Innholdsfortegnelse for 09-Sep-2020 i Shooting Times & Country

Some years ago, at Purdey in London, the editor of another fieldsports magazine told me grandly that in his magazine they don’t have features in which people blank. “So what do you do when it happens?” I asked naively. “We spike them and pay a kill fee,” he replied. His words came back to me at the weekend, while I was sitting in a Norfolk pub with last week’s issue and a pint after an afternoon’s pigeon shooting. The piece that triggered the thought was a rainy one. In it, Patrick Laurie sets out for a Macnab and bags neither fish, fowl, nor beast. But, to my mind, chalking up such a day as a failure, not worthy of publication, would be to miss the very essence of fieldsports. This…

BASC has backed the proposed natural history GCSE (News, 15 January and Exam for life, 12 February). The qualification was the brainchild of curlew campaigner Mary Colwell, who said: “I would like a GCSE in natural history to teach the skills of identifying, monitoring and recording the life around us. To know about migration and invasion of species. To understand how the seasons affect wildlife and how that is changing.” Curtis Mossop, BASC’s head of pathways to shooting, said: “BASC is fully supportive of boosting engagement between young people and the natural world. The proposed natural history GCSE creates the perfect portal.” He added: “BASC has offered to help develop the syllabus and ensure the course is led by the available science. There are obvious emotive and sensitive topics within…

Badger cull legal claim ruled out Wild Justice has suffered another legal defeat. The anti-shooting campaign group, led by Chris Packham, had raised funds to bring a judicial review into the use of free shooting as part of the badger cull. However, a judge has refused permission for the review to go ahead. Mr Justice Johnson said that he did not think it was arguable that Natural England had acted illegally. Proposed changes to ‘worrying’ law Pheasants could receive additional protection from ‘worrying’ by out-of-control dogs in Scotland in legal changes proposed by Emma Harper MSP . BASC’s political and press officer in Scotland Ross Ewing said: “Following consultation with members, BASC’s submission of evidence to the Scottish parliament is fully supportive of extending the offence of livestock worrying to…

I am a member of BASC and a semi-retired farmer with an interest in conservation, particularly the grey partridge and the habitat required to maintain and consolidate a small population on the farm. Your contributor Alan Edwards often writes about his efforts to help the grey partridge and recently wrote about how he created a good habitat for them to prosper. But the article was not long enough to tell the reader what he had actually done. This is not a criticism; but I wondered if it were possible for me to write to him directly or perhaps phone him for further advice on establishing the required habitat. Thank you for a wonderful magazine. P Chapman, North Yorkshire The Editor responds: I believe you are referring to Alan’s regular column…

We have been following Sika the cocker for a little under the first 16 months of her life. In that time she has become a balanced, all-round shooting companion. She will hunt beautifully in front, is steady to fallen game, has basic handling skills and will pick any quarry. I am very proud of her and love seeing her working for her owner. She simply needs confidence and ‘miles on the clock’. While I will continue to work with Sika, her time with me will now become less frequent as she turns into a fantastic fully trained gundog. So I am now going to turn my attention to a new project. I have recently taken on Lizzie, a six-month-old flatcoat retriever, who is to become a peg dog and all-rounder.…

LAST MONTH, THE International Gundog League (IGL) cancelled this year’s Retriever Championship. It was hardly unexpected news. If the IGL had decided to go ahead with the event, the biggest in the gundog calendar, it would certainly have been newsworthy. The last time the Championship was cancelled was in 1967, due to foot and mouth disease, while it wasn’t held during the war years 1939 to 1945 and 1914 to 1919. The logistics of trying to organise the Championship, scheduled to be held at Ampton in Suffolk at the end of November, would have been a nightmare, while there would have been the possibility that the event could have been cancelled just days before it was due to take place. However, an equally important factor in its cancellation was the…

For most of us who do not shoot grouse, 1 September signals the beginning of the season. This is an extra-special time of year for me, as it is the beginning of the gamebird bounty that we chefs so look forward to. Partridge is a great entry to the world of gamebirds. The meat is succulent, white and very palatable to anyone who is discovering game for the first time. We mainly use redlegs as they are a good size and I consider them to be more sustainable than their smaller cousins, the English partridge. At home in Cambridgeshire, I do my bit and have released between 100 and 150 grey partridges from a pen at the back of my paddock for more than 10 years. During the season, I…

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…

Latin name: Calystegia sepium Common name: Hedge bindweed Other names: Bindweed, bellbind How to spot it and where to find it: Every gardener will recognise those broad, trumpet-shaped white flowers that belong to two kinds of native bindweed, the hedge version and field bindwind (Convolvulus arvensis). Both twine around other plants, sending out tendrils, and both are hard to get rid of. Hedge bindweed has bright green, arrow-shaped leaves and white or sometimes pink flowers 3cm to 6cm in diameter, which appear between July and September. Interesting facts: The roots of hedge bindweed — the most common kind — may penetrate to 5m (16ft) deep or more and spread rapidly, but most growth is from white, shallow, fleshy underground stems. It can spread outwards by 2m (6½ft) or more in…

I didn’t need a 60mph hour wind reducing my garden to green shreds to tell me summer was coming to a close. Our lapwings have been in large flocks for a few weeks now and the last stragglers of curlew families have been winging their way over the dale heading for the coast. Though Teesdale is, I gather, the second most prolific site for breeding waders in the British Isles, even here they are under increasing pressure. The large flocks belie the fact that they are not breeding as successfully as they did a few years ago. Upland farming is changing, catching up with the lowlands, and it’s not good for breeding birds. The quad bike has replaced the welly boot and peak breeding season for many waders is also…

SHOOT With the wildfowling season here and a succession of areas of low pressure arriving from the Atlantic, now is a good time to be out on the foreshore. Strong winds encourage duck and geese to fly low where they are in range, so foul weather often offers the best shooting conditions. RECON If you have access to your own stalking ground, spend some time identifying the spots where rutting stags will soon be found. Stag wallows are easy to identify by their mix of mud and deer hair. Locating them and identifying approach routes to them may be useful in a few weeks’ time.…

ORDINARY PEOPLE Any non-shooting member of the public who picked up a recent issue and read the car review might well be forgiven for thinking that we shooters are a well-heeled bunch. A £40,000 Toyota Land Cruiser (Vehicle test, 26 August) might look nice on my yard, and a Purdey gun would be a fine addition to my gun cabinet but, like the vast majority of shooters, I’m an ordinary working man who saves hard for his shooting, drives an old van and makes do with a Beretta Silver Pigeon. Why not run a series of second-hand car tests on suitable shooting vehicles for us ordinary people? There’s nothing wrong with a thoroughbred, but most of us have to make do with a donkey. M Thomas-Palmer, by email The Editor…

My eye is caught by a thistle head swaying and I strain my eyes to see what has stirred it. Viewed more closely, it is a small bird and, as my pupils focus, I see a whole charm of goldfinches cleverly camouflaged in the weeds. It never ceases to amaze me how a yellow, red, black, white and brown bird sitting on a purple flower can be so hard to see against a green background. At least there are a few thistles. These are in a paddock sold to some neighbours many years ago and their laissez-faire attitude to grassland management helps to boost the food supply for the finches, which salves my conscience a little. The fields and hedges are dotted with family groups of birds at the moment.…

Pheasants, grouse and trout! What more does a man need, apart from enough food — preferably consisting chiefly of trout, grouse and pheasants — to keep body and soul together, with, of course, a glass or two of sherry and a few glasses of red wine? Trout, by the way, is perfectly happy to be eaten with red wine, especially if the trout is smoked and if most of the red wine is drunk when dinner is over and the washing up done — or better still left for the morning. Anyway, talking of pheasants, Tony Smith and I are busy with the annual business of release and for once it is going exceptionally well. The weather seems either to have forgotten that the beginning of August brings young pheasants…

COVID-19 is an extremely nasty and serious disease, but it looks increasingly likely that we shall have to learn to live with it, for the foreseeable future at least. Wrapping ourselves in cotton wool, covering our faces and smothering everything we touch in sanitiser cannot be the way forward, and it’s certainly not the way I wish to spend the rest of my life. There’s no doubt in my mind, and those of everyone else I’ve discussed it with, that the Kennel Club protocol is an over-reaction. When club tennis restarted after lockdown, the Lawn Tennis Association came up with a similarly long and stringent list of rules. Players were only allowed to play singles. Playing doubles was banned unless it was with members of your own household. You could…

Crucial airgun accessories AIRGUNNING Q My airgun sessions seem to be getting increasingly bogged down with cumbersome equipment. How can I lighten the load and are there any really important kitbag items that I shouldn’t leave at home? A Modern airgunning certainly does seem to have been taken over by gadgets and gizmos and I often find myself in the same quandary. Many accessories are useful, but only a tiny handful of them are essential and I don’t think any of them will ever be more valuable than fieldcraft. I have tried to streamline my stalking accessories when heading out after rabbits and, aside from the obvious airgun and pellets, I only carry a laser rangefinder and a folding penknife. A compact rangefinder is a useful accessory when it comes…

Reloading is nowhere near as popular in the UK as it is in the US. Here, mainly wildfowlers cook up special loads with non-toxic shots for long-range foreshore applications or it is shooters with odd calibres, blackpowder-proofed or pinfire guns that cannot be easily supplied by the likes of Just Cartridges. Before World War I, however, cartridges were a lot more expensive than they are today and reloading was a way of keeping costs down. The disposable cases were mostly paper and were not robust enough for reloading, so manufacturers made solid-drawn brass cases for reloaders. Eley claimed that its were “made of sufficient strength to reload several times”. They were advertised as ‘Solid Drawn Brass Central Fire Cases’ with Eley’s .197 (Sensitive) primer and loaded with Best No.4 TS…

1 Aria jacket  RRP: £279.95 gmk.co.uk Lightweight, breathable and packable, this jacket has a large zipped pocket that it can be folded into and carried on a belt. The membrane, combined with taped seams, provides excellent protection from the elements and the outer fabric is water repellent to withstand autumn showers. 2 Musto Gore-Tex breeks  RRP: £325 musto.com These tweed breeks feature a Gore-Tex drop liner that’s fully waterproof, breathable and windproof to give you the highest protection in the field. Designed in a Balmoral tweed, they have an adjustable hem and piping on the pockets for durability. 3 Whisper biboverpants  RRP: £200 swazi.co.nz This bit of kit is essential wet weather protection. The bib incorporates a large upper pocket and the inside pockets allow inner entry…

Now that most schools are back, let’s look at how certain parts of the public sector have been spending their time. Farmers, gamekeepers and many others in the countryside never stopped working; they couldn’t. But some of the Government institutions that monitor and control rural operations simply closed down for the duration. Even now, some of these institutions are still using COVID-19 as an excuse for poor service. Given that we may have to live with this virus for years, how much longer can this sort of evasion go on? During lockdown, a friend of mine found he could not get hold of anybody at a certain department within Defra. He knew they couldn’t be on furlough, because the public sector is not supposed to use furlough; they are funded…

17-18 SEPTEMBER SUSTAINABLE AMMUNITION DAY Paintmine Woods, Lancashire LA5 9SA bit.ly/sustainAmmo 19 SEPTEMBER PRE-SEASON NOVICE GUNDOG DAY Berkshire College of Agriculture bit.ly/novdogBerks 25 SEPTEMBER ANNUAL CLAY PIGEON SHOOT (GWCT) EVENT POSTPONED New date to be announced shortly 25 SEPTEMBER CEFN TILLA ANNUAL CLAY PIGEON SHOOT Cefn Tilla Court, Llandenny 02920 388988 8 OCTOBER LANCASHIRE SPORTING SUPPER Inn at Whitewell, Forest of Bowland bit.ly/LancsSupper 9 OCTOBER SHOTGUN & CHELSEA BUN CLUB (LADIES) CLAY SHOOT West Kent Shooting School, Paddock Wood, Kent bit.ly/LadiesClayKent…

I was amazed, and appalled, to read of the Orkney stoat trap fiasco, in which dead and decaying animals were found in the RSPB’s traps (News, 8 July). When I was employed by good old MAFF — Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, now Defra — as a coypu trapper in Norfolk, we each had about 70 traps. Every Friday, we had to rebait our traps and turn them upside down for the weekend so they could still be entered but not able to contain any animal that might be tempted. Then on Monday we had to turn them all up the right way, bait them and were in business again, catching mainly mink but the occasional coypu. The last big catch of coypu was made at the Welney Wetland…