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

I once asked a huntsman I knew pretty well what he’d be doing if he didn’t hunt hounds. “I’d probably be in prison,” he replied, taking another sip of his Doom Bar. I suspect he wasn’t entirely serious, but it set me thinking. There is no doubt, whatever some might say, that fieldsports make us much happier, more thoughtful people. Some weeks ago, Matt Cross, one of our regular contributors, wrote a piece about teaching a little boy, who was going through a bit of a rocky patch, how to hunt rabbits with a bolt-action .410. The seriousness with which the boy reportedly approached the outing was very touching and I sincerely hope his fascination with shooting grows and grows. I know that being involved in the world of fieldsports…

16 NOVEMBER BASC NOVICE LADIES GAME DAY Whitrigg estate, Hutton in the Forest, Penrith, Cumbria Tel 07949 022753 17 NOVEMBER THE NOVEMBER MEETING, COUNTRYSIDE DAY Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire http://cheltenhamtickets.thejockeyclub.co.uk/ Online 18-19 NOVEMBER ENGLISH WINTER FAIR Staffordshire County Showground, Stafford, Staffordshire Tel 01785 258060 22 NOVEMBER GWCT MACNAB BALL The Dorchester Hotel, Mayfair, London Tel 020 7290 0110 24 NOVEMBER DEER INITIATIVE BEST PRACTICE EVENT Forestry Commission, Parkend, Gloucestershire Tel 07854 849989 29 NOVEMBER GWCT NORTH WALES ANNUAL DINNER & AUCTION St George’s Hotel, Llandudno, Conwy Tel 07966 687950…

BASC gets children into conservation BASC’s Wiltshire social committee has launched a new grant scheme aimed at getting young people involved in conservation activities. The BASC Wiltshire Conservation and Young Shots Fund was officially launched at the Wiltshire Game & Country Fair in September. It is now open to applications to fund small-scale conservation projects within the county. For more information, email southwest@basc.org.uk. Royal visits Lintran HRH the Princess Royal opened the new premises of Lintran K9 last month. As recently reported (News, 4 October), the dog transit box company is celebrating 30 years in business. It was kind enough to send over a photograph of the visit (see below). New curlew badge The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) has started selling a curlew pin badge to raise awareness…

SHOOTING SUIT The Baleno men’s shooting suit features the Derby stalking trouser and Derby jacket. The suit is made from tough, durable and noiseless fabric, which is soft to the touch. It is also fully waterproof, windproof, breathable and is equipped with taped seams. The trousers have a multitude of pockets, including large, stylish side cargo pockets. The Derby jacket features large front cartridge pockets, two-way zip and adjustable cuffs to keep out the cold and wet weather. The Derby also has an interchangeable lining system so you can zip in the Harvey or Henry fleece for extra warmth. All items can be bought separately. Derby trousers : £106.95; Derby jacket: £189.95 www.ardmoor.co.uk PERFECT KIT The Dog Kit Paco is perfect to keep in your car and has everything the…

MORE THAN READY This is my eight-year-old son, Finlay James Twiss (below), ready for his first shoot of the season with his dog Mia. Lauren Harper, by email THE BBC AND IMPARTIALITY The Countryside Alliance strongly agrees with D. Marchewka (Letters, 25 October). Chris Packham’s campaign work, and his recent intervention in the Ilkley Moor debate, clearly breaches BBC impartiality. It is interesting the 2016 BBC Trust report into Mr Packham’s campaigning pointed out that he is supposed to refrain from publicly campaigning during the broadcasting of the Watches, and for two weeks beforehand and one week after. Yet Mr Packham’s letter to Bradford Council was cited in the Ilkley Gazette four days before Autumnwatch began, proving this period of restraint is a nonsense and does nothing to protect BBC…

“The adventure not only secured the hand of Gertrude Watt but also sparked a lifelong love affair with Africa” When Ewart Scott Grogan reached Cairo in 1900 — becoming the first person to walk from Cape Town to Cairo — trout fishing could not have been further from his mind. He had undertaken the expedition to prove his worthiness to the unimpressed father of his potential wife. The adventure not only secured the hand of Gertrude Watt but also sparked a lifelong love affair with Africa. He soon found himself back there, when the couple moved to Kenya in 1904. As early European settlers of the fertile uplands north of Nairobi — an area that would later become known as the White Highlands — Grogan immediately observed what he believed…

“We’re trading the future health of our oceans for the convenience of today” I recently saw a shocking image highlighting one of the perils of all that plastic litter that is drifting around our oceans. The photograph, which showed the skeletal remains of a dead juvenile albatross — a decaying pile of feathers and bone with its body cavity crammed full of plastic waste — has apparently been doing the rounds for several years. Though I had a broad understanding of some of the underlying issues associated with the global plastic problem, this distressing photograph of what is arguably the world’s most enigmatic seabird encouraged me to dig deeper. Sadly, the scale of the problem is far, far worse than I’d realised. Ocean plastic pollution is now regarded as one…

Field trials: are they ever cancelled due to weather? GUNDOGS Q I have attended a few field trials and on one occasion the weather was extremely bad and the trial, which was a spaniel championship in the north, had to be suspended for some time as the rain was horizontal and no one could face it. I was amazed that everyone just carried on when the storm abated slightly and though the dogs and handlers were extremely wet and cold, it did not seem to affect the standard of work. Do trials ever get cancelled because of wet weather? A The field trial fraternity are mostly a hardy lot of enthusiasts and will endure the very worst that the elements can throw at them. I have been at a spaniel…

Jackdaws are always social birds but in November they gather in big flocks before evening roost. Not as impressive as the huge congregations of rooks, with which they often share roosting sites, but they can still add up to more than 10,000 birds. Jackdaws have a reputation for fidelity; young birds pair up in autumn and usually stay together until they breed in their second year, in a hole in a tree or a chimney. We have a wonderful print of jackdaws, silhouetted against a winter sky in a bare winter tree. The artist, Robert Gillmor, has depicted the birds in pairs and I cannot look at a feeding or perching group of jackdaws without checking that there is an even number, each individual with his or her partner. Pairs…

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE, ISSN 0037-4164, is published weekly, incorporating Shooting Magazine, Shooting Life, British Sportsman,The Angler’s News & Sea Fisher’s Journal and Field Sport, by Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, 3rd floor, 161 Marsh Wall, London, England E14 9AP, United Kingdom. © 2017 Time Inc. (UK) Ltd. Contributions are welcome but must be accompanied by a suitable stamped addressed envelope. Publication of accepted articles is not guaranteed, and the publishers will not be held liable for any manuscripts, photographs or other materials lost or damaged while in their possession, though every care will be taken. The Editor reserves the right to amend any such articles as necessary. Distributed by Marketforce (UK) Ltd, a Time Inc. (UK) Ltd company, 2nd Floor, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HU Tel:…

JOIN THE TEAM Shooting Times is looking for a new deputy editor — so why not send in an application? You would be responsible for helping to oversee the production of the magazine, ensuring smooth running from conception through to going to press each week. You will deputise for the Editor on all editorial matters and work together with him to improve the content of the magazine. You won’t be confined to the office though; you will cover stories, contribute your own content and represent us at rural events. The most important requirements for the position are a love and deep knowledge of shooting and fieldsports, along with experience of producing great written content. Email the Editor at patrick.galbraith@timeinc.com for a full job specification and/or to apply for the position.…

Wiltshire-based British Army soldier Neil Gaff has been crowned champion of this year’s Talent Pool shooting competition. The annual event, organised by Southdown Shooting School in Findon, Sussex, aims to find one talented shooter each year to be mentored and fully trained to compete at the British Open English Sporting. Applicants attend a series of selection days, interviews and shoot-offs in pursuit of a year-long prize fund, which includes the loan of a new Zoli Z-Sport shotgun, 12 one-to-one professional coaching sessions, membership of both Southdown Shooting School and the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association (CPSA), 5,000 NSI cartridges, branded clothing, entry fees and travel expenses. This year’s winner, CPSA C-class shooter Mr Gaff, is relatively new to the sport. He will be personally mentored by the school’s head coach Simon…

When my father David was a teenager in the late 1920s, he persuaded his older sister Margaret to take home a suitcase for him. This involved her struggling with it across London, boarding a train to Chester, then changing on to a branch line before finally arriving at their home in Bodfari, Clwyd. When he duly arrived home a few days later and the case was opened, she was not at all pleased to discover that all it contained was 52 copies of Shooting Times. Clearly the contents of the magazine were a weighty matter even then. D. Pennant, Surrey IN ASSOCIATION WITH ALAN PAINE The winner of Letter of the Week will receive an Alan Paine Aylsham Fleece Waistcoat. Warm and practical, it is ideal for colder days in…

“Tradition still stands in the way of most young women putting a foot on the ladder” Starting out in gamekeeping is a difficult task for anyone, man or woman, not least because colleges turn out each year a stream of wide-eyed, aspiring young keepers who, when combined with limited job opportunities, make for fierce competition for every vacancy. It rather exacerbates the uphill struggle many women face even getting through to the interview stage. Most women coming into keepering do so via other routes, such as helping on an estate or game farm or with the blessing of a family member or acquaintance already in the job. It is still very much a male-dominated profession, though there are now considerably more full-time lady keepers than when I began almost 14…

“There seems to be a vacancy for entrepreneurs to promote game in a new way” I HAVE ALWAYS thought, perhaps naively, that the greatest threat to our sport comes from legislation, inflicted on us by an urban Government with no appreciation of how the countryside actually works. Now I’m not so sure. In October a shoot where my wife Jan goes beating declared that it would no longer be taking birds to the game dealer, as it wasn’t economic to do so. The price being paid for a brace of partridges was 20p, insufficient to cover the cost of the diesel to drive the birds to the dealer. Instead the beaters were told that they could take as many birds as they wanted, so a considerable dent was made in…

Functionally, there is little difference between a plague of locusts and a flock of geese. In each case a large group of individuals gather together to feast on freshly emerged, succulent green leaves. Unsurprisingly, both locusts and geese are unpopular with farmers, whose incomes depend upon the same crops that are targeted by these herbivores. Another complication is that both a swarm or a flock can affect other species that depend on the same food or share the same habitats. If we ignore introduced geese — which present problems of their own — there are only seven species of geese that are regularly seen in this country. The most numerous by far is the pink-footed goose, with an October 2016 population approaching half a million birds, according to counts from…

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…

Pigeons are the oldest of all domesticated birds, descended from the wild rock dove. They have been used to carry messages since the days of the ancient Egyptians and were also employed by the Greeks and Romans. The modern racing pigeon is a descendant of the original homing pigeon, bred for its speed and its ability to return to its home loft. Even to the unpractised eye, a racing pigeon looks sleek and athletic, especially compared with the feral pigeons of our towns and cities. The first pigeon race over 150km was held in Belgium in 1818, and similar races were taking part in England by 1875. Yearling birds will fly races of up to 480km, with older birds up to 800km: many will cover that distance in a day.…

“Keepers on grouse moors must feel like football managers — always judged by their last game” I am sick of hearing about illegal raptor persecution (News, 1 November). The issue has tarnished the reputation of the shooting community for too long. We must have zero tolerance of such crimes. And our stance must be made clear to the public, not least for the twin purposes of leaving the perpetrators no place to hide within our ranks and depriving the antis of potent ammunition. The recent pronouncement by BASC, and the supporting comments from the Countryside Alliance, the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) and others — including the Editor — are timely. These public declarations won’t sway all doubters, of course. But they draw a line in the sand for everybody to…

“We do reverse mentoring; we have a private Facebook page and some of the older Guns find it a challenge” “What I love about this shoot is that families get involved,” said Wendy Bardsley. “My two daughters beat, my husband’s a Gun and I work my dogs picking-up. It’s so good to get away from the fast pace of life to spend a day in the countryside enjoying what we do.” As with everyone, young and old, who plays a part in the remarkable Bere Wood shoot adjacent to the Purbeck Shooting School near Bere Regis, Dorset, Wendy is an enthusiastic believer in attracting and helping beginners — be they shooters, pickers-up or beaters. Indeed, it is not going too far to suggest that the shoot acts as a training…

I am often surprised at how few beaters, offered a brace or two of birds after a day’s shooting, bother to take them. Many Guns also display a reluctance to take more than the brace the keeper gives them and I’ve often wondered how many of these birds are eaten. I’m all in favour of shoots where instead of a brace in the feather, the Guns are presented with an oven-ready pair wrapped in cling film, as I suspect few of these get wasted. Part of the problem is over-supply. If you shoot 30 days a season, you may well end up with 60 pheasants in the freeZer. Many beaters I know are retired, and beat three or four days a week, so there is a limit to how many…

“It was an old buck with massive tusks, discoloured with age and broken off at the jawline” Chinese water deer (CWD) are not my normal fare and I do not encounter them very often, but I was invited to go out with Charlie Harriman, who has some large hunting concessions around the area of Buckinghamshire that we were stalking. I had been out with Charlie before with great success. This time my son Jake, two stalkers, Julian and Hooter, and I were to cull young and old bucks before the paying clients arrived, usually in December for the rut. This part of the county is between Aylesbury and Buckingham and covers approximately 1,000 acres of typical CWD stalking land, relatively flat farmland with large fields, edged with thick hedgerows and…

Latin name: Taxus baccata Common name: Yew How to spot it and where to find it: The yew is different from other conifers in that it doesn’t produce seeds in a cone. Instead, each seed is enclosed in a red, fleshy structure known as an aril, which is open at the tip. Yew’s straight needle-like leaves grow in two rows along the twig and each has a raised central vein on the underside. Male flowers are small and whitish-yellow; female flowers are bud-like and scaly, resembling acorns as they age. Both appear in March or April. Interesting facts: In 1800, Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of King George III, is said to have installed the first decorated yew at Windsor Castle, a tradition she brought from her native Germany and…