Innholdsfortegnelse for 5-Oct-2016 i Shooting Times & Country

The BBC’s disintegrating reputation within the country sports community has been dealt another withering blow as its Trust has cleared Chris Packham of breaking the corporation’s guidelines on impartiality in a column he wrote for BBC Wildlife Magazine (p.5). Many in the fieldsports community believe that the BBC has an anti-shooting agenda and this recent ruling will only add fuel to that fire. It is extraordinary that a BBC presenter, writing in a BBC publication, could malign a substantial section of the law-abiding countryside community and for that to be ruled as acceptable. The BBC Trust’s statement on impartiality says: “It is essential to its independence that the BBC retains the public’s trust as an impartial purveyor of news and programming.” I would argue that there is a very substantial…

9 OCTOBER “UPPING YOUR GAME” GAME COOKING WITH JOSÉ SOUTO Browsholme Hall, Clitheroe, Lancashire Tel 01244 573000 11 OCTOBER SCOTTISH LAND & ESTATES BRACKEN CONTROL DEMONSTRATION Atholl estates, Pitlochry, Perthshire Tel 01316 535400 13 OCTOBER GWCT PARTRIDGE FARM WALK Fridlington Farms, North Yorkshire Tel 01425 651013 21 OCTOBER BASC SNARING ACCREDITATION TRAINING DAY BASC Scottish Centre, Dunkeld, Perthshire Tel 01350 723226 23 OCTOBER THE COUNTRYSIDE DAY Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool, Merseyside Tel 020 7840 9207 27-29 OCTOBER NORTHERN WILDLIFE ART EXHIBITION Mowden Hall School, Stocksfield, Northumberland Tel 07925 597676…

Are you a seasoned countryman or woman with a media background looking for a new challenge? If so, maybe you would enjoy joining the Shooting Times team. We are looking for a new editor, who will have the opportunity to lead the editorial team of a weekly magazine that has been at the forefront of the shooting scene for more than 130 years. You will be based in our offices in Farnborough in Hampshire and if you don’t already know the key players in the shooting industry, you soon will. If you think you might enjoy the challenge, please send your CV and a covering letter explaining your suitability for the position and including your starting salary expectations to fiona.mercer@timeinc.com.…

As John Swift (right) is determined to keep the Lead Ammunition Group (LAG) going (News, 28 September), and since it has lost all credibility with the shooting community after the walkout of half its members, may I suggest to him three worthy people to fill some of the gaps around his table? I think that Dr Brian May, Bill Oddie and, last but not least, Chris Packham would blend in well with this august body, and help Mr Swift with his future deliberations. J. R. Carey, by email IN ASSOCIATION WITH JACK PYKE OF ENGLAND The winner of Letter of the Week will receive a Jack Pyke Countryman Fleece Gilet. Made from 300g thermal fleece with nubuck piping, it is available in sizes S-XXXL. For more information visit www.jackpyke.co.uk.…

“To move people on, the police should forget the water cannon — just put them downwind of a billy goat” Creosoting or, since it was taken off the market, preserving the wood on the kennels, is a major task that has to be done each year. Once you get started with a brush, the hours can slip away quite fast as your mind can wander, though the song of the wee robin in the September afternoon was making my work cheery. Many people pass comment, especially to my son, asking if I still work as a full-time gamekeeper since I became chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association. I can assure everybody that sometimes I have to work twice as hard to allow the time to attend meetings and other jobs.…

IF YOU BUY A BOOK from Amazon you will almost certainly be invited to write an online review. I bought A Matter of Breeding, by Michael Brandow, a couple of weeks ago and, though I haven’t reviewed it online, it is worthy of notice here. It is subtitled A biting history of pedigree dogs, something that it lives up to. The author lives in New York and, according to the back cover, has “a background in journalism, dog care and community activism and is a sought-after commentator on dog-related issues”. I bought A Matter of Breeding because I’d read that it was “the best book ever on pedigree dogs”. It created a major stir in the US, where it was first published last year, and it has now been…

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 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…

Leadsom to push for hunting ban repeal DEFRA secretary Andrea Leadsom is pushing for a new vote to repeal the ban on fox hunting, according to the Telegraph. The newspaper reports that Mrs Leadsom wants to implement a free vote before the next election. It quotes an unnamed DEFRA source as claiming: “We stand by our manifesto commitment to give Parliament the opportunity to repeal the Hunting Act on a free vote, with a Government bill in government time.” NFU welcomes Brexit consultation turnout The National Farmers Union (NFU) president Meurig Raymond said the degree of participation in its post-Brexit farming consultation reaffirmed the importance of British food and farming. The first stage of the NFU’s consultation came to a close in England last month, with thousands of NFU members…

With the lambing season over, Calling for Raven Control (Have your say, 1 June) knew the momentum that the campaign gathered during the spring was never going to continue for the full duration up to this point. However, the time for action is now! Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has made good on its word and approached Calling for Raven Control for an input to the 2017 General Licence consultation, which we greatly appreciate. As a focal point, Calling for Raven Control has responded with a fact-based input regarding General Licence GL02 on behalf of its 3,367 signatories. This is the specific licence that permits the killing or taking of wild birds for the prevention of serious damage to livestock. Calling for Raven Control’s input into this consultation will, however, become…

For those who own a successful shoot, nothing can be more satisfying than to see the hard work of a gamekeeper and his team paying off and, in doing so, enabling three generations of the owner’s family to spend several days throughout the season standing on the same drives together on their own land. Such was the case for Brian Scowcroft, who owns a 1,600-acre beef and sheep estate in Winster, in the Lake District National Park. Brian has owned the estate since the mid-1980s, but it wasn’t until 1998 that he decided to introduce shooting on the land for his family and friends. By 2001 the decision was made to employ a full-time keeper and shoot every two weeks for a total of 11 days during the season. As…

Gundog training at this time of the year for many people has to fit around all the other shooting activities and things are no different here at Twistmount. As well as training the dogs, I run a small syndicate shoot and a lot of my time is taken up feeding and watering the poults. But this does have its advantages in that there is always plenty of scent on the ground and plenty of birds to tempt the young dogs. Over the past few months, I have been gradually building up the young spaniels’ experience and Logan and Dolly are now ready for some major steps forward in their training. I try to have targets in my training programme and I am very keen to get the spaniels in the…

What did the study look at — and what did it show? The study’s methodology was simple in practice, but the statistical analysis was less so due to small sample sizes and the use of out-of-date and unreliable data. UK wetland bird population indices were compared with two studies on the prevalence of wildfowl ingesting lead shot, one Europe-based and one UK-based. Both studies revealed a significant negative correlation between the prevalence of picking up lead and the species’ UK population index. This relationship appears to be particularly acute in the common pochard and northern pintail. This means that though the majority of wintering wildfowl are increasing in population, the two that are decreasing (the pintail and pochard) are those with the highest level of lead shot found in their…

If you had gone looking for me on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago, which incidentally would have been a foolish thing to do, you might have found me standing on the roof of England in a deluge of rain made somewhat less enjoyable by the input of a howling gale. You might have found me but then again you might not; you might well have walked right past me without realising that the hunched shape just visible through the downpour was a human being. If you had spotted me and had come to investigate, you would probably have decided that I did not look happy. I was feeling very miserable indeed, very cold and very wet and utterly downhearted. I was also cursing myself for forgetting both my…

A recent press release from the Kennel Club (KC) on the perils of buying dogs on the internet was picked up by most of the newspapers. In case you didn’t see it, I will give a quick precis. According to the KC, almost half the puppies bought online without being seen first fell sick, typically with serious gastro-intestinal problems. Equally worrying was the fact that more than a third of puppies bought online, or from newspaper adverts, were spur-of-the-moment decisions. Two-thirds of the latter were chosen simply because of the way they looked. I’m confident that the majority of owners of working gundogs don’t fall into the buying online and collecting unseen trap. One of the golden rules of buying a puppy is viewing it with its mother. If the…

Plant: Shepherd’s purse Latin name: Capsella bursa-pastoris Common names: Case weed, lady’s purse, mother’s heart, poor man’s parmacettie How to spot it and where to find it: Shepherd’s purse is an ephemeral plant, having many life cycles in one season. It tends to grow mainly on cultivated land such as fields and farmland, tracks, roads and path sides as well as waste places. It can be found at almost any time of year and its flowers appear as tiny white clusters at the top of the stems. Interesting facts: Shepherd’s purse prefers sunny, moist to dry, rich, disturbed soil. Reproducing solely by seed, it can produce between 500 and 90,000 seeds. Chaffinches and other wild birds eat the seeds, which become sticky when wet. In herbal medicine, it is used…

Foxhounds come in a variety of types, ranging from the Fell hounds to the Welsh and the Old English. Almost certainly the oldest is the Welsh, recognisable by its long or woolly broken coat and its wonderful deep voice. The Fell hound has been bred to be able to cope with steep terrain, and to hunt independently from the huntsman. The Old English is renowned for its toughness and speed, making it a real challenge for mounted followers to keep up with when the pack is in full cry. Today, most packs feature what is known as the modern foxhound, made up mainly of the Old English with a touch of Welsh, but there have been outcrosses to other types, including the American. In many cases, pedigrees can be traced…

“This was another successful rural reception. We look forward to continuing to work with Labour for shooting and conservation, as we have done in the past.” BASC’s political affairs manager, Sophie Hutchinson, speaking at the Labour party conference as BASC highlighted the benefits of grouse moor management to Labour MPs and peers. £1million DF Concerts and Events chief executive Geoff Ellis, the man behind music festival T in the Park, has claimed that accommodating nesting ospreys at the Strathallan Castle venue costs the event around £1million each year.…

BOOK Westminster Kingsway College is offering a one-day seminar covering all aspects of small and large game, from identification and history to preparation and cooking tips. The seminar, which is in its 10th year, remains one of the only events of its kind in the UK. The next seminar takes place on Wednesday, 9 November. Each seminar costs £115 per person and includes a three-course game lunch and a colour booklet written by top chef José Souto on the identification and preparation of game. To book a place, tel 020 7802 8391 or email restaurant@westking.ac.uk. EAT To celebrate the start of the pheasant season, why not get some inspiration for all the dishes you can make with this nutritious and tasty meat? These pheasant recipes range from simple dishes for…

Lewis Par, 17, from south Wales, won a BSA air rifle for finishing top of BASC’s under-18 target competition at the Midland Game Fair last month. Another 54 angling projects have benefited from a share of £200,000 from the Angling Improvement Fund, which is administered by the Angling Trust in partnership with the Environment Agency. A hedgehog has had to be put down after being shot at point-blank range with an airgun in South Lynn, Norfolk. A pellet was lodged in the creature’s spine and nothing could be done to save it. The RSPCA is investigating. HRH the Prince of Wales was reportedly left shaken but uninjured after his car collided with a deer last month. According to the Mirro , the Audi that the Prince was…

THE DEVIL WE KNOW To any right-minded person, the ludicrous 2004 Hunting Act is a poorly thought-out, badly composed and invidious piece of legislation. Its only purpose appears to be to persecute and criminalise a generally law-abiding section of society. The few court cases that have been brought under the terms of the act have been largely unsuccessful; even the notorious Heythrop case could hardly be lauded as a great achievement, given the enormous cost to the RSPCA. That said, I wonder about the free vote that DEFRA secretary Andrea Leadsom has pledged to bring before the next election (p.7). The hunting community has responded admirably to the challenge posed by the act, and has ways to continue to hunt within the law. I fear that a free vote will…

The rowan berries have been ripe since the middle of August, but only now are they ripe enough to be eaten. The first few blackbirds are tentatively picking at them, but if previous years are anything to go by, this cautious beginning will rapidly descend into a greedy bunfight. It will be hard to find a single berry by mid-October when the fieldfares and redwings begin to pour over the North Sea in their thousands. We had two days of stormy weather in early September during which several of the heaviest rowan bunches were blown off the trees and on to the ground. I found rowan berry skins and pips in fox droppings over the next few days, implying that Charlie is not above the occasional fruit salad when the…

Nick Thompson is a Cumbrian in every sense, having been born only a few miles from the shoot in the village of Arnside. He worked as an underkeeper on another local shoot before being offered the position of headkeeper on Arles Beck in 2009. Nick overlooks the whole estate, being responsible for both the shooting side as well as the farming side with their Cheviot flock and Luing cattle spread out across the 1,600 acres of grazing and fell. He has created some truly stunning drives as well as 22 acres of gamecover since he arrived and is immensely proud of what he has achieved within his seven years. “In 2009 when I arrived, there were only 18 driven days which were all pheasant. Now we have 37 days as…

“I flapped a bit as I realised the birds were on me now. I pulled far, far out in front and dropped the best hen I had ever shot” Drew is the best Shot I know as well as the biggest. You might get the impression in our little roving syndicate that the bag is not calculated per Gun but per stone, as Drew is invariably responsible for the lion’s share. But honestly, that is due solely to the quality of his shooting and not the girth of his breeks. Last season, the big fella’s resolution was to shed five stone. By the middle of January, he only had seven to go. Having someone like Drew in our team has many benefits. On hard highland days, when the gale rips…

How do I attract grey partridges to the shoot?” was the question that prompted this article, and in a way it exposes a misunderstanding of grey partridge biology. So let’s start at the beginning and understand the nature of partridges. The first fundamental is that greys are sedentary birds — most will pass their entire lives within a mile or so of where they were hatched. This means that there are no passing migrants to attract in the way that you can with snipe, woodcock and wildfowl. There is not even the same propensity to autumn dispersal that happens with released pheasants and red-legged partridges, so you cannot even hope to pull any significant numbers from next door. However, if there are resident greys in your area, you can make…

The authors’ attempt to show that wildlife populations are being affected by the continued use of lead shot — something that has never been shown to be the case in the UK before — is lacking substance. There is too much missing information and the use of questionable statistics reduces its significance. It does, however, raise the need for further research, especially in relation to the recent declines in population of the pochard and pintail. It is essential that we stay up to date with all the available information regarding lead ammunition and we should not take this sort of evidence lightly. However, there are numerous queries around this study, which leaves a lot to be desired. As the title of the paper rightly points out, lead shot is a…

Yellow Lab eats carrion GUNDOG TRAINING Q I pick-up on a large commercial shoot and as the season progresses there are many carcases unavoidably left in the cover after each shoot day. My team of dogs, on the whole, ignores any stale carcases — except for a mature yellow male Labrador, which cannot resist eating these rotting morsels. He will never bring them back but gulps them down while out of sight. I am worried this may make him hard-mouthed — how do I stop him? A This is a perfectly natural behaviour that is difficult to correct without the possibility of causing other problems. For instance, if you were heavy-handed and used punishment to stop him that, in itself, could easily induce hard mouth through making him more possessive…

One of the names of the corn bunting is “fat bird of the barley”, which describes both its shape and its close link with cereal crops. We lost 80 per cent of the UK’s corn buntings between 1970 and 2010 and the species is now probably extinct in Ireland. The corn bunting’s decline has been driven by a reduction in the availability of seed-rich winter stubbles and a general reduction in invertebrates, such as caterpillars, grasshoppers, harvestmen and ground beetles, which adults feed to their youngsters. In Scotland, it has been shown that the early cutting of silage can have a serious impact upon nesting attempts. The distinctive “rattling keys” song of the corn bunting is being heard more frequently in some areas, thanks to the habitat creation efforts of…

“Microbeads lurk in cosmetics such as facial scrubs, but you won’t know which products contain them” Plastic is fantastic. As an environmental pollutant, I mean. I have written before about my belief that we should try to minimise the use of plastic in the countryside generally. Many estates now routinely ban the use of plastic shotgun wads over their land. The advent of steel shot has seen renewed investment in the search for really good biodegradable shot cups. It is only a matter of time before these are more commonly available. I am pleased to see that the war on plastic in the environment is gathering pace. The Government’s imposition of a 5p payment for single-use plastic bags in supermarkets and shops last October has been a real success. It…