Innholdsfortegnelse for May_2016 i Shooting Gazette

Clevedon Wildfowling Association will hold a “silent auction of sporting promises” throughout May to raise funds for on-going conservation and land purchases. With some unique and varied shooting and fishing lots on offer, the auction will give successful bidders the opportunity to experience wildfowling (amongst other lots) in some of the wildest and most beautiful parts of the country. The auction goes live at clevedonwildfowling.co.uk on May 1 and will run until May 31. Regular auction updates will be posted on social media. Clevedonwildfowling @clevedonwa…

A series of shaggy dog stories from around the globe, put together by Tom Quinn, makes for light entertainment. In the shooting world we pride ourselves on the way we enable gundogs to utilise all their natural instincts to help us find, flush, shoot and collect our game. A labrador is born with the instinct to retrieve and there are few better sights than a black lab in prime condition working a woodland, retrieving seemingly impossibly hidden pheasant after pheasant. Or the team of cocker spaniels working a patch of thick undergrowth to either flush a cunning old cock bird or collect a runner. You will never see a happier animal than these working dogs, which have been well trained to work in conjunction with us on our shooting forays.…

If you caught our February issue you’ll remember reading about David Whitby’s fears for the future of shooting in a wider article about the changing face of the British countryside. David’s article included the following quote: "As I see children spending their free time frantically tapping phone and computer games, I genuinely pity them. They cannot possibly understand the joy and excitement that was to be had in the pursuit of quarry, be it fur, fin or feather." This certainly got some of our Facebook followers going… Camp Amato posted: “I try and get the kids out whenever I can to show them all the excitement and enjoyment of being in our great outdoors each year.” Alfred Defalco took a different view, posting: “Probably because they can't afford the fancy…

Spottiswoode’s The Moorland Gamekeeper is a fascinating blend of fact and anecdote from a well-established and respected writer on shooting in the hills. Spottiswoode wrote for the now defunct Gamekeeper and Countryside Magazine for many years and was held to know “more about moorland maintenance and keepering… game-birds and their care… and moorland shoot organisation, than any man living”, and the book is certainly a fair reflection of a long life spent working on grouse. The Moorland Gamekeeper takes a broad approach to the subject, introducing the main themes of grouse keepering from the perspective of a total novice and outsider, yet it also manages to pack in a huge amount of information which would be interesting (or at least thought-provoking) to a keeper of many years’ experience. Although occasionally…

Q: Can you grow crops and just leave them in order to attract pigeons for shooting? A: You are allowed to shoot pigeons only under the terms of the General Licence issued by Natural England. An authorised person may only shoot pigeons to prevent serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, fisheries or inland waters, and prevent the spread of disease. You are an authorised person if you’re the land owner, occupier or anyone authorised by the owner or occupier. The user of the General Licence must be satisfied that legal – including non-lethal methods – of resolving the problem are ineffective or impractical. Many consider, rightly, the humble pigeon to be an exceptionally sporting bird – often referred to as the grey grouse and…

“Every hungry bird put in the bag equates to a more efficient crop for the farmer.” When we are out shooting pheasants we don’t talk about numbers too much. After all, this is a traditional country sport where success and failure should be met with the same cheerful attitude, so we are told. It’s rude to walk off a drive and tell everyone you shot 10 birds for 12 shots, in the same way it’s rude to sulk because things didn’t go too well. It’s also a bit off-hand to tell someone else they didn’t have the most success. Although, there’s nothing wrong with congratulating a fellow gun on a good bird. In fact sometimes this can be a very neat way of cheering someone up who does look a…

The pages of the sporting press are set to come alive during June’s Field & Country Fair at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, with a host of the biggest names in fieldsports set to take part. With the countryside and the family at its heart, the three-day spectacular on June 10 - 12 will be anything but a run-of-the-mill game fair. Visitors will have the chance to get up close to the columnists from Shooting Gazette and other fieldsports titles, with activities, demonstrations and tutorials designed to educate as well as provide a forum for debate and exchanging ideas firmly part of the busy schedule. The Field & Country Fair has something for every budget and interest. For example, anyone with a penchant for shotguns, rifles and air guns should head for…

Fifteen seconds later he had pounced again... Success – it was like taking candy from a baby. I had set off up the hill to catch a fish, but having brought the rifle along with me, the opportunity arose to stalk a roebuck. Three hours later and downhearted by the failure of both plans, I found myself lying in the heather as a male hen harrier came drifting past across the wind. There were brown marks on its wings, but otherwise it was as pure white a bird as I had seen in some time, and looking at my notes it was the first of either sex I had seen on the farm for three months. Despite reports which describe them as “on the brink of extinction”, I see harriers…

Sir Joseph Whitworth completely transformed the accuracy of the muzzle-loading rifle in the late 1850s and 1860s with his hexagonal-bore rifling patented in 1857. It was so accurate that it swept the board at the annual National Rifle Association’s meetings at Wimbledon in the 1860s. The Volunteer Movement bought Whitworth rifles in its thousands, such was their reputation for accuracy. The hexagonal.451 bore and its mechanically fitting bullet were lauded by many as the ideal solution to muzzle-loading rifling and Whitworth has always received due acclaim. But did he invent it? As is so often the case with accredited inventions, the idea was in fact put forward earlier – by the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859). Brunel was also an expert in ballistics and he designed in the early…

“The problem is that the RSPB largely ignores small songbirds.” Using information taken from its own website, the RSPB is Europe’s largest (and presumably wealthiest) wildlife pressure group, with 1.1 million members. As I have pointed out in previous articles, it was founded as the Plumage League in 1889 by a group of well-meaning ladies opposed to the dreadful slaughter of birds for feathers to adorn hats and fashion accessories. And it took until 1921 for these wonderful people to finally get an Act of Parliament passed to ban the importation of foreign plumage. Doubtless this made the ladies unpopular with many people, but they did what they felt was right for the birds rather than seek to win a popularity contest. In the early 1900s there was a huge…

First impressions do count on shoot day, and I am regularly surprised at the number of expensive guns I receive for testing which turn up in a simple cardboard box. However, this AYA English Game gun comes in a lovely oak and leather case with a canvas cover as standard. It looks a very expensive item indeed and certainly goes a long way to making a good impression and justifying a little pride in your purchase. Out of the case, the light weight of the gun is immediately noticeable and makes the gun a real pleasure to handle. There is plenty of grip thanks to the excellent chequering, and the gun mounts and moves very positively. The balance of the gun was quite neutral, with a lack of weight felt…

One of my jobs at TVR used to be naming the new models. When the motor show and its attendant new model launch was already far too close for comfort, my old boss and shooting pal Peter Wheeler and I would dust down our copy of Brewer’s Phrase and Fable and closet ourselves with a carton of Marlboros and a bottle of Famous Grouse. Most suggestions were vetoed on a point of principle. Occasionally, they would also be rubbish. We were suffering from nicotine-induced hallucinations when we thought that naming a car after Sleipnir, a seven-legged horse from Norse mythology, might be a good idea. The Mercedes-Benz GLS that I am driving this month is the replacement for the Mercedes-Benz GL, and this lack of imagination has attracted some criticism.…

As I write this around Easter, we are entering what is normally the busiest time of year for agents scurrying around preparing properties for sale. Yet so far the landed property market appears to be getting off to a slow start with almost 20 per cent less acres offered for sale in the open market compared to the same time last year. This is not just limited to the commercial farmland market either, as we are hardly awash with sporting estates. Uncertainty always brings stagnation in the rural property market and the Brexit question is undoubtedly a major factor, with some saying they will do nothing until after June 23. Currently, farming profits in all sectors do not look good and future commodity prices are not looking any more exciting.…

The C.A.M. from Gallyon & Sons of Cambridge (1900); the Club from Gallyon & Sons of Cambridge (1900); the Super Vanguard from Gallyon & Sons of Cambridge (1926); and the Smokeless Demon from Francis of Peterborough (1900). The Reliable from C. Francis & Sons of Peterborough (1910); the Special from J.H. Cutts of Macclesfield (1900); the Naylors Cannot Be Beaten from C. Naylor of Sheffield (1920); and the Wensleydale from R. Campbell & Sons of Leyburn (1900). The Manby’s Special from F. Manby & Bro. of Shipton (1922); the Moody’s Special Waterproof from W.F. Moody of Romsey (1926); the Ranger from W.F. Moody of Romsey (1926); and the Reliance from A.J. Russell & Sons of Maidstone (1900). A USEFUL LITTLE RED BOX A box of 25 Eley Gastight cartridges dated…

THE WORKING dog food brand Chudleys is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a new online Chudleys Champion photo competition. Throughout 2016, Chudleys will select one working dog photo from its Facebook-led competition as the monthly category winner, with the aim of discovering the ultimate Chudleys Champion at the end of the year. Monthly victors will bag themselves a goodie bag and their winning photo will take pride of place in the winner’s gallery on Chudleys’ dedicated website page. Once all 10 monthly winners have been selected from categories such as Classic Moment, Elite Performance plus many more, the nation will have its say by voting online for its favourite working dog image to be crowned the Chudleys Champion in December 2016. Not only will the champ be awarded…

RETIRED GAMEKEEPER Dylan Thomas has become the overall winner of the BASC Gamekeepers’ classes at Crufts for the second time in eight years. Dylan, from North Wales, lifted the Northesk Memorial Trophy with 15-month-old Welsh springer spaniel Ben after qualifying to the main ring for the 19th time in 23 visits. He had swept the board in various classes throughout the day, but saved the best until last as the pair beat off tough competition from five other finalists to repeat his triumph of 2008. “I never dreamed I would be winning this beautiful trophy for a second time ” Dylan said. “This has been a very special day, but Ben is a special dog. I’ve always said that having a dog makes you happy, and this little fella has…

IN A BID to raise awareness, the Sussex Spaniel Association (SSA) is on track to set a new record for a mass gathering of the endangered dog breed at this summer’s Sussex Country Show, which is being held at Parham Park on the weekend of June 18 -19. The gathering will take place in the Main Arena on the Sunday at 2pm where a photo will be taken to submit to the Guinness Book of Records. Back in 2010 more than 70 Sussex spaniels from all over the UK gathered at the event, but the SSA is set to welcome more than 100 this year. SSA vice president Sheila Appleby explains: “We have been delighted with the response to our appeal, which has really captured the imagination of Sussex spaniel…

SOME OF the biggest names in the countryside are looking forward to welcoming Shooting Gazette readers to the Field & Country Fair, set to take place at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire on June 10-12. With shooting and other fieldsports firmly at its heart, whether your interests are gundogs, gunmaking or game cookery, the three-day fair will have something for every taste and budget, backed by leading names including Atkin Grant & Lang, Barbury Shooting School, Eat Wild, Pugs and Drummers, Holt’s and Howard Kirby gundogs. Visitors to Cornbury Park will find a Gunmakers Quarter, Shooting Line, Falconry Mews, Working Dog Arena, Game Cooking Theatre and Fishing Village. For more information see pages 46-47. If there is anything you’ve ever wanted to try, from simulated grouse shooting, gundog scurries or fishing…

Fieldfares, house sparrows, starlings, yellowhammers, song thrushes and skylarks were amongst 130 different species recorded by land managers during the GWCT’s third annual Big Farmland Bird Count (BFBC), which ran during February. The six species were the most abundant from the 25 on the Red List recorded by around 1,000 farmers, gamekeepers and land managers aross the country, each of whom took 30 minutes out of their schedules to record the birdlife on their land. The most abundant birds in the overall count were found to be woodpigeons, starlings, rooks, fieldfares and lapwings. The 130 species spotted was the highest number since the BFBC was launched in 2014. The number of participants in the BFBC also increased. Jim Egan, the GWCT’s head of development and training and BFBC organiser said:…

63% THE PERCENTAGE of participants of the Big Farmland Bird Count found to be in an agri-environment scheme (GWCT) 2,000 number of times Project Poacher, an anti-wildlife crime app developed by 15-year-old Aaron Christiansen, has been downloaded (BASC) 5 number of John Rigby & Co. staff whose work was recently recognised by the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers (Tweed Media) 25 number of shooting grounds around the country that will host events during National Ladies’ Shooting Day on June 11 (Shotgun & Chelsea Bun Club) £20,000 amount raised by a sporting auction, raffle and donations during an event in Lancashire that will help support BASC’s Youngshots project (BASC)…

A good shoot day is all about pace and timing – it can’t be crash, bang wallop all day long. And the elevenses break comes as the perfect opportunity to stop and reflect on the privilege of spending a day in the field. So in recognition of this most excellent of sporting traditions we have teamed up with Foxdenton, makers of traditional drinks for the perfect elevenses and famous for their Goliath bottle, to select one shoot to feature in excellent elevenses each month. And this month’s winner is the rejuvenated Quidenham shoot in Norfolk where Nick Culley has invested heavily in bringing this shoot right up to date. The new purpose built shoot lodge with professional standard kitchen means that guns are catered for beautifully from the moment they…

Last October, just as I was getting stuck into the partridge, a news story arrived from an organisation in Potsdam, Germany, which explained the meteorological phenomenon known as El Niño. This is the climate anomaly occurring every few years as a result of passing trade winds. Normal ocean currents undergo changes which, in turn, can lead to a series of significant natural catastrophes. According to the Potsdammers, meteorological mayhem to be unleashed on the UK included frigid temperatures, snowfall and storms and, helpfully, they instructed me to prepare for a repeat of the winter of 1961/62, when temperatures dropped to -20º. Now I am old enough to remember that winter and it was cold, but equally, as I discovered in 1998, El Niño can produce benign conditions too, so no…

What was last season like? “It was fantastic, a bit patchy, but I did have an amazing grouse season. I was lucky enough to shoot some wild grey partridge, but they weren't prolific last season, and some pheasants, but pheasants are pheasants. I've just shot some pigeon, which was great fun. I normally go and shoot some partridges in Spain at the end of the season but I wasn't able to do that this year.” If you had to force an MP to share a peg with you? “Henry Bellingham or Richard Benyon; he's a very good shot, actually. There are a lot of people who shoot here. I just haven't shot with them. I had been shooting a long time before I became an MP.” What are your earliest…

“With a double bank of guns everybody was in the action for a good 20 minutes.” Having experienced the partridge beat at Llandinam the previous season and heard a lot of good things about the pheasant shooting here, I was expecting some good shooting when we visited in December. Mark Partridge has more than 20 years’ experience keepering this special sporting spot, and he and his wife Steph make an excellent team, running the whole shoot. Llandinam is a small village a few miles west of Newtown and south of Caersws and it straddles the River Severn in its upper reaches. Even here the river is an impressive sight and it doesn’t take much rain to turn it into a dangerous torrent. The landscape lends itself to pheasant shooting, with…

Human So we are in the market for another dog. Not a substitute dog; I want to stress that. We are not replacing the old dog – the older dog – quite yet. It is just that I feel, we feel, as a household – indeed as a family – that we could not live with the inevitable hiatus that will occur one day when the old dog, sorry, older dog eventually can't manage as well as it used to. You all know what we are talking about. We all know what we are talking about. It is just that we try to skirt the issue for as long and as far as possible. Yes, we have all heard the stories of ruthless old handlers who would shoot their dogs…

Sir Joseph Whitworth was also a leading metallurgist in his day. In the 1880s he invented a new process – “Whitworth Fluid Compressed Steel” – that became prized on best guns. It was expensive but highly regarded and all such barrels were engraved: “Made From Sir Joseph Whitworth’s Fluid Compressed Steel”. Damascus barrels continued to be used up to the turn of the 19th century when steel took over. Steel barrels were uncommon in the years up to 1900 as the material was not thought strong enough, but Whitworth steel changed this perception. Whitworth built a small steelworks in the 1870s and after experiments adapted a system of casting steel under compression. The new compressed steel was of excellent quality and because it was proportionately stronger than Damascus, the barrels…

Recent years have seen the rise in influence of vintage style on modern culture. From clothes and hairstyles to interior and product design, the replication of an idealised past is a phenomenon seen throughout history. From Hesiod, Plato and Ovid envisioning a rustic, rural world free from toil or grief in the golden age of man, to the Elizabethan era as the pinnacle of English history driven by classical ideals, we continually look to the past for our best days. This is even true of the shooting world, where the inter-war period is looked upon as the very greatest time for best British guns. A casual perusal of the latest sale catalogue from the likes of Holt’s or Gavin Gardiner shows guns built by the best London makers in this…

At the same time as Land Rover has launched the Range Rover Evoque convertible, its first car you will probably never see anyone turn up to a shoot in, rumours suggest the next Discovery will be its most capable off-road car yet. It will almost certainly be lighter than the current car, and looks set to lose some of the Tonka-style utilitarian qualities that have made it such a hit, but internal sources say the standard car will have capabilities that no vehicle wearing the green oval has had before.…

DON’T MISS THE STALKING ISSUE • 10 reasons Highland stalking is the best • Why take the DSC2 qualification? • Stalking with Holland & Holland • Roe deer in the borders • Boar hunting in Hungary PLUS BUZZARD CONTROL – WHAT’S THE STORY?  Is there light at the end of the tunnel… BRITISH GUNMAKERS ON THE MOVE  The full story from Longthorne’s state-of-the-art new premises IN DEEPEST DEVON  A shoot with plenty of promise MOORLAND MAGIC  Stunning grouse shooting action from a North Yorkshire moor IN THE GUNDOG HOT SEAT  Wilson Young stands up for modern day trials THE JUNE ISSUE IS ON SALE FROM THURSDAY MAY 26…

THERE WILL be masses of gundog events on offer at the Field & Country Fair at Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire from June 10-12, including a gundog demonstration arena and training clinic, working dog ring, sporting dog pavilion, eye clinic and dedicated lurcher arena. The gundog demonstration arena will feature a packed programme of interactive gundog demonstrations and activities led by gundog trainer Howard Kirby of Lains Shooting School & Mullenscote Gundogs. It is a great opportunity for gundog owners to take part, with experts on hand providing advice on the different techniques and approaches involved in training. Tuition and coaching might be on a group basis or even one-to-one. There will also be an option for owners to have their dog(s) assessed against a puppy, novice, intermediate and advanced set of…

MARK CRUDGINGTON of gunmakers George Gibbs Ltd. will be giving a talk on early English sporting guns and gunmaking at Pewsey Heritage Centre in Wiltshire on May 22. The talk will cover the period between 1650 and 1850 and will be supported by examples of tools, as well as diagrams to explain the processes of development and manufacture of the English sporting shotgun. All proceeds from the talk will go towards the development of a research and education centre, adjacent to and owned by the heritage centre. Tickets are £7 each and the talk will start at 2.30pm. To reserve your tickets, contact 07770 417013.…

How were you introduced to shooting? Growing up in the wilds of Denmark, outdoor sports and camaraderie were a big part of our culture. Many Danes, both girls and boys, take their shooting licence exams when aged 16, to either shoot or join in on the wonderful days beating and picking-up. Shooting is considered to be a fun, healthy, social event for any age group and for both boys and girls. I grew up with shooting, standing with my father from aged four, picking-up birds along with other children and having lots of fun. Where was your first shoot day? My very first shoot day as a spectator was at Borreby Castle, Denmark, where my father was a member of the syndicate. I remember the thrill of joining the other…

Venison and pomegranate tortillas SERVES FOUR PEOPLE Ingredients • 500g venison loin• 8 small flour tortillas• 50g shredded carrot• 50g shredded savoy cabbage• 20g sliced red onion• 50g pomegranate• Cumin• Cornish sea salt• Milled back pepper Method Season the venison and sear in a hot pan for two minutes each side. Place into a hot oven (200°C) for two minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a further five minutes. Mix the cabbage, carrot, onion and cumin together to make a slaw. Warm the tortillas. Slice the venison and place on the tortillas and top with the slaw. Finish with the pomegranate and serve.…

Dear Uncle Giles I beat on a local shoot and at the end of the season there is what is referred to as a Cock Day. This is supposedly put into the schedule as a thank you to the beaters who have toiled through covers and coverts in all weathers for the past three months or more to encourage birds towards the waiting guns. However, any number of people – few of whom I recognise and none of whom have graced us with their presence in the beaters’ wagon – seem to turn up and join in willy-nilly. Can this be right? Why not call it the Beaters’ Day and keep it for the beaters? And perhaps the pickers-up, I suppose, although their days in the season are not as…

For your chance to win a bottle of Taittinger Champagne for Picture of the Month, send us a team photograph or a picture of something unusual from your shoot. Send high-resolution images with captions to Shooting Gazette Gallery, Time Inc., Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 7BF or email: will.hetherington@timeinc.com. Chris Ramus (far right) started The Yorkshire Rovers roving syndicate two years ago. Having run a self-help shoot for eight years, he decided it was time to start something on a wider scale. Made up of shooting friends, Chris set out to develop a roving syndicate that would tour commercial shoots in Yorkshire. Now The Yorkshire Rovers has a healthy membership that meets up to three times a month throughout Yorkshire on a mixture of partridge and pheasant shoots.…

TRAVEL Culzean & Cassillis is right on the Ayrshire coast in south west Scotland between Maybole and Girvan. This area is also famous for its championship golf courses and so access is generally pretty good. The shoot is very easy to access from Prestwick or Glasgow airports or from the main M74 motorway which connects Carlisle and Glasgow. And the Belfast/ Cairnryan ferry crossing means there is good access from Northern Ireland too. Guns gather at the well-signposted kennels off the A719, just over a mile north-east of Morriston. STAY The stunning Culzean Castle is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, but an apartment within the building is available to rent by small parties. The apartment was given to Dwight D. Eisenhower following the Second World War, and the…

A lament to all those lost bird species I have just re-read David Whitby’s gamekeeping column in the March edition for the second time, because it’s great to read the views of a columnist with his finger so firmly on the pulse. I am a decade or so younger than David but, like him, I find it hard to comprehend the changes that have affected the countryside and its wildlife in my lifetime. Admittedly, the diversity of species to be seen is broader than during my youth in the 70s and 80s. In February 2016, from my garden in a rural village street, I saw birds that would have been unheard of in this area during that era: five buzzards circling our meadow, two red kites that drifted over my…

A host who arrives late for the bidding hour looking much like Tracey Emin’s unmade bed, smelling of garlic or alcohol, with a penchant for goosing guests of either sex, and occasionally placing guns facing the wrong direction on the wrong drive should not last long in the role. Unfortunately, some do. A good host is a paragon of virtue, someone who knows the ground, is on better than nodding terms with the keeper, recognises all the beaters by sight and at least half by name and understands the mechanics and nuances of picking-up. In other words, a knowledgeable and hospitable cove with whom, under other circumstances, one might choose to spend a relaxed hour over a cleansing ale in one’s local and who never forgets that their primary responsibility…

“Both barrels were bored out of one solid piece of metal.” I always count myself lucky to be able to examine and study a great many guns every year, but what amazes me is that I continually come across mechanisms, little idiosyncrasies and unusual inventions that I have never encountered before. I was at Gavin Gardiner’s sale at Gleneagles a couple of years ago, looking through all the guns in the racks displayed in that magnificent setting. There were scores of hammer guns in one particular row and as I gave them a cursory glance, the barrels of one stood out. I picked it up and noticed that, though it bore the name of provincial maker Edward Paton of Perth, the barrels looked unusual and were engraved “Joseph Whitworth &…

“By looking back over the last 1,000 days’ decoying, my average has been just over 100 a day.” I enjoy every day’s pigeon shooting, quite irrespective of the bag. In my eyes it’s all about the satisfaction of reading a situation to produce sport, whether it’s a 20 or 200-bird day. However, on checking the figures of days spent decoying pigeons last season in my game diary, I realised it was a record season, and it seems appropriate to analyse this. The most obvious reason was that I had more outings. As most of my friends have retired or worse, died, I have decided to make more time for the sport I love best with that most challenging of quarry, the woodpigeon. In previous years there have been between 40…

This is an interesting gun in that it has been tuned to handle like a pre-war best London sidelock. They are trying to elicit the feeling of a bygone age whilst using modern manufacturing techniques and building a gun capable of handling the very great variance in cartridge loads now commonly used by game shooters. Much of the work of making the gun lightweight can be seen in the barrels, which have been very finely struck off. Although built in connection with two British companies, it is clear this gun is an AYA based on their Holland & Holland-style nine-pin detachable sidelock action. It features a lot of the things you would expect to see on a high quality gun, including disc set strikers, an articulated front trigger and a…

One of the highlights of the trip to the South West was dinner at the Bell Inn at Chittlehampton: talk about a shooting pub for shooting people! The bar area and games room were both littered with beating and keepering teams from around the county (we even bumped into Castle Hill’s Brian Mitchell), and to sit and eat a plate of ham, egg and chips with a pint of local ale surrounded by like-minded folk was the perfect end to a challenging day. With only four rooms available it might be a little cosy for larger teams at bedtime, but is still well worth a visit. thebellatchittlehampton.co.uk…

I have read with great interest in this magazine about how pickers-up are expected to behave by guns and more especially, guns with dogs. I have picked-up on quite a few well-known West Country shoots, where I have also loaded. It seems to me there are many types of pickers-up and many types of guns, some of which certainly spoil the day for each other. So in the essence of fair play, I have listed the faults and attributes of both sets of players in each discipline. ‘GREEN’ GUNS New guns spend a considerable amount of money visiting shoots where consistently high birds, if connected with, can cause a significant number of runners. These enthusiastic guns tend to wear expensive new country clothing, carry shotguns which equate to a sizeable…

QI HAVE a new pup and am looking forward to starting training. I have been advised to get a whistle. Is this a good idea? ABSOLUTELY. Controlling your dog at a distance by voice would be a nightmare. Which whistle you buy is less important than how you use it. A whistle is like an instrument. Use it quietly when the dog is near and raise the volume for distance. That sounds obvious but you would be surprised how many people blow it loudly and continually. Our heads say we have blown it and the dog should respond – well, yes, but not until the Pavlovian response is firmly in there. Use sparingly and make it count. If your pup is hunting, let it hunt and then pick your moment…

IT IS well known that open stakes are oversubscribed. In one club yearbook I received a few months ago, the field trial secretary’s report was devoted to and gave guidelines on dogs being ready to enter a field trial. One point that has cropped up over the past few months in retriever trialling is that a discussion is needed as to whether a win at novice level is or should be enough to qualify a dog for open stakes. As it stands, a novice win means that the judges have deemed a dog fit and ready to run in opens. However, last season there were quite a few novice trials at which no awards were given at all, or no first places awarded, and other novice trials where the winning…

THE YORKSHIRE Retriever Field Trial Society held a 16-dog novice stake on the Warter Priory Estate by kind permission of headkeeper Frank Croft, writes Andy Brook. The ‘A’ panel judge was Dave Haycock; ‘B’ panel judge was Philippa Williams and the non panel judges were Brian Dodsworth and Guy Radford. The trial was held on a very mild, crisp morning in game crop and long maize with the game plentiful and guns shooting well. The longer crop was to the right hand side of the line which quickly had the novice dogs in trouble, with handlers not able to hold their dogs on the fall. There were four outstanding novice dogs on the day with Nathan Laffy’s Westmacott Gaelic collecting the award for outstanding retrieve of the day, running the…