Innholdsfortegnelse for 05-Apr-2017 i Shooting Times & Country

Over the past few weeks those lonely creatures who while away the wee small hours mooching around in cyberspace’s shoutiest recesses have been even crosser than normal. The rub is that Mike Bax, the chairman of the Kent Wildlife Trust (KWT), is also Master of the Blean Beagles. Some Facebookers were “DISGUSTED”, others just “appalled”’ in lower case, and a few hardliners even went as far as vowing to cancel their membership. And then, lying in the bath, I noticed a comment of a rather more levelheaded hue. “How,” asked a man named Paul, “can people who have a deep commitment to wildlife, hunt and kill it for sport?” A sort of sadness came over me. I wish I could invite Paul to the pub with some of the old…

ATTEND The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) is holding its annual sporting clay shoot at Sporting Targets in Riseley, Bedfordshire, on Friday, 7 April. The winner will have the chance to host the event in 2018. The shoot is open to all NGO members, and includes classes for keepers, veterans, ladies, under-21s and side-by-sides. Prior booking is via the NGO website or by calling the NGO, tel 01833 660869. JOIN OUR CLUB If you have shot a right-and-left at woodcock you can join Jason Smith from South Ockenden in Essex and Enda Cassin from Ballacolla in County Laois as the newest members of the Woodcock Club. You will receive a certificate and a badge and an invitation to the 34th annual Woodcock Club Dinner, which will be held at Crowcombe Court…

1 Bushnell Legend M binoculars 8x42 — £458.99 10x42 — £491.99 www.edgarbrothers.com Bushnell promises optimal clarity with its new Legend M range. Distributed in the UK by Edgar Brothers, the range comes in two magnifications — 8x42 and 10x42. Both are waterproof, fogproof and shockproof and boast a 92 per cent light transmission. 2 Hawke Hunter Laser rangefinder 400m model — £149.99 600m model — £169.99 www.hawkeoptics.com This laser rangefinder is ideal for anything from stalking to fox control. The multi-coated optical system with BK-7 prisms offers 6x magnification, while the reticule is accurate to within 1m and features rain and hunt modes. 3 Hull .410 High Pheasant Per 25 — £9.80 www.hullcartridge.com Hull Cartridge has finally launched its long-awaited .410-calibre 3in Magnum 19g No.6 shot High Pheasant cartridge. Part…

After months of silence, the hill is coming to life. The soaking moss is suddenly alive with cottongrass and buds are beginning to crack on the blaeberry stems. I’ve been part of a small grouse syndicate in the Galloway hills for six years, and in that time I have learned to appreciate the changing seasons in the deep heather. In February, the only sound you might hear on the hill is the occasional clock of a distant raven but by the closing days of March there are skylarks, drumming snipe and the soft, liquid bubble of blackgrouse on the breeze. The transformation is extraordinary. While the heather often remains red and tatty into May, sap is already rising. The hill will soon be green again. Season starts softly I had…

Gamecrops have revolutionised both gameshooting and the conservation of wild game and farmland birds. Their uses are many: they can be planted to provide an extra drive on a shoot with little natural cover, to warm up a cold drive on an exposed bank, as a holding crop next to a release pen, as “running legs” or “lead-in strips” between a release wood and an established drive, or simply to provide some nesting cover or insect-rich brood-rearing cover for wild birds. What you plant will depend on a number of factors, not least of which will be your reason for planting it in the first place. If you want a cover-only crop for driving birds out of, you might choose to plant kale. If you want a feed crop, you…

They plant about 100 acres of gamecover at Great Tew, split roughly 60/40 maize and kale or kale mixes. The maize is planted on the lighter ground alongside existing cover to extend and thicken up existing drives, in blocks (as drives in its own right) and as running legs between drives. The kale plots are planted on the heavier ground as driving/flushing cover, and have millet and triticale added to create a mix when planted as part of a stewardship scheme. Colin’s preferred crop is maize, as it is fairly straightforward to plant and easy to control weeds in. He does like kale, though he would be the first to admit that it is far harder to establish. He likes it not only for its superb holding ability in the…

LAURENCE CATLOW, A PASSIONATE SHOOTER AND ANGLER FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS, HAS WRITTEN FIVE BOOKS ABOUT SPORT WITH ROD AND GUN. HIS NOTEBOOK RUNS IN THE FIRST ISSUE OF EVERY MONTH I have known for more years than I care to remember that you do not need many pheasants to make an enjoyable day’s sport. Perhaps it is largely a matter of expectations because if you set out looking for 200 birds you will be disappointed if at the day’s end you have only 20 pheasants laid out before you. If, on the other hand, your initial target is nine or 10, a dozen birds will bring satisfaction and delight. I spent the last day of the season on a small shoot with half-a-dozen friends. As we talked and…

Last month I started teaching the spaniels how to take lines using dummies. This month with Logan I have been increasing the difficulty and complexity of the scent lines by using cold game, increasing the distance and introducing curved lines. The recent damp dewy mornings combined with warmer temperatures have meant that scenting conditions are better, making it the ideal time to introduce Logan to cold game scent lines. STEP ONE: CREATE THE LINE I always keep a stock of cold game in my freezer for this kind of training session. You don’t want to keep using the same bird over and over, as they soon get wet and soggy and even the best of retrievers can be reluctant to pick the bird. Keeping the dog in the car first…

“Grey partridges are barometers for how well we are balancing cover and food” Here in Bedfordshire on our cold, wet, clay soil, wild partridge will never quite match the lofty heights seen on the manors of Norfolk and Suffolk, but with thoughtful management good results are achievable. So much so that going into the early winter, we were confident that all was well with our little grey birds. We’d had an extremely dry October, which prolonged the insect life well into autumn while giving lots of ground for dusting in. It was a veritable partridge paradise — the flip side being that my pheasants wandered everywhere. But I was about to find out that when nature gives with one hand, she might decide to take back with the other —…

Fish-eating friend or foe? BIRDS Q How big a threat are goosanders to salmon stocks? A This is a question that has long been debated by fisheries, for these handsome fish-eating duck are known to favour salmon parr and considerable research has been undertaken to try to discover the impact they have on stocks. A study in Scotland found that of 124 goosander stomachs examined, 57.2 per cent contained salmon, 9.7 per cent brown trout and 14.5 per cent eels. Six other species of fish were recorded, along with insects, water shrews and birds. The fact they take young salmon is beyond doubt, but quite how much impact that has on salmon numbers is debatable. They also eat predators of both salmon and trout, so the apparent damage may well…

There is something quite sad about the song of the reed bunting — the male almost seems to be apologising that it has lost its voice. I am hoping to hear one singing on our Breeding Bird Survey square in a few weeks. If I do, it will be in an interesting, wet field at the centre of the shoot that we have been asked to cover by our local BTO Regional Representative. All the other fields abutting the stream have been turned into improved pasture but this one has not been drained; it contains strips of phragmites, a shallow pool and thick overgrown hedges. This is great habitat for breeding reed buntings and attracts snipe and duck in the winter. Reed buntings move away from reedbeds in the autumn…

WHAT TO LOOK FOR Barrel: As with all break-barrels, check that the barrel is not bent due to pressing the trigger while the gun is cocked and letting the barrel fly up. Action: Listen for smooth cocking with little spring noise or knocks. Weight: 5.75lb Length: 41in Features: None, just good old-fashioned accuracy and reliability. Price: Second-hand from £50. 1 BARREL .177 or .22 options with a 18.5in length and BSA’s legendary cold-formed rifling gives excellent accuracy. 2 SIGHTS Open sights are usually fitted and very good but here we see a typical period scope that most users would fit. 3 ACTION Bombproof spring-piston design delivers a smooth, consistent performance. 4 STOCK Plain beech with matt lacquer but surprisingly comfortable and offers…

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 Yorkshire Tel 01472 809727 13 MAY 2017 COUNTRYSIDE CLAY SHOOT Six Mile Bottom estate, Cambridgeshire Tel 01283 810910…

POLICING AND CRIME ACT Graham Downing appears to have been wearing a pair of rose-tinted glasses (An act of common sense, 22 March) because he omits other potential changes arising from the Policing and Crime Act 2017 that may offset any benefits. In the case of the changes he does cover, an alternative view of the extension of certificate life is that it merely legitimises poor performance by firearms licensing departments and does nothing to address the core issue of under-manning or inefficiencies. The issuing of temporary permits was a hard metric that identified under-performing departments, which must now be delighted that they are off the hook. Gun owners may not have gained much by a 10-week extension as, presumably, it will not be possible to buy ammunition without a…

Choice of gamecrop is limited when you are as far north as Lawrence is in Aberdeenshire. They grow approximately 10 acres of gamecrops on the Logie estate and because maize, the millets and sorghums — which are the mainstay of most shoots farther south — won’t grow that far north, they plant a combination of kale-based mixes and semi-permanent cover. The kale-based mixes, which usually contain quinoa or triticale, are planted using the stale-seedbed technique but are still quite difficult to establish on the thin and stony soils of the east coast. The semi-permanent cover is a combination of chicory and canary grass, which will usually give three years’ cover. This is quite a contrast to planting the same mix in the south, where we would expect it to last…

Houghton Hall is a predominantly wild bird shoot with a particular emphasis on the production of wild grey partridge. They plant between 100 and 120 acres of covercrops, in both 6m strips along field margins and in larger blocks for holding and driving. Robert’s strips are planted to provide food, nesting and brood-rearing cover, sanctuary for both the chicks and adults, and as driving cover for shoot days. Above all else they must be insect-rich. He plants a mixture that he has designed himself, which includes triticale, forage rye and kale. As the crops at Houghton are planted as part of an organic regime, Robert adds sainfoin, crimson clover and bird’s-foot trefoil — which are all legumes — to the mix to help fix the nitrogen and to aid fertility.…

Now that the clocks have changed there are a few more hours in which to train the Twistmount dogs and I have been taking full advantage of the longer days. However, things have not completely gone to plan. Dolly the springer has come into season; I have never had a bitch whose personality changes so much when she is on heat. She has become clingy and seems to forget everything she has been taught, so I have decided not to do any training with her at the moment — I don’t want to be chastising her for messing about when I know the behaviour is down to her hormones. I have focused on the two dogs, Remy the Labrador and Logan the spaniel; and with both I have stepped up…

“Elveden is perfect for HPRs, which hunt at their best where game has to be worked for” AFTER TWO YEARS in North Yorkshire and one in southern Scotland, the Hunt, Point, Retrieve (HPR) Championship is coming south: this year’s event will take place on Lord Iveagh’s Elveden estate, in the Suffolk Brecks, on 14 and 15 November. This is news that will be welcomed by many HPR enthusiasts, for Elveden not only offers excellent ground but it is an easy place to get to, thanks to the M11 and A11. Elveden has a long and distinguished sporting history. It became famous during Queen Victoria’s reign for the extravagant shooting parties held there by Maharajah Duleep Singh. He acquired Elveden (bought for him by the India Office) in 1863 and set…

“By December it had run to seed. In our enthusiasm, we had drilled too early” Our small DIY shoot has, over the past few years, enjoyed mixed fortunes with game covercrops, largely due to a degree of ignorance and amateur wishful thinking. We set out with kale, which was planted too late and resulted in a mediocre, weed-encroached crop on a slope by the side of a thick hedge leading down to our release pen. The following year we decided that maize was the answer. The result was a crop resembling a miniature South American jungle, the maize stems towering over our heads. By the end of November they had buckled and the cobs were only partially developed, offering little in the way of fodder for pheasants. We had drilled…

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: Shooting Times,…

Nothing says more about the Suffolk sheep than the fact that the breed society is based in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. For though the Suffolk may have its origins in the county from which it takes its name, today it is one of the most popular breeds in the world. Its great value is as a terminal sire; that is, a Suffolk ram can be put to a variety of ewes to produce prime lamb. The original Suffolk was the result of crossing Southdown rams with Norfolk horn ewes. The breed was developed around Bury St Edmunds in the early 1800s. First exhibited at the Suffolk show in 1859, it was soon exported around the world. The Suffolk is a big hornless sheep, best recognised by its long black face…

“Adolf Hitler was an animal lover. Would that have made him eligible to chair a wildlife trust?” “ His favourite form of exercise is jumping to conclusions.” That’s a wonderful put-down, isn’t it? Yet which of us hasn’t made a hasty assumption that later proved to be wrong? I know I have. Some years ago, I was passed some internal email correspondence that had been circulated within a major wildlife trust. The emails contained what I judged to be some rather cynical advice about lobbying politicians. So far so good (or bad). Some of the emails had been originated by the chief executive of the wildlife trust in question. When I duly wrote about these emails, I was rather snide (moi?) about the trust’s chief executive, based on the presumption…

Badger herpes could fight bovine TB Badgers could be deliberately infected with “something like a herpes virus” to help combat bovine tuberculosis. According to ITV News, environment minister George Eustice recently defended the Government’s badger culling strategy but said he has an “open mind” to other approaches. He told MPs: “There is also some novel research going on, very much in the early stages, about whether we could develop a self-disseminating vaccine for badgers. “That is using something like a herpes virus that you insert the vaccine into which spreads naturally through a badger population.” Trio of field trial champs awarded The Kennel Club has announced the winners of three prestigious annual field trial awards. The Routledge-Rank Retriever Perpetual Challenge Cup, awarded to the owner of the retriever that gained…

I read with interest David Tomlinson’s article about the exploits of Roly, the cocker spaniel that went to ground after a partridge (Gundogs, 22 March). It brought back memories of my younger days when I was fanatical with lurchers and terriers, and I have dug to the latter all over the country. However, with regard to the piece, I recalled my friend Jack, who was and still is one of the keenest ferreters I know. At one time he used to take out his daughter’s Kennel Club-registered miniature poodle, Sophie (not pictured). She was the most refined and slight of dogs and Jack was ostensibly only taking her out for a walk, but when she was in the field she became a tiger and loved rabbiting. We have had her…

“Think like a pheasant or partridge, and never be afraid to ask for advice” Dave plants between 60 and 65 acres of gamecover at Winderwath. His patches are planted as stand-alone drives, to thicken up existing pieces of cover and as running legs/blanking-in strips next to drives. Most of the crops are kale-based, though they can grow maize that far north as long as they get the heat when it matters. The kale crops are a bespoke mix, with millets and linseed added for food value to help attract and hold the birds. The blanking-in areas tend to be seed mixes, which can include triticale, red and white millet and linseed or straight maize. They tend to work better than strips of kale because it is easier to move the…

a leg in between the rails. Initially I kept Remy on the lead and I straddled the fence and encouraged him to put his front legs on the top rail by tapping the jump. To start with he wasn’t sure, but with some gentle encouragement he soon got the idea. tired, then hitting the jump and possibly hurting itself. STEP ONE: MAKE A TRAINING JUMP Whatever you use to start your jump training you must make sure that it is safe, solid and secure. Do not use a jump that is likely to move or fall over as you could easily put your young dog off from jumping forever. I have fashioned a training jump out of a couple of pallets with a top section nailed over the gap so…

Sometimes it is good to get away from the news: during a recent visit to India I didn’t have access to wifi for some days. Thus it wasn’t until I got home that I heard the exciting news that a spaniel had won Crufts. Then I saw a picture of the top dog and my heart sank. It brought to mind that wonderful scene in Crocodile Dundee when a New York mugger armed with a knife confronts our hero. “That’s not a knife,” drawls Mick, pulling out a more fearsome blade of his own. “THIS is a knife.” Can you really call an American cocker spaniel a gundog? I have written about American cockers before, and I’m well aware that these Yankee spaniels, when shorn of their surplus fur, can…

Latin name: Prunus avium Common name: Wild cherry Other names: Gaen (Scottish) How to spot it and where to find it: The wild cherry is one of the great glories of woodland in spring and flourishes throughout the UK. It is often found in old hedgerows and in mixed deciduous woodland. In early April it produces a snowdrift of delicately scented white blossom, which hangs in heavy clusters. The leaves are oval and toothed, and the bark has what looks like horizontal scoring, which is actually a series of breathing holes called lenticels. Interesting facts: The fruit of the wild cherry is edible, though bitter and not as fleshy as the orchard varieties. But if you want to try wild cherries you’ll have to be quick; birds love them, particularly…