Hard days' flight

Gamekeeper Adam Cope treated his helpers to a day on the peg for all their hard work over the year. Richard Faulks was there to watch proceedings

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Why have a beaters’ day? It’s a time-honoured tradition to say thank you to all the people who make a shoot day possible.

Guns often overlook just how much work and organisation goes into putting on a successful day. Just release the birds, feed them occasionally and walk through a cover crop to fly them over the line. How hard can it be?

Anybody who knows a gamekeeper or has helped around a shoot will know it’s a year round, full-time job, and it is more than one person can manage on their own on a shoot of any size. Having a knowledgeable, committed and reliable team of helpers is essential, and the majority of the work they do is done for the love of the sport.

A few perks can help greatly when it comes to keeping your helpers happy. Perhaps access to pigeon shooting, ferreting, and foxing will keep them keen, and some are happy to get the opportunity to work their dogs, but everybody seems to look forward to beaters’ day the most.

As seasons go, this season has been particularly successful on Taylor’s Farm, despite the miserable weather. Adam Cope (the gamekeeper) has managed to smash the shoot record, and pretty much every day they’ve shot has produced a better than average bag. The syndicate was happy and there were plenty of birds left after the penultimate day of the syndicate’s season.

Adam is always keen to put on a good show for the beaters on their day, so it was decided to move it forward to the middle of January before the syndicate’s final day and a small let day at end of the month.

This would ensure a good show of birds for the beaters, and as shoot captain David Firth said: “If we turn up on the final syndicate day and only shoot 100, so be it; we’ve had some very, very good days this season.”