Innholdsfortegnelse for 15-Mar-2017 i Shooting Times & Country

Some years ago when I was a student in Bristol, I spent many a hungover morning out beagling with the Chilmark and Clifton Foot. Due to the genesis of the hunt, a substantial part of its country lies just beyond the city limits. Encounters with dog walkers and joggers were numerous and their comments almost always ran along the same lines. I remember one lady who told me she was delighted to have come across us, as she thought “hunting was finished”. And I’ll never forget the bloke who said he thought his “dachapoo”, Bobby, might like to join in. These were certainly not “country people”. Yet they displayed a fascination with the sort of pursuit we love. We might be told by the likes of the League Against Cruel…

18 MAR – 19 MAR WEST OF ENGLAND GAME FAIR Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset Tel 01392 421500 30 MAR – 1 APRIL SHOTGUN COACH AWARD Cambridge Gun Club, Cottenham, Cambridgeshire Tel 01244 573018 12 APRIL GAVIN GARDINER AUCTION Sotheby’s, New Bond Street, London Tel 01798 875300 22 APRIL KENNEL CLUB FIELD TRIAL SECRETARIES SEMINAR Littlebury Hotel, Bicester, Oxfordshire Tel 01296 318540 22-23 APRIL EAST ANGLIAN GAME & COUNTRY FAIR Euston estate, Thetford, Norfolk Tel 01263 735828 13 MAY 2017 COUNTRYSIDE CLAY SHOOT Six Mile Bottom estate, Cambridgeshire Tel 01283 810910…

BASC chief executive has been dismissed Richard Ali, the chief executive of BASC, has been dismissed for gross misconduct following an independent investigation by an external law firm. Mr Ali was suspended on full pay on 26 May following concerns raised by the BASC Council and then dismissed without notice after an internal disciplinary hearing on 19 December. Peter Glenser, chairman of BASC, said: “It has been a difficult time, but the association is now satisfied it has taken proportionate, legal action to put matters right. “The association will now commence the search for a new chief executive.” East Anglian Game Fair tickets up for grabs Shooting Times has teamed up with the organisers of the East Anglian Game & Country Fair to bring you an exclusive offer. Ten lucky…

FIRST PHEASANT This is my daughter Kate Findlay, aged 12, shooting on her first keeper’s day at Ardmaddy estate. She beats every weekend throughout the season and this year wanted to shoot. The concentration on her face and the dog’s is brilliant. She had a great day, shot safely and managed to bag her first pheasant. S. Findlay, by email EARLY LEARNING This is Thomas, aged 1½. We live in the Peak District and his father, Magnus Oates, is headkeeper on Midhope Moor. Lucie Steel, by email YOUNG BEATER This is my nephew Samuel Johnson, aged five, who enjoyed his first season beating on Horkstow shoot in Lincolnshire. A. Holmes, by email We’d love to see your early spring pest control photos: please send to STLetters@…

• Fiocchi 28g trap 7½s with plastic wads for pigeon over decoys and clays. The best deal I was quoted was £170 per 1,000. But they are likely to rise in price soon. • Specialist pigeon cartridges from Express, Gamebore, Hull and Eley might have gone up because of imported materials, but they double as cost-effective loads for the game season. • Club together with your friends and buy cartridges in bulk. • Check your local gunshop. You might be surprised at what deals it is offering. • Visit www.justcartridges.com for up-to-the-minute prices on all leading brands as well as end-of-line special deals. • If your gun has open chokes and has been proofed accordingly, shoot steel. A 32g load of No.5s kills effectively over decoys. The price of steel…

1 Brash up the area around the platform and the top of the tower, making sure the camouflage comes to no higher than shoulder height, allowing you to shoot comfortably and maximise your angles. I use branches of leylandii. 2 Be aware that birds aren’t expecting to see you up at their level. That, plus the increase in shooting angles and space which shooting from a tower affords you, does buy you time when it comes to making your bird selection. Nevertheless, it is imperative that you always move with control and don’t rush when it comes to taking your shot. 3 Be prepared to take on your birds: in other words be ready and willing to take on all angles, speeds and distances within your ability.…

Whatever breed of retriever you have there will be a regional club catering for it and independent gundog clubs offering classes as well as individual trainers who organise regular group sessions. Seek opinions of others who have been to a club you are considering. Go along as a spectator at first. Avoid classes with large numbers of dogs. Avoid classes where there is a wide age range of dogs. Assess the style of the trainer and think how your dog would respond. Look for trainers who clearly work with each dog as an individual. Make a judgement on how the style of training will produce the trained dog that you need. Whatever the level of training you want, the URC is worth contacting. Visit www.unitedretrieverclub.co.uk.…

Sitting next to me as I write is my springer, Rowan, who is recovering from an operation to remove two sebaceous cysts, one from her neck and one from her back. We had been aware of the cysts for some time but the advice was that they were nothing to worry about and it was only when one ruptured that she went to the vet. His recommendation was for her to have an operation to remove both at the same time because it was thought that the one that had ruptured would most likely swell up again. I followed my vet’s advice — but was I right to do so? I’ve no doubt that most of us follow veterinary guidance for such procedures, though several people I have since spoken…

Latin name: Salix caprea Common name: Pussy willow Other names: Goat willow How to spot it and where to find it: The delightfully named pussy willow is found in woodland, hedgeland and scrub but also likes damper, more open ground near lakes, streams and canals. Unlike other willows, the leaves are oval in shape rather than long and thin. It is dioecious, meaning male and female flowers grow on separate trees in early spring. The male produces grey catkins that are said to look like a cat’s paw, while those produced by the female are green. Once pollinated by wind, female catkins develop into woolly seeds. Interesting facts: Pussy willow timber is soft and yellow. Traditional uses for its wood included clothes pegs, while the foliage was used as a…

“Hunting in the US is associated with the pioneer heritage of self-reliance and putting meat on the table” On the last full day of Barack Obama’s presidency, the director of the US Fish & Wildlife Service banned the use of lead ammunition on service land. I reported in this column that Donald Trump’s proposed new US Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, looked set to upset the bunny-huggers (Sharpshooter, 18 January). And lo, on coming into office, one of the first things the new Interior Secretary did was to overturn the lead ban. So things seem to be going as predicted. The appointment of Mr Zinke, a former US Navy Seal, is seen by hunters as a refreshing change at the top of the department that has ultimate responsibility for…

10 The National Farmers’ Union is pressing farmers to mitigate the risks on farms as 10 fatalities, including one child, were recorded on farms in February alone. They said what? “Getting involved in [our] trailblazer group is a way for employers to ensure that the new apprenticeship reflects the skills they want their gamekeepers to have. There are some exciting opportunities to direct funding towards the training.” Countryside Alliance head of shooting Liam Stokes welcomes the Government’s recent commitment to technical training. Get in touch / shootinguk.co.uk twitter.com/shootingtimesfacebook.com/shootingtimesuk mark.layton@timeinc.com Email your stories / mark.layton@timeinc.com Visit us online / shootinguk.co.uk…

Eleven-year-old Jack Russell terrier Mischief, aka“Missy” (below), has been crowned VetSpec Dog of the Year in a national photograph competition run on Facebook. Missy’s owner, Jen Poulton-Dean from Somerset, said: “She used to be my partner in crime when I was a freelance equine groom, coming everywhere with me and thinking that anywhere we went was her own personal land — a typical Jack Russell terrier.” Chudleys has renewed its support for the ISA Gundog Challenge following the success of the competition in 2016. Hosted by the Gundog Company, the Challenge is designed for primary school children with the aim of raising awareness of handling and training gundogs. The CLA says there is still much to be done to ensure everyone who lives and works in rural areas has access…

TRANSPORT AND SECURITY I have found what I believe to be the best solution for transporting dogs and shooting kit. A few months ago I bought a Nissan Navara pickup with a hard top. It has all the luxury of a saloon but the cargo area has been converted to incorporate two dog kennels and beneath these are two lockable drawers (right). I can carry four dogs easily and all my shooting equipment can be neatly stored in the drawers. I am planning to use foam inserts to create shaped pockets for my guns and various internal dividers for other bits of equipment. One of my friends suggested that I should have a section of the drawer fitted out as a drinks compartment. We all agreed that a stylish rack…

“I spent 15 minutes stroking the wood and picking the dainty little thing up and putting it down again” “ I spent most of my childhood shooting geese with a Remington .45,” announced the moustachioed Texan. I took another sip of damson gin, which a jolly girl selling jackets on the British Game Fair stand had poured me, and put the pistol down. “The best”, apparently, “for pig hunting”. Regrettably, I couldn’t stick around to listen to more tales of toppling the world’s biggest beasts with absurdly inappropriate firearms, as I had a date to keep with one of the brightest young things in the world of rifles. At the Rigby stand, the tone was a little different; glasses of scotch sat on an antique table surrounded by old leather…

“Let’s make 2017 the start of the grey squirrel reduction programme. Don’t forget they are tasty” A short while ago my shooting partner Charles and I spent several hours gathering a dozen blue plastic pheasant feeders scattered round our modest DIY shoot, leaving several metal drums half-filled with wheat to sustain the lucky survivors through March and beyond. After examining the collected feeders we concluded that we must be hosting some of the plumpest grey squirrels in Dorset. Three small drums had been attacked by squirrels and possibly rats, leaving gaping holes round the lids to let in rain, and one plastic drum was completely destroyed. Squirrels had somehow managed to whittle an 8in by 6in hole at the base of the drum, itself some 18in above ground level. How…

“By working together, several pairs of adult lapwings can drive off avian predators” Across large swathes of lowland England, the space-invader cries of displaying lapwings are becoming increasingly hard to hear, yet in the 1830s lapwings were breeding “in large numbers” in London’s Richmond Park. It is not an isolated example; lapwings used to nest in almost every corner of Britain, before we became so good at draining and farming land. In the past 50 years numbers have fallen by 54 per cent according to figures from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). These days, lapwings have been largely pushed into upland areas and lowland wet grassland, much of the latter being managed with conservation and flood prevention in mind. Many mourn the loss of this wader and would dearly…

The chiffchaff is one of the success stories of recent years. Unlike most of their warbler cousins, chiffchaffs are short-distance migrants, travelling no farther than Spain, Portugal and the northern edge of Africa for the winter. Shorter journeys may well make it easier to get back to UK breeding areas somewhat earlier than other warblers, and to match their breeding attempts with the advance in the seasons, associated with climate change. According to the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey, chiffchaff numbers have doubled in England since 1995, with a massive 550 per cent increase in Scotland, where the climate has become more suitable for these ground-nesting insect eaters. The chiffchaff’s song will soon be heard across the UK, as males proclaim their territories and attract the attentions of females. Newly arrived…

ENTER There are still a couple of weeks left to enter the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Norfolk Big Five Shoot raffle. The prize is a unique shoot day for eight Guns on five of the most celebrated shoots in Norfolk: Castle Rising, Holkham, the Le Strange shoot, the M.C.C. shoot and Thornham. The winner will also be treated to a dinner at the Temple in Holkham Park, prepared by Michelin-starred chef Galton Blackiston, and an overnight stay for the eight Guns at Congham Hall Hotel. The shoot day will take place on Tuesday, 14 November, while the draw is on Friday, 31 March. To buy tickets, visit po.st/BigFive. BUY Leica Sport Optics launched the Visus 1-4x24 i LW riflescope at the IWA OutdoorClassics trade fair (see p.12) earlier this…

Richard Purdey, the former chairman of gunmaker James Purdey & Sons, marked the occasion of his 75th birthday last month with the unveiling of his official portrait (right), which will hang in the impressive Long Room at the company’s Mayfair headquarters. The painting will be on display alongside portraits of others who have helped make the company what it is today, including James Purdey, the founder of the company and Richard’s great-great-great-grandfather. Friends, family and one or two faces from Shooting Times joined Richard to help him celebrate this happy event. The chocolate cake was reportedly delicious but eating it was “very messy”. Richard, who still plays a role in organising the annual Purdey Awards, said he hopes “to stay around for just a little longer to help develop some…

“Recently, curlew numbers have plummeted everywhere except on the grouse moors” There is a wind of change blowing across the grouse moors of England and it would appear to be an ill wind, if you are someone who manages the land for grouse shooting or for sheep grazing. As the next round of Higher Level Stewardship schemes comes to the fore, Natural England is imposing what Chris Packham and company will love — more or less a total ban on burning on huge swathes of the central Pennines. This will be the most significant change to the management of these uplands for 150 years and my guess is that no one really knows what the outcome will be for the thousands upon thousands of birds that utilise these moors as…

Lesley Collins from Dorset bought her first working Labrador almost five years ago. She now has four dogs and admits to being “totally hooked”. “Finding a training group that I felt suited me and my first dog took time,” she said. “I found I was agreeing with some of the way things were done and not others. It’s very important to find a group where the training suits your dog because every dog is different and some groups don’t make enough allowance for that.” Though Lesley eventually started to attend URC-organised group training and found it to be of a high standard, she is now also involved in a private group with some friends. “There were a few of us who were like-minded in the way we wanted to train…

“Though generally a healthy breed, cockers suffer from a number of hereditary complaints” THOUGH THE STORM of “sprockergate” may have passed (News and Gundogs, 18 January), it has left behind a lot of stirred and muddy water that will take a long time to clear. For those who missed the sprockergate story, it was the accusation that sprockers — cockers crossed deliberately with springers — were being run in cocker field trials, giving their handlers an unfair advantage. Though there had long been rumours of sprockers competing in cocker trials, the matter came to public attention when a group of 20 A-panel spaniel judges wrote to the Kennel Club (KC) with their accusation. The story featured in national newspapers, including The Sun and The Times. Spaniel trialling is a largely…

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

become increasingly popular as pets. The breed’s intelligence can be a problem, as they are easily bored and need to be occupied, both physically and mentally. In 1906 the International Sheep Dog Society (ISDS) was formed in a bid to “improve the shepherd’s dog”. Today, the ISDS boasts a worldwide membership and registers around 6,000 border collie puppies a year. It also organises national sheepdog trials in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, as well as a world trial that is held every three years. sheepdog on farms throughout the British Isles, and as far away as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Today it retains its position as the world’s top sheepdog, but border collies have Few dogs are more familiar or recognisable than the border collie. Tough, intelligent and…