BAVARIAN OUTRAGE

I must take issue with the derogatory comments regarding the wearing of Bavarian hats for shooting (Young in the Field, August issue). We in the Bavarian Gentlemen’s Sporting Club (BGSC) find the Bavarian Bonnet to be the supreme shooting hat.

For the folicly challenged, it keeps the sun’s burning rays at bay and, unlike the baseball or flat cap, it keeps the crown cool when the shooting hots up. It’s warm in the cold, dry in the rain and especially good in a British deluge, stopping water channelling down the neck. The peak, being small so as not to obscure any high birds yet long enough to shade the eyes from the sun, strikes a balance other hats can only envy. As for the protection, well, falling shards of shot clays just bounce straight off.

Worn with style and panache it is a “must have” piece of shooting head gear no matter the target species. We members of the BGSC feel the flat cap is appropriate for keepers and their stalwart teams of stout yeomen beaters, however not for the all-round shooting sportsman; and as for the baseball cap it is, well, suited to baseball.

The photo (above) was taken just this week on a driven grouse day at the superb Purdey Awardwinning Bingley shoot, during which a couple of BGSC members had the most perfect driven grouse day and the best day of walked-up grouse-shooting ever to be had. Quite simply, it is the prince of hats worn for shooting the king of gamebirds.

BGSC motto: “One out of three ain’t bad.” Aims: “Fun, affordable, clay and game-shooting.” Membership: “By invitation – and a Bavarian hat.”

Colin Edwards (BGSC founder)

By email