Rocket and I were out on our local shoot today. Normally we are well established in the beating line, a few years ago she used to pick up a little, but there are a lot of people wanting to do that with much better dogs than Rocket (here eyesight is pretty poor now) and so beating has become our thing. We both enjoy the exercise and the camaraderie in the beating line is great However today one of the Guns didn't turn up and I was offered the chance to step in. Needless to say I jumped at it and so Rocket had the chance to be a peg dog for a day. I think she missed all the running around and hunting she was expecting to do, but she did get to pick up a few birds for me on one drive where I was a walking gun behind the beating line and we needed to tidy up as we went. I was really pleased with my first proper day as a gun and suspect I'll be trying to do it again sometime soon. I need to improve my shooting as I missed a few good birds, and I need to get a gun with an ejector as I missed the chance of a few more as I was reloading. But I did better than some of the established guns and Rocket behaved brilliantly. I got a couple of pics which I'll try and post later. All in all a good day.
Re: A temporary promotion Well done to you both - that must have been very exciting - looking forward to further adventures although as i'm completely green about shooting I didn't understand it all ??? I'm gathering it slowly...
