Innholdsfortegnelse for 11-Aug-2021 i Shooting Times & Country

As a warning of ‘very high’ wildfire risk is issued for much of Scotland, science from the US has endorsed the traditional use of fire to manage risk. A continued spell of dry, breezy weather meant the risk was raised to the second highest level in Easter Ross, the Central Highlands and south-west Scotland. A moderate to high warning is in place for central and western Scotland. In the US, where one of the most severe fires for decades is currently affecting the state of Oregon, scientists looked at how effective ‘prescribed burning’ was in reducing fire risk. Traditionally, areas of forest are burned under controlled conditions in order to reduce the amount of fuel available to wildfires, a process similar to that undertaken by farmers and gamekeepers on moorland…

Shoots across the country that have preserved hedgerows for shooting and biodiversity may well find their decision is about to pay off in financial terms as well. A new carbon code being developed by the GWCT will allow land managers to improve their hedgerows — and, crucially, it could form the basis of a carbon credits scheme for them. Carbon credits are sold by owners of assets such as woodlands to carbon emitters to make up for the carbon they are releasing. Currently, you can not sell credits for hedges, but the GWCT estimates that under the new scheme up to £60 million could be heading from big business into the pockets of the country’s land managers. Hedgelayer and Shooting Times writer Richard Negus explained the wider value of hedgerows:…

STALKING DOGS I cannot believe you continue to publish articles about stalking dogs. The first involved the alleged expert being called out to a wounded deer and then, having found evidence of teeth, bone and so on, proceeded to run the poor animal for miles with the hound off the leash. It was found dead by others some days later. In the second article was a similar occurrence, a shot taken near to darkness, trail followed and pursued by a loose hound over considerable distance and time, then somehow announcing that the animal only had a wound to its abdomen. Do the trackers think it’s Bruce Willis and is going to pitch up to Eagles Rock to have the bullet removed? In the most recent (On track for success, 28…

Even in the lee of the moorland edge, the wind pinned me to the steep tussocky hill. Driving onwards, I started to hear the crackle of grouse amid the swirls of air. These came like spectres across my ears, gone before direction or distance was known. Near the top, the final gritstone lip hung over me; as I hid beneath it, the wind fell away, taking all sound with it as if time had stopped. I drew my gun from its slip, dropped a handful of cartridges into my trouser pocket and stashed my bulky top layer among the rocks as I got ready to make the last climb over the parapet and on to the moorland top after my first ever grouse. Wall of wind I leapt over, ready…

An invitation to shoot double guns is a rare privilege for me. My loader for the day probably assumed that out of the slips would emerge two over-and-under ejectors. When the first of a composed pair of hammerguns appeared, brief flashes of panic flared in his eyes. A series of short, urgent questions then followed and I did my best to calm him. I confirmed there was no safety catch, automatic or otherwise, and that all I required of him was to remove the spent cartridges and reload fresh ones. I would cock the hammers when I received the gun back in my hands. I confirmed my host was aware of my preference for vintage guns and that he was happy for me to bring them. I lowered my loader’s…

I remember having to wrestle with my first. 22 rimfire, a BSA Martini action 12/15, out rabbiting. It was accurate but it weighed a ton, was far too long and the stock was short with a low comb. In those days we made do, but today attitudes have changed and rifle shooters expect a better-proportioned firearm with some degree of adjustability built in to ensure good handling and balance. How a rifle balances, fits, operates and holds in the aim is paramount for delivering that lethal first shot. It is the stock dimensions that make the greatest difference, but do not forget about the barrel weight/profile and length. Ask if a moderator is going to be fitted, what weight scope and, often forgotten, how does the rifle handle when it…

We have had a busy few weeks with competitions, the Game Fair and training sessions. We enjoyed some success, with Briar achieving an award in every test this summer. Nala has had a couple of awards in open tests and won the junior scurry on the final day of the Game Fair with my very proud five-year-old son, Austin. Keepa has had four competitions, with one win and three not-so-good days. He is possibly the most naturally talented of all my dogs; however, he does have a tendency to go off the boil at times in competitions, but it’s hard to say why. All my dogs are bred from the same mother and have been trained by me, but my dog is less consistent than my bitches. Is it to…

At the Oakley we are well into hound exercise on bicycles. We are lucky to have such quiet lanes and farm tracks to take the hounds in the mornings. Being able to go out and not see a car is fantastic. The hunt horses have also been back in work for a few weeks, hardening their legs and increasing their base fitness. When we start mounted hound exercise, we will be able to go a bit further, in the build-up to the start of autumn hunting in September. It is always interesting getting back on the hunt horses after they have enjoyed a few months off over the summer. This year they have had more time off than usual because we finished hunting at Christmas. Getting back on them after…

Along with wildfowl, grouse have been the cause of some of the most evocative shooting writing. There is something about the wildness of the bird, and the hostile places it makes its home, that appeal to the romantic in us in a way which the silly pheasant will never do. Hard to hit, subject to wild fluctuations of population, predated by all and sundry, exclusive eater and with little that man can do to make its life easier, the red grouse possesses all the qualities of a worthy quarry. On the eve of the first day of the grouse season, I make a habit of rereading some of the old sportsmen chroniclers to remind myself of the magic that lies in store for me, and of how little the basics…

This year has proved to be a record-breaker for Suffolk sheep in the UK. At Lawrie & Symington’s sale at Lanark in late July, a Suffolk ram lamb called Salopian Solid Gold was knocked down for a hefty 200,000 guineas, beating the previous British record by some 110,000 guineas. At the same sale, the Northern Irish record also fell, when an Ulster-bred ram lamb achieved 48,000 guineas. The Suffolk sheep is the result of crossing southdown rams with Norfolk horn ewes. By 1810 a true type had appeared and by 1867 the first Suffolk Flock Book was produced. While Suffolk ewes are renowned mothers and their meat is delicious — described by Lee Bye, the multi-award-winning chef patron at the prestigious Tuddenham Mill, as the ‘perfect lamb’, pure-bred Suffolk flocks…

Attempts to push some of the country’s leading companies into abandoning grouse shooting continue to fail. In an attempt to use the press to ambush Yorkshire Water, anti-shooting campaigners have been promoting the claim that the company is ending shooting leases on land it owns. The Yorkshire Post ran the story under the headline “Yorkshire Water to end grouse shooting tenancies on two of its moors, with eight more up for review”. The article made the extraordinary claim that “Yorkshire Water committed to a phasing out of shooting tenancies following two years of talks with campaign group Wild Moors, formerly known as Ban Bloodsports on Yorkshire’s Moors”. However, this claim is untrue; what is actually taking place is a scheduled review of fixed-term leases. Responding to our enquiries, Yorkshire Water…

CONTROL Summer can be a challenging time to keep on top of grey squirrels. Abundant foliage hides them from shooting and lots of food means there is little to draw them into traps. But pheasant feeders will often draw them in. Staking them out with an air rifle or, if there is a good backstop, a .22 can help keep them in check. SHOOT With plenty of cereals now harvested, there are great opportunities for pigeon shooting on stubbles. This kind of shooting can provide ‘strategic control’ of populations to prevent future crop damage under the general licence. While hide building is a much studied art, sometimes the obvious approaches are best and straw bales can make excellent and easily assembled hides.…

Shooting Times expects the imminent announcement of a Green-SNP deal with potentially far-reaching consequences for shooting in Scotland. Well-informed sources confirmed press reports that an agreement between the two parties had been drawn up and was going to be put to the Scottish cabinet for approval. The signing of a formal deal between the parties could take place as early as the end of this week, with experts predicting that it will almost certainly be completed before the Scottish government sets out its legislative programme at the beginning of September. While press attention has focused on whether a deal would affect the development of the Cambo oil field off Shetland, fieldsports organisations are concerned that the Greens may use their position to attack shooting. An outright ban on any form…

In recent years, July has baked the south-east of the country. England’s green and pleasant land has more closely resembled the parched and rocky landscapes of the Middle East in drought. Instead of the healthy golden hues of ripening corn, fields have been closer in colour to the tired beige of a dry and hardened pasty. But this year the rains have held and the fields are bursting with green growth. The energy of spring has persisted in high summer. A huge John Deere combine was being escorted through country lanes as my son William and I threaded our way across the north Essex peninsula in the Ranger. Decoys, hide, guns and cartridges bounced in the back with Scout, our two-year-old yellow labrador. The first of the barley was ripe…

There are few tools more central to fieldsports than a decent knife and, whether you are gralloching stags in the Highlands or divvying up the game pie at a shoot lunch, you won’t get far without a good blade. This month, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a quartet of real beauties, all of which were thoroughly put through their paces over a long weekend camping in the forest. So, how did they measure up? 1 Marttiini Martef Skinner RRP £56.99  tacticalknives.co.uk Marttiini is renowned for no-nonsense, practical blades. I discovered the Finnish manufacturer’s Martef-coated range while fishing in Sweden and it wasn’t long before I couldn’t imagine filleting a fish with anything else. Though this is a ‘skinner’, the blade design is a good fit…

Fishing is a simple pleasure that can be made as complicated as you would like it to be. As with most sports, there is no end of gear to get your hands on and, much like the smartphone, there is always a newer and better version about to be released. Some of us are loyal and trust in the tackle we’ve had for years. Those who are can be heard justifying their battle-worn gear to other fishers — “It’s always done the job” or “You don’t need to cast that far, anyway”. Others can’t resist another for the armoury. They live by the formula: N + 1 = the optimal number of rods. ‘N’ being the number of rods they already have. All in the timing Whichever party you belong…

Leaning over Culquoich bridge, I stared down into the peat-tinged depths of the Aberdeenshire Don and marvelled at its beauty. There is something about a salmon river after a summer spate that is inviting and filled with the promise of fresh-run fish. It draws you to it and urges you to cast a line across its glides and pools. Never a broad river, the hurried nature of the Don betrays its mountainous birth in the hags and corries of Aberdeenshire’s high hills. Often bypassed by those who journey to the Spey and Dee, it is a jewel fixed in a perfect setting. Taking rod in hand once again, I crossed the bridge and, climbing a stile placed with the angler in mind, headed upstream toward the Doctor’s Pool. In pursuit…

Enough of work,” I said to my producer, James. “I want to shoot, fish and ride a horse.” For weeks, we had been in Mongolia, filming things: gold-panning, cashmere, karaoke bars, street children who lived under the streets of Ulaanbaatar to keep out of the polar cold. Communism was a few years gone and the Stalinist statues were still standing. We travelled with a red-hat Buddhist monk and an Amazon in high riding boots, who said all Mongolians were born with a blue birthmark. Every store stocked 50 types of vodka, but they were all branded Chinggis Khan. At that time, Mongolians were consuming 60 million bottles of vodka per month. This was impressive, given that there were only 2.5 million Mongolians, including women and children. In the Chinggis Khan…

ABOUT 30 YEARS ago, on a bitterly cold December afternoon, I joined James Darley and his spaniel, Duncan, for a pheasant hunt at Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire. I use the word ‘hunt’ advisedly. It wasn’t a conventional rough shooting outing. Most of the time, I recall, was spent pursuing and trying to outwit the same exceedingly wily cock pheasant. It was due to the determination of Duncan and his handler that the crafty old bird was eventually bagged. To put this story into perspective, I should add that Duncan was a large and distinguished Clumber spaniel and the first working example of his breed I’d ever encountered. I wrote about the hunt in an article for Country Life, which was published in the same week as Crufts. Duncan, along with…

The word ‘sustainability’ is buzzing like a swarm of bees. But what does it mean for fieldsports? The simplest definition of sustainability is this: doing something today in a way that doesn’t detract from it being done in the future. So if I sell some of my sheep for meat, I leave a good breeding stock behind so I can continue selling sheep in the future. If I were to cull too many at once, I would reduce my breeding herd and its annual production of lambs. On the other hand, if I kept too many sheep for the ground to carry comfortably, both the lambing ratio and weights would drop. Sustainability is a matter of enlightened self-interest. It means thinking about the future and not simply plundering resources for…

Peterborough council has rejected an attack on the Festival of Hunting, which takes place at the East of England Showground. The attack was led by councillor Ansar Ali, who was suspended from the Labour Party over allegations of anti-Semitism. Councillor Ali tabled a motion “to ask the leader of the council to write to the chairman of the East of England Agricultural Society to request that it does not host the Festival of Hunting at the East of England Showground in future”. The motion was seconded by a Green councillor. However, it was voted down by a total of 30 votes to 25. Even if it had been successful, the motion would have had little or no effect as the showground is independent. Peterborough resident Glen Hannaford, who has attended…

In a victory for shooting and farming groups, a controversial consultation on the general licences in Northern Ireland has been dropped by the government ministry that was responsible for it. The Department of Agriculture the Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) abandoned the consultation process after it came under fire for bias. The consultation had looked at proposals to remove herring gulls, both species of black-backed gulls and rooks from the 2021-22 general licences for Northern Ireland. However, countryside groups pointed out fundamental flaws with the process, including a lack of published evidence in support of the steps proposed. Those completing the consultation found they could agree with the proposed changes, but if they disagreed they had to explain why. The consultation was withdrawn suddenly and without explanation, with the web…

Dead French cows were ‘killed by stag’ France’s biodiversity office has confirmed that two cows found dead in a field were killed by a stag. The animals were found by their owner dead in a field near Fons in the southwest of France. Careful examination showed puncture wounds precisely corresponding to the spacing and shape of antlers. Attacks by deer are not unknown in France; however, they are rare and only normally happen during the rut. Revised gamebird release guidelines The GWCT has revised its gamebird releasing guidelines. Roger Draycott, GWCT’s director of advisory, commented: “These are relevant for all game managers releasing gamebirds and following these guidelines helps shoots ensure they are delivering a net biodiversity gain. These guidelines are supported by all the Aim to Sustain organisations and…

I have seen the scenario many times — a lovely little bubbling brook, with a nice head of small trout, but nothing much over a few ounces in weight. The immediate response for someone who wants to improve the fishing potential is to suggest stocking it with some bigger fish. But hang on a moment. If the nature of the stream is that it will only sustain wild trout up to 20cm or 25cm long, why would you expect bigger stockies to do well? If the cunning little natives can just about eke out a living, why should big, tame fish prosper? The truth is that stocked trout almost always lose condition from the moment they are put in. Having been selected for their growth potential and fed what amounts…

For two weeks in August, 10 fishermen spend 10 days harvesting a rare food that few of us will ever eat. It is an oddity that the annual guga hunt — a practice that has been in existence for more than 500 years — still goes on in much the same way that it always has. Guga are the young of gannets, the extremely fertile — and very noisy — wild sea birds that occupy our remotest rocky shores. Many years ago, I once sailed past a renowned ‘gannet rock’ off one of the Channel Islands. Little of the rock was actually visible. It was completely draped in gannets, appearing from a distance like one great shuffling white feather cape. Yet, among the many populations of these birds found around…

Readers of this series may well have spotted a connecting thread between the Victorian sportsmen featured. Both Frederick Selous (7 July) and Abel Chapman (21 July) were born in the same year and went to Rugby School, with Chapman eventually joining Selous for a hunting safari in South Africa. Selous guided for Theodore Roosevelt during his safari in East Africa in 1910, while the subject of this week’s column, J G Millais, joined with Selous and Chapman to produce The Gun At Home and Abroad — the Big Game Of Africa & Europe, published in a limited edition in 1914 and now a valuable collector’s work. John Guille Millais was born in 1865. His father, Sir John Everett Millais, was an eminent artist and a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.…

I am sure that I have said it before but Elliott — very occasionally referred to as Horsefield on these pages — is completely, utterly and totally reliable and is a dri wh h 14 July) I found Elliott had been hard at work tidying things up, checking the wire of the pens, patching it where needed, setting up the electric fe d i t checking once again to make sure that the pens were secure and would keep the poults safe. Gratitude He is a marvel; one in a thousand, if not one in a million. If I paid him anything at all, I should most certainly start paying him handsomely, but he works for the love of it and scorns material reward. I could, I suppose, try to…

Few birds stir such mixed emotions as the peacock. This is not a bird you can ignore: most people either love them or hate them. Last week, at 4.25am, I was firmly in the latter camp. I was staying at a grand house in Norfolk when the dawn calls of an adult male peafowl woke me from my slumbers. I’m an early riser, but to be woken before the sun had even risen was irritating and I would have cheerfully shot the culprit. However, I have to be clear that it’s a Norfolk peacock I’m complaining about. I’ve always enjoyed hearing and seeing these birds in their native India. Peacocks are aliens in Norfolk, though plenty live there. There are many more in the wider country, too. The counties with…

Looking for a lighter model AIRGUNNING Q I am in my mid-seventies and, while I still enjoy airgun shooting, I find it increasingly difficult to carry my heavy pre-charged airgun around the fields and woods. The time has come for me to invest in a lighter model. Can you recommend any possible contenders for me to try? A Airguns are getting lighter and lighter, and there are plenty of full-power models that combine low weight with a respectable shot count. If you aren’t on a tight budget and don’t mind modern styling, look at the Brocock range. All this British airgun maker’s PCPs are compact and robust, and the new Ranger XR, which costs around £1,200, only weighs a shade over 2kg. If you don’t want to spend a fortune…

The Elk Hair Caddis is considered a searching type of pattern as it resembles the general form of adult caddisflies or small stoneflies. Deer hair is sometimes used when elk is not available. The Elk Hair Caddis fly pattern was designed by Al Troth in Pennsylvania, US, in the 1950s to imitate the adult caddis. The wing shape is an important feature as it causes the water disturbance to mimic the scurrying adult caddis. The trout watch out for this movement when feeding. The versatility of the Elk Hair Caddis is the key to its success. Fish static or with a slow retrieve on a floating line. EW…

I’ve had a hectic few weeks. The combines have finally got going and the early rape and winter barley stubbles have shot well. With grouse numbers as poor as they are, I’ve had quite a few late August days cancelled, but it does mean I can focus more on the pigeons. Woodpigeons are in tune with nature’s timings. In the early harvests of the past few years, the stubbles were ignored in favour of standing wheat, which was still in the milky stage that pigeons adore. This year, however, those early stubbles have attracted the attention you would expect. It is boom or bust though — a big bag or a modest one — and many game dealers are refusing to take birds until mid-August due to the surplus left…