Innholdsfortegnelse for 2-Nov-2016 i Shooting Times & Country

The future is another country, but one that we can take pride in shaping and keeping in trust for those who follow. Forgive my artless matching of misquotes from L.P. Hartley, and King George VI, but when planning this issue we had youth and the future of shooting very much in mind. Take our cover star Cormac Thompson, an 18-year-old gamekeeper just out of college who has pledged his future to shooting. We visit Cormac on his shoot (p.32) and get his modern perspective on the daily challenges of gamekeeping. We also have a report of a BASC Young Shots day (p.23). This is all hugely encouraging and says much about the excellent work done by our organisations to safeguard the future of gameshooting in Britain. However, we all know…

9 NOVEMBER ONE-DAY GAME SEMINAR Westminster Kingsway College, London Tel 020 7802 8391 11 NOVEMBER CHELTENHAM COUNTRYSIDE DAY Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire Tel 01242 513 014 1 8 NOVEMBER BASC TASTE OF GAME FUNDRAISING DINNER Larchfield Estate, Co. Down Tel 07773 367287 19 -20 NOVEMBER ENGLISH WINTER FAIR Staffordshire Country Showground, Stafford, Staffordshire Tel 01785 258060 22 NOVEMBER THE DEER INITIATIVE BEST PRACTICE EVENING The Crooklands Hotel, Kendal, Cumbria Tel 07855 606877 27 NOVEMBER KENNEL CLUB CANINE SPORTS SCIENCE SEMINAR Kennel Club Building, Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire Tel 01296 318540…

“My son tells me that if I show any signs of death, he is just going to drag me round to the ‘deid hole’” Our shoot bothy welcomed nine people — two shepherds and seven keepers — and a first-aid teacher for some serious tuition on first aid. Some of us were refreshing our knowledge and others were starting anew. As keepers, we attend many courses but we all felt this was the most important. By having this knowledge, someone may be saved in the remote areas in which we live and work. Our teacher for the day, Jenny, was first-class. She was a member of our local mountain rescue team and had come across many real-life situations in her line of duty. We started the morning with the scenario…

LAURENCE CATLOW, A PASSIONATE SHOOTER AND ANGLER FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS, HAS WRITTEN FOUR BOOKS ABOUT SPORT WITH ROD AND GUN AND IS NOW BUSY WITH A FIFTH. HIS NOTEBOOK WILL RUN IN THE FIRST ISSUE OF EVERY MONTH. “It was the possibility of failure that made success so sweet; a connection that lies at the heart of our sport” You will know that you are getting old when, at six o’clock on an autumn evening, you find yourself wondering whether you really want to go flighting or would rather stay at home and listen to The Archers instead. I already know that I am getting old so it came as no surprise to find myself precisely in that situation just a few weeks ago. It immediately occurred to…

The county of Norfolk is known for several distinctive characteristics: a lack of motorways, flat topography, local dialect, water reeds and, best of all, one of the world’s most important populations of Chinese water deer. With their elongated canines, these so-called “vampire deer” love the lush riparian and swampy habitat provided by the dense reedbeds of the Broads. Having already hunted Britain’s five other deer species, this diminutive antler-less species was next on my bucket list. However, finding a representative male (with tusks measuring approximately 7.5cm) at the very end of the hunting season in late March, when the rut is well and truly over, was going to be extremely tricky. “It’ll be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” explained Chris Rogers, the deer manager on Euston estate,…

“It had been many years since I last enjoyed a teal flight and I knew all too well that my shooting might fail to cope” It seemed at the time an unlikely proposition, an evening flight for teal in early October? I usually associate these sporting little duck with the harsh, finger-numbing days of deep winter, not a mild early autumn when the trees are still in full leaf and have scarcely begun to change colour. Yet my host, Keith Chambers, was adamant that I would see teal at dusk... and in shot! Let me explain. Close to the Exe estuary in Devon is to be found a sporting gem, some 18 acres of natural marshland bisected by a mile-long winding stretch of the river Clyst. Despite its proximity to…

It seems like only yesterday since I started training the spaniels Logan and Dolly and Remy the fox red Labrador. But now they have reached 10 to 12 months old, I want put the youngsters through a slightly more formal assessment, just as I do with all the dogs in the Twistmount kennels when they reach this significant age. During their day-to-day training, I am constantly watching each dog and adjusting the exercises to suit each one. But I have now reached the stage, especially with Logan and Dolly, where before moving on to the next phase of training I want to check and make sure all the basics are firmly embedded. Over the coming months I will gradually introduce them into the beating line of our small shoot and,…

THOSE OF US WITH British passports may think that we live in a united kingdom, but that’s certainly not the case, as a look at the law will soon confirm. In Northern Ireland, it is legal to shoot a jack snipe or a scaup, but not a moorhen. It is the other way round in mainland Britain. Curiously, the pheasant season finishes on 31 January in Northern Ireland, not 1 February as on the mainland. Whether you can shoot wildfowl on a Sunday is another tricky subject: several English counties, along with Scotland and most of Wales, don’t allow it. In Wales it has been illegal since 2007 to use an electric collar on a dog, but there is no such restriction in England, though there soon will be in…

BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and global authority on guns MAT MANNING Airgunner and journalist from the West Country BRUCE POTTS Shooting Times rifl e 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 PAUL RAWLINGS Gundog expert and A-panel spaniel judge CHRIS DE CANI Riverkeeper, with specialist knowledge of chalkstreams TONY BUCKWELL Veterinary surgeon with a special interest in gundogs TONY JACKSON A game Shot, keen stalker and former editor of Shooting Times TOM PAYNE Professional shooting instructor and avid pigeon shooter SIMON WHITEHEAD Author, professional ferreter and rabbit controller IAIN WATSON Keen stalker and senior CIC international trophy judge Contact the team Email: stanswers@timeinc.com By post: Shooting…

Most of the 200,000 teal (Anas crecca) that are going to spend the winter period in the UK are with us now, though there could be a late influx if the weather becomes particularly severe in continental Europe. They will spend as little time as possible sifting seeds from the soggy fringes of lakes and in marshes and return to the relative safety of open water. Freezing conditions and snow cover make it hard for teal to access weed seeds and other plant material so they will take advantage of good conditions in order to take on up to 70g of fat. This is an extra reserve, which will allow the duck to fast for up to 10 days. If we get longer periods of winter weather, teal will fly…

“I bought bismuth — but the price! You’d think the things were loaded with granulated rhino horn” It turns out that I do not always practise what I preach. Remember me banging on about the horrors of plastic pollution? I said that I always tried to minimise my own use of plastic in shotgun ammunition. Well, even the best intentions can go astray. I bought a new semi-auto shotgun. I already had one in my armoury, but it proved to be an almost unbelievably unreliable bit of kit. When I tell you that it cost the princely sum of £400 new, some of you will know exactly which model I am talking about. Some people have got on fine with these things. In my case, however, the wretched thing jams…

Angling Trust calls for estuary protection The Angling Trust last month launched a new report calling for greater protection of Britain’s estuaries and for a radical overhaul of the rules governing inshore netting, which the organisation says is doing huge damage to the nation’s juvenile fish stocks. The paper, Inshore Netting and Estuarine Protection – A New Approach to Inshore Fisheries for the 21st Century, was produced in partnership with several angling and fisheries groups. Angling Trust chief executive Mark Lloyd said: “This report highlights the outdated and irrational regulatory regime governing inshore netting, which is inadequately enforced. The outcome is a decline in biodiversity, fish stocks and angling participation, which deprives thousands of small businesses in coastal communities of vital income.” Keep a look out for invasive Asian hornet…

“Crack your flags on the right, boys…push on 20 yards… stand still…flags up on the left.” Familiar words to the ears of beaters on shoots throughout the land, but it is not often they are uttered by a gamekeeper who is only 18 years old. Hartpury College in Gloucestershire runs courses in gamekeeping and associated subject matter, but also has its own shoot around the campus. Former student Cormac Thompson is now gamekeeper on the shoot, having recently won the NGO’s Frank Jenkins Memorial Trophy for most promising student keeper (News, 28 September). The shoot has 14 let days and on the day Shooting Times visited, the Guns were all ex-students, the shoot becoming a way of keeping in touch after they have left the college. The ground that Cormac…

“She gave her owner a withering scowl over her shoulder, and deftly picked the partridge that the mob of unruly dogs had failed to find earlier” Bess is the cleverest dog I know, and much brighter than her owner. But then he’s a lawyer, so it’s not that much to crow about. I remember speaking to an old vet who loved to claim that as a child he had wanted to be a lawyer. Unfortunately, he did far too well in his exams. My love affair with Bess, the chocolate cocker spaniel, started after I was deposited as a lonely back Gun while my friends walked-up through a wood. It was the right thing to do as I was inexperienced and needed confidence. Like a wonderful dream, first one partridge,…

“I want to make sure that the recall whistle is fully understood” HERE AS THE COMMAND suggests, this part of the assessment involves making sure the dog will come to you when either called or when using the recall whistle. Right from the start when training the youngsters, I have tended to use my body language when recalling them, either kneeling to encourage them to come right into me or, as they have progressed, using an “open arms” gesture. Later in their training I then introduced the recall whistle, a rapid series of pips, accompanied with the spreading of my arms. With this assessment, I want to make sure that the recall whistle is fully understood and that the dogs will come to me even if I am unsighted, and…

Mention the subject of wolves to anyone in this country and you won’t get much of a reaction. Some people will assure you that they would like to see them reintroduced to the Highlands, but most haven’t any firm views on wolves, or anything to do with them. It’s not the same in Sweden, because there anyone who lives in the countryside is sure to have a strong opinion about these powerful predators. Few, in my experience, are pro-wolf. The truth is that wolves don’t make easy neighbours. They are not a real threat to humans, but sheep, cattle and even horses are vulnerable, as are dogs. The wolf may be the domestic dog’s ancestor, but wolves won’t tolerate their presence in their territory. This makes exercising or hunting dogs…

“Decisions should be based on evidence, not on the number of clicks a celebrity can direct through a webpage.” BASC chairman Peter Glenser welcomes DEFRA’s response to Chris Packham’s calls for a temporary ban on the shooting of wading birds (see p.4). 3-4million Atlantic salmon numbers have more than halved over the past 40 years, from 8-10million in the early 1980s to 3-4million in 2016, according to NASCO, the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation, which says we could be heading towards an “ecological tragedy”.…

PREPARE YOUR PET As Bonfire Night approaches, the Kennel Club is warning owners about how traumatic this time of year can be for their dogs and other pets. The loud bangs and flashes can be frightening and could potentially lead to them running away or acting aggressively out of fear. Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club secretary, suggests: “In the run up to Bonfire Night, try playing a sound CD with firework noises or firework sound videos on YouTube at a low level to let your dog get used to the sound in the background. On Bonfire Night itself, it’s best to close the curtains and turn the television or radio up and try to behave as normally as possible to encourage your dog to do the same.” EAT If you can…

Supermarket chain Aldi has launched a budget hedgehog house for £7.99, offering any of the prickly creatures without a home a place to hibernate for the winter. Wildlife experts have welcomed the move to help the UK hedgehog population, which is now estimated to be less than 1million. Robin Knight from Devon has won the Anne Voss-Bark river conservation award, set up by Salmon & Trout Conservation UK and the Arundell Arms Hotel. Robin received the award from conservationist Anne’s son, Adam Fox-Edwards, at the Arundall Arms. Robin will spend a week at the hotel learning hands-on fisheries management and flyfishing skills. A pheasant has been intimidating people in a Stirlingshire village by “growling” and pecking at their shoes. Residents of Balfron say that the unusually fearless bird has been…

SLEEPWALKING TO A SHOOTING BAN I watched online the committee session gathering evidence regarding the petition to ban grouse shooting. One point picked up by the committee was the fact that the ban petition had reached more than 100,000 signatures while another petition in favour of grouse shooting had only reached 20,000-plus. The BASC representative did his best to answer the question but I was disappointed that so few shooters had taken the trouble to sign the pro petition (yes, I did sign it). I would guess that together the membership of Countryside Alliance, BASC and gamekeepers’ associations must number in the region of 250,000. So for less than 10 per cent taking the trouble to sign, and bearing in mind there are supposed to be thousands more who shoot…

“Seven foxes were released inside a dingo enclosure; within 17 days, the dingoes had killed all seven” Australia’s Dingo Fence, at a mind-boggling 5,531km, is the world’s longest fence. Australia holds a much less impressive world record too: for the nation with the highest extinction rate of mammals over the past two centuries. Since European settlement, 29 of Australia’s endemic mammal species have become extinct, and predation by red fox and feral cat is implicated in 28 of those extinctions. Vast amounts of government money have been spent trying to rid Australia of its introduced predators, yet much of its native wildlife continues to decline. But there is increasing evidence that the Dingo Fence, which is maintained to curb the spread of dingoes into sheep-farming areas, and the widespread killing…

It’s the first drive on the Whitehill Woods shoot and Mackenzie Wren, using an over-and-under Beretta 20-bore, neatly kills five good crossing pheasants for seven shots. Nothing particularly remarkable in that, you may think, except for the fact that Mackenzie is only 12 years old. He is being mentored by Dan Reynolds, BASC south-east director. The 175-acre Whitehill Woods shoot, a few miles from Canterbury in Kent, has been under the direction and management of Roger Coltham since he was 16. From rearing his own birds with broodies to building his first release pen from the remains of tennis court chain-link fencing, to the development over the years of a fully fledged driven shoot, Roger has been the driving force behind this remarkable sporting shoot. Today at 73, though he…

The late Frank Jenkins was a well-known gamekeeper whose career spanned more than 60 years. The annual award goes to the best full or part-time gamekeeping student or apprentice of the academic year. The award is judged by senior members of the NGO. Cormac Thompson completed a Level 3 Extended Diploma in Countryside Management (Game). Hartpury College lecturer Robbie Nicolle said: “Cormac is one of the most hardworking and determined students I have ever taught.” As well as his award Cormac was presented with a gift from Frank’s daughter and son, and received a voucher for a new jacket from Musto, which sponsors the awards, as well as an engraved NGO tankard. The award was presented at the 2016 Midland Game Fair by NGO chairman Liam Bell (below, with Cormac)…

1 BARREL Originally chambered in the 6.5 x54R Mannlicher round, this classic custom has been re-barrelled with a chrome-moly blued 18in .308 Win barrel. 2 SIGHTS These Redfield scope mounts work well with the split-top receiver. 3 ACTION Superb quality bolt-action design that, though a tad antiquated, still makes a classic stalking rifle. 4 STOCK Originals had typical Bavarian cheekpiece walnut stocks; here we have a Harry Lawson Cochise custom. This rifle is one of those items in which classic charm marries with modern-day custom design. The Mannlicher-Schoenauer bolt action is indicative of a bygone era when German Imperial gunsmithing skills were afforded mythical status due to unrivalled levels of quality and demand. It is such that many a custom rifle maker…

LOGAN Overall I was pleased with Logan’s test results. However, his main issue is his delivery of his retrieves. He has developed the habit of lying down when he comes back to me, though he will hold on to the dummy until I take it from him. Logan has proved to be quite a sensitive dog, so I now have to decide whether I try to train this out of him or let him work through it by himself. If I put pressure on him I am pretty sure his retrieving may regress and I don’t want that to happen, so I think I will give him some time to see if he sorts this out by himself. I am reasonably confident that once he starts on freshly shot game…

Plant: Wild privet Latin name: Ligustrum vulgare Other names: Common privet, prim-cut, prim How to spot it and where to find it: A common, semi-evergreen shrub with small, oval, glossy, green leaves and smooth bark, privet grows in hedgerows, on woodland edges and on grassland scrub and prefers well-drained chalky soils in southern England and Wales. Wild privet, which belongs to the olive family (Oleaceae), is the only native privet in Britain and is also commonly used for hedging in suburban gardens. It produces a profusion of small white flowers that appear from June and its matt-black berries ripen in autumn. It is highly invasive, and though it prefers direct sunlight it is shade-tolerant and will invade forest edges and other shady areas, regardless of soil quality. Interesting facts: The…

Appearances can be deceptive. A Highland bull may look fierce, but Highlanders are among the most docile of cattle. They are also one of the toughest, and able to make do with the poorest of grazing, as you would expect of an animal that has its origins in the far northwest of Scotland. They are one of the smallest of our native breeds — only the Shetland and the Dexter are smaller. However, if reared on lusher pastures in milder climates Highlanders can gain considerably in size, though they are still slow to mature. The fine-grained meat boasts great quality and taste, so it is worth the wait for it to reach maturity. Highland cattle come in a variety of colours. Black was traditionally the most popular, but today reddish-brown…