Innholdsfortegnelse for 19-Jun-2019 i Shooting Times & Country

Last season, after a good morning on a farm syndicate, I sat down for lunch next to an 86-year-old. He had been perched on his shooting stick all morning, wielding his side-by-side with ruthless efficiency. He told me he had been part of the syndicate since he was a teenager. He recalled back then the bag was made up of grey partridges and hares and he didn’t come across a pheasant until he was at least 30. What interested me most was his potted history of how prosperity among farmers has been married to the fortunes of shooting. When farmers have spare cash, syndicates spring up and when agriculture does badly, they fold. Our countryside is a colourful place full of history, traditions and eccentric characters. Every time I am…

There are countless scientific studies on predation, as well as the plethora of papers that have ensued from those works. But a group that considers itself a conservation body has dealt the conservation of some of the country’s most vulnerable ground-nesting birds a serious blow. I am, of course, referring to the total shambles that ensued from the challenge to the legality of the general licences to control a range of species (News, 1 May), both native and invasive. What I cannot understand is the manner in which Natural England (NE), which issues the licences, caved in — and the timing of it. When I was chairman of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) in 2015, we considered taking NE to judicial review for failing to issue a licence to one…

The Craigenputtock estate is one of the most rural residences in south-west Scotland, covering 800 acres of typical Dumfriesshire hill ground made up of white grass, heather and endless rushes. This beautiful yet unassuming estate is arguably one of the most historically significant landscapes in the region. Regarded as the influential writer Thomas Carlyle’s favourite residence, the house and its grounds have graced the presence of renowned writers, academics and artists including naturalist Charles Darwin, acclaimed American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson and artist Tames Paterson. Waders The blanket bogs that surround Craigenputtock House were used after the 1745 Tacobite rebellion by the then Laird of Craigenputtock to lure Tacobite dragoons into a boggy trap, where their “heavy horses sank mostly or altogether into the treacherous green swamps”. Those bogs now…

Different prepping suits different styles of cooking. Chef Tim Maddams suggests young birds fully dressed are best for roasting. A plump bird breasted or crowned, preferably with skin on and cooked on the bone, goes well with some new potatoes. Off the bone try it with fresh broad beans. Good-quality breast meat is suitable for wraps or stroganoff, or to make kebabs to cook on the barbecue.…

It’s been a gradual journey this year from spring into summer. As I write this in mid-May, the hawthorn blossom is not yet fully out on the hedgerows, the oak and ash are not yet in full leaf, and here in east Suffolk there has been frost on the ground each morning for the past three days. My morning stalk gets earlier by the day, but it is because of the slow advance of spring that I am still able to get out after the muntjac. We do not have a significant population of roe around these parts, so there is no summer morning roebuck stalking, but we do, of course, have our muntjac, for which there is no close season. The reason for this is that muntjac breed all…

THE ULTIMATE SHOOTING QUIZ TEAM 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…

Anew set of general licences has been issued by Defra, following the outcry over their revocation by Natural England after pressure from campaign group Wild Justice. The new licences have been welcomed by shooting and countryside organisations, but problems remain over shooting on protected sites. “Users will need to ensure they comply with the conditions of that particular licence” The move marks a return to the previous three-licence structure. The new WML GL34 licences control carrion crow, jackdaw, jay, magpie, rook, Canada goose, Egyptian goose, monk parakeet, ring-necked parakeet, sacred ibis and Indian house-crow to protect wild birds and flora or fauna. The new WML GL35 licences control carrion crow, jackdaw, magpie, feral pigeon, rook, Canada goose and monk parakeet to preserve public health or public safety. Control of carrion…

DOG Defra is encouraging those planning to take a gundog shooting abroad after 31 October to reread the official advice about travelling. If the UK leaves without a deal on 31 October, owners of dogs will need to ensure the animal has a blood test at least 30 days after its last rabies vaccination and will have to wait three calendar months before travelling. After November you will need to contact your vet at least four months before travelling – so if you’re going shooting in France with your gundog in November you’ll need to be talking to the vet by early July. Read the advice at www.gov.uk/ take-pet-abroad. CHECK The season will be here before you know it. Check the tyres on your vehicle are up to the job.…

The new weekly Beekeeping diary is a really good addition to Shooting Times (see p.53). It is of general interest and I have a friend who became an apiarist a few years ago who learned about the “bee boredom” phenomenon through reading my copy of the magazine. The column also reminded me of an unusual occurrence in this area about 30 years ago. The local paper published a story about a local beekeeper whose hives had suddenly started producing bright green honey. The honey apparently tasted fine but the beekeeper was obviously concerned about what was causing the unusual colour. About a decade later, I happened to be working with a farmer’s wife who also remembered the story and she then admitted she thought her son may have been the…

Tom Cruise’s character “Maverick” Mitchell didn’t become Top Gun in the 1986 film for several reasons. First, he was a self-confessed danger to others. Secondly, his somewhat lackadaisical attitude towards practice and protocol led to the tragic death of his best friend Goose, out of season. Finally, at the moment when it mattered most, he lost focus, becoming uncontrollably sweaty, wobbly of wrist and ultimately couldn’t take the shot. Such behaviour at most clay grounds in Britain would see the ivory-toothed flyer quite rightly asked to remove himself from the premises. In movie land, however, there aren’t any losers. Young “Mav” still gets to go to Top Gun in the end, despite being a dangerous misogynist with doubtful moral fibre and an ego that writes cheques his diminutive body cannot…

NOW, ARE YOU SITTING DOWN? The V6 starts at £38,350 plus VAT. There are quite a few added extras on this one, too — £8,639 worth — giving us a total on-the-road price of £56,386. But relax — we can do a bit of trimming. Check out Mercedes-Benz online vehicle builder and you can have hours of fun. Though very good, the all-singing “Command online” we can probably do without — it’s £2,290 that we can spend elsewhere. Likewise, I’m not overly fussed by a black roof lining; that’s £220 saved. If we’re being frugal, we can trim off £1,015 on the Style package. We’ll keep the leather, diff lock and suspension, and definitely the camera. The bigger wheels, just because. Tow bar, load-liner, mudflaps, add a canopy and that…

Tom Adams, founder and managing director of the British Game Alliance, advises that game dealers will take birds in the feather — but they all request that the birds are either freshly shot or properly chilled for collection or delivery. It is estimated that 4million to 4.5million pigeons now go to dealers, a 10 per cent annual increase over the past five years. Research has shown that 50 or more game-processing businesses rely on pigeon meat in the close season to generate sufficient income to retain their skilled staff. The UK market share has increased by 20 per cent year on year over the past five years. This shows the popularity in the meat. There is still a great demand for woodpigeon in the European market as it is seen…

THERE’S A RULE IN motor racing that a good big ’un will always beat a good little ’un. However, the same rule doesn’t apply in horse racing — Tiger Roll was the smallest horse running in the past two Grand Nationals but won both contests. So how does the rule apply in the world of working gundogs? I’ve always been a fan of old-fashioned, full-size English springers but there’s been a marked trend towards smaller springers in recent years. These smaller dogs tend to be a little bit quicker so are favoured by the trialling fraternity, and some are hardly any bigger than a cocker. According to the breed standard, cockers can weigh as much as 32lb (14.5kg) and be 16in (41cm) at the withers: most working cockers today are…

Those of you who watch BBC One’s MasterChef will probably remember Juanita — not only because she came so close to winning but also because of her choice to cook game dishes on the show. But how did she get to where she is now? “My education in food not only came from my mother but also my culinary surrogate – or, as she’s more affectionately known, Delia [Smith],” she says. “I remember sitting cross-legged on the carpet in my school uniform, face sticky with bread and jam, transfixed by her cookery shows and dreaming of one day becoming just like her.” Huge thanks go to Juanita for helping out with these recipes, which she so kindly donated to the Country Food Trust. When you mention noodles to people they…

Latin name: Lacrymaria lacrymabunda Common name: Weeping widow How to spot it and where to find it: Commonly found in parks, fields, grass verges and woodland glades, this mushroom gets its interesting name from the droplets of water that hang from its yellowish-tan cap. The cap has a rather woolly appearance due to fine fibres that run from the centre to the edges. They trap water, which is then stained black by the spores, so the mushroom appears to weep black tears. When young, the cap is bell-shaped but it flattens with age. The stem is white or off-white, with scales and a ring near the top. Interesting facts: French mycologist Pierre Bulliard described this species in 1785, giving it the binomial name Agaricus lacrymabundus. In 1887 another Frenchman, Narcisse…

In June, before the dog days of high summer make fish reluctant to move, you can enjoy the cream of trout fishing in gin-clear chalkstreams. I love fishing those sacred streams of living water, where you can read each ripple and riffle and spot your quarry. This is true hunting. By contrast, I am not at all keen on sitting in a boat on a huge, featureless reservoir, casting continually in the vague hope of encountering a passing fish. In a big lake, there is far too much water around each individual trout for my liking. I like to identify an individual fish and stalk it, knowing I have a chance of gently drifting a dry fly right in front of its neb. As long as I can actually see…

Across the country, the Tory leadership race is hotting up. Shooting Times looks at which candidate would be best for fieldsports. From the outset, Dominic Raab’s credentials don’t look good as he is a member of the Blue Fox organisation, also known as Conservatives Against Fox Hunting. Shooting Times contributor Richard Negus agreed, saying he opted for “Boris Johnson because he is an arch libertarian and may well have had friends when he was at Eton who enjoyed beagling with the college pack. However, Boris’s new girlfriend Carrie Symonds is head of campaigns at environmental campaign Vibrant Oceans and he is said to be influenced by her. “ Rory Stewart has also been a popular MP of a rural constituency and has previously spoken out in favour of fox hunting.…

Fake meat on the menu? A new report from global consultancy A. T. Kearney claims most of the meat eaten by people in 2040 will not come from slaughtered animals. Instead, 60 per cent will be grown in vats or be meat-tasting, plant-based products. The findings cite the environmental cost of meat production and people’s concerns about industrially farmed animals. Shooting Timescontributor and author of the River Cottage Game Cookery Book Tim Maddams said: “2040 is not all that far away and I think it will take a lot longer for the public to shift towards less environmentally expensive meat replacements. Even then, though, there remains a very strong argument for eating wild game.” Tasty roadkill? Journalist and broadcaster Janet Street-Porter has announced she has been eating roadkill for some…

We seem to be winning the battle to save the red squirrel here in the parish of Kirkbean – I am crossing all my fingers and toes as I write. All seemed lost; there were confirmed cases of squirrel pox five miles away and we were seeing greys in our woods. I assumed these were the reconnaissance troops of a tree rat army and that we would be powerless in the face of a grey blitzkrieg. We had seen it with Dutch elm disease, when our remote peninsula was one of the last places in the UK to succumb to it, and we watched impotently as our beautiful trees died one by one. Now it seemed that our cherished red squirrels would also soon be a memory to tell our…

We all know woodpigeon shooting provides fantastic, healthy meat and is a sustainable food source. I’ve always thought of the end product as the cherry on the cake for the hard work, fieldcraft and skill it requires for the shooter to achieve a good bag. Whether you have walked the hedgerows and shot a couple or had a successful day’s decoying, it’s important to make the most of this wild bounty. The pigeon is an agricultural pest but it is only ethical that the shot birds are put to good use. Many people are put off by the thought of dressing birds, but instead of just giving the game dealer a call, why not have a go at prepping your own? There are various ways you can dress woodpigeons. Some…

To make any significant impression on numbers of grey squirrels, you have to keep the pressure on. ease up on this invasive rodent for only a few months and it is remarkable how quickly they can make a comeback. For the past decade or so, i have shot something like 200 grey squirrels a year in a relatively small wood close to my home. That sounds like a large number and though it has resulted in a noticeably lower population — and a considerable reduction in the damage they cause — it never fails to amaze me how rapidly they re-establish. as a recent example, i accounted for 22 squirrels from a single feeding station during two weeks in april. When they stopped coming, i moved the feeder to a…

It’s often a case of the deeper in the countryside you are, the harder it is to find somewhere to exercise your dog. That certainly applies to where I live, as I’m surrounded by big farming estates with a paucity of footpaths or bridleways. However, not far from home is a 450-acre heath with open access, managed and owned by the local wildlife trust. It’s a delightful place to walk — I’ve been enjoying the cuckoos this spring — and not surprisingly draws dog walkers from far and wide. The trust has done a great deal of excellent work managing the heath, with a programme that has included the felling of mature Scots pines and the clearance of birch scrub. These actions have incurred the wrath of some dog walkers…

Feeding in front of high seats STALKING Q During a recent stalking trip to Poland I saw that a lot of hunting estates fed directly in front of their high seats. It’s not a practice I’ve seen in the UK. Is it ethical to do this? And what might be the pitfalls, if any? A There are a number of attractants that can be used to encourage quarry animals into a specific area, from salt licks to deer lawns, vegetables and sugar beet clamps to aromatics and proprietary livestock feeds. These are used for a variety of purposes. Sometimes the intention is to attract animals to be surveyed, at other times it’s used as a lure to get animals into a shooting position. As to the ethics of doing this,…

To add a ptarmigan to your UK birdwatching year list you’ll need to go to the top of the right Scottish mountain. In Iceland, however, where there are no other members of the grouse family, this is a species that can be seen right around the coast and hunted in years when population levels are high enough. There are only a few thousand pairs of ptarmigan left in Scotland and there is evidence that birds are being lost from lower hills in the Highlands as our climate gets warmer, possibly because they are losing out to red grouse. Male ptarmigans moult out of their white winter plumage later than females, making them obvious to predators where there is little snow or an early melt. Another problem is the attention their…

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