doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Fellowship

Carrying on the theme I began with the Anticipation thread, I was wondering about some of the other aspects of a days shooting here in the UK. There is no doubt that the fellowship we enjoy amongst like-minded individuals is one of the key aspects.

Why else would we spend a good deal of our net income amongst a group of mostly the same men on several days a year? Well, it probably comes down to the wonderful camaraderie that exists amongst us, particularly if we have been shooting together over many years, if not decades. We develop those relationships and enjoy each others company, easy in the knowledge that we have a shared passion, as well as shared values.

A good deal of these friendships are forged, developed and sustained during elevenses, lunch and tea. I therefore thought you might like to see where, for me, most of this has taken place. I started beating on this shoot where my father had a gun when I was about 12 years old, usually during the Michaelmas half term and winter holidays from school. And that was when I was introduced to the guns lunch room. In fact it used to be the estate carpenters workshop and his old treadle lathe is still there. You can see it on the edge of one of the photos.

I have had many picnic lunches, glasses of sherry, wine and port at that rough old table, sitting on the companionable benches each side. My father, who has had a gun here since 1960, sits at the top left hand side of the table; that is his spot. I usually sit next to him as he generally brings lunch for both of us. Opposite sits the shoot captain and then the rest of the guns find spaces around the table.

On the walls are displayed interesting old curiosities turned up by the plough over the years. Old farming implements, old WW II hand grenades and rifle rounds from the time the hall was used by the army. There is always a well stocked store of wood next to the fire, always lit for lunch. On the opposite wall is a notice board, with bags from bygone years, notes of interest, thanks for donations from the shoot, a rather vulgar large cigar someone bought back from a holiday, alongside the burst barrels of my current Henry Clarke gun (and there's a story!).

This is one of my favourite places in the world. It holds many happy memories and not a few ghosts of guns who have departed. Long may our sport continue and flourish.

Tim

Thank you very much for sharing. This is a wonderful story and photos. When I started shooting it was most usually a solo or, occasionally, duo event. Over the years I attended a few shoots that were more or less mob scenes. Fortunately, I have had the privilege of a few shoots in the UK and now appreciate the organization and comradery.

DDA

Tim, the photos and account go hand-in-hand with anticipation. I can almost smell the woodsmoke. Thanks for sharing an insight into what makes your inner circle of friends and family tick. We all share the same springs, gears and escape wheels but with variations. My buddies's hunt lunch tradition is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches centric--shared with our dogs. Gil

Don't worry Gil, the dogs get a look in - under the table usually!

Tim

One of my old (longstanding, not age) hunting and fishing buddy's father and his friends had a winter tradition of riding to the shoot in an old Jeep Cherokee with the windows rolled down in a "freeze-out" effort. First one to complain was responsible for the drinks after the hunt.

Tim, really glad you shared these photos. Helps to create a better image in our minds for what goes on.

I had a place like that until 2011. Our hunting lodge in the Delta Marsh on Lake Manitoba in Manitoba. Reeking in history and a place dedicated to hunters and their dogs. It was glorious until it got swept away and destroyed in a huge windstorm during a gigantic flood. Those buildings weren't designed for 8 foot waves crashing into the side of them. The wreckage landed 200 yards away.

We can rebuild something like that but we can't ever replace it. The look, the smell, the memories.

Thank you Tim. Your story brought back memories from 40 years ago of a shack along side Horseshoe Lake in southern Illinois. All the characters, the smell of wet dogs, fried squirrel for breakfast and Browning A5s came back in a wonderful flash. You made my evening.

my kind of place. its like walking into my dads old workshop.

Thanks a lot for sharing this. We don't usually get this perspective in hunting magazine articles. And I think more than a few of us have felt a slight touch of envy reading this: a sense of belonging is a genetically programmed need in us, and those who can realize it in such a group as you describe are fortunate indeed.

Just to continue the fellowship theme, once a season some of my (older than me!) army friends get together for a regimental shoot. Its always a good day, meeting up with old friends and recounting old warrior stories.

Last summer we lost the chap who had started it all and acted as shoot captain, though come to think of it he was a colonel, so perhaps that should read shoot colonel! Anyway, he was out walking his dogs on the stubble and had a massive stroke. So at this years shoot, which went ahead at the insistence of his widow, who is also a picker-up, we had a few quiet moments and a small eulogy during elevenses. That is all the guns, the beaters, the pickers-up, the farm owners as well as several friends.

This photo captures that eulogy and a part of the group of us. There is a fully minted field marshal amongst them too! It was poignant, yes, but at the same time he had been a most cheerful and friendly chap that we could not but help to recall his bonhomie, leg pulling and good nature, thus lifting our spirits. And at the end of the last drive of the day, we all stood still and the guns fired a salute to him. I'm sure he loved the spectacle from high above us.

Tim