Innholdsfortegnelse for 13-Feb-2019 i Shooting Times & Country

Last week, I sat across the table from Mark Thomas, the RSPB’s head of investigations. Readers will be reassured to hear I wasn’t in trouble; I was learning about the organisation tackling wildlife crime. It was disappointing to hear Mark recognise that, when he engages with shooting, it is because someone is suspected of doing something wrong. As opposed to engaging with sport as we know it. However, I was also delighted to learn that the RSPB appreciates the work shooting has done in terms of promoting curlew conservation. Inevitably, the conversation turned to raptor persecution. My view on this — that a small criminal minority must not be allowed to threaten the future of fieldsports for the law-abiding majority — was met with approval. However, I made it clear…

Bright future for English gunmaking Holland & Holland has selected six apprentices whom the company will train to be future master gunsmiths. Chosen from a pool of 350 applicants aged 18 to 27, the trainees will follow a tailored National Vocational Qualification programme under the guidance of Paul Yelverton, Holland & Holland’s longest-serving gunmaker, who began his career as an apprentice at the company. After two years of learning the basics, the young team will be invited to specialise in a particular area. The training school at Holland & Holland is planning to recruit five to six new apprentices every two years until further notice. Grey squirrel on the menu Sales of squirrel meat appear to be rising as increasing numbers of diners demand sustainable, cruelty-free alternatives to regular cuts,…

1 Simms G3 Guide tactical jacket RRP £499  www.fishingmegastore.com With the salmon season under way, now is a great time to invest in a jacket that will last and the G3 Guide is an excellent choice. Its cuffs provide a watertight seal that keeps you dry even while releasing your catch of the day. 2 Promatic Pigeon trap RRP £369.99  www.avalon-guns.com If you are disappointed with your shooting performance in the season just gone, why not get some practice in for next year? The Promatic Pigeon is perfect for honing your technique with a small group of friends. The portable trap can hold 50 clays and has a throwing distance of around 70 yards. 3 Jack Pyke quick wick armour top RRP £15.95  www.jackpykeshop.co.uk This is a lightweight top with…

Serves 2 FOR THE CURRY SAUCE: 1 In a pan, soften the onion, garlic, carrot, apple and ginger in the oil. 2 Once softened, add the turmeric and stir. 3 Add the flour and curry powder and stir until the vegetables and fruit are coated. 4 Add the vinegar, soy sauce and brown sugar. 5 Slowly stir in the stock, until the sauce begins to thicken. 6 Simmer until the sauce reduces and thickens further. Once you are happy with the consistency, take the pan off the heat. 7 Run the mixture through a sieve so you are left with a smooth, silky sauce. Set to one side. FOR THE PHEASANT: 1 Place the pheasant breast between two sheets of cling film and lightly beat with a rolling pin until…

Watchers of nature documentaries will be well aware that predators eat one another. Lions eat most things, other predators included, until the hyenas gang up and eat one of them. It happens all the way down the food chain, though many in this country seem to find it hard to believe that one raptor will eat another, for example. The whole subject is quite simple but can also be quite complex. From my experience, predators eating one another is going to become increasingly common, for the simple reason that there are more of them than there have ever been in our living memory. There are more foxes, more badgers, dare I say it, more otters, than anyone has ever known. On the other hand many of the smaller predators are…

It has been two years since we lost our final ferret. We found the old warrior curled up in his straw as if he were fast asleep, and we took a moment to recall the many happy days we shared with him. There was a time when we had four workers and the local rabbits still tremble at their memory. We had two big silver hobs, then rounded off the team with a pair of polecat jills. It was grand to set them working on some of the big warrens below the house. Hours of my life melted away in the pursuit of sullen old coneys. Now the rabbit numbers have declined and life leaves little space for ferrets. People often say that ferrets are low-maintenance animals. They don’t take…

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…

One of the largest breeds of chicken in the world, the giant Jersey doesn’t come from the Channel Islands, as the name might suggest, but from New Jersey in the US, where it was created in the late 19th century. Black Javas, black Langshans and dark Brahmas were all used to produce the giant Jersey, which was intended as a replacement table bird for the turkey. For a time they were bred for their meat, but they are slow to grow and have long since been usurped by more commercial breeds. Originally black, there are also blue and white varieties. Jerseys are good layers, producing big brown-shelled eggs. Like most large breeds, they are renowned for their docility and even the cocks are seldom aggressive. The latter can weigh as…

WE’VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR YEARS I sit through Winterwatch from a sense of duty, not because I enjoy watching Chris Packham showing off and patronising his co-presenters. My dedication was rewarded recently by his enthusiastic endorsement of a scheme in which some local people persuaded a farmer to cultivate an acre or two with bird-friendly plants. Footage showed linnets and chaffinches happily foraging while Mr Packham went on about how wonderful it would be if this was repeated across the country. The next day was our last of the season and as we walked through the game crops we saw clouds of linnets and chaffinches, all courtesy of the fact that the land is managed in part to facilitate shooting game. The PACEC [Public and Corporate Economic Consultants] review…

Graham Frankish (right), a popular and much admired headkeeper at Ryde Farm estate, Surrey, died on 16 January. He was born and raised in Preston, Lancashire; a town boy with a passion for nature and wildlife. He studied gamekeeping at Sparsholt College of Agriculture from 1979 to 1980 and, on leaving, he took an underkeeper’s position at Rothwell, Lincolnshire, for Sir Joseph Nickerson. He quickly shone in his role and within a year was promoted to a single-handed position for Sir Joseph at Tealby. During this time his skills and reputation grew. Upon the death of Sir Joseph in 1990, Graham felt it was time to move on. Sir Joseph was held in high regard by Lord Forte of Ripley so when there was a vacancy for a headkeeper at…

Once the shot has been taken, it must first be ascertained beyond doubt that the animal is dead. This might sound obvious, but neck-shot deer can occasionally be paralysed, sometimes temporarily, and should be despatched humanely as soon as possible. The universally accepted test is to gently tap the open eyeball with stalking sticks or a twig to test for a reaction (left). Bleeding of the animal should then follow as soon as possible. Blood decomposes much faster than flesh and properly draining the blood will allow you to hang the carcase for longer without spoilage. Poorly bled venison also has a distinct and not altogether pleasant tang” to it which your dinner guests won’t thank you for. The simplest way to bleed a carcase is to position it with…

Your carcase is now lighter, cleaner and ready for removal to a game larder or cool place for further preparation and inspection before it continues its journey into the food chain. Most carcase contamination occurs in the field and we bear sole responsibility for ensuring that the animal is treated as carefully as possible to minimise this. In return we are amply rewarded with the wonderful opportunity to follow a truly wild animal all the way from field to fork with the confidence that the finished product will provide a safe and delicious justification for our sport.…

WHY A LACK OF DOES IS A CAUSE FOR WOE Winter is back on track. The new year brought with it more experience for the young stock, our undergrowth has finally died back and the rabbits are starting to show themselves. This can be a frustrating time. The shooting season has finished, opening up large areas of land, but as ferreters we only have a certain amount of time before our ferrets start to get hormonal. Once they do, their minds wander and consistency drops. For this reason many of mine are castrated. Rabbits are also starting to become maternal. Warrens are splitting up and, as rabbits wander, a lot of my warrens only contain the odd doe or brace of does. This year I have been catching a lot…

The season of 2018-19 went well for us, though we did have our fair share of setbacks, all of them caused by the weather. The first challenge of the year was the Beast from the East. The hens were settling into the laying pen, looking well and just starting to shine when they had 2ft of snow dumped on them. The laying pen had been netted only a few weeks before. Because it is such a big job, I was reluctant to take the nets off again only to have to put them back on when the snow had gone, but I was glad I did. We had 10 days of worry as the snow piled against the sides of the pen. It was higher than the electric fence where…

Latin name: Helleborus foetidus Common name: Stinking hellebore Other names: Barfoot, bear’s foot, ox heel, setterwort, stinkwort How to spot it and where to find it: New shoots are appearing and the ground is no longer barren. But apart from snowdrops and perhaps some early daffodils, a source of some bright colour at this time of year is the stinking hellebore, an evergreen with dark palmate foliage and pale clusters of lime-green, bell-shaped flowers that appear from February to April. A perennial, its erect stems may reach 80cm and it can measure 50cm across. Found in woodland and roadside verges, it is particularly fond of limestone-based soils. Interesting facts: There is a good reason for its unfortunate name; while sniffing the flowers won’t make you want to hold your nose,…

A friend of a friend was injured during a day’s shooting last season. Not by a gun, thank goodness, but by a four-wheel drive. Or rather, by an aftermarket vehicle accessory. By which I mean those side bars that are supposed to provide you with a stepping point up and over the sill. In this case, his foot slipped and was caught between the bar and the bodywork. He fell, with his foot trapped, with the result that one of his leg bones was badly fractured. What, exactly, is the practical purpose of these side bars? I have had many offroaders, but only one had side bars — and I discovered that they were worse than useless. They are mud traps and the muck inevitably gets transferred to the back…

SUBSCRIBE Do you fancy a day’s pigeon shooting with one of the best pigeon Shots in the country? Subscribe to Shooting Times to be entered into a prize draw to join our pigeon shooter-in-chief, Tom Payne. Whether you are a novice on the wily woodies or a regular pigeon Shot, this is a chance not to be missed, especially when a subscription starts at just £24.99. Visit po.st/pigeonday. ORDER Now the season is over, it is time to have a good tidy up. Go on to the pegs and pick up any missed cartridges. Top up feeders to keep the stock you have left well fed, which will improve their chances of breeding successfully. Clean and disinfect any drinkers that have been left out and put them away. Any wire…

The continued use of plastic in shooting has been an incredibly hot topic this season and it has been positive to see our community being generally proactive in their outlook. In the case of plastic shells, there is a clear understanding of the options. If you are unhappy shooting with single-use plastics, you can easily move to available paper shells; the alternative is to ensure your shells are being recycled. The use of plastic wads is more complicated in the knowledge that they are a necessity for many cartridges, including steel shot. Plastic wads have a negative impact on the environment, which is why the Countryside Alliance is fully supportive of all research currently going into fibre wads for non-lead shot cartridges. J. Knott, campaigns manager, Countryside Alliance…

While I tap away at my computer, writing about pursuing wild ducks and geese, my cocker spaniel, Mabel, sees it as her duty to join me. She curls her diminutive obsidian self on to the chair next to mine. Her attractive head raises every once in a while, seemingly to ease my writer’s block. When she subsides back to sleep her vigorous dreams appear to involve swimming, her legs rhythmically paddling. She smells vaguely of marsh-duck, salt tang and estuarine mud. Her ear dreadlocks, a near-daily recurrence regardless of grooming, carry nuggets of dried ooze and desiccated crab grass. Meanwhile her youthful face bares a scar worthy of a Teutonic military academy duellist caused by a long-forgotten and incomprehensibly placed barbed wire fence on the saltings. She has wholeheartedly embraced…

Young people are the future of shooting. It is therefore vital that we produce recipes which will get “millennials” interested in the ethical superiority of game and putting it on the table. Throughout the year, my recipe selection will showcase exciting dishes, nibbles and snacks, drawing inspiration from modern street food. I have never wanted game to seem off-putting. While I don’t think it should be dumbed down, recipes that can be enjoyed by children and young people and don’t require 50 ingredients are very important. Pheasant katsu curry — my first offering in this new series — is a dish that embodies my culinary philosophy. The katsu originated in the late 1800s with western-Indian influence. It was known as katsuretsu and was first made with beef or pork. Now…

One of the least remarkable of the New Year canine stories came from the University of Liverpool and Mars Petcare’s Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition. A paper published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine revealed that overweight dogs are more likely to have shorter lives than those at ideal body weights. I think that most of us would have suspected that, rendering two decades of research unnecessary. The study examined more than 50,000 dogs across a dozen of our most popular breeds. The effect of being overweight was seen in all of them, knocking two and a half years off the life expectancy of a Yorkshire terrier, for example. The data came from the US-based Banfield Pet Hospital; canine obesity is clearly a major problem in America. We can…

Catching-up spare hens GAMEKEEPING Q We have quite a few hen birds left on our shoot. Is it worth catching them and selling them to a game farm, or should we leave them where they are and hope they breed? A It may have been worth catching the hens up in January, but as we are now in February it is against the law to do so. Leave them where they are, start a spring feeding programme and try to find some time to carry out some targeted predator control. If you concentrate on reducing the numbers of foxes and corvids, you may be surprised by the results. Seeing wild pheasant and partridge chicks, and watching them as they grow, is most rewarding. Shooting a few next season could be…

An adult Iceland gull is quite easy to miss — it is basically just a small, pale, herring gull but without the black wingtips. Younger birds are more distinctive; in the first winter, Iceland gulls are cappuccino coloured, moulting to pure white in the second year. Iceland gulls are seen around our coasts in winter, especially in north and north-west Scotland. In the summer, pairs breed in Greenland and Canada, not Iceland, as might be suggested by their name. It is assumed that the birds we see in the winter come from Greenland but, with few ringed individuals to work with, it would not be surprising if some were from the Canadian Arctic, on the other side of Baffin Bay. The other “white” gull that appears in the winter is…