Innholdsfortegnelse for 23-Feb-2022 i Shooting Times & Country

France and Spain have taken steps to help control their booming populations of wild boar. The wild pigs have been increasing in number throughout Europe and have begun to cause significant problems. Earlier this month, a Spanish singer was killed in a multi-car pile-up after a boar ran on to the highway near Bayonne in France. Leire Iribarne, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident; seven others were injured. Now the Spanish region of Murcia has announced a ‘temporary hunting emergency’ and has authorised the use of night vision and thermal scopes to hunt the animals. The regional government said it had done so to “reduce damage to crops and biodiversity, avoid traffic accidents and reduce the transmission of swine fever and other diseases”. In France, bowhunting…

While it is very likely none of my business, I will jump into the heated debate over lead shot currently taking place in the UK. If anything, it makes me sad. The most important thing to remember is the simple fact that lead is a poison. And what better way to spread poison into our environment than to shape it into small pellets and shoot those from a gun? In the US, waterfowlers have been shooting steel for nearly 40 years. The first years were unpleasant, to put it mildly. Unless careful, you could find yourself in a fist fight over the issue. But you know what? After a few years things calmed down, hunters found that steel works well and the debate largely disappeared. Today there is a whole…

We all have red-letter days that stand out strong in our minds; they serve as fodder for lively conversations, warming memories for cold winter nights and inspiration to fuel new adventures. For me, 2020-21 will forever be remembered as a red-letter season of sorts. It represented a coming of age in my working relationship with my Clumber and was a period when time after time, everything simply came together. “Time after time, everything simply came together” The setting was the three woods I wrote about a couple of years ago (Easy come, easy go, 16 November 2020). An amazing wild tangle, untouched by footpaths, livestock and sporting pressure, they had been left unmanaged since they were planted. This had allowed a build-up of dense cover amid mossy piles of fallen…

With the end of the game and wildfowling seasons, some may be putting away their guns. However, pigeons hereabouts are feeding voraciously on rape and the rooks are waiting for the spring drilling to commence. While the grey partridges pair up, the carrion crows and magpies are keeping watch for their nesting sites. Late winter and early spring is a time to get ahead with pest control. Choosing cartridges for this essential cull of agricultural pests and predators of red-listed birds is tough. Price is, of course, a factor, yet there’s no point using a substandard load when you are faced with the opportunity to sort a corvid problem. Equally, if meaningful impacts are to be made on pigeons, you will be shooting a good number of cartridges. If you…

Around this time of year I often wonder if those Members of Parliament deliberating in 1831 on the new Game Laws actually intended it to be lawful to shoot game on 1 February. Somehow I doubt it, but by a strange quirk of fate the parliamentary draftsmen of the day produced a text which made it an offence only to kill “any pheasant between the first day of February and the first day of October in any year.” Did the use of the crucial word ‘between’ make it a fortunate accident that the close season starts not on the first, but the second day of February? Accident or not, the season’s over now, and we have another seven months before low-ground shooting opens once more. But that does not mean…

The second of February was a soft, still day under cloud and, while wandering round High Park — without a gun, of course — dunnocks and robins were telling me that things were moving on, that winter was slackening its grip. Chiming tits and drumming woodpeckers were giving me the same message and, from the top of a tall tree, a mistle thrush was shouting out his agreement for all to hear. But while the birds were looking forward to the spring of the year, I was looking back to the month just past and telling myself how much I had enjoyed my January sport. There had been some fine Saturdays on my syndicate shoot near Shap. Bags towards the end had been smaller than earlier in the season, which…

Modern-day travellers driving along the M4 motorway through the outskirts of the industrial town of Port Talbot in South Wales would be extremely surprised to learn that they were crossing land which just over 80 years ago formed a part of the vast 40,000-acre Margam estate. Seat of the immensely wealthy Talbot family, landowners of aristocratic descent who made a fortune out of coal mining, iron manufacturing, port ownership and railways during the Victorian period, the property was rated by The Tatler in 1937 as one of the best shoots in Wales. Though bag sizes were modest in comparison with those taken on some of the more prestigious English sporting properties at the time. Owned by the Mansel family from the dissolution of Margam Abbey until 1750, the Margam Estate…

Since Hector’s departure to hospital in Oban, poor Flora had gone off her food and been acutely miserable, but as I came out on to the steps in front of Ardnashiell before lunch one dry February morning, she did seem to have recovered her spirits to some extent. She and Heron were chasing each other madly around the lawn. Perhaps it was that the two dogs sensed that spring was round the corner. For the time being, all the snow had disappeared from the low-lying ground, though it still glistened on the tops in the pale February sunshine. My uncle wandered out and gazed at the two dogs, which were gambolling like puppies, instead of mature and seasoned gundogs. “Hmm, Flora seems to have recovered her spirits,” he said. Somehow…

People cheered when the court cleared a farmer in County Durham after he used a telehandler to shift a car that was obstructing the driveway to his farm. The lager-drinking young male car driver was allegedly abusive and violent when asked to move his vehicle, so the farmer proceeded to do it for him — in dramatic fashion. Two quotes from the defence stuck in my mind: “An Englishman’s home is his castle”, first proclaimed 400 years ago, and Mike Tyson’s more recent saying: “Everybody has a plan until you get punched in the mouth.” During the trial, the prosecution asked why the farmer didn’t simply call the police to deal with the matter. That would have brought hollow laughter from many country folk. The farmer pointed out that he…

An investigation by Shooting Times has revealed that members of a Facebook group are openly promoting hare coursing, badger-baiting and even dog fighting. In mid-2021, we were made aware of well-known hare coursers who were openly bragging about their illegal exploits on Facebook groups. In response, we began joining a number of these groups to monitor what was being posted. Most groups proved innocuous, or their members were discreet about what they posted. However, one group stood out. Due to the criminal nature of some of the activities described, we are not naming that group. The majority of the material posted in the group concerned entirely legal activities such as ferreting, coursing rabbits with sighthounds and ratting with terriers. But there were signs that the group may host more suspicious…

An extraordinary row has broken out over the death of a white-tailed eagle in Dorset. Dorset Police stated: “Sadly, two of the reintroduced white-tailed eagles have recently been recovered dead on multi-agency operations in the south of England, including one in Dorset in late January. An investigation is under way to ascertain the cause of death of both birds, which are undergoing post-mortem and toxicological examination.” Shooting Times understands the other bird was recovered in Sussex last year. Both birds were released by Sea Eagle England, a partnership project between Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, on the Isle of Wight. Multi-agency operations — involving police officers, RSPB staff, the Health and Safety Executive, Defra or the APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency) — are the usual approach…

Shoot raises £2,365 to improve care A Shropshire shoot has given more than £2,000 to aid medical care and research. Pradoe Shoot handed a cheque for £2,365 to the Orthopaedic Institute. The shoot, based near Oswestry, makes an annual donation to a cause that has a personal connection to one of its members. Fundraiser Debra Alexander said: “The funds will go towards research and education for patient benefit, helping to improve methods of treatment and care across specialist areas within the hospital, including arthritis, rheumatism and nursing.” Tax dollars to fund conservation in US Tax on hunting, shooting and fishing equipment has contributed a record $1.5 billion (around £1.1 billion) to conservation efforts in the US. The tax from these items goes straight into the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration…

We are not all blessed with large estates in Norfolk, where light soil and sun can maintain wild pheasants and partridges in number, producing a shootable and edible surplus. But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t, wherever we are, try to apply the same principles that our wild bird shooting cousins do. Farming needs to be sympathetic and predator control kept up. One benefit of looking after game is, of course, that other fragile species thrive; turtle dove, yellowhammer and lapwing to name but a few. Nonetheless, most of us will have to put down birds in one way or another. Poults or ex-layers are an option, but rearing is another. It’s not for the fainthearted but it does have a lot going for it, not least because poults now cost…

Magic is in the air. It is in the tearing wind that roars and rages across the mountains. In the multicoloured carpet of sphagnum moss lighting up the heather with flashes of crimson, claret, shamrock green and burnt tobacco. In the might and majesty of Schiehallion looming overhead, its conical summit rising imperiously over the glens one minute and ghosting behind swirling clouds the next. It’s there too in the little droplets of water splashing up from the boot-trodden heather, that catch the sunlight and glint like cascading diamonds. And there is magic, of course, in our quest to stalk a red hind in the depths of a Scottish winter. “It makes you feel alive,” says Richard Barclay, our host and stalker at Innerhadden, his 5,000-acre estate in Perthshire, raising…

Infrared riflescopes are popular with shooters who don’t want to compromise their concealment with a beam of light when targeting nocturnal pests. While these stealthy optics don’t need a light source in the conventional sense, they do need infrared light and, in most cases, that comes from an infrared illuminator. Some infrared riflescopes come with an illuminator that is either integral to their design or attached via a mount; others require you to buy one separately. Even if your infrared optic was sold with an illuminator, upgrading to a more powerful one will increase its detection range and improve image quality at closer distances. It will also increase runtime if you’re using an optic with an illuminator that draws power from the main battery. 1 Night Master NM1 XL…

There can be few people who would fail to recognise a red stag. With its majestic branching antlers, Britain’s largest land animal features on everything from biscuit tins and gift wrap to holiday postcards and a thousand pub signs. Landseer’s classic Monarch of the Glen is a true icon of the Highlands, but from Inverness to Exmoor, the image of the antlered stag represents to many of us the very spirit of wilderness and the great outdoors. The red deer has been a natural quarry for hunters down the ages. Its size and grandeur inevitably made it the preferred quarry of the nobility, and from the early Middle Ages it was preserved for hunting in dedicated forests and chases where penalties for unlawful killing or taking deer were severe —…

HISTORIC HELPING HAND This label from the case lid of an H Holland hammergun — Harris Holland started what became Holland & Holland — shows the loading data the owner could apply when loading for different quarries. Loads vary from more powerful and with bigger shot: 3½ drams of powder under 1¼oz of No 6 shot, for example, or 3¼ drams of powder over 1¹/8oz of ‘snipe shot’, which would be about No 8. These old labels are of a lot of help to modern shooters who wish to replicate the loads for which a gun may have been regulated originally.…

Tree protection, not grouse moor management, continues to be the overriding reason why mountain hares are being killed under licence in Scotland. Shooting Times asked NatureScot to provide details of all the licences issued for mountain hare control in Scotland in 2021. These covered two categories: out-of-season licences, which have been required since the close season was introduced in 2011, and the new ‘in-season licences’, which were introduced after a last-minute legislative amendment by the Scottish Green Party in 2020. The data showed that all of the licences issued by the agency except one were for “preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuff for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, fisheries or inland water”. They all also related to areas fenced with rabbit netting, a practice typical on new forestry plantations.…

Thirteen working gundogs aged between seven months and six years were killed when Storm Dudley brought down a tree on to a power line. The animals — two working cockers and 11 working labradors — were electrocuted in their kennel. Offers of support have flooded in after the tragic accident at Cuckavalda Gundogs, near Ampleforth in North Yorkshire. The line, which is reported to have been an 11,000-volt transmission cable carrying power to a local substation, struck a kennel block, killing all the animals inside. Northern Powergrid switched off part of the network for a number of hours. As the gundog world offered condolences and support, a spokesman for Cuckavalda Gundogs said: “Jack, Anna and Tom would like to thank everyone who has shown their concern and given help and…

February offers an annual treat for wildfowlers. Game shooters have put away their guns, while coastal fowlers relish the best sport of the season during the shortest month. Inland, you sense the change of season with snowdrops heralding the approach of spring. Not so on the foreshore. February, despite longer days, is often the coldest month and winter was still showing its teeth with snow on the foothills of Eryri this year. A fellow fowler reported geese, mainly greylags, flighting from the estuary to nearby fields each morning. It was unusual for geese to be here at this time of year because they prefer the open fields along the coast. Here, they’re rarely disturbed and can find ample grazing as well as numerous splashes for some anserine R&R. If I…

This week I’ve been remembering all the old hunters of East Africa while browsing Nairobi’s gun dealer armouries, which are like firearms museums in which classics and curiosities dating back to Victorian times are stacked. After years of waiting and rigorous security checks, my application to add a shotgun to my firearms licence was finally approved. Obtaining a permit to import a new firearm is much harder than finding something that’s already at the dealers in-country. Since all forms of sport hunting are banned in Kenya, including bird shooting, the only reason to be given permission for a shotgun is security. On my ranch in northern Kenya, the shotgun is a useful tool for stockmen guarding a boma, or cattle kraal, at night. We still have plenty of lions, one…

As I write, we are having the first meaningful rain in what seems an eternity. It has been the driest start to a new year I can remember. Since the end of November there doesn’t seem to have been much at all and that has had a very real effect on the hunting. It got to a point last week where you could see dust coming off the tramlines behind our trail-laying quad, something unheard of for this time of year. So hopefully this rain will continue and with it some scent appears. The wetter the better is the order of the day at the moment. We welcomed the Grafton hounds to the Oakley country recently for a joint meet. While we don’t have a huntable border, the M1 is…

Within the law of the land LOCKING KNIVES I keep being told by shooting friends that it is illegal to carry a knife with a locking blade. If this is so, why are they allowed to be sold? Section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 deals with carrying knives in a public place. There is a statutory defence at Section 139(2) for carrying a knife with a folding blade with a cutting edge less than 3in long in a public place. However, settled law says that the knife must be capable of folding at all times, which precludes knives with locking blades. Section 139(4) offers the general defence of ‘good reason’ for carrying any knife in a public place. There is no definition of what good reason means as…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD The saying “give a dog a bad name and he will live up to it” was first recorded in 1706. Naming your dog is a minefield. Appellations that work for puppies can become toe-curling embarrassments in adulthood. Imagine having to repeatedly shout for Bark Twain while out for a walk on the beach with your family? Non-doggy parents, upon meeting an Alsatian named Arnie or a Staffy called Bullseye, are guaranteed to snatch their child away in horror, however garrulous your machomonikered hound may be. ‘Doing a Fenton’ has made its way into the slang dictionary, in honour of the YouTube sensation labrador of that name, whose owner is thought to be still trying to catch his deer-chasing mutt in Richmond Park. According to the Metro,…