Innholdsfortegnelse for 10-Nov-2021 i Shooting Times & Country

A specialist ‘boutique estate agency’ set up to help wealthy individuals buy upland farms and rewild them has been slammed by everyone from the Countryside Alliance to land reform campaigners. The launch of Really Wild Estates was announced on Twitter by author and TV producer Benedict MacDonald. In a slickly produced series of tweets he wrote: “On joining @realwildestates, I was impressed with its fusion of ‘city’ and ‘country’ brains.” He added: “Restoring ecosystems, done properly, provides diversified yield.” This was met with fury from land reform campaigners, particularly in the Scottish Highlands. Among them was crofter Domhnall Macsween, who called the plan ‘Clearances 2.0’. Scorn was also poured on the idea from farmers in the south, with one saying: “British farmers and farming have been demonised by the media,…

It seems every corvid in Ceredigion is with us at the moment — as well as a host of foxes with Birmingham and Bristol accents, and otters and goshawks too. The final two I can only smile at, while the first require a balance of numbers. In fairness, the mass executions inflicted on my pheasants by goshawks have not happened this year. I no longer have a pheasant shoot here, but I still bolster my numbers with a few — 50 this year. The surplus cocks feed me, but no hen is ever shot. I am exulted when I come across a brood of wild poults because, besides predation, the wet weather of west Wales is the number one killer of wild game. I suspect the good fortune of my…

When picking a suitable shooting rest, your budget and shooting requirements are the two main considerations. For any shooting that requires a lot of walking, such as stalking or pest control, the lightweight option — in the form of a set of quad sticks — is best, as long as the ground is fairly flat. On uneven terrain — or where opportunities may be a little more fleeting — then the more versatile tripod system will be a better option, especially if you’re doing more static shooting that may involve calling or spotting, where a hands-free support can be useful.…

A modern meat eater cannot claim to be spoilt for choice. Once we have exhausted the domestically reared supply of beef, lamb, pork and poultry, there are few types of wild meat or gamebirds we can buy — and even that takes effort. Of course, there are enough meat cuts and recipes to keep a carnivore interested, but our forebears’ appetites could take in almost anything from the tiny legs of songbirds to the long legs of storks. So many centuries have passed since a medieval feast would include a virtual aviary of species on the table; the practice of eating unfamiliar wild birds seems unacceptable. It does not help that the enthusiasm with which they were pursued drove some to be hunted to near or total extinction. How many…

A day out with Danny Gallagher was just what the doctor ordered. I had spent five days and nights hunting down the last few rabbits on a large estate and, after such a stressful week, I really needed to decompress. I couldn’t think of a better way than to go ferreting with someone who has an infectiously bright spirit and a passion for the countryside to match my own. Danny is as honest as the day is long — what you see is what you get. A farrier by trade, he is a man who has grown up hunting with hound, terrier and ferret, and has never been without a lurcher by his side. This summer, Danny had rehomed two jill ferrets that I had bred and I was eager…

Idon’t know what it is about dogs and moles, but some dogs become obsessed with the little gentlemen in black velvet, others never give them so much as a sniff. I had just been sorting out some old photographs when I came across the shot reproduced here, showing my springer, Rowan, with her first mole. The photograph was taken more than 15 years ago, when Rowan was aged 15 weeks, so it was a promising start to what I hoped at the time would be a long and successful mole-hunting career Happily for the moles, it didn’t work out like that. She never became a dedicated mole hunter, though she did kill a few more. Now, at the age of 15, she shows little interest even in fresh mole hills.…

To continue our guide to stalking, I want to discuss the merits and process of formal assessment through Deer Management Qualifications (DMQ), which provide the industry-recognised standard in Deer Stalking Certificates (DSC) Level 1 and 2. Anyone wishing to apply for the grant of a firearms certificate (FAC) will almost always be required to achieve or commit to taking DSC1. Rightly or wrongly, it is pretty much essential to receive the grant for any deer-legal rifle and it’s a requirement for a stalking lease. That said, most people who undertake DMQ training and assessment do so because they want to learn and understand more about deer and deer management. I should add that I have run many courses that have included a number of older and experienced stalkers, some with…

I was recently on a walked-up affair that found me scaling the side of a Cairngorm, in pursuit of a few red birds, with some good-humoured folk who managed to put up with the terrain (more or less) and my irritating habit of shooting things while, at the same time, appearing to be dying of exhaustion. During a much-needed break in the action, the subject of cooking came up and it was made clear to me that some folk don’t have much time to cook. My argument that it doesn’t take very long at all was met with the old “that’s easy for you to say” routine, and I was forced to accept that most people don’t think it’s quick and simple unless it only uses one pan and is…

JOHN RIGBY & CO Rigby started his business in Dublin, and he prospered well enough to set up shop in London, where a larger, wealthier clientele could be encountered. The move was completed in 1865 with the founder’s grandson — also called John Rigby — in charge. The first address the firm took in London was the one on this label, 72 St James’s Street, which is now occupied by an upmarket Indian restaurant. The label tells us that Rigby also traded from 24 Suffolk Street, Dublin, which he did until 1897 when it was sold to Trulock & Harris. So this label would be out of date by 1897. It further shows the royal warrant for the monarch and boasts that the firm are ‘patentees’ as well as gun…

There is a certain photo of Boris Johnson that sometimes does the media rounds, showing him all tweeded up and clutching a brace of pheasants. The antis like to peddle this image because it plays to a politically convenient stereotype. In an age where people buy meat in neatly wrapped packages from supermarkets, they don’t want to be reminded of the fact that the food in question once flapped, walked, squawked, mooed or baaed. Dead animals are poor PR. I was reminded of this when I drove a car into the service station at Jedburgh, in the Scottish Borders, recently. As I was filling the tank, I noticed a couple of middle-aged women at a nearby pump staring at me and whispering to each other. I immediately felt guilty; what…

The company that owns online gun-selling website Guntrader has announced that it will close to block claims from customers whose data was stolen in a security breach (News, 8 and 15 September). However, the owners have announced that they will continue to trade using a ‘phoenix company’. In a Facebook post, Guntrader.uk Ltd said: “Following the concerted cyber attack which saw Guntrader’s security breaches and the resulting compromise of some of its data, the company’s owner, Guntrader UK, has been forced into liquidation. This is a very sad turn of events.” “They allowed my home address to be leaked online” Replying to a comment from a user, Guntrader.uk said: “Due to a small number of people wanting compensation because their data leaked on to the internet, action had to be…

Steel shot works just as well as lead, according to a new study. Experiments conducted by BASC and the Gun Trade Association compared the penetration of No 3 standard steel and No 5 lead pellets into a block of ballistic gelatine. Gelatine is often used to compare and measure the effects of different ammunition types as it behaves similarly to living tissue. The findings showed lead shot penetrating on average 10mm deeper than steel shot against bare gelatine, but when tested against a gelatine block wrapped in pheasant skin and feathers, the two materials performed equally. BASC’s Peter Marshall said: “These findings show that standard-performance steel shot has the same impact capabilities as lead shot when you move down two shot sizes. The results show that the deformation of lead…

In his excellent article on shooting woodcock (Sensible approach, sustainable sport, 27 October), Mike Swan says that he likes “a policy that says do not shoot a woodcock unless you want to take it home and relish it at the table”. Sadly, many woodcock are shot by Guns who see the bird as no more than a challenging target, rather than a delicious dinner. I suggest that on commercial shoots, Guns should pay, say, £35 for every woodcock they fire at, regardless of whether they hit it. The proceeds should be donated to the GWCT’s woodcock research. Those who value woodcock can still shoot them, but it might dissuade those who are not woodcock enthusiasts from doing so. Tom Howard, Suffolk IN ASSOCIATION WITH GMK Each week, the best letter…

The fog was rising across the vast Kentish landscape as the last of the Guns arrived. A Peugeot 206 slowly navigated the rutted gravel track to the meeting point, arriving next to a weathered Land Rover moments before our 8am start time. The emergence of the young passenger meant that the party was complete. The early morning atmosphere had been bright; the keeper busily orchestrated his team while fathers, sons and one daughter discussed the day ahead. But when shoot chairman Colin Hemmings ushered the youngsters into a group, silence fell upon the car park. Children cautiously left their parents’ sides, awaiting their first introduction to a shoot day with bated breath. Whitehill Shoot, a few miles from Canterbury, has hosted a number of Young Shots days in recent years,…

There is a wonderful sense of excitement that comes with knowing the conditions on your favourite piece of estuary are about to come good. Be that a big spring tide in February that, at its peak, will flood those last and highest tufts of grass, drawing the wigeon and elusive pintail up to the uppermost edges of the merse. Or maybe the impending arrival of a rare northerly gale, which pushes fowl away from the inland floods and into the sheltered creeks scattered across the foreshore. “Knowledge of a new marsh does not come free” Learning the conditions under which your marsh will shoot best is central to the art of wildfowling. While it may be possible to sit out on any given piece of sea wall and hope for…

The morning briefings on the driven shoots to which I get invited tend to follow the same pattern. “Shoot what gives you pleasure, but be sparing with the hens — they are our breeding stock. Leave woodcock and grey partridges and no ground game.” It’s not a difficult set of rules to follow. Wild bird shoots rely upon having sufficient breeding hens going into the spring, therefore by greedily shooting a low hen you are also, in effect, shooting next season’s sport in the foot too. If both woodcock and grey partridge are off the quarry list, it is usually because your host is aware of the fragility of numbers locally. Then we come to the final command. Clearly, driven ground game used to be considered fair game. Therefore, is…

On a spring night in 1931, sheriff JH Blair and a team of coal mine security guards, appointed as sheriff’s deputies, broke down the door of Florence Reece’s home in Harlan County, Tennessee. After illegally ransacking her home in pursuit of her husband, who was a union leader and strike organiser, they left. That night she sat down and wrote one of the great American union songs. It begins: “They say in Harlan County there are no neutrals there” before going on to ask “Which side are you on boys? Which side are you on?” Throughout the song that refrain is repeated: “Which side are you on?” Debates over shooting can seem like that: bitter, polarised and with no ‘neutrals’. Before we are even willing to listen to someone, we…

With plants, fungi and most of the edible seaweeds taking a rest for the winter, and a well-stocked cupboard of dried, bottled, frozen or alcoholic concoctions of foraging favourites to keep us going, I turn to two other aspects of foraging. In truth, both conservation and the law are fascinating subjects. They are also misunderstood. I have touched upon these matters in my various foraging pieces, but they do, I think, deserve a more focused exposition. I seem to be perpetually in trouble. A quiet drink with my wife in a New Forest pub last week was spoiled by an eavesdropping fellow who was lurking just out of sight. “You know you aren’t allowed to pick mushrooms in the New Forest,” was his challenge. At least he was polite, unlike…

When I was 15, I became obsessed with pigeon shooting. I bought all the gear and would wait for hours in home-made hides for the off-chance of shooting one or two birds. Given that I grew up in a farming landscape dominated by livestock, I never had the luxury of shooting over arable crops. My decoy days were spent trying to trick birds into landing in clover and I became adept at spotting places where nuts and berries were most available. I became interested in the use of lofting poles and would work hard to create a lifelike presentation of birds feeding in trees. With a bit of practice, I managed to shoot a fair number of pigeons feeding on acorns, elderberries and ivy berries. I remember one afternoon shooting…

When to reload casings AMMUNITION Q I am considering reloading my empty bullet casings in order to save money, but wonder if that really will be the case in the long run? I have heard reloading can be expensive and wondered if there are any other disadvantages. A The decision will depend on personal circumstances and inclinations. Reloading certainly produces cheaper ammunition that will probably make for a more accurate performance. But the initial capital outlay on equipment and materials is not inconsiderable (at least £250) and the actual process is rather time-consuming and repetitive. On balance, I would suggest that anyone who aspires to be more than an occasional rifle user should reload. Cheaper ammunition means that you can get to understand the vagaries of your particular rifle much…

BASC has pledged to use its legal resources to defend anyone whose guns are taken unfairly, after a claim that police are seizing guns as a knee-jerk reaction to the Plymouth shootings. An article in the Sunday Expressquoted an unnamed source said to have inside knowledge of Devon and Cornwall Police. The source told the paper: “We are seeing upwards of 40 guns a day and this is happening across many forces in reaction to the fact that we failed to do the proper checks when first issuing the shotgun certificate.” However, BASC denied this claim and said it had not seen any increase in gun seizures nor any increase in certificate applications being declined. Martin Parker, head of firearms at BASC, said: “While public safety is paramount, BASC will…

Gamekeeping and countryside organisations have urged their members to respond to a Scottish government consultation on the use of dogs in fox control. A proposed bill would ban the use of more than two dogs to flush foxes from cover to guns; however, it might include a provision for a licensing regime that would allow larger numbers of dogs to be used. A spokesman for the Campaign for Working Dogs told Shooting Times: “This consultation, the third since the conclusion of Lord Bonomy’s review, shows the disarray the Scottish government is in when it comes to fox control using dogs in Scotland. The latest proposals being consulted on include limiting the number of dogs that can be used to flush pest species to guns to two, appointing monitors to oversee…

We won’t see where this eagle dares A golden eagle has unpicked the stitching on its satellite tag and discarded it. Speckled Jim had been tagged as part of the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project. However, his tag suddenly stopped working. Fearing the worst, team members rushed to the scene to find that the stitching that holds the tag on had been undone and the tag had been dropped. Russian MP arrested for ‘poaching elk’ A Russian MP has been arrested for poaching. Communist and Putin rival Valery Rashkin (below) was stopped by local police who found an elk carcass in the back of his car. Both Mr Rashkin and the car’s other occupant deny shooting the elk and claim they were taking it to a police station to…

It is 6am, and I’m unfurling the longest Spey cast I can muster. The line flies through the morning mist, towards a far bank that is covered with an autumn blaze of birch trees. The thermometer is hovering around freezing, and every few casts my rod rings collect ice. I dunk the whole rod under the water, which at five degrees is comparatively warm. With the rings defrosted I cast again, metronomically working my way down the pool. As my fly passes in front of a small boil, betraying the presence of a submerged boulder, there is a steady draw of the line. It gathers force and my reel starts to croak. I lift the rod, which bends satisfyingly deep: the fish is on. Taking me into the backing, fizzing…

In the days of the old-time bird collectors and gentlemen gunners, a stuffed spoonbill was regarded as a kind of hallmark of a successful naturalist. High prices ruled for rare birds 50 years ago or so, and on one occasion I was present when a spoonbill changed hands at £40. Today, the buyer would find himself mulcted of £25, with the possible addition of a month’s change of air and surroundings at Her Majesty’s expense. My old friend, the late E M Connop, the noted Norfolk bird collector of Rollesby, offered me one day a seat in his dog cart to drive over to Morston to call upon a certain elderly lady with a view to picking up a stuffed spoonbill, which Squire Connop had agreed to purchase from her…

Latin name: Trifolium repens Common name: White clover Other names: Creeping clover, Dutch clover, honey stalks, honeysuckle grass, lamb’s suckling, sheep’s gowan, clover grass, shamrock How to spot it and where to find it: White clover flowers from May to October, though its rounded blooms are creamy, often with a hint of pale pink that fades to brown. The leaves are trifoliate; unless you’re lucky enough to find a four-leaved one. It is found in grassy meadows and on rough ground, frequently cut verges and lawns. It likes clay soil, but is rarely found on peat and is common across the UK, up to 2,400ft above sea level. Interesting facts: The leaves of white clover can be distinguished from those of red clover by their toothed edges and lack of…