In a small syndicate like ours we let the beaters take a brace each, then the guns (who have paid for the sport) and finally I get to divvy up whats left around the estate. Often there is nothing left, shooting 20 birds a day with 15 guns and ten beaters means some go without. Many of the beaters take them for friends, its not that they dont want them themselves its that their own freezers like mine are full. I still have geese in there from the summer crop cull of Canada geese. Those aren't being given away to anyone!
Lots of shoots didn't used to give birds away, then came the glut and the Eu regs shut down little game dealers everywhere meaning bags of less than 200 weren't economical to collect. Shoots started to prep oven ready ones for guns to take which usually means you aren't getting the birds you shoot. The guns aren't there to fill the freezer on the big shoots they re usually there for the company and sport. No different to them than watching boxing or horse racing!
The attitude slowly changed with the introduction of take home oven readies but frankly shoots can give game to charities if only the charities were amenable. They are in Canada and the USA but here its seen as dirty. Public urban led tastes mean that countryfolk take home and eat. The others can carry on as long as it keeps estates afloat and the industry alive. They have to follow a code of conduct to advertise on certain means.
But it doesn't affect Ravers and I and frankly we dont care if you dont like it!