Innholdsfortegnelse for 12-Aug-2020 i Shooting Times & Country

By the time you read this, many of you will be in the hills taking on grouse. Last year, I was in Dumfriesshire on the Twelfth enjoying a walked-up day on Criffel hill, looking out over the Solway. This year, I’ll also be in Dumfriesshire, not shooting grouse but on grouse-related business. I’m going to visit a neighbour to talk to him about black grouse, a bird that once thrived in south-west Scotland. The conversation will form part of a project I’m working on about the battle to save some of Britain’s most endangered species. The fight for biodiversity is complex but the deeper I dig, the prouder I become about the extraordinary efforts of gamekeepers to ensure there is a future not just for gamebirds but also for the…

Gamekeepers in the Angus Glens have helped a hen harrier fledge four chicks, the first successful nest in the area for four years. A previous nest, which was monitored by the local raptor group, failed to produce any chicks for three years. Now a nest has succeeded on a sporting estate that is managed for fishing, stalking and grouse. The nest was monitored by licensed nest monitor and experienced bird of prey ringer Mike Groves, who worked with the estate’s gamekeeper to monitor the nest without approaching it. “This is a historic moment,” Mike enthused. “This is a different pair of adult birds. When I spoke to the estate, they were aware the harriers were there and understandably wanted to keep it low profile, which I had sympathy with.” With…

There has been a lot about the negatives of shooting being talked about on social media, so I wanted to give my positive experiences of it (Let’s not be antisocial, 29 July). When I started shooting last year with a well-known ladies’ clay club, I never thought I would have progressed from that to game shooting, let alone in such a short time frame. And it’s thanks to a social media platform. I was gifted a peg on my first ever game day last October by one of my followers, who also acted as my guide. I was then invited back to beat for the shoot for the day and for a second game day in January this year. Again, via the same social media site, I have been taken…

Snipe are wonderful sporting enigmas. Here today and gone tomorrow, it is desperately difficult to predict their movements during the shooting season. Here in Galloway, the first falls of autumn snipe come in the light of an October full moon. I like to walk my dogs before sunrise in the autumn, so I can hardly fail to spot the birds when they come. Even before I am out of bed, the sound of snipe calling comes in through the curtains and provides an early-warning system. Flittering in the half-dark of dawn, three or four dozen snipe will be flushed by the dogs in a short walk of less than a mile around the bottom fields. At their peak, the sound of small waders is all around and the birds flood…

These are unprecedented times and due to COVID–19, Sika has not been featuring as much as she should in training. Fortunately we are moving to more normal times and I am lucky enough to have resumed training. She has spent this time with her owner and has had some real success being shot over. She has walked to heel, been steady watching pigeon being shot and retrieved them like an absolute pro. She will continue her education on game this season. As I have said before, she is a sensitive little dog and so we are proceeding slowly to ensure she can cope with everything. It is common for people to attempt to train a dog at a pace that suits them. The reality is that a dog can only…

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 Croots Byland pannier bag RRP: £99  crootsengland.co.uk Loading from your pocket is all good and well but when you’re in the pigeon hide or a grouse butt, this 50-cartridge pannier from Croots gives the easiest access, meaning you can focus on connecting with that bird. 2 Schöffel Helcot tweed waistcoat £249.95  schoffelcountry.com Surely nobody needs another Schöffel waistcoat? Well maybe not until September at least, when the firm is poised to launch the Helcot. Made from British-milled tweed with a Nehru collar, the waistcoat is being tipped as Schöffel’s most stylish item yet, while its moisture and stain-resistant qualities will make it a friend in the field. 3 Made-to-order fishing rod From £1,000  barder-rod.co.uk All of Edward Barder’s rods are handmade in the UK and compete…

On our shoot there is a rare species of a plant – maize. And we planted it. We spent hours clearing weeds, preparing the soil, dibbing holes to the prescribed depth in neat lines, dropping in the kernels… A lot of work, offset by a socially distanced barbecue. And the results? Naff all. Well, not quite. There are one or two small maize shoots to be glimpsed among the riot of thistles and nettles. Shoot captain John was so excited about showing us a maize plant that he stood on another. And so the rare got even rarer. There was much speculation about what had gone wrong with our little plot of game cover. The consensus was that it might have been better had we simply left it as it…

SHOOT  Ring around your beaters and pickers-up. With the partridge season only a few weeks away and the pheasant season not long after that, now is the time to check your beaters and pickers-up are ready to go and to recruit new ones to fill any gaps. CHECK Stay on top of rats. Feeders intended for gamebirds attract rats that can spread disease and impact biodiversity. At this time of year poisons are likely to be the best way of controlling rat numbers, but they should always be used by trained operators and placed in approved rodenticide containers.…

It’s very lucky that I am around to write this as a very large limb has just fallen off an old beech tree and gone slap bang across the drive. I had driven past moments before. Someone up there must be looking out for me. The beech is one of my favourites and it now looks rather forlorn with a single stem. The lost limb was also the favourite perch of the song thrush. It sang so beautifully in the spring that several times we all stopped our game of tennis to go and listen. But he will find another stage on which to perform and I’m sure the beech will soon bush up again to compensate. It’s the second time it has happened this month. Another one did the…

Large numbers of migrant snipe arrive in Britain during the full moons of October and November. Watch for bright, clear conditions when the wind is in the north and listen for the sound of birds passing overhead at night time. These newly arrived birds can be hard to track down but they move in large numbers and you are in with a sporting chance if you find a fall of snipe early in the season. By day, keep an eye out for small splashes of white droppings around gateways, tyre ruts and wetland areas where snipe might have been feeding; these all provide clues and hints to help refine your search. In periods of hard, frosty weather, look for snipe in lowland marshes and around ponds and bogs along the…

I love grouse. It has a distinct flavour that sets it apart from all other gamebirds. This is due to its diet of mainly heather, which gives the meat an earthy and herby flavour. A good falconer friend of mine, Nick Havemann-Mart, once said to me: “You have to admire red grouse’s ability to survive. Not only do they live in some of the coldest and most inhospitable places in the UK, but they also eat heather — a plant that has all the nutritional value of Astroturf.” This just about sums up the hardiness of these birds and the frequent remoteness of their habitat. “I love grouse. It has a distinct flavour that sets it apart from all other gamebirds” Here we have a simple wild mushroom and truffle…

.423 MAUSER Once one of the most popular calibres in Africa, the .423 Mauser was also known as the 10.75mm (10.75x68) Mauser. It owed much of its popularity to the cheapness and ease of purchase of these German magazine rifles in the 1920s and 30s. The .423 produces relatively low pressures and the rifles were light and handy. It uses 68 grains of powder to push a 347-gr bullet at 2,200fps. This sounds like it should be effective, but big-game hunter John Taylor considered the round useless on buffalo and elephant. It lacked the penetration to reliably tackle eland and lion. The original bullets often mushroomed on impact, creating only flesh wounds. Later, jacketed bullets failed to expand sufficiently in softer-skinned animals. Though widely used, it is perhaps not one…

When I read the letter regarding the jay on the bird table in Shooting Times a few weeks ago (Letters, 1 July) it struck me just how much our perception is influenced by the colour of a bird or how cute a mammal looks. The jay is a classic case in point. They are a pretty bird if you consider other members of the crow family; however, that does not detract from just how destructive they are when it comes to the predation of other birds, especially songbirds. “Pine martens are the mammal equivalent of the jay: cute but potentially devastating” I have a friend who has always taken great pride in the number and variety of birds he has fledged successfully in and around his garden. This year, for…

Defra reissues bird licences for England The General Licences for England have been reissued by Defra. The previous licences, which were issued on a temporary basis, expired at the end of July. The new licences are identical to their predecessors and will run until the end of 2020, at which point they are expected to be replaced by an updated version. First UK case of tick-borne disease Public Health England has confirmed the first-ever case of the dangerous tick-borne disease babesiosis and the second case of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in the UK. Dr Katherine Russell, consultant in the emerging infections and zoonoses team at Public Health England, said: “It is important to emphasise that cases of babesiosis and TBE in England are rare and the risk of being infected remains…

Coming from the soft south, I didn’t see a live grouse until I was 19. That was in the summer of 1974, when I took off to the Cairngorms for a couple of weeks to go youth hostelling with a friend. There were new sights around every corner, with dotterel, snow buntings and ptarmigan on the high tops; golden eagles and ospreys flying, ring ouzels and whinchats in the scrubby hillsides, and dippers in the streams. That holiday also brought my first view of a mountain hare, bouncing up out of its form almost under my feet. More memorable, however, was seeing them in February 1982 when I was a newly recruited trainee adviser with GWCT, sent north to Speyside to learn a bit about grouse with the late Tames…

KEEPA IS NOW looking and running at a much higher level of fitness than a few weeks ago. He has been doing some fitness work over hills and plenty of swimming. This is something that all of mine love and is great as it gets them fit without any heavy impact on their joints (unlike running). He has been running well in training and enjoying the slightly cooler weather. I am now getting him out and about as much as possible to new and different grounds and working on perfecting his lines. He is confident when I cast him, so I am not concerned about practising these handling drills and it, in turn, making him sticky. If a dog is too novice or young, you can end up making it…

There’s been much in the news recently about the anti-vax brigade — those people who oppose vaccinations. I suspect that my vet might have thought I was an antivaxxer when I took the spaniels to have their annual health check, as she double-checked that I didn’t want them to be given a booster jab. I am convinced of the need for the initial course of vaccinations given to puppies, but not of the necessity for annual boosters. Every three years, perhaps, but certainly not annually. The one exception is leptospirosis, but as I no longer live where rats are a problem I don’t have the dogs vaccinated against it. The visit to the vet was an interesting experience. I have been using the same practice for many years, but Gavin,…

Is this rifle legal for deer? RIFLES Q I have a .223 Sako Vixen rifle that I use for foxing. Is it legal for deer? It depends on which part of the country you live in. In Scotland, the .223 is legal for roe deer as long as it shoots a bullet no less than 50-gr weight, with an expanding construction and a minimum velocity of 2,450fps and minimum energy of 1,000ft/lb. In England and Wales, it is illegal for roe because the minimum calibre is .240 — hence people like the .243 Winchester round — but it is legal for small species deer such as muntjac and Chinese water deer. However, you still need to shoot a minimum calibre of .220 with a muzzle energy not less than 1,000ft/lb,…

Latin name: Helianthemum nummularium Common name: Rock-rose Other names: Flower of the sun How to spot it and where to find it: As its name suggests, the common rock-rose likes sunny chalk grassland, cliffs and rocks. A low-growing, creeping, evergreen shrub with tiny, oval leaves, it produces massing clusters of yellow saucer-shaped flowers from May to September. It has been cultivated as a garden plant, with some having pink or orange flowers, though in the wild its blooms are always that rich, glowing yellow. Interesting facts: The Latin name, Helianthemum, means ‘sunflower’; those bright flowers only open in the sunshine and close at night. The common name is misleading, however, as it is not a member of the rose family. While it favours calcareous grassland, rock-rose can thrive in more…

Watching Mick Carmody walk through his woods is refreshing and enlightening in equal measure. Refreshing because, despite celebrating his 50th anniversary as a gamekeeper this year, he does so with a joy and vigour no different to when he first started his career as apprentice kennel boy for the Earl of Sefton in 1970. Illuminating because it is in the woods of the Rougham estate in Suffolk, where he is headkeeper and appears truly at home and so obviously content. I chatted to Mick and his wife, Julie, as they were checking a pen. They are a team and like all effective teams they have complementary skills. Mick said: “Julie has always helped in some way. Our two children, Jenny and Ben, were brought up on the rearing field and,…