Innholdsfortegnelse for 29 December 2016 i Shooting Times & Country

As 2016 comes to a close, I think it is fair to say that it has turned out a lot better than we may have expected. There were many positives, such as the failure of the Lead Ammunition Group to convince anyone (other than themselves) that lead shot is a problem to wildlife and public health. It was heartwarming to see a substantial rise in the popularity of game meat (£8million up on 2014’s total). It was also good to see Mark Avery fail in his attempt to ban driven grouse shooting, and despite the inappropriate endorsement of the BBC, Chris Packham’s various outpourings had no impact at all. And just this week, a report reveals that there has been a rise in raptor numbers on grouse moors — I…

GOOD TASTE Is my one-year-old daughter Freja your youngest reader? She is an avid follower and insists on leafing through my copy of the Shooting Times every week. D. Fox, by email TRAVELLING SAFETY WITH FIREARMS I read the piece about gun safety (Gunroom, 23 November) with interest, having had my hotel broken into one evening. The Labrador obviously just wagged his tail, but fortunately my gun was under the bed and was undiscovered. I now keep my gun in my alarmed car with the forepiece removed and kept separately. I believe that this is the safest way to travel with a shotgun or a rifle (having had the bolt removed). If the gun is stolen, it is useless. I would be interested to know if this complies with the…

“The shot bellowed in the empty wood and chaos reigned. I had kicked the hornet’s nest” We don’t often experience “real” snow in the Galloway hills. We are too near the Gulf Stream, and aside from two or three spectacular dumps of the white stuff over the past 15 years, winters tend to be cold and wet rather than crisp and white. Quite apart from sleigh bells and reindeer, a real blizzard always reminds me of an all-too-brief sporting trip to Croatia several years ago, when wild boar were on the agenda. Not really knowing what to expect, I had signed up for three days’ shooting in the wild country near the borders with Hungary and Serbia. Shelled-out buildings and the scars of heavy artillery still marked the villages as…

“I remember seeing my first grayling; look in the same hole now and a hippo could’ve gone undetected” Another year gone, and as ever reports must be submitted to various quarters as to how the season progressed. Two years ago this river experienced poor water quality and clarity and the sight-fishing that chalk rivers are renowned for was almost impossible. The river carried a taint, there was foam and several muttered darkly of diatoms. A welcome feature of 2016 was the return of gin-clear water for much of the year, a lack of foam and a reduction in the bloom of filamentous algae that thrives in nutrient-rich water and has become an accepted annual event in many UK rivers. I don’t mean to point a finger but we have water…

The experts THE ULTIMATE SHOOTING QUIZ TEAM BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and global authority on guns MAT MANNING Airgunner and journalist from the West Country BRUCE POTTS Shooting Times rifl e reviewer and stalker DAVID TOMLINSON Highly regarded writer and ornithologist LIAM BELL NGO chairman, Shropshire gamekeeper and keen wildfowler GRAHAM DOWNING Shooting consultant and sporting author PAUL RAWLINGS Gundog expert and A-panel spaniel judge CHRIS DE CANI Riverkeeper, with specialist knowledge of chalkstreams TONY BUCKWELL Veterinary surgeon with a special interest in gundogs TONY JACKSON A game Shot, keen stalker and former editor of Shooting Times TOM PAYNE Professional shooting instructor and avid pigeon shooter SIMON WHITEHEAD Author, professional ferreter and rabbit controller IAIN WATSON Keen stalker and senior CIC international trophy judge Four-wheel foxing PEST CONTROL…

The Hereford is arguably the most influential of all British cattle breeds: the Charolais, another beef breed, is its French equivalent. The Charolais’ origins lie around the town of Charolles, in the department of Saôneet-Loire in Bourgogne. Here, nine communes of progressive farmers developed these distinctive white cattle in the 18th century, concentrating solely on their meat-producing ability. At the time, most French breeds were also used as draught animals. White or light wheat in colour, the modern Charolais is a massive and muscular animal, producing very lean meat. It was the first continental breed to make an impression in the UK, with the original imports in the 1950s. Since then it has been widely exported around the world. It is most important as a beef sire on dairy herds,…

Angling Trust calls for river protection The Angling Trust has written to the water minister, Dr Thérèse Coffey MP, urging her to fulfil promises made by previous ministers to reform the water abstraction licensing system and afford better protection to UK rivers. Mark Lloyd, chief executive of the Angling Trust, said: “Successive ministers have looked at the nettle of abstraction reform and have made positive noises about their intention to tackle it, but none has actually grasped it. “Our fish populations are suffering as a result. Fish and other wildlife need the new minister to get a grip of abstraction reform now, not at some uncertain point in the future.” Glad Rags celebrates second birthday Ladies’ shooting club Glad Rags and Cartridge Bags celebrated its second birthday with a weekend…

I commend BASC on the excellent publication on shotgun safety that was revised last year. Its Shotgun Safety Code of Practice should be read by all those who carry a shotgun. It was therefore with some horror that I have seen two blatant failures to follow gun safety in the course of a week in different publications. One example involved a celebrity chef holding an open gun and a grouse to celebrate the start of the season. In this case the gun clearly had a cartridge in the top chamber. The second instance is in a brochure produced by a sporting lets agency, where a pair of open guns appear to be lying on the ground, with a grouse between them. Both guns are fully loaded, with the cartridges exposed.…

“At first the Finns adopted Mosin-Nagants but soon they began to adapt and modernise them” World War I changed the face of Europe forever. Not only were millions dead but old empires and monarchies tumbled as new countries sprung up to take their place. One of these was Finland. This had always been an independent Grand Duchy in Imperial Russia but, after the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty by the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution of 1917, the Finns sought independence. This culminated in a bloody civil war where the Red Finns (pro-Soviet Union forces) fought the Whites, who were supported by the German Empire. There were atrocities on both sides and the Whites prevailed. By 1920, a Russian-Finnish border had been established. Relations continued to be strained and in…

I’m not saying that the Aishe Barton shoot is unique but over rather too many decades of shoot coverage it is the first shoot of its character that I’ve come across. It’s a commercial shoot with the happy facility of combining moderate driven days with walked-up roughshooting for one to seven or so Guns, chef-prepared dining, field trials and dog training. That’s the simple outline, now here’s the detail. Head to Devon, navigate the traffic-blocked west side of Exeter and make your way towards the village of Upton Pyne. There you will discover the hub of the 4,500-acre Aishe Barton shoot, a comfortable lodge and, at the head of the operation, Nigel Partiss, shoot manager and a man with a mission. “I’ve only taken on the lease of the shoot…

WE ALL KNOW the saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. It’s not true, of course, as the following story will reveal. The learner of new tricks was a five-and-a-half-year-old springer spaniel, Jasmine, who came to stay for five weeks while her owners were in Australia. She is a Tawnyhill spaniel, bred by Tony Price. Tony is a leading breeder of genuine working springers, and he prides himself on producing biddable shooting dogs. Jasmine is a typical modern working springer: fast, flashy and long-legged with an excellent nose. Sadly, though, her potential has never been realised. She had a troubled start to life because her first owners couldn’t cope with her. She was lucky enough to be rehomed by my friends when still under a year old.…

Plant: Scots pine Latin name: Pinus sylvestris Common names: Archangel redwood, bish apples, yellow deal, Scots fir How to spot it and where to find it: This large evergreen pine, which can also grow as a shrub, has grey-brown bark on the lower trunk, and flaky, orange bark on the upper trunk and branches. Its long grey-green needles grow in pairs and are longer on young trees than those found on older trees. The tree’s cones may fall or remain on the tree for years. Scots pine is the only truly native pine in the UK and will grow in all soil types in both sheltered and exposed situations, but it thrives in heathland. Interesting facts: Widely planted for timber, Scots pine forests are also found in the Scottish Highlands…

“The only species that has ever been eradicated from these islands is the coypu — and that cost a fortune” So beavers are back in Scotland (News, 14 December). There had been a trial reintroduction project running in Knapdale, Argyll, since 2009, with all the usual promised safeguards. But in the end it was mob rule wot done it. That is to say, it was numerous illegal releases on Tayside that tipped the balance. The Scottish Government simply put its hands up, even though the current Tayside population probably numbers no more than 150. So beavers can stay. Classified as native, they will be protected and there are the usual platitudes about “active management”. We shall see. As it happens, I am not of the opinion that the beavers should…

JULY Theresa May Shooting and rural groups welcomed Theresa May as the new Prime Minister and her appointment of Andrea Leadsom as DEFRA secretary following the Conservative Party leadership battle. BASC said that Mrs May had always been supportive of shooting sports, while the Countryside Alliance noted that Mrs Leadsom had previously given commitments on a number of rural issues. EU firearms legislation Conservative MEP Vicky Ford, chair of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, was able to get damaging amendments to European Union gun legislation dropped, including proposals to restrict .22 rimfires and prevent under-18s from possessing their own firearms. Good news for curlew Scottish gamekeepers reported an increase in the number of curlew sighted on grouse moors after launching a concerted effort to conserve the wader, supported…

 Alex Hogg is chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association and is an experienced keeper on a 7,000-acre estate that puts up pheasants and grouse “Roy, who had lost his grandfather in World War II, was touched by how everybody stood with bowed heads” We have had our first snow and temperatures down to -8°C. This has helped put an edge on our pheasants’ appetite and has pulled the birds back to some of the main coverts. Our estate was planted more than 150 years ago and we have hundreds of mature beech trees which, when there is a good year for beechmast, can be a problem when you are trying to keep the pheasants where you want them. There are also hundreds of pigeon coming to feast on this delicious…

Edmund Porter was appointed Eskdale & Ennerdale huntsman at 19 years old and hunted hounds from 1963 to 2010. He has been actively involved in the E&E for 58 years, and was employed in hunt service for 52 years. In 1974-1975, he broke the record for most foxes accounted for in one season, 131, by a fell huntsman — a record that still stands. He chaired the Central Committee of Fell Packs for 18 years during the fight against the hunting ban, and he helped to establish legal trailhunting/exercise after the 2004 Hunting Act came into force in February 2005. In 1990 he travelled to the eastern states of the US to give talks on fell hunting. He also sent hounds to American packs which they have been bred from…

DR MIKE SWAN IS HEAD OF EDUCATION AND THE SOUTHERN REGIONAL ADVISOR FOR THE GAME & WILDLIFE CONSERVATION TRUST There is nothing more redolent of an English spring day than the song of the “lark ascending” as you lie in the long grass, soaking in the atmosphere. However, if you move uphill, to the edges of the moors, then it is the bubbling song of the curlew, ringing across the rushy pastures, that fills the air. Sadly, in both cases, these sounds are not as common as they used to be, because both species are in decline. There are many linked causes, but the basic reason is the same in both cases; modern land management leaves less room for wildlife. So to Auchnerran, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s…

It was a Sunday evening Ryanair flight from Madrid to Stansted, and packed with Spaniards returning from a weekend at home. The two seats next to me remained empty until the last minute, when a tall Englishman accompanied by his elegant wife took them. He was wearing a Schöffel gilet, while I noted three jay’s feathers in the hat band of his wife’s felt hat. I asked the obvious question: “Have you been partridge shooting?” “How did you guess?” was the quick reply. I am reasonably observant, so the clues were (to my eyes) overwhelming. I soon gathered that they had had two enjoyable but very wet days on a grand partridge shoot in Castilla-La Mancha. It had clearly been an action-packed visit as they had been shooting that day,…

It would have been very surprising to see a blackcap in December 50 years ago but these days they are usually reported by about 20 per cent of the British Trust for Ornithology’s Garden BirdWatch volunteers. These are not the same blackcaps that delight us with their summer song — those birds have flown south to the countries that form the western part of the Mediterranean basin. Winter blackcaps breed in Germany and surrounding countries. A genetic glitch has changed their migratory direction from south to west, and they have made the most of our mild winters and bountiful gardens. The peak reporting rate tends to be in January. However, in the long, cold spring of 2013 numbers kept rising well into March, perhaps as birds became more dependent upon…