If a sportsman true you'd be

Listen carefully to me. . .

Never, never let your gun

Pointed be at anyone.

That it may unloaded be

Matters not the least to me.

When a hedge or fence you cross

Though of time it cause a loss

From your gun the cartridge take

For the greater safety's sake.

If twixt you and neighbouring gun

Bird shall fly or beast may run

Let this maxim ere be thine

"Follow not across the line."

Stops and beaters oft unseen

Lurk behind some leafy screen.

Calm and steady always be

"Never shoot where you can't see."

You may kill or you may miss

But at all times think this:

"All the pheasants ever bred

Won't repay for one man dead."

Mark Beaufoy - 1902

I had to learn that poem when I was a child and even now when I'm closer to 60 than I am to 50, I can still recite it from memory.

FWIW, I seem to remember the author was an MP & also that the poem always featured on the back inside cover of the Eley diary every year.

Probably the single most framed poem in the rural UK. If you can't find one in the downstairs loo of a country house you're not staying with the right type of people.