Innholdsfortegnelse for 29-Mar-2017 i Shooting Times & Country

In this week’s edition Liam Bell repeats a point I’m sure we’ve all heard 100 times (p.17). I do not mean to say that Liam’s a boring bugger. Far from it — just last week we had an invigorating conversation about the design features of various waterproofs we’ve known and loved. Yet on this particular issue, I strongly believe we should all become “boring buggers” and say it over and over until people start to listen: the nation needs to eat more game. Last weekend at the West Country Game Fair a reader asked me what I think of 400-bird days. “I don’t have a problem with 1,000-bird days,” I told him, “if there is a demand from gamedealers for each and every one of those birds.” Currently, that is…

Pat Robbins Memorial Trophy Joe Appleby (pictured right), former UK sales manager for Keepers Choice, was presented with the Pat Robbins Memorial Trophy for services to gamefarming by Pat’s son Tim, at the Game Farmers’ Association AGM in London. Woodcock Club The Shooting Times Woodcock Club welcomes its newest members — Christopher Eastwood from Halifax in West Yorkshire and Robert Irwin from Drogheda in County Louth — who have received a certificate and a badge and an invitation to the 34th annual Woodcock Club Dinner, held at Crowcombe Court in Somerset on 22 April 2017. For tickets and more information, tel 01252 555123. Post-Brexit “red lines” The CLA has identified four “red lines” that it says must not be crossed by the Government when negotiating a post-Brexit trade deal, saying…

I’M NOT SURE whether Britain’s veterinary surgeons are rubbing their hands with glee or wringing them in frustration, for the French bulldog is enjoying a meteoric rise in popularity. The Kennel Club’s 2016 figures show the breed at number three in the popularity stakes, just a few hundred registrations behind the cocker spaniel: 21,470 compared with 21,854. French bulldogs are what are known as a brachycephalic breed, due to their short nose and abnormal head shape. This combination of head shape and short nose can lead to many serious health problems, ranging from brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome, breathing difficulties and collapse of the larynx, to narrowed nostrils restricting oxygen intake. This causes the dog to pant excessively, causing overheating. Bitches often have problems giving birth due to the large heads…

“In that part of Canada, the moose season lasted just three days” It was nearly midnight. The small British contingent — myself, Martin and Sandy — were still up, discussing the day’s events. We were, as Sandy (who edited a fishing magazine) later wrote, “telling increasingly unlikely tales”. There was a loud knock at the door. I should explain that we were in a hunting and fishing lodge in a remote part of eastern Canada. When we opened the door, we beheld a fine example of the species Redneck, complete with peaked cap and a faint but definite aroma of tobacco and beer. “I need a deer tag,” he said. When we asked why, he waved behind him. “Look in the back of the pickup,” he said. We looked. A…

WEDDING There is more to do at Glemham Hall than gameshooting and deerstalking. The beautiful 3,000-acre Suffolk estate is just as popular as a wedding venue. If you fancy tying the knot surrounded by stunning parkland and ancient oaks you should put its wedding fair in your diary. The next one is on 18 June, tel 01728 746704. START SAVING How does roe stalking in the Scottish Borders sound? Or hunting wild boar in Germany? Or learning how to forage for wild food in Oxfordshire? This year’s British Deer Society (BDS) auction boasts more than 130 lots, with many donors offering money-can’t-buy prizes. Bidding starts on 19 May, so you have a little time to put some money aside for one of these exclusive treats. The auction catalogue can be…

“I have several friends who would give their eyeteeth to be able to use snares” The new Codes of Practice for fox snaring in England and Wales were welcomed by everyone who understands that snares are an irreplaceable tool for live-catching foxes. Other fox-capture methods legal in Britain, such as cage traps, pipe traps and Collarum traps, don’t come close to matching the effectiveness of fox snares. I have several friends in Germany who are in the business of catching foxes: a wildlife warden who controls foxes on a wetland reserve managed for breeding waders; hunters trying to nurture stocks of wild grey partridges and pheasants; and wildlife biologists interested in tagging foxes for research purposes. All would give their eyeteeth to be able to use snares but that is…

Hungary is reputed to be a world-class destination for big game hunters and deservedly so. To have wild boar driven towards you, pushed on by baying hounds, before you lay the bristly black pigs to rest on fresh powder snow, makes for sublime sport. It is an exhilarating, primeval experience: man versus wild boar, the hunter versus the hunted. If you ever stand before the world-record-breaking red and fallow deer trophy heads, which hang in the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture in Budapest, you may wonder how a beast’s antlers could grow so big. For trophy hunters, dreams come true in Hungary. But what of winged game shooting opportunities? If shooting moderate to extremely large bags of released driven pheasants is your thing, there are plenty of shoots in Hungary that…

The closure of John Dickson & Son’s Edinburgh shop on 31 January this year brought to an end a presence lasting nearly 200 years in the city. Dickson will continue to make guns but this will be done in its workshops at Dunkeld. The shop premises will be wholly taken over by the country clothing retailer Barbour, which shares it now. The company’s founder, John Dickson, was born in 1794, the son of an Edinburgh wine porter. The city was already regarded as a major commercial and cultural centre. Scots excelled in many fields — painting, literature, education, commerce and engineering. The Scottish Enlightenment had its cradle in Edinburgh. The novelist Tobias Smollett described it as “a hotbed of genius”. The planning and building of the New Town in the…

Idon’t follow the American dog show scene with a great deal of interest, but I was curious to note that at the Westminster Dog Show last month, the gundog group was won by an Irish setter, with a wirehaired pointing griffon second. Westminster, by the way, is the US equivalent of Crufts. The winning setter was very beautiful, but with a ridiculous amount of feathering and ears that looked longer than the average show cocker’s. If you have never heard of a wirehaired pointing griffon let me translate for you. On this side of the Atlantic we call the breed a Korthals griffon, named for the breed’s founder, one Eduard Korthals. He was a Dutchman who spent 20 years in an intensive bid, involving hundreds of dogs, to produce what…

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 rifle 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 Contact the team Email : stanswers@timeinc.com By post:…

peak numbers don’t occur until the end of April. In a warm spring, the early birds will have a six-week advantage over later birds but a cold spring can have fatal consequences for these pioneers. Sand martins nest in riverbanks and quarries, digging out the sand to create new Migrant birds need to get the timing of their return to the UK right: get here late and potentially reduce the length of the breeding season; or get here early and face the risk of an early-April cold snap. The first sand martins usually arrive back from Africa as early as mid-March but burrows or adopting sites that have been used in previous seasons. At this time of year, they are often to be found feeding over lakes, where they search…

12 APRIL GAVIN GARDINER AUCTION Sotheby’s, New Bond Street, London Tel 01798 875300 19 APRIL FIREARMS VALUATION DAY John Dickson & Son, Dunkeld, Perthshire Tel 01350 728763 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 6-7 MAY NORTHERN SHOOTING SHOW Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate, North Yorks Tel 01472 809727 13 MAY 2017 COUNTRYSIDE CLAY SHOOT Six Mile Bottom estate, Cambridgeshire Tel 01283 810910…

“We saw fewer animals — most were no doubt hunkered down out of the wind” With the layers settled in and the birds that are left on the ground needing little attention, we have been turning our attention to the deer. South Shropshire doesn’t have many deer but they do need controlling. They are mainly fallow; we get an occasional roe and have been seeing the odd muntjac for the past five or six years, though we have yet to shoot one. Not, I might add, because we don’t want to shoot any. It is just that we see them so infrequently and never have a rifle to hand when we do. The roe and muntjac appear to be following a similar pattern to the fallow. Some 20 years ago,…

“The Hungarians really respect the game, with the beaters gathering round as the keepers blow their horns” With beautiful countryside and a wide variety of game to shoot, Hungary is one of the most popular hunting destinations in all of Europe. Red deer, hare and wild boar are all plentiful, while pheasant and wild duck are popular too if you prefer feather to fur. Hungarian sporting agents may tell you that their high driven pheasants are the best in Europe, but Will Criddle, founder of Welshpool-based Criddle Fieldsports, which organises shooting packages in Hungary, offering driven Russian wild boar on the private Imperial Shooting estates west of Budapest and pheasants on several estates, says that honour still belongs to the UK. A better reason to visit Hungary is to experience…

“It will be an underfunded agency taking on a powerful private industry” The rivers Test and Itchen are the two principal chalkstreams in the UK, if not the world. Chalkstreams are so named not because the bed of each river consists of chalk but because well over 90 per cent of each catchment area is made up of chalk. This acts as both reservoir and filter, absorbing rain and delaying its entrance into the river. Pour water from a jug slowly on to a sponge in a dry bath and it will soak up the water until a steady trickle runs from its base, which continues after the pouring stops. The sponge is a chalk hill, the jug the rain and the trickle of water the vital groundwater supply emerging…

Age of independence STALKING Q At what age are muntjac fawns considered to be independent of their mothers? A Due to their breeding cycle, which unlike our other deer is not seasonal, there is always the possibility of orphaning a dependant fawn when an adult female muntjac is shot. This places an onus of responsibility on the stalker if the welfare of the quarry is properly considered before the shot is taken. The period between fawns is approximately eight months, so it is reasonable to assume that by eight months old an animal will be independent of its mother, who by that time is likely to have given birth and indeed be pregnant again. The reality is that the fawn may well have become independent of its dam before that.…

Latin name: Cochlearia officinalis Common name: Scurvy grass Other names: Spoonwort How to spot it and where to find it: Throughout Britain and Ireland, common scurvy grass — a member of the cabbage family — is found near the coast, where it grows on cliffs, in saltmarshes and on lanes where winter salting adds to the natural salinity. Inland locations near salt mines and saline springs are also favoured by the plant, which is occasionally found, though much less frequently, in mountainous inland locations. Its fragrant four-petalled flowers, which start to open in April, are usually brilliant white but sometimes tinged mauve or purple. The flowers are short-lived and once the petals have fallen, round seed pods appear. Interesting facts: Scurvy grass was so called because it was eaten by…

It was industrial chicken farming, using hybrid broilers, that led to the Plymouth Rock’s decline. Today this handsome chicken has regained popularity, particularly with back-garden chicken keepers who appreciate its many qualities. Though five different colours are accepted by the Poultry Club of Britain, barred is by far the most common. The legs are yellow and unfeathered, the comb, wattles and ear lobes bright red. While the hens are typically tame and friendly, the cocks have a reputation for being both noisy and pugnacious. developed as a dual-purpose breed, being a prolific layer of large cream-coloured eggs, as well as being a fine table bird. In addition it is tolerant of cold, making it ideal for keeping free-range. In the early part of the 20th century the Plymouth Rock was…