Hi-Vis Beating

Whilst in Essex, we were lucky enough to be invited to go beating on a small family shoot near Rochford. Now, between the two of us we’ve done quite a lot of beating over the years but have never been kitted out with all the paraphernalia that we got on this day; hi-vis jackets, gardening gloves and goggles…we looked a treat!

Emma all kitted out

Pippa (the youngest beater) and Lucy

The whole gang

That said, I don’t think we’ve ever been beating on such terrain before and, once we’d been smacked in the face for about the seventh time by a dead sunflower, we were glad of the goggles! The bright yellow jackets obviously serve to alert the guns of your whereabouts but, with all the thick, head-high vegetation to navigate, they were also quite useful for finding each other and keeping in line.

Anyone got a machete?

We didn’t see a huge number of birds but like a lot of people we don’t rate a good day’s shooting by the size of the bag and, as far as we were concerned, they’d hit upon the recipe for a perfect day:

• good people
• good banter
• good weather
• good exercise
• …and delicious sausage rolls!