Innholdsfortegnelse for 02-Dec-2020 i Shooting Times & Country

Some days ago, I achieved something I’ll always remember. At 4.30pm, just as dusk was giving way to dark, I shot a right-and-left wigeon four fields over from home. The sporting feat was a delight in itself but where it happened is what made it special. I was flighting with my neighbour Martin Phipps over three of his trout ponds. Martin runs his fishery as a commercial venture but he has always been keen to encourage youngsters into the sport and to facilitate anglers with mobility issues. When I was a boy, practising my casting on those ponds, I wouldn’t have believed you if you’d told me I’d one day achieve a right-and-left wigeon there with a shotgun all of my own. As we stood chatting after the flight had…

XMAS GIFTING, DONE RIGHT As it is the beginning of December, I shall explain my Christmas secret, which I have practised for many years. You contact all your family and friends and state that the commercialism of Christmas has reached an unacceptable level and consequently you are desisting from either receiving or giving presents of any kind whatsoever, so be warned and kindly comply. Now to the heart of the matter: you then prepare a list of ‘surprise’ presents from you to YOU. For this year my suggestions are: Leica Geovid laser rangefinder binoculars from your good wife (unknown to her!); That fancy hunting knife all of your friends have said is worth every penny of its ridiculous price; That prime Hardy fly-rod you have always lusted after — from…

I read with great interest and no little enjoyment Patrick Laurie’s stirring ode to British fieldsports (The very best of us, 28 October). Patrick makes many excellent points. The sheer depth of tradition and diversity of sport undoubtedly mark Britain as one of the greatest fieldsports nations in the world. Not the greatest, however. I find myself unable to rest until I make the case for the sporting pedigree of your closest neighbour and challenge the assertion that Britain stands alone atop the podium. I contend that in such a lofty position, Ireland stands firmly beside you. Endless variety Britain may have nearly three times the land area, but Ireland can claim every bit as much diversity in quarry species (with the welcome exception of the muntjac — and you…

My good stalking buddy Ian Richardson gave me the idea for this recipe. He does a very similar dish and it’s a great meal that takes no time to make. I first made this recipe quite a while ago with the first pheasant caught by my peregrine, Isabela. I remember it well in that she had been quite a hit-and-miss merchant in her first year. Like all young peregrines, her footing was terrible, even on partridges. This is why many young peregrines do not make it to maturity — if they cannot quickly learn to hunt and kill after leaving their parents, they will starve. This particular day, I was flying out on the Cambridgeshire Fens, near where I live. I normally spy out the fields for potential slips, but…

MODIFIED SMOKELESS DIAMOND Like Smokeless Diamond powder, Modified Smokeless Diamond was made by pressing nitro cellulose through holes in a die and slicing it into flakes. But while Smokeless Diamond was made into round flakes, the Modified version was square in shape. This 36-grain bulk gelatinised powder, made by Curtis’s & Harvey in London, was described as suitable for “loads for which Smokeless Diamond is not designed; heavy shot charges and small bore loads where the weight of shot is greater than that usually considered suitable for the transverse area of the case”. A recommended 20-bore load consisted of 29 grains of powder in a paper 2¾in case, under 7/8oz of shot.…

It’s ironic that two of those who contribute to Shooting Times, without any collusion I have to say, have chosen a similar theme for their pieces. I am referring to Laurence Catlow’s exceptional article on depression (The healing power of sport, 11 November), which will have struck a chord with many. I had decided to take a look at the countryside from another angle, but an associated one. I noted results of a study a few weeks ago which stated that taking part in and being part of the countryside community was in fact good for your mental as well as your physical health. No surprise there for the vast majority of us who do exactly that. It is important that the majority of those who live in our country,…

SHOOT Walk the edges and scuffy bits for a woodcock. An afternoon with a dog and a few wild birds is the very essence of shooting. With the woodcock migrants now here, it is a pleasure that can be enjoyed by anyone with access to even a small piece of rough wooded ground. A dog will be essential to pick your bird and a hard-hunting spaniel will certainly be a great help too. DOG Think about how you will get your dog warm and dry after water work. Retrieves from cold water can be hard on a dog, especially when the air temperature is low or the weather is wet and windy. Make sure you have a way to warm up and dry off a cold, wet dog.…

Sainsbury’s has rebuffed efforts by anti-shooting campaigners to pressure it into removing British Game Alliance (BGA) assured products from its shelves. A leading anti-shooting blog has been encouraging its readers to contact Sainsbury’s to try to force it to stop selling game products, claiming that the meat was “poisonous” and describing it as “like fags”. Readers were provided with email addresses to contact the supermarket, including that of Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts. The blog, which is written by Wild Justice director Ruth Tingay, made it clear that it was focusing on the product because “it’s the first time that a British Game Alliance-endorsed product has been promoted in a UK supermarket”. However, the complaints have been rejected by Sainsbury’s, which has begun telling persistent correspondents: “At present Sainsbury’s will…

There have been valid points raised for and against amalgamation into one voice for shooting sports (Do we sing as a choir — or several soloists?, 7 October and Letters, 4 November). The thing that concerns me now, as it did years ago when the issue was discussed then, is the thing that has not so far been mentioned — subscriptions paid. All the different bodies set their own subscription rates but let’s say, for argument’s sake, they average £75 per member. I don’t know how many bodies there are involved — BASC, the Countryside Alliance and, what, four others? That would be a total income per member of £450 currently going into protecting the sport. So what happens if all those bodies amalgamate? Do we set any affordable single…

As we went into another lockdown, the training that I was planning for Keepa had to be put on hold. Everything I was going to do was on live game days so it was frustrating, but we had to keep going. One of the areas Keepa has become a little slack in is holding in the hunting area. He has a tendency to move on before he has done it thoroughly so could easily be missing retrieves. To correct this it is important that I can see him when he is hunting. Otherwise I will not be able to tell if he has left the area or not. Ellena with her charges Lizzie and Keepa…

Latin name: Dryopteris affinis Common name: Scaly male fern Other names: Golden male fern, golden shield fern How to spot it and where to find it: This robust fern can grow up to 1.2m high. It is semi-evergreen and loves damp places, woodland on acid soil and shady hedges. The stem at the base of the frond is densely covered in gold/rusty brown, shaggy scales known as remeta, hence the common name. The pinnate leaves are a bright chartreuse yellow-green when they first unfurl in the spring — at which point they are known as croziers — later turning a rich green, a colour the mature leaves keep over the winter. They are quite common and found throughout the UK, as well as Europe, the Himalayas and western Asia. Interesting…

I was interested to read that the BBC has hired professional ‘trollhunters’ to track down people who abuse reporters online. The head of the corporation’s news-gathering operation says that some of the online criticism is so toxic that it could incite incidents of physical harm. For once, I find myself in agreement with the Beeb. It is worth remembering that in 2017 the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg had to be provided with bodyguards when attending the annual Labour Party conference. She had upset certain factions with her factual reporting on the antics of the far left. If you have never been subjected to an online pile-on, it is all too easy to make light of the wild ranting of extremist keyboard warriors. But for anybody unfortunate enough to be…

A full range of shooting activities can start again from 2 December, according to BASC. Both outdoor sports and physical activity can resume in England from that date, regardless of the changes to the system of ‘tiers’, which were being debated as Shooting Times went to press. All shoots will still be required to be conducted in a COVID-19 safe manner. BASC England director Dan Reynolds said: “It has been a frustrating couple of weeks for the shooting community, not least because there was genuine confusion around the date on which shooting could resume. But the Government has now cleared that up and we are looking forward to getting back on 2 December. “Based on the latest guidance, driven shooting will be free to resume in England. While we await…

Deadly bird flu spreads across UK One of the most dangerous forms of bird flu has been detected in more premises in England. At the time of writing, new H5N8 cases had been confirmed in captive birds at a wetland centre near Stroud in Gloucestershire and in poultry and captive birds at a premises near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. The disease has also been found in wild birds near Dawlish in Devon, Weymouth in Dorset, Ormskirk in Lancashire and Boston in Lincolnshire. Fancy a £13,000 Christmas present? If you need something to give you hope through this dark winter, why not enter the GWCT Gun Draw? You could win a pair of made-to-measure Sovereign side-by-side shotguns worth more than £13,000, plus ammo. “The GWCT Gun Draw 2020 is a chance to…

After several wet nights, the river burst and spilled into the low fields at the bottom of the farm. For all that this land was reclaimed by drains and a series of bunds and bankings over the past 200 years, it always feels soft underfoot. Even on the driest summer days, the tall reeds wave and turn around the ditches as if to remind us that human intervention has created something rather temporary. Without constant digging, clearing and adjustment of those drains, the fields will soon slump back into a marsh. It’s clear that the natural state of affairs tends towards something a little wilder. The riverside is a good place to walk before dawn on winter mornings, not least on the off-chance of a roe doe or a late-moving…

THE EASIEST GROUND that I have locally to train is some beet. It is thick and fairly big, making it easy for a dog to lose their head. The noise of the crop as they fly through it is loud and most dogs seem to love sticking their nose down and running. I started by taking some electric fence posts so that I can make sure I do not lose my mark on the retrieves. Becoming good at marking is a skill that most handlers have to work on. I continue to work on mine every year. Once the post is in place I take Keepa out and put three retrieves around it, making sure I allow him to see them. I then take him to a second post approximately…

Dog thefts, especially those of working gundogs, are on the rise. One of the great mysteries about stolen dogs is what happens to them as almost all disappear without trace. We have all heard suggestions that they are taken to be sold on as trained gundogs, but I’ve never come across anyone who has been offered one, let alone bought one. I’m sure that most of us would be extremely wary if offered an obviously well-trained, but mature retriever or spaniel. We would want to know who bred it, who trained it and why it was being sold. One of the reasons we know so little about what happens to stolen dogs is that the police are not really interested and little serious investigation has gone into these crimes. Under…

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 men’s tweed breeks RRP: £169.95  alanpaine.co.uk These breeks are made of 100% wool tweed that is guaranteed not to itch. They have a water-repellent outer and are fully lined with cotton to make your day in the field as comfortable as possible. 2 Swazi Nahanni fleece RRP: £205  swazi.co.nz Crafted out of Swazi’s legendary 350gsm polar fleece, the Nahanni is the go-to garment for cold conditions. With a windproof torso and hand-warmer chest pockets, it is extremely comfortable and warm. The tussock green colour is nice and neutral, whether you are going hunting, fishing or just being outdoors. 3 Deluxe general-purpose cleaning kit RRP: £61  browning.eu The only kit you will ever need for cleaning your guns. This multi-purpose box has the equipment to clean…