First off, I hope he gets the day he deserves!
Keeper I went beating with for many years reared his own birds so we had a ‘beaters week’ to shoot as many cock birds as we could - when he did the main drives on the Saturday there was a clamour from the guys who’d only been beating once to come along so he sold pegs to them & their mates for £100 each (this was back in the 80s). The rest of us knew exactly what was going on & were encouraged to make sure the birds flew the right way
& that we made sure we called ‘back’ to let the back guns know the birds that’d been put up weren’t going forward
On the other days there was always an old chap, well call him ‘Mick’, who’d show up & ask where the easiest place to walk was as he had a buggered knee - he got shot on a deer drive because he’d sneaked forward from where he was placed to somewhere he thought was better & put himself in the line of fire, paying the price. He’d walk along the bottom of banks, just behind the beating line, or down a ride stopping back. He was a very good shot, he shot a lot of clays, but wasn’t much good at picking up the dead birds that seemed to fold just as he was about to raise his gun to them - “sorry Mick didn’t realise you were there”
That keepers last job was in a small family shoot run for the farmer, it was a cracking bit of ground but by end of December birds were wondering so Boxing Day the keeper arranged a day to shoot the outside woods where he knew the birds would be gone if not shot. This started out as a perk for the beaters, by the end of January there weren’t many birds around so it was an early beaters day, but he always asked the boss if he wanted to shoot. The boss was old school & appreciated being asked but knew what was being done so always politely declined.
Roll on a few years & when the boss got asked as usual his son said he’d like to go - he was about 16/17 at the time & this was agreed. Come the day, not only was the son there, along with Dad to keep an eye on him, but there were 7 other ‘guns’ - all his mates, who would be standing or back gunning the standing guns when it was the beaters turn to shoot… really
. My how we laughed
It wasn’t long before the beaters who were due to shoot were relegated to back guns where they were able to demonstrate just how much better shots they were than the ‘guns’ - being polite it was ‘eye wiping’ but the reality was it was deliberate poaching
The Boxing Day shoot then became a family day & beaters were invited to bring a gun instead of getting paid for beating, most gave apologies for having family round etc & didn’t bother going. Others took the poaching to higher levels & on one occasion ‘someone’ not only poached a bird that was way out in front of the gun line but dropped it at the bosses feet. After the drive the boss walked over to the keeper & said “someone over there can shoot” as if to say ‘have a word with him will you’ - the reply was brilliantly delivered “yeah, he’s done it once or twice”
I’m sure the beaters on whichever shoot the guy goes to will make him welcome & give him a memorable day
some guests are land agent,feed suppliers,game farmers etc - basically palmed off onto the beaters day because they're not important enough to invite on the guvnor days 
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