What's A Chap To Do? E-Book

Giles Catchpole

• Herausgeber: Quiller
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Seitenzahl: 143

Beschreibung

There are many excellent books to advise the novice shooter on proper gun handling, safety and accuracy. However, no manual can hope to address every problem that might arise in the shooting field or, indeed, beyond it. Being British, there are many such issues which we would never dream of mentioning, let alone actually discussing. A pursed lip or a raised eyebrow may be as far as many chaps are prepared to go in addressing some of these important matters. But these gestures are open to misinterpretation and misunderstanding with possibly disastrous consequences. A few words of advice, a reassuring hand on the shoulder, that just puts a chap's mind at rest and sets him comfortably back on the straight and narrow. Uncle Giles is such a chap and his wise words have been clarifying these matters for readers of the Shooting Gazette for a number of years. A selection of these concerns - and their resolution - are now shared with a wider public.

Leseprobe

WHAT’S A CHAP TO DO?

Anguished Letters to the Shooting Gazette

WHAT’S A CHAP TO DO?

Anguished Letters to the Shooting Gazette

Wise Words from Uncle Giles

Contents

Title PageAcknowledgementsForewordIntroductionWhat’s A Chap To Do?By the Same AuthorCopyright

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks are due to Will Hetherington, Editor of the Shooting Gazette, who appointed me to the role of Agony Uncle to his readers several years ago, and to the readers themselves for sharing their concerns with us and a wider public.

I can only hope that the advice offered has put some troubled sporting minds at rest and, perhaps, reassured others who have encountered similar issues.

Giles Catchpole

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

There are many excellent books to advise the novice shooter on proper gun handling, safety and accuracy. However, no manual can hope to address every problem that might arise in the shooting field or, indeed, beyond it. More particularly, being British, there are many such issues which we would never dream of mentioning, let alone actually discussing. A pursed lip or a raised eyebrow, or even perhaps a spot of throat clearing may be as far as many chaps are prepared to go in addressing some of these important matters. But while these gestures may, indeed, speak volumes they are open to misinterpretation and misunderstanding with possibly disastrous consequences.

When confronted by such a situation – where no one is saying anything but the silence is shrieking volumes – a chap needs a chap to have a bit of a chat with. A few words of advice, a reassuring hand on the shoulder, that just puts a chap’s mind at rest and sets him comfortably back on the straight and narrow.

Uncle Giles is such a chap and his wise words have been clarifying these matters for readers of the Shooting Gazette for a number of years.

A selection of these concerns – and their resolution – are now shared with a wider public.

WHAT’S A CHAP TO DO?

TIPS FOR TRAPS?

Dear Uncle Giles,

When I was a lad my father would, from time to time, take me for a shooting lesson. At the end of the lesson he would pay the instructor and then he would press a ten bob note into the man’s hand and say, “That’s for the lad on the traps.” Should one do this today, I wonder?

BDH, Suffolk

I also recall the same transaction taking place when I was taken to the shooting school as a youth. Mark you, that is four decades gone and the shooting school is a very different place today. The traps are all electronic now and while there is, no doubt, a lad of some sort lugging boxes of clays about hither and yon among the bushes and up the towers, he is no longer straining away at the springs in the way he was in the days of our youth.

I have an appreciation that the nature of tuition has changed irrevocably in the interim. The price of the lesson is clearly set out and the cost of the cartridges and clays and the instructor’s time are all included as is the fee for the lad doing the lugging about and, for that matter, the cost of the electricity that powers the traps.

There is, as the consequence, no need for a tip for anyone any more. Times have changed.

Having said which, if you wander about the place pressing 50ps into chaps’ hands as you go, you will quickly achieve a reputation as considerably – and possibly endearingly – eccentric. An endearingly skinflint eccentric though, so perhaps you should make it a quid to be on the safe side.

GENEROSITY OBLIGED

Dear Uncle Giles,

Is a handwritten letter of thanks after a shooting day absolutely essential?

FW, Hampshire

I’m afraid that a handwritten note is pretty much obligatory if you have enjoyed a day as someone’s guest. Basically it works like this; shooting is an expensive undertaking and if your host has been kind enough to lavish a gift of very considerable value on you – for whatever reason – then the least, frankly, that you can do in return is to write a decent thank you letter in proper ink and on proper paper. It is a small thing, after all, and certainly takes only little more time than it will take your host to draw a red line through your name in his Game Book. Where your host may very well be looking for something reciprocal (such as a return invitation or some business advantage perhaps) the letter, along the lines of “My dear chap, your kindness knows no bounds and since I have no means by which to return your generosity please accept my deepest thanks etc. etc.”, effectively neutralises the obligation and is, accordingly, even more important.

If you have been entertained by an old friend then the informality of an emailed thank you may be acceptable, although personally I am of the view that old friends are, if anything, even more entitled to a proper missive. On a let day where you have been a paying Gun, a brief note of thanks to your host, with a word of recognition for his keepers and other staff, will distinguish you from the mass of paying punters and should ensure that you get the better drives and the good claret if you turn up again next season.

HOW LONG IS TOO LONG?

Dear Uncle Giles,

How long should one spend hunting for a pricked bird at the end of a drive?

TD-S, Leicestershire

Two things to remember here: on the one hand we all, naturally, have an obligation to see that everything we shoot is picked; on the other we owe it to our host and his keepers and beaters, as well as to the other Guns, not to hold up the progress of the whole day for an unconscionably long time. The Gun who has “a long hen with a leg down…” after every drive and insists on plodding across three fields of plough in pursuit of it is soon recognised and quickly exiled from the team. One answer, of course, and the best one, is to kill all your birds thoroughly in the first place so the situation doesn’t arise. However, we are none of us perfect, so the thing is to keep searching until your host urges you to rejoin the other Guns. If your dog is at that very instant pointing firmly at a bush, make a last effort there and then do as you are told. You make no mention, I note, of professional pickers-up. In the absence of these, then the foregoing applies.

Where there are teams of dogs behind the line for the purpose make sure that they are fully informed of the gender, species and point of fall of your bird and then leave them to it. It is entirely appropriate then to enquire after their success at some later juncture. If they have duly found it then congratulations and thanks are in order. If they haven’t, then a pursed lip and a modest curse are appropriate. Either route marks you out as a sportsman who is properly concerned to retrieve his game and gives you a chance to chat to the pickers-up in any case, which everyone should try to do during the course of the day.

GROUNDS FOR COMPLAINT?

Dear Uncle Giles,

Why is it that no one shoots ground game? Or more especially why is it that the shooting of ground game is specifically forbidden on most shoots? We have any number of hares in this part of the country and yet we never shoot them.

PDT, Norfolk

We live in safety conscious times. Actually, Health & Safety Executive conscious times. The shooting of ground game fell into desuetude with the rise in the letting of shooting to paying Guns. Hosts had no idea whether they were remotely safe and erring (quite sensibly in some cases) on the side of caution, and because good beaters are hard to find, insisted visiting shooters focus on feathered game rather than fur; and above head height into the bargain. This saves the inevitable embarrassment of paying guests shooting the staff or, less critically, each other.

In addition it means that there are plenty of hares about for the family days and the annual hare shoot undertaken in February by the keeper and his friends who have a jolly time blazing away at each other’s ankles. In hunting and coursing country, of course, it would never do to shoot hares anyway. Now that harriers and coursing are banned this may change, although I doubt it.

RUNNING AGROUND

Dear Uncle Giles,

Is it permissible to shoot a running bird on the ground?

HSD’A, Yorkshire

This is definitely a thorny one. The modern convention for not shooting ground game stems largely from the rise in let shooting where a host has no idea whether the Guns who arrive are even vaguely competent or perhaps downright dangerous. At least by restricting them to things in the air there is a sporting chance of getting beaters and pickers-up home in one piece. Accordingly, shooting runners when you have been specifically told not to shoot ground game – and what else is a pheasant legging it across the plough if not ground game? – is a breach of the rules and likely to attract opprobrium as a consequence.

Where one is among friends, however, or even on a let day where one has visited sufficiently regularly to have some standing with one’s host concerning the general safety and demeanour of the team, I would hesitate only long enough to check the precise whereabouts of dogs and pickers-up behind before letting fly. I’m bound to say that you should be pretty confident of knocking over your runner first time though. Turning smartly about on your peg and delivering a necessary coup de grâce before readdressing your front is one thing; standing there blazing away blowing lumps of turf out of the sward while the benighted bird limps and staggers between the craters is quite another.

If it doesn’t fall over comprehensively at the first shot therefore, discretion being the better part of valour, wave at the nearest picker-up and point it out and then get on and shoot the next one a bit better.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Dear Uncle Giles,

I have been invited to shoot at a double-gun day. I only have one gun and I have never shot double-guns before. What steps should I take?

AJT, Leicestershire

What a lovely and generous treat you have been offered. The obvious answer is to rush out and buy a pair of guns from one of our premier London makers and hire a chap forthwith to practise with you for a week or so and then to pass them to you on the day. A cheaper option would be to rush out and buy a pair of more modest guns – say a pair of Silver Pigeons – and practise changing with an instructor at your local shooting school. Then graciously accept the services of a loader provided for you on the day.

On the other hand you could contact your host and explain that you don’t have a pair of guns but that you would be happy to have a loader stuff for you while using a single gun – though you should be aware that if the shooting is going to be very busy a single gun will get horribly hot, very quickly, and that a heavy glove and a barrel shield will be essential.

Actually, it isn’t essential to use a matched pair of guns on a double-gun day. As long as you have two guns of the same gauge and with which you are equally competent it is reasonable to pitch up with them and just get on with it.

What you should do is have a bit of a practice before the day. Either a friend with some experience or an instructor at your local school will happily spend a little time doing the loading fandango with you, until you are comfortable with the procedure. Remember (if you are right-handed), it is give to the loader on the inside with the right hand, take from the loader on the outside with the left hand. Safety catches on at all times. The biggest difficulty is remembering not to open the gun after firing.

On the day, don’t be shy. Have a few practice changes with your loader before you start and take your time when the drive starts. Double guns can be a licence to fire twice as much ammunition for half the accuracy, so the key is to focus on your shooting first and changing guns a slow second. It is unlikely that the volume of birds will be such as to make speed the top priority and a clash of barrels will ruin your day in any case. So take your time and have fun.

THAT SINKING FEELING

Dear Uncle Giles,

My 4x4 recently got stuck on a shoot. I was at the front of the vehicles. The first drive was held up by about half an hour. I’m wondering if apologies are in order – not that I’m looking for a scapegoat – but isn’t the terrain the shoot managers fault?

FP, Wales

We’re a bit thin on the facts here and, as a matter of fact 4x4s don’t get stuck by themselves, someone has to sink them; which makes me wonder if we have the whole story.

Basically, if you have a truck and you consent – or request – to drive it round the shoot, you imply that you and it together have the ability to cope with whatever the shoot has to offer mud-wise much as set out in the glossy ad in the Shooting Gazette. Your host is entitled to take you at your word then as being competent in the limited slip diff., low rev. traction control stakes and while he should not urge you into a swamp he is entitled to expect you to get through the first gate. And not to whine when you sideswipe the passenger door against the gatepost either.

As I say, we’re a bit short on the basics here.

ANTI-PATHY

Dear Uncle Giles,

What happens if antis turn up on a shoot?

DRE, Devon

The first thing to do is to put all the guns away. Three good reasons for this – you don’t want some grubby oik grabbing at your shooter and very possibly doing it some serious harm or, if the horror should get your gun from you either driving it barrels first into the ground or shooting you with it; two, with your gun sleeved there is no chance of your being charged with threatening behaviour when the police are called and whole fracas ends up in front of the beak; and three, it relieves the burning temptation to shoot the bugger.

At this juncture rational conversation can safely take place. Actually it is highly unlikely that any kind of rational conversation can or will take place. In the face of torrential abuse, I find that courteous badinage helps to pass the time until the Feds turn up. Gambits such as “Have you come far?” perhaps, or “And what did Santa bring you for Christmas then?” and “Do you find that facial piercings actively improve your love life or is it all in the mind?” will generally wrongfoot the green hair brigade once they have run out of swearwords. Finally you can say “Well, we don’t seem to have much in common so I must be off.” And start walking back to the farmyard or house where, if you are followed, your pursuers can all be arrested for trespass with intent since they have no right flat to be there.

WHEN IT’S OVER…

Dear Uncle Giles,

If on a shoot and the horn is sounded, is there a grace period that a shot may be fired afterwards? I was on a driven day and a woodcock came over. Admittedly the woodcock was felled after the horn, but it was a rare chance. I didn’t think the scornful looks were warranted. Was I really so wrong?

HF, Northumbria

I’m afraid they were and you were. How long would this elastic time of which you speak be? A second? A minute? Ten? Ultimately the key to sportsmanship is courtesy. Your host has outlined the rules for the day and the end of the drive is signalled by a horn. He knew it. You knew it. He thought you knew it. The woodcock obviously knew it and timed his flight accordingly.

To shoot after the horn disobeys your host’s instructions and flaunts the fact into the bargain. That is discourteous to him.

To kill the woodcock after the legitimate period for shooting is discourteous to the woodcock; who deserves better. Rare chance it may be but if you cannot raise your hat to a brave and lucky adversary as he passes you in the field then you’ll be no sportsman, my son.

CROSS PURPOSES

Dear Uncle Giles,