Innholdsfortegnelse for 8-Jun-2016 i Shooting Times & Country

AMID HER 90th birthday celebrations it is worth reflecting that fieldsports owe a great debt of gratitude to HM the Queen for all that she has done to champion the countryside during her remarkable reign. The extraordinarily high regard in which she is held by the nation means that her understanding of and enthusiasm for every aspect of country life has raised respect for rural values in the public mind. What’s striking about Matthew Dennison’s account of the Queen’s gundogs (p.16) is that the part she has played comes naturally. Her strength of character is reflected in the story that she ignored her father’s judgement that handling a gundog on a shoot day was not a suitable activity for a future monarch. For a head of state to find such…

BASC says that the Scottish Government’s airgun surrender campaign is “a travesty”. The shooting organisation believes that airgun owners are being scared into handing over their guns before the new licensing laws come into effect at the New Year. BASC said recently that the new media campaign surrounding the new licensing was inadequate, amid fears that it could pass many owners by (News, 1 June). Dr Colin Shedden, BASC director Scotland, said: “It is utterly premature to be telling people to hand in airguns. The press are saying it’s an amnesty; it’s actually a travesty. “There is currently no system in place to help members of the public who own airguns and want to get a licence. As we predicted when the Bill was going through Parliament, the entire process…

10 -1 2 JUNE FIELD AND COUNTRY FAIR Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire Tel 01256 768346 23 JUNE GWCT SIMULATED GAME DAY The Allerton Project, Loddington, Leicestershire Tel 07976 207113 23 JUNE COUNTRYSIDE RACE DAY Newmarket Racecourse, Newmarket, Suffolk Tel 0207 8409298 25 - 26 JUNE THE IRISH GAME FAIR Shanes Castle, Co. Antrim 028 (from ROI 048) 44615416 17 JULY BASC LADIES DAY: INTRODUCTION TO SHOOTING Firle Place, Lewes, East Sussex Tel 07775 940522 5 AUGUST HOLT’S AUCTIONEERS ANNUAL CLAY DAY Sandringham estate, Norfolk Tel 01485 542822…

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) says the new League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) antisnaringvideoismisleadingand highlighted how snares are used to catchfoxesforresearchpurposes. BASCandtheCountryside Alliancehavealreadycontactedthe AdvertisingStandardsAuthority about the LACSfilm, which depicts a man dying after being caught in a snare(News, 25 May and 1 June). MikeShort,GWCTsenior fieldecologist,commented:“As a wildlife biologist, I use snares to catchfoxesforresearchpurposes. The foxes that I snared and fitted withGPS-trackersthisspring are fit and healthy, and provide a fascinatinginsightintotheirlivesin lowland river valleys. This in itself demonstratesthatsnaresarenot inherently cruel devices.” He continued: “The new video from LACS, which shows a cross-country runner slowly choking to death in a snare, is little more than a sick spoof-movie. It’s been produced to shock and mislead and is a highly inaccurate depiction of how modern-day snares are used in gameandwildlifemanagement.”…

I have been a shooting man all my life and it was my intention to get a pedigree dog when I retired. Just before retiring I received a text from my stepdaughter with a picture of Darcey, a half springer and half collie rescue dog from Many Tears Animal Rescue. She was found, aged eight months, in Ireland and was very nervous, hated the lead and people with backpacks. I was given the opportunity to train Darcey and use her on the shoot. It was a challenge, but she was not the kind of dog I was intending to have and certainly not for shooting over. As you can see from the photograph (right), she is now two years old and I have been able to train her as a…

“There was a 200-acre wild fire; all nests and fledglings on that area will have perished” Mother Nature’s moisture and temperature pendulum continues to swing to and fro with alarmingly wider arcs as this year ticks by. A few weeks ago there were a couple of feet of snow where it had drifted on the high ground, forcing the golden plover and curlew down on to the lower fields for some respite. Now, it’s so dry that the peat is cracking and the vegetation is brittle. The ravens that have found the western edge of the Pennines with a plentiful supply of waders have also had a field day in the snow, with those birds that did try to sit it out left like sitting duck. Sorry, no pun intended.…

HOW TO CULTIVATE A GOOD WORKING FERRET The ferret cages are a cacophony of squeals and squeaks as the nursing jills tend to their offspring. Breeding ferrets has a huge importance and responsibility attached to it. Good ferrets are getting harder to find, so when I breed them it is not undertaken for financial gain but to breed animals that will help me feed, clothe and house my family. Not much pressure there then! I have learned a lot over the decades from the school of hard knocks and mistakes. I resist the temptation to interfere when breeding ferrets, and leave the kits well alone until they are at least two or three weeks old, apart from the odd clean. How I care for them now will set them on…

You can buy grey squirrel online and it is advisable to order it ready skinned (the tail is discarded). Squirrel is also on the menu at various pubs and restaurants around the UK as people increasingly recognise the value of using its meat instead of discarding it. Of course, it is much cheaper to source your own squirrel meat locally, either by your own efforts or via a local butcher or gamedealer. A squirrel’s diet is predominantly made up of nuts, so it makes a healthy meat albeit not a particularly substantial one. Allow one squirrel per person. Award-winning, classically trained chef Robert Owen Brown was born in Stockport. He has worked at several Manchester dining establishments including The Midland Hotel, Reform, The Bridge and The Mark Addy pub. He…

I RECENTLY ASKED a professional trainer what he thought was the most common fault in British working gundogs. His reply came back as quick as a flash: “Lack of steadiness. How many spaniels do you know that will sit happily at a peg during a drive, or can be trusted to be off the lead when standing behind the Guns, picking-up?” He added that even steady Labradors are in a distinct minority. “Most of the Guns’ retrievers that I see are tethered in some way during a drive. Sometimes it’s because their owner simply doesn’t trust them, but it’s usually because they’re unsteady in the first place. “The only dogs that I see that I would call rock steady invariably belong to keepers, pickers-up who work their dogs two or…

BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and global authority on guns MAT MANNING Airgunner and journalist from the West Country BRUCE POTTS Shooting Timesrifl e 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,…

Next week (Tuesday) sees the start of Royal Ascot, one of the most famous racing meetings in the world. Legend has it that it was Queen Anne who spotted the potential for Ascot to become a racecourse. While out riding near Windsor Castle in 1711 she came upon an area of open heath that she thought would suit galloping horses, and the first race was held there that summer. The inaugural event was called Her Majesty’s Plate, and carried a huge first prize of 100 guineas.Today the Gold Cup is the big race, held on the Thursday. However, Royal Ascot has become much more than simply a race meeting, and is one of the social events of the year. Grey-partridge enthusiasts watch the Ascot weather anxiously: thunderstorms during Ascot are…

“Most shooters respect the police, which is not surprising, given that the holders of shotgun and firearms certificates are among the most law-abiding section of society” Do the police ever cover up their own wrongdoings? Of course they do. They are only human, after all. Yet we expect more of them than ordinary humans, because they are entrusted with upholding law and order. They also run our firearms licensing system. Their human fallibility has a wider significance. Yet the deeper question is not about individual officers, but about institutional values. I was brought up to respect the police. Most shooters do, which is not surprising, given that the holders of shotgun or firearms certificates are, statistically, way up there among the most law-abiding section of society. So when there are…

“Readers are very welcome to stop by the Shooting Times stand to meet staff and sign up for a subscription” The inaugural Field & Country Fair is nearly here, kicking off at Oxfordshire’s Cornbury Park on Friday. It will run through the weekend of 10-12 June, offering three full days of rural events, attractions and exhibitors. Visitors to the fair will have the opportunity to meet a host of experts and professionals, including champion clayshooter George Digweed, award-winning gundog trainer Neil Varney and three of the UK’s top pigeon shooters:Shooting Times’ Tom Payne,Shooting Gazette’s Will Garfit, andSporting Gun’s Peter Theobald. They, and others, will be on hand to answer queries and share tips at different points throughout the three days (see p.15 for more information about who will be where…

Police shortage makes officers “sitting ducks” Police officers in rural areas warned they would be “sitting ducks” in the event of a terrorist attack, due to a national shortage of armed officers. John Apter, head of the Hampshire branch of the Police Federation, told BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme: “Being realistic, if a firearms unit was coming from the middle of the county you are still talking about 30 miles away — you are not talking about a few minutes. “So the only officers that you have available are unarmed and vulnerable officers and they are the officers that are saying to me that in a terrorist situation they would be sitting ducks” Last year, the number of armed officers in England and Wales fell to its lowest…

Early in your career you worked at prestigious restaurants including Claridge’s and The Square. What did this teach you? Both were invaluable experiences that shaped me into the chef I am today, each for different reasons. Claridge’s and John Williams (head chef at the time), taught me how to work, organise myself and operate in a high-end kitchen. It taught me discipline and structure. Phil Howard at The Square taught me to cook in a restaurant environment, to understand the seasons and how the restaurant business really works. I have a concise but meaningful CV! How popular are game dishes at your restaurants? And what is on offer? Every year during game season we offer a dish in the menu called “game daily”. This allows us to buy small quantities…

“Some people in the RSPCA made some very bad decisions” The new chief executive of the RSPCA has signalled his desire to move away from the politicised animal rights agenda pursued by his predecessor (News, 25 May), but faces challenges both inside and outside the organisation. However much moderate and sensible people within the RSPCA executive want to refocus the society on its core animal welfare work, there remains a significant proportion of its small membership that is attracted to the sort of policies that have brought criticism from across the media in recent years. That small membership chooses the RSPCA council and many within it lament the departure of previous chief executive Gavin Grant, the man who declared war on the countryside through attacks on the badger cull, racing,…

A FAMILY TRADITION OF FIELDSPORTS Born on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London, and christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary at Buckingham Palace on 29 May, Her Majesty the Queen was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, who later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s grandfather, George V, was well known for his love of shooting and skill. Shooting Times’s Editor’s letter of 4 May 1935, celebrating the King’s Jubilee, noted: “It is to His Majesty as a shooting man and a lover of home and country life that our thoughts most naturally turn, for of the three pastimes in which he most delights — shooting, yachting and racing — the first takes pride of place.” And in an article of the…

“It’s impossible to imagine a British town celebrating shooting in a similar way” Last month I travelled to the Alentejo, the great grasslands of southern Portugal. It’s a fascinating and very beautiful area, and a far cry from the overcrowded Algarve, just a 90-minute drive to the south. I stayed in the ancient walled city of Mértola, which overlooks the Guadiana river. The latter rises in the Spanish province of Castilla-La Mancha and for part of its 500-mile length forms the border between Spain and Portugal. The Romans called the Guadiana the Flumen Anas, which translates as the river of the duck, but at Mértola in May the only duck I saw were a few mallard and muscovies. However, what is interesting about Mértola is that it is the proclaimed…

It is not showy and many people are unaware that it even has flowers, but a study has found that ivy, one of Britain’s common and most widespread native plants, is the main source of pollen and nectar for flower-visiting insects, in particular bees. Reseachers from the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at the University of Sussex surveyed 10 urban and 10 rural areas, each measuring 200m by 200m, and discovered that nearly 90 per cent of the pollen collected by honey bees in the autumn was from ivy. Not only that, but the flowers were also found to be an important source of nectar for the bees. Flowers are only produced on mature ivy, which has oval leaves. The well-known five-pointed leaves are found on immature ivy, which…

“In order to maintain a sustainable supply of high quality beef, retailers and processors must recognise that beef prices need to be above the costs of production, which currently is not the case.” National Farmers’ Union livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe recently commented that he believes further downward pressure on farmgate returns is sapping producers’ long-term confidence. 48 Just 48 hours to go until the Field & Country Fair, starting Friday 10 June. Have you got your tickets? If not, log on to po.st/FieldCountryFair and book now to beat the queues.…

BOOK If you’re a BASCaffiliated wildfowling club then you are entitled to a visit from members of the association’s wildfowling team. Mark Greenhough, BASC’s wildfowling officer, said: “We make about 60 club visits a year on average. Currently we are promoting the new online bag recording system ahead of the next wildfowling season. If there are any clubs which would like a demonstration, please get in touch and we will make arrangements.” Clubs seeking to arrange a demonstration of the new bag-recording website “Bagged It” should contact the team, tel 01244 573011. SPONSOR Richard Walton, founder of charity campaign CountryCoats2Syria and former Countryside Alliance regional director, is raising money for ABF The Soldier’s Charity with a commemoration of the centenary of the Battle of the Somme and those fieldsports staff…

The addition of a breeding pair of beavers to England’s only wild colony on the river Otter in Devon has been hailed as “a crucial next step” in expanding the population. One adult female and one adult male were released at a secret location in East Devon last month by Devon Wildlife Trust, with the permission of Natural England. The operation was part of the Otter Beaver Trial — a five-year study into the impact of the beavers. Devon Wildlife Trust’s Peter Burgess, who oversaw the release, said: “There are already 12 beavers known to be living on the river Otter. Our DNA analysis has shown that these animals are closely related to one another. The genetic diversity of the beavers needed to be increased to ensure that we have…

The Whitfield Annual Clay Shoot, on the Whitfield estate in Northumberland, raised £40,000 last month. Around a third of the money will go towards a campaign to save Whitfield Primary School from closure. (Winning Warter Priory Team B pictured). Yorkshire Water has teamed up with not-for-profit company Experience Community to enhance disabled access around scenic reservoirs, enabling wheelchair users to enjoy more of the Yorkshire countryside. Stirling gamekeeper Shaun Wilson has been fined £675 after pleading guilty to a charge under the 1968 Firearms Act. Mr Wilson’s loaded gun was found on a hillside by two walkers above the village of Kippen in August 2015. A hedgehog has died after being used as a football by a gang of youths in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. A local resident intervened and handed the…

TALKING TURKEY With regards to M. Wagstaff and I. Gadsby’s letter of the week (When a buzzard drops in for dinne , 25 May), I suggest that they try a pair of adult turkeys within the release pen a few days/weeks before the poults arrive. We did this last year on our shoot at the suggestion of one of the Guns and reduced our losses from buzzards considerably. Not only do they protect the new birds from buzzards, but they also tend to keep them from straying when the pop-holes are opened and the birds have access to the woods. G. Rowlinson, by email SAFETY CONCERN WHEN SPRAYING Regarding the question about when to spray (Sporting Answers, 6 April), the image attached to the piece gives cause for concern. The…

“If I let them, foxes will take the birds that I want to hunt and eat — the pheasants, mallard and gadwall” “ The only good fox is a dead fox.” I’ve heard that said many times, often uttered with conviction, but really, would anyone with a true love of the British countryside want to live in a world without foxes? I don’t think so. This might rattle some of you, but if I had to choose between keeping either pheasants or foxes in my life, I’d keep foxes every time because, frankly, they’re far more interesting. Foxes have extremely catholic tastes. They readily monopolise easy sources of food. If it’s edible, they will eat it. Though regarded as “generalist predators”, foxes are expert at killing ground-nesting birds. I don’t…

The Queen was six and Princess Margaret two when the Duke of York presented his family with a Pembroke corgi called Dookie, obtained from a breeder in Surrey. More than a decade later, as an 18th birthday present, she acquired a corgi of her own: Susan. Both Dookie and Susan had rich, darkish chestnut coats with limited quantities of white, a characteristic the Queen has maintained in the 14 generations of royal corgis she has bred. Though she has owned more than 30 corgis during the course of her reign, only two – Willow and Holly – remain, the Queen apparently having decided some time ago not to continue breeding these sturdy little dogs that have given her so much pleasure and to which, in turn, she has been so…

The red grouse is the king of British gamebirds — well, I think so anyway, and the vast majority of sportsmen would agree. Unique to these islands, it is a hardy beast, only surpassed by its cousin, the ptarmigan. When all our summer visitors leave us and the uplands become almost empty for the winter, the one bird that still sticks to its patch is the red grouse. Its capacity to dig through snow for food, to sleep in snow in a rough scrape, and to exist in sub-zero temperatures for days on end make it a survivor on the moors. Though the majority of its diet is heather, Calluna vulgaris, it also makes use of most of what grows in the uplands as well, with the berries of all…

DELUXE BIG GAME RIFLE London gunmaker John Rigby & Co. has unveiled a third model in its highly anticipated series of special edition big game rifles. The Big Game Deluxe is available on single or double square bridge actions. The former is available in .416 and .450 Rigby calibres, and the double model in .375 H&H and .416 Rigby calibres. This new Deluxe edition is hand-engraved with a Tudor rose detail on the pins and recoil bar, and a chequered bolt handle. The Big Game Deluxe offers hunters the feel of a best quality rifle, while retaining the affordable big game price tag. • Price: from £7,732 • www.johnrigbyandco.com RAIN SKIRT Thanks to Filthy Weather’s stunning new rain skirt, your great day’s shooting can be an elegant one. Designed as…

Greener guns have ranked among the very best of English makes since William Greener’s success with his system of choke-boring in the days of The Field’s Gun Trials in 1874. At the same time as the firm’s shotguns were rising to prominence, its hand-loaded cartridges were also widely hailed by sportsmen. Though in terms of output this firm could not seriously rival the major ammunition manufacturers, such as Eley Brothers and Kynoch, it certainly competed in quality. Greener was innovative and a perfectionist in every aspect of his trade, and cartridge-loading was no exception. He wrote in his book The Gun and its Development(1881) that, while the majority of loaders favoured the Erskine machine, he used only the tray of this for holding the cases. The powder was weighed by…

“That glorious rubbery whelk chew makes a salad feel more like a steak” “It’s a plastic bucket with stone in the bottom,” said my wife, her voice strained with incredulity. “It’s concrete,” I said defensively. “Not stone. Poured into the bottom and set hard. And it’s a container. Not a bucket.” She gave me a look, like a judge staring down at a hopeless repeat offender. “With a bit of string attached,” she added and turned to walk back into the house, shaking her head as I mumbled: “Actually, it’s rope,” as if that made any difference. My wife’s frustration at how her otherwise relatively intelligent husband can part with £7 for a lump of concrete, in a cleaning fluid container, attached to a small piece of nylon rope with…