Innholdsfortegnelse for 04-Sep-2019 i Shooting Times & Country

In this week’s issue I was looking forward to bringing you the first live quarry test of possibly the world’s most eco-friendly cartridge. Launched back in April, the latest iteration of Eley’s VIP steel range has a dissolvable wad, which the company claims disappears in 30 days — or just 24 hours if it lands on water. Some months ago we shot clays with Eco Wad 28g No 7s but what we were really interested in was whether they kill game effectively, so we were delighted when a slab of 32g No 5s arrived at Shooting Times HQ. After a few phone calls, I drove to Hertfordshire to decoy some pigeons over beans. As I tore up the A1, my car’s outside-air temperature gauge hit 32ºC and I started to…

6 SEPTEMBER LADIES’ CLAY TARGET SHOOTING DAY Presaddfed Estate, Anglesey, Holyhead basc.org.uk/events 7 SEPTEMBER CHARITY CLAY PIGEON SHOOT Mickley Hall Shooting Ground, Crewe CW5 8AJ http://tiny.cc/pluxbz 21 SEPTEMBER ANGLING TRUST ANGLING ENFORCEMENT WORKSHOP Dishforth Village Hall YO7 3JU http://tiny.cc/e72vbz 27 SEPTEMBER SHOOTING AND THE FUTURE The Talbot Hotel, Tregaron 01974 272654 www.gwct.org.uk/events 28 SEPTEMBER 25-BIRD SPORTING CLAY CHARITY SHOOT Humberside Shooting Ground YO25 8RY 07842 120770 5 OCTOBER BARBURY BELLES LADIES’ CLAY COMPETITION Barbury Shooting School SN4 0QZ 01793 940420…

Tick app will help predict disease risk Funding from the European Space Agency is being used to develop a new app that will help to predict the risk of Lyme disease from ticks. The app will combine satellite data with information stored in the Scottish Lyme Disease and Tick-borne Infections Reference Laboratory in Inverness, as well as information from doctors and anyone who has been exposed to ticks. Members of the public will be able to report ticks they have have spotted or been bitten by via their mobile phones. Up to 4.6m birds killed illegally A scientific study has found evidence that between 1.7 and 4.6 million birds from 413 species are being illegally killed every year in the Middle East. An astonishing 800,000 birds are believed to be…

It’s rare that Patrick Laurie’s articles fail to entertain, and his recent article on growing turnips was no exception (Country Diary, 21 July). The account of his experiment with turnip cultivation, primarily for bovine feed, and its subsequent success as game cover, obviously brought great pleasure to Patrick. It came as no surprise to me but I would imagine that I am of a similar vintage to the ‘old farm worker’ who suggested Patrick give it a try. Back in the 1950s there were plenty of small stock-farmers who would plant turnips and/or fodder-beet as winter feed for their sheep or cattle and we had some wonderful walked-up shooting as a result. Kale was also a popular winter grazing crop for cattle that was equally well-liked by the grey partridges…

Venue: Weston Park, Weston-under-Lizard, Telford, Shropshire. Date: 14-15 September Cost of Entry: On the day adult £20, children (aged six to 16) £7. Family ticket (two adults, three children) £50. Advance tickets: Adult £18, two-day ticket £34. Child’s ticket (aged six to 16) £6. Family one-day ticket (two adults, three children) £45 Advance tickets available online until midnight Wednesday, 11 September at www.midlandgamefair.co.uk For any queries regarding tickets call the Countryman Fairs office on 01889 563232 for details.…

Some of the most magical moments of my shooting career have been spent flighting wild duck on flight ponds. Half the fun is the anticipation, since you never really know what will come. As the colour starts to drain from the sky you hear the pheasants going to roost, followed by the first tremulous notes from a waking tawny owl. Then, if you are in luck, there’s the whisper of duck wings, usually noted first by your dog that looks hopefully skywards. Even then success is far from certain. You might miss, of course, but sometimes the ducks come so late that it’s too dark to see them, but that’s all part of the charm of the sport. I’ve never been a wildfowler, but I have been fortunate enough 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…

The shimmering green feathers of a breeding shag look stunning in spring but they look quite tatty now. In late summer and early autumn, parent shags and this year’s youngsters disperse from seabird colonies in search of sheltered coastal spots, where they can fish during even the worst of our winter storms. They rarely venture inland. Recent research by Olivia Hicks and colleagues has produced some of the most disgusting bird videos I have seen. Olivia has been studying the consequences of intestinal parasites on shags, which has entailed putting an endoscope down the throat of birds to view the contents of the gut. The shear number of writhing worms is staggering, as they position themselves to extract food from the latest meal. Shags with high loads of parasites have…

SHOOT If your gun has been sleeping quietly in the cabinet since February, get down to the clay ground and practise on some crossers and driven targets. With only a few days until partridge shooting begins and pheasants just a couple of weeks away, this is your last chance to brush up on your shooting before the game season starts. DOG Get your dog fit. A long shooting season puts a heavy demand on a dog. Stepping up your dog’s exercise regime in advance of the season will help it perform better and put it at a lower risk of injury. Longer walks and some swimming in your dog’s daily regime will help to get it fit. But take any increase gently and be sure to include periods of rest.…

A new project to track lapwings, curlew and woodcock is being launched by the GWCT. The birds, which have been rapidly disappearing from the British countryside, will be fitted with state-of-the-art GPS tags that will provide hourly position fixes for up to four years. The tags will be fitted to 20 lapwings, 20 curlews and 50 woodcock from sites around the UK, including the Curlew Country project in Shropshire and the GWCT’s Auchnerran demonstration farm in Scotland. The tags are much more accurate than the satellite tags previously fitted to woodcock, with fixes accurate to 15 metres. They also report five times more often than the existing tags. The curlew tags will share their information via the mobile phone network, though the woodcock and lapwing will have to be caught…

LOST FOR WORDS Having just read Patrick Galbraith’s editorial comment, I was lost for words. Patrick commendably shot a grouse on the Twelfth, cooked it, took a picture and felt it necessary to upload it to social media and share it with the world. Why? There was an immediate negative response from an anti who was so angry he felt it necessary to respond. When will we ever learn that what we see as normal, acceptable behaviour will never be viewed that way by the blinkered and ill-informed whose minds are made up, thus encouraging confrontation against shooting and our country way of life. Social media, fake news and self-appointed experts like Packham, Avery et al will be the death of our sport if we don’t learn from these mistakes.…

The gamekeeper looks at me crossly. From the back seat of the Jeep my interpreter, Jane, voices his thoughts: “He says you should shoot the pheasants on the ground, not in the air.” “Oh,” I say, “I’m sorry” — and I think to myself what an enjoyable and memorable day this is. I shoot just four birds, only one of them on the ground. It’s high summer, I am shooting in China and it’s a bargain: flights from London to Jiangxi province; a drive into the mountains above the Yellow River; bed and board for two nights; a translator; a Jeep and gamekeeper for a day — all comes in at just over £1,000. I have 50,000 acres to myself, with rare species of pheasant and other birds and butterflies…

We have come to the end of the summer and so to the end of dummy training. The working test season is now drawing to a close and, with the arrival of the Glorious Twelfth, trialling and shooting is now well under way. While this year I have not been fortunate enough to get up north to go on to the grouse, I am using this time for reflection and planning. I am always surprised how many dog handlers assume their training time is over at this time of year. They spend the summer attending lessons and working on their dog with little thought as to how what they have done will affect what they do now the season is here. Many assume they can take their novice dog and…

Towards the end of the third week in August the sun decided to show its face at High Park, smiling unexpectedly down on Tony Smith and his underkeeper and on our pheasant poults. All of us, men and birds, were surprised and delighted to feel its unaccustomed warmth on our faces or feathers. I am not sure what lay behind this miraculous event. Perhaps the sun wanted to remind itself what High Park and its inhabitants looked like; perhaps it felt the time had come to assure us all it was still there. More likely it had made a mistake and thought it was shining elsewhere. “This second phase of release, when the birds are spreading out, is the most enjoyable part of the whole process” Last month I told…

It is the season to get into slow cooking, to make those rich game stews, aromatic with wine and herbs. I love these shorter days, because they bring me indoors earlier and give extra time for recipes that take a little more effort. “Simply saying ‘gnocchi’ can instil fear in cooks who have never tried to make them” Simply saying the word ‘gnocchi’ can instil fear into cooks who have never tried to make those little soft potato pillows. Made without care they can be heavy or chewy but this recipe using baked potato ensures lightness. You will find you need more than one go to become a great gnocchi chef, so perhaps try this recipe halved on a guinea-pig guest before attempting them for a larger party. I like…

Latin name: Carduus nutans Common name: Musk thistle Other names: Nodding thistle, nodding plumeless thistle How to spot it and where to find it: Standing up to 1.5m tall, musk thistle is easy to spot. Its deep reddish-purple flower heads grow up to 50mm wide, nodding on their tall spiny stems. Its dark-green leaves are lobed and lighter at the ends, with raised veins underneath. It favours chalky soils and can be found on rough grassland, roadside verges, waste ground and scrub. Interesting facts: Those flowers will be turning to seed heads soon but should retain their sweet, musky scent, which gives this member of the sunflower family its name. A biennial herb, it produces seeds that are covered in fine silky hairs — thistledown — which can be carried…

1 Field Collection folding travel crate RRP: £99 (for small dogs) £119 (medium) £139 (large)  orvis.co.uk Designed to keep your dog comfortable and safe on the way to and from the field. The lightweight crate collapses easily for storage and travel, making it ideal for your home, a hotel, or for use in your car. 2 Browning featherlight typhoon jacket RRP: £184.99  uttings.co.uk This is a lightweight jacket designed to give you total protection against the elements when out in the field. The jacket has been moderated to give you a noiseless approach so you can get closer to your quarry when stalking. Useful features include a radio pocket and shoulder reinforcements to give it a longer life against wear and tear. Available in sizes S – 3XL. 3…

I was delighted to read that Mersea Wildfowlers has voted to stop using plastic wads (News, 21 August). Blasting plastic wads out over wetlands is such an obvious environmental own-goal that I can no longer be bothered to explain the problem. Plastic cartridge cases are much less of an issue than plastic wads, as they can often be picked up. Biodegradable shotcups suitable for steel loads have been available for a while. Gamebore has some 76mm wildfowling loads with its Silver Steel Bio-Wad fibre shotcup, while Eley Hawk has recently launched a range of 70mm steel loads with its new starch-based Pro Eco shotcups. These will, they say, protect shotgun barrels like a conventional plastic shotcup, but then dissolve into harmless organic matter when exposed to water. For this season,…

It’s been a long time since I wrote to Shooting Times (Some Friend, 29 Sept 1988), but I couldn’t resist telling you about the hilarious antics of my neighbour David’s Labrador. First, however, may I compliment you on the changes you’ve introduced to the magazine. It’s truly a great read – diverse yet relevant, supportive but critical, engaging and still educational. But back to the dog. Arthur is a mischievous mutt. While walking along the canal towpath recently, Arthur was a little way ahead of David as they approached an angler concentrating on his float. The angler’s bag was behind him on the path. David’s heart sank when he saw the dog showing interest in the contents. By the time he reached the scene, Arthur was demolishing the last of…

Harvest finally burst into life on the estate. The weather held off the combines for a week or so and finally some stubble fields began to show, giving me the opportunity to spot wild game that had been hidden by the cover afforded by standing crops. Reports from farther south were giving a mixed picture, indicating the weather had played its part in reducing the brood size of grey partridges and pheasants. My first trips around the newly cut fields gave a similar picture, with four barren pairs of grey partridge in the first field. Just as I was beginning to think all was lost, a fine, well-grown covey burst from the stubble. I was so surprised and shocked I didn’t get an accurate number, but there must have been…

ONE OF THE FIRST events I covered when I started writing this column nearly 20 years ago was the Essex Toint Council of Wildfowling Clubs’ annual dog test. Open only to members of the 13 clubs that form the ETC, almost all the 50 or so dogs that lined up were not only genuine workers but dogs that went fowling, too. Though a variety of breeds were represented, the majority were Labradors, the dog of choice for most wildfowlers. The tests were challenging, with most involving water and mud below the sea wall, conditions that favour big, powerful dogs. Much to my surprise, the overall winner wasn’t a Labrador but an old-fashioned liver-and-white English springer. His strong performance reflected not only the fact that he had been very well trained…

Dealing with hard ground FERRETING Q My ground has become rock hard through lack of rain. This is giving me as much trouble getting my long-net poles into the ground as it does in the frozen ground of winter. Is there a way I can overcome this? A I have had the very same problem. For years I have looked into getting something to help with this but never got around to it. Recently someone came up with a simple remedy to this age-old problem. When we put our long-net poles into the ground, some people hold the net pole mid-section and place it into the ground like you would a fork, but when the ground is as hard as iron, it is generally pushed in from the top by…