Hi humpty
Keeping a tally or score of your self and others while on a Victorian or Edwardian upper class shoot was not the done thing at all. In fact it was rather frowned upon because if you where invited to the shoot it was known by the other guns in the party as well as your host how fine a shot you actually where and if you where not good enough you would not invited to a shoot where the other shots where much more competent than yourself, because the whole ethos was your host wanted the guns to enjoy the delights of a day in the field, giving a total kill tally for the day so no one gun would be embarrassed if they had a poor outing. A good host would have more than one shoot in a season and would invite different parties so all his friends would have a good day’s shooting with other guns of his own level, this in turn was extended down to Keepers days and tenant farmers and sons. Well that was the politics of the thing but we all know competition is in the human psyche so it was best not to let your host know about the gambling and keeping score because there was a very good chance you would not be invited back to another shoot. How times and attitudes have changed!
