Innholdsfortegnelse for 1-Dec-2021 i Shooting Times & Country

The Animals Abroad Bill, which could ban the import of some hunting trophies, has been delayed. It is now believed that the draft bill will not be published until February 2022, nearly two years after initial consultations took place. The bill is the responsibility of Defra, which has asked for more time to consult with experts. The delay follows an evidence session in which anti-hunting campaigners shot themselves in the foot with a series of obviously and grossly misleading claims. Among these were that research shows that trophy hunting has “profound effects on wildlife” — the study in question was purely theoretical — huge underestimates of wildlife populations and a claim that trophies were not exported from the UK. Among the African voices welcoming the delay was an editorial in…

They are now long gone as a quarry species, but during my wildfowling apprenticeship, I reckon that the curlew was the hardest bird to fool. The merest glimpse of the hidden wildfowler would cause alarm from way beyond shooting range, and if you blew a raspberry when trying to call them, they would rumble that, too. Today, if there is nothing else in view, I sometimes amuse myself by trying to call them from deep in my hide and then popping up when they are in range. Nine out of 10 will flare in alarm as soon as they see me, presumably on the basis that I might be dangerous, even though I am not.…

I was about 10 years old when I cast my first fly-line in earnest, standing in the freezing cold waters of the river Manifold in Derbyshire, wearing nothing but a pair of old swimming trunks. It took a while after that for my fishing career to take off, with limited success through my formative years. After meeting equally passionate fishermen at university, I soon realised that the world of fishing was much larger than our little stream in the Peak District. Max Blanshard was the first person to take me salmon fishing. We used to stand on one of the bridges over the river Wear in Durham, watching the fishermen in their waders below, and it wasn’t long before we’d chatted up the bailiff and blagged day tickets. Since then,…

It was the morning after the first High Park shoot and I was wandering from ride to ride, scattering corn. I was feeling pleased that, despite the shock that had come their way the day before, so many pheasants were waiting impatiently for me and, more to the point, for the contents of my bucket. I told you that if my first day ended with much fewer than 30 pheasants in the bag, I would feel disappointed (A fruitful day on feathered bullets, 3 November). I can report that it had finished with 23 pheasants and a redleg and I was not feeling even a hint of disappointment. This was because the day had been everything a first day should be. A good and very selective team of seven Guns…

As we entered the underground bunker beneath the streets of Kampala, the stench of death was overwhelming. Inside, crammed into iron cages or piled up on the floors, we found 40,000lb of ivory tusks seized from local poachers or smugglers from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s rainforests. It was a solemn thing to witness during my visit to Uganda to check on progress in the battle against the poachers that continue to decimate wildlife populations across Africa. It took a great deal of persuasion from friends to gain access to this strongroom. A few years ago, the Chinese looted the stores of dozens of tusks and now only one man had the digital password to open the big steel door. For days, we had been told he was on leave…

HOLLAND & HOLLAND This is an additional label to the standard trade label that Holland & Holland affixed to the case. It comes from one holding a pair of hand-detachable lock models and includes instructions as to how to remove and refit the locks, noting the importance of aligning the cocking dogs correctly. The pair of Royal sidelocks in the case had an extra set of barrels for each gun and the chokes are noted in ink, handwritten by gunroom staff. The 1¼oz load and 2¾in chambers are heavier than standard at the time. The sidelocks are made with three-quarter choke in all barrels, but the owner apparently decided he needed something more open for game shooting and had another set made with improved cylinder and half-chokes. The serial numbers…

The questions over the impact of pheasant and partridge releases have been answered in a definitive new report from the GWCT. The ecological impact of releasing millions of gamebirds every year has been a topic of increasing debate and has been the latest angle of attack for shooting’s opponents. Now two top scientists from the GWCT, Dr Rufus Sage and Dr Roger Draycott, have analysed research from more than 140 papers and brought their conclusions together into a freely available 52-page report. The report looks at the positives associated with releasing gamebirds, such as the creation of woodlands and hedgerows, but also considers the potential for negative impacts such as disease and damage to soil and invertebrates. “All shoots are encouraged to follow the GWCT’s principles” Explaining the report’s overall…

FEED With the weather getting suddenly chilly, birds will need more feeding both to maintain condition and because wanderers will come home, so expect your wheat bill to increase. Birds aren’t the only things that could do with a bit extra on cold days. Guns, beaters and pickers-up will all benefit from a bit more in their bellies. SHOOT Walk a boggy corner for a snipe. In the standing water and thick reeds where the pheasants don’t roam is where you will find the wintering snipe. A quiet evening walk with a steady spaniel can give challenging shooting. Snipe fly low and fast, so a calm head and good situational awareness are essential.…

has focused on getting game into supermarkets, especially at Christmas. For the first time ever, Morrisons has taken six lines of game this season. Sainsbury’s stocked BGA game for the first time last year and sold half-a-million birds, so this season it has added three new lines for Christmas. “The retailers you might expect, Marks & Spencer, British Game Assurance (BGA) is looking to capitalise on the nation’s ‘turkey tedium’ to get game on the Christmas dinner table. BGA chief executive Liam Stokes revealed that his plan is to get game into the supermarkets and from there on to the nation’s menu for the big day itself. He explained: “This is why so much of our work at BGA Waitrose and Booths, are being joined by perhaps more surprising outlets…

Avery easy way to get gundog owners — in fact, any dog owner — wound up is to start a discussion on what they feed their four-legged friend. I once met a grand old lady in Washington DC who told me she generally fed her labrador lobster tail, as it did wonders for his coat, but generally, topics of debate revolve around dry food versus wet food and raw food versus cooked. Inevitably different manufacturers, costs and how often you should feed your dog are also much-debated topics. There are a few reasons why such talking points are so lively, but I suspect, at the heart of it, it’s because we all want the very best for our dogs. It used to be that dogs were simply fed whatever leftovers…

Those of us who shoot game can all relate to the excitement and anticipation of an approaching day in the field. You prepare everything the night before; your tweeds are looking sharp, you have enough cartridges to see you through the next three seasons and you have a gift for the host that will guarantee an invitation back. The only thing that you haven’t prepared is a backup gun. Try to imagine the scenario — some of our readers will unfortunately be familiar with it — that horrific feeling of standing on the peg with pheasants soaring over you and just a click as you pull the trigger. Gunshots echo all around you and your gun repeatedly fails to fire. It’s a mortifying situation. Having your gun break on a…

As the season progresses, I am sure I am not the only one who will find their dogs sometimes going a little ‘feral’. Most start the season really well, following all the intense work over the summer and autumn months. But slowly, as we relax into the working swing of things, we tend to become a little complacent and allow bad habits to slip in. For my own dogs, one of the things that I would like to tighten up a little is their hunting skills in the beating line. Though it’s not currently their primary role, they are still required to join the beating team for at least one drive on every shoot day at home. Like most picking-up dogs, their job can range from being cast out and…

“Black is hardly an effective colour for camouflage ” ON A RECENT SHOOT day, I was reminded of the words of Henry Ford, who said that buyers of his cars could have “any colour, so long as it’s black”. There were a dozen or so dogs running around in the stubble picking-up after a drive and every one of them was black. They weren’t all labradors, either, for there were a couple of cockers among them — one of which, admittedly, did have white paws and a white chest. Black, it seems, is the default colour among British gundogs. Quite why black should be so popular is something of a mystery, as it’s hardly an effective camouflage colour. Black was certainly part of the original DNA of the early labradors,…

Thermal spotters are fast becoming a key piece of kit for numerous shooting applications, from foxing on open fields to ratting around the farmyard. The ability to see an animal’s heat signature, even when it is partially obscured by undergrowth, provides a massive edge when trying to catch up with your quarry, not only by night but also by day. Modern thermal cameras boast remarkable image quality and long-range viewing. Though the price of the kit is gradually starting to come down, it is still very much a considered purchase. The three models reviewed here cover a wide range of applications and offer a choice of price points for shooters looking to improve their after-dark results by investing in this eye-opening technology. 9 /10 1 Zeiss DTI 3/25 RRP…

With our opening meet in the books, I’m now practising my rain dancing. I have not known a drier start to November for some time and the effect it is having on scent is considerable. Most people I’ve spoken to are experiencing the same. You hope for cooler, damper conditions to enjoy good sport after the start of the season proper, but those conditions are proving elusive. Scent is a complicated subject. What affects it one day doesn’t seem to affect it the next. Is it temperature, moisture level in the air, air pressure or all of the above? If you figure it out, I’d be keen to discuss it, but for now all we can hope for is a slightly more seasonal end to November that continues into December.…

Q Little owls used to be a common sight on my Somerset farm, but it’s some years since I last saw one. Has there been a widespread decline in numbers? A Little owls aren’t native to the British Isles, but were introduced here in the late 1800s. They found conditions much to their liking and numbers grew fast, with the period of expansion lasting into the 1930s. They had then colonised much of England and Wales, though nesting wasn’t recorded in Scotland until 1958. Today, this owl, which is often seen during the day, remains common throughout East Anglia, the Midlands and central northern England, but there has been a marked range contraction throughout south-west England and across much of Wales. The decline isn’t restricted to Britain, as numbers have…

Q I have read many times that when people are setting up stalking rifles they set zero 1in or more high at 100m. I am not really sure why this is. Surely you set up to hit the bull? A It is a matter of preference. The best option is to have the rifle set so you know where your round is hitting at a given distance and this should be at the range your quarry is normally at when you take the shot. Many modern scopes have adjustable turrets that allow you to set up dead-on at 100m and then have dials or markers to alter that strike at, say, 150m, 200m and so on. I set my scope to 1in and ½in high at 100m and shooting out…

How much ammunition do you take with you for a day’s shooting? It will depend on the type of shooting, of course. A driven day has an element of predictability about it and you may never be far from a vehicle, so you can replenish your pockets or gamebag easily. But with other types of shooting, the amount of ammunition you decide to carry around deserves serious thought. It is said that one of the reasons why the Army switched from 7.62mm to 5.56mm calibre was to save weight. The difference may seem inconsequential, but I can assure you that it is not when you have to lug numerous magazines of the stuff across difficult terrain at all hours and in all weather. In a civilian context, wildfowling or hill…

A dog groomer from the eastern Highlands has won praise from the fieldsports community after she spoke out passionately about the impact of closing down grouse moors. Footage has emerged of the woman addressing the conference of anti-grouse shooting organisation Revive at its annual conference in Perth. After stepping up to the microphone and explaining the importance of gundogs to her business, she said: “What kind of employment would you have for locals like me if you shut grouse moors?” After a brief reply from Chris Packham, who was chairing the meeting, one of the panellists insisted that there could still be shooting. However, unconvinced, the dog groomer pushed home her attack, asking: “If you closed down a grouse moor estate, the community within the estate is fragile, rural and…

Pressure is building on the hunting communities of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the aftermath of the conviction of Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA) directorMarkHankinson(News, 27 October). The Scottish government is currently looking at the possibility of banning trail hunting. Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has announced that all trail hunting on land under its management will end immediately and it will not renew its contract with the MFHA. Dominic Driver, NRW’s head of land stewardship, said: “The outcome of the court case against a senior leader of the MFHA has resulted in a loss of confidence in the organisation’s ability to ensure its activities are carried out within the law and terms of its agreement. “In order to assure ourselves properly that trail hunting on our estate wasn’t being…

Junior footballers take up shooting A team of junior footballers based in Perthshire have tried their hand at clay pigeon shooting with the support of their latest sponsor — BASC. The Crieff juniors — most of whom had never shot before — learned about all aspects of gun safety and how to handle a shotgun. They shot a few easy ones, before getting stuck into the competition. Out of 32 targets, Lewis Blair — who was shooting a shotgun for the first time — was the top Gun of the day, having shot 25 clays. Ten-year-old wins gamekeeper award The 2021 Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust Young Gamekeeper of the Year award has been given to 10-year-old John Tipping. The award was presented by Sir John Scott. Young John helps his father…

There was heat in the late afternoon sun and the water, as it ran in across the mud, shone in swirls of old gold. Two miles across the Medway, on the Isle of Grain, six great towers, which once refined 11 million tonnes of crude oil a year, were silhouetted against the sky. “Mike put up our hide almost without looking” Half an hour earlier, we didn’t think we were going to be wildfowling at all. When you’re out on the Medway, you need a boat and the lock on Mike Swan’s old white vessel had tightened completely. For half an hour, we shouted at it, called it a bastard and messed around with a rusty pair of monkey grips that were never going to do anything much. Bramble, Mike’s…

Which of our various quarry birds is the most intelligent, do you think? I’m not at all sure anyone really knows the answer, or indeed how it is that you assess this. You cannot sit them down and run an IQ test, not least because there are language barriers involved. However, it is also clear that some are sharper than others and that they are not all equally birdbrained. Woodcock are one of my favourite quarry species and the frequency with which one puts a holly bush or tree trunk between us as it flushes suggests that they are not that stupid. This is despite the fact that the French word for woodcock, bécasse, in its colloquial form means fool or simpleton. Strange to tell, this seemed so deeply ingrained…

Hampshire is home to some of the most desirable trout fishing, not only in the country, but the world. Its rolling valleys, mineral-rich ground and gin-clear chalkstreams make for a delicious blend of flora and fauna. More importantly, they make for whopping trout — and lots of them. Right through the season, these golden gods can be sight-fished from their lies among the crowfoot and watercress. As with most things luxury, there is a price tag to match. But there may be a way to enjoy such sport at a fraction of the cost. The end of September sees the brown trout season come to a close and that has usually been my cue to put the rod and reel away and think about chasing pheasants instead. My preparation for…

Skilled labrador breeders invariably have a detailed knowledge of their dogs and know which of their animals carry yellow or chocolate genes, selecting their mates with a view to ensuring that different colours occur in their litters. Among pet labradors, chocolates, being rarer, have usually sold for a premium, so breeding a litter of chocolates rather than black or yellow can be considerably more lucrative. However, perhaps chocolate labradors have had their day, for there’s an increasing demand for labradors in different colours. Apparently charcoal, white, silver and even tiger-striped animals are now being bred and, of course, being sold for exorbitant prices. I’ve never yet seen a silver labrador, let alone a tiger-striped one, but I do start to wonder ‘whatever next?’. How long before someone produces labradors with…

Scene of one of the UK’s most famous UFO sightings in December 1980, the Forestry Commission-owned Rendlesham Forest covers part of the former Rendlesham estate in Suffolk. It also includes the decommissioned wartime RAF bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge, now used for housing and commercial purposes, and as a Ministry of Defence base. Few of the people who use the property as a leisure, residential or employment facility are likely to know that, from the late-Georgian period until the end of the 19th century, Rendlesham was one of the most celebrated shoots in Britain. Extending to some 20,000 acres, it was noted for its superlative partridge and woodcock shooting, as well as for large bags of pheasants. The family seat of the Thellussons — Lords Rendlesham for around 150 years…

A semi-official perquisite that goes with the post of British ambassador to Egypt is one of the best duck shoots in the country, which is let by their government to the ambassador and his staff at the nominal rent of £30 a year. Seeing that the shoot is so extensive that it will accommodate some 15 Guns at the height of the season, and that bags of several thousand ducks are quite usual when the birds are flighting, it will be realised that the rental of £30 is very nominal indeed. The shoot, which is in the neighbourhood of Tel-el-Kabir, is an extensive rush-grown marsh. which floods during the rainy season in winter. It offers a most attractive halfway halt for myriad migrant ducks that flight through the Nile Valley…

Q I see you mention wildcat cartridges quite a lot in your reviews. What are they and are they better than a standard round? A Primarily, a wildcat round is one that has been modified to improve its performance both in terms of accuracy, velocity and case life. You can improve the case by removing any body taper and increasing the shoulder angle — both of which increase powder-case capacity — and, hopefully, velocity will improve too. It can also involve necking up or down, so larger or smaller projectiles can be shot from the parent case. True, this can seem a daunting task to many shooters, but in reality most shooters are already shooting some sort of wildcat round already. Many of the great cartridges available on the market…

Q I have been given permission to shoot with my airgun on a farm that is having trouble with rats. The only problem is that I am not allowed on-site at night as recent thefts have prompted the farmer to lock the gates to the access track. I know that rats are usually most active after dark, but is it worth trying to shoot them by day? A Although rat shooting is usually carried out during the hours of darkness, it is possible to catch up with these pests during daylight hours. Young rats are often active around the clock. A farm where I used to do a lot of rat shooting produced better results by day as they abandoned their nocturnal trails to avoid owls. However, it is likely…