Innholdsfortegnelse for 30-Oct-2019 i Shooting Times & Country

Last week on the first frosty day of the year — in the West Country anyway — I was back gunning on one of the most spectacular drives I’ve shot in some time. The topography wasn’t dramatic and the wind wasn’t blowing but keeper Tames Mouland had things down to a fine art. As the beaters tapped their way through the woods, pheasants trickled out and rocketed upwards. I have always thought the role of a back gun is to try to finish off anything that somebody in the line pricks. That morning, however, I was redundant. Forty yards ahead of me, Sue Booth was making tidy work of anything that flew towards her. As we headed for elevenses, I asked how long she’d been shooting. “Only about three seasons,”…

1 NOV 2019 YOUNG SHOTS’ ACTIVITY DAY OCTOBER HALF-TERM Dovey Valley Shooting Ground, Llanwrin basc.org.uk/events 7 NOV 2019 LADIES’ DEVELOPMENT DAY, CLAY SHOOTING Fennes Shooting School, Fennes Estate, Bocking basc.org.uk/events 7 NOV 2019 GWCT ROADSHOW HAMPSHIRE Barton’s Mill, Bartons Lane, Basingstoke gwct.org.uk/events 10 NOVEMBER GAME MEAT HYGIENE COURSE Daintylands, Common Hill, Englefield, Reading RG7 7JP nationalgamekeepers. org.uk/events 12 NOV 2019 BASC SCOTLAND SHOOTERS’ EVENING The Coo Shed, South Corton Farm, Alloway basc.org.uk/events 12 NOV 2019 AN EVENING OF FINE WINE & GAME COOKERY The School of Artisan Food, Welbeck Estate, Nottinghamshire gwct.org.uk/events…

‘Shoot city’s rats instead’: councillor In the midst of the debate over a motion condemning all forms of hunting and shooting, a Liverpool city councillor made the suggestion that legal firearms users could help deal with one of the city’s problems. Perhaps unaware of the safety implications of firearms use in a built-up area, Tuebrook councillor Steve Radford told the meeting: “It’s worth looking at an isolated trial and asking the shooting lobby if we could look at a scheme using people who are trained in the use of guns to go out and kill rats and see if it has a benefit to the public. I would be happy for us to try it in my ward first.” ‘Missing’ hen harrier reappears A hen harrier reported missing in Northumberland…

I wonder if your gundog experts can give me any help. I have a three-year-old cocker spaniel that whines a little when in a beaters’ transport vehicle. As he is not working, he gets wound up. Do you think he will grow out of this? D. Strange, Dorset Ellena Swift replies: At three years old I would imagine at this stage he will not grow out of it. A dog that whines is communicating an emotion – anxiety, excitement or fear perhaps. To cure it, first you need to understand why. Does he whine when on the lead waiting at the start of the drive? If he does, it is down to excitement and anticipation. He needs to work on being patient and a simple, calm ‘sit’, and his behaviour…

It would be dishonest not to admit that pheasants are the least easy game meat to slow-cook. I have chewed my way through plenty of dried-out meat in the past, cooked by myself and others. Pheasant stew was a feature of my upbringing, since my father regularly shot, and it was not something I ever looked forward to. Perhaps the most off-putting aspect were those needle-like tendons poking out from the legs, a visual mess not helped by the sight of the birds’ scaly, amputated leg bones spiked. There is a compromise that even provides a second meal. Our local butcher will divide pheasants into ‘supremes’ (breast meat on the bone with wing attached) and legs. The legs make a rich stock for this recipe and the meat can then…

Latin name: Phallus impudicus Common name: Stinkhorn Other names: Common stinkhorn How to spot it and where to find it: This enchantingly named fungus can seem to appear overnight, thrusting 10in above the ground where there had been nothing before. This is because the stinkhorn emerges from a white egg, up to 8cm in diameter. When it appears, the fungus cap is first covered with a foul-smelling olive-green slime called gleba that attracts insects, which spread spores via their feet. Underneath, the cap has a raised honeycomb appearance. Interesting facts: If you find one stinkhorn — and you can stand the rotting-meat odour — you will probably find more; look for eggs partly buried in the leaf litter on the woodland floor or follow your nose. Astonishingly, the stinkhorn is…

COOK Give some birds away. If your friends and neighbours have never tried game before, get them started by offering them a couple of birds. Plucking and drawing can be daunting for people who have never tried it, so an oven-ready bird or a package of legs and breast might be the best way to get them started rather than a whole bird in feather. MEDICAL Talk to your vet about kennel cough. Kennel cough can be a real problem for gundogs, which often travel in crowded conditions and work on a number of different shoots. It is well worth a quick phone call to your local vet to see if they are seeing much kennel cough and taking their advice on getting your dog vaccinated.…

ALERT ON AFRICAN SWINE FEVER It might not have reached the attention of all of the fieldsports movement that the UK currently faces a threat from an African swine fever epidemic. I am not a farmer but I can remember the ramifications of the Classical swine fever outbreak in 2000 on my friends in the pig-farming industry, which was followed the following year by foot-and-mouth disease. Both had severe financial consequences and were sufficient to force many longstanding pig-breeders to leave the industry; it was a sad time. One local farmer, who was ahead of the game, ensured that only authorised personnel visited his pig site in an attempt to limit the risks from swine fever and he put signs to this effect all around his breeding site. However, these…

My world is literally built on chalk, the freak of geological nature — white, fractured seams of porous rock formed in the Cretaceous period by layer upon layer of microfossils known as coccoliths that makes Wessex agriculturally productive and our watercourses verdant. Chalk aquifers supply rivers with the perfect ecological soup — pleasantly alkaline to support and sustain the growth of vegetable and animal, neither too cold in the winter nor too hot in the summer, and crucially serving as a sponge to hold back the excess seasonal rains before releasing slowly in times of drought. Altogether an extraordinary stroke of evolutionary fortune that provides plenty for man and beast. Yet all is not well in this world. The landscape of the chalkstream is now pockmarked with urban sprawl, meadows…

REGULAR READERS of this column will know that it rarely contains advice on dog training, at least from me. Many people assume that because I write a column on gundogs, my own dogs are impeccably trained. Alas not, which is a reflection of the fact that I’m a better writer than I am a gundog trainer. However, in recent months I’ve been working with my young sprocker bitch, Emma, teaching (or attempting to teach her) the basics of being a good gundog, and it has reminded me that training a dog is all about getting the foundations right. There are three basics that a young dog has to learn, whether it is to be a top-performing gundog or well-disciplined pet. Get those right and you will have a companion to…

Assess the risks of a river GUNDOGS Q I will be picking-up this season on a new shoot, where there is a fast-flowing river. On two drives it can be necessary to put dogs over the river. I know that dogs have drowned in this river in the past, and while my dogs are good swimmers I would not want them to take any risks. Should I pull out, or make my concerns known? A Any situation that may endanger the life of a working gundog should be avoided, but there are certainly situations that crop up on shoot days in which dogs go the extra yard — of their own volition — in order to retrieve their bird. If you have concerns, talk candidly to the other members of…

The tiny long-tailed tit is ‘all tail’, weighing in at 9g, only 3g more than a goldcrest. At this time of year, long-tailed tits are almost invariably in flocks, working their local patches in search of spiders, insects and bits of peanut, nibbled from bird feeders. They are family-orientated birds. Many in one of these autumn flocks will be related and, as night falls, they will snuggle together on a twig until dawn. Occasionally, a group will set off across the country, travelling more than 60 miles, quite often in the autumn. Continental long-tailed tits are more migratory and occasionally birds cross the North Sea. Three birds wearing Belgian rings caught together in Essex on 21 October 2001 had been ringed in a flock that had been caught on the…

As Scottish salmon rivers begin to close, a mixed picture is emerging of how the season has gone — but catches are substantially up from the disastrous numbers in 2018. Writing on the Spey Foundation blog guide, Malcolm Newbould said the season was “a definite improvement on last year”, adding: “Let’s hope the improving trend continues and 2020 is again a better season.” At the other end of the country the River Tweed also saw substantially improved fish numbers. Catch numbers are still being finalised. However, provisional fish counter numbers on the Ettrick, Gala and Whiteadder tributaries all showed increased numbers of fish in every month compared with 2018. Some of the increases in salmon catches were quite substantial, with 241 fish passing through the Whiteadder counter in September 2019…

On reading Tom Payne’s article on ferals (Like fish in a barrel, 16 October) I was surprised to hear Tim Maddams had not eaten feral pigeon but had tried jackdaw and magpie. My wife, daughters, granddaughters and I have eaten many hundreds of feral pigeons. Feral pigeon meat is of a slightly finer texture than that of a woodpigeon and similar to the meat on a collared dove which, when they were on the general licence, were also very good to eat. The only time I have decided not to eat ferals was when my colleagues and I were on a pest job on two buildings near Tower Bridge and brought home 246 of them, most of which were thin and covered in growths. Ferals feeding in grain stores or…

You must have had that feeling that you want time to stop. I usually get that feeling halfway through harvest time as the landscape begins to change to an idyllic patchwork of tall, unharvested crops standing next to short, harvested stubble fields. Some fields remain partly harvested, halted, perhaps, by an untimely shower of rain, or a dreaded combine breakdown. As I gaze out from a vantage point I get the feeling this unfinished haphazard vista looks perfect for wild game. “If only, if only,” my whispered desire calls out. Sadly, this utopia cannot last as the harvest needs to be completed, soon, leaving a bland and sterile landscape. In spring a similar pattern will appear, crops emerging and growing at differing rates, leading to variation in colour and shape.…

I was invited to give a speech at Sedbergh school. To be requested to speak at such an illustrious place of learning, or any school for that matter, is in concert both an honour and a trial. The distinction of being singled out as sufficiently knowledgeable leaves you with a self-satisfied glow, swiftly followed by trepidation that you might be publicly outed as an unlettered yokel. My host was Dr Phil Hoskin, the seemingly inexhaustible live-wire master of Cressbrook, one of the 494-year-old school’s prep houses. The prep school lies in Casterton, some 20 minutes from the senior school in Sedbergh itself. Nestled at the foot of some spectacular Westmorland hills, it makes a passable impression of Hogwarts. Dr Hoskin led me around Cressbrook. Rugby is an integral part of…

As a student of dog behaviour, I’ve always been intrigued by rolling. One of my spaniels, Fleur, was a hugely enthusiastic roller and would start every walk with a quick roll. It was something that seemed to give her physical satisfaction and she particularly relished rolling in frosted grass. If the grass was just wet, she would forsake her roll. Curiously, in her 15 years she never rolled in anything smelly. By contrast, her mother, Rosie, rarely rolled, but on the memorable occasion she did so, it was on a dead fish she found on the beach at Pagham Harbour. She never rolled in anything stinky again, suggesting that she didn’t smell as good as she was hoping after the roll. Rowan, my current springer and daughter and granddaughter of…

BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and a 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 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 CIC international trophy judge…

1 Caldwell Rock BR competition front shooting rest RRP: £256 Sportsmanguncentre.co.uk The Rock BR rest is perfect for those who want to zero their rifle with as few variables as possible before a night of lamping or a morning out on the hill. 2 Alan Paine men’s leather waterproof shooting boots RRP: £290.50 Alanpaine.co.uk These new shooting boots have been designed to cope in the harshest conditions. The boots are waterproof and breathable, and have a unique three-layer insole, including a thermal foil lining to provide extra insulation to keep your feet warm. They are finished with cushion padding to provide extra comfort. 3 Tweed deerstalker hat RRP: £155 Lockhatters.co.uk Synonymous with Sherlock Holmes, the deerstalker hat was originally designed, as the name suggests, for those who…

Nicky Morgan, the government minister who oversees media matters, recently revealed that she now has an “open mind” about the BBC going subscription-only in the future. Nobody seriously expects the current TV licence system — which was launched in 1946 — to survive the charter review scheduled for 2027. I have dubbed the TV licence the ‘Packham tax’. Many of us who shoot resent being forced to put money into Mr Packham’s pocket when the corporation eschews its responsibility to rein in his political campaigning on the spurious grounds that he is technically a mere contractor. The BBC’s cynical brush-off adds insult to injury. In effect, it is citing a personal tax minimisation scheme as the excuse for a BBC personality to evade the corporation’s charter obligation to be neutral…