Innholdsfortegnelse for 05-Dec-2018 i Shooting Times & Country

About 10 days into my editorship of Shooting Times, which began just under two years ago now, I received a letter from an elderly landowner wishing me luck with the magazine. “I used to look forward to it arriving every week when I was away at school,” he wrote, “and I still look forward to it landing on the doorstep, all these decades later.” That afternoon, the phone rang. It was a reader who introduced himself plainly as “Keith from Hull”. He had also read the magazine for a long time and wished me luck, but requested we run more wildfowling features. I do hope Keith has been pleased by the uplift in foreshore content. After all, fowlers are some of the best ambassadors for fieldsports going. To me, those…

13 DECEMBER HOLTS AUCTION OF MODERN AND ANTIQUE GUNS Blackheath, London www.holtsauctioneers.com 22 JANUARY BETA COURSE IN CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT Allerton Project, Leicester awoolford@gwct.org.uk 2 FEBRUARY END OF SEASON GAME CHANGER BBQ Upstairs at the Palmerston Dulwich, London po.st/gamechangerbbq 9 FEBRUARY GWCT CYMRU MASTERCHEF WINNERS DINNER Llanrhaeadr, Denbigh Tel 07803218453 20 FEBRUARY STAG COURSE Swincoe, Derbyshire enquiries@thegamekeeperswelfaretrust.com…

New SCC photocards New arrangements announced by the National Rifle Association affecting Ministry of Defence Shooter Certification Cards (SCC) come into effect on 1 January 2019. All current cards will expire on 31 December 2018 and will be replaced by photo cards that must be renewed annually. Renewal applications for SCCs for 2019 must be received by the British Deer Society by 10 December 2018 and a £25 facilitation fee will be charged. Apply for your new SCC before the deadline at po.st/SCCrenew. Game evening raises thousands A “celebration of game” event at the Abbeystead estate in Lancashire raised more than £5,000 for the new Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) for injured service personnel. John Clarke of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation said: “We were delighted to help host this…

By all accounts, the Countryside Alliance Hunting Newcomers’ Week, which this year ran from 15 to 22 October, was a great success. It clearly achieved the Alliance’s mission statement, which is “to introduce as many new faces to the hunting field as possible and encourage them to have an enjoyable day seeing different country while learning about following hounds with like-minded people”. I wondered if BASC or somebody could organise a newcomers’ week for shooting? I’m sure shoots would be more than happy to welcome new people, though I suppose they would have to have some experience at shooting clays. But then I don’t imagine the “newcomers” who go out with the hunt for the first time have never ridden before. Perhaps some sort of initiative could get first-timers off…

Is a rangefinder essential? AIRGUNS Q My 18-year-old son is interested in taking up air rifle shooting and has been told that he will need a laser rangefinder. Is this really an essential piece of equipment or will he be able to get by without one? A Laser rangefinders are useful tools for fast and precise range calculation. They are, however, far from essential. Though your son might eventually want to invest in one, there is no reason why he shouldn’t be able to shoot his airgun accurately without one. I would suggest that your son starts out by zeroing his gun at 25m or 30m and then shoots paper targets at closer and further ranges to gain an understanding of the pellet’s trajectory. He can then apply hold-over and…

We miss the golden hue of yellowhammers when they disappear from the tops of our hawthorn hedges, and the glorious song of the skylark, but what do we lose if willow tits disappear? If only willow tits were colourful or tuneful then perhaps we would mourn their passing. It is unfortunate to be a small, brown bird with an unremarkable song — we have lost more than 90 per cent of our willow tits in the past 50 years. In south-east England the species has virtually disappeared. A birdwatcher in almost any part of the country will be very pleased to see one. Willow tits will sometimes turn up in a flock of mixed tits and even at garden feeders. Unfortunately, a willow tit is very similar to the more…

APPLY Members of the Shooting Times Woodcock Club can now buy their tickets to the Seeland Woodcock Club Dinner, which will be held at the exclusive Savile Club in Mayfair, London on Thursday, 21 March 2019. The after-dinner speaker is Sir Nicholas Soames and there will be an auction supporting the GWCT’s work on woodcock conservation. Tickets are £90 Email sarah.pratley@ti-media.com for more information. APPLY A Conservation and Young Shots fund organised by BASC Wiltshire is welcoming applications for project funding. Grants are available to support small-scale conservation projects and to encourage youngsters to get involved in countryside activities within the county. Both BASC members and other non-member groups can apply, but applicants need to live in Wiltshire. Email southwest@basc.org.uk for more information.…

1 Technical tweed cap RRP £65  www.musto.com Constructed from responsibly sourced wool for weather resistance and warmth, this cap also has a cotton lining for comfort in the field. The cap can be matched to other items in Musto’s tweed collection for a rounded country look. 2 Kingfisher ladies’ jacket RRP £399  www.gamebirdsclothing.co.uk This jacket is a bestseller and we can see why. Featuring a stylish tweed pattern and suede lining on the collar, pocket trims and the back belt on the reverse side, it makes an elegant choice for any occasion. 3 Boughton shooting socks RRP £42  www.shootingsocks.co.uk Made from a luxurious merino wool blend, these beautiful socks are available in a range of colours with the option of a co-ordinating garter to add a little extra colour and…

It is important to remember things like stinging nettles can be unpleasant for dogs. While my older dogs will happily hunt in them, I do not ask them to pick dummies out of them. They have learned over the years that the sting is often worth it as birds can be hidden in there — and a bird is the ultimate reward. A canvas dummy will always hold less excitement for them. So rather than have the dog “fail” or start to take odd lines, I will not train much in cover that could put them off. Once I feel Keepa is taking direction into cover, I start to make the retrieves more difficult. I use smaller objects, such as tennis balls and canvas discs, so he has to hunt…

IT IS NOW SEVEN months since Emma the sprocker spaniel puppy arrived in the Tomlinson household. Any early concerns that she wouldn’t be accepted by Rowan, my home-bred 12-year-old springer, were soon banished and the two have become firm friends, even sharing beds. There is just one rule: food is not to be shared. Though they can be fed at the same time, we have to be careful that Rowan doesn’t poach the puppy’s dinner. There is absolutely no possibility that the opposite could happen. Emma has constantly surprised us with her speed and energy. Were any of our springer puppies as fast or as energetic as her? We think not, though it is remarkable how you forget such things as the years slip by. While it is great to…

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 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 JEREMY HUNT Runs Fenway Labradors and a professional gundog trainer TIM MADDAMS Former head chef at River Cottage and runs a shoot in Devon SIMON WHITEHEAD Author, professional ferreter and rabbit controller IAIN WATSON Keen stalker and senior…

Originally known as the decoy duck, the call duck is thought to have originated in Asia, then imported into Holland, but the breed was standardised in the UK in 1865. The call duck’s ancestor is the mallard: one of the recognised colour variants is known as the mallard due to its similarity to the wild bird. Other recognised colours include apricot, bibbed, blue fawn, dark silver, silver, pied and white. What all call ducks have in common is their compact size — they are considerably smaller than a mallard — with distinctive round heads and short bills. Bred originally to lure wild ducks into traditional duck decoys or in range of the gun, they are lively and noisy, the duck’s high-pitched “quack” far carrying. Today they are kept largely as…

Shooting is becoming ever more accessible to a greater audience, none more so than women. This increasing popularity has driven the creation of fantastic communities such as Femmes Fatales and the Shotgun & Chelsea Bun Club, allowing women of all ages and abilities to get involved and meet like-minded individuals. Traditionally, gamekeeping and wildlife management courses at further education level have been very male dominated. However, in the past few years there has been a steady increase in the number of young women applying for, and enrolling on to, full-time courses at Newton Rigg College. The current academic year has attracted the highest number yet, with female students making up just over 20 per cent of the group. “Only a fifth of students are female, that’s not very good”, you…

The shooting season is now in full swing and we have started on the pheasants. The weather has turned colder — at last — and the dogs are settling into their working and trialling routine well. My two-year-old dog Keepa has been coming on well over the summer and I am now looking to run him in a trial at some point this season. For this I need him to be ready and have plenty of picking-up experience. He has completed a few training days and three full days’ picking-up. There is nothing like the real thing to prepare a dog for their trialling career. I have a full team of experienced dogs, which means I can choose the retrieves I ask Keepa to complete and hence work him on…

Briar is now nine months old and really growing. She is already as tall as her mother and starting to fill out nicely. At her age, the physical side of her exercise is still limited as her joints form and she grows. So I am still focusing on the basic skills, including heel, sit and recall. Her drive for retrieving has increased tenfold and her personality is beginning to show. She has bags of drive and has started to understand the different components of the retrieve. She now understands she only ever gets sent for a retrieve when she is on my left. Because I have always enforced this, it means she is desperate to get into pole position, which is exactly what I want. She is also starting to…

I was sitting on a train to London last week. Not a peak-time train and I didn’t travel from a particularly busy station but nevertheless there were people standing in the aisles and huddled in the corners between carriages with nowhere to sit. Arrival at Euston was another mad rush. People spewed out of the doors, rushed up the platform to catch different trains, to board buses or to head down to the underground for yet more queuing, more overcrowding and even poorer-quality air. I too headed to the Tube only to find my line closed due to trespassers. I had two choices — walk or take a taxi. Not knowing my way round London, I took a taxi, naively thinking it would be quicker. What was, according to my…

I was chatting to a friend, a passionate trialler, who was reminiscing about past triumphs and disasters. “Of course,” he said, “you should never forget that trialling has little to do with finding the best dog: it is all about establishing which is the luckiest dog.” He was joking, but what made the joke funny was that there was so much truth in what he said. Of all the sports I can think of, there is not a single one I know where luck plays such a major role as it does in trialling. In many ways it is part of the attraction, and it is certainly a major slice of the challenge. There is no doubt that a talented dog with an experienced handler always stands the best chance…

Latin name: Iris foetidissima Common name: Stinking iris Other names: Blue seggin, adder’s meat, gladdon, roast- beef plant, scarlet-seeded iris, stinking gladwyn How to spot it and where to find it: This is our other native iris, the first being the prettier yellow flag. But while this has rather dull, greyish-blue flowers from May to July, in autumn and winter its seedpods split open to reveal rows of large, glowing orange-red seeds that provide colour through the winter, ripening from October to February. A hardy plant, its architectural leaves remain green throughout the year and it will flourish in shaded spots. Interesting facts: It is the time of year for unwanted smellies and this stinker gets its name from the unpleasant, meaty odour its leaves give off when crushed. In…

My dear old friend Charles Fenn was laid to rest in the churchyard overlooking the village house in which he had lived for so many years. It was an endorsement of his popularity that the church was packed to capacity with his friends, shooting companions and villagers, all of whom had come to pay their final respects to a man who had brought so much pleasure into their lives. Charles had been one of the Guns who took part in the first day this season on the small DIY shoot which he and I had organised and, with volunteer help, launched some five years ago. It was a steep learning curve and, for both of us, engendered a deep respect for professional gamekeepers and some understanding of the hard work…

There is a great deal of heated discussion going on about hot air. Or rather, greenhouse gas emissions. Of these, methane is by far the most potent. In its latest report, the Government’s advisory committee on climate change (CCC) has said the number of sheep and cattle in the UK should be reduced by between a fifth and half. The reduction is needed to head off the severity of climate change, according to the CCC. Cattle and sheep produce much more methane than pigs, let alone poultry. We need to reduce the national beef and sheep herds, says the report. Well, perhaps. But I’ll tell you who do produce an awful lot of gas; vegans. Habitual lentil-munchers are always breaking wind. It’s a verifiable fact. And in that very specific…