Innholdsfortegnelse for 10-Jul-2019 i Shooting Times & Country

Last week, I received a sad message from my mother. A group of three goslings whose progress she has been tracking since they were born on our pond have become only two. One afternoon they set off down the lane towards our local town. Spotting them, she headed them off and encouraged them back to the water. Somewhere along the way, one was lost — our neighbour’s cat is the prime suspect. In a few months, when those goslings have become geese, there is every chance I will shoot and eat them. On a simple level, I can understand why people think it paradoxical that those who shoot are guided by a deep-rooted respect for animals, but it’s entirely logical. Those who have lain in a ditch for hours with…

Anxiety seems to take hold of me at this time of the year. So much is riding on the right weather to deliver a harvestable surplus of our wild bird population. Two days of bad weather at the wrong moment can cripple a season so badly that the only option is to cancel all shooting. As I write, the weather in south Northumberland has been far from ideal for newly hatching partridges and pheasants. Fog, mist and rain are sweeping up from the south and lingering on the east coast before moving out into the North Sea. Reports from further south are already beginning to pick up on widespread rumours of catastrophic damage caused by unseasonably wet and at times cold conditions. So far in the north we have avoided…

A recent study by the GWCT shows that 25 per cent of released pheasant poults die before the shooting season begins, with a high percentage of this being due to fox predation. My main method of choice to control foxes on the estate is with a centrefire rifle, lamp and night vision. This is mainly due to my ability to cover a lot of ground quickly and often, but snaring also plays a vital role. Modern-day snaring should be used with extreme care and vigilance to stay within the law. The laws in England that cover snaring are under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; Animal Welfare Act 2006 and Deer Act 1991. Using drags or setting snares under fences is now illegal, so you must read through all the…

Canine fashion isn’t something that usually concerns me unduly — compared with the showdog world, there aren’t a lot of fashion accessories available for working gundogs. Trendy clips aren’t really possible, either, as our gundog breeds don’t have the right sort of coats. I remember reading somewhere that the extraordinary lion-cut favoured by owners of show poodles has its origins in the shooting field, when poodles were used as water retrievers, but I’m not convinced. However, I have noticed a growing trend for owners of both cockers and English springers to let their dogs sport wavy topknots, resulting in what looks like a curly haircut. I’ve checked in the breed standard for both and there aren’t any rules against heavily feathered heads, but there’s no doubt a dog sporting a…

Not a failure to launch GAME BIRDS Q At what age can grey partridge chicks fly? A Like all game birds, partridge chicks develop their wing feathers before their body feathers. Chicks as young as 10 days can flutter into the air if suddenly surprised, and this can be sufficient to allow them to escape from a possible predator. By the time they are roughly 15 days old they are capable of flight, though only for short distances. Such precocious flight is typical of all the game birds. Pheasant chicks can take off at 12 days, as can young red grouse, while capercaillie, the largest of all the grouse, are able to do so between two and three weeks. But as impressive as this may be, young megapodes —a family…

If there is a chance to get close to feeding gannets, then take it. Most people have seen diving gannets on the television but to witness the speed of approach, the last-minute folding of the wings and the silky entry into the water is really quite something. These are big birds; a wingspan of more than 5ft turns into a 3kg missile that hits the water at twice the speed of Usain Bolt. Hungry gannets take their cues from other gannets, with birds working alongside each other to take advantage of opportunities offered by shoaling fish. One of the best places to see gannets is Bass Rock, off North Berwick at the mouth of the Forth. On a calm day, the boatman can take you close enough to the colony…

CONTROL With silage and hay being cut across the country, great foxing opportunities are being created. Freshly mown fields often draw in foxes from the neighbouring countryside. Scanning fields with a lamp or thermal spotter could provide the chance to catch up with a troublemaker. CHECK Periods of warm weather increase the risk of botulism outbreaks in ducks and geese. The disease typically begins with an inability to dive or fly, and paralysis spreads to the legs and the neck, which become limp. If you suspect an outbreak you should seek veterinary advice.…

It has been confirmed there will be no shooting sports at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022. Shooting groups had been working to overturn a decision made two years ago that there would be no target-shooting events at the games. A package of funding and facilities had been offered to the games in the hope that target shooting would be included. However, the Commonwealth Games Federation has now reaffirmed its initial decision not to stage it. Olympic skeet shooter Amber Hill said: “I’m really disappointed that shooting has not been chosen as one of the sports to feature at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022. “Shooting is an amazing sport with incredibly talented athletes all over the Commonwealth. Competing at Glasgow 2014 was an amazing experience for me, and…

Diggory Hadoke’s article (Gun fit — for purpose, 26 June) was a fantastic read. Concise, clear and to the point, it gave some excellent advice to beginners and veterans alike. As the writer pointed out, there have been fads for short or long barrelled, light or heavyweight, small or larger bore guns ever since the inception of the hammerless breechloading gun in the 1880s. Anybody with a 25in barrelled gun probably thinks they are lumbered with a liability at present, but within a decade or two it will almost certainly be back in fashion. In the same issue, was Richard Negus discussed what it takes to become a consistently good performer with a shotgun (On the path to nirvana). Richard’s journey mirrored my own, starting with an air rifle then…

CREATING A NEW HUTCH COMPLEX The ferrets have been born and raising them is a slow process. With the rest of my squad ageing, I need to keep back a fair few youngsters and this means I must address my ferrets’ accommodation. The only downside to keeping entire hobs is housing them when they are in season. This has taken up my spare hutches and, if I am to accommodate these fast-growing youngsters, I will have to get some extra hutches built. I like my kits to live in the hutch until they are about eight or nine weeks old and then they get moved into my ferret court. To do this I must then find room for the ferrets already living in there. I hope to source a good…

There are few more enigmatic sounds of spring than the first cuckoo calling. An early morning in the first week in May for us in the north is par for the course with this rather shy bird, which we hear far more than we ever see. The cuckoo’s association with spring in culture goes back to the Greeks, when it was sacred to the goddess Hera. In India it is connected to the god Kamadeva, associated with longing. Further to the east in Tapan, it is unrequited love that is its connection with man. “Man’s effect on the insect world may well be to blame for the 40 per cent reduction of the cuckoo” Those birds are not “our” cuckoo, as there are members of the species of the family…

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 rifl e 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…

This year continues to surprise as both my colonies have “superceded”, that is, replaced their queen. I gather a lot of other beekeepers have found the same thing. Other than losing a few weeks' supply of young bees it’s fine, as long as the colony does not lose the young queen. If it does, it seldom has the capacity to produce another and end up queenless. You will therefore lose the colony as it simply runs out of bees, since the queen is the only bee able to lay viable eggs. Sometimes a worker will lay an egg but they don’t hatch. LW…

As peak holiday season approaches, you may find yourself forking out not inconsiderable sums to buy prescription medicines to ward off various lurgies associated with warmer climes, such as malaria or yellow fever. You generally have to pay if you are using NHS medical facilities in connection with your own recreational choices, though many towns have well-established private travel clinics that provide an element of competition. But either way, you end up paying. Much the same applies to gun certificates. When you apply for a shotgun or firearm certificate grant or renewal, your issuing police authority will ask you for permission to contact your GP. The surgery will often ask you for a fee to cover the costs of examining your data to see whether you have suffered from any…

BASC summer gun draw opens The BASC summer gun draw has opened — giving members a chance to win a custom-made Aya No 1 worth £18,695. Entries are open to all BASC members via the form in Shooting and Conservation magazine, or online on the members’ area of the BASC website. Sporting rifle events added to NRA Imperial meet The National Rifle Association’s 150th Imperial meet will feature a range of sporting rifle events at Bisley. The five new competitions, which take place from 13 to 14 July, are the Fox Test, the Running Deer, the Running Boar, the Stalkers’ Test and the Swedish Deer. MPs urge shoots to join BGA A letter urging every UK shoot to join the British Game Alliance has been signed by nearly 40 parliamentarians.…

Open Farm Sunday is the farming industry’s national open day. This annual event is organised by LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) and provides a great opportunity for farmers to engage with the local community, explain how they produce food and contribute to the general well-being of the countryside. I was at Bisterne estate’s Open Farm Sunday in the Avon Valley helping to front a stand for Waders for Real, an EU-Life funded project managed by the GWCT. The project focuses on engaging with local farmers and landowners and the wider community to help improve wader breeding habitats and reduce the risk of nest and chick predation. This means adult waders breeding in the valley stand a better chance of successfully fledging youngsters. The outstanding contribution made by the team at…

The British are afraid of mushrooms — it’s a fact. But it’s a fact that is slowly changing as we finally begin to understand and re-learn lost knowledge about our native and interloping fungi species. I am not certain what has caused this universal fear of fungi foraging, but the horror stories are probably not helping. I am often amazed that right-minded, educated people will, in the spring and summer, happily wander from field to field plucking plants from the bosom of the earth, of which they have no knowledge at all, and nibble on them. These same people would rather crawl across hot coals than even look closely at a toadstool. There are, after all, plenty of toxic plants out there. It makes no sense and thus it must…

I’VE REMARKED before in this column how beating dogs are the unsung heroes of the British shooting field. Beating dogs can be of any breed or any age and their only real requirement is to stay in line and not range too far from their handler. Quite what is the best breed of dog for beating is open to debate — I’ve seen impressive work by the most unlikely of animals, from Dalmatians to Rottweilers. This line of thought was prompted by a friend who told me his teenage daughter enjoyed beating and she desperately wanted her own beating dog. He suspected that given the right dog her enthusiasm would continue, but if she remained dogless she might find something else to do on a Saturday. He and his wife…

“The link between game and the lavish cooking of the Indian hills seems obvious” This recipe originates from Lucknow. The link between game and the lavish cooking of Indian hill country seems an obvious one. Though this dish is usually made with lamb, I like to think that it can also be adapted to rabbit, pheasant, partridge and venison shanks. You can take the meat off the bone once it is cooked. I recommend this with rabbit as the bones are a little spiky, and you can remove membrane and tendons at the same time. It is essentially a fragrant rather than a hot curry, with a very smooth and silky sauce — ideal for serving at summer parties when a warm dish is needed, but also one that tastes…

Latin name: Russula emetica Common name: Sickener Other names: Brittlegill How to spot it and where to find it: Red in nature is usually a warning and it’s best to steer clear of the sickener, whose name tells you all you need to know. It is found mostly in pine woods or mossy heathland and is a bright clear red, sticky to touch when wet. The cap is domed, often with a depression in the centre, and flattens with age. The gills are cream to pale yellow, standing away from the white stem, and are fragile, giving rise to its other common name, brittlegill. Interesting facts: Simply tasting the sickener won’t make you ill, but it might make your tongue tingle – unusually for a fungus, the sickener can be…

1 Men’s technical tweed shooting vest RRP: £450  www.purdey.com The classic vest has been updated in newly developed technical tweed. The fabric is a third lighter than traditionally woven tweed and results in a more comfortable garment. The design also features spacious cartridge pockets. A neoprene pad can be placed in a pocket on either shoulder depending on your shooting preference. 2 Swazi 4WD pants RRP: £189.95  www.wildstags.co.uk These trousers provide exceptional comfort and all-round great protection against the elements, no matter the conditions. Made from windproof and breathable fabric, they breathe brilliantly in hot conditions and keep you warm and dry in cold and wet weather. Available in sizes XS-4XL. 3 Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon I RRP: £1,815  www.gmk.co.uk Beretta’s Silver Pigeon has been updated in…