Innholdsfortegnelse for 08-Jul-2020 i Shooting Times & Country

Last week I received a text from my mother to tell me she’d seen 11 ‘very big ducklings’ on a pond I built some years ago. It was the best news I’d received in days. Every spring up until now, the routine is the same. A duck is spotted with a clutch of little balls of fluff and over the next few weeks, the numbers dwindle as predators pick them off until only the childless mother remains. In many ways, the reason it saddens me so much is that I feel I should be there, tackling the marauding corvids, but due to the Shooting Times office being 369 miles south, it isn’t possible. While wandering around the kitchen, thinking about the news, I remembered that last year, I shot eight…

Don’t throttle wildfowling in red tape I read your news article on the threat to the sport’s heartlands (01 July issue) with a heavy heart. Although I was born in North Bucks, about as far from the sea as you can get, I took up wildfowling more than 30 years ago after meeting the chairman of the then Kent Wildfowlers Association on the BASC stand at the CLA Game Fair. I am now a member of six wildfowling clubs along the East Coast, with a combined membership of 1,200 members –around 10% of the UK’s wildfowling community. I have found that the common theme that links these individuals together is the love of wild and often remote places, respect for their quarry and a deep knowledge of their foreshore patch…

Pheasants and partridges just love stubble. They can rake about easily, scoffing the gleanings, pecking at odd weeds and even chasing after big, succulent insects like daddy longlegs. With the cut stems offering cover up to just about head height, they feel much safer than when out on a fully open field. From the keeper’s point of view, this can bring a nightmare time of straying and endless work dogging them back. But, on the other hand, stubble can help you to hold birds that would otherwise be looking for somewhere more comfortable, over the boundary. Given the opportunity to develop naturally, stubble can be a real wildlife haven, offering a valuable post-harvest habitat to a wide range of species. The flush of weeds that follows along after the combine…

Quality will out. That pretty much sums up the Sauer 404 Synchro XT. The accuracy and ultra-smooth bolt operation have long been a Sauer hallmark and the new thumbhole stock design is both visually and practically excellent for field use. A tad expensive, but real quality. Accuracy No surprise, accurate with a variety of bullet weights and styles. Handling Perfect balance, even with a sound moderator and scope fitted. Trigger Smooth and positive, which is another Sauer trait. Stock Highly ergonomic thumbhole design, excellent finish and construction. Value Quite expensive, but this sort of quality costs these days. Overall Score Delivers on build quality, accuracy and comfort, with added versatility.…

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…

1 Selous sport shirt RRP: £82.95 Gmk.co.uk This highly technical shooting sports shirt has been treated to protect the wearer from bacteria and UV rays. Additionally, the treatments give protection against various kinds of insects, including ticks. Available in sizes S-3XL. 2 Moorland Loden shooting vest RRP: £375 Farlows.co.uk A great one for those who enjoy walking-up grouse. The waistcoat is extremely hard-wearing and features large cartridge pockets for ease of access when you are trekking across the moors. It has Alcantara on the shoulder patches and it is designed to repel moisture. 3 Pro GTX gaiters RRP: £59.99 Gb.harkila.com Made with waterproof technology and a hard exterior material, these gaiters will withstand any weather or terrain. Ideal for the upcoming grouse season, they will provide a good fit…

SUPPORT Keep a close eye on young birds. Young pheasant poults are vulnerable to disease, especially during periods of wet weather. Early detection of problems is key to preventing a serious outbreak. Warning signs include runny faeces and lethargic birds. If you are in any doubt contact your vet immediately. CHECK Don’t hurry to reclaim your outhouses and eaves from visiting swallows and martins. Most swallows will now have fledged their first brood of chicks, however, given the chance many will have another. As far as possible leave them undisturbed and certainly don’t attempt to remove nests.…

It’s uplifting being out and about on home ground around the village or surrounding estates. Almost every other 4x4 driver raises a hand in the universal gesture of rural recognition. It’s vital to respect the unwritten rules of this interaction, most crucially to wave in response without fail, but almost as importantly to watch for the rolling down of the driver’s window. This is the signal that a socially distanced conversation is being requested — possibly to pass the time of day briefly or impart important local news. The good farming and sporting burghers of Wessex are still mainly concerned by the likelihood of, forecast for or eventual lack of rain. However, coronavirus has been knocked off second spot in the conversation stakes by “those Wild Justice fellows”. Of course,…

Margaret Heffernan, the writer and entrepreneur, said: “For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument and debate.” Shooting has had this in spadefuls of late, largely on the topic of cartridges. In February 2020, the British shooting organisations unanimously voiced their support for the phasing out of lead shot and single-use plastic in ammunition within five years. The British cartridge manufacturers responded by pouring cold water on these aspirations. They argued such innovation was impossible in the time frame. It appeared that shooting was at an impasse and our collective cheeks reddened when the mainstream press picked up on it. In the midst of this rancour a lone voice sought to tell anyone who would listen that he had the solution. That voice came from Nick…

IF YOU WANT TO WIND up your cocker-owning friends, just tell them that their dogs are springers. They may argue otherwise but, technically, it’s true. All spaniels are springers, as the term was originally used to separate those dogs that set game (setters) from those that sprung it (springers). The word springer came into general use in the early 19th century. There’s a fine painting by the artist George Stubbs — best known for his horse studies — of an English springer that doesn’t look much different to the dogs we know today. However, many Victorian sportsmen would have been unfamiliar with the name springer spaniel, for in those days the type of spaniel we know today as an English springer was generally called a Norfolk spaniel. Curiously, there seems…

My mother was a cook ahead of her time. I must have been a teenager, some 40 years ago, when she made a dish of French Puy lentils for lunch. I had never eaten a lentil in my life and was not even keen on beans and peas, so I struggled with the little brown discs that had been simmered with garlic, herbs and meat stock. Too earthy for a young palate, too… brown. Everyone else loved them, praising her innovation and resourcefulness. Lentilles du Puy were unavailable in Britain at that time, but to the French they have long been monarchs among pulses, so to speak. Unlike their various cousins, including the many types of dal from Asia, Puy lentils do not cook to a mush and have a…

The Bagot is the UK’s only primitive goat breed to have developed in the English lowlands. Over centuries, the goats have thrived with minimal human intervention. Bagots are distinctive goats. Both sexes have large, curved horns sweeping backwards, black heads and forequarters, and contrasting white hindquarters. Some have a white blaze on their face, too. The Bagot goat is of great historical significance. Believed to be Britain’s oldest breed of goat, they were first documented in 1389 with Staffordshire estate owner Sir John Bagot keeping the original herd as a feral and semi-feral parkland breed. Theories on the breed’s origins debate whether Bagots came to Britain during the Crusades or travelled by boat with the John of Gaunt army returning from the Castile region of Portugal. Today, the majority of…

I must have been daydreaming when my line tightened. I was startled into action as the unmistakable tug of a fish on my line was swiftly followed by a swirl down the pool and then an enormous eruption as my first salmon of the season attempted to escape. It’s unusual for me to think of anything other than fishing whilst on the bank but today was a special day as earlier on my rounds I had witnessed my first brood of grey partridges of the year. To witness this intimate moment as mother and father shepherd their newly hatched chicks in search of food is the completion of a circle that, for me, represents the very essence of wild bird gamekeeping. Perilous journey As I stood in the river that…

If you really want to get to know your shoot, you have to walk the ground. Not every day, but at least once a season. Admittedly, driving around in a motor vehicle is the norm; in an age of lone working, it is the only feasible way to do your rounds while carrying heavy bags of feed and other materials. I don’t know what today’s gamekeepers and farmers would do without their ATVs and pickups. But nothing takes the place of Shanks’s pony when it comes to getting up close and personal with the land. This must be due, in part, to the slower speed, the lack of noise and the heightened sense of awareness. You can see, hear, feel and smell more when you are on foot. It is…

Wild Justice to focus on badger cull Campaign group Wild Justice has announced it is making a legal challenge to the badger cull. The organisation, which has so far focused on legal challenges to disrupt shooting, is fundraising to try and stop the use of ‘free shooting’ as part of the cull. Critics speculate that they may simply be aiming to raise funds to finance more attacks on game shooting. Buzzards prove to be an unlikely ally Double Stones Shoot in Yorkshire has found a novel way of solving a difficult problem. The shoot, which is run by keen falconers, discovered a buzzard nesting inside one of its pheasant pens. Steve Bosacki told Shooting Times: “We are currently feeding the buzzards and finding that healthy, well-fed buzzards are actually keeping…

An initial sight-in with the Blaser 2.8-20x50mm IC rail mounted scope proved that this Sauer 404 Synchro XT was exceedingly accurate. Hornady SST 150gr factory .308 Win – at 2,851fps and 2,708ft/lb energy and sub-inch groups – would be my choice but it also digested the Norma 170gr Tip Strike and Winchester 150gr Ballistic Silver Tips very well (2,571fps and 2,496 ft/lb and 2,798fps and 2,608 ft/lb respectively and inch groups at 100yd). The best reload was the Nosler Accubond 125gr bullet with 45.5gr of Vihtavuori N135 powder to achieve half-inch groups and 2,944fps and 2,406 ft/lb. It’s one thing to test on a rifle range but you need to go and stalk game in the field to test a rifle like this truly. That is the environment where all…

As the hay fever season fades away, so the grass-seed season takes over. The first affects me (though not as much as it used to), while the second is a concern for the dogs. All dogs are vulnerable to grass seeds, especially spaniels with hairy ears and hairy feet. Grass seeds have evolved over millions of years to stick to fur, as it is a great way to ensure that the seeds are dispersed far and wide. Look at certain seeds under a magnifying glass and you will see that they resemble miniature arrowheads, so that they will only go in one direction. Should one of these seeds lodge in your dog’s ear, or perhaps manage to pierce the edge of a nail, it’s not going to come out easily.…

Life of luxury in retirement FERRETING Q What happens to your dogs and ferrets once they have passed their working lifespan? A Being someone who is only as good as the animals I work, I do work my dogs and ferrets harder than most. These animals are the cornerstone of not just my business, but also my life. As such, I work and keep them differently to the way that many people would think. I tend to get a new lurcher roughly every five years. It takes a few years to train and enter, so when I start a new one, one of the others will be at its peak, with another reaching double figures and looking at retiring. When my dogs are retired, they lie by the fire and…

.600 NE The .600 Nitro Express was the most powerful sporting cartridge available between 1900 and 1988. It was developed by WJ Jeffery and built by other makers, including Holland & Holland. Though requiring a heavy rifle of between 15lb and 18lb, which would be too heavy for most men to carry for long periods of hunting, it proved popular with some African professional hunters as a ‘stopper’ at close quarters. Bror von Blixen-Finecke and John Taylor owned and used Jeffery .600s. The most practical loading for the cartridge was 100gr of cordite and a 900gr bullet, which travelled at 1,850fps. The .600 NE is cased in a slightly tapered, rimmed, brass, centre-fire case, 3in in length. It is a rare thing, with perhaps only around 120 being made to…

One positive aspect to lockdown is the opportunity to do all those things you know you needed to do but never got around to doing. And with additional time on our hands, there is really no excuse for procrastination. I decided to use the extra time to make a catalogue of all my antique firearms. As I am working from home there are plenty of opportunities to take a break from my work for BASC to do one or two guns. It has been a pleasant experience and I am nearly done. As well as the self-righteous feeling one gets from putting one’s affairs in order, renewing an intimate acquaintanceship with my collection has been most enjoyable. Whilst rummaging in the gunroom, I came across a box file that felt…