Innholdsfortegnelse for 08-May-2019 i Shooting Times & Country

When I was young, I spent countless hours flicking a fly across a small pond that had been stocked with a few trout. Most of the time, I caught nothing. At first, going fishing without catching any fish seemed a bit of a raw deal but in time, it ceased to matter. The teal that sometimes got up off the water when I arrived, and the geese that circled in spring, looking for somewhere to nest, became just as thrilling as something on the end of my line. The owner of the pond, a keen Shooting Times reader, built another and then a third. I’m not sure if that was where my love of ponds came from but a decade later, when I received my first wage packet, I hired…

PAY Make sure you pay your wildfowling club membership subscription so that the club has its necessary funds. Shooting Times contributor Richard Negus explains: “The money goes towards paying farmers for the sporting rights over grazing marshes and/or buying new land, securing its sporting and conservation future.” APPLY BASC North is looking to support a small number of pond projects. The projects must be located in the region covered by BASC North and involve Young Shots. Duncan Thomas, director at BASC North, said: “Ideally, we would help fund the creation of a pond or scrape, with children assisting in planting and wildlife surveys, then shooting a few ducks during the season.” Contact duncan.thomas@ basc.org.uk for more information.…

OBITUARY — ARTHUR LEEK Arthur Leek was the original founder member of Hull & East Riding Wildfowlers’ Association (HERWA) in 1953. On seeing his beloved wildfowling coming under threat on the Humber, Arthur sought advice from the grand old man of WAGBI himself, Stanley Duncan, who said “get yourselforganisedorotherwise you will lose your shooting”. These words set Arthur on the formation of HERWA, which is still active 66 years later and still championing his cause by fighting to protect wildfowling. Arthur held all positions within the club, culminating in honorary life membership and the respected position of vice-president — a position he was very proud to hold. Arthur actively contributed to his own club and to the wider world of wildfowling for more than 40 years, from the early WAGBI…

NO PEACE FOR THE WICKED The summer is often — wrongly, in my opinion — seen as downtime for the ferreter. For me, it is the time that my plans for next winter (and beyond) with regards to my work, my team and my gear are in full swing. The hard work starts the moment the ferrets are back in their cages for the last time this season. My ferrets have been mated and their due dates marked on my planner so that I have no surprises. As usual I carry high hopes for next season’s grafters. My nets are still in use but I have already sourced some extremely well-thought-out and well-made long-net systems, ones that I have been trialling this winter. A lot of people are happy with…

To be hailed as an effective trapper of moles is one of those rural accolades that ranks alongside being considered a good Shot or the sort of chap who can drink 20 pints of bitter and still get up to milk the cows. The humble mole, while a rarely seen member of our native fauna, has been responsible for numerous and notable crimes. It stands accused of regicide; King William III died from pneumonia after breaking his collarbone in a fall from his horse when it stumbled on a molehill. It is a poisoner; deaths in cattle from listeria are frequently attributed to mole spoil becoming mixed with grass cut for silage. It is a creator of sporting disasters; the village bowls tournament was cancelled in 1958 due to mole…

The experts at the Red Squirrel South West group have spent much time perfecting their techniques for grey squirrel control and found an optimised trap design, using a top entry box, easily assembled from wood, which contains a Fenn trap baited with a hazelnut stuck down with chocolate spread. This simple arrangement is devilishly effective and many readers will have surplus Fenn traps since the changes in legislation. What better way of putting them back to use and performing a valuable service?…

I became convinced many years ago that many of us have been over-vaccinating our dogs, and this is a subject I wrote about recently (Better safe than sorry, 6 March). However, over-vaccination is different and far less worrying than not vaccinating at all. So I was alarmed to read that the Federation of European Companion Animal Veterinary Associations (FECAVA) believes that the anti-vaccination movement, fuelled by social media, has resulted in vaccination rates in the UK sinking below the threshold at which small outbreaks of deadly conditions can be naturally contained. According to the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, some 25 per cent of the UK’s dogs no longer receive a primary course of vaccinations as puppies, a rise from 20 per cent in 2011. This is worrying. Whether it…

Latin name: Allium ursinum Common name: Wild garlic Other names: Bear’s garlic, broadleaved garlic, buckrams, ramsons, wood garlic How to spot it and where to find it: Most people who live in, or visit, the countryside will be familiar with wild garlic. As Tim Maddams wrote in our wild food series (Held to ransoms, 10 April), it is probably the first herb they forage as adults after the stinging nettle. And it’s highly likely that you will smell it before you see it, as it is every bit as pungent as its cultivated cousin. Walk through a woodland where it grows abundantly and its scent will hit you as you crush it underfoot. Be careful when picking the leaves, though, as they can resemble those of lily-of-the-valley, which is poisonous.…

1 Which famous wildfowler set up the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust? A Sir Peter Scott B Kenzie Thorpe C Stanley Duncan D Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey 2 What are Cheviot, Greyface Dartmoor and Exmoor Horn? A Pigs B Cattle C Goats D Sheep 3 Who is credited with creating the first refined sporting guns in the 1790s and referred to as the father of British gunmakers? A Henry Atkin B William Greener C Joseph Manton D Henry Holland 4 Which wild mammal was recently protected in Scotland? A Pine marten B Beaver C Polecat D Mountain hare The Accreditation is based on The Knowledge book on the conservation benefits of game management and the law on shoot days.To order, visit www.gwctknowledge.com. Do you know the law? Now take the real test!…

The end of the fallow stalking season and the opening of the roebuck merged into one. After a busy couple of months, I was glad to see the fallow at an end. Fallow deer are particularly difficult to manage. They soon learn where is safe and where is not. With them being so transient and having such large ranges, getting on top of them is next to impossible without the help and co-operation of your neighbours, something I thankfully have. Towards the end of last month, when we had all but finished the fallow and had made a gentle start on the roebucks, my shot placement started to go awry. I wasn’t missing but, at the same time, a few of the entry holes weren’t where I expected them to…

Almost 40 per cent of people living in Britain’s cities aren’t keen on visiting the countryside because there is “nothing to do”, according to new research commissioned by the Game Fair. More than a quarter of the 1,024 respondents had not visited the countryside in the past 12 months. Other reasons for avoiding it were lack of mobile phone signal/WiFi; feeling out of place; and not knowing enough about country pursuits. Liam Bell, chairman of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, said: “People who find the countryside boring should make an effort to disconnect digitally before judging it.” See the results at po.st/countrypoll. H&H bursary Gunmaker Holland & Holland has launched a bursary scheme of up to £10,000 to allow young keepers and stalkers to pursue further study or projects in conservation…

As someone who has spent many years enjoying the countryside and all it has to offer — fishing, shooting, ferreting and so on — and as someone who has been affected by mental health issues in recent years, I’ve often wondered if there was any way in which people who organise and run countryside pursuits could work with mental health charities such as Mind or Mental Health UK. To suffer with mental health issues puts restrictions on your quality of life but I have found that taking part in countryside activities is a brilliant tonic for how I’m feeling. Fresh air and long walks in our beautiful British countryside with friends and like-minded people can really lift my mood and leave me feeling much more positive. I would be interested…

I spotted my first truly wild English boar in Powerstock woods, Dorset, nearly 20 years ago. I was on an assignment for a national newspaper that wanted an eye-witness report, having heard the species had escaped from farms then been naturalised in British woodland. In truth, the only part of the animal I saw was its rear end for a split second as it vanished into some undergrowth. “In Italy and France, the high population of boar matches a strong culture for cooking with this leaner version of pork” My instinct was to welcome the rewilding of the boar, though this was based on a liking for their meat; farmers regard them as pests. I have eaten wild boar often in Italy and France, where the high population of boar…

A mere 37 years ago, when I was still editing Shooting Times, I wrote an article for the magazine’s centenary issue in which I reflected on the brevity of a century, though there had been some astonishing changes in the shooting world during that brief span. I observed that while there had been mind-boggling developments in transport, communications and standards of living, to a moderate extent we still employ side-by-side shotguns in the field. Despite the current dominance of the over-and-under, the side-by-side is still successfully used by many sportsmen and women who choose to adhere to tradition and a type of gun that has, over many decades, proved its worth. Right up until 25 April when the general licences were revoked, the essential elements of sporting shooting remained unchanged,…

Muntjac fawn’s missing spots STALKING Q Are muntjac fawns usually born without spots? A female muntjac on our shoot recently appeared with what looked like a newborn that was ginger in colour but had no visible spots. It was too small to be more than a day or so old. I thought all deer were born with spots. Have you come across this before? A As an aid to concealment, deer are born with spots, which they lose during the first few months of their lives. The timing is dependent on the species and the individual animal. However, as with all animals, colour variations or aberrations do turn up occasionally. In some species, fallow being an example, a range of coat colours can be found, while in others, such as…

Birdwatchers looking out for black redstarts can get some funny looks as they patrol city streets in the early hours. These scarce, robin-sized birds use our roofscapes in the same way that their cousins use coastal cliff edges and rocky gorges. Instead of chasing insects across short grass and nesting between rocks, they choose to live the same sort of lives above our heads. Black redstarts are particularly associated with dilapidated buildings in the older parts of town centres, such as those found around railway stations, town halls and industrial areas. These are mainly birds of warmer climates, so it is unsurprising that most British breeding records are from the south-east. However, individuals can be encountered anywhere in England, and perhaps beyond. The male’s attractive song gets lost in the…

A Natural England official involved in granting consents for wildfowling once asked a club member where the Guns stood while the beaters drove the birds towards them. True story. I know several Natural England employees. I like every one of them. But I do wonder about the customer focus of the agency. This has been a criticism since the day it came into existence by transmogrifying from English Nature (EN) into Natural England (NE) in 2006. Did anything really change? On 29 April, the Telegraph carried a letter from Lord Blencathra (formerly David Maclean MP). He confessed that it was he, in his role as then acting chair of NE, who oversaw the treatment of general licences (News, 1 May). As for allegations that newly installed chair Tony Juniper had…

1 Hawker light jacket RRP £129.99 www.seeland.com This ultralight shell jacket with clever double pockets is well suited to the changeable spring/summer weather. The breathable jacket, which is available in pine green, features a waterproof zip and waterproof and windproof membrane. 2 Wigens linen bucket hat RRP £61 www.bernardhats.com This super-lightweight bucket hat made of 100 per cent linen in blue plaid is a great accessory to take with you fishing. Wrinkle resistant and smooth to the touch, the hat makes for a stylish look on the riverbank. 3 Fishpond West Bank wading belt RRP £49.99 www.fly-fi shing-tackle.co.uk Fishpond created this belt with a spot for your net, attachment slots for a Quikshot rod holder, a floating “rail” where you can strap on packs, water bottle holders,…

Dr Mils Hills on the “gaming” of the system over general licences LAWFARE IS a form of war consisting of the use of the legal system against an enemy. With the legal action that has led to the withdrawal of the general licences, we see the world of political activism impacting on agriculture and fieldsports through gaming the legal system. There is nothing inherently unethical about such gaming — the finding of loopholes, historic errors in the framing of regulations — but it can produce ethically dubious or downright injurious effects. With the withdrawal of general licences by Natural England, curlew and songbird chicks, lambs and crops will lose out. Bird species whose survival or population growth is only sustainable through the lethal control of avian predators — including by…

After a winter of discontent on the local rabbit front, they have now gone into a breeding frenzy. One has turned into 10 and these chisel-toothed destroyers are starting to make an impression on the crops. One night, I decided to stretch Tawny’s legs and have a look at some areas where the farmer had noticed typical crescent-shaped rabbit damage. To the unaccustomed, lamping a lurcher is a simple and straightforward exercise. To me it is fraught with danger but fantastic at the same time. Watching the canine athletes work is exhilarating and unpredictable, and a legitimate method of rabbit control that will take your breath away. I travelled light; a lamp, Tawny and a sliver of leather rope attached to her collar. I raise my dogs to believe that…

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…