Innholdsfortegnelse for 7-Sep-2016 i Shooting Times & Country

THAT THE SHOOTING industry is of enormous value to conservation and wildlife, and has a key part to play in the successful stewardship of Britain’s countryside for future generations, has never been in any doubt within our own community. Far less certain, though, is our collective ability to communicate this effectively to the wider public and respond to the arguments against shooting put forward by an increasingly hostile and vocal minority. This issue is by no means new, but every so often events combine to bring it to the fore. The results of this year’s Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust Shoot Benchmarking Survey (p.4) provide clear evidence of the benefits to habitats and wildlife that shooting brings. We would all do well to commit the results to memory, ready for…

LISTEN Go online to BBC iPlayer Radio for another chance to hear a recent episode of Farming Today, originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 31 August. This instalment features National Farmers Union president Meurig Raymond, who discusses how his members feel about the extension of the badger cull (see p.6). Plus, reporter Howard Shannon visits Hertfordshire, where a fierce debate has been taking place over the quality of farming land now earmarked for more than 500 new homes. WATCH This week, BBC iPlayer also offers another chance to see the second episode of Britain’s Hardest Workers: Inside the Low Wage Economy. First shown on BBC2 in August, this episode gives 16 workers the chance to find out what it is like to be casual labourers on zero-hour contracts with…

The Shoot 2016, an annual charity clay shoot at Auchterhouse Country Sports in Dundee, has raised more than £270,000 to be split between Dundee-based Maggie’s Centre, which provides support for people with cancer, and the JDRF type 1 diabetes centre in Aberdeen. More than 380 people attended the event, which was organised by the Charitable Trust. James Farrer, 16, from Dumfriesshire (pictured) has won BASC’s first Young Shot Conservation Award after building a bird hide to demonstrate to visitors to Langholm grouse moor how good moorland management can positively impact on biodiversity. Environmental law firm ClientEarth, which is currently suing the Government for a second time due to its breach of EU air quality rules, says that the UK could be decades away from reaching its predicted compliance…

MAKING THE CASE At the British Birdwatching Fair last month, I attended the debate on the future of driven grouse shooting. It was disappointing not to see any senior representatives from the major fieldsports organisations arguing the case for shooting. Full marks to Simon Lester — who has recently left the Langholm Moor Demonstration Project, where he did an excellent job — for speaking up on behalf of a sport in which he currently does not have a stake. There are many who do who should hang their heads in shame. Grouse shooting has many serious issues that must be faced. The opposing forces have some well-reasoned arguments and have done a pretty good job of bringing these to the public’s attention. The success of their e-petition to ban the…

“For the public, the spectacle of the country show brings home the importance of farming” I’ve had one of my mixed bags this week. I’ve just received a delightful letter from a long-time Shooting Times reader, Arthur Butler, who signs himself “a 92-year-old wildfowler”. Referring to my article (Good friends, best fens, 27 July) he rightly reminded me that the renowned wildfowl artist Frank Southgate, who served in World War I alongside his old fowling partner Pat Cringle, died from a heart attack at the Front, whereas I incorrectly stated that he had returned from the war to act as a fowling guide with Pat. A stupid mistake, as I knew perfectly well that he had died in the war. Serving on the front line in northern France, they had…

Usually, when a new book about pigeon shooting is published, you have to sift through its pages and first of all discard the old wives’ tales that the author insists are essential to success. Stuff like cutting the eyelids off dead birds before you use them as decoys, or pigeon having the ability to work out that a scruffy hide built in the middle of a field contains a shooter with evil intent. Occasionally, though, a book comes along that reinforces the principles, established more than 50 years ago by the legendary Archie Coats, of making large bags of pigeon, and brings them up to date. Such a book is about to hit the market (and in time for Christmas, pigeon shooting widows take note!) and it is this one,…

THIS IS ONE area of gundog training that can cause handlers some issues — possibly because they rush it, so that the lesson is not fully learnt by the dog, or they overdo it and the dog grows bored. With my spaniels, I like to develop their stop whistle training with the dog out in front of me. In most cases you will be stopping a spaniel when he is hunting out in front, especially when he flushes game. Dolly already recognises my raised hand as the “sit” command, so it is then a case of introducing a single blast of the whistle at the same time, so she gradually learns to associate the two signals. At this stage, everything is done at close range and I always go back…

1 BARREL Blued-steel or stainless steel are available, as are lightweight Sporter or bull-barrel profiles. Carbine barrels usually start at 16in, but can be sourced up to 26in in length. 2 SIGHT Open sights are common, but most barrels have the option for a one-piece scope mount. 3 ACTION Investment-cast action has slim lines with a simplistic and strong design. 4 STOCK Walnut Sporter is standard, but custom, laminate, thumbholes have been made. I have always had a soft spot for the Thompson/Center single-shot firearms because I cut my teeth on long-range handgun shooting with its long-barrelled pistol variant. The Contender G2 Carbine’s origins lie in a single-shot pistol for silhouette shooting derived from the Mexican Senderos in the 1960s. In 1965,…

Though I may never have heard of limber tail until recently (Gundogs, 17 August), it’s a condition familiar to several readers of this column. Cathy Burton has experienced it with her dogs, and believes that “they wag their tails so madly all day while out shooting that they strain it. Additional factors are that the weather is usually cold and at some point in the day they will be swimming. We keep a couple of Rimadyl, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), to hand as there is no doubt that the condition is painful. I also feel the dog is depressed as a result of the lack of tail movement as it cannot express itself.” Cathy recommends that when you check your dog over after a day’s shooting you should massage…

Plant: Whitebeam Latin name: Sorbus aria Common names: Whitebeam, beam tree, chess apple How to spot it and where to find it: A relative of the rowan tree (sorbus aucuparia), whitebeam is a medium-sized deciduous tree whose conical, white-coated leaves appear in late April and initially look like magnolia buds just before they bloom. They open out to broad, dark green leaves with clusters of flowers that develop into red berries in late summer. Though widely distributed, the whitebeam is one of our lesser known trees. The Avon Gorge is the richest site for whitebeams in the world. The tree favours chalky soils and can also be found in the Wye valley and the Chilterns. Interesting facts: The berries are known as chess apples in Lancashire and Westmoreland and are…

“I picked up six empty water bottles, and noticed banana skins and numerous bits of paper or foil” At 4,413ft Ben Nevis, near Fort William, Scotland, is the highest mountain in the UK. You have to start the walk from near sea level, so the ascent is comparable with some much loftier peaks in other parts of the world. It is an especially hard trudge for me because I have a knackered leg which gets stiff after even modest amounts of exercise. I went up the Ben last week. Before I set off, I had a look at the route on a website. This proclaimed that the top and key ridges were owned by the John Muir Trust, “so there are no deerstalking issues”. I presume this means there is…

“The survey collects important information on the contribution that shoots make to conservation” The important contribution of shooting to wildlife conservation and the increasing profitability of shoots has been highlighted in the Shoot Benchmarking Survey 2015-2016, recently published by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and estate agent Savills. The survey looked at the average salaries, costs, shoot performance and conservation work of 141 shoots across Great Britain and found that of those shoots surveyed, 97 per cent fed gamebirds after the shooting season was over and 55 per cent fed songbirds voluntarily. Furthermore, 70 per cent shot over land that is in a paid agri-environment habitat improvement scheme, while 16 per cent were involved in voluntary schemes such as the Campaign for the Farmed Environment. Fifty per cent…

11 SEPTEMBER HAMPSHIRE COUNTRY SPORTS DAY Tichborne Park, Alresford, Hampshire Tel 01752 830430 15 SEPTEMBER HOLT’S AUCTION OF FINE MODERN & ANTIQUE GUNS Hammersmith, London Tel 01485 542822 16 - 17 SEPTEMBER LONDON SHOOTING SHOW London Shooting Club Tel 07737 744950 2 2 SEPTEMBER SIMULATED GAME DAY Oakedge Shooting Ground, Staffordshire Tel 07891 276810 24 SEPTEMBER THE FESTIVAL OF SHOOTING The Oxford Gun Company, Oakley, Buckinghamshire Tel 01844 238308 24-25 SEPTEMBER WILTSHIRE GAME & COUNTRY FAIR Bowood Estate, Wiltshire Tel 01249 812102 25 SEPTEMBER GWCT 200-BIRD TEAM FLUSH CLAY SHOOT Middle Ellick Farm, Somerset Tel 01373 836339…

BASC has responded to claims in The Times last week that the shooting organisation was “in chaos” amid allegations of bullying by staff members. Former chairman Alan Jarrett shared his criticisms of the BASC board with The Times following an investigation into complaints from BASC staff about “improper interference” and “harassment” by directors. His comments follow the suspension of chief executive Richard Ali and other BASC staff implicated in the investigation earlier this year (News, 15 June). Mr Jarrett said that he and two other members of the BASC board also resigned at the time in protest at the board’s response to the investigation report. Writing to The Times, BASC acting chief executive Christopher Graffius responded: “Your readers can be reassured that BASC is not in ‘chaos’. “Membership is growing,…

Shotgun manufacturer Zoli and cartridge brand Nobel Sport Italia (NSI) have teamed up with Southdown Gun Club & Shooting School in West Sussex to launch a talent search to find an ambitious local shooter to compete at next year’s World Sporting Championship. The aim is to give someone who has always wanted to shoot competitively, but lacked the funds, the chance to realise their dream and step on to the world stage. The winner of the Talent Pool programme will receive a yearlong prize fund, worth more than £9,000, including the loan of a brand-new Zoli Z-Sport shotgun, 12 one-to-one professional coaching sessions, membership at Southdown Shooting School, 5,000 NSI cartridges, all entry fees, Clay Pigeon Shooting Association (CPSA) membership, branded clothing and travel expenses. They will also be personally…

I thought one of the basic tenets of British law was that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. According to RSPB Scotland, this doesn’t appear to apply to wildlife crime. It has signally failed to produce any evidence that the eight golden eagles that went missing over the Monadhliath mountains (News, 24 August) and now a hen harrier (News, 31 August) were killed by moorland managers. Perhaps if RSPB Scotland were to stop throwing accusations around and worked with the moorland managers — who have generously indicated their willingness to help — they could find out what has happened to these birds. As I understand it, there is no direct evidence that the eagles are dead, and the same applies to the hen harrier. Despite all the mud slung…

“With social media allowing lies to spread, we must stand up and fight our corner with greater vigour” When Armageddon arrives, five years after the RSPB, or friends of, have banned shooting,what will become of our mountains, moors and estates? One thing I am sure of is that there will be a deathly silence coming from our countryside — like tumbleweed blowing down some deserted town in a Western. Men, women and children will be driven from their homes and schools. Gamekeepers are like the third leg on the stool — remove them and the oldest conservationists are removed from the equation, which has stood the test of time over the past 150 years. How long would our wildlife survive, or the whole infrastructure of our straths and glens, once…

Tom Payne graduated from Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester, and worked as a professional pigeon Shot and sporting agent before joining the West London Shooting School in 2007 as a full-time gameshooting instructor. Since leaving the school in 2012, Tom has worked as a gameshooting instructor and specialist gunfitter for many companies and private clients around the world. The Pigeon Shooter’s Diary (£20, ISBN 9781846892363) published by Quiller (www.quillerpublishing.com) will be launched at the Midland Game Fair on 17 September. Fairgoers will be able to meet Tom at the Shooting Times stand from 11am to 12pm and 2pm to 3pm and buy a signed copy.…

“My poults should find the conditions ideal for settling into their new home” It was the evening before my pheasant poults came to High Park and you could have found me, on either side of 8pm, sitting at home and sipping a thoughtful glass of sherry before dinner. It was a thoughtful glass because the person holding it, and helping himself to its contents, was asking himself if he had forgotten anything. Between sips, I was going through a sort of mental list: I had patched up the pheasant pens weeks ago and now I had made sure that the electric fences were all working; I had taken a bale of barley straw to each of the three pens and there were pellets in all the food bins; I had…

Is it possible for dogs and foxes to interbreed? WILDLIFE Q During a long lifetime spent around dogs, I’ve twice come across dogs that were reputed to be a cross between a fox and a dog. The most recent was a foxy-looking animal that was claimed to be the result of a liaison between a border terrier and a fox. It certainly looked very foxy, but I’m convinced that the two cannot interbreed. Am I right? A You certainly are. Claims of dog-fox hybrids are not uncommon, but none has ever stood up to close scrutiny. Dogs, wolves, coyotes and jackals have all hybridised in captivity, for they share a similar genetic makeup. Foxes are also members of the family Canidae , but they are genetically very different: while a…

There’s something impressive about the hobby, a small falcon that catches dragonflies in its talons and eats them in mid-air. I imagine it’s a bit like peeling a banana with your toes and teeth while doing aerial acrobatics. Not only are hobbies dextrous, but they can also fly fast enough to catch house martins, swallows and even swifts. Over the next couple of weeks, most hobbies will depart for warmer climes. We don’t know where they go each autumn, as there are only two September records in Portugal and no reports of British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) ringed birds in Africa. They could spend the winter just south of the Sahara, or proceed as far south as Angola, as Swedish hobbies wearing satellite tags have been shown to do. Perhaps…

BASC has highlighted the role of shooting tourism in supporting rural growth in its response to an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee inquiry. The committee, chaired by Tiverton and Honiton MP Neil Parish, is currently examining tourism’s role in supporting rural growth in England. The shooting organisation drew on national research and submitted numerous case studies in its response, including the Country Sports South West England project, which it manages, and which led to an investment of £666,632 in the country sports sector between 2010 and 2013. BASC also quoted research by the Greater Exmoor Shoots Association, which shows that shooting on Exmoor contributes an estimated £32.5million annually to the UK economy and provides an economic return from upland farms and woods where farming margins are thin and…

Keepers help save starving barn owl Angus gamekeepers have helped bring a starving baby barn owl back to health. Keepers at the Millden estate in Angus discovered four rare barn owl chicks around two months ago that had nested on the floor of a steading on the estate. The endangered owls were ringed by Tay Ringing Group and their wing lengths and weights suggested that they had decent survival chances. However, the keepers recently found one of the young owls (below) suffering in the wet weather. They took it to Angus Falconry Services, which fed and nurtured the bird to the point where it had a chance of surviving in the wild. The owl has now been re-released by keepers back on to the estate, where it hunts in the…

British Shooting surpassed expectations, and exceeded its UK Sport medal targets, at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by winning two medals and having two additional athletes in final rounds. That achievement meant our team has the best medal return on investment of any other sport that travelled with Team GB. There is a huge sense of pride for what we have collectively achieved and this will have had a significant impact on the future of Olympic shooting within Great Britain. Within the Rio Olympic cycle, British Shooting has exceeded or met our milestone target every year across the whole performance system. This success demonstrates the depth and breadth of talent that is being nurtured within the GB shooting performance pathway and the ability to compete with other world-leading shooting nations.…

I am so fortunate to be out and about shooting pigeon all the time. I’ve had the privilege to learn from some of the finest pigeon Shots over the years and have learned and modified some of their techniques to my advantage. I am a great believer in using traditional methods, making use of the limited but good modern equipment available when the situation calls for it. At the same time I continue to study the bird to develop and hone my decoying ability, ensuring that I continue to have consistent success. Pigeon shooting is a sport that takes time to learn. Reconnaissance skills, fieldcraft, understanding the bird and decoying ability are key aspects of pigeon shooting that you need to master before you can place yourself in the perfect…

As a gundog trainer with several dogs to progress, I have to look at each individual and work out a suitable training programme for every one and this can vary due to the dog’s personality and its level of maturity. Logan and Dolly, the two English springer spaniels, are now just over 12 months old and my plan for them is to reach a stage in their training where I can take them out in the beating line on a small, informal day. This is likely to be at the back end of this shooting season in January. As a result, they have been taking priority over Remy the Labrador puppy, who will not be seeing the shooting field until the following season. In the early days, Dolly was by…

BEING A PART-TIME keeper and given the recent arrival of my poults, I have had the chance to try out Logan with some feathered retrieves because there are always a few fatalities in the first few days. If you can get hold of any dead poults, they make excellent first feathered retrieves for young dogs. Being small and light, they are far better than woodpigeon, which tend to shed feathers easily and can put a young dog off picking feathered game. As with all aspects of the dogs’ training, I do not put any pressure on them and try to make the exercises a game. I am not worried at this stage that Logan runs in to the retrieve. I start with throwing out a dummy and as soon as…

IT’S A SAD FACT that in virtually every competitive sport there are those prepared to try to win or fix a result by unfair or unsporting means. Sometimes it’s for financial gain or it may be for personal glory, but it’s all about cheating. You don’t have to look far to find examples in cricket, cycling, athletics, even pigeon racing. Years ago I lost an important squash match because my older and more experienced opponent cheated at match ball — for those who understand squash the score was 9-9 in the fifth. That loss still rankles with me to this day. The world of field trialling also has its cheats, as I was reminded when I recently received a highly detailed 2,500-word account of the alleged wrongdoings of a spaniel…

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 Shropshire gamekeeper and keen wildfowler GRAHAM DOWNING Shooting consultant and sporting author PAUL RAWLINGS Gundog expert and A-panel spaniel judge 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 SIMON WHITEHEAD Author, professional ferreter and rabbit controller IAIN WATSON Keen stalker and senior CIC international trophy judge Contact the team Email: stanswers@timeinc.com By post: Shooting Times, Pinehurst 2,…

Britain’s oldest breed of draught horse, the Suffolk, dates back to the 16th century and all Suffolks alive today trace their male lines back to a stallion called Crisp’s Horse of Ufford, which was foaled in 1768. In Victorian times every farm in Suffolk would have had teams of these horses, and at the height of the breed’s popularity there were huge numbers throughout East Anglia. Always chesnut — correctly spelled without the middle “T” — in colour and with short, unfeathered legs, the powerful and compact Suffolk was ideal for working the county’s heavy clay. Mechanisation was this horse’s undoing. In the years after World War II, farmers replaced their teams of Suffolks with tractors, and most of the horses went for slaughter. Within just a few years, the…