A shooting etiquette checklist

Do

• Respond to a shooting invitation promptly. As any host will know, waiting for weeks for a guest to answer is unhelpful.
• Ask if you can bring your dog (or your partner)
• Dress appropriately. (Read our guide on what to wear grouse shooting here.)
• Treat quarry with respect
• Follow the shooting safety rules. (Your gun should always be unbroken or in a slip and only pointing at the sky when you are actually shooting.)
• Listen carefully to the shoot briefing
• Shoot within your abilities
• Mark your shot birds
• Count the number of birds you have shot on a drive (but don’t boast about it)
• Collect your empty cartridges when leaving the peg
• Talk to others during elevenses and the shoot lunch. Ask about the shoot and the local area.
• Have a tip to hand for the end of the day to give to the keeper for the staff. As a guide it’s generally felt that a £40 to £50 tip is given for the first 100 birds and £10 per 50 birds thereafter. (Grouse shooting is a little different and you should start with a £50 tip whatever the number of birds.)
• Thank the beaters and pickers-up at the end of the day
• Take a brace of game home
• Write a thank-you letter

Don’t

• Turn up without a tie
• Wear a funny hat
• Wear dirty boots and shoes from your last outing
• Roll your own cigarettes on the peg
• Vape on the peg
• Smoke on the peg
• Not reply to a shooting invitation and then turn up.
• Don’t be late to a shoot day
• Shoot birds that are too low or too close
• Poach your neighbours’ birds
• Boast about how good a shot you are, how much money you are making, what you drive …
• Shoot ground game
• Take a phone call, text or use your mobile during the drive.

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Main image: Mark Beedie