Innholdsfortegnelse for 06-Nov-2019 i Shooting Times & Country

About a decade ago, I had something of a teenage tantrum — my parents were hatching plans to drain a boggy bit of field and I objected because it was a refuge for snipe. In the end I won and over the years it’s been a joy to watch the little birds flit away over the rushes when I tramp through the mud after the fi rst frost falls. Last Friday, before breakfast, I wandered out with a gun over my shoulder and my Tack Russell running on ahead. She has reached an age when she is perfectly content to spend her days stretched out in front of the fire rather than going for a walk but as soon as she hears the keys in the cabinet lock, she becomes…

7 NOVEMBER EDINBURGH & SOUTH EAST SCOTLAND HIP FLASK CHALLENGE Hampden & Co, Edinburgh 01738 554822 7 NOVEMBER GWCT ROADSHOW Barton’s Mill, Bartons Lane, Basingstoke gwct.org.uk/events 14 NOVEMBER SHOOTERS’ EVENING Garfield Hotel, Cumbernauld Road, Stepps, Glasgow basc.org.uk/events 16 NOVEMBER SHOTGUN AND CHELSEA BUN CLUB (LADIES) CLAY SHOOT Hereford & Worcester Shooting Ground shotgunand chelseabunclub. co.uk/events 20-21 NOV TWO-DAY WILDFOWLING INTRODUCTION Lindisfarne, Northumberland 07825 401126 basc.org.uk/events 4 DECEMBER NGO CHRISTMAS QUIZ NIGHT Skillington Village Hall, Lincs NG33 5HG 07765 402146…

Pasties are fair game for Ginsters Game meat could soon be reaching places it has never been before. A well placed source has told Shooting Times that the British Game Alliance has struck a deal with pasty company Ginsters (see p.24) in which pheasant and partridge pasties will be sold in petrol station forecourts, motorway service stations and convenience stores across the country. Gundog and owner reunited after crash A gundog lost after a serious car accident has been reunited with her owner after 14 days on the run near Maybole in Ayrshire. The box in which Holly (pictured below) was travelling was detached from the car by the force of the accident and burst open, allowing the terrified dog to run off. An enormous effort by the local shooting…

My daughter, Poppy (right), has been coming shooting with me for the past five years. She is now 10 and working one of our two Labradors. She has come to appreciate the countryside, its beauty and its fauna and flora. Recently she and her friends were debating ethics of shooting and why she did it, and carbon footprints left by many things. She asked her friends what they liked to eat. Varied answers came back — you can probably imagine what 10-year-olds might like. She pointed out that all those things had a considerable carbon footprint. She then told them that the spoils of our day were taken home in the back of our Defender, to be prepared by her father and enjoyed during in the week with some home-grown…

At this point we really must become equipped with some facts. The European pine marten, Martes martes, is a member of the mustelid family along with mink, otter, badger, stoat and badger. A large adult can reach 70cm (a little over 2ft) in overall length and weigh 2.2kg (almost 5lb), they can live for up-to eight years, and have a litter of up-to five kits every year from maturity. Martens are omnivores with a preference for small mammals, birds, eggs, carrion and seasonal fruits and various berries.…

Velocity change for winter RIFLES Q Will cold weather affect the velocity of my .243 stalking rifle, and do I have to change zero during the winter months? A Here in Britain it is unlikely that winter temperatures will make any real difference to zero. In terms of changes to velocity, in hot weather, the cartridges can get very hot and the pressure on firing can rise and therefore impact velocity. In winter the same cartridge will be slower but dependent on other factors — such as altitude and air pressure/ density — which will all make a small degree of velocity change and therefore trajectory shift. For example, I tested some .223, .243 and .308 bullets packed in snow to see the change. At normal ranges up to 200…

POLITICS With a general election coming there is a great chance to make the voice of shooting heard. Contact your candidates and ask where they stand on shooting and other countryside issues. Take the chance to put the case for shooting across and show them that backing fieldsports is a vote winner. GARDEN As the weather turns colder and trees enter dormancy, now is the time to start planting new ones. Filling gaps in old hedgerows can hugely improve their value as a habitat for game and other wildlife and even a single native tree can support thousands of other organisms.…

The BASC Lindisfarne wildfowling scheme is introducing a new course for beginners. Lindisfarne, an island off the coast of Northumberland, is a Special Protection Area and home to internationally important populations of waders, geese and ducks. The well-established scheme allows BASC members to buy permits to shoot ducks and geese on the island. The new course is a two-day introduction to wildfowling for those who want to try it for the first time. The course on 20-21 November consists of a day in a classroom, sessions looking at legal issues, quarry identification and fieldcraft. It will be followed by a lecture covering the equipment needed, including guns and ammunition. The afternoon will be taken up with a guided tour of the wildfowling areas of the island. For most Shots the…

THE RSPB We note, with considerable disappointment, the recent article by Jamie Blackett (Country Diary, 9 October), which contains many false and totally unsubstantiated allegations about the RSPB. It appears that this article seeks solely to damage the RSPB’s reputation and create suspicion and distrust in the minds of your readers. Its publication does nothing to encourage constructive discussion between the shooting industry and nature conservation NGOs, and is all the more disappointing in the light of recent discussions and meetings between RSPB staff and Shooting Times, where we are trying to build bridges between our sectors. There is no evidence whatsoever to support the apparent source of this story’s assertion that the two individuals he claimed to encounter were from the RSPB, other than his claim that they told…

London is now culturally another planet as far as this backwoodsman is concerned. Two lots of space cadets were there doing their level best to end life on planet Galloway: our elected representatives in the House of Commons and a bunch of misanthropes calling themselves Extinction Rebellion. I should have thought if anyone had the right to rebel about extinctions it would be farmers driven out of business by badger-borne tuberculosis, keepers and shepherds being laid off in the hills as estates bow to market pressure and plant forestry, and keen young huntsmen robbed of their futures by the Axis of Spite. We were there as finalists in the Hidden Gem category of the eviivo B&B awards. I say ‘we’ but really my wife does all the hard graft, though…

KEEPA HAS NOW done his first few days picking up and is working well. I am hoping to get a run in a novice trial with him this season so it’s important I don’t let his standards slip after such a successful summer. Despite him being older, I still run him with my more experienced dogs as he has been slow to mature and has a lot to learn. I noticed on his first few retrieves that his lines weren’t quite as straight or as direct as I would like. Early in the season this isn’t uncommon. He is so excited with all the game that is being dropped that he is not quite focusing. Memory retrieves I have a few days before his next outing so I want to…

It’s a curious fact that more people — and no doubt more dogs — get stung by wasps in the months of October, November and December than they do in the summer. Autumn wasps are more sluggish, less likely to fly away if you disturb them and more prone to sting. I was reminded of this when I received an email from reader Geoffrey Roy last month. He had been exercising his two springers in Thetford Forest when one of them disturbed a wasps’ nest. The wasps emerged in attack mode, with the result that one of his dogs was badly stung. The other escaped more lightly, though it was also stung, as was Geoff. A wasp that feels threatened emits a pheromone that alerts others to its stress, with…

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 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…

It looks as if this has been a good breeding season for knot; my September Twitter feed was filled with plenty of pictures of confiding youngsters, newly arrived from Canada and Greenland. A knot is a medium-sized wader, weighing about 140g; the same as three dunlin. By now, juvenile knot will have joined up with the adults to create swirling high-tide flocks over our estuaries. Wintering numbers in Britain and Ireland have dropped rapidly over the past decade but one really good breeding season can boost numbers. Hopefully, Wetland Bird Survey volunteers will report a positive difference when they submit their monthly counts to the British Trust for Ornithology. Soon knot will shed their grey winter plumage and take on summer russet hues, as they fatten up for the return…

Defra has warned that the current EU pet passport will not be valid for travel to continental Europe if there is a no-deal Brexit. Anyone wishing to take dogs, including working animals such as gundogs, to the EU is advised to contact their vet four months before travelling. The most likely process for taking a dog to the EU after a no-deal Brexit was outlined by Defra. Any dog being taken to an EU country will have to be microchipped and vaccinated against rabies. It will then have to have a blood sample taken within 30 days of its last rabies vaccination and the sample will have to be analysed in a laboratory approved by the EU. A three-month wait is required between the collection of the sample and any…

I am concerned about the recent addition to firearms applications/renewals that stipulates a letter from the applicant’s doctor is required, advising on their mental health (News, 3 and 31 July). In theory, this sounds incredibly sensible; in practice, it may be a very bad move for both the authorities and the applicant. If any treatment, consultation or medication for stress, anxiety, depression and so on is going to be instrumental in refusal of a firearms certificate, no one is going to approach their GP about these conditions. This will lead to patients not seeking treatment for issues that could easily be resolved if nipped in the bud, ultimately leading to worsened mental health. The only people it will pick up are the older applicants with medical history prior to this…

As the last knockings of the grouse season are upon us, keepers who have not already started changing are now giving serious consideration as to what trap they are to use next year when the Fenn is no longer legal. It is fair to say they are far from happy with the process that to date has left them with the choice of two traps, one of which has been around for some time already. Given that the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) trap was already legal, only one new trap has made it on to the approved list, the Tully. The original specification bandied around was that any trap which was to be seriously considered had to be the same size as the Fenn, and as economic as…

In a West Country inn on a crisp autumnal evening, Tim Maddams, whom regular readers will recognise from our cookery pages, tells me that he thinks we need to kick the habit. “One thing I’m really trying hard with is to sell my days on an experience, rather than on how many birds we’ll shoot,” he explains. Tim feels that for years we’ve been stuck in a rut of marketing our sport based on bag size rather than the things that make a shoot unique and special. “We even have a spare gun because mechanical failure happens” A while ago, I went to the Isle of Luing to meet a reader who has just launched a shoot in the Hebrides (Unlikely oasis for the French, 16 October). In an attempt…

Just after dawn on a cool crisp September morning I slipped away from our Highland bolthole and drove towards the tiny ribbon of river that fills the tear between rock and heather, rushing to snatch a few extra hours on water with rod before the long journey south. That morning was memorable not because of monster salmon nor the fleeting sea trout but for a snatched glimpse of chocolate-coloured fur, the meeting of eye with a most secretive wild form — our worlds colliding for a handful of seconds that even 10 years hence seems like an hour. I headed back to raid the bookshelves of our cottage but I was already certain that the answer would be pine marten. Pine martens didn’t impinge on my busy life from that…

First days out in the field are vitally important for a dog and its handler. It is a big step and can be make or break for a dog. For Sika, this is her first season after her training over the summer. She has proven she is steady around shot using a starting pistol and dummy launcher. Her heel and recall are solid and she has picked cold game. I decided to take her out for one drive on a local shoot that I pick-up on every week. Being so early in the season they were only shooting partridges, which are a good size for her. Obviously, she will eventually pick pheasants and ducks but as she is smaller and a novice dog, partridge are the perfect-size quarry. A shoot…

One of the reasons I love what I do is that other chefs never fail to amaze me with their creativity. This, in turn, drives ny own. This recipe from top chef Luke Tipping is one of those. I have cooked with pheasant and partridge in so many different ways that I thought I had pretty much seen it all, been there and eaten that. Then something like this comes along and blows you away with its simplicity, elegance and massive flavours. This is my kind of salad — lettuce on the outside, free-range spicy meat on the inside, it’s a win-win. This super-traditional Chinese dish is usually made with pork, but it will work wonderfully with pheasant, partridge or even wild duck or goose, served as a lettuce wrap.…

Latin name: Lonicera periclymenum Common name: Honeysuckle Other names: Woodbine, eglantine, bearbind How to spot it and where to find it: Weaving through shrubs and trees in woodland and along hedgerows, honeysuckle is easily identified in the summer months by its sweet-scented tubular flowers, which are followed by red berries. Interesting facts: Though it is deciduous, some varieties of honeysuckle keep their old leaves over winter. The glossy berries provide food for birds, including thrushes, warblers and bullfinches. Dormice rely on honeysuckle for shelter and food, building their nests from the bark and feasting on the nectar-rich flowers. It was once believed that if honeysuckle grew round your door, it would bring you good luck and prevent evil spirits from entering your home. It has also long been a symbol…

1 Wicked Lights Rekon tripod system RRP: £399 scottcountry.co.uk This system — originally designed for the military — allows your rifle to be free-standing with 360° movement and precision directional control. Ideal for long-distance shooting, the tripod can be folded up to 18in, making it small enough to fit into a backpack or to be handheld. 2 Whisper Highland Primaloft jacket RRP: £450 musto.com This brand new jacket is ideal for harsh weather as it provides windproof, waterproof and breathable protection. It has a noiseless feature so you can stalk quietly if needed and the action-back construction at the shoulders allows you to move freely. Available in sizes S-3XL. 3 Game processor kit RRP: £110 gmk.co.uk This is an original 12-piece game processing set with a hard-side…

How much land do you need for a proper rewilding scheme? Unlike carefully managed private game reserves of the sort I examined recently (Sharpshooter, 23 October), Africa’s national parks cover huge swathes of territory. Big enough to hold a truly self-sustaining ecosystem. Yet supplementary feeding isn’t restricted to fenced game reserves. My eye was caught by a small story in the Daily Telegraph: “Hay trucked in to save Zimbabwe’s elephants.” Written by a journalist with the wonderfully apt name of Roland Oliphant, it described how an organisation called Vets for Animal Welfare Zimbabwe (VAWZ) had trucked in 9,000 bales of hay to Mana Pools, a national park in the north of the country, to prevent elephants from dying of starvation during the current drought. About 20 elephants have already died…