Manners maketh man

And, indeed, guns, though sadly a lack of them can on occasions be seen on a shoot. Our writer highlights a few heinous offences

… and guns, says Robert Gibbons

Lack of consideration for one’s host is becoming all too common with some who attend a shoot and the way they conduct themselves. There are a number of obvious incidents that amount to just bad manners, one of which is turning up late for a shoot. There are sometimes valid reasons for somebody to be late but I know one individual who one can almost rely on never to be on time. Apart from anything else, it is discourteous to the host. What does the host do? Wait for the guest to arrive or go on without him, leaving instructions as to where he should follow the guns, all of which is just an inconvenience and a bad start to the day.

The most annoying aspect for a host who has sent out an invitation to shoot is those who never answer at all, or answer very late. Anybody trying to put together a day’s

shooting knows how important it is to have those who are invited reply as quickly as possible so you can plan the day.

There are those who seem quite oblivious to the inconvenience they cause when they arrive on a shoot without any cartridges, expecting to be able to purchase some from the keeper or the host. As I said to somebody the other day who had arrived without any cartridges, we weren’t running a gun shop, and as they had a 20-bore I didn’t have any 20-bore cartridges anyway.

I take the view that simple etiquette on a day’s shooting is not a lot to ask. I particularly dislike the greedy gun, somebody who continues to shoot over you. There are those who seem to think it is rather funny to shoot like that. I don’t think it funny at all. Wiping a neighbour’s eye is one thing but habitually taking his or her birds is another. And then there are those who are just careless with the way they carry a gun, slung over a shoulder, looped over an arm pointing directly at the feet of those who they are standing with. Their guns may be unloaded but I think there is some sense in carrying a gun, rather like a rifle, over one’s shoulder, trigger-guard uppermost. Dangling guns around, that’s how accidents can happen and sometimes do.

misidentifying quarry

Partridge days are becoming more popular and shoots are taking advantage of this and putting on September days to great effect. The problem that arises is that on the majority of such shoots they cannot set aside partridge manors and have to run the partridge drives amidst young pheasants. Guns are told not to shoot the pheasants as they are out of season but it is often difficult to distinguish a young hen pheasant if it flies out with a covey of partridges. Sadly, I have seen guns who take no notice or care in identifying their quarry on such shoots

and happily bang away at whatever comes in their direction, without any shame. The same situation arises on “cocks only days”, where there are those who without a care in the world carry on shooting the hens as if it didn’t matter, regardless as to the host’s wish to conserve the hen population.

Personally, I take a poor view of an individual on a shoot who spends most of the time, not only between drives but during drives, talking on his or her mobile phone or checking an ipad and even sending messages. Some mobiles have such a violent ring tone that neighbouring guns have to suffer the noise. If you are so busy that you require to be in constant touch with whoever calls, I suggest you don’t accept an invitation to shoot when you would be better deployed in your office. As a compromise, I would suggest that such persons, if they have to, wait until the lunch break and reply to their caller discretely away from the rest of us. But even this I think is discourteous, not only to the other guns but also to the host.

disobedient dogs

So far as discourtesy is concerned, when it merges with lack of consideration nothing irritates more than to be on a shoot when the dog belonging to one of the other guns spends its time during each drive pickingup your birds before your own dog has had a chance to retrieve them. The individual concerned invariably makes no attempt to curtail the activities of his dog and even when approached looks at you with disdain, as if he was doing you a favour.

And as for the dangerous shot, you are fortunate if you can identify such an individual early on in a day’s shooting. It is good for the sport that more and more people are taking

Don’t accept an invitation if you would be better deployed in your office

it up and more people are shooting than ever before. But this does give rise to a number of those who have either not taken the trouble to understand the etiquette and care required in shooting or don’t seem to bother. A lot of dangerous shots are taken through greed. A low pheasant, which should be left, is shot sometimes over the head or close to the neighbouring gun. On the grouse moor, the temptation to shoot birds that should really be left is such that people are inclined to take a shot when they shouldn’t do so.

A couple of years ago, while on a grouse moor in Durham, one of the guns shot into the next-door butt causing injury to the other gun and his loader to the extent they both required medical attention as a result of being peppered. There are those of us who have been shooting all our lives yet have been fortunate enough never to have been on a shoot where anybody has been injured. Sadly, that has not been my good fortune and over the many years I have been shooting there have been several occasions when I have had to witness such an event.

Driving home with the friend I was staying with for the shoot, we discussed the incident and the conversation led to how badly behaved some people now seem to be on shoots. The shooting of the neighbouring gun was inexcusable. I can think of no excuse to justify such behaviour. In this particular case, what we felt made the whole incident worse was that the individual concerned, although most apologetic, stayed on for the rest of the day – the incident having taken place just before lunch, we had two more drives. In my time, he would have been sent home.

On most shoots, the shoot captain or organiser or host gives a pep talk before the day’s shooting as to what game is to be shot and how the day’s shooting should progress. Often guns are told there will be no ground game, or no woodcock. I think it is just bad manners when a gun ignores the host’s rules of engagement and I have on several occasions had to mention to a gun who has shot a hare or a rabbit that that is not what we are there for. I have one friend who has quite a few woodcock on his shoot but doesn’t

like them being shot. However, frequently guns shoot them and needless to say they get the full benefit of my friend’s outrage.

I was on a shoot not so long ago when the host’s young son – aged about 16 and out from school – was present and on his first driven day. This, on the face of it, looks harmless and I have no problem in bringing on the young. However, the young man in my opinion should have had a keeper with him. Being drawn next to him for the day I was not at all comfortable with the way he was handling his gun. My host did ask if I minded and while I could have said I did, out of politeness I refrained from doing so. I do think if you are going to have a young son or daughter out shooting, in adult company, it is only polite to have somebody alongside them. Not only for their safety but for that of fellow guns – and a little instruction would not be out of place.

letting it go

On shoot days, the host or captain points out that there will be a horn that indicates that the birds are only to be taken behind as the beaters are approaching and another horn to signal the end of the shoot. I think it is bad behaviour to ignore this request and time and time again on shoots I see guns taking birds in front after the horn has gone, or shooting after the shoot is over – simply because an attractive bird happens to have put in a late appearance. They may think they are taking a safe shot but that is not the point. I just wonder what goes through people’s minds when they behave like that.

As a final word, and what is now a serious matter, is when a gun shoots a protected bird. This can happen by pure accident and I remember some time ago being on a shoot where a flush of pheasants from the hilltop flew over the guns and the gun next to me managed to connect with a peregrine that was chasing the pheasants as they flew. The bird fell stone dead at his feet and he was mortified. I suppose one could hit a bird of prey in close proximity to the intended quarry – he did. It was an accident and he was an experienced gun and that can happen. I have also seen a gun raised to a woodpecker, the gun mistaking it for a jay, though he did not fire. But there is no excuse for the gun who deliberately shoots a protected bird and, regrettably, there have been occasions where I have seen this happen.

Then there is that most appalling lack of manners: the gun who either just does not turn up at all (I remember being on such a shoot some years ago) or the gun who rings up the night or day before the shoot and for some reason or other says that he is unable to attend. I know there are genuine good reasons for this, but often not particularly if a secretary or someone else telephones on their behalf. They don’t seem to realise that putting together a day’s shooting takes time, energy and cost to a host and suddenly to have to try and find somebody to step in at 24 hours’ notice is not easy – and sometimes quite impossible. You find yourself in the position of having to ring up a friend and ask whether he would like to shoot – and the friend wonders why he was not invited in the first place. So, either way, the host is left in an unhappy situation. Manners, we are told, maketh man. Sadly not always on a shoot.

The young man in my opinion should have had a keeper with him