Innholdsfortegnelse for 2-Feb-2022 i Shooting Times & Country

Legislation to ban hunting trophy imports has been put on hold as Boris Johnson fights for his political career, according to reports in the Guardian. The paper quoted a source as saying that a trophy import ban was “as good as dead” if Mr Johnson loses a vote of no confidence. The trophy hunting ban and the animal sentience bill have been identified with a small group of Conservatives who are close to the Prime Minister, including his wife Carrie Johnson and Environment Minister Zac Goldsmith. However, they are unpopular with other sections of the party, who believe they risk alienating parts of the Tories’ traditional support. With legislation due to be placed before Parliament soon, the debate over the proposals has become increasingly lively. A group of leading conservation…

Catching-up gamebirds is not recommended as long as the nationwide avian influenza prevention zone (AIPZ) remains in place, according to the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA). Under current regulations, captive birds can be kept as long as they are separate from wild birds. This would apply to any caught-up gamebirds and the licences that allow catching-up remain in place. However, according to the latest advice: “It should be noted, however, that there is some risk that birds gathered from the wild could be infected with avian influenza, and by gathering them up and bringing them back to a farm/shoot/estate, which could infect the birds that are already there. Therefore all catching-up activities are not recommended while the AIPZ measures are still in effect,” the SGA added. The advice not to catchup…

PICK YOUR OWN In reply to Ian Richardson about whether birds are fit to eat (Letters, 12 January), there is no secret skill in selecting a decent brace of birds. If you are able to pick your own birds after the Guns have been given their brace, take a look at the legs. In my experience, if they are smashed to bits, chances are the rest of the bird will be too. And keep an eye on birds the pickers-up bring in — these were probably runners or pricked birds, so not a lot of shot in them. Iain Hobbs, Cambridgeshire DIVINE ASSISTANCE I am a filmmaker and have been told a story that Shooting Times published an article about an episode when Winston Churchill — a descendant of the…

Over the festive break I struggled to find the time to visit the foreshore, but thankfully, just after the New Year, I managed to schedule in a morning flight at the local bay. It had been unseasonably mild and the car thermometer was showing 2°C. This time last year I visited the same bay and it was -8°C. As I pulled off the public road on to the farm track, I noticed the flicker of head torches ahead. As I got closer, four wader-clad wildfowlers left the track and headed through the woods, walking in the direction of the neighbouring marsh. I parked up and began to second-guess myself — perhaps they knew something that I didn’t. After all, I was yet to shoot a goose this season. “The silence…

Only a few weeks ago we were thinking of Rudolph and his friends so it may seem heartless to consider a plate of renskav. But in northern Sweden, this ancient dish, made by salting then cold-smoking reindeer, still brings tears to the eyes of hardy Scandinavian hunters, who would cut it thinly then cook it in a pan — as with bacon — out in the open air. Originally, renskav was prepared in a kåta, a primitive smokehouse made using the hide of the reindeer and wood from birch trees stripped of their bark, in a process that took two days. Learning of its existence led me to the great and varied topic of Swedish game eating. It is a country that is remarkable for the variety of wild species…

Pike fishermen are a breed apart. I didn’t realise this until recently, when I spent an entire day on the edge of an almost-frozen loch in the Scottish Borders. An ice-cold gale came bowling down the glen like a pack of wolves and our small stand seemed as if it had been built in a wind tunnel designed to purge every last kilojoule of human energy from the face of planet Earth. Trapped motionless on the shore, there was no option but to wait it out and, as my companions laughed and poured more black coffee from a flask, I resigned myself to hypothermia. Several of these men had come up in a specially kitted-out Transit van from County Durham and it was their plan to remain on site for…

Latin name: Dactylis glomerata Common name: Cocksfoot grass Other names: Orchard grass, cat grass How to spot it and where to find it: Growing in dense tussocks, cocksfoot grass is a hardy perennial that produces a tufted, triangular flower head. The flowers are green with red or purple ends, turning pale brown when ready to seed. The spiky seed heads open and flatten as they mature and contain thousands of tiny seeds. The grass has long, greyish-green leaves that can reach 50cm long and 1.5cm wide. The tussocks can be 20cm to 140cm tall. It is a widespread grass that thrives in meadows and along roadsides across the UK. Interesting facts: The clumped flowers and seed heads are said to resemble a cock’s foot, hence the name. Cocksfoot can look…

The UK economy is bouncing back to pre-pandemic levels. Spending on overseas holidays and the like was held back while the virus raged, but now it seems the dam is about to burst. Demand is driving up the price of a host of recreational activities. I understand that next season’s driven pheasants are averaging about £40 a bird. Some of the high bird shoots are charging as much as £60. Hill stalking is generally around £600 to £800 a stag, with trophy animals costing a lot more. Hind stalking tends to be around £200 to £350 a day — though one traditional estate, which still uses ponies, is charging £450 a day. These prices are what they are because there are plenty of punters who are willing to pay that…

The Scottish government has rebuffed efforts by the RSPB to have a wildfowling ban introduced on the Solway Firth. The charity, which recently launched an emergency appeal for donations “to tackle the outbreak” of avian influenza, or bird flu, asked the Scottish government to introduce the ban to limit “disturbance” to barnacle geese. However, ministers refused the request, with the Scottish government saying: “We are aware of the serious impact of avian influenza on the barnacle goose population on the Solway. While we will keep matters under review and consider any relevant evidence supporting such a course of action, having considered the situation, no further measures will be implemented at this stage.” The RSPB said the decision was “disappointing” and urged ministers to reconsider. “It is good to see ministers…

SHOOT A dry, cloudy, windy day should offer great pigeon shooting. Crops such as oilseed rape tend to attract the birds in late winter, so observing flightlines and carefully constructing a hide on a rape field can let you shoot an excellent bag. If the wind is really howling, roost shooting might be more productive. If it is snowy or foggy, staying at home may be the better option. SHOOT The inland fowling season has now finished, but in England, Wales and Scotland there are still a couple of weeks yet when you can shoot below the tideline. Ducks and geese, but not gamebirds or waders, are legal quarry up until 20 February as long as they are hunted below mean high water.…

As usual David Tomlinson wrote an interesting but slightly controversial article (The winning formula, 12 January). His comments on how the IGL Retriever Championship is largely based around a traditional walked-up day’s shooting were interesting, as driven shooting is now the only form of game shooting readily available for many people. The old-fashioned walk-one, stand-one type of shoots are not as prevalent nowadays, while new-money entrants to the sport seem more interested in standing on a peg dressed like Bertie Wooster and having a sit-down lunch. Have a look at the team of Shots at the end of the drive and you will see the ones who are really interested in the sport. They will either have a dog to work or will be watching the pickers-up and pointing out…

For most Danes, Berleburg is best known for its link to the Danish royal family, which was forged when the sister of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe, Princess Benedikte, wed Germany’s Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg in 1968. However, for hunters interested in deer shooting and game management, the estate is recognised for its highly selective stag hunts that adhere to strict tried-and-tested management principles. Ole Rasmussen, a former game management student at Berleburg, is equally choosy about the guests he invites to take game there. The estate’s staff guide all the hunts. As a child, Ole went on holiday to Germany every year. When he was six years old, he went past Berleburg but he didn’t know then what an influence it would have on his life. After leaving school in 1995,…

I often ponder what is meant when we talk about fieldcraft and find it covers a multitude of skills, typically picked up over many years in the field. It occurs to me that new folk coming into stalking are hugely disadvantaged compared with, say, 40 years ago, when I was first starting out. Most of my teenage years were spent wandering fields and hedgerows with my pride and joy — a .22 air rifle — in search of rabbits or anything else that I could shoot. Back then, that included sparrows and starlings. Today, that seems unthinkable, but both were considered pests. Sparrows fed in hordes, stripping the ripening wheat next to my grandparents’ smallholding. I recall to this day the farmer, Mr Mosley, arriving at our door, handing me…

OUR VERDICT A few months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting John Jeffries and shooting one of his custom guns (Shotgun test, 13 October 2021). This gun was an exciting little 20-bore based on a Perugini & Visini sideplated action. I was impressed with the gun but particularly fascinated with John’s unrelenting passion for customising guns to suit individual requirements. So when I had the opportunity not only to shoot the new 12-bore Legend 2, but to have John on hand to set up the gun to my own distinctive style, I jumped at the opportunity. At this point, I have to make a confession. As a gunmaker, I have had the privilege of designing and making shotguns from scratch. This process is all-consuming and when the first gun…

LIKE MANY CHILDREN, I always wanted a dog, but it wasn’t until I was 12 that my ambition was finally realised. I earned the privilege of having my first dog by walking a neighbour’s cross-bred spaniel, Pip, every day for more than a year. I took him for a walk on the local common when I came home from school. I never missed a day due to rain or snow, so proved to my parents that I would be a responsible dog owner. I wonder how many children today have to undergo such a test. Pip was large and black, with an independent streak. Looking back, I have a suspicion that he was deaf, but I never considered that at the time. He may well have gone through life pretending…

Note the colour of your spore print. There aren’t many possibilities: white, various shades of cream, rust brown, clay brown, chocolate brown, black and pink(ish). Spore colour is, of course, only another characteristic, but is often the starting point to a ‘key’. This is simply a question-and-answer session and you should already be in possession of the answers. They appear in several of the books and there is a simple and reasonably safe one at foragerscalendar.net. This is designed for the mycophagist, with only edible and poisonous species included: you either find out what it is and it’s edible, find out what it is and it’s poisonous, or you don’t find out what it is. The practical response to these in order is: eat, don’t eat, don’t eat. Visit foragers-association.org…

You just can’t win, can you? Any wildfowler might be forgiven for asking this question during recent weeks. For months during the autumn and well into winter, he has been brainwashed with the notion that his sport is not worthy of the name until hard weather makes it so uncomfortable for him that he can eventually take advantage of conditions that make the ducks and geese easier to approach and therefore collect a reasonable bag. For weeks and weeks, he waits and waits for just the right conditions and then, all of a sudden, when that time comes, he is confronted with a national figure who tells him on the television or wireless that now he should hold fire, for the birds are so poor that they are not worth…

Gamekeepers have rescued a missing woman after mountain rescue volunteers, supported by search dogs, spent two days looking for her. Glossop Mountain Rescue Team deployed volunteers and vehicles to search for Eileen Joyce Moran after she was declared a missing person. The search went on through the night, but without success. The next morning, support was called in from the Kinder, Woodhead, Edale and Buxton mountain rescue teams along with three specially trained search and rescue dogs. A helicopter was also placed on standby; however, weather conditions prevented it from being used. As the rescue teams were beginning their searches, two local gamekeepers located Mrs Moran. Josh Bailey and Adam Sharratt found the missing woman slumped against a wall. After night out in very low temperatures she was cold and…

Four police forces that had been refusing to process new firearm and shotgun certificate applications have changed their policy. North Yorkshire Police, Thames Valley Police, Kent Police and Northamptonshire Police had stopped processing new certificate applications, citing pressures arising from the COVID-19 pandemic (News, 19 January). However, they have all begun accepting applications again. Inspector Andy Palmer, North Yorkshire Police firearms licensing manager, said: “We have restarted the processing of new firearm grant applications and, while there is a backlog, we are working hard to ensure any delays will be minimal. In December we were told by the Home Office that certificate holders would face delays obtaining medical reports from GPs, so we have been prioritising support to those affected,” he added. “As we see more certificate holders reach their…

Standing on a platform a dozen feet above the frost-bitten ground, the brightening blue sky overhead disguised the below-freezing temperature. The sun slowly rising through a deciduous forest and the lifting mist created a magnificent scene for the day’s events. In the forest in front of me, there were horns blowing and dogs barking, along with what I can only describe as all-out mayhem. Behind me, there were patches of open ground that, with any luck, wild boar would move into at any given second. My cheeks were straining to control the grin that was spreading across my face. Adrenaline levels were, at that point, frankly uncontrollable. It was my second trip wild boar hunting and I was in absolute ecstasy. Rule changes One day earlier, the adrenaline was peaking…

Since I was in my teens, I have been fascinated by the great Canadian wilderness, the huge swathe of the northern hemisphere that extends from the Rockies to the Arctic. The hope that one day I would be able to hunt that magnificent country remained no more than a dream for decades, but in 2019 the stars aligned and I grabbed with both hands the chance to hunt caribou in the mountains of northern British Columbia. As wilderness goes, this place is about as good as it gets. There are no towns, villages, roads nor tracks for a couple of hundred miles. Only horse trails and the occasional deserted mining camp. The only way in from the nearest jumping-off point — the tiny Tahltan First Nation settlement of Dease Lake…

There’s something exciting about packing for a special hunting trip. Whether it’s a couple of days on the hill in Scotland or a woodland stalking adventure abroad, there are guns, clothing, boots and accessories to be prepared, cleaned and checked. All of this adds to the sense of anticipation. But when planning a winter hunting trip to some cold and distant clime, special considerations must be borne in mind. There will almost certainly be kit and clothing to be packed that is different to what you would usually expect to use when hunting in the UK. Perhaps the first thing to be done when preparing for such a trip is to confirm the likely weather conditions. Google will always advise on average temperature and rain or snowfall, but it is…

How was it for you? Though I’m writing this a couple of weeks before the end of the season, with two more outings still to come, it won’t appear in print until game shooting is over. Unlike the previous season, which was virtually destroyed by the COVID-19 restrictions, at least the past few months have been little affected by lockdowns or other rules or guidelines. I spoke recently with the operator of a large commercial shoot. He told me that he had made a whopping £300,000 loss in the 2020-21 season. Fortunately, he is a canny operator with a war chest in case of disaster, so he had managed to survive a financial meltdown that would have sunk many businesses. He did tell me that this past season has, in…

A severe frost overnight left a white crust mantling the land as far as the eye could see and the ground was like iron. This might seem like the archetypal ferreting weather, but I’m too long in the tooth to fall for that one. I know all too well that if the rabbits don’t want to bolt, they won’t. And if it’s difficult to go in and rescue the ferrets, the day feels a whole lot longer. Dalton Smith and Jack Ellis travelled from Sheffield, two lads imbued to their bones with a characteristically northern love of the countryside. Last summer they came to pick up a brace of ferrets I had bred and I was keen not only to enjoy their company, but to see how those ferrets were…

E M Reilly is one of those names that fails to generate the degree of excitement that many of his contemporaries do today. However, one never sees a Reilly that is less than very good quality. The E M stands for Edward Michael and the ‘& Co’ was added in 1861. He held the 502 Oxford Street address from 1848 until 1882. The label helps us with the date by mentioning prizes won at the 1867 Paris Exhibition. The label, which is ink on paper, mentions other addresses, notably 315 Oxford Street (next door to Purdey, at the time). Reilly vacated those premises in 1869, helping us place this label quite precisely as between late 1867 and 1869.…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD Winter is generally a quieter time for birdsong. However, the February air begins to be filled with the melody of the most precocious songsters, the thrush family. The blackbird, mistle and song thrush are in full territorial voice by now, ahead of their rival garden favourites — the robin and wren — by a good month. The mistle thrush is rarer and larger than the song thrush, with a grey back and spotted, rather than speckled, breast. The mistle thrush’s melodious call supposedly foretells of incoming storms, hence its country name of ‘stormcock’. The windier the conditions, the louder the mistle thrush sings. In East Anglia, however, the mistle thrush is known by the less dramatic moniker of ‘throstle’, while a song thrush is called a…