Innholdsfortegnelse for 31-Mar-2021 i Shooting Times & Country

By the time you read this, I’ll have participated in a roundtable discussion with a number of very non-shooting naturalists on the so-called “ethics of optics”. The nub of the issue is that some people feel they don’t want to buy things like binoculars from brands that also make products for the sporting market. If that’s their view, then fair enough, but in truth the issue lies with what we believe to be ethical. Certainly, many Shooting Times readers are utterly opposed to canned hunting, but the notion that there is an ethical issue with muntjac management or a wild bird keeper controlling foxes is simply nutty. The problem comes down to a lack of knowledge. It’s great that people want to go and look at curlew on wetland reserves,…

SHOOT Try the Holland 100, a challenging sporting course over 12 stands. Designed by Holland & Holland head instructors Chris and Nathan, this layout will be a fun way to ease yourself back into shooting. The entry fee is £45, with the option for additional rounds at £40. A member of the Holland & Holland team will guide and score for groups of up to five (minimum three). There will be a High Gun prize and a weekly draw. For further details, call 01923 825349 or email shooting.grounds@hollandandholland.com TRY STEEL Go big. With spring corvid and pigeon shooting in full swing, many people are trying steel shot for the first time. Don’t be scared to go up two shot sizes if you aren’t getting the results you expect.…

New laws over antique and obsolete calibres are now in effect and a number of firearms that could previously be held without a firearm certificate now require a licence. This follows advice from the police over the use of obsolete calibres by criminals. The calibres that have been removed from the obsolete cartridge list are: the .320 British, the .41 Colt (short or long), the .44 Smith & Wesson Russian, the .442 Revolver (also known as .44 Webley), the 9.4mm Dutch Revolver, the 10.6mm German Ordnance Revolver and the 11mm French Ordnance Revolver M1873 (Army). Possessing firearms of these calibres now requires a firearm certificate. However, owners can take advantage of a six-month transition period until midnight on 21 September 2021 to license them or lawfully dispose of them. In…

I was born 80 years ago. A German air raid had been sounded; they were searching for the battleship KGV, which had been prominent in the sinking of the Bismarck. Food was scarce; I saw my first banana and had my first glimpse of my father when I was five or six years old when he was at last demobbed. Bananas were not considered necessary during World War II. Hundreds of ships were being sunk each month and thousands of merchant mariners were lost simply trying to bring supplies to Britain. Pigs were kept on allotments, fed by locals with food scraps. Those who supplied the scraps shared in the broth which was made by the pig owner, cooked in a boiler, using coal for fuel. Food was rationed until…

On loading the Benelli, you begin to appreciate how clever the ergonomics of the design are and start to understand that function was the priority. When loading the magazine, the gun fits the hand perfectly and, even with gloves, you can load it with no concerns. As with most semi-autos, the safety catch is a finger-fire, thumb-safe type, which is well thought out with differing shape and feel when moving the safe button to the fire position. The addition of a red band around the safe gives added comfort at a glance. The gun is light at 7lb 2oz and effortless to carry across the back on a sling. The lack of weight makes the guns handle fast and can take a bit of getting used to if swapping between…

I was once tempted to do keep sheep. I got as far as researching which breeds I should select. Fortunately, I also asked shepherds for advice. One told me that sheep-keeping has two highs: the day you get them and the day you get rid of them. The period in between isn’t so good, as few animals have a happier knack of escaping, or a greater death wish, than woollies. “Don’t do it” was his advice. Though I’ve never kept sheep, I have a great deal of respect for those who do and understand why sheep worrying is such a concern. Consultations are currently taking place on improvements to the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act. This law, now nearly 70 years old, is showing its age and, according to Rob…

How to master heel walking GUNDOG TRAINING Q I have a nine-month-old cocker spaniel that I have tried to train to heel since he was 10 weeks old, but he pulls like a train constantly. I have tried a slip lead, which he choked on; a harness, which he pulled on harder; and a figure of eight, which he tried to scratch off and made his face sore. The longest he has walked by my side was around 20m, but I think this was simply luck. What can I do? A Heel work is frustrating, repetitive and often monotonous, and that is only for the dog. It sounds as if your reliance on tools correcting the pulling problem has damaged the bond you have with him. To work with you,…

Latin name: Petasites hybridus Common name: Butterbur Other names: Bog rhubarb, batter dock, cleats, oxwort, poison rhubarb, pestilence wort, umbrella leaf, water docken How to spot it and where to find it: Like several wild plants, butterbur produces flowers before its leaves. Growing on a tall reddish-purple spike, the flowers are a pretty shade of pale pink and can last from March through to May. The leaves are roughly heart-shaped with hairy undersides and, by late spring, can measure up to 1m across. Butterbur likes shade and moist soil. Interesting facts: When the flowers have died and the leaves are full size, it resembles rhubarb, hence its name bog rhubarb. The name butterbur comes from the fact that its leaves were used to wrap butter to keep it cool. Its…

I have been thinking of upgrading my binoculars. Why? Because I can, is the truthful answer. Not that I want to admit that to myself or anybody else, of course. It is amazing how you can seize upon convenient arguments to justify almost any spending decision. Especially during a lockdown, when the lure of online shopping can become almost irresistible. Fortunately, I have made it a rule never to make an impulse purchase after 9pm. And this, in part, is why I am looking forward to the return of game fairs. You can research binoculars and other hunting optics all you like, but until and unless you actually handle and peer through some of your shortlisted kit, you cannot be 100% sure whether it will suit your requirements. And for…

Hill shoots 124 out of 125 for world gold British shooter Amber Hill has blasted her way into the Tokyo Olympics after hitting 124 out of 125 targets in the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in New Delhi. “It’s been one hell of a day,” said the 23-year-old. “I honestly didn’t expect it to go as well as it did. It just feels awesome to shoot 124 and equal the world record in qualifiers and then go on to win the gold medal has been amazing.” Rules relaxed as bird flu fizzles out The requirement to house captive birds in a way that prevents them from coming into contact with wild birds is due to end on 31 March. The move comes as one of the worst avian influenza…

Jack Bell’s article on fishing for pike at night (A screaming reel in total darkness, 17 March) reminded me of a lesson learned in the mid-1980s. My fishing partner and I used to use night fishing as an excellent way of sampling some stillwaters in the Oxford area that weren’t quite as available to us as we would have liked. We also used to fish a small tributary of the Thames that entered the main river in the middle of Oxford itself. Big, as in 20lb-plus, pike used the tributary as a spawning location and would start to gather there in the last few weeks of the coarse season. Early on in our visits to this location, we experienced a lot of ‘nibbles’ on our dead baits that made the…

It may be surprising to many that this plant is edible. The long, tough leaves, tougher flower stem and intractable seed and flower head do not entice. But, as with many otherwise inedible plants, primarily the young shoots are eaten. Despite my profound interest in wild foods, I am a lifelong cynic, dismissing as vile some of the wild foods that other foragers become so absurdly excited about. With this in mind, believe me when I say that bulrush shoots are worth the effort. I quite like watching cricket and remember sitting on the grass at school carefully peeling away the tougher layers of a grass stem and eating the soft bit inside. If you have ever done this, you will know exactly what bulrush shoots taste like: grassy. In…

It is that time in the ferreting calendar when our thoughts turn towards breeding. To some, this is a simple decision, but to those who think long and hard about improving on what they already have, it can be a tedious process. If it was as easy as putting a hob and a jill together, every ferret would be a world-beater. But genetics aren’t that straightforward. I am in between a rock and a hard place where my ferret breeding is concerned. I have a very good team of hobbles (neutered ferrets) but obviously I cannot breed from these. And I am now in a position where I can’t afford to lose a year’s progress in replacing them. The ferrets I bred last year were OK, nothing special. I am…

This is so ludicrously posh as a dish that it slightly offends my wishy-washy, lefty liberalism. But it tastes so good, looks so funky on the plate and adds such an element of glamour to the table that I simply had to share it. I am sure we don’t need a huge amount of familiarisation with the dish. Everyone knows what a Scotch egg is and vaguely how to make one. The origins of the Scotch egg are lost to the mists of time, but there are various contenders for the crown of brilliance — and it is a work of brilliance, surely anyone can see that. Swanky London store Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented this wondrous food in 1738 as a travellers’ snack, but the evidence for…

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 Contact the team Email: stanswers@futurenet.com By post: Shooting Times,…

A campaign by the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) to head off a change in the seasons for female deer has been successful. However, the abolition of the close season for male deer looks likely. The deer working group convened by the Scottish government had recommended significant extensions to both ends of the open seasons for female deer. However, gamekeepers and deer managers warned of the welfare implications for orphaned calves and of the harm to the mental health of deerstalkers who were forced to gralloch heavily pregnant deer and remove well-grown foetuses. In its response to the working group’s report, the government said that it would not make the change yet but would keep the situation under review. The close season for male deer now looks likely to be abolished…

BY OUR SIDE Vintage Times (It’s a baptism by fire, 13 January) by John Humphreys brought back memories. His story about the young gamekeeper mirrored my own introduction to shooting in the early 1960s as a boy of eight to 10 years old by my cousin Kenneth Smyth. It gave me the love of the countryside and a foundation in shooting that I still have. Kenneth was a sergeant in the Ulster Defence Regiment and a former B Special, and was murdered by the IRA on 10 December 1971. I often think that he and I would have gone shooting and enjoyed our days together if he had lived. John Humphreys was the writer whom I flicked through the pages to find; as a young man, a country sports enthusiast,…

The row in the rookery at the end of my garden becomes particularly raucous at this time of year. Nest building appears to be a vexatious business if you are a rook. Their dawn-to-dusk clamour for space and heated disputes over rights of way make for a neighbours-from-hell scenario. However, a recent series of gales poured oil on troubled waters Chez Rook. As the tops of the oaks swayed crazily in the gusts, the ragged coal-black inhabitants seemed to delight in using the storm to shake off the stresses and strains of construction. Each member of the community hopped to the uppermost branches. Once there, each in turn spread their wings to let the wind whip them up into grey skies at G-forces that would make a fighter pilot faint.…

Anthropologist Franz Boas claimed the native Canadian Inuit have 50 words for snow. I have seven, none of which are suitable for print. It is essentially filthy muck. Once you have taken a cutesy photograph or two and stamped up the garden to feed the birds, the realisation speedily dawns that snow is nothing but cold, floury rain with decent PR. Snow is useless for hedgelaying; ditches become drift-filled mantraps. The pleachers we cut disappear beneath the flakes, soaked gauntlets turn into bars of slippery soap, transforming bill hooks and saws into lethal weapons rather than trusted tools. Snow stops work and income. Gluttonous Rather than sitting about the house waiting for a thaw, I suggested to my son Charlie we stirred ourselves and did something practical. Flea Barn’s pigeon…

SPRING EXTRACTORS When paper cases were the norm and it was not at all unusual for them to become jammed in the chamber, a cartridge extractor was an essential part of a sportsman’s kit. Most were ring type, but these were only effective if used with the gauge for which they were made. This spring type extractor has the advantage of adapting to any gauge case, gripping it well and allowing for easy extraction — though you might have to give it a bit of a pull. In the 1930s, they cost two shillings.…

After the worst winter that I can recall — with incessant rain, almost no shooting or hunting, job losses, income destroyed, all caused by and set against the backdrop of COVID-19 — spring is inexorably on the march down in Dyfed. For those of us lucky enough to be out and about after such a long and tedious slumber, the power of the season is overwhelming and optimism abounds, on a good day, anyway. From those dark days when the only joy was the lilting song of the robin, promising better times, the full dawn chorus has arrived. Traditional pheasant keepers will be picking their first eggs and mallard are in full lay. There will be some early broods about. If the weather stays warm they’ll thrive. The cold and…