A beating team

Beating and picking-up at a shoot has some important rules.  If it’s your first time out in the field, then your fellow beaters and pickers-up will show you the ropes and teach you the essential safety rules.

Taking on the role of picker-up on any shoot is very important and carries a lot of responsibility.

• Don’t bring along novice or partly-trained gundogs
• Take the right kit with you; a priest, a brace of game carriers, your whistles for controlling the gun dog and fresh water for your canine team.
• Position yourself well back and away from the line of guns in a safe place that allows you to see as much as possible.
• The picking-up of injured birds and dispatching of them as quickly and humanely as possible always takes priority over dead birds.

Some key reads about beating and picking-up

1. 16 things only beaters know (and Guns should)

Beating is tough work and challenging to get right. But sometimes beaters aren’t always given the applause and credit they deserve.

2. Why beaters’ dogs have it best

Beaters’s dogs are vital to the success of a shoot day and are often the unsung heroes of the field. But they also have the most fun …

3. The best way to dispatch pricked birds

A vital aspect of when beating and picking up is knowing how to humanely despatch a wounded bird or animal. The prime objective of shooting live quarry is to ensure, wherever possible, an instant death for the creature we are pursuing.

The game cart staff are part of the picking-up team

4. A beginner’s guide to picking-up 

Have you received an invitation to pick up on a driven shoot? New to it? Here’s what to expect.

“The lady in a headscarf”: the Queen at the Cocker Spaniel Championships in 2008

5. A Royal picker-up

Apparently, as a young princess, our Queen used to hijack the family corgis to track down shot birds at Balmoral.

Beaters cover huge distances over rough terrain to drive birds over the Guns – without them, the shoot wouldn’t happen

6. The ideal beater

A gamekeeper gives his view of what constitutes the perfect beater on a shoot. (Not worrying about the keeper appearing gruff is one advantage.)

Beaters’ day at the Longford estate, Salisbury, Wiltshire

7. Get your gundog ready for the beating line

There are plenty of traps for the young and experienced dog on the beating line. Here’s how to avoid them and get out of them.

8. There’s more to picking-up than meets the eye

Very few gundog owners are fully aware of the responsibility that comes with working with your dog as a picker-up in, what is, a vital part of a game shoot.

When picking up it is always best to stand well behind the Guns