Innholdsfortegnelse for 6-July-2016 i Shooting Times & Country

Farming is unique among industries affected by Brexit in that it currently depends on EU funding. It is therefore essential that the Government immediately guarantees that the same level of subsidy will continue. British farmers fufil a special role as custodians of the landscape that the nation holds so dear. They maintain high levels of environmental protection and animal welfare, so to compete in a global market they must be supported (p.4). Farming and shooting are, of course, intertwined and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) epitomises this relationship. The Trust’s success is founded on its skill in bringing landowners, conservationists and shooters together. Brexit should mean more money for farmland conservation. so Alasdair Mitchell is right to see a great opportunity for the GWCT (p.58). On the subject…

A fund-raising appeal has begun to preserve a world heritage site off the coast of Scotland after research showed significant declines in seabird numbers. The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) is asking for donations to help fund the £270,000-a-year-costs of conserving the island chain of St Kilda, which sits 41 miles west of the Outer Hebrides. St Kilda is the largest seabird colony in the north-east Atlantic, with approximately 600,000 birds nesting each year across seven islands within the archipelago. Full counts of all of the seabirds in the colony take place at intervals of around 15 years, with the most recent taking place in 2015. In the intervening years NTS staff carry out routine monitoring of small subsections of the colony, which help to build a picture of shorter-term…

NGO member wins Polaris Ranger An NGO member is delighted to have won a prize that will “transform” his working life. Huw Compton, a landscape architect from Hampshire, won a Polaris Ranger worth more than £13,000, in an NGO draw. Mr Compton said: “The Polaris Ranger Diesel 1000 D is perfect for me. I do much of my landscape work on open, hard-to-get-at hillsides, and the UTV will get me to these remote spots, whatever the weather. It will transform my job. I want to thank the NGO and Polaris for really making my year” NGO chairman Lindsay Waddell said: “I am especially pleased that it will be so useful to him in carrying out his tree work.” Beatrix Potter fishing leasehold for sale A leasehold on a Lake District…

“Employed on a shooting estate, earning, working with a keeper but still in education, an apprenticeship is seen as the best route” Securing the future of gamekeeping apprentices is one of the most important things we can do for the future of shooting. We all know that the shooting we enjoy and the amazing conservation work it supports simply could not happen without gamekeepers, and gamekeepers could not do what they do without an effective education system to bring through the next generation. So when it became apparent that the Government overhaul of apprenticeships would mean gamekeeping might fall by the wayside, it was imperative that we acted decisively to keep it. New standards, new challenges It wasn’t all that long ago that gamekeeping knowledge was handed down from generation…

SCHÖFFEL UPPINGHAM COUNTRY COAT This three-in-one fitted coat with a feminine cut is made from Schöffel’s own high-performance ultralight Venturi® two-layer laminate fabric, which is 100 per cent waterproof, windproof and highly breathable. Features include a detachable rollaway storm hood concealed in the collar, light wind and water-resistant inner jacket and a stylish quilted in-zip that can be worn as a separate jacket. • www.schoffel.co.uk • Price: £319.95 SNEYD’S WONDERFEEDS PUPPY FOOD Following the success of its Wonderdog Elite grain- and gluten-free diets, Sneyd’s has added a grain-free hypoallergenic chicken and potato puppy food. It contains a high percentage of chicken with no artificial additives or preservatives, and is also rich in minerals such as magnesium, iron and potassium, which help to support a puppy’s joints, skeletal structure, digestive…

Playing safe in the hide PIGEON SHOOTING Q I’m hoping to take a friend pigeon shooting. What are the main basics of safety with regard to two people shooting from a hide? A First of all, when building your hide, think about size. Do not make a hide too small for two people; you will be asking for trouble. Make the hide sufficiently big that both of you can move comfortably and safely. You must be able to situate your seat far enough back to allow you to open and close your gun safely when loading. If the hide is too small, you will find yourselves getting caught up in the hide making any situation dangerous. Only one person should shoot at a time, taking it in turns regardless of…

“We will seek guarantees that the support given to farmers is equal to that given to farmers in the EU” The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and the CLA have set out what they believe is required to secure the immediate future of the UK rural economy following Brexit. DEFRA secretary Elizabeth Truss has already stated that: “There will be no immediate changes — until we leave the EU current arrangements for farming and our environment remain in place.” But the two organisations have sought further clarification, releasing separate statements in the same week, with their respective presidents raising and agreeing on many of the same points. In a letter to Ms Truss, CLA president Ross Murray suggested a four-point plan for the Government to follow going forward, which included establishing…

DOWNLOAD Salmon & Trout Conservation UK (S&TC UK) and Salisbury & District Angling Club have developed a new mobile phone app allowing users to monitor invertebrate populations in their own rivers and identify potential pollution threats. The River Invertebrate Larvae app was created after the 2015 Riverfly Censushighlighted the level of pollution in many of the UK’s rivers and chalkstreams. The app provides an interactive visual guide to help identify river invertebrate larvae. It also identifies the sensitivity of individual species to particular stresses such as siltation, phosphates, organic pollutions and flow. Their presence or absence is a clear indication of water quality. The cost of the app is £29.99 and is available for both Android and Apple devices. EAT It is annual World Chocolate Day tomorrow (Thursday, 7 July),…

The Charity Commission has contacted the trustees of the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) after receiving a complaint that the charity had falsely claimed on its website that “Hunting is not a form of wildlife management or fox control”. This statement contradicts the findings of the Government Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs, the Burns Report, which was published in 2001. In a response to the Countryside Alliance’s complaint, the Charity Commission wrote: “Having considered the points raised in your email, and taken further advice, we have decided to contact the charity regarding this matter. “The day-to-day running of the charity remains the responsibility of trustees. But we believe that the concerns you have raised need to be brought to the attention of the trustees of the charity. “As you are…

A severely sick swan has been safely returned to the wild thanks to gamekeepers and a farmer at Glenogil in Angus, along with local vets who nursed it back to health. It is now hoped that the swan will be strong enough to feed itself in the wild. More than £5,000 was raised for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity and North West Air Ambulance at what is thought to have been the biggest ever gathering of deerstalkers in England and Wales at Malmo Guns in Lancashire last month. Red kites near Gannochy estate in the Angus Glens are once again stealing the underwear of unsuspecting people from a popular local swimming spot. Gamekeeper Dave Clement was amused to find the birds had stolen clothing last year to line their…

THIS DOESN’T HELP When buying my copy of Shooting Timesin my local Tesco, I was challenged as to my age. I must say how surprised and disappointed I was because I thought this prejudicial attitude had stopped after WH Smith changed its policy. I have contacted Tesco asking why motoring magazines that, by definition, are targeted at adults due to the age restrictions on holding a driving licence are not subject to age verification and sold freely to children under 17. I. Roderick, by email Tesco responds: "There is no age restriction on this publication, it was an error in the store." HOLLOWAY GAME GUN I too have a G. & S. Holloway firearm (Sporting Answers, 1 June). It is a 12-bore game gun, but built on the Lancaster 12/20…

“It’s a very good show for the first time. It has a relaxed atmosphere and the chance to talk to people” The launch of a brand new country show in a year of turmoil following the collapse of the CLA Game Fair demands determination and professional flair coupled with a considerable degree of nerve. Little wonder then that I harboured reservations as my wife and I drove to the Field & Country Fair on Saturday, 11 June. Would the long haul from the Devon/Somerset border to Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire be worth the effort? I need not have fretted. The first impression, having parked with ease and walked a short distance to the show ground, was a curious sense of having drifted into a time warp. For here was a game…

PERFECTING BASIC RETRIEVES WITH DOLLY CONFINED to kennels, I had a bit more time to concentrate on the two boys. Last month I started Remy out on the place-board in an effort to improve his delivery and things have been progressing quite well. However, I did run into a slight issue that took a bit of thinking to overcome. The little Labrador is mad keen on his hunting. This has been down to my conditioning him over the past few months and I am really pleased with how he is progressing with this aspect of his training. However, at times I need him to concentrate on a dummy so I have recently been using the board on a tarmac drive and making some of his retrieves really simple; because the…

1 BARREL 24in chambered in .275 Rigby with impeccable high-polished deep bluing to the surface. 2 SIGHT Clean lines without open sights make for a very elegant-looking sporting rifle when a scope is fitted. 3 ACTION Classic commercial Mauser action of best quality. 4 STOCK Superb classic design with high-grade walnut and fine-cut chequering and oiled finish. WHAT TO LOOK FOR Barrel: .275 Rigby chambered barrel will shoot 7x57mm commercial ammunition as it is essentially the same. Action: Mauser actions are desirable and can be modified and customised with better triggers, firing pins, finishes, bolt handles and so on to requirements. Weight: 7.12lb Length: 42in Price:second-hand from Francis Lovel,£5,250 There are so many new custom rifles available to the deerstalker these days…

I HATE TO SUGGEST IT, but could it be true that some owners of working gundogs take their dogs rather too seriously? I’ve been to minor gundog tests where it’s rare to see even a hint of a smile from the competitors, and you would have been forgiven for thinking that the winning handler would be pocketing a considerable sum of money, not just a trophy that has to be given back a year later. It’s a matter of pride and reputation: if your dog fails, then you fail too. I’ve also come across many gundog owners who insist that their dogs are working animals, not pets, despite the fact that the dogs do no more than 20 days’ shooting a year, and for the rest of the time they…

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

Goldfinches are present at feeding stations at almost any time of year, even in the late summer when perhaps they ought to be tweaking seeds out of thistle heads in rough pastures and hedgerows. These delightful little finches devour vast quantities of sunflower hearts and nyger seed, and add welcome colour and tinkling chatter to bird feeders and tables. It is probably no coincidence that, in the past 20 years, a period when they have learned about these new foodstuffs, the number of breeding goldfinches across the UK has more than doubled. Adult goldfinches are easy to identify, with their smart red, white and black head-patterns, but young birds can cause some confusion, as they do not have any colour on their heads. In all plumages, an immature bird has…

 “ Write about what you know” is the advice that gets handed out at every creative writing course ever taught. Would-be novelists are told that they should strip-mine their own knowledge and experiences as fuel and ammunition to power their personal narrative. I know about fishing and because of a messy misspent youth, I also know a lot about drugs, crime and making catastrophically bad decisions. “Weymouth provided the obvious local setting that I already knew to be peopled with salt-encrusted characters, some good, some bad” After 30 years of working as a professional writer, in which I’ve written more than 70 produced prime-time television scripts, a Hollywood-financed movie, a 12-theatre touring play, seven non-fiction books, dozens of published short stories and hundreds of magazine and newspaper features, I realised…

“There is no excuse for illegally killing a bird of prey, and anyone who knows anything about these crimes should contact North Yorkshire Police.” Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, recently urged anyone with information to contact the police after six red kites were found shot or dead in circumstances that suggest poisoning in North Yorkshire in the past two months. 92 A new OnePoll survey that was commissioned by the National Farmers’ Union found that 92 per cent of those surveyed think farming is important to the economy.…

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York Central MP Rachael Maskell has replaced Kerry McCarthy as shadow secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, after she quit the shadow cabinet last week. Ms Maskell indicated that she was opposed to shooting sports when quizzed ahead of the General Election last year. Upon taking over the position, Ms Maskell commented: “This is a difficult time for the country as we are currently being plunged into a constitutional, economic and diplomatic crisis, and my job now is to make sure that this does not develop into a crisis for our agricultural and fishing industries. “[It is] a time of uncertainty and instability and I will work to limit any negative effect that withdrawal from the EU could have and get the best out of the…

I am delighted that the Charity Commission is to investigate the League Against Cruel Sports' (LACS) latest exercise in misleading propaganda (News, 29 June). In fact, I shouldn’t refer to the video in question — which shows a jogger apparently killed by a snare — as “propaganda”. It is surely malicious scaremongering. Predator control is hard enough time as it is, without perfectly legal trapping methods being smeared in this way. There were instances last year of legal traps being vandalised by members of the public. Not only do such actions undermine conservation efforts but they also mean that keepers could face prosecution if the traps are set incorrectly. The Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS) was due to come into force on the first of this month. While…

 Lindsay Waddell is national chairman of the NGO and a retired gamekeeper “The wren was in full song when he stretched his wings and tail to form a perfect little arch” The referendum has come and gone, thank goodness. Whether the result is the one you wanted will depend, of course, on where you put your cross. What the whole circus has thrown up, though, is just how the media, the whole spectrum of it, impacts on how we are informed these days. In the fieldsports world, we are subjected to a steady drip of what can only be called anti-propaganda fed through a variety of media, and it simply never stops. When the BBC did a quite nice piece — in about the worst conditions imaginable — at the…

1 Stop the rats Keep rats from lurking under feed bins and hoppers by building a multi-catch rat-trap system. Make up a box that covers the same floor space as your feeder legs, so that the feeder can sit on the box. Create four compartments and holes in the side of the box so that rats can enter easily but non-targets, such as birds, are not able to enter the trap. Bait the box with some wheat and allow the rats to enter for a day or two before you put your traps in to get them used to going in and out of the box. Then set four Mark Four traps inside the box to catch the rats as they enter. The same system can be used as for…

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It had been a thoroughly enjoyable evening. We had met up with friends for a riverside dinner in a restaurant overlooking a picture-postcard millpond. Mallard paddled with their ducklings, a pair of swans conducted their cygnets and a little egret came to fish. Young bullocks came to the pond to drink, wading in up to their stomachs in a scene that looked straight out of a Constable painting. All was well with the world. After dinner I collected my springers from the car to give them a walk before driving home. A well-worn public footpath ran through the adjoining field where the cattle were grazing. However, it was quite apparent that the cows were used to dogs, and as my spaniels ignore livestock I had no concerns about letting them…

The annual Tynwald ceremony takes place on 5 July, in the village of St Johns on the Isle of Man. This peculiarly Manx custom is where all new laws passed in the past 12 months are announced in order that they can then be enforced, and dates back to Viking times. The ceremony begins with a church service, followed by a procession of officials to the top of Tynwald Hill, where the laws are read out in both Manx and English. Part of the ceremony involves the strewing of rushes along the processional route. This particular ritual goes back to before the founding of the parliament and it is a traditional offering made every year to appease the Celtic god of the sea, Manannan. After the ceremony, the Tynwald fair…

much as three per cent a year. Control is difficult. The most effective herbicide, Asulam, is banned, available only under an Emergency Authorisation. Possession of Asulam will be illegal after 31 October. Other methods of control include cutting, trampling with livestock and exposing the rhizomes to frost. primitive of plants in our countryside, it’s the enemy of grouse moor managers, farmers and conservationists alike. Bracken tends to dominate where it grows, shading out wildlife and limiting the forage available to livestock. Part of the problem is the ability of bracken to expand, sometimes increasing its range by as The sight of bracken-covered hillsides is so familiar that most of us take it for granted. However, bracken is a major problem, especially on moors and heaths, and it’s estimated that almost…

 “The people have spoken, the b**tards.” So said American politician Dick Tuck when he lost a senate election in 1966. His sentiments have been echoed more widely today, as the disbelief of the EU Remain camp turns to petulance. Democracy, it seems, doesn’t always produce the “correct” result. How awfully tiresome. “Purportedly well-educated people have been peddling the idea that anyone who voted ‘leave’ must be stupid, or racist, or both” It has been interesting to observe how some purportedly well-educated, thoughtful people have been peddling the idea that anybody who voted “leave” must be stupid, or racist, or both. The general public shouldn’t really be allowed to vote, is the implication. It reminds me of my own sense of frustration when I had to live all those years under…