Innholdsfortegnelse for 16-Sep-2020 i Shooting Times & Country

Readers will remember a piece by Daily Mail hack Guy Adams, in which he explored the treatment of fieldsports by the press. He wrote that journalists only come knocking when they want to use our sport to feed the beast of misguided public outrage. Last week, a colleague of Guy’s emailed to ask if I’d do a video interview on Prince George going walked-up grouse shooting. As I tapped out my response, Guy’s words rang in my ears but I thought it was one of those rare opportunities when sense was on our side. The journalist called the next day. His main question was whether I agreed that the experience would harm the child. Absolutely not, I replied. Many of the objections seemed to be based on the idea that…

RSPB reserve cull numbers published The RSPB has published the numbers of mammals and birds culled on its reserves. Animals culled by the charity included more than 1,000 deer, 500 foxes and more than 500 geese. Perhaps taking a cue from gamekeepers, the charity hit crows hard to protect capercaillie, black grouse and terns, killing more than 400 of the corvids across 14 sites. Wainwright Prize winner announced Shooting Times contributor Patrick Laurie has narrowly missed winning the prestigious Wainwright Prize for nature writing. Mr Laurie’s book Native, which tells the story of his farm in Galloway and its cattle and curlew, made the shortlist but lost out to Diary of a Young Naturalistby Dara McAnulty. FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @SHOOTINGTIMESUK…

Regarding Jamie Blackett’s comments about the “fastest growing” Scottish party, Alliance4Unity (Country Diary, 12 August), I try not to follow politics as I am, let’s say, in the autumn of life. However, I am concerned for my grandson’s future. It’s going to be tough but less so than in my lifetime. Great Britain needs unity; the countries need each other. The SNP is led by a person who has watched Braveheart too many times but, like William Wallace, she wants everything but plays heavily on history to gain popularity and, I believe, hatred between Scots and English. This is not a good thing. She should concentrate on unity like James VI, who headed to England like a shot cannonball. During my long career with HMPs, I had a lot of…

THE NEED FOR CONCENTRATION I only used to shoot over my ferrets at the tail end of the shooting season when I lived and worked among the shooting community in Suffolk. Now I live in Yorkshire, a lot of my ground is either moorland that opens up at the end of the grouse season or farmland. Shooting over ferrets is a different discipline. When I am in the company of people who have never shot rabbits bolted by ferrets, I notice how mentally draining they find it. It is probably the unpredictability of never knowing from where and when a rabbit may appear, the surprise of a running ferret, the concentration required and the necessity of peripheral vision, as well as holding back your trigger finger. It’s knowing where to…

I was recently involved in a good-humoured debate with friends over what constitutes a naughty dog, and how it differs from a badly trained dog, as the dividing line between the two is very fine. The general conclusion was that a naughty dog knows it is doing something that it shouldn’t, while the badly trained dog either doesn’t know or doesn’t care. My long-standing affair with spaniels started many years ago when my wife and I used to look after a shooting friend’s springer, Suze, when he went on holiday. Suze was a big liver-and-white spaniel and what you might describe as a good, honest shooting dog. She did, however, have one failing: food. On one occasion, we had laid a cheeseboard out on the dining room table before supper,…

THE METHOD Ingredients FOR THE DRY CURE (MIX TOGETHER) 50G FINE SEA SALT 50G DEMERARA SUGAR 2 FRESH BAY LEAVES, CHOPPED ½TSP FENNEL SEEDS ½TSP CRUSHED PEPPERCORNS FOR THE BRESAOLA 4 GROUSE BREASTS, ABOUT 200G 3% BY WEIGHT OF DRY CURE (SEE METHOD) 25ML RED WINE A LITTLE ORANGE ZEST (ONLY TWO PASSES OF THE GRATER OVER THE ORANGE — IT IS BETTER TO UNDERDO THIS THAN OVERDO IT) Serves 2 1 Mix the wine and zest with the dry cure — for 200g of grouse you will need 6g of dry cure — then dress the breasts in this mixture. Avoid using grouse breasts that have been shot through and are bloody. These will not take the cure well and will taste iffy. 2 Store in the fridge in…

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 Combrook coat RRP: £364.95 alanpaine.co.uk This coat is guaranteed to withstand the hardest downpours Mother Nature can throw at you. It is also breathable and features waterproof windbreaker cuffs, which mean no more wet sleeves. 2 Lined tweed breeks RRP: £195.99 farlows.co.uk An excellent item for any gentleman heading north for some late autumn sport, these handsome breeks are traditionally cut and designed to be both comfortable and functional. Wearing uncomfortable breeks can make for a very long day in the field but these are lined and, crucially, they are built to last. 3 Brown cashmere cap RRP: £95 cordings.co.uk This fashionable cap is designed and made in England using a Yorkshire cashmere tweed. The close-fitting cap, with a stitched-down peak, would be a stylish and…

SHOOT Take a stroll for snipe. Early snipe arrivals should begin soon. Walking-up an area of rushes may flush a bird which will offer a shot. Wet fields grazed by cattle are often a good bet. Snipe shooting needs quick reactions so make sure you know the ground you are shooting on. CHECK Reproof jackets and wax your boots. Your first rainy day shooting this season is not the time to find your jacket is leaking. The manufacturer should be able to recommend an appropriate product to keep the rain out. Fancy fabric boots need waterproofing aerosols, but full-grain leather loves wax.…

Wildfowlers are being asked to provide duck wings to help understand how the birds’ populations are changing. The original duck wing survey ran between 1972 and 2001, peaking in 1996 when 6,600 wings were submitted. The idea was picked up by Danish scientists in the 1980s, and in 2004-05, 21,217 Danish duck wings were collected for study. France runs a wing survey on an annual basis, and Iceland and Finland have also used the idea. Heather Warrender, BASC’s science officer, said: “The wing survey provides a hugely valuable source of data to monitor our quarry species more closely than ever before. It can show that we hunt sustainably and allows us to be the first to see significant changes in demographics. The more wings submitted, the stronger our position.” James…

HEALING POWER OF NATURE’S RHYTHM I enjoy your regional stalker pieces very much but I find Barry Stoffell’s writing style particularly evocative (The rhythms of nature, 26 August). It reminded me of a wonderful quote by American marine biologist, author and conservationist Rachel Carson, who said: “There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature, the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” Those wise words will resonate with every country person, whether they live on or work the land,…

It’s been 20 years since I shot my first goose. I remember that moment as if it were yesterday and my thoughts continually return to the memory like a constant reminder of autumn. I had been taken under a wildfowler’s wing during the summer of 2000. We spent many happy hours shooting pigeon together in July and August as he prepared me for the start of the wildfowling. I listened to his stories from previous seasons with eyes like saucers. He grew visibly more excited with every day that brought us closer to 1 September and I could found myself sharing in his enthusiasm. Pigeon were my currency in those days and I was doing a fair trade on rabbits with my old .410. Wildfowl seemed like strange and unpredictable…

When I caught an eel as a young boy, it was just about my worst nightmare. A slimy wriggling mass of coils around your line, which somehow you had to remove. I guess I was not alone. I do not use worms any more when I fish. It will not be something many young anglers have to deal with these days as the common eel is no longer as common as it once was. It is estimated that numbers have declined by 90% to 98% in the space of 50 years. It’s yet one more species humans have pushed to the brink. We used to harvest about 20,000 tons of eels per year in the 1960s and yet, by the turn of the century, the catch was down to 5,000.…

Latin name: Armillaria mellea Common name: Honey fungus Other names: Honey mushroom, bootlace fungus How to spot it and where to find it: This common fungus is found around tree roots and stumps in both broadleaf and coniferous forests. Its honey-yellow or reddish-brown caps are deeply convex when young, later darkening and flattening. Older ones have wavy, striated margins. The younger caps also have scales, which disappear with age. The stems are white, turning yellow or yellowish-brown and finely woolly as the fruitbody matures. They also feature a pale yellow ring. Interesting facts: You will often find the honey fungus on dead wood because it is a parasite that kills its host; by the time the fruitbodies are in evidence, the internal damage is so great that the tree is…

Finally, the weather is turning more autumnal. Hopefully, now the summer holidays are over and schools are back, the footfall on the estate will start to ease. The bank holiday in August was a challenging weekend. The general public were out in force on the estate, having picnics where they shouldn’t and driving down private roads to forage for mushrooms, while there were unruly dogs running 300 yards in front of their owners. The last of the barley fields around the drives have finally now been combined, so the birds will begin to wander more and more each day. I take a relaxed approach to dogging-in. The birds need to find their feet and explore the area. Naturally any birds heading over to the boundary or to main roads are…

17-18 SEPTEMBER SUSTAINABLE AMMUNITION DAY Paintmine Woods, Warton, Lancashire LA5 9SA bit.ly/sustainAmmo 24 SEPTEMBER INTRODUCTION TO WILDFOWLING Cambridgeshire bit.ly/wildfowlintro 27 SEPTEMBER GWCT SCOTTISH CLAY DAY Crookston House, Heriot EH38 5YS bit.ly/Scottishclay 2 OCTOBER GWCT GAME 2020 CONFERENCE Online only; for more information telephone Lizzie Herring on 01425 651013 or email lherring@gwct.org.uk 11 OCTOBER SHOTGUN & CHELSEA BUN CLUB (LADIES) CLAY SHOOT Dovey Valley Shooting Ground, Machynlleth, North Wales bit.ly/clayandcake 16-17 OCTOBER SUSTAINABLE AMMUNITION DAY Crabtree Clay Shoot, Lancashire, LA6 1PJ bit.ly/Lancsammo…

Thank you for publishing my letter and to Mr Everard for widening the discussion about safety catches (Letters, 19 August and 2 September). I should point out that I provide shoot days only for two to four Guns, so if one member behaves badly and is not corrected by the others, it is a case of ‘one out, all out’. Unsafe practice is bad but understandable if that is normal in anyone’s home country, but what is totally inexcusable is failure to comply with safety instructions from the keeper or guide. If the Guns are not briefed about British safety rules or allowed to flout them, the day’s guide and the shoot owner would be in big trouble with the Health and Safety Executive if there were an accident. Good…

The harvest festivals of childhood memory were important affairs. A pair — or in bumper years, a quartet — of finger-trapping trestle tables were erected alongside the altar rail in the parish church. These counters groaned under the weight of farm, garden and allotment produce. Glistening marrows the size of seal pups, apples, potatoes, beets and a myriad other assorted parts of nature’s bounty were stacked. This produce, once blessed, was destined to feed the local elderly, imprisoned in their care homes. The harvest festivals of today are markedly less impressive. Thanks to food hygiene legislation, fresh produce is no longer welcome. Instead, a few packets of macaroni, a leash of baked bean tins, a solitary jar of home-made jam and a box of breakfast cereal receive a benediction. It…

CAN A GREAT DOG MAKE A poor handler look good, or can a great handler make a poor dog look impressive? There’s no doubt that some handlers have a natural, perhaps almost superhuman, ability to work with a dog, while others struggle to achieve any semblance of a rapport with their charge. I’m sure we have all met those handlers who have that extra special touch. I remember a retired gamekeeper called Terry, who worked a team of five black labradors. Though he always had a whistle, he rarely blew it — he didn’t need to. If you watched him handling his dogs, it was easy to gain the impression that the dogs read his mind and he read theirs. The dogs knew what he wanted them to do with…

I often dream of wandering the moors, trusty Beretta in hand, pulling off breathtaking right-and-lefts while my — normally very wayward, but behaving like a dream today — dog fetches the fallen birds to hand. There are never any midges in these dreams, nor any invoices for the shooting and I seldom miss. The reality is that, while I have tried my hand at shooting late-season walked-up grouse in a gale and driving rain, I’m more likely to have a hit in the Top 10 than on the moors. At this time of year, I have to rely on a good game dealer to find me the birds that my creative kitchen thoughtfulness demands. This recipe is rather decadent, a version of a classic beef dish from Italy — lightly…

RIGBY .416 (NO 2) The Rigby .416 has been around a long time. A belted, bottle-necked case, it was devised as a cartridge for the bolt-action magazine rifle. It gained respect with professional hunters as a reliable, powerful cartridge ideal for use as an all-rounder in the kind of rifles most professional hunters could afford. A 400-gr bullet pushed at 2,400fps delivers almost 7,000 joules of energy, making it an effective round on any African animal. Its popularity induced some makers to build double rifles for the .416, but belted cases are not best suited to extraction or ejection in double rifles. It was often lamented that a flanged version was not available. Elephant hunter John Taylor suggested it in the 1950s. From 1911 until 2019 nobody did anything about…

The BBC’s new director-general, Tim Davie, has rattled the corporation’s cage. But will his stated priority of restoring BBC impartiality be achieved? In 2016 the corporation spent £139,260 on subscriptions to the small-circulation, left-leaning Guardian newspaper. But Tim Davie comes from a background that is far from the Guardianista norm. After Cambridge he joined Procter & Gamble — a famous training ground for brand marketing. He rose to become marketing supremo for PepsiCo, before joining the BBC in a marketing role in 2005. In the 1990s, he was deputy chairman of a local Conservative association in London. He even stood as a Conservative councillor. During his first week, Mr Davie gave an address to BBC staff. For fieldsports enthusiasts, the key part was: “If you want to be an opinionated…