Driven etiquette….

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gixer1

gixer1

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Just a question, I have been around shooting for a good portion of my life, mostly on the keeper/beating side but also on the gun side.

I enjoy a driven day but do find my interest has faded off in recent years and I am more rifle oriented, one of the things I struggled with is the differences in etiquette from one shoot to another and the perceptions that can come from that.

A recent one that came up, was if you are a guest, on a day, and let’s say there are 8 guns, and it’s a 100 bird day and the high level plan is 3 drives.

You are on a great peg on the first drive and are very selective of birds and shoot 4 very well presented birds, probably within the first half of the drive.

Just curious on opinions - What do you do for the remainder of the drive?

Some options -

1) Carry on shooting as it’s likely one of the other pegs won’t have as hot a drive.

2) Stop shooting, open your gun and stand not firing any more shots and allow birds to pass over.

3) Slip your gun and stand and watch the other pegs shooting allowing birds to pass over.

4) Offer a gun on the next peg to stand in your “hot peg” position.

5) Walk back to help pick up birds that may be downed.

Regards.
Gixer
 
My gut feeling would be that, as a guest, you might stop shooting and go for option 2 or 4, but if you've paid to be there then you carry on shooting.
 
Carry on shooting as it’s likely one of the other pegs won’t have as hot a drive.

As an ex keeper anything else would be considered weird. Any guns that tell you otherwise are just being sly and jealous. Now, I would expect you to start being more selective as you shoot more birds, really try to challenge yourself. i wouldn’t shoot 25 birds myself on one drive on a 100 bird day, but to stop at your perfectly divided number is madness.
 
gixer1 said:
Just a question, I have been around shooting for a good portion of my life, mostly on the keeper/beating side but also on the gun side.

I enjoy a driven day but do find my interest has faded off in recent years and I am more rifle oriented, one of the things I struggled with is the differences in etiquette from one shoot to another and the perceptions that can come from that.

A recent one that came up, was if you are a guest, on a day, and let’s say there are 8 guns, and it’s a 100 bird day and the high level plan is 3 drives.

You are on a great peg on the first drive and are very selective of birds and shoot 4 very well presented birds, probably within the first half of the drive.

Just curious on opinions - What do you do for the remainder of the drive?

Some options -

1) Carry on shooting as it’s likely one of the other pegs won’t have as hot a drive.

2) Stop shooting, open your gun and stand not firing any more shots and allow birds to pass over.

3) Slip your gun and stand and watch the other pegs shooting allowing birds to pass over.

4) Offer a gun on the next peg to stand in your “hot peg” position.

5) Walk back to help pick up birds that may be downed.

Regards.
Gixer
Click to expand...
So many variables there. If the birds are there in numbers and all 8 guns are good shots then they should kill 4 birds each over the 3 drives, which will give a bag of 100 aproximately.
But ignoring well presented birds that are clearly over you can be seen as rude, or that you are playing the numbers game - seen that on 2 occasions when I've been beating.
If they are really good birds I would be selective and carry on shooting. You may be on a peg on drive 2 & 3 that doesn't give you a chance?
 
This is madness. It is up to the keeper to regulate how many birds are flushed on any drive and on the day. He/she should be able to manage the bag (within limits) by drive selection amongst other methods. The gun's job is to shoot suitably presented birds and indeed to refuse to do so can possibly be seen to be rude, rejecting the work that has gone into presenting them.

I think you are over thinking it. Just stand on your peg and shoot birds. By all means be as selective as you want given the circumstances, but worrying about the overall bag shouldn't be your concern as a gun.
 
I’m not overthinking it at all, 😂 I was the one that made the decision…the question is what other opinions are - and from the look of it they vary, even with the limited number of responses so far…it was just a curiosity type thread.

On what I would deem my “regular shoot” a guest gun would not normally be one to be the main contributor to going over bag…I would consider that bad manners, but the main difference I noticed here is that slipping a gun in some shoots was considered a nod to say the birds were excellent and I’ve shot a good number, but on other shoots some take it as an negative thing.

To be fair the bag could quite easily have been shot on the first drive but to me that would ruin a great day.

And the day was fantastic!
 
Keep shooting but be selective - maybe go for the highest birds & ‘miss’ them, or drop back & call your neighbouring gun(s) to close in & get some shooting - you can then back gun them if they miss or wound.

If you’re doing three drives odds are you’ll move up 3 on a peg not the usual 2. That way if you’re in the hot seat on peg 4, say, the next drive you’ll be on peg 7 & very likely be a bit quiet, final drive you’ll be on peg 2 so again on the outside.

Have been on both ends of days like this, on one I shot way more than my ‘share’ on one drive but that was because things transpired to push the birds over me at the end of the line - everyone else was watching as no shooting for them, so in effect the pressure was on me to shoot their ‘share’ too so we got our 1/6th of the bag (6 drives that day) from that drive. On another day I fired 3 shots all day - you take the rough with the smooth!

One thing for certain if you’d been seen to stop shooting, stand & watch, put your gun away etc on any of the shoots I’ve been involved in over the years then the keeper would have made sure his boss knows you’d insulted him, the boss will speak to your host, or the gun who offered you his peg for the day, & it’s unlikely you’d be getting another invite.
 
Jelen said:
So many variables there.
Click to expand...
This.

Without knowing some more details it is almost impossible to give an answer. Generally it is the job of the keeper to ensure that the bag is shot - or that sufficient decent birds are put over the guns to make the bag achievable. Whilst no-one wants to be seen as a greedy gun, shooting each and every bird that comes within range, to just stand there ignoring challenging birds overhead can, as others have said, be seen as pretty insulting to the significant work that the keeper and beaters have put into presenting them.

So I would go with option 1.

For option 2 and 3, see above. Option 4 is largely unworkable, not just because of the time involved, but also because you may not be able to see the other guns, and also where the birds show can change over the course of a drive. Also why not just say to the guns on your neightbouring pegs before the drive starts that, if they don't see you raising your gun, they are welcome to shoot any birds flying over you? Don't, whatever you do, go for Option 5, as it insults not only the keeper and beaters, but also the pickers-up!

I would also be considering factors such as:
  • Is this a team of guns made up of a group of friends, or guns who are buying individual pegs for the day?
  • Is a 100-bird day a challenge for this particular shoot, or are they regularly shooting 200 or 300 bird days?
  • Is it early in the season, or the last few days of January?
  • What did the keeper tell you in the briefing at the beginning of the day?
  • If you are paying for the gun yourself, is your intention on getting value for money, or are you out simply to enjoy the day?
  • If you are a guest, what were your host's instructions?
  • Is this your only driven day of the season, or one amongst many?
  • What is the cost of overages?
Personally, and as someone who shoots as either part of a regular syndicate, or at the kind invitation of friends, I am indifferent to the number of birds that I might shoot. I want to shoot birds that I will remember, not just as many birds as possible.

I go shooting because I am there to enjoy the day, the company of others, and to get away from the stresses and strains of a regular job. I recognise that, over the course of a day and a season, I am likely to have some pegs that will leave me fumbling to get more cartridges into the barrels, and others where I may never fire a shot. To me, that is one of the factors that makes game shooting so enjoyable! So the day I start caring about whether I shot "my share of the bag" is the day I stop shooting!
 
Have also been a guest on a 400 bird day on a supposedly ‘prestigious’ let shoot in Wiltshire where there were 8 guns & the shoot host announced we’d be doing 3 drives which came as a bit of a surprise.

After the first drive out of some cover crops just over a low hedge in front of us we’d shot 5 birds & the keeper was furious - he sent the shoot host over to the chap who’d bought the day to ask if his guns had found the birds too challenging. The reply was that we’d shot what we thought were the only sporting birds that’d been put over us & that if we didn’t get some better birds on the next two drives the agent had better get the cheque book out & refund the day! We took an early elevenses while much blanking in was done into two of the ‘big woods’. We shot another 263 good testing birds off those two drives. Not the 400 birds planned but that didn’t matter as we’d had the shooting we’d expected.
 
I think it's quite common for a shoot/keeper to test the water with an unknown group of guns on the first drive.
As for shooting with people who see getting value for money as the priority, quantifiable in number of birds they have personally shot, it's the ruination of a day. I used to take a day at a nice shoot that had birds for all skill levels, but due to a couple of guns of the nature described, we never got past three drives on a 150 bird day, and never got onto the drives offering more testing birds. Suffice to say I avoid these chaps now.
 
Maybe just shoot at cocks from then on?
There is also the cost of going over the bag limit for your host to pay for, to be considered.
Different if you are a guest, but I have heard of people who deliberately choose to be with poor shots so they can have the better of the day.
 
Last edited:
Definitely keep shooting but be more selective otherwise you will almost certainly get comments from either the host or keeper
The first drive may be one the keeper was banking on to get a few
 
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