Innholdsfortegnelse for November 11, 2015 i Shooting Times & Country

IT WAS STRANGE being in shirtsleeves and baking sun for our first day on the pheasants on 31 October. In spite of the heat, the hedgerow hunt proved fruitful so the new covercrop of Autumn Promise has obviously helped. A tasty pheasant stew done in the slow cooker and eaten in the barn was followed by an ambush of the ponds on the farm, which forms another part of the shoot, and an evening flight. We finished with a bag of six pheasants, four duck and a pigeon. It was a grand day. There have been some unusual scenes on the farm recently — an unconfirmed big cat sighting and a lone sika stag, which has taken up residence. Though there is a famous colony of sika in Dorset, they…

BASC elections announced BASC will be holding an election for vacancies on its council at the organisation’s annual general meeting (AGM) on 18 June, next year. There are two positions to be filled by election: one is the national seat for England, for which candidates must be resident in England, while the other is a UK seat for which no residential qualifications apply. Nominations for election and motions for debate at the AGM must be made formally in writing and submitted to the chief executive before close of business on 29 January, 2016. All signatories must be members of BASC. Conservationists fear for missing beavers Conservationists are concerned following the disappearance of a family of wild beavers on the river Otter in Devon. The colony of 10 beavers was first…

17 NOVEMBER WOODLAND MANAGEMENT SEMINARS Sparsholt College, Hampshire or Orchard Barn, Oxfordshire. Also held on 19 November at Hendall Manor Barn, East Sussex Tel 01264 313434 18 NOVEMBER COURSE IN CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT Allerton Project, Loddington, Leicestershire Tel 01572 717220 19 NOVEMBER STALKERS’ EVENING Great Whelnetham Community Centre, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Tel 01842 773384 21-22 NOVEMBER THE COMPLETE GAME EXPERIENCE SHOOT Vale House Kitchen, Loves Hill, Timsbury, Bath, Somerset Tel 01761 470401 28 NOVEMBER BASC NI DOGS FOR DEER COURSE Baronscourt Estate, Omagh, County Tyrone Tel 02892 605050 30 NOV — 1DEC ROYAL WELSH WINTER FAIR Royal Welsh Showground, Llanelwedd, Builth Wells, Powys Tel 01982 553683…

This takes the cake It was my father David Palk’s 70th birthday on 18 October and I thought I would share with you a photo of the cake I made for him, featuring a model of his gundog, Tressa. I’m not a professional cake-maker — far from it — but I wanted something to reflect his favourite hobby to mark the occasion. My father is a keen shooter, mainly of pheasants, and has a shoot in Cornwall. The only magazine I’ve ever seen him read is yours — I grew up with him disappearing every other Saturday in the autumn for his favourite hobby, to come home and then read about the sport in Shooting Times. The cake took me two days to make and, come the big day, he…

There are plenty of stalkers who poo-poo the notion of using a high seat: “That’s not stalking,” they say, “you’re not using any fieldcraft.” They do have a point. However, high seats can be one of the most useful tools in culling deer. They give you the chance to observe what is on a patch of ground, how different species behave, and they should — if positioned and used correctly — give you a rock-solid base from which to shoot. Get it right, and your quarry will be totally unaware of your presence. While based in the Netherlands, I did almost all my culling from a high seat. It’s a flat country and finding a good backstop can be difficult, so high seats provide far more safety. We work with…

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO , when Shooting Times’s then editor, Mark Hedges, invited me to write this column, he urged me to include the occasional piece about terriers because, he assured me, “our readers love them”. I regret that I’ve failed to follow his suggestion, for this is the first ever Gundogs devoted to these most feisty of our four-legged companions. There is, however, a good reason for me to turn my attention to terriers: next year the Jack Russell will gain official recognition from the Kennel Club (KC). The KC claims that this move will “protect the heritage of this popular dog, and help prospective dog owners who are choosing which dog is most suited to their lifestyle. The Kennel Club will begin recording Jack Russell births through its voluntary…

BASC has refuted claims by Police Scotland that there are 90,000 deactivated or illegally held firearms in the country as “sensationalist”. Police say there are 277,000 guns in Scotland, including 107,000 shotguns and 80,000 firearms that are legally owned. Officers recently launched a crackdown to prevent criminals getting their hands on and reactivating the other 90,000. Detective superintendent John Cuddihy, head of the Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit at Police Scotland, said: “As we have with drugs, I would like to see the creation of an offence of being concerned in the unlawful sale or supply of firearms and ammunition.” But Bill Harriman, BASC director of firearms, said the figures are wrong: “The notion that there are 90,000 illegally held firearms in Scotland has no credibility whatsoever. If there…

NGO takes over long service award TheNational Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO)has assumed responsibility for the long service award for gamekeepers, which was presented for many years by the CLA at the annual Game Fair. It will now be known as the NGO Long Service Award. Commons shoots to victory over Lords House of Commons clayshooters defeated the House of Lords team in the annual Lords versus Commons clay shoot last month. The competition was held at the West London Shooting School, with the Commons taking victory with 146 out of 192, while the Lords scored 114. The final score is calculated from the top three Guns on each team. High Gun for the day was Graham Brady, Conservative MP for Altrincham and Sale West, who scored 52 out of 64 clays.…

Who are you and what do you do? I am campaigns assistant for the Countryside Alliance and I run the Game to Eat campaign. What does a typical week involve for you? My usual week involves an array of promotional and educational work for shooting, conservation and, my favourite, the Game to Eat campaign, for which I send out thousands of recipe leaflets each season. What would you say is the greatest issue in shooting and conservation at the moment? The greatest issue is the continuing and growing number of emotional, but non-scientific, arguments that are put forward by those against shooting. Sadly, they are listened to by some in positions of power. What are the biggest challenges you face in your job? Reeling through countless delicious wild game recipes…

Alasdair Mitchell (Sharpshooter, 28 October) rightly questions why the national press often does “little more than rewrite press handouts”. Here’s one explanation, and it is not an excuse for sloppy journalism. When I started as a reporter in 1970 the “3F” rule applied: be first, fast and factual. Journalists were told never to believe a press release. Assume it is all lies until you prove the content to be true. “You’re paid to be cynical,” the news editor told me on my first day in the newsroom. Over the years, the newspaper industry’s budgets have dwindled. Margins are tighter. Profits are thin, if in profit at all. Many local papers have closed. Some national papers now run with skeleton staff. Even the successful national titles don’t have the numbers of…

Until the mid-1950s a special train, pulled by a Simpson 20-horsepower locomotive, would, on a shoot day, be waiting for the Guns at Nocton station. It would have a gamecart, some beaters’ wagons and an enclosed carriage for the Guns. The carriage was a splendid affair, about 18ft long with glass windows that wound up and down, lined with oak panels and with 10 padded swivel seats. It had originally been designed to ferry high-ranking officers up to the front in World War 1. There were only two rules: don’t miss the train because it left at 9am sharp — if you missed the train you missed your day’s shooting — and no shooting from the windows. It took half an hour to reach the first drive, so a drink…

Though the sun was bright, the air had that autumnal chill about it. A cacophony of honks filled this beautiful coastal sky as skein after skein of geese flew by. I was in Norfolk addressing a burgeoning rabbit problem and I was keen to make an immediate impact, but to do so, I realised I would require some extra hands. It was time to reassemble the troops. The Jolly boys — Ian “Torchie” Clayton, Richard Edwards, Steve Taylor, Paul Sutton, Dave “Romford” Jones and myself — would be reunited for a weekend’s rabbiting. The weekend was meticulously planned. I was not only going to give my young lurcher, Tawny, her first experience on a warren, but I would also be taking the boys out of their comfort zones — staying…

As the farming community closes the doors on its stores after what has been, for some, a bumper harvest of crops, in the countryside there is another harvest taking place that’s completely natural. Just as cereals are vital to man, so the natural harvest is important to the many creatures in our landscape. Up on the high ground, plants that many people will never have heard of produce food for the birds that live there. Outberries or cloudberries, bilberries, or blaeberries, cowberries, bearberries and indeed cranberries, can be found on many of our moors and, given a kind spring, will produce a lot of fruit. Many were picked in the past, and may still be, by a few local inhabitants for preserves and pies. The crowberry — or hardberry as…

KEITH’S HIGH SEATS The single is easy to move and erect, but at 30kg it might take me two trips. It breaks down into easily transportable parts and, according to the website, can be assembled and put up in 10 minutes — we use similar ones at home, so I can believe that. The height to seat is 2.87m, and the height to rifle rest is 3.43m. The shooting guard isn’t adjustable on this one, so if you are short, you may want to bring something to sit on. There are double high seats available, too. Price: £170 +p&p www.keithshighseats.co.uk SEELAND HIGH SEAT I’ve actually just bought one of these with the back legs. Without back legs, it is light enough for me to carry into position (around 15kg) and…

Do an Internet search on canine corkscrews and you will find a selection of screws designed for securing your unsteady dog to the ground. Such devices are popular with driven shooters who have unsteady dogs, as it’s one way of being able to concentrate on shooting without having to restrain an over-enthusiastic canine companion. The alternative is to take your wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend/son/daughter/butler (only joking) as dog handler. Canine corkscrews (or dog-tether anchors if you want to give them their official name) have severe limitations. They can be impossible to screw into ground that has been hardened by frost, and can be totally ineffective when screwed into the light soils of the Norfolk/ Suffolk Brecks, where I live. I’m not sure how much force a Labrador exerts when it runs-in, but it’s…

This recipe is by Ian Hamilton, head chef at The Three Cups Inn (www.the3cups.co.uk), on Stockbridge High Street. This delightful coaching inn dates back to the 15th century and provides delicious food to match. Our regular cookery contributors Will Jones and Jamie Chandler tasted this dish on a return trip from The CLA Game Fair and were so impressed that they managed to persuade the chef to supply the recipe. PAN-SEARED VENISON LOIN, FONDANT POTATOES, BRAISED RED CABBAGE, ACORN SQUASH PURÉE AND REDCURRANT SAUCE Ingredients For fondant potato 4 POTATOES, WEIGHING 200G TO 300G225G UNSALTED BUTTER150ML CHICKEN STOCKSPRIG OF THYMESPRIG OF ROSEMARY For the braised red cabbage 75G BUTTER, PLUS EXTRA TO SERVE1 RED ONION, FINELY CHOPPED1 CINNAMON STICK¼ TSP GROUND CLOVES¼ TSP GROUND NUTMEG1 RED CABBAGE, CORED AND CUT…

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, Blue Fin Building,…

If you are near the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) centres at Martin Mere (Lancashire), Welney (Fens) or Caerlaverock (Dumfriesshire), this is a good time of year to take the family to see whooper swans — by the hundreds, or even thousands. Many of these Icelandic visitors spend large parts of each day on local fields, clearing up after the carrot, potato or sugar beet harvester. The open water at these WWT centres provides safe roosting conditions, and there is the added bonus of an evening distribution of barrow-loads of grain. The whooper swan is the bigger of Britain’s wild, winter swans — Bewick’s swans are about two-thirds of their weight. In spring, whooper swans return to Iceland, where they are at home in remote river valleys, on farm ponds…

Peter Glenser, a barrister specialising in firearms law, explains how SNH decides when to suspend a General Licence. General Licences represent a “light touch” approach to regulation, meaning that persons who need to carry out regulated activities don’t need to apply for individual licences. Where, however, there has been a loss of trust or confidence by the regulator and the regulated the General Licence may be restricted. The intention was principally to restrict General Licences 1-3 where SNH has “robust” evidence that wild birds have been killed or taken outwith the conditions of the General Licence. The “robust” evidence must be provided by the police and be in relation to an offence under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. SNH will then assess the strength of the evidence, the number…

WATCH The first episode of The Secret History of the British Garden.In this new four-part series, Monty Don examines how British gardens have changed over the past 400 years, beginning with a visit to Levens Hall in Cumbria, which is home to the only garden from the 1600s to survive to the present day. The programme screens on BBC2 at 9pm on Sunday, 15 November. WATCH OUT FOR Humpback whales may be seen in the North Sea off the coasts of Suffolk and Norfolk up until the end of November, according to the Sea Watch Foundation. The whales will be in pursuit of herring, one of their favourite food sources. ATTEND The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is holding its 36th annual “Macnab” ball and auction at the Dorchester Hotel…

Ash trees could be genetically modified to resist dieback disease, revealed scientists at Queen Mary University in London last week. More than 14,000 people have been introduced to angling through National Fishing Month, an annual awareness programme that took place in July and August. A case of anthrax was confirmed in a dead cow on a farm in Westbury, Wiltshire, last month. The carcase has been incinerated, though Public Health England said the risk of infection was very low. Nine people were arrested in locations across Tipperary last month as part of a crackdown on illegal hare coursing by An Garda Síochána and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. “Hedgehogs are one of only three British mammals that actually hibernate. The others are dormice and bats.” Natural England (@Natural England)…

THREE GREAT DAYS OF SPORT In September 2014, I made some bids to the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) Auction and was successful with three: an evening roe stalking, a day for two people gameshooting and a day for four people trout fishing. During the evening stalk in the rut for roe I grassed a nice four-point buck after one was called and stopped four times until I could get the shot. The stalker knew the ground, put me at ease and let me set the pace. It was a thrilling evening. The gameshooting was great fun. The company could not have been better; we were treated like kings on what was described as a “modest walk about for one to 30 birds”. It was super. The trout fishing was in…

I had arrived on the estate under the stars, ushered in by wild red stags roaring in the corrie behind the lodge. So loud were the stags’ throaty bellows, that it was as if they were using a public address system to challenge not only one another, but also those of us who had come to stalk them. I slept badly that night, tossing and turning, full of the profound excitement that strikes the hunter when he arrives in a new place. “Well, that’s the end of the road for us,” said Colin, in his quiet Scots drawl, pulling on the handbrake. The remote mountain scenery of Easter Ross was captivating. Having donned a blend of modern and traditional hill-stalking garb, we strode forth, towards a wilder corner of Scotland.…

The leaf is almost off the trees. Not quite enough for the birds to be able to fly from our wooded drives unhindered but it is getting better. It is not often that I wish the weather was windier, wetter or colder, but this autumn I have wished for all three. Last month we had the driest, warmest three-week spell I can remember. For October it was positively balmy — barely a wet day and almost no wind. Admittedly it was nice weather to work in, but it made keeping the birds at home a lot harder. The upside to the mild weather is that it has been good for the mustard we had broadcast into the gaps in our covercrops, and it did at least give our dwarf-sorghum a…

A spade is as essential as a ferret finder and the ferrets themselves. No spade equates to no digging. A lot of beginners struggle to come to terms with the digging aspect of ferreting, but nothing could be simpler. After locating your ferret with your ferret finder you will have a sweet spot to dig on. For example, let’s say it is 4ft down, your prized ferret is stationary and you don’t want to decapitate it when digging. Start by digging a hole large enough to breach the pipe, but also to enable you safely to reach your ferret and hopefully the rabbit as well. When digging, it pays to keep checking the depth and if the ferret is still in situ. I always use a probe to aid my…

It’s not easy being a dedicated follower of fashion. We may be as fickle as can be, but essentially our dress has not changed for 150 years. Flick through Lancaster’s The Art of Shooting from 1889 and the chaps are wearing exactly the same kit as us. Or more accurately, we’re wearing theirs. There have been suggestions that we change “with the times”, go a trifle “technical” and adopt those natty Scandi trews worn in the adverts by rugged types with jutting chins. That’s probably a sensible option if you stalk on the hill, drive a Volvo or date a fetching singer. But for a cavort in the covers? No. It would mean breaking the iron rule of these sceptred isles: never, under any circumstances, be seen to be trying…

JOHN NORRIS MOLESKIN BREEKS These breeks are perfect for rough, game and driven shooting. www.johnnorris.co.uk  Price: £39.99 SEELAND BOLTON FLEECE A warm but light thermal fleece made with hollow fibre makes a brilliant extra layer for a day’s shooting. Available in carbon blue and pine green. www.seelanduk.co.uk  Price: £59.99 FONTAINE MIRAK MONOCULAR This monocular, available from Seeland International, has KB 7 optics and is great for judging terrain and searching for wildlife when out shooting. Light and practical, it comes complete with strap and case. Tel 01844 237944 Price: £29.99 SHOTGUN LICENCE HOLDER Keep your shotgun licence safe and clean with this smart and stylish leather licence holder. www.furfeatherandfin.com  Price: £16.50 NEW FOREST CLOTHING MOLESKIN TROUSERS Made from 100 per cent brushed cotton for warmth and durability, these trousers are…

COCKER SPANIEL The cocker’s deep muzzle shows it is well equipped for scenting out dropped birds and runners BEDLINGTON TERRIER The ears of the Bedlington are dropped for protection; scent is more important INDIAN RAMPUR Though it’s a sighthound, its drop ears mean they are protected in inhospitable country LURCHER The ferreting lurcher can hear rabbits and ferrets as they move underground DOBERMAN PINSCHER The Doberman has proved better than German shepherds and bloodhounds at tracking criminals…

“Walk like a penguin,” says Eamonn Kennedy, as I spread my feet apart. “Point your toes out and waddle. Keeps them from flying between your legs.” I proceed to waddle penguin-like around the tufty long grass at the northern edge of Ireland’s Lake Mask, as Eamonn unloads the outboard engine from the back of his van and carries it to his 18ft fibreglass-moulded copy of a traditional Irish clinker-built lake boat. Today we are late-season dapping — a method of fishing for wild brown lake trout, using wild live flies. Not imitations made skilfully out of fluff, feather and fur, but real live flies — the sort a fat trout might like to eat, which in this case boils down to daddy-long-legs or grasshoppers. “Ah, a grasshopper would be the…

Thickening cocker coat GUNDOG HEALTH Q I have a 16-week-old cocker puppy and she is very thin-coated. I would like her coat to be thicker and greasier and more suitable for retrieves from water and so on, but I do not have an outside kennel. I wondered if coats thicken only as a result of kennelling outside or if there’s a supplement that could help encourage coat thickening and grease? A Her coat may well thicken with maturity, and though there are supplements to make sure that a healthy coat is maintained, in a properly reared and well-nourished dog or puppy, these are not usually necessary. They are more usually given to dogs that need help to get back into good condition after periods of neglect or illness. The show…

There are 18 species of bat in Britain, the most common of which is the pipistrelle, a little bat that is sometimes mistaken for a bird as it flits about looking for insect prey at dusk. In fact, the pipistrelle is Britain’s smallest bat, measuring just 3-5cm from its head to the end of its body and with a wingspan of around 19-25cm. At this time of year, bats, having stored fat over the autumn, will begin to hibernate. They do this in cool, sheltered, humid places such as a crevice in a cave or the loft of a barn. While they will generally “sleep” over the winter months, during mild spells they may awaken and fly off to feed or seek a different hibernation site. In the warmer parts…

The aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, is one of the great natural spectacles of the northern autumn and winter. The huge light show is created by the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetosphere; the intensity of the solar wind affects the magnitude of the show. One of the fascinations is that no two displays are ever the same, with the colours ranging from red and purple to green and blue, and often appearing as shimmering curtains of light. The Northern Lights can usually be viewed reliably above the Arctic Circle, but at times of intense solar activity they can also be seen at lower latitudes, as has happened this autumn, with numerous sightings in recent weeks as far south as Cornwall. The best time to look for…

Should the lynx be reintroduced to Britain? Those who have problems with other people’s pet cats being allowed to kill and maim at will may be excused for having palpitations at the thought of Labrador-sized moggies from hell. Maybe the Lynx UK Trust should consider getting its project sponsored by a manufacturer of blood pressure tablets. In its natural environment, the lynx (which can weight up to 40kg, or more than 6st) eats birds, small mammals and deer. But then, exactly which parts of Britain’s countryside are still “natural environment”? One of the proposed lynx release sites is Kielder Forest, in Northumberland. I happen to live not far from the southern edge of this forest. Natural, it’s not. Most of its trees are alien species grown for commercial timber. One…