Innholdsfortegnelse for 19-May-2021 i Shooting Times & Country

A gundog handler and breeder has told Shooting Times about her experience of dealing with lockdown spaniel and labrador puppies. The experienced trainer, who asked not to be named, has found herself dealing with “lots and lots of dogs with serious issues”. The problems she has been forced to tackle include biting, aggression and extreme timidity. She went on: “There is no doubt people who should never have bought puppies did so during lockdown, and there’s also no doubt a lot of dogs were bred from that should never have been.” Spaniel Aid also reported a surge in problem spaniels referred to it. In an appeal for support, the charity said: “We are inundated with biting, guarding cockers. This is turning into a huge issue in this breed and it…

Licences to allow the release of gamebirds on and around protected sites have been issued by Defra. The licences came about as a response to attempts by campaign group Wild Justice to disrupt pheasant releasing. Under the new licence, if birds are released on protected sites, they must not be released at densities of more than 700 birds per hectare of pen. In the 500m buffer zone around the site, the density of birds can reach a maximum of 1,000 birds per hectare of pen. This is already recommended as the maximum release density by the GWCT. Glynn Evans, BASC’s head of game and gundogs, said: “It remains BASC’s position that this legislation is unnecessarily bureaucratic and disproportionate, especially compared with other activities continuing to take place. However, it is…

Eyebrows were raised at the last round of Home Office firearms licensing statistics when it was revealed that a seven-year-old had been approved for a shotgun certificate. That decision led to lively debate at my local clay ground. Opinions were split. A significant number of regulars felt that the decision offered fuel to antis and drew unnecessary attention to one of the last remaining liberal pieces of firearms legislation. Others expressed support for the decision, remembering that they, too, had begun shooting at a similar age. The Home Office’s 271-page Guide on Firearms Licensing Law expresses three principles that must be met before a licence is granted. To obtain a firearm or shotgun certificate, the chief officer “must be satisfied that: (i) the applicant has good reason for having a…

Having made the move south and taken up my role at the Oakley in Bedfordshire, the sharp learning curve has begun. When you are presented with a new pack of hounds and a new kennel, things can seem daunting. Hounds have to get used to you — which, I am happy to say, they have done very well — and you used to them. I managed to get a few days with the outgoing huntsman before he moved, so I could learn as many hounds’ names as possible. With both me and the whipper-in being new at the Oakley, there is no one left in the kennels for us to learn from over time. The last few names will have to be committed to memory from a list and the…

I was taken aback to read a recent newspaper report of dogs being bitten by adders, as if this was something unusual. It’s not, of course: according to my research, there are around 100 cases a year of dogs being bitten by adders in Britain, though I suspect this figure is no more than an educated guess. What is surprising is that more dogs aren’t bitten, for adders are widespread in Britain, occurring north to Caithness and south to Cornwall. Adders are shy creatures that do their best to avoid us, and it’s remarkable how few I’ve seen in a lifetime spent in the countryside. I remember as a teenager encountering my first adder at Folkestone Warren in Kent. As soon as it realised it was being watched, it slipped…

Disposing of those dirty rats AIRGUNNING Q I am about to start shooting rats with my air rifle on a local farm where I help with pest control. What is the best thing to do with shot rats at the end of each session? A The correct disposal of shot rats is important because corpses that are left to rot can pose as much of a disease hazard as live rats. As for where to get rid of them, ask the landowner and they will no doubt be able to point you in the right direction — most likely towards a slurry pit or fire site. Rats can carry some nasty diseases, so be careful when collecting them for disposal. Always wear gloves and use a shovel or litter grabber…

I have managed to get out with rod and reel quite a lot over the past month. Trout, salmon, mullet and bass have all been on the cards and, while I can’t say they have all been on the bank, it has been an absolute joy to be back fishing with friends. Worthy of a short anecdote was a fish-filled return trip to a reservoir where I had previously blanked. On handing us the life jackets, the boatman proclaimed that we were set for a red-letter afternoon. In fact, his exact words were “if you don’t catch 20, you ought to think about giving up and trying something else”. A first-timer had caught as many from the bank the day before, and some of the boat catches were over the…

Once, when I was 13, I had been ferreting and needed to hock a couple of rabbit carcasses in order to hang them on my bicycle handlebars. I was finding the job a bit tricky because my cheap little penknife had never been sharpened. Suddenly, something snapped. I noticed a surfeit of blood. It was my own. My finger was slit to the bone. I suppose this supports the old saying about knives: it’s the blunt ones that cut you. If my knife had been properly maintained, I wouldn’t have had to force it and it wouldn’t have folded and caught my finger. In any case, it would have been safer if it had a locking mechanism. Interestingly, recent knife legislation dictates that you cannot carry a locking knife in…

The failure of Natural England’s licensing scheme is becoming tragically apparent as the upland breeding sites of waders such as the curlew and lapwing are hit hard by bands of predatory gulls. In a complex series of changes following campaign group Wild Justice’s failed 2019 challenge to the general licences, lesser black-backed and herring gulls were removed from the general licences for England. These changes meant that a specific licence was required to protect nesting species from the large flocks of the birds that come to the uplands in spring. The system introduced by Natural England operates on a quota basis, with licences for a maximum number of gulls issued each year. In a blog written last spring, Dave Slater, Natural England’s director for wildlife licensing, said that the changes…

Hang out your buzzers on the washing line. The washing line — a high floating dry fly on the point and two or three buzzers on droppers — can be a deadly trout fishing tactic as the weather warms up and hatches get going. The game season is just over four months away, so why not book a couple of lessons to get back into the swing of things — or even put together a team for a simulated game day? Rural businesses will be pleased to get the cash in and it will provide a great chance to catch up with friends after a long and tedious lockdown.…

English Heritage has condemned photographs appearing to show a stalking operation on one of its properties. The pictures were obtained by activists and show what they claim to be Scandinavian hunting clients posing with shot muntjac at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire (see Quote of the Week, left). An English Heritage spokesman said: “We’re shocked and saddened by these images. We do not allow hunting for sport at any of the historic sites in our care. In accordance with relevant legislation, at some locations it is necessary for us to work with third parties to manage particular local animal populations. It’s very important to us that this is done humanely and respectfully. We’re taking this matter extremely seriously and have started a full investigation.” However, local deerstalkers struggled to see the…

On the rare occasion I tune my truck radio from the local station to a national broadcaster, I am struck by the length and magnitude of the traffic reports I hear. While I blithely trundle along near-empty Suffolk lanes to get to whichever farm I am working at, the voice from the speakers tells of tailbacks, tail lights and turmoil. The average daily commute for the UK’s workforce is one hour and 38 minutes. How many Shooting Times readers also endure such soulless hours spent in traffic jams or on overcrowded trains to get to their place of work? To alleviate the woes of these lengthy commutes, many buy homes in the suburbs. While this is a pragmatic solution, it does mean that where you have to live is, often,…

Gunmakers have long touted their connections to royalty. Even the names they give their guns borrow from it, with old catalogues chock-a-block with Royal, Regal and Crown models. Indeed, fieldsports have long been a passion of British monarchs and their families. The New Forest was planted in 1079 as a hunting reserve for William I, so the king could indulge in his favourite sport of hunting deer. Perhaps inadvertently, these royal hunting habits laid the foundations for the conservation of the environment at the expense of the needs of agriculture and human habitation. Ancient kings valued forests teeming with deer at a time when, if left unchecked, the old story of habitat loss and poaching could quite easily have sent the native deer species the same way as the lynx,…

When I first moved to the UK from South Africa, I stuck some of my favourite photographs on the wall of my halls of residence bedroom to serve as reminders of the life I’d left behind. One of those photographs happened to be of a close friend and me with a dead Cape buffalo that an American client had hunted on safari with us. Looking back now, I can see just how naive I was. But that photograph was a reminder of some of the incredible experiences I’d had on safari, and of a very memorable hunt that had ended in success. I knew how much of a contributor to wildlife conservation regulated big game hunting is. And of all the wildlife conservationists I’d met and idolised growing up in…

FIRST WE MUST separate our commands. One command should be for casting for a retrieve. Begin with basic marked retrieves, so it is clear the command means ‘run and retrieve’. You can slowly continue the retrieving drills (as per my other training articles) to develop control at distance, holding a good line and hunting for retrieves. The second command the dog must understand clearly is the hunting command. I teach this at distance and close quarters, and I expect the same behaviour to be shown whether the dog is 10 yards or 100 yards away. When I give my hunt command, I would like the dog to put its nose down and look for something close by. I expect it to hunt an area approximately 20 yards square around me.…

Rewilding by definition is “the restoration of an area of land to its uncultivated state”. It is commonly used in reference to the reintroduction of wild animals that have been driven from their previously occupied habitat ranges. It is unsurprising that the topic has sparked debate and in turn created divisions between those living in the remote landscapes and the groups of pro-rewild environmentalists pushing for mass ecological landscape change. Trying to tackle the whole rewilding topic in one article is unrealistic, as it is a wide-ranging subject that covers ecology, land use, local community development, business, tourism and much more. In essence, I completely agree that we need to work hard to improve our natural environment. Our native broadleaf woodlands are disappearing at an accelerated rate, Scottish peatlands, which…

There are few parts of England that furnish such opportunities to the all-round sportsman as the county of Berkshire. Its proximity to the metropolis and the ease with which it can be reached by the busy man from town, who can only take a day off now and again, but who nevertheless can afford to pay something above the ordinary figure for his sport, has so enhanced the value of its shooting of recent years that, as a happy hunting ground to the shooting man possessed only of a slender means, it has become more or less as forbidden ground. There are out-of-the-way parts, however, where the man who does not mind six or seven miles in a dog cart along a bad road on a frosty morning after a…

ABSORBO In the 1930s, efforts were still being made to create products that best cleaned and protected gun barrels and metal finishes from the residue of nitro powder discharge. But the lubricating oils then in use were not sufficient to preserve barrels against the corrosive action of nitro powders and the primers used with them. Absorbo was a cleaner and preserver sold by Westley Richards for 1s 10d per small tin, which was billed as a wonder product. You applied it using a cleaning rod and wool mop. It was claimed that a coat of Absorbo would render inert any residue or fouling in the bores and prevent rusting.…

Game farmers have added their voice to those predicting a strong return to shooting this year. Dominic Boulton, who runs Perfect Poults and is a former chairman of the Game Farmers’ Association, told Shooting Times: “Recent progress on bringing the COVID-19 pandemic under control has stimulated a greater degree of confidence than we had reason to expect at the beginning of the year. Many customers are reporting strong demand for shooting this coming season, with many sold out and some considering extra days to cater for demand.” Across the country, game farmers have reported that they are hatching many more chicks this season following a surge in orders early this year and in expectation of more orders coming in as bookings continue to flow. Mr Boulton added: “It is too…

Campaigners may have won an important victory in the struggle over the Animals Abroad Bill, which the Government is planning to introduce to limit the import of hunting trophies into the UK. A failure to explicitly mention the bill in the Queen’s Speech led some on both sides of the debate to conclude that the Government had stepped away from the plan. Eduardo Goncalves, the founder of the Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, misleadingly claimed that “trophy hunters will be rubbing their hands with glee at this omission”. However, the text of the speech published on the Government’s website made it clear that a reference to legislation to “ensure the United Kingdom has, and promotes, the highest standards of animal welfare” includes the Animals Abroad Bill. A briefing pack released…

Anybody who knows me or speaks to me about stalking roebuck in the spring knows that it is my time to be alone and to reflect on the busy season of game shooting and deerstalking with clients. After an exceptionally difficult year, we still managed to have a reasonable game season and record numbers of deer were culled on the estates. As soon as one season finishes, I’m already in full swing for the next, so heading out to the beautiful Gloucestershire Cotswolds is a time for me to gather my thoughts and de-stress. Unsettled After I agreed to write for Shooting Times, the Editor asked if a photographer could join my next stalk. I hesitantly agreed and a date was set. On the way, my thoughts were not only…

Many times in my role as a GWCT adviser, I have been asked about where to put a pheasant pen on a bare farm with perhaps just one small wood on the boundary. My response is that we need to think about the potential of the ground before we address that; there could be lots of other options that do not involve any pheasant pens. There is a little block of about 200 acres just over the hill in Wiltshire that is a typical example of the problem. It is basically a bare arable farm, running along a gentle valley, with a small spring-fed stream running through. There is hardly any woodland , just a small piece right on the eastern boundary, directly against a huge forest on the other…

In conclusion, all of these medium-weight trousers are excellent and I realise it is perhaps slightly unfair to compare the lightweight Ridgeline trousers with the others as they are really aimed towards hunters in warmer climes. Of the others, I would be happy to have any of them in my locker. Crucially, all the trousers on test offer what I demand in my stalking trousers: comfort, a good fit, a high degree of waterproofing, breathable, strength and not too heavy. I have found it very difficult to choose one out of these, but if pushed, I think it would have to be the Seeland Hawker Advanced trousers.…

If your dog is not motivated by normal tennis balls or small dummies, you can use rabbit-skin balls or even biscuits. The dog simply needs to understand that the hunt command means ‘look for something where you are’ and the cast means ‘run’. Lizzie, the flatcoat I am working with, is starting with the very basic drills described here and over the next six months will slowly increase in difficulty. “I expect the same behaviour whether the dog is 10 yards or 100 yards away” If you feel your dog is proficient at both these commands, or certainly has the basic understanding, and will be used for beating and picking up this coming season (as my team will), there are some basic drills to practise. Start by giving the dog…

British venison is some of the most ethical, flavoursome and healthy meat in the UK. We have six species of deer and they are all so different that it begs the question, why do we still import venison? Just before COVID-19 hit, the price of venison was dropping. We are told this was due to imports from Spain and New Zealand. The quality of the driven shot venison from Spain does not come close to the quality of our British venison. Ask any Spanish chef how to cook it and he or she will say to stew it, because it’s tough and has a taint from the adrenalin coursing through the animal’s body as it runs and is shot on the hoof. This meat needs red wine and marinades to…

This orange tail nymph is one of the most recognisable river flies and accounts for a large number of my fish at this time of year. The gold head bead is often thought to mimic the bubble produced at the natural insect stage. But I think the bead just provides the weight to get the fly to the bottom fast and smooth and it can often give a glint to attract the trout. It works efficiently while in the moving water of chalkstreams and then the still water of reservoirs. Various kinds of flies appear all year long and the nymph stage is the easiest one for trout to search out consistently.…

I always recognised the biggest bull elephant when he passed through the farm. His handsome 65lb tusks had a distinctive curve and a thickness that showed his ivory still had plenty of future growth to come. One afternoon in the woodland at the top of our valley, he was browsing with two other younger bulls, his askari guards, when a gang of poachers ambushed him, spraying a burst of 5.56 rounds that ripped into his lungs and guts. Bleeding and mortally wounded, he staggered away, with the gunmen chasing him. “It was the only wonderful aspect of this — to see a multitude of animals feasting” Our neighbour, Gilfrid, who had heard the shooting, arrived on the scene and engaged the bandits in an exchange of gunfire. As bullets flew,…