Innholdsfortegnelse for 22-Apr-2020 i Shooting Times & Country

Last weekend, while flicking through an old journal, I came across an article by Tohn Martin on shooting from 1900-1945. During World War I, 23,000 keepers went to fight on the front, vast swathes of land were ploughed up to feed the nation and death duties hobbled the owners of many sporting estates. At the time, writers in these pages lamented the end of life as they knew it. Looking back, it is clear a great deal has changed and yet so much stays the same. Shooting remains hugely popular; it is still an essential part of the rural economy and the good it does in terms of conservation is more important than ever. But fundamentally, this sport endures because it is wrapped up in something inherently human, which is…

The UK’s wintering geese are on their way home or have arrived there already. Large skeins of pink-footed geese were seen and heard flying north in the last week of March and the first week of April as they headed back to their Arctic breeding grounds. The Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust’s (WWT) satellite-tagged geese also showed that they were homeward bound. By 15 April all six of the WWT’s tagged bean geese were in southern Scandinavia on the border between Norway and Sweden. In previous years these geese have been tracked being blown hundreds of miles off course before reorienting themselves, returning to their point of departure and starting their migration all over again. Satellite tracks showed tagged greylags were spread between the Orkney islands and Iceland. Departure day for…

As any woman involved in fieldsports will know, buying shooting clothing can be a bit of a nightmare. In decades past, I joined my first beating line and was clad in a wax jacket and trousers that disintegrated within a day. Many manufacturers overlooked us and in very recent — more inclusive — times there has been far more available. But it has often been of the pink, fur-trimmed and impractical variety. A lot of women in years gone by gave up looking at the women’s clothing and bought men’s purely for practicality. However, the fit was never quite right and there’s nothing more frustrating than forking out for something that really isn’t that comfortable. Design challenge Now that is starting to change. Fortunately, as more women get involved in…

WATCHING A DOG POWER OUT on a retrieve with absolute precision and 100% focus on the job in hand is a wonderful thing. It shows the dog’s true confidence and belief in the handler. This confidence is paramount, as a dog will never keep running if they do not believe you when you say something is out there. That’s why everything at this stage is a mark or memory mark and rarely a blind. I am repeating the same two exercises in small, open fields with short grass to start with. It is important that Keepa can pretty much see what he is going for, as this will mean that he is more likely to hold a good line. I start by putting two dummies out, one immediately to my…

How can I be sure it’s a sika? STALKING Q I enclose a photograph of a sika stag, which I shot in the autumn on a trip to Ireland. Since having it cleaned up in preparation for it being scored, stalking friends have suggested that it is not a sika but a hybrid, because of its size. Is this likely to be the case? The animal certainly looked like a sika by way of its coat, rump patch, its overall size and its head. How common is it to come across animals like this and will it be measured as a sika? A Sika have adapted remarkably well in both the UK and Ireland. In the latter, they are established across the country, particularly in the Wicklow area, where the…

Introduced in 1887, the .22 Long Rifle cartridge, available now in a range of subsonic and high-velocity rounds, originally carried a 40-gr solid bullet. It hastened the obsolescence of centrefire rook and rabbit rifles. Inexpensive bolt-action rifles and cheaper rimfire ammo made the .22 the standard vermin-culling rifle of the 20th century. Rimfire cartridges were popular in the 1870s in large-calibre rifles, but for most of the 20th century, only the .22 survived, later giving rise to the derivative .17HMR. The .22 Long Rifle has been widely used in small pistols and a few double rifles, but is the standard round of the bolt-action rifle.…

Jonathan Standing is a professional stalker and deer manager from beautiful Westmorland. He is also one of the country’s leading deer-tracking dog trainers, an accomplished taxidermist and wildlife sculptor. I was keen to know how long Jonathan had been a professional stalker and what sent him down that path. “I’ve been involved in deer and their management for well over 30 years,” he told me. “I was born and raised on a farm and had a great upbringing in the outdoors. I was always interested in wildlife and the countryside, and I had an affinity with deer from a very young age.” What was life like growing up in such a wild place, I wondered. “I was never that good at school and couldn’t wait to get home, throw my…

COOK Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives and cook game. Why not have a root around in the freezer, find those neglected gamebirds, forgotten ducks and languishing rabbits and try something new. Every week in these pages, we run a recipe from one of the country’s top game chefs (see p46). FORAGE Combine your daily walk with a little light foraging. Spring offers a chance to gather some delicious wild ingredients. Wild garlic is widespread and easy to identify, as is tangy and delicious wood sorrel. The young leaves of hawthorn are another traditional favourite that can be found in most places.…

I’ve enjoyed the last few articles you’ve had on DIY deer hide tanning and what it should mean to all of us (Getting a decent tan in your own home, 25 March, and Country Diary, 8 April). I took the first two I made off a gamekeeper after he told me they are normally binned — which is, frankly, outrageous — as it’s too time consuming to do and there is no market for them. I, too, used the kit from Snowdonia Supplies and found that it did the job marvellously, and they now adorn my dining chairs as very comfy seat covers. I later picked up two road-kill deer, which I then skinned and butchered myself with only my friend Google to help. I had a go at tanning…

Recipe kindly donated by James Golding James is group chef director at The Pig in Hampshire, a restaurant with rooms that is known for its ethos of only using locally sourced and foraged ingredients in its menu of uncomplicated and simple British food. This recipe is close to my heart. James Golding is a talented chef who is unfazed by simple things like using the ingredients available to you, and his philosophy of allowing the ingredients to set the stage for the menu is one that resonates strongly. It is a great indicator of how things could get confused. You could be forgiven for thinking that the Italians, with all their passion for life, would be furious at the use of pheasant for this sacred sugo, which originates, as the…

BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and global authority on guns MAT MANNING Airgunner and journalist from the West Country DIGGORY HADOKE Vintage gun expert, firearms dealer, author and journalist 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 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…

The Red Spider was created by W C Stewart, dubbed the “practical angler” in the 1850s, and is one of the oldest running Scottish flies in the sport’s history, lasting for more than 160 years. The extra hackle gives the impression of a rising sedge pupa with air trapped in its shuck. Stewart promoted the use of simple spider patterns, and how very effective they were in catching Scottish trout; I suspect because of, rather than despite, their simplicity. EW…

Fundraising failure for Wild Justice In a fresh blow to campaign group Wild Justice, its latest fundraiser looks set to be a failure. The anti-shooting group drew criticism when it chose to launch the fundraising drive despite the COVID-19 crisis. It had hoped to raise £42,000 for a technical legal challenge to the newly issued general licences for Wales. However, the crowdfunder appears almost certain to raise only just over half of the target. It is unclear how the group will now proceed. Barbour produces PPE for NHS staff Fieldsports clothing specialist Barbour has used its resources to support the NHS. The company’s factory in Jarrow on Tyneside has stopped making its trademark wax jackets and is turning out medical gowns instead. The gowns are delivered in the company’s trademark…

Since moving home a decade ago, I have learned to mark by the birds the progress of the seasons, particularly the long, aching search for signs of spring. It is striking how similar each year is. The human world may have been plunged into lockdown by a global pandemic but the avian one is doing its thing as usual, if anything with rather more freedom. As ever, it started on Valentine’s Day with a pair of shelduck appearing on the foreshore below the house. Then, as each morning new melodies were added to the dawn chorus, I noticed other old friends, or probably the great-grandchildren of old friends, reappearing in familiar haunts, like the wagtail yo-yoing down the road in front of me on successive mornings until he disappeared. I…

There is a concept very much in fashion in Westminster, where I occasionally work as a journalist, known as the “dead cat strategy”. It works something like this: let’s suppose you’re at a dinner party, debating a topic in which the facts are almost entirely against you. Logic dictates that the longer this conversation continues, the more certain you are to lose the argument. So instead of continuing to talk, you decide to suddenly plonk a dead cat on to the dining table. Now all anyone is saying is: “Crikey, that’s a dead cat!” In other words, people have stopped thinking about the subject that was giving you so much grief and are instead obsessed with something new: a dead cat. They might very well be alarmed, disgusted and even…

As with so many things in life, those who are real experts make it look easy. To my mind, there is nothing that looks quite as elegant in the world of fieldsports as a confident dog that gets sent out for a retrieve on a straight line. It is easy for owners to get hung up on the intricacies of controlling their dogs; however, life would be a great deal simpler if the lines the dog took when being cast were that bit more accurate, reducing the need for complicated handling and fancy whistle work. My six-year-old bitch handles very well. It is rare that she doesn’t honour the stop whistle and she is extremely honest. This may seem like a good thing and at times it is. But the…

As the conservation bodies introduce more restrictions on the control of numerous species that many in the countryside consider pests, it’s interesting to note the reasoning behind the justification for their decisions. I am well aware that nothing — well, very little — stands still, but just how far back do you go when looking at population trends in bird numbers, for example? Let’s have a look at a couple of the gull species. In around 1900 there were, compared with today, very few herring and black-backed gulls breeding in this country. When I say very few, I am talking about a couple of hundred pairs of each species. From diary notes of the day, they were considered common. How views have changed regarding what is common. If you compare…

It seems highly likely that COVID-19 is going to achieve what Wild Justice has so far failed to do: namely, cause a significant reduction in the number of pheasants and partridges released into the countryside this summer. I have already heard of local shoots that have decided to suspend operations this year and which will not be releasing any birds. I’m sure that the same thing is happening throughout the country. Commercial shoots generally work on fine financial margins, so for many the expense of releasing birds that might never be shot is not worth considering. This, of course, will have a huge impact on the gundog world, and particularly those who pick-up. Fewer shoots shooting fewer birds will mean a dramatic reduction in the number of shoots employing pickers-up,…

Latin name: Coprinopsis atramentaria Common name: Inkcap Other names: Tippler’s bane, inky cap How to spot it and where to find it: Rising in clumps from tree stumps or buried deciduous hardwoods, the common inkcap appears from spring well into the late autumn months. Its fruiting bodies are smooth and egg-shaped, a shiny grey-brown, sometimes with a hint of pink, darker at the centre. As they age, inkcap tend to become ridged and split, before deliquescing — or liquefying. Interesting facts: The common inkcap is considered inedible. It is highly toxic when consumed with alcohol — hence the alternative name tippler’s bane — even if the alcohol has been imbibed 72 hours before the mushroom has been eaten or up to three days afterwards. Even applying alcohol-based aftershave after eating…

1 Hatsan AirTact ED .177 break-barrel air rifl e RRP: £61 edgarbrothers.com This air rifle provides plinkers, pest eliminators and target shooters with plenty of power and accuracy. The air rifle features a single-shot, break-barrel cocking action while the integrated sound moderator reduces the barrel’s bark when discharging a round. It’s a secure, reliable, backyard-friendly break-barrel pellet gun that gives airgunners more bang for their buck. 2 Jero trousers RRP: £175  sasta.fi These trousers were designed for heavy use, making them ideal for gamekeepers. The knees and inside legs are made with reinforced material that will extend the lifespan of the trousers considerably. They also include Velcro tape on the leg ends so you are able to keep grass and bracken out. 3 Country classic tweed and…

Friends of mine live in a very remote cottage. A public footpath runs through their garden. Normally, it is little used. However, on the sunny Sunday before the actual lockdown, but when social distancing was in operation, 19 walkers traipsed through. One rambloid couple, deep in conversation, veered too close to my friends, who were sitting on their garden swing seat. In response to a polite observation about social distancing, the walkers merely laughed and proceeded almost to brush past my friends. What is it with some people? In general, the British are law-abiding folk. We tend to follow rules. We form orderly queues. But a small minority think they should be exempt. Examples include the people who travelled from London to Torquay for a spot of fishing during the…