Meaning of a "tailoring" shot?

[Almur71]

Hi there, wonder if anyone can provide enlightenment of the meaning of a "tailoring shot"? It is mentioned in John Buchan's book "John McNab", which dates from the 1920's about three gentlemen "poachers" in the Scottish Highlands. The context is a stag shot in the neck that runs for a good bit before being found stone dead in a burn. Great book if you haven't read it!

 

[VSS]

This is the bit you're thinking of:

"In that second, Lamancha fired. The great head seemed to bow itself, and then fling upwards, and all three disappeared at a gallop into the mist.
'A damned poor tailoring shot!' Lamancha groaned.
'He's deid for all that, but God kens how far he'll run afore he drops. He's hit in the neck, but a wee thing ower low.... "

And a few pages further on, when the beast is found:

"'That's all very well,' said Lamancha. 'But you know I tailored the shot.'
'Ye're a fule!' cried the rapt Wattie. 'Ye did no siccan thing. It was a ver-a deeficult shot, and you put it deid in the only place ye could see."

Like the OP, I've always been a bit puzzled by the terminology, but assumed it to be be what we might call a pulled shot.

 

[Chanty Wrassler]

Old nursery rhyme , song "The tailor shot and he missed his mark"

 

[VSS]

Old nursery rhyme , song "The tailor shot and he missed his mark"

Do you know the rest of the rhyme?

 

[EMcC]

From reading that I would say it is a colloquial word for a specifically 'Aimed' shot, so he tailored it to hit the neck.
So he hit it where he aimed.

 

[highseat6.5]

An old boy I shot with , I’m now 66 , many years ago used the term , he tailored his shot to fit the situation was his explanation! It was invariably tounge in cheek but then his whole life seemed like that to me ..A proper old school character..

 

[VSS]

From reading that I would say it is a colloquial word for a specifically 'Aimed' shot, so he tailored it to hit the neck.
So he hit it where he aimed.

No, I don't think it can be that, because it's definitely a negative connotation in the text. Lamancha clearly is of the opinion that he messed up the shot in some way, and describes this as "tailoring".

 

[CarlW]

Do you know the rest of the rhyme?

A carrion crow sat on an oak,
Sing heigh ho, the carrion crow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding ho,
Watching a tailor shape his coat.
Sing heigh ho, the carrion crow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding ho.

Wife, bring me my old bent bow,
Sing heigh ho, the carrion crow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding ho,
That I may shoot yon carrion crow.
Sing heigh ho, the carrion crow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding ho.

The tailor he shot and missed his mark,
Sing heigh ho, the carrion crow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding ho,
And shot his own sow right through the heart.
Sing heigh ho, the carrion crow,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding ho.

 

[enfieldspares]

That's something I din't know. I did know though about the expression "towering" a bird though. And had done so now and again. I thought when I saw the thread heading that "tailoring" might be "towering" mispronounced. But from the explanation it clearly isn't. It's about the shot being bespoken...or tailored...to the way the quarry presents. So I suppose that a head shot or a raking shot from the rear along the spine could also therefore be "tailored"?

 

[VSS]

It's about the shot being bespoken...or tailored...to the way the quarry presents.

One would think so. It seems a logical explanation. But if you read it in the context of the way it's used in the book it clearly doesn't mean that at all.

 

[enfieldspares]

I agree VSS. Buchan writes as if he appears to know a lot about stalking but I do then wonder if he actually did or if he was just using stuff that he had overheard and with errors. As yes the context in the book suggests a pulled shot. Like in the poem that CARLW has kindly posted.

Certainly he knew enough to write of his hero Hannay having gone out with a .240 rifle and finding himself needing it to defend himself only to find that the spare ammunition in his pocket was (presumably .256" - so that'd be a 6.5x53R I'd guess) the calibre of the rifle he'd been using immediately beforehand.

It was now that I made an appalling discovery. I had felt my pockets and told Angus that I had plenty of cartridges. So I had, but they didn't fit... I remembered that two days before I had lent Archie my .240 and had been shooting with a Mannlicher. What I had in my pocket were Mannlicher clips left over from that day... I might chuck my rifle away, for it was no more use than a poker. ]

In "The Three Hostages". As a child that and the poem "Battle of the Guns" in Purdey's book "The Shotgun" made me always want to own a .240" and a Boss. I came close to but never did achieve the .240". Buchan's Hannay series are still a good read.

 

[VSS]

I agree VSS. Buchan writes as if he appears to know a lot about stalking but I do then wonder if he actually did or if he was just using stuff that he had overheard and with errors. As yes the context in the book suggests a pulled shot. Like in the poem that CARLW has kindly posted.

Certainly he knew enough to write of his hero Hannay having gone out with a .240 rifle and finding himself needing it to defend himself only to find that the spare ammunition in his pocket was (presumably .256" - so that'd be a 6.5x53R I'd guess) the calibre of the rifle he'd been using immediately beforehand.


In "The Three Hostages". As a child that and the poem "Battle of the Guns" in Purdey's book "The Shotgun" made me always want to own a .240" and a Boss. I came close to but never did achieve the .240". Buchan's Hannay series are still a good read.

They're all a good read, and I go through them all at least once a year! I read John Macnab for the umpteenth time a couple of months ago. Recently finished Mr Standfast and The Three Hostages, again! The Runagates Club is another one I enjoy. The first I ever read was The Island of Sheep, given to me as a gift at the time I was living on a small offshore island looking after a lot of sheep. The giver just saw the words "Island" and "sheep" in the title, and thought it was bound to be suitable!
Mustn't forget Greenmantle, of course..... Or Prester John.....
A couple of strange ones are Midwinter and The Dancing Floor. (At least, I think it was Buchan who wrote The Dancing Floor).

 

[Chanty Wrassler]

Thread drift - some years ago I re-read lots of Buchan, the good old Free Fishers and the Gorbals Die-Hards. It's good to do that with books you haven't read since you were a kid. Try reading Tom Sawyer as an adult, and see how much you missed first time round.

 

[donsider]

BBC Scotland made a drama programme John McNab in, I think 1975 which I recall watching, Now that would be a repeat worth watching

Donsider

 

[Marcher]

I always understood that "Tailoring " a bird was to prick it. A double meaning if it was hit in the Tail.

 

[Almur71]

This is the bit you're thinking of:

"In that second, Lamancha fired. The great head seemed to bow itself, and then fling upwards, and all three disappeared at a gallop into the mist.
'A damned poor tailoring shot!' Lamancha groaned.
'He's deid for all that, but God kens how far he'll run afore he drops. He's hit in the neck, but a wee thing ower low.... "

And a few pages further on, when the beast is found:

"'That's all very well,' said Lamancha. 'But you know I tailored the shot.'
'Ye're a fule!' cried the rapt Wattie. 'Ye did no siccan thing. It was a ver-a deeficult shot, and you put it deid in the only place ye could see."

Like the OP, I've always been a bit puzzled by the terminology, but assumed it to be be what we might call a pulled shot.

That's the bit, VSS! Appreciate your and all the other replies. John Buchan is very much underrated and seen as old fashioned these days, but the world would be a better place if more blokes like him were around!

 

[Woodsmoke]

That's the bit, VSS! Appreciate your and all the other replies. John Buchan is very much underrated and seen as old fashioned these days, but the world would be a better place if more blokes like him were around!

Read as many of his books as I could find! As it happens, my folks hail a stones throw from Broughton, the surrounding areas of which featured in many of his novels in some form or other. And I attended John Buchan Middle School in Germany. His books have featured large in my life

 

[kenbro]

An old boy I shot with , I’m now 66 , many years ago used the term , he tailored his shot to fit the situation was his explanation! It was invariably tounge in cheek but then his whole life seemed like that to me ..A proper old school character..

I’d go with this explanation.
Ken.

 

[Rory]

Did not know he wrote 'The Thirty Nine Steps'. Ordered 'John MacNab' for some holiday reading.

 

[Buchan]

I'd always wonderded on that phrase so the OED:
4. transitive. To shoot at (birds) in a bungling manner, so as to miss or merely damage them. slang.
1889 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 146 475 They ought to wait when a bird rises in this manner and tailor him accordingly.
1903 Westm. Gaz. 29 Sept. 4/2 One of them..letting birds past him untouched, knocking out tail feathers, and generally ‘tailoring’ his pheasants.