hot peg for the next drive, and this was confirmed when the bloke whose job it is all season to ensure the guns are on their pegs asked 'who's on No 4 for this drive?' and smiled when I answered. This has been one of my favourite drives all season as it commands one of the highest parts of the shoot, with towering pheasants and exocet style partridge, and the best thing about it is that the beaters get to see the guns shoot, but as it was now slowly dawning on me, the beaters got to see the beaters shooting also! No pressure! 😅All season I'd said how much I'd love to be down there under those birds, and now not only would I be just that, but on the busiest peg! 😳

Anyhow, here I was, stood on peg 4, looking straight up to a thick fir wood directly in front, not exactly being reassured by the comments of every passing gun and beater who sauntered by on their way to other pegs or drives. Out came the Gamba and after filling a pocket with Sipe 32grm 5's and ensuring my cartridge bag was opened close by in the snow, settled down to wait. I knew what to expect as I've beaten this drive many times this season, and it starts way off across the moors from left and right, as beaters drive both pheasant and partridge from their meanderings back to the woods, so it came as no surprise to hear the guns on pegs to my right ( none of whom I could see.....nor to my left ) getting plenty of shooting as the birds drew closer. 

I have never shot driven partridge before and it turned out that the first bird for me on this drive turned out to be such. It took a while for me to identify it as they appear just as a very short horizontal line against the clear blue sky. It was closing fast and turned slightly to its left presenting itself to me as a rapid high up crosser. I turned slightly to my right, aware the gun to my right had missed, swung through and that little redleg suddenly folded up in a ball of chaff. To say I was pleased was an understatement! The rest of the drive was a flurry of high birds, mad scrambles for cartridges as birds passed over head, a cacophony of gunfire and me telling myself to slow down and pick my targets. The entire drive was fabulous, but highlights for me were a high left to right crossing partridge which the previous three guns had all missed, which folded to my first barrel, and a left and right at pheasant and redleg, in very quick succession as they were driven directly overhead. I ended the drive with nine partridge and seven pheasant! Words fail me to be honest in trying to describe this drive and how elated I felt. Fabulous, simply fabulous. Everyone had had loads of shooting and the basket in the game wagon was full of empty cases. 

We then stopped in an opening in the sun bathed forest for lunch, where the keepers wife and under keepers partner brought us pork pies, hot sausages in buns, victoria sponge cakes, rocky road and all washed down with tea and coffee. Wonderful. The craic was great and we all chatted together and I caught up with one of the pickers up as I wanted some advice about my dog. Turns out she has fifteen dogs! Bloody hell.....that's some poop bags! 

Next drive was one I hadn't done before and we closed in from what seemed miles back in an ever decreasing circle to drive the birds off the flushing point before the guns far below. The keeper on my left acted as back gun and did very well in dropping some very tricky birds. The guns had been shooting long before the keeper and I had even set off and I assumed they would be shooting pigeons, and so it turned out, but the numbers of pheasant we put up seemed to be never ending and I couldn't wait to get  to the bottom of the wood to see the outcome. Huge smiles all round, with everyone getting plenty of shots. One gun had shot at least twenty himself, and one young lad ( having skived off school ) beaming like an anti aircraft light! He'd had a great drive as had a young mother who hadn't picked up a gun until two weeks ago whose first days shooting it was after an intensive course on the clays from her Dad and two brothers in those two weeks. Bitten, most definitely. There were just about as many pigeon in the game cart as game birds. 

Last drive for me was a cold stand in the shade looking across at a sunlit wood. The lady on my right shot her first woodcock, and although I had more than enough birds over me the vast majority veered to the right due to the direct sunlight so most of the shooting went on down that end. I folded up a nice redleg with a second shot and six pheasant before the horn blew ( could have used a stuffer! ) but the guns down the far end had multiple lefts and rights and an impressive bag. 

Last drive was a thorough but very quick affair as the light was going and the wind was now extremely bitter as the sun lost its warmth, so we headed back and had a head count of just over two hundred if I recall. 

Late that evening we all converged on the local pub for a meal on the estate and presented money to the keeper for the day and his wife for keeping us in delicious victoria sponges throughout the season. Speeches were made, laughs were had, tales were told and drinks were drunk and it's at this point my story ends. Fabulous day ( and a fabulous season ) spent with fabulous people. 

Edited by Scully
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52 minutes ago, Scully said:

The entire drive was fabulous, but highlights for me were a high left to right crossing partridge which the previous three guns had all missed, which folded to my first barrel, and a left and right at pheasant and redleg, in very quick succession as they were driven directly overhead. I ended the drive with nine partridge and seven pheasant! Words

I bet if you had only shot on that drive you would have had a great day, cracking write up in good company by the sounds of things.

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Many thanks all, very kind. I could have gone on for ages and in greater detail, but am aware not all may be as excited as I was! 

Got it in one Mice! As I said to one of the other guns following the drive, ‘ if I don’t get another shot all day I’ll still go home happy!’ 👍

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Reading your very descriptive report I could have been there with you, the dogs, the beaters and other guns, I could even see the last drive with you standing in the shade looking across at a sunlit wood.

For those of us who have been lucky enough to shoot on similar shoots in the past thank you for a great write-up and bringing back a few memories, I can still smell the hot tea/coffee and taste the pork pies. :good:

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Very good write up and glad to hear you enjoyed the day. Very often beater’s days can be a disappointment as the stand in beaters don’t  do such a good job as the regular beaters and due to it being at the end of the season the drives which are usually full of birds have been really thinned out. You can make some new friends though who seem to come “out of the woodwork” on beater’s day🙂

I had two really good ones this year and a third where the birds didn’t turn up, so two out of three is not bad!

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Thanks again all, pleased you enjoyed it. 

2 hours ago, wacker said:

Glad you had a great day. After beating every Sat since the start of the season, I was looking forward to ours. The snow soon  put a stop to that. I did try to get to the shoot but had to turn back. GUTTED!

That’s unfortunate; I would have felt the same. 

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We are constantly advising new members ( or old ones ) who are looking for shooting to go down the beating road to get a foot on the so called ladder .

After reading Scully's excellent detailed post on his long awaited beaters day , you can see what could be on offer for giving up a few days of your life to go beating , then who knows ? , this time next year YOU could reporting on a day very similar to Skully's.

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18 hours ago, marsh man said:

We are constantly advising new members ( or old ones ) who are looking for shooting to go down the beating road to get a foot on the so called ladder .

After reading Scully's excellent detailed post on his long awaited beaters day , you can see what could be on offer for giving up a few days of your life to go beating , then who knows ? , this time next year YOU could reporting on a day very similar to Skully's.

Quite. The thing is that beaters day is some people’s only chance to shoot driven birds, or in fact to shoot. One of the beaters who I got to know this season is next season going to be a member of our small syndicate. As such he will have the option to roost shoot, shoot Roe, rabbits and decoying on syndicate land out of season. So in future not only does he get to shoot all of the aforementioned  species, he gets to shoot in season game throughout the season, go beating and then end it with a superb beaters day.......and all because of beating. As I’ve said countless times, beating is a foot in the door. 

Edited by Scully
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15 hours ago, storm in a teacup said:

I've stopped trying the tower at westlands I just waste cartridges!

I feel your pain. Actually, I don't think they need as much lead as you would think, and I say 'think' because you can't actually see how much lead you're giving them because your swing blots them out. It's more of a case of tracking, then swinging through consistently; your instinct pulls the trigger, and usually it's right. 

Southwaites driven high birds are a bit trickier in my opinion as they're not as high and therefore seem faster...now that is a proper swiiiinnng! 

Thanks again all for the responses. 👍

Edited by Scully
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