doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What is the "X" for

I wish I had a X peg to use when I was holding Dove shoots years ago. Everybody expected the most prime spot it seemed. I assigned spots most days, putting the better known shooters in spots that would get fewer birds knowing that they would kill just about all that came their way. The shooters who could not hit their ass with a spade, got spots which offered more action, knowing their hit percentage would be so low that it evened out. The only way to make them a bit more careful about shot selection was to limit them to two boxes of shells. After that they had to take the walk of shame back to get another box. And no more than one more box could be taken back into the field at a time. The walk of shame was what it became known as because with a lot of birds needing more than two boxes said you were a below average shot and after the third box it said you were really a bad shot. Some shooters could have used a truck load of shell while others could be done with a box or so shells expended.

Damascus, I can only presume the lucky "X" gun retained that peg throughout the course of the day. Whilst this may sound unfair, as you point out they were his Lordships birds and he could do with them as he pleased. Again presumably Guns would rotate over this peg , thus after the first drive gun 4 would move to No6,. Although this may sound rather biased there are many ways the Head Keeper and Under Keepers could control the results and impact, techniques such as banking in, flagging , sewelling position,beating speed and direction could all be tweaked to influence the No. and rate of birds going over Mr X's peg, last drive before lunch ensuring plenty of birds over peg X so he could endure plenty of ribbing over misses or congratulations on an exceptional performance. The afternoon drives being modified by surreptitiously adjusting the positions of the pegs. Either way I'm sure all the guns would have had a marvelous day out, grand lunch and gun X would have had to stand his fellow guns a good round at the hotel that evening or at the next Market Day.

All the Best this Boxing Day

Whatever number you draw you keep that number and them move up; usually two places, for each drive so that no one is left out of a possible good spot. I like the one about the X being the one to dress the birds. That would be great fun on a 500 bird day! The Guns (shooters) are given a complimentary brace at the end of the day and more if they want them. They used to be sold on to the Game Dealers but now the shoot has to actually pay the Game dealer to take them. The Beaters and Dog Handlers are almost begged to take some birds home. I know some shoots used to have what was called the King's Peg. No matter which drive the King was always placed on the best stand. Lagopus.....

Very insightful-- The King's peg-- in the words of the late Tom Petty- "It's good to be King"!! Cheers RWTF

KINGSX

I remember KingsX from childhood but I cannot remember what it meant. Time out, maybe?...Geo

Fingers crossed behind your back. In Florida in the 1950's it was meant as "time out" but it also (Perhaps locally) gave you the right to tell a falsehood without retribution.

Well Damascus, we don't shoot driven much on this side of the pond like you still do on yours. And these days as opposed to what's shown in "The Shooting Party", it's seldom the lord of the manor who's inviting friends to a driven shoot. Plenty of those still available in the UK, but the bulk of them are now commercial. While they may well take place on estates, it's now another way for the owner of the estate to make money. And it's how most of us on this side of the pond get to enjoy driven shooting. And most who haven't shot driven might not have been clear about how the whole pegs system works . . . until I and others took the time to explain that while drawing for pegs does take place before the first drive, one only has the peg they draw for that drive. Rotation taking place for subsequent drives, as explained. A commercial shoot owner is going to want to be as fair as he can in terms of making sure everyone has a chance to shoot from the middle pegs before the day's over. He wants all of them to return. And possibly tell friends about what a fine shoot they'll enjoy if they book a couple driven days at the same estate.

But since you look back to the shoots that were more typical of the end of the 19th/early 20th century, then I know you'd really want to address me by my title. It's Colonel. Thank you.

Having both a penchant for both detail and accuracy, a well as a NCO's background in our USMC, may I inquire if that is "Light Col." or "Full-Bird Col.?? Of course, I had to salute both.. RWTF

Good question, Fox. I spent 9 years "standing in ranks" before I was commissioned. But then hung around long enough to retire as a full bird. A real stroke of luck. I'd only been an LTC for a year when I was selected to command an Army Reserve Military Intelligence Detachment (Strategic). The command slot--of a unit with only 10 soldiers--rated a colonel. So my promotion, as long as I didn't screw up, was pretty much automatic. We MID(S) commanders recognized that we probably had the best job in the Army. No vehicles. Another unit looked after our weapons. We had two 4 draw safes full of classified information and a bunch of office furniture. All the enlisted soldiers were NCOs, plus a warrant officer, a major, an LTC, and a colonel. We did our annual training in places like Washington, DC rather than garden spots like Camp Ripley, MN or Ft McCoy, WI. And eventually went to the UK for our annual training, in support of the US European Command's Joint Analysis Center. Located at RAF Molesworth, an old WWII bomber base. Shortly before I retired, the military started building Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs) for us so that we had access to the Top Secret/Special Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) which you probably read about in connection to documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago. And we were provided with secure computers so that we could communicate at a classified level with units we supported all over the world. Shortly after we finally entered the 21st century (although it was a few years before 2000), I retired. It was a very interesting part time job.