#and note that the gentlemen out shooting get called Mr and the keepers and beaters don't

[thethirdromana]

Shooting accidents seem to happen a lot in Victorian novels. I had a bit of a look to see whether this reflected reality or if a shooting accident was just a convenient way to get a character out of the way.

I couldn't find any actual stats, but there are around 2,500 recorded articles in English newspapers about shooting accidents from 1885 to 1895. Quite a few of them describe the exact scenario that happens in Dorian Gray:

Mr Lionel Gisborne, of Allestree, near Derby, accidentally shot Leonard Fearne, a gamekeeper, who was in attendance upon a shooting party on Tuesday afternoon. The keeper was beating a hedge, and received the charge in his face.

(from the Northern Guardian, Thursday 19 September 1895)

While the Duke of Cambridge, his son, Colonel FitzGeorge, and other gentlemen were shooting [unreadable] Wednesday. Colonel unfortunately mistook two beaters for pheasants...

(from the Worcestershire Chronicle, Saturday 6 October 1894)

Whilst out partridge shooting on Thursday, on the grounds Major Templer, Abbey Court Farm, Lidding, near Chatham, one of the party, of the garrison, accidentally shot one of the keepers named Ackhurst.

(from the Derby Daily Telegraph, Friday 9 September 1887)

Gentlemen out shooting didn't just kill or injure their beaters and gamekeepers, but frequently also each other:

At Bramingbam, near Luton, five gentlemen went out rabbit shooting, yesterday, when, in passing through a hedge, Mr. W. Webdale's gun went off, the charge entering the back of Mr. Crook, of High Wycombe, who now lies seriously injured...

(from the Newcastle Evening Chronicle, Wednesday 26 December 1888)

Mr. Robert Harvey, the Conservative candidate for Devonport, has had narrow escape from serious injury. While shooting on the moors in Scotland with Colonel North's party, some stray shots from overloaded gun struck him in the face...

(from the Nottingham Evening Post, Monday 24 August 1891)

LORD BEAUMONT KILLED. The tenantry on the Carlton Towers estate, near Selby, have lost a kindly landlord by the lamentable shooting accident which took place yesterday, almost within sight of the Towers.

(from the Manchester Evening News, Tuesday 17 September 1895)

And every so often the keepers shot the gentlemen too:

Mr. J. Wootton Isaacson, eldest son of Mr. F. Wootton Isaacson, M.P., was accidentally shot by a keeper on Thursday while out shooting at Carlton Towers, Yorkshire, the residence his sister, Lady Beaumont.

(from the Derby Daily Telegraph, Saturday 3 September 1892)