Quantitative Data Gathering

The second stage data collection questionnaire shown in Appendix D was developed using the key themes identified during the qualitative data analysis stage. The questionnaire was piloted with ten responses from 12th March 2019 to 6th April 2019. This resulted in development of the final questionnaire, which was open from 9th May 2019 until 31st July 2019. A total of 2425 responses were received, spread across a wide range of participants within DGS and across the country as detailed in Chapter 6, section 6.3.

In order to minimise the risk of those against shooting accessing the questionnaire and disrupting the data, the questionnaire was not shared in large, open social media pages.

Instead, the questionnaire was distributed in a number of ways:

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The online link and email as shown in Appendix E was circulated to members of:

• National Organisation of Beaters and Pickers up (NOBS) (emailed approximately 8,000 members)

• British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC) (emailed 10,065 members)

• Scottish Association of Country Sports (SACS) (emailed approximately 8,000 members)

• Gamekeepers Welfare Trust (selected members, including printable hard copy, figures unknown)

• Greater Exmoor Shoots Association (GESA) (asking for them to forward the message on to beaters, pickers-up, guns and others they know via their shoots – this included a printable hard copy. Precise circulation unknown, but there are at least 65 large shoots within GESA membership)

• The researcher’s contact list acquired during the first stage of data collection (a total of 178 individuals), asking those individuals to share via direct message or in small, closed social media groups only. Where a telephone number was held, these emails were followed with a telephone call. A reminder email was sent after one month. A printable hard copy was also included in this email with a return address, enabling contacts to share with those who did not have internet access.

A link was also sent to the Guns on Pegs mailing list as part of the ‘game card’ weekly circulation to approximately 10,000 subscribers and the researcher send the link via the newsletter subscription list of 168 individuals, with a reminder sent in July (see Appendix F).

In addition to the hard copy questionnaires printed out and shared by contacts, hard copy questionnaires were distributed at a number of countryside events attended by NOBS, the Rutland Country Show, the Scottish Game Fair and at several Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) events. Ten copies were left in the local gun shop. A total of 131 fully completed hard copies were received (included in the above total of 2425), some of which were scanned and returned to the researched via email, from which the data was added to the online system.

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The researcher joined a number of small, closed Facebook groups related to driven game shooting with the assistance of key contacts, by confirming the study was bona fide and being carried out by a professional researcher. The researcher was careful to avoid any social media groups of a political nature. A total of 25 small, closed groups were joined, with the help of a few contacts made during the shooting season from August 2018 to February 2019 and/or via contacting the administrators of the groups with details of the study. The social media post was shared using a Canva (a photo to draw attention to the study and get people to fill out the questionnaire - see Appendix G) with a link to the survey and a short note above asking people not to share openly but to encourage friends and contacts to respond and thanking them for letting the researcher join the group. There were re-posts of this link and photo after a few weeks, when there were 9 days left and then finally on 30th July 2019, the day before the closing date. This approach was slow going but was fruitful in gaining a steady stream of responses and diversified them across the UK, particularly increasing beater and picker up responses. A breakdown of the focus of those groups and their membership numbers can be seen in Table 4.3, overleaf, however, it must be noted that some individuals may be members of more than one group.

A total of 68 people asked to receive a summary copy of the results in 2020. The researcher emailed them confirming they would be sent a copy of the results and included a link to the survey, asking them to share if they could, as shown in the email template in Appendix H.

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Focus of Facebook Group (membership) Approx. number of members

Beaters and Pickers up 5200

Beaters and Pickers up 12,000

Beaters and Pickers up 4,200

Beaters and Pickers up 2,900

Beaters and Pickers up 9,000

Beaters and Pickers up 3,200

County/region specific beaters and pickers up 428

County/region specific beaters and pickers up 296

Driven Game shooting community 5,800

Game shooting and countryside community 1,700

Game shooting and keepering 296

Game shooting and keepering 159

Gamekeeping 3,000

Grouse shooting community as a whole 644

Gundog owners 2,900

Gundog owners 7,000

Gundog owners 969

Gundog owners 11,000

Gundog owners 1,300

Lady working gun dog owners 2,100

Pheasant shooting community as a whole 394

Pheasant shooting community as a whole 13,000

Those engaged in Field Sports in the North 725

Those engaged in Field Sports UK wide 21,000

Those engaged in Field Sports UK wide 2,200

Table 4.3 Social Media Groups breakdown and membership

The questionnaire included a number of demographic, descriptive and opinion questions, including how individuals participate in DGS and what size and type of shoots they attend, to allow comparison between groups within DGS. The questionnaire was designed to assess the types of social capital within DGS and the potential social impact or returns on that social capital and as noted in section 4.6.2, it therefore included the Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale to measure well-being and a question around loneliness aligned to the UK government health and well-being survey statistics, to allow comparison with a national dataset.

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The accuracy, validity and reliability of the data was checked and data analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 22) and Microsoft Excel (2016). The following tests were used by the researcher:

1. Sample distribution normality tests (normality curve and p-plots)

2. Univariate and multivariate outlier test (utilising stem and leaf box-plots) 3. Descriptive statistics

4. Cronbach’s alpha (reliability measure to assess internal consistency with measurement scales)

5. Independent samples t-test 6. Correlation analysis