Innholdsfortegnelse for August 12, 2015 i Shooting Times & Country

WE WERE greatly looking forward to this year’s annual shooting holiday. Having booked a trip up to Scotland for some grouse over pointers (driven being out of our price range), we were anticipating a good walk on the hill and enjoying the incredible dog work. Sadly our host sent me an email a few weeks ago with the subject line “No grouse”. Of course, we were philosophical. Given recent bountiful years, it is easy to forget that grouse are wild birds and subject to a host of complex factors leading to natural cycles of boom and bust. Widespread use of medicated grit promised to stop the extreme fluctuations, but clearly the gamebird’s ecology is more complex. This is one of the reasons why driven grouse fetches high prices and why…

A new one-day course will give gamekeepers the chance to become certified users of professional rodenticides when the rules change next year. The Health and Safety Executive-approved course is to be run by BASC, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, National Gamekeepers’ Organisation and Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association. Those who pass the one-hour exam will be legally allowed to buy and use professional rodenticides when product authorisations change on 1 July 2016. Courses will be held from late August to early November. For more information, contact the organisations offering the new training or visit http://po.st/rodenticide.…

A survey reveals that shoots were able to keep costs down during the 2014/15 season thanks to better weather and falling commodity prices. The Shoot Benchmarking Survey, published by real estate firm Savills in association with the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, shows that a 16 per cent drop in feed costs per bird helped cut overall costs by six per cent. Savills says this was despite an increase in pay for beaters and pickers-up. The survey of 110 shoots highlights that shoots cut their fixed costs by two per cent to £5.24 per bird put down, and their variable costs by seven per cent to £7.97, and that income was boosted as a better rearing season led to a higher percentage of released birds being shot. David Steel of…

BASC about-face I was pleased to see that you gave some space to the long-awaited DEFRA report into the suitability of producing gamebird eggs in raised laying units (News, 5 August). Gamefarmers, the Game Farmers’ Association (GFA) and the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) fought hard to keep these systems five years ago against staunch opposition from the RSPB and BASC. I found it ironic that BASC is now supporting a code that it didn’t want to exist in the first place and did its best to get stopped, as well as trying to ban enriched cage-based laying systems. I also noted that the organisations that were the driving force in keeping what is now proven to be a good system, which goes above and beyond most animal welfare regulations, didn’t…

EARLY HANDLING This is the time of year when everyone has ferret kits for sale or to keep. Young ferrets are as slippery as a bar of wet soap. They are born blind and reliant upon their mother for warmth, security and her milk. I resist the curiosity factor and make sure I don’t disturb their nest for the first two weeks of their life. From week three I integrate myself when feeding, as they are starting to suckle the fresh dead rabbit I place in their nesting area. When they reach six weeks I start to handle them in earnest. I like to enter the ferret kits into the team by accustoming them to the smells, sights and sounds of not just me but the dogs as well. Getting…

The Slimbridge decoy was a source of income and food for the Berkeley estate. It was constructed in 1843 by Joseph Wilcox of Newport to replace an earlier decoy four miles away, which had been disturbed by the building of the canal to Gloucester. But within 40 years, the new decoy was also suffering from disturbance. The 1880 Ground Game Act, which saw an increase in the shooting of hares and rabbits to reduce crop damage, caused the decoy catch to collapse from 1,370 to 500 head. By the 20th century, decoys were falling into disrepair across the country for a variety of reasons. In the eastern counties — primarily Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk — there had been around 100 decoys in their heyday, taking around 5,000 duck apiece each…

Back in the early 1980s, when I started my career as a Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) advisor, modern techniques of pheasant rearing and release had only just settled down from the old days of using broody hens (chickens) as foster parents for pheasant eggs. In those days it was still common to find pheasant release pens in the flushing areas of woods, because keepers thought that it was best to put their birds where they wanted to find them on a shoot day. Today we know differently, and the general plan follows what the GWCT had by then found out: the best scheme is usually to put your birds in a home covert, where they will want to stay for good. Driving them out is often difficult; rather,…

Rabbiting Training a lurcher I have acquired my first lurcher for rabbiting. Do you have any tips for training her? H. Dixon, by email SIMON WHITEHEAD SAYS: The best advice I can give is that which was given to me. Let the puppy have a puppyhood while you train her. A lot of obedience can be taught around her food bowl. Let the dog see the ferrets every day to the point of boredom — then the ferrets will become an everyday occurrence. Resist the urge to enter the dog too early, both for physical and mental reasons. A lot of lurchers are spoilt by being entered too early and working too hard when their bodies and minds are still maturing. As for obedience, go down the gundog route of…

There is nothing that the landlubbing public loves more than a shark scare. The sheer electric panic that a shark-on-human attack can engender is buttockclenchingly exciting. In Australia and the US there are some horrific examples of real shark terror, with surfers, divers and swimmers receiving hideous wounds or even fatal injuries from shark attacks. These locations are legend because sharks that venture into the shallows around these coastlines are the major apex predators of the oceans. Great whites, bull sharks, tiger sharks, mako and hammerheads are the most feared of any of the world’s fish. So in New Guinea, South Carolina, Florida, Cape Town and Queensland, watersports-loving, wetsuit-wearing bathers have good reason to be vigilant. On the south coast of England between Brighton and Bognor, the risk of death…

Grouse shooting is set to continue on Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire after Bradford Council shelved a petition calling for it to be banned. The petition by animal rights campaigners objected to the council awarding the shooting rights in February to the Bingley Moor Partnership until 2018. The same campaigners submitted a similar petition last year, which sparked a full review. The council voted to continue shooting, but it did ban the use of traps for the control of ground pests.…

To mark the opening of the red grouse season, BASC has released an infographic (pictured below) illustrating the benefits of grouse shooting. Chairman of BASC’s Gameshooting and Gamekeeping Committee Ian Grindy said heather moorland managed for grouse benefits conservation and wildlife. He said: “BASC is highlighting the 12 benefits of grouse shooting so that people can make their own minds up when they hear those who, through misguided zeal or prejudice, would like to destroy grouse shooting and managed moorland and deprive the uplands of all the benefits these bring.”…

“Today’s [big game] hunters are hedge fund managers, doctors, attorneys, their wives and children — they’re the kind of normal people you hear on the news now.” Photographer David Chancellor, who has spent seven years taking portraits of modern trophy hunters, in The Guardian . “There are so many charities whose interest is that the thing they supposedly support fails because they get more money in. Their livelihood goes up the more it goes down.” You Forgot the Birds backer Crispin Odey tells The Times that the RSPB does not really want the hen harrier to recover because its decline is a valuable money-making tool.…

Conservationists have recognised that pest control is a key way to help species at risk from climate change. The claim was made in a new report from Natural England, which was commissioned by the RSPB and other bodies. It states that the “exclusion of, and killing of foxes can be used to increase nesting success and probably breeding productivity” of species at risk, including lapwing and black-tailed godwit. It adds that “legal control of generalist predators” could specifically help other species such as red grouse, blackgrouse, golden plover and curlew. BASC chairman Alan Jarrett said: “The pest control undertaken across the country by shooting — which has a management influence on two-thirds of the rural land area — is a major conservation benefit to threatened species. It’s good to see…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH This doe’s suffering could have been prevented My terrier located this roe doe (left) near my home. The doe was still alive and had suffered for seven days or so after being the victim of a poaching incident. On close inspection of her injuries, I found abscesses on the liver and lungs and multiple pellet wounds to the rumen. While this sort of incident is still too common, there was one thing that may have prevented this — the field gates had been left open for maybe 10 days to allow the free passage of contractors to cut, turn and bale silage. I appreciate the difficulties facing the agricultural community, but a polite request to the contractor to close the gates at the end of the day…

At the end of World War II, Archie Coats was teaching at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. “He used to escape the pressure of military life by shooting pigeon,” recalled his widow, Prue Coats, in The Poacher’s Cookbook . “The going rate for a pigeon in the feather was 2s 6d,’’ she continued. “I think the seed of an idea to become a professional pigeon shooter must have germinated then.” I read the above sentence and went to www.worldwar2exraf.co.uk, a veterans’ website, which gave examples of old-money purchases in wartime. A “typical wartime, three-bedroom, semidetached house in Sheffield would cost approximately £550”, the “average price of a gallon of petrol was 1s 6d”, and the “average cost for food for a family of four for one week was £1…

Finding a job in gunsmithing is not easy. Jobs are scarce, even though there is a growing need for such skills. This is what makes Boxall & Edmiston’s plans for a training academy an unusual and exciting development. The aspiring gunsmith will need considerable determination to find a suitable job in the trade, whether that is on barrel work, auctioning, stocking, chequering, engraving and so on, or as the general all-round gunsmith who used to be a feature of many country towns. There can be little doubt that the modern schooling system contributes little to preparing the pupil for this sort of work, but there are avenues worth exploring if the careers officer cannot help. The Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, 48-50 Commercial Road, London E1 1LP is a useful source…

Were it not for grouse, 12 August would soon recede into the background as the popular conception of the opening date of a new shooting season, giving way to the first day of September when everything except the pheasant is fair and legal game. In the imagination of the average man, “the Twelfth” conjures up visions of purple heather north of the border, pannier ponies and later (but not much) birds hanging expensively labelled on the poulterer’s hook. To some of us, however — indeed, to most of us — the Twelfth means no such thing. To the wildfowler and inland shooter the date’s significance this year lies in the fact that, for the last time, he may christen the advent of a new shooting season with at least the…

Charles Darwin referred to earthworms as “nature’s ploughs” because of their ability to mix soil layers and incorporate organic matter into the soil. This breakdown of organic matter allows the nutrients held in it to become available to bacteria, fungi and plants, thus boosting the soil’s fertility. Worldwide there are an estimated 3,000 species of earthworm, though the Earthworm Society of Britain says there may be more but no one really knows because there is little money devoted to researching them. Out of the 27 species of earthworm in the UK, the largest is the lobworm ( Lumbricus terrestris ), which can be up to 13in long when moving. According to the Natural History Museum, the worms are able to broaden their tail to grip the sides of the deep…

One of the frustrations of The CLA Game Fair is that there’s always so much going on that there’s a limit to what you can watch. Even without the restraints of having my own dogs with me, I still found that I missed out on lots of the things I was planning to view. Good planning is essential if you want to see all you can in the time available. However, one of the competitions I enjoyed watching was the international junior handler, a new event at this year’s Fair, organised by A-panel judge Mick Newsam. Open to under-18s, it was well supported, with some very young handlers as well as some strapping teenagers. They all seemed highly competent, too, though I would have dearly liked to have known how…

As we walked up to fish on the Galloway Hills recently, a broad-winged bird began to circle over the steep, crumbling face above us. The heat shimmer made the granite stones tremble like grass in the wind, and it was only when the shape passed below the horizon and spread a dark smear of shadow against the heather that I had an idea of scale. It was unquestionably an eagle and it passed off into the wind with wings set slightly back. I couldn’t see where it was going, but in an instant there was a second eagle in hot pursuit. The two tumbled and fell together, and even at long distance I could hear a high-pitched screaming yell. When they detached and flew apart, I saw that one of…

So the Glorious Twelfth is here. I refer, of course, to the Labour Party’s deadline for registering to vote in its leadership contest. In two days the ballot papers will be sent out, with the deadline for response being 10 September. The results will be announced at a special conference on 12 September. For the shooting community, the interesting thing about the Labour leadership contest is how it illustrates the Left’s astonishing capacity for self-delusion. As I write, the candidate leading the field is Jeremy Corbyn, a standard–bearer for the hard Left. Many commentators — even luminaries within the Labour Party — believe that if he becomes party leader, Labour will be consigned to the political wilderness for a generation. This suits the Tories, so it comes as no surprise…

The secretary of the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association is this year’s Gamebird of the Year for Scotland. Sheila Beattie (pictured) was presented with the award, which recognises ladies who offer unstinting support to gamekeepers, at the GWCT Game Fair last month. The GWCT’s Helen Benson said: “Sheila supports all the gamekeepers in the SGA and has done so with incredible commitment and enthusiasm. She has become a dear friend to all who know her.”…

Britain has won the world FITASC ladies championship, held in Minnesota, US, with a score of 493. This put the team of Rebecca McKenzie, Lucy Pitt and Cheryl Hall three ahead of nearest rivals, the US, and 25 ahead of France. Cheryl (above) also won the ladies individual world championship, scoring 182. Meanwhile, Britain’s Hannah Pugsley won her second silver medal at the European Shooting Champs (News, 5 August), in the 300m three-position rifle event.…

GOOD TIMES Barn owls have nested for the first time on the moor managed for grouse shooting at Mossy Lea estate in Glossop, says the Moorland Association. David Young, a reader from Warwickshire, has won our competition (1 July) to go on an amazing stalking holiday to Scotland, valued at £3,600. BAD TIMES The population of golden plover in Scotland has dropped by 25 per cent since 1995, according to the latest Breeding Bird Survey report. The Deer Initiative has warned of a potential new bovine TB hot spot in Cumbria, which means stalkers must report suspected cases in deer.…

During my last ferreting foray, when I was targeting rabbits intent on destroying a private garden ( Summer siege in the garden , 8 July), I also had another quarry to deal with — one that’s a lot nippier than any bunny. That beautifully landscaped garden featured a stunning pond that used to be home to koi carp. I say “used to”, because lurking beneath the water’s surface scuttled an army of crayfish, a predatory freshwater crustacean. How these creatures had managed to find this pond, which lies miles from a river, is anyone’s guess. The head gardener suggested that they or their eggs had stowed away on wildfowl or a heron, or perhaps they had crawled over the land. But they had arrived and their feet were well and…

SUMMARY DATE 29 & 30 JULY 2015 VENUE BOLLIHOPE MOOR BY PERMISSION OF SHEIKH MOHAMMED AL MAKTOUM JUDGES BILLY DARRAGH & DOMINIC GOUTORBE CHIEF STEWARD SHEILA STEEDS ENTRIES 36 (20 DOGS & 16 BITCHES) POINTERS 15 IRISH SETTERS 10 ENGLISH SETTERS 8 GORDON SETTERS 2 IRISH RED & WHITE SETTERS 1 HEADKEEPER PETER FAWCETT GUNS DAVID RENTON & ALBERT ROBINSON WINNER DAVID O’NEILL — IRISH SETTER DOG FTCH GLYNLARK ARAMIS SECOND WILSON YOUNG — POINTER DOG FEARN QUARK OF BURNCASTLE THIRD PROF M. HERBERT — IRISH SETTER DOG FTCH COLDCOATS CORBALLY BOY HANDLED BY STEVE ROBINSON FOURTH LAURENT HILD — POINTER BITCH FTCH GERENSARY MINERVA HANDLED BY RICHARD MACNICOL DIPLOMA OF MERIT GERRY DEVINE — ENGLISH SETTER BITCH FTCH GORTINREAGH EPPIE DENNIS LONGWORTH — GORDON SETTER DOG FTCH ENSAY TIVA…

Jamie Chandler and William Jones are keen shooters (above) who run HampshireSportingShooter.co.uk. Working with chef Alan Haughie (below right), now owner of catering firm McCrimmon & Reid (http:// mccrimmonandreid.com), they create game recipes you can follow in your own kitchen. The Glorious Twelfth brings walked-up days and flushing grouse over trying terrain — which means the Guns will need a decent lunch. With that in mind, we again called upon the talent of chef Alan Haughie, previously a chef at The Savoy in London. We asked him what his ideal picnic sandwich would be and his answer was this mouth-watering twist on a New York deli classic. It’s seasonal, delicious and would help energise a weary body and refocus your mind for an afternoon on the moor. PIGEON PASTRAMI DELI…

ASK THE VET TONY BUCKWELL is a retired veterinary surgeon, who now acts as an advisor on animal welfare, breeding and husbandry. If you are concerned about your dog’s health, always seek veterinary advice. Testing for CNM? A Labrador breeder tells me her dogs are tested for CNM. What is CNM? H. Johnstone, by email TONY BUCKWELL SAYS: Centronuclear myopathy (CNM) is a serious disease seen in Labrador retrievers. It weakens the leg, neck and oesophageal muscles, so affected dogs have difficulty passing food straight into their stomach after swallowing. Affected puppies are normal at birth but by two weeks aren’t putting on weight like their litter-mates. Between two to five months, they develop an awkward gait and decreased exercise tolerance, associated with a generalised muscle weakness. There is no…