Beaters wages

[norma 308]

Went today to a new shoot to me although I haved stalked there ,had a great day although the weather was a bit foul and was well looked after in all departments fed watered and payed then back to the big house for tea and cake superb .above all I felt the beating team was appreciated by both the keeper and the guns !!
​Norma

 

[perdix]

Good to hear Norma.
Must say I do think that whatever the pay and food provided the keeper should thank the beaters for their efforts after the days shooting.

 

[countrryboy]

Must admit i'm firmly with teyran and cadex here. And things will never change as long as folk are happy to work for bacon butties and a couple off quid. Generally beaters are not the most wealthy poeple why should we work for peanuts to subsidise someone shooting driven game which is a total luxory. I don't expect bar staff to work for nothing so i can have a cheap pint or nite out with the boys, so why am i expected to do that so someone can shoot pheasants cheaper?

All very well doing it for the 'love of the sport' or 'to get the dogs working' but that does not pay the bills and mortgage every month.
There not doing u a favor by letting u work ur dogs, they need beaters and pickers up or else there would be NO shoots, most shoots in my area are strugglin for both

Do u think all these commercial shoots are run for 'the love of the sport' or is it only landowners/shooting tennents/agents that are allowed to make money out of it?
And us peasants should be thankful for be allowed out in their company for the day.
Any commercial shoot should be paying atleast double the current wage, and so should any shoot funded by 1 person, if a landowner/shooting tennent can afford to pay a full time keeper and enough birds to merit one just for a jolly for their mates, they can afford to pay theirs beaters 50+ quid a day
We are talking decent money to employ a full time keeper plus all his equipment, most shoots will be looking at 6 figure turnover, hell i know shoots needing 7 figures to make a profit, and yet they mump about a few beaters pay which will be a tiny %, evan at 50 quid a picker up only has to pick less than 2 birds to justify his wage

It is ok if ur doing ur day job which pays all ur bills and mortgages and u get plenty off paid days off.
Different story for local boys really strugglin to pay bills throu the quiet winter months (all sorts of farm workers, fencers, building trades, gardeners etc) struggle throu the winter, why should they not get paid a half decent ammount. If they could regulary get 3 days a week at 50 or 60 quid would make a massive difference to them.

Plenty is made off all the good shoots do for habitat and local rural economies throu a quiet tourist time but perhaps its time for them to share there wealth a bit more with the people that they couldn't do with out, beaters and pickers up.

Look i'm not talking about fortunes even at 50 quid a day very few folk running 2/3 dogs would actually make a profit over the season, even if u were doing 50 days a season not gong to make u rich by the time u feed and look after dogs all year

Ps it is nice when the guns come up and thank u after the day or greet u in the morning but i still think they should be paying far better money, no other industry would get away with paying essetial staff so little

 

[pezz69]

The whole point is, I am not partaking of the sport. I do not shoot, I beat.
I did go today to help out my friend, as did my 9 yr old. He slogged away strode every mile that we did. Never stopped or complained. and the shoot owner doesn't think he deserves any money. I gave him half of mine. I am not in this sport to subsidise the wealthy or listen to them complain all day about not being able to shoot. They had 48 for the day. She said she'll have to go back to the shooting school as she could hit a barn door with a bag of rice. Perhaps they'll accept £25 for a days tuition too and then the tutor have to give half of it to his son who operates the trap.
Let me make it clear. I do not do it for the money. I do it for the craik and because I love it. What I don't like is the attitude.

+1, i see where you are coming from, but today we had one of the family days who are actually a lot nicer than the than the syndicate shoot (arseholes) and i see where you are coming from tbh but i don't think of it like,i had my nephew with me today who is 6 who also slogged every mile with us (albeit he is knackered now! as am i).

but the guns do fail to realise if we wern't not there they wouldn't have a sport but even still if there was no payment i would still do it regardless as i love the enviorement and the social side and generally like minded folk.

 

[Cut+Squirt]

Must admit i'm firmly with teyran and cadex here. And things will never change as long as folk are happy to work for bacon butties and a couple off quid. Generally beaters are not the most wealthy poeple why should we work for peanuts to subsidise someone shooting driven game which is a total luxory. I don't expect bar staff to work for nothing so i can have a cheap pint or nite out with the boys, so why am i expected to do that so someone can shoot pheasants cheaper?

All very well doing it for the 'love of the sport' or 'to get the dogs working' but that does not pay the bills and mortgage every month.
There not doing u a favor by letting u work ur dogs, they need beaters and pickers up or else there would be NO shoots, most shoots in my area are strugglin for both

Do u think all these commercial shoots are run for 'the love of the sport' or is it only landowners/shooting tennents/agents that are allowed to make money out of it?
And us peasants should be thankful for be allowed out in their company for the day.
Any commercial shoot should be paying atleast double the current wage, and so should any shoot funded by 1 person, if a landowner/shooting tennent can afford to pay a full time keeper and enough birds to merit one just for a jolly for their mates, they can afford to pay theirs beaters 50+ quid a day
We are talking decent money to employ a full time keeper plus all his equipment, most shoots will be looking at 6 figure turnover, hell i know shoots needing 7 figures to make a profit, and yet they mump about a few beaters pay which will be a tiny %, evan at 50 quid a picker up only has to pick less than 2 birds to justify his wage

It is ok if ur doing ur day job which pays all ur bills and mortgages and u get plenty off paid days off.
Different story for local boys really strugglin to pay bills throu the quiet winter months (all sorts of farm workers, fencers, building trades, gardeners etc) struggle throu the winter, why should they not get paid a half decent ammount. If they could regulary get 3 days a week at 50 or 60 quid would make a massive difference to them.

Plenty is made off all the good shoots do for habitat and local rural economies throu a quiet tourist time but perhaps its time for them to share there wealth a bit more with the people that they couldn't do with out, beaters and pickers up.

Look i'm not talking about fortunes even at 50 quid a day very few folk running 2/3 dogs would actually make a profit over the season, eve if u were doing 50 days a season not gong to make u rich by the time u feed and look after dogs all year

Ps it is nice when the guns come up and thank u after the day or greet u in the morning but i still think they should be paying far better money, no other industry would get away with paying essential staff so little

Exactly my thoughts .. as beaters we need to change the current train of
thought that these large comercial estates are by some quirk doing US a favor
by allowing us to work our dogs there... No word of a lie I was being
paid £20 a day as a lad 20 years ago...

 

[pezz69]

agree with some of your points, but the land owner came round and thanked everyone and even my little nephew who is 6, which tbh means quite a lot to me, and so do some of the other guns today - the syndicate shoot don't even bother to make conversation with you, and the land owner and his crew make the syndicate shoot look like peasants so there is just no need to be like that and i more inclined to put the effort in for the nicer guns and get into thick cover and get scratched the **** out of.

It goes along way

 

[Malxwal]

As a wee aside and light relief, I offered my son a few quid to come beating today on our wee walk up. Even went to the bother of waxing his walking boots and getting him a pair of gaiters. It was all worth it just to watch him walking into an overgrown pond up past his waist.
Absolutely priceless the laugh we all had, and he took it all in his stride carrying on for the rest of the day. Money well spent !