Innholdsfortegnelse for 22-Dec-2021 i Shooting Times & Country

Craft beer company BrewDog has donated £5,000 to Wild Justice, days after the anti-shooting activist group suffered another embarrassing courtroom defeat. BrewDog was forced to call in external experts this year after more than 60 former employees signed a letter saying the company had a toxic culture and that “being treated like a human being was sadly not always a given for those working at BrewDog”. Despite claims that it would “pause, reflect and learn lessons”, the company quickly went on to dismiss the gamekeepers on an estate it had bought for rewilding (News, 23 June). The plan for the estate was slammed by a local councillor as putting a “vanity project above local people”. To complete a trio of trouble, BrewDog was slammed by the Advertising Standards Authority —…

Hunting with hounds will not be banned in Northern Ireland after a private members’ bill was voted down at Stormont. Alliance MLA John Blair had brought forward the bill, which tried to ban what he described as a “cruel and unnecessary sport that causes immeasurable suffering to both the hunted animals and the hunting dogs” (News, 1 December). The bill was criticised by other MLAs. DUP MLA William Irwin called it “bad legislation” and said: “Practically every dog owner in the country whose dog may at some point chase a wild animal could indeed be committing an offence if this poorly thought-out and ill-advised law were actually to come into force.” Crucially, Sinn Féin did not support the bill and the 38 MLAs who backed the bill were easily outnumbered…

DRAW THE LINE Perhaps Shooting Times can draw a line under the arguments for lead continuing as shot for game shooting and stop airing emotional and anecdotal arguments, such as: “I have been eating game shot with lead for over 50 years and show no signs of lead poisoning”. Winston Churchill was a heavy smoker all his long life, but is this evidence that we should reverse all efforts to limit tobacco consumption? The key facts are: lead shot/ pellets consumed by wildfowl has poisoned them globally by the millions. There is no safe, medically accepted limit for lead in human blood, though the EU maximum level for lead in raw milk is 0.02mg/kg, equivalent to 1g — approximately the weight of lead in eight No 5 shot — per…

What marks you out as a Gun who knows what they are doing? What separates a good Shot from a bad one? If you ask a member of the picking-up team behind you, who see all but who rarely comment, it will be the care and interest a Gun shows in any game that hasn’t been despatched properly. All fair-minded sportsmen and women hate wounding, but we must accept that it happens sometimes. It is why we have teams of pickers-up behind the Guns. Their role is, first and foremost, the speedy collection of wounded game. Dead birds don’t run. It is why we invest time and effort into training a gundog, which you should always take with you if possible. But how can we minimise the risk of wounding…

This is a bird that flies higher and higher in a circular pattern. It is caused by the bird only being able to see out of one eye. Its ability to fly has not been impeded. The birds need careful watching as they can go a long way. This is often encountered when pigeon shooting as they have more stamina in their flight than the burst flight of pheasants and partridges. You must also learn how to quickly despatch wounded game. There are several techniques that experienced Guns can show you, but one we must move away from is swirling the bird to break its neck. It is far more effective to take a good walking stick — an asset anyway — and use it to percussively stun the bird…

Choice of clothing and footwear in the shooting field has always been driven by an item’s practicality in testing winter conditions. In recent decades, little has changed in British fieldsports largely due to the general consensus for the need to hold on to the traditional values that underpin our sport. Footwear is an area where the effects of modernisation are often most noticeable. In years gone by, the wellington boot — due to it being the most waterproof option available — was the most common item of footwear found on the shooting field. More recently, there has been a growing move towards the use of lace-up boots. On many shoot days that I attend, the number of people wearing laced boots equals, if not exceeds, those wearing wellington boots. Most…

ONE OF THE SADDEST sights on a shoot is seeing an old dog wandering around with a bird in its mouth, unsure of what it is doing. It’s poignant if, just a couple of seasons ago, this particular dog was one of the stars of the shoot, the member of the picking-up team that could always be depended on to find the bird that had defeated other dogs. It was seeing dogs like this that inspired John Houlton to launch an investigation into why and when working dogs retire. John is best known as one of our leading experts on hip dysplasia, but he has long had a specialist interest in working gundogs and runs a picking-up team of labradors. He launched his survey early last year (I wrote about…

Risk assessments are very much a part of modern life and, while I am sure the thought of yet more paperwork fills many of us with dread, shoots do need to carry out their own. It is the responsible thing to do, as a proper risk assessment will undoubtedly bring to light one or two things that need attention, and it will also tighten things up if someone is injured and makes a claim against the shoot and the insurance company argues the toss and apportions blame, as they almost certainly will. If they can find a loophole, they will. If they can find something that compromises the insurance cover, they may well refuse to pay all or part of the claim — regardless of the number of years you…

As the rifle is chambered in .17 HMR, I fitted a new Element Helix FFP scope, which is great for accurate and instant trajectory compensation for this round. I also fitted an A-Tec CMM4 sound moderator, which muted the report well without adding too much length or weight. Best test ammunition was the Hornady NTX 15.5-gr loads with one-hole groups at 50 yards — plus the odd obligatory flyer, usually due to a dirty barrel — at a velocity of 2,586fps for 230ft/lb energy. The same was true of the new Winchester LF lead-free 15.5-gr ammo with 0.45in groups at 2,548fps for 224ft/lb. Regular 17-gr Hornady V-Max loads shot a healthy 2,604fps for 256ft/lb, higher than the lighter lead-free offerings and with sub-0.5in groups. I like the heavier, more controlled…

This is an exercise in pastry making, but also results in one of my favourite pie fillings. I sometimes make the same dish with chicken but I have to say that game works far better with tarragon sauce. The pastry is a shortcrust type that I have been making for years. This particular ratio of flour, butter and water never shrinks and can be rolled extremely thin to make a very crisp pie ‘hat’. Everyone might well insist on having turkey on Christmas Day but I bet you they’d declare this far better if you made it on Boxing Day or perhaps for New Year. PHEASANT, MUSHROOM AND TARRAGON CREAM PIE Ingredients FOR THE SHORTCRUST PASTRY: 185G PLAIN FLOUR ¼ TSP SALT 1 TSP ICING SUGAR 125G COLD BUTTER, DICED…

A qualification that could have provided access to college gamekeeping and wildlife management courses has been dropped from the syllabus. The ‘T level’ has been replaced with a ‘specialism’ described by experts as “woefully inadequate”. Around 1,000 students are studying the level 3 advanced technical certificate, diploma and extended diploma in land and wildlife management. But these are no longer open to new entrants and it was expected that a similar qualification would be included in the Government’s new T-level courses. However, the latest list of T levels does not include a dedicated land and wildlife course. T levels were developed as an occupational equivalent to A levels for pupils aged 16 to 18 and include courses such as catering, accounting and agriculture. “Practical training in wildlife management is lacking”…

Rural crime has increased in the past 12 months, according to a survey by the Countryside Alliance. Among the shocking findings was that 70% of respondents believed that rural crime had increased in the past year and that more than 40% had been the victim of a rural crime. Fly-tipping was the most widely reported offence, with 43% of respondents having found waste illegally dumped. Poaching and hare coursing were also common, with a third of respondents suffering one of these crimes. Police rural crime teams are likely to be unhappy with the survey’s results, with 46% of respondents saying that the police did not take rural crime seriously and 48% of those who reported a crime saying ›they were dissatisfied with the police response. Among the victims of rural…

When I first started shooting, I swore by Grand Prix No 6s. Now I am not so sure on this, nor other shooting matters. I have read with interest the views on shooting woodcock; these range from a total ban to bag limits and only shooting from December. I have kept a shooting diary for more than 50 years and my main quarry continues to be woodcock in my part of Northern Ireland. This confirms the vast bulk of birds shot are migrants and numbers have been consistent. I shoot largely in Fermanagh and Down. Only once have I shot a bird during October; the keeper told me that at a location in Tyrone he knew a brood had hatched during the summer. While I have seen the odd woodcock…

Of every sort of adventure requiring a shotgun, nothing evokes a sense of history and place in quite the same way as wildfowling. This most ancient and noble shooting sport is rooted firmly in mankind’s hunter-gatherer past, when a longshore gunner bringing home a few ducks and geese often meant the difference between feeding a family or going hungry. My destination was a bit of foreshore that lies adjacent to an ancient parcel of land, steeped in wildfowling lore as well as ancient history. The area has a remote feel to it, with narrow roads bordered by low stone walls leading the inquisitive traveller, birder or wildfowler away from the busy tourist routes to a place where time moves at its own leisurely pace. My earliest memories of this coast…

The beginning of the doe season is the most important time in the roe deer management calendar. As autumn prepares to hand the reins to winter, there is a noticeable change in the landscape and atmosphere. The days get shorter, the crisp northerly wind becomes more frequent. In the life cycle of roe, this change brings considerable hardship for does. Winter in the uplands is brutal. Fresh growth is months away, so young pine trees are on the menu. Saplings need protection from ravenous roe. The damage to young trees is particularly evident during winter and early spring, where roe will eat the leader shoot. Culling them is the only way to keep the numbers in check. The kids born at the beginning of summer are about five months old,…

It is, of course, the season for partridges in pear trees, though I’ve never seen a grey partridge perch in any sort of tree, let alone a pear tree. Redlegs do perch more readily, but they are more likely to do so on fences or even the top of buildings, and I’ve yet to see one sitting in a tree. I’m lucky enough to live in an area that still has a healthy population of grey partridges, so I encounter them regularly, usually when walking the dogs. However, they are shy birds, so I rarely get the chance to watch them either at close range, or for a prolonged time, so I had a rare treat recently when a covey appeared in my back garden. Though the garden is reasonably…

Probing ferreting question FERRETING Q Out of all your equipment, which piece would you say was the most valuable after the spade and ferret-finder? A What a great and thought-provoking question — and one that I thought about long and hard before answering. In the past, I have carried a truckful of equipment around with me simply in case I needed something. Over the years, I have reduced it dramatically based upon what I never used, rarely used and always used. Nowadays, I generally know where I’m ferreting, so basically carry the same equipment, though the long-nets may change depending on the size of the warrens and day ferreting. The one piece of equipment I know I cannot do without is my probe. It must be one of the most…

Latin name: Betula nana Common name: Dwarf birch Other names: Arctic birch, bog birch, swamp birch How to spot it and where to find it: A low-growing deciduous shrub, dwarf birch has dark brown branches, which are covered in a fine down and are quite stiff. Its small, rounded leaves are dark green with regular toothing and paler undersides. It produces catkins and turns red-gold in the autumn. It prefers blanket peat, with soil conditions that are typically wet, acidic and lacking in nutrients. However, it can also be found on rocky sub-Arctic crevices and alpine locations on well-drained soil. Interesting facts: Dwarf birch is an important component of the montane shrub in the Scottish Highlands, forming part of the treeline where woodland gives way to open moorland, and an…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD Prince Albert is widely credited with introducing the Christmas tree to Britain. But the honour should go to Queen Charlotte, German wife of George III, who set up a ‘festive bough’ at Windsor in 1800. While bringing a fir tree across the threshold at Christmas may be comparatively modern, not so our native holly. Ilex aquifolium boasts a pre-Christian heritage as a household decoration in winter. A symbol of fertility and eternal life, holly was hung in the home to protect against evil faeries or lightning strikes. Pagan Britons believed the Holly King controlled the dark months, the counterpoint to the Oak King, who ruled summer. Today, yuletide country tradition has it that whoever – husband or wife — hangs the holly first will rule the…

Welsh minister Julie James has told Aim to Sustain her government “does not support the shooting of live quarry as a leisure activity”. It is unclear what this means in policy terms, as the Welsh government does not appear to have any plans to amend the Wildlife and Countryside Act to prevent shooting from taking place. However, shooting organisations were quick to react. The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) encouraged its members to write to the Welsh government to challenge this approach. David Pooler, interim chairman of the NGO and a gamekeeper based in North Wales, said: “These businesses are people’s livelihoods. How can the Welsh government state its lack of support for a legal activity that is the backbone of the economy in many areas of rural Wales?” BASC Wales…

Ptarmigan may be heading towards extinction in the UK and the situation for grey partridges and black grouse remains extremely serious, according to the most recently published list of Birds of Conservation Concern. The list, which is drawn up by all the UK’s bird conservation organisations, including the GWCT, is updated every three years and categorises the status of birds as red, amber or green. The red list of birds of the highest conservation concern has increased in length by three species, with 11 species being added to the list and eight removed. Woodcock were among the species staying on the red list. However, the red list status is based on declines in the breeding range of the UK’s small breeding woodcock population; the much larger and more commonly hunted…

Guardian praises hen harrier keepers In what many suggested was a pleasing change of tone, the Guardianhas published a lengthy article praising keepers on a grouse moor for conserving hen harriers. The article, which was written by environment editor Patrick Barkham, looked at the work on the Swinton Estate in North Yorkshire, with a particular focus on headkeeper Gary Taylor. Among those paying tribute to Mr Taylor’s work was Steven Murphy, Natural England’s top hen harrier expert, who said: “What he’s done for harriers, words can’t describe.” Get your jab, win a lifetime of hunting For most people, a lower risk of death or serious illness is enough of an incentive, but some people need a bit of extra encouragement to get their Covid jab. In New York…

Every year, for as long as I have been shooting, I have ventured to the Yorkshire Dales to walk — with gun, gamebag and a pocket full of cartridges — a little piece of rough ground that my father and his father have shot before me. The rocky ghylls, holly-filled becks and reed-covered fields are home to a host of wildlife which, for 363 days of the year, are left completely alone. However, for one or two weekends in the season, we spend a day marauding up and over, down and around the wet and woolly ground, in an effort to sniff out something for the pot. “A day marauding up and over, down and around” I am fortunate enough to shoot a few driven days each year and I…

Beach fishing makes me feel small and powerless; impotent, invisible. As I stood on Chesil Beach in West Bexington and looked eastwards towards Portland Bill, seeing 17 miles of pea-shingle beach and the infinite expanse of sea that hugs it, all I could think of was needles in haystacks. Many haystacks. I’m a boat angler. I like to potter around in my boat, drifting reefs and sand bars, zooming out to offshore wrecks. I like trolling lures along miles of coast-hugging sea, covering water and scoping out the seabed. Not picking one spot in a trillion miles of coastline to park myself and cast my puny bait. But I am a boat angler currently without a boat. So if I want to angle, what do I do? “Let’s go whiting…

One of the most successful firearms ever designed was the Remington rolling-block rifle, which dominated the field of military arms from 1865 until the mid-1880s. It was adopted by so many nations that it is probably easier to say which countries didn’t use it. The rolling-block design had its genesis in that hothouse of firearms development, the American Civil War (1861-65). In January 1863, engineer Leonard Geiger patented a design that featured a hinged breechblock, which was split down the centre to allow the hammer to make contact with the cartridge. In December that year, Joseph Rider, a designer working for the Remington Arms Company, patented a very similar design. Remington wanted to manufacture Rider’s design, but it was worried about a patent infringement lawsuit. The company was canny enough…

Has the introduction of smartphones changed the face of beating — or at least the sound of it? Traditionally, there are five sounds emanating from the beating line: the hazel stick tap, a flag’s crack, the “aye, aye, aye, aye”, the keeper’s “keep the bloody line straight” and the difficult-to-master old Trimble ringtone, which involves a lot of lip vibration. Why the Trimble tone was thus immortalised into game shooting’s hallowed conventions is unclear, but will it survive now everyone has an smartphone announcing incoming calls with anything from I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside to one of Led Zeppelin’s more raucous hits? I was discussing these niceties with a friend who’s taken up beating. She’d done it many times before on family shoots, where most of the…

OUR VERDICT I tested an Anschütz 1761 in .22 LR last year and was so impressed that I simply had to test this new walnut thumbhole stocked version in the flat-shooting .17 HMR round. The new 1761 action design has proven itself a worthy successor to the older Anschütz rimfires and continues to be a superbly crafted vermin rifle. Add to this the all-new radical thumbhole stock design and a lovely high-grade walnut and it proves that Anschütz doesn’t do anything by halves. It retains the unerring Anschütz accuracy, as expected, crafted to a highly ergonomic but lightweight stock design. “The length of pull of 14.75in makes the rifle very manoeuvrable in the field” Even with a scope and sound moderator fitted, this rifle is a delight to take hunting.…

One of the rigours of deadline journalism is the discipline imposed on its practitioners at inconvenient moments. That was me, on the morning before Christmas Eve, trying to compose something that would regale my readers, only to be repeatedly reminded that the occasion was not well chosen from my exertions. First, a friend told me how pleased they were that they’d followed my recommendations and fitted out their 16-year-old son with a light 12-bore in place of the .410 he previously used. Everybody satisfied? Splendid. Then another friend rang to ask me if I would take into protective custody an old gun that had been “left on his doorstep” by an elderly relative incapable of coping with the shotgun certificate procedure. This I undertook to do and, shortly after, went…

Sometimes, the language commonly used in shooting is liable to be misunderstood by non-shooters, because of the way language has evolved in everyday usage. We’ve come a long way since the origin of the phrase ‘lock, stock and barrel’. There is an online forum called the Stalking Directory. I bet that gets a few views from certain people who are not necessarily interested in the finer points of deer management. They must be disappointed when they read the content. And when it comes to game shooting, heaven knows what sites you might stumble upon when searching terms such as ‘picking-up’ or ‘beating’. You don’t even need to use arcane terms to risk being misunderstood. Somebody once said that the US and Britain are two countries divided by the same language.…