Innholdsfortegnelse for 03-Mar-2021 i Shooting Times & Country

Yesterday, I found myself in the midst of an argument. Sadly, it was only a virtual sort of dispute but I’m sure we’ll get back to proper tête-à-têtes in due course. It came about because someone who has worked in shooting, man and boy, asked whether it would be a good idea for gamekeepers to be called conservation managers? After all, they do much more than just keep game and he reckons it might limit some of the harassment our keepers face. Predictably, it all kicked off. Another well-known shooting man couldn’t stand the idea and suggested the poor guy had lost the plot. I sat quietly spectating but it did make me think about a piece on ‘dog breaking’ that I came across in a 1950s issue of Shooting…

A BUNNY BOOM IS WISHFUL THINKING I hold a place in my heart for the wild rabbit. No other animal helps sculpt the landscape, often without people realising this amazing feat. It is a prey species, born into our world as the staple diet of a long list of predatory species, including humans. It possesses an incredible ability to outbreed danger and its population across the UK remained fairly stable — until the past few years. Rabbit numbers are dwindling too quickly across large tracts of the country. A year of lockdowns has enabled them to have a bit of a boom due to the lack of pressure and disturbance at the hand of man. Even so, we must never allow ourselves to become complacent. Certain areas may have a…

THERE IS A dangerously common misconception among many dog enthusiasts, assuming that a breed is similar to a species. It’s not. Species have evolved naturally over hundreds of thousands of years, but breeds are man-made creations produced by highly selective breeding and few are much more than 100 years old. Spaniels came in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours in the 19th century. It wasn’t until 1892 that the cocker was recognised by the Kennel Club as a breed in its own right, while it took another 10 years for the English springer spaniel to gain similar recognition. Today, we recognise seven different breeds of spaniel in the UK, five of which — cocker, springer, Welsh springer, Sussex and field — share common ancestry. The Clumber and Irish water…

Sometimes you have the time to spend hours and hours carefully crafting a dish and at other times, frankly, you simply want it done, tasty and quick. This recipe is short, satisfying and partly stolen, or perhaps it would be better to say it’s inspired by a dish that appears in Rick Stein’s great book, India. Admittedly, he also confesses that he was kindly given the recipe by someone he met on his travels, before I find myself in the tandoori oven of plagiarism. It isn’t particularly hard to make your own garam masala but it does take a while to collect the ingredients. If you’re short on time, buy a mix, but make sure you buy a good one. The bunny for this recipe should not be too old…

The contentious issue of leaving deer carcasses to rot is raising its head. The driving factor is an unholy combination of low venison prices and relentless pressure on landowners to reduce deer numbers. A few years ago, there was an outcry when it emerged that a conservation charity, the John Muir Trust (JMT), had left 86 shot stags ‘to rot’ in the Knoydart area of the Scottish Highlands. Some sporting estates branded this an appalling waste of a valuable natural resource. In response, the JMT said: “Of the 400 deer we cull across nine properties, we extract the majority of carcasses for sale to game dealers, and on into the human food chain. Where extraction is difficult but still practical, we take the main venison cuts from culled deer for…

With spring on its way and river levels high, now is a good time to control mink. While traps are the most effective tool, many mink are quite bold and a small-bore shotgun can be ideal for close-range work. Water voles and ground-nesting birds will thank you. As slugs, snails and frogs become more active, the chance of your dog picking up lungworm increases. The problem is mainly found in the South of England and South Wales. Discuss with your vet whether your wormer will protect your dog.…

As someone who is involved in a small way with fundraising for the GWCT in Scotland, I was interested to read Alasdair Mitchell’s comments about the charity needing funds(Sharpshooter,17 February). I am always amazed by two things: first, how generous some people are; and, secondly, how little people understand about the importance of GWCT work. I suppose, too, I am sad at how many people who are involved in our sport, who know what is involved in the conservation of the environment and the management of the countryside, and know what it takes to produce both wild and reared game, consider that supporting the GWCT is not for them. I wonder if it could be that many consider the charity to be for the benefit of those who own and…

The impact of COVID-19 on both professional and amateur hunters alike has been extraordinary. It is interesting that, despite the pandemic, we still evaluated 1,014 heads of all species last year compared with the 1,200 that we looked at in 2019. The courier business became an enabler for both hunters and assessors, many of the smaller species arriving in packages enclosed in bubble wrap, including a muntjac from Arizona that had been shot in Oxfordshire. While we provide a detailed report on roe deer for both England and Scotland in Shooting Times, we also provide tables of other species that we have evaluated during the last calendar year. These tables reflect not only the breadth of species hunted at home and abroad, but also statistics concerning all the UK species.…

Meadow pipits are the feathered equivalent of the humble worm in some respects. They make up the bulk of the food for some other species, yet they also consume vast quantities of other living things by sheer virtue of numbers. In the uplands, the meadow pipit is our most common summer visitor by a huge margin. Tens of thousands will summer in Teesdale every year, yet many people will walk the miles of footpaths and hardly give them a passing glance. They are the sparrows of the uplands. Before anyone shouts at me, I am aware they are not a sparrow, far from it. I only compare them to sparrows in that few people give them a second glance. The pipit is very much an insect eater and has the…

This week’s article was inspired by reader and English-springer enthusiast Chris Hill, who wrote to me explaining why he is planning to put his springer bitch to a cocker sire. He points out the increasing frequency of serious inherited conditions in springer spaniels. They include incomplete ossification of the humeral condyle, which can lead to a fractured elbow, and cranial cruciate ligament disease that causes the ligament in the knee to fray and break. Both require surgery to fix, costing up to £5,000. Other nasty diseases continue to surface. Another reader, David C, emailed me about losing his springer at the age of 22 months to atrial septal defect (ASD), a congenital heart disorder. His vet told him he should contact the breeder of the dog to inform them that…

STRIKER KEY The disc-set striker was a desirable feature, mostly fitted to the best sidelocks. It enabled the strikers to be removed, via a screw-in disc set into the breech face. Striker removal had always been possible with hammerguns, but from the other end with the use of a nipple key. Hammerless guns had no such facility, so the disc-set striker allowed strikers to be removed without totally dismantling the gun. A striker key is a two-pronged turn-screw. The prongs fit into holes in the disc. It is removed by turning, allowing the strikers to be removed from the hole. When the feature was copied in guns made of lower-quality steels (such as 1970s AYAs), the action of the recoiling cartridge on the breech face hammer-welded the disc into the…

Call for ban on lead to protect flamingos There have been calls for hunters to stop using lead shot on important flamingo feeding grounds on the coast of Cyprus. The Larnaca Salt Lake provides a vital migration stopover for 15,000 flamingos moving between Europe and Africa. Government vets blamed lead poisoning for the death of 96 flamingos on the lake last year. While campaigners have called for an end to all hunting on the lake, Pantelis Hadjiyerou, head of the game and fauna service, said an end to the use of lead was more important. “It should be drummed into people that the use of lead pellets is prohibited near wetlands and that only steel pellets are permitted,” he said. Cornwall dotterel earliest for 20 years Birdwatchers on the south…

When attempting to spring clean the house in lockdown, I unearthed a dusty box titled ‘bits and bobs 2000’. Among twisted glasses and moth-eaten trousers, I found this ripped shred of paper upon which was a slightly realistic drawing of a cock pheasant. I was delighted to discover my early art talent and at once rushed to my gamebook to stick it in, where it sits proudly. It is these little bits of memorabilia that will make your gamebook much more valuable to you personally, rather than simply documenting the numbers. M Harris, Hampshire…

Imagine a grand English manor house in the halcyon sporting days of the 1900s on a misty autumn morning — the bright scarlet coats of hunt staff jarring to sleepy eyes beneath heavy clouds. Impatient horses are being saddled, and hounds are scurrying back and forth around the huntsman. There is a palpable sense of anticipation in the air, relished by both man and beast. In some senses, such scenes are highly relatable to all those who set out into the field today, be it mounted or with a gun, but there are also more elusive things about Britain’s sporting past. One excellent way to reconnect with the minutiae of the forgotten is through the folk songs inspired by the pursuit of game, both by gentlemen on one side of…

You may recall that Budget was the weakest of Tawny’s first litter of puppies. She was given more than a helping hand but I have made the decision to send her out to grass. She will swap cold, damp moors for warm fireside cuddles. This not only suits her mindset and personality better, but it has enabled me to concentrate on Dotty so that she can achieve her full potential in the field. Dotty is very honest — what you see is what you get. Athletic, driven and standing at 23in at the shoulder, she is perfect for my way of life, but enthusiasm is nothing without opportunity. So when there was a break in the Baltic conditions, Dotty and I were out again after some of the local rabbits.…

It is starting to feel that dawn is breaking after what has been a very long and very dark night. Over the past few weeks, there has been birdsong in the woods and hedgerows and I have been delighted to see the grey partridges I released starting to pair up. The recent snowfall has meant the game covers that are still standing have been full of birdlife, mainly large flocks of chaffinch with the occasional dunnock. The abundance of gamebirds left on the estate will have food available from the various large feeders I have left out until they decide that they have enough wild food to cope, which is usually around May. We have a huge responsibility to all those birds that have gone un-shot. Groups of fallow bucks…

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 Timesrifle 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 ELLENA SWIFT Award-winning gundog trainer and canine behaviour specialist 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: Morchella esculenta Common name: Yellow morel Other names: Common morel, true morel How to spot it and where to find it: March is the beginning of the season for this highly sought-after fungus. Its ridged and pitted cap rather resembles honeycomb and can be any shade from pale lemon to deep ochre. They tend to darken with age and the irregular ridges are paler than the insides of the pits. The cap may be domed or conical and can grow up to 12cm tall. The stem is generally white or cream and smooth, with darker blotches at the base. Found mostly in chalky woodlands, the yellow morel also appears in disturbed earth in gardens, roadside verges, wasteland and even sand dunes. Interesting facts: The season for morels is…

I recently watched a new film called The Dig. It is a dramatisation of the 1939 discovery of a treasure-laden ship burial, thought to be the last resting place of the Saxon king Raedwald at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, in Suffolk. Its cinematography is achingly beautiful, with the true star of the show arguably being the timeless coastline and dramatic skies that my home county so proudly boasts. Ralph Fiennes, having learned to mumble a convincing Suffolk dialect, expertly plays Basil Brown, the real-life ‘digger’ responsible for unearthing a horde that cast light upon our nation’s dark ages. Basil came from Rickinghall, up the road from where I live. Self-taught and without any degree or qualification, he was an expert in the field of archaeology. The son of a small-scale…