Innholdsfortegnelse for 26-May-2021 i Shooting Times & Country

Keen Shot and countryman Lord Richard Benyon has been appointed as a Defra minister in what is hoped to be a counterbalance to the influence of the Goldsmith brothers. Lord Benyon is part-owner of Glenmazeran Estate in Inverness-shire and of farms in the Home Counties. He is also a former trustee of the GWCT. Lord Benyon is a prominent advocate for grouse shooting and, in a debate over banning the sport, he said that a ban “would be a disaster for my generation and for my children, who would not be able to see the kinds of birds and wildlife that I have had the privilege to enjoy seeing in our uplands”. His support for shooting and traditional land uses is likely to put him at odds with fellow Defra…

A squeeze in shoot finances from rising cereal prices looks inevitable, as feed wheat remains at more than £200 a ton. Prices for wheat at the farm gate have stayed stubbornly high, with a brief dip in April rapidly corrected, and the price is now 25% higher than this time last year. A range of supply and demand factors have driven the price up. These include last year’s poor harvest, the cold and dry spring weather and lower-than-expected amounts of maize being planted in the US and Brazil. Barley, which is used in relatively small volumes for feeding ducks, is also still commanding a high price — up from £128 a ton last year to £176 a ton this year, a rise of nearly 40%. Rising wheat and maize prices…

“Could Flea Barn wash its face financially as a wild bird shoot?” I asked my business partner Richard Gould as we partook of our usual lunchtime break from laying a Flea Barn hedge — philosophising, watching for grey partridges and munching our packed lunches seated on our trucks’ tailgates. His reply was delivered in the usual to-the-point way: “No, we’d need another 500 acres.” I paused for thought and a mouthful of sausage roll. “Not even if we put a covey or two of greys over paying Guns?” I persisted. “No,” Richard responded. “We’ll be grey ourselves before we have a shootable surplus.” Such is the pragmatism of a wild bird keeper; it is in their nature. There are no guarantees with wild birds: the wrong weather, a loose dog,…

Fifty years ago, my father and a bunch of his shooting mates bought a bit of marsh. They realised quickly that, while there was plenty of wildfowling action there when the winter floods were up, the key to providing some sport in the early part of the season was creating a duck magnet. To do this, they needed to establish what would become a decent-sized patch of open water when the neighbouring marshes were dry. So they hired a man with a dragline, pulled out a pond roughly 80 yards by 40 yards, with a long island in the middle, planted some willows around the outside and some Norfolk reeds in the shallows. Then they waited to see what happened. It took a couple of years before the bare soil…

My recent article, ‘Putting on a good show’ (Gundogs, 14 April), discussed the fact that show-bred dogs can make satisfactory workers. This prompted a reader, Sarah, to email with her experiences of both show and working strains of clumber spaniels. Five years ago, she acquired a clumber puppy from working stock and from a knowledgeable and experienced breeder. Sarah was really looking forward to training him but, frustratingly, he proved hopeless. He was taken to gundog classes and also back to his breeder for lessons. Nothing worked. Only now does he show any interest in retrieving, but Sarah says there’s no guarantee he will come back. This led to Sarah questioning her ability as a handler. However, she decided to buy another clumber, though this time the dog, Morris, was…

Fitting devices to the muzzles of shotgun barrels is nothing new. These aids to getting your eye on target are still widely touted and sold. The Brooks Patent Sight was a little more ambitious in its claims because it was intended to address the needs of a right-handed shooter with a damaged right eye, or one with left-eye dominance. A reverse version was available for left-handers. It claimed to avoid the necessity of making a ‘cross-eyed’ gun for people with these issues. It consisted of a close-fitting muzzle attachment with a securing bolt, the arm of which led out to align with the master eye of the shooter and replace the actual muzzle as a sighting point. They sold in the 1930s for £1.1.0d, which was a lot less than…

Images of a shot hind and her unborn calf have provoked strong reactions among deerstalkers and local residents on the Isle of Skye. The photos, which show a hind shot substantially out of season along with a well-developed but unborn calf, were taken by a local resident who passed them on to the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA). A general licence issued by NatureScot allows close season culling of female deer in Scotland up until 1 April. However, the agency confirmed that no special permissions had been issued on this site to allow out-of-season culling. The lack of a licence from NatureScot may mean that those involved have committed a criminal offence. The deer were found dumped in an area fenced off for a native tree planting scheme on the Dunvegan…

I have been shooting since I was 11, but it is only since August 2019, when I began working as editor of Guns on Pegs, that I’ve really started to get a feel for how the shooting community actually thinks. I’ve had some of my assumptions challenged and I’m often surprised at the diversity and strength of opinion, even on seemingly innocuous topics. I confess that before it was my job to think about these things, I never considered what it is that makes people want to go out shooting, or what they might want from a day. I am, however, learning quickly, in part because Guns are never shy of voicing their opinions on social media and in our inbox, but also because my role gives me a unique…

There is a village called Boarhunt in Hampshire, but the term has had no local significance for centuries — until recently. This is hardly surprising as wild boar died out in Britain several hundred years ago, and all attempts to reintroduce them have, so far, been signally unsuccessful. This being so, there is a certain amount of mystery about the origin of a genuine wild boar that gave itself a few months ago to a Hampshire village policeman, who found it strolling in his back garden. Accepting captivity with a surprising lack of protest, the beast was found a home in a wildlife park close to where I live. Another wild pig was known to be at large in the same locality as the first one. This second beast, less…

Odd-looking wood mouse WILDLIFE Q Every winter, we have a small invasion of wood mice in our loft. Last winter, I trapped an unusual-looking individual with a pronounced white band across its back. Was this simply an aberrant wood mouse or something else? A Though I have seen hundreds of wood mice, they have all been conventionally coloured. However, David Macdonald’s Mammals of Britain & Europe mentions that “silver-grey, piebald, semi-hairless and melanistic forms are known”. This suggests that you are right in your assumption that your mouse is simply an aberrant specimen. The wood mouse is the most numerous and widespread small rodent in Britain, but is easily confused with the similar yet much less widespread yellow-necked field mouse, which is restricted to southern England (though not the West…

Latin name: Vicia orobus Common name: Wood bitter vetch Other names: Bitter vetch, upright vetch, wood pea, wood vetch How to spot it and where to find it: This upright perennial favours grassy banks, well-drained hillsides, the edges of fields and among stones, rocks or bushes. Its flowers are usually pink and around 15mm long. The tubular inner petals, or corolla, surround a pinkish white tube and the outer petals are crisscrossed with darker purplish veins. The pinnate leaves are hairless and oblong in shape. Interesting facts: Wood bitter vetch is a member of the pea family and is unusual in that it doesn’t throw out tendrils, but is self-supporting. There are about 160 species in the genus Vicia, which gives the English common name vetch. It has suffered decline…

Oh, the joys of moving to non-lead rifle ammunition. No, I’m not being sarcastic. I had forgotten how much fun testing new ammunition can be. Especially when it goes well. I have been trying out some new stuff for my 7mm-08 deer rifle. First, I searched the barn and found my old Chrony F1 chronograph. I worked out that it was last used about 18 years ago, when I used to home-load for my .30-06. On opening it and blowing out the dust, I found the remains of a battery that had died in unfortunate circumstances. With a new battery, the thing came alive and proved to be in full working order. Amazing. I took it, with some paper targets, to the zeroing range I have set up in a…

Shooting Times has traced a news story published online by the Mirror earlier this month to a book of short stories and tall tales by an Irish author in the 1960s. The Mirror story, which cited a podcast as its source, claimed that a group of Middle Eastern hunters had set out on an unaccompanied hunting trip somewhere in England and, failing to find any pheasants, had shot a flock of sheep instead, believing them to be Highland deer. Despite the obvious breaches of firearms and animal welfare legislation, and the general absurd improbability of the story, some readers seemed convinced it was true. One commented: “Serves the farmer right. Since when is shooting a defenceless animal for ‘fun’ been acceptable?” Shooting Times received a tip that the story bore…

Shooting and gamekeeping organisations have begun issuing guidance for shoots that release birds on or near European protected sites. As we reported last week, releasing birds on Special Protection Areas, Special Areas for Conservation and surrounding land within 5km of these sites will now be regulated under a general licence (News, 19 May). This will set maximum releasing densities on and around protected sites. BASC’s Jack Knott told Shooting Times how shoots could seek help. “The first step for most shoots will be to check whether they are affected by the changes,” he said. “They can do this by using BASC’s Green Shoots Mapping [greenshoots.basc.org.uk] or by following a link from the licence itself. “BASC has created a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) to ensure the small proportion of…

Estate to tell story of the golden eagle A shooting estate in the Borders is to host Scotland’s first golden eagle information point. The Philiphaugh Estate near Selkirk, which is owned by Sir Michael Strang-Steel, has been a prominent backer of the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project. The Eyrie: Eagle Information Point is based in Philiphaugh’s Waterwheel Café. It features interactive and audio-visual displays, alongside a Guess the Raptor game and a series of information panels telling the story of golden eagles in the south of Scotland. Lapwing predation by badgers soars Badgers have been munching their way through the nests of struggling waders at the GWCT’s Auchnerran demonstration farm. Cameras set around lapwing nests found that almost a third of all the lapwing nests were predated by badgers,…

It has been three weeks since the start of the roebuck season. Believe me when I say even Christmas has got nothing on this magical time of year. However, this is no ordinary season for me. This time around, I have decided to go lead-free, an uncharted territory filled with fear, trepidation and hope. I pull up in my pickup truck near my favourite forestry block in Tarset, Northumberland. It is a mixture of mature and young conifer plantation. Some 10 miles to the north lies the Scottish border. Sporadic yet continuous pine plantations are home to this special upland roe; genetically unique, its light construction, abrasive pearlings and straight-up antlers identify it as “The smell of pine on its antlers gives away the postcode” North East roe. The smell…

As I turned the pages in Archie Coats’ book, Pigeon Shooting, I came across the phrase ‘rabbit clearance society pigeon poking programme’ — quite a mouthful and certainly something you wouldn’t hear in the 21st century. However, it got me thinking about how things have changed for the modern Gun. Archie’s book is regarded by many as the pigeon-shooting bible. The tactics Archie used have become the basic skills for all pigeon shooting and the phrases he coined are still used as part of the pigeon shooter’s idiolect. Old Shooting Times articles and books such as Archie’s are the only forms of literature that offer an insight into pigeon shooting back in the 1940s and explore how things have changed over the past 75 years. Though there have been many…

With paddocks full of vulnerable lambs and the rabbit population on an upward curve, this is always a busy time of year for staying on top of pests and predators. Despite the rampant advances in handheld thermal-image devices and night-vision optics, the vast majority of us still rely on a trusty lamp to get the job done and ‘traditional’ lamping remains by far the most cost-effective way of dealing with nocturnal vermin. With this in mind, I was delighted to put a selection of hardware to the test this month. Whether you are a serious long-distance lamper with a fox problem or simply out for the occasional bunny for the pot, there’s something for everyone here. 1 Night Master NM1 SL RRP: £149.95 nightmaster.co.uk The latest offering from Night…

Having written about rearing grey partridges in a recent edition of Shooting Times (Making hens meet, 28 April), I can’t ignore a similar project that took place soon after that based around black grouse. Everybody is aware that black grouse are sorely declining and this once common bird has become little more than a rumour in many parts of the UK. There was a time when these birds were well known to gamekeepers and shooting folk, but a catastrophic collapse over the past century has reduced them to a marginal figure in the sporting world. It’s still legal to shoot them, but they are killed in tiny numbers on a handful of estates where there are enough to sustain a small harvest. When black grouse first started to collapse, observers…

NORTH AMERICAN BEAVER (CASTOR CANADENSIS) Beavers are much in the news now, but the species being released in rewilding projects in the UK is the European beaver (Castor fiber). The North American beaver has been introduced into Europe in the past and is well established in Finland and Russia. In South America, where they have become established in Chile and Argentina, they have been an ecological disaster, destroying swathes of forests. Efforts are now being made to get rid of these invasive animals. In appearance, the North American and European beavers are similar. The former is slightly bigger and heavier. Beavers have long been valued for their fur. Felt hats made from beaver fur were popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Beavers were also hunted for their…