Innholdsfortegnelse for 27-Apr-2016 i Shooting Times & Country

THIS SUMMER sees the launch of an exciting new addition to the show calendar. The Field & Country Fair is designed to be a return to the roots of the original game fair. Started in the 1950s, the first game fairs were supported by Shooting Times legends such as Peter Whitaker (Petrel). Back then, Peter ran the Pugs and Drummers stand, which is still going today and will be exclusively at the Field & Country Fair under this magazine’s own rabbiting correspondent Simon Whitehead. The first fairs were more intimate and personal, designed on a scale where friends could easily meet in an atmosphere of community. Like its early incarnations, the values of fieldsports and the countryside will be central to the new Field & Country Fair, rather than lost…

2 M AY THE NORTH SOMERSET SHOW North Somerset Showground, Bathing Pond Fields, Wraxall, Somerset Tel 08456 342464 6 -7 M AY BASC/GWCT SHOOTING FOR THE FUTURE COURSE Allerton Project Visitor Centre, Loddington, Leicestershire Tel 01425 651013 7 M AY THE NORTHERN SHOOTING SHOW Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate, North Yorkshire Tel 01472 809727 14 -1 5 MAY WHITFIELD ANNUAL CLAY SHOOT Whitfield estate, near Hexham, Northumberland Tel 07925 597676 1 5 M AY GWCT GUNDOG CLINIC AND TEST Bards Hall, Great Waltham, Essex Tel 01245 231455 10-12 JUNE FIELD & COUNTRY FAIR Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire Tel 01256 768346…

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) last week announced that it is in support of remaining in the European Union, though stressed it will not advise members how to vote. In a public statement, it revealed: “The NFU recognises and respects the diversity of views among its membership. The NFU’s position is based solely on an evaluation of the agricultural merits of the case and the NFU is fully aware there are many wider issues at stake. “The NFU will not be actively campaigning in the referendum; it will not be joining with any campaign groups and it will not, in any circumstances, advise its members how to vote. “It is, however, the case that the Electoral Commission rules governing the referendum in effect mean that the NFU will be required…

US firearms manufacturer Savage Arms has opened its first Little Rascals rifle range in the UK at Diggle Ranges near Oldham in the Pennines. Little Rascals is a programme for under-18s who are interested in learning to target shoot. Youngsters are given full safety training and receive target shooting instruction. All rifles used during training are Savage Arms Rascal rifles, a 22 calibre single-shot rifle purpose-built for young people, with an Accutrigger, synthetic stock and carbon steel barrel — all in dimensions for children and weighing only 1.2kg. Lisa Riley of Edgar Brothers, UK distributor for Savage Arms, commented: “Savage Arms is delighted to provide the rifles for this innovative programme. “Savage Arms has a long history of being on the cutting edge in the development of firearms, and is…

“We can manage to control foxes, but it is the smaller predators that take up the time” When I was picking eggs the other day, comparing last year’s figures and start dates with previous years and wondering how everyone else’s hens were laying, it dawned on me that we were probably the only shoot in the area that still had its own laying flock. The move away from layers has, for most, been a decision based mainly on cost. That and the logistics of dealing with chicks and poults that vary in age by up to seven or eight weeks. We expanded and now a percentage of what we hatch is sold to help cover running costs. Expanding isn’t for everyone. It isn’t cheap and it isn’t always an option.…

“Quinoa, millet and cereals will, when ripened, help to feed small birds” It seems hard to believe now, but half a century ago, when I first started wielding my beating stick at Clandon Park in Surrey, game covercrops were pretty much a new idea. It’s not that we did not drive crops for game, but rather that agriculture was so much more diverse that we simply drove whatever was available on the farm. I can well remember, as an eight-year-old, disappearing under the spreading leaves of kale grown for dairy cows that was neck-high to big men. As the season progressed, the kale and roots patches got smaller as they were either strip grazed or cut and carted to the stock. But that did not matter, because once the leaf…

James Chaplin was born in Rochester, Kent, in 1787, inherited his father’s coaching business and became one of the largest operators, with some 70 coaches and 1,300 horses, acquiring the title “stagecoach king”. Stagecoaches were soon eclipsed by the advent of the railways, so James invested in them. When he died in 1859, the family moved into the haulage business, eventually to be taken over by Pickfords. Bernard Chaplin, born in the early 1900s, was a keen Shot and became a gundealer, working from Gresham Street, London. He employed Howard A. Davies, a former foreman at gun manufacturer Westley Richards, set up a gun business in one of the family’s former coaching yards, The Swan with Two Necks, and used this inn sign as his logo. The company remained under…

Accuracy The CZ 557 on test came with a Macc Tecc sound moderator. Once I had fitted it, it gave good noise reduction without adding too much extra weight, so handling was not compromised. The CZ felt very steady in the aim, and the more solid stock was a big improvement, soaking up felt recoil. Factory ammunition-wise, with the 1-in-10 rifling twist barrel, the CZ would stabilise all.308 Winchester bullet weights and 150-gr bullets shot well. The Hornady Superformance SST loads always shoot well and they did not disappoint — 2,844fps for 2,695 ft/lb and 1in to 1¼in groups. The heavier Geco 165-gr also shot well, with consistent 1¼in groups at 100 yards. Reload-wise the 110-gr V-Max bullet travelling at 2,984 fps for 2,175 ft/lb turns your deer rifle into…

If you have been lucky enough to travel overseas to shoot driven wild boar, you may well have waited in what is known in Europe as a mirador, a tower with an open shooting platform that provides the shooter with a 360° field of fire. There is usually a bench seat, but also sufficient floor space for you to stand up to shoot running game, and since the shooting platform is elevated several feet off the ground, there is invariably a safe backstop. High seats are, of course, popular in Britain, so why not the mirador? In this country, we don’t usually shoot running game with a rifle from the standing position, but a mirador still makes a cosy and enclosed position in which to wait for deer or, for…

My dog won’t hunt freely GUNDOG TRAINING Q My black Labrador bitch, which I got at 18 months old and is now three years of age, is a bit timid, but she’s a very keen retriever, follows and finds runners from a long way, but will not hunt freely for game she has not seen shot down. She sticks at heel in the beating line and will not free hunt. How can I teach her to free hunt and find birds she has not marked? A While Labradors have mainly been developed for retrieving, they can also be trained to hunt like a spaniel, though this can have a negative effect on their behaviour at heel. All Labradors can, however, be taught to search an area on command. This, once…

There are not many experiences that can beat listening to the song of the skylark on a sunny spring day, and this is the most likely week of the year in which to encounter this wonderful sound. Unusually for British songbirds, both sexes of skylark sing, though the males sing more, especially during the incubation period. Skylark numbers have been in free-fall since the mid-1970s, when there were estimated to be almost three times as many pairs as there are now. Since the start of the Breeding Bird Survey in 1995, losses have been greatest in Northern Ireland (54 per cent decline), followed by Scotland (28 per cent), England (23 per cent) and Wales (4 per cent). Numbers seem to be holding up best in grassland and heathland areas, which…

“The turtle dove, one minute so swift and intent in its flight, now fell languidly to earth, followed by a swirl of soft, cinnamon-coloured feather” The new ITV series called The Durrells seems to be attracting about 6million viewers each Sunday. One of the characters, Leslie, is portrayed as a keen shooter. In fact he’s not the only shooter in the family — but I shall come to that. Set on the Greek island of Corfu in the 1930s, The Durrellsis an excellent adaptation of Gerald Durrell’s classic account of growing up on the island between 1935 and 1939. His Corfu trilogy started with My Family and Other Animals, which was first published in 1956. A gentle, evocative ramble through the remembered delights of a childhood fascination with the wildlife…

“Crime Commissioners are charged with securing effective policing, and this includes firearms licensing” BASC is giving firearms owners the opportunity to find out what candidates in the upcoming Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections think about shooting. The elections are taking place on Thursday, 5 May and candidates are voted in by the public at polling stations. As BASC explains: “These elections are of great importance to those who shoot because firearms licensing comes within the responsibilities of a PCC.” BASC has set up a new website (www.basc.org.uk/pcc) to help those with an interest in shooting to identify the candidates for their area and email them to seek their views on shooting and conservation. Once someone receives a response they can forward it on to BASC who will make the…

Go online to buy advance tickets and save money off the entrance fee for the Field & Country Fair, the new game fair which is being launched this year in collaboration with Shooting Timesmagazine. The Fair is being held at Cornbury Park, near Charlbury in Oxfordshire, from Friday, 10 June to Sunday, 12 June and there is a lot to enjoy at what should be a spectacular weekend. Shooting TimesEditor Joe Dimbleby called the show “an exciting opportunity to recapture the essence of the early game fairs, bringing the fieldsports community together in a great celebration of real rural life.” BASC, the Oxfordshire Shooting School, Huw Stephens of Barbury Shooting School and Atkin Grant & Lang will all be on the shooting line, offering, among other things a fun flush…

BASC Young Shots gain funding boost A sporting auction and raffle at the Swan Inn, in Tarporley, Cheshire, last month helped to raise £7,500 to support the BASC Young Shots scheme, which aims to introduce youngsters between the ages of eight and 21 to shooting. Lots on offer at the auction included driven pheasant days, wildfowling opportunities and a week’s shooting in Namibia. Duncan Thomas, the organiser and BASC’s acting northern regional director described the support as “amazing”. Add raven to General Licence, urge farmers A group of Scottish sheep farmers has lodged a petition with Scottish Natural Heritage and the RSPB to add the common raven to the General Licence. The farmers say that attacks by the birds on newborn lambs and “in lamb” ewes as they prepare to…

What does a typical working week involve? One of the many aspects of my job that I enjoy is the ability to see the progress we are making across the UK and overseas, where we play the role of UK partner to Birdlife International on many projects. Readers of Shooting Times may get a rather one-eyed view of our work, but my week can encompass the full spectrum, from our research to our campaigns to saving our finest wildlife sites from badly thought-out development proposals. The week I write this I shall be out with a politician showing them one of our nature reserves, meeting one of our trustees and also visiting one of our regional offices to discuss our emerging conservation priorities. What do you see as the most…

I’m sure gundogs are steady to fireworks, but it is good news for pet and livestock owners that the Government is to debate “Restrict the use of fireworks to reduce stress and fear in animals and pets” on 6 June. This is the result of a petition raised and signed by 104,038 people. As someone who used to have horses and is still owned by a pet, I welcome any restriction on the use of fireworks. I’ve no wish to spoil anyone’s fun, but it is ludicrous that we now have people setting off fireworks from the beginning of October to the middle of November. Then there’s New Year, Chinese New Year and Diwali. The Government says that “restrictions are already in place”, and that noise levels must be below…

Maturing bucks will have a larger body conformation and a less angular rump. Mature animals carry the head low, have a thick neck and a rounded rump. Unhealthy animals often appear thin, have visible lumps and swellings, are lethargic and may look to be unresponsive. Late spring brings the change from the winter coat; scruffy coats (above) are not a good indicator of the state of an animal’s health.…

Kale can still be a popular covercrop, and it is hard to beat as a pheasant cover when it is well grown. It is often popular in livestock areas, where the farmers can get paid by the shoot then graze it off after the season is over. A couple of months ago, I persuaded a shoot captain in south Wales to dig his heels in over this and retain the best of his kale. By now (late April to early May) it will be even taller and flowering well, and offering good nesting cover for both pheasants and other farmland birds. With luck it will also be teeming with a range of invertebrates to feed all sorts of chicks through the summer. By next winter it will still be offering…

I’M SURE PASSING motorists were mystified. There, in the beautiful parkland of Heveningham Hall, were four grown men wearing boots and the sort of clothing you might wear for a day’s shooting. What was extraordinary was that each one was leading a similarly clad human companion by a rope lead looped around the neck. It looked bizarre on a bright spring morning. There was, however, a simple explanation. These were all participants in a BASC gundog training day, and were discovering that persuading a person to walk to heel correctly is quite a challenge, let alone a dog. BASC has always endeavoured to encourage its members not only to own shooting dogs, but to train them to a good standard. The day I attended at Heveningham in Suffolk was organised…

BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and global authority on guns MAT MANNING Airgunner and journalist from the West Country BRUCE POTTS Shooting Timesrifle reviewer and stalker DAVID TOMLINSON Highly regarded writer and ornithologist LIAM BELL 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 Contact the team Email: stanswers@timeinc.com By post: Shooting Times, Pinehurst 2, Farnborough…

Most of our spring butterflies overwinter as adult insects, but not so the orange-tip. This delightful insect first emerges from the chrysalis towards the end of April, with the pioneering males appearing a week before the females. While the females are shy and elusive, the male is one of the most conspicuous of creatures, spending his days patrolling the countryside, wandering along hedges and woodland edges often even visiting rural gardens in his search for virgin females. The insect’sname is apt, for the male is possessed of conspicuous orange tips to his forewings, while the duller female has only black tips, so resembling our other whites. The undersides of the hindwings of both sexes are delicately patterned with moss green however, and this colour cleverly provides the perfect camouflage for…

“By forging a strong working relationship with ACC Orford in his capacity as the national lead on police firearms licensing, we hope to be able to move the agenda forward and deliver a 10-year certificate.” BASC chief Richard Ali comments after a recent meeting with Assistant Chief Constable Dave Orford, the new national lead on police firearms licensing. 44 There are just 44 days left until the inaugural Field & Country Fair at Cornbury Park begins on Friday, 10 June. This weekend-long game fair is being launched in collaboration with Shooting Times, and we will be there to say hello. Visit po.st/ FieldCountryFair to get your tickets. Book now for the Early Bird discount. See below for the full story.…

BUY Chiappa Firearms has produced the Little Sharps (pictured), a replica of the 1874 Sharps rifle that was widely used by commercial buffalo hunters in the era following the American Civil War. Distributed by Edgar Brothers, this replica has been reduced in size by 20 per cent, and is available in .22 LR (24in), .38-55 Win (26in) and .22 Hornet (26in). RRP is £1,067.55. For more information, visit www.shootingsports.edgarbrothers.com. WATCH Log on to BBC iPlayer and you will find a repeat of a 2009 episode of Natural World entitled A Highland Haven, which follows the fortunes of wildlife around Loch Maree and the surrounding hills in Scotland’s far north-west. The programme follows a year in the lives of red deer, salmon, black-throated divers and white-tailed sea eagle and the loch…

Countryside organisations expressed their disappointment after comments by culture minister Ed Vaizey called into question the Government’s commitment to making fast broadband a legal right for everyone in the UK. In November, Prime Minister David Cameron announced a Universal Service Obligation (USO), a pledge to provide everyone in Britain the right to request a 10Mbps broadband connection by the end of this Parliament (News, 18 November). But Mr Vaizey, who is minister of state for culture, communications and creative industries, this month told a gathering of MPs: “I’m not going to guarantee to you that every single premise is going to get 10Mpbs but it should be potentially possible.” Countryside Alliance head of policy Sarah Lee commented: “This is very disappointing. The whole point of a Universal Service Obligation is…

Sporting estates and gamekeepers in Scotland this month launched a new initiative — Heather on FireOK! — to raise public awareness about why muirburn — the controlled burning of heather — is necessary to protect habitat and bird species. The Communities Along the Carron Association, a group of volunteers (pictured) committed to the regeneration of the river Carron in central Scotland, won the Conservation and the Environment accolade at the Scottish Rural Awards, at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh last month. Fishermen could be penalised for catching too few fish, after DEFRA recently proposed to cap the catch limit for boats shorter than 10m that did not land their quotas between 2010 and 2013. The last remaining golden eagle in England is feared to have died after it failed to appear…

COMMUNITY RESILIENCE Thank you for reporting on the excellent job the local keepers, gillies and others did in clearing up the huge amount of debris left by the river Dee in Scotland following the catastrophic flooding caused by Storm Frank last December (News, 16 March). As a resident of Ballater, a town known to many of your readers who visit to shoot, fish, walk and enjoy the most spectacular scenery, the flooding event is one I shall never forget. Our local estates mean much to the local community while the estate workers, often criticised by the antis and the media, do a huge amount for the community and the region as a whole. I would like to say a big “thank you” to all of them. I have recently taken…

“So perfect were the white tips of his primary feathers that they could have been painted on by an artist” If God did create all the animals, I think he was having a particularly cheery day when he thought of goldfinches. Whoever it was that came up with the collective noun, a charm of goldfinches, was having a good day too, for how fitting that is. Another good name might have been a dazzle of goldfinches, for they always catch my eye. Is there a jauntier garden bird than this flashy little chap? A waxwing perhaps, but they’re only occasional winter visitors, so I won’t include them. I have always had a soft spot for goldfinches. As a child, I thought it was odd that the bird books that I…

The antlers of mature bucks will be clean and may be well coloured. Some very old animals may be slow to clean. This mature buck (above right) has asymmetric tines and would be a good trophy to take. Fully grown younger animals of two or three years old may still be in velvet or in tatters, but should have defined antlers. This immature buck (above left) has poor tine development. The antlers of animals still in velvet will appear larger than they actually are. Juveniles will still be in velvet and are likely still to be in the growing phase.…

“The bicycle liberated the urban working classes, who poured into the countryside at the weekends” I am an inveterate bibliophile, especially when it comes to old books about shooting. Not only do they entertain but they also afford rare opportunities to look into the world of our sporting forebears, providing important historical evidence about guns, ammunition, accessories and shooting practices. Recently, I was fortunate to find a very interesting little book in a charity shop called How to Buy a Gunwritten in 1903 by H. A. Bryden and Basil Tozer. Henry Anderson Bryden (1854-1937) was big-game hunter, photographer and naturalist who spent much of his time in South Africa and collaborated with Percy Selous to write Travel and Big Gameas well as writing many other books. Basil Tozer often used…

This is definitely the best deer type rifle CZ has made, especially in its synthetic format and carbine short barrel. Being threaded for a sound moderator really helps and the new bolt design is smooth and built to last, like all CZ rifles. The trigger is crisp, but a detachable magazine would be nice. Best of all has to be the stock, both in design and materials used. It has a very good feel and is excellent for practical use in the field, where this CZ 557 will be used most as a no-nonsense, get-it-done rifle.…

LEICA ULTRAVID HDPLUS 50 BINOCULARS Incorporating top-performing lenses that keep stray light at a minimum, the clever design guarantees superb colour and contrast, a bright and clear view and sharpest detail resolution. Thanks to their large objective lens diameter, they are particularly suitable for use in twilight and the early evening hours. • Price: £1,700 • www.leica-sportoptics.co.uk PRIMOS TRIGGER STICK TALL TRIPOD GEN 2 With just one hand and the pull of a trigger, you can simultaneously adjust each leg of the Primos Trigger Stick to your desired height, while supporting your rifle in the firing position. The Trigger Stick is a lightweight height-adjustable gun rest and optical gear mount. It’s perfect for kneeling or standing and allows you to adjust your pan tilt and elevation while in the shooting…

Do some drivers deliberately try to run down pheasants they see in the road? I’m sure they do. My drive opens on to a quiet, single-track lane, used by no more than a dozen vehicles an hour. Recently, as I turned out of my drive into the lane, I was greeted by the sad sight of two pheasants, a cock and a hen, dead in the middle of the road. They were still warm and had clearly been killed minutes before. I have a feeder in the hedge nearby, and in spring it’s a major draw for pheasants, along with yellowhammers and tree sparrows. I recognised this particular cock as my resident male. I find it difficult to believe that this pair had been run over accidentally, but it might…

Did you know that you can predict the weather according to rook behaviour? According to a common saying, “when rooks build low, it’s a sign of a wet summer to come” – though that’s probably not too reliable a yardstick given the strong tendency of rooks to return to the same nest year after year. A noisy rookery is also said to be a sign of unsettled weather. Another saying suggests that when the birds “tumble” through the air in flight, rain is thought to be on the way, while rooks that twist and turn are believed to presage storms. On the Isle of Man, it is said that rain is near if rooks fly up into the mountains in dry weather.…

“Diffuse pollution will only increase with a burgeoning human population” The trout fishing season on the chalkstreams is now under way. Hawthorn flies are the first feast for the trout on this river, as we see not experience the hatches of march brown or grannom that other rivers have. The hawthorn is a terrestrial fly and a wet winter will often mean poor hatches in spring, as water lying on meadows will drown many of their larvae. The merest breeze will bring the big black flies with their thick, dangly legs, bumbling back from populations on drier higher ground and down into the river valley. Hawthorn flies are only around for a few weeks. Present a hawthorn fly to a fish in August and, more often than not, it will…