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

BASC has expelled two members who were found guilty of wildlife and firearms offences. One was found guilty of unlawfully using a trap after a sparrowhawk starved to death. Crow cage traps are a vital tool for corvid control and are used by farmers and gamekeepers protecting livestock and wild bird species. However, the law requires they are checked every 24 hours and any birds caught by accident are released, which the member failed to do. He was fined £800, plus £85 costs and £80 victim surcharge. A member from Suffolk was expelled after police found illegal pesticides and evidence of firearms offences during a search. The searches followed the discovery by a member of the public of a buzzard that had been poisoned with the pesticide bendiocarb. In unlocked…

A new governing body for all hunting with hounds could be introduced as the fallout from the trial of Mark Hankinson, the director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association (MFHA), continues. Hankinson was found guilty of encouraging illegal hunting after a video of a webinar he was conducting was obtained by hunt saboteurs (News, 27 October 2021). Currently, traditional foxhunting packs, minkhounds, Fell packs, harriers, beagles, basset hounds and deerhounds all have their own representative bodies. The new proposal would bring all these groups under a single umbrella. A separate ‘regulatory authority’ would deal with matters of discipline and standards. Andrew Osborne, chairman of the MFHA, said: “There is an urgent need for change in the governance of hunting to address the perception of our activities. If we get this…

DANGEROUS THREATS There are many threats facing the way of life that we all hold so dear — some would call it a hobby, but for many of us it really is a way of life from cradle to grave. There are relentless attacks by television presenter Chris Packham and his misguided army of wokery, to the appalling dishonesty of the BBC and the mainstream media, not to mention the emerging political attacks beginning to manifest themselves in Wales and Scotland. But make no mistake, the biggest threat of all is the common denominator that links us all, rough shooter, pigeon shooter, driven game shooter, wildfowler, stalker or clay shooter: the legal ownership of a gun. Make no mistake, there are those in high places who would happily wipe out…

Cumulus clouds did mighty battle overhead, rafting and piling themselves into stacks and snakes, riptides and rushes, like smoke streaming from onrushing steam trains. Beyond them, the ice-blue skies were winter’s last gasps. Wheatears sought respite from the storms, facing north like compass needles. Shots from near the release pen, from the woods and from the farmyard were blown across the marshes and far out to sea. It was a glorious, angry day for a team effort at corvid control. “Rooks swirled like starlings, jackdaws and crows lifted” Enough Guns to ambush 15 game covers had been assembled to do battle with crows. I was one of the fortunate team. When all the maize on a sprawling estate such as Liam Fearis’s Old Church Shoot in Essex is cut at…

Amid the ghastly images from Ukraine, some of the only light relief are the videos of plucky farmers in tractors, towing captured tanks and missile systems down muddy lanes. If their barrels are not pointed back at Putin’s soldiers, they will be hidden under tarpaulins and cannibalised for spares. Oil and gas prices obsess the world now, but within a few months it will be global food shortages, since Ukraine’s eastern regions are where a sizable chunk of the world’s wheat, barley, maize and sunflower grows. The staple food in much of the Muslim world is bread. Take a family’s bread away and you’ve got a riot. The tractors, the downed choppers in unplanted fields and convoys up to their axles in mud — all these remind me that even…

Digital day and night riflescopes combine the stealth of infrared imaging for after-dark concealment with full-colour viewing for shooting in the daytime. That means they provide a sighting solution for round-the-clock pest control, covering everything from long-range rabbit and fox shooting to farmyard ratting with an airgun. Owing to their digital internals, these optics boast features that you won’t find on the average glass telescopic sight. Single-shot zeroing, multiple reticle designs and colours, video recording and photo capture are now regarded as standard fare. These sights have become a lot more affordable in recent years, but they still amount to a significant outlay for most shooters. The two models featured in this test both combine a sub-£1,000 price tag with reliability, a raft of high-tech features and, most importantly when…

In 1998, in a portable building on the outskirts of the small Suffolk town of Eye, a business opened selling cleaning products. We are not talking about the duck-shaped stuff that you squirt around the toilet bowl, more the caustic and potentially skin-removing variety that farmers and local authority workers use. David Tennens took over the business from his brother in 2003 and, like most savvy businessmen, exploited an opportunity to expand. When Jimmy Ling, the much-loved gunsmith of Hoxne, retired and closed his establishment, this region, so rich in shooting lore, was suddenly without a gunshop. David began selling cartridges and then, in 2007, he employed Ian ‘Pinhead’ Lange to focus on the sporting side of the Workwear business. One of the main reasons I have chosen this unlikely…

Do I need a chronograph? AIRGUNNING Q I want to tune my pre-charged airgun to optimise its performance with different pellets and slugs. Will I need a chronograph to do this properly? A Tuning a pre-charged airgun usually entails tweaking regulator pressure, along with hammer spring tension and the valve, in order to get the most suitable power output for whatever ammunition you are using. While it may be possible to judge your results simply by shooting groups to test accuracy, measuring muzzle velocity will give a clearer view as to what effect any adjustments have made, not only in terms of power gain but also consistency. While having a chronograph to gauge the results of any tweaks is desirable when tuning an FAC-rated airgun, it is absolutely essential for…

BY HER OWN ADMISSION, KATIE Hargreaves is a novice deerstalker. “I have dabbled in it for years and most of the time it is with a camera or just to watch them,” she says. “I’ve taken my DSC1 [Deer Stalking Certificate Level One] and that made me keener to get out there more.” The camera is an important part of Katie’s art because she works mainly from photographs, creating striking images with charcoal and chalk, using her hands, a dry brush and a pencil rubber to apply and blend. “I love photography but am not really good enough to get the right pictures, so I use wildlife photographers’ work as a reference,” she explains. “I find images on Instagram and it’s easy to directly message them to ask permission [to…

A serious outbreak of avian influenza has hit producers in the west of France, with potentially serious effects for the UK’s shooting season. The possibility of disruption to the supply of birds from farms was highlighted last week (News, 16 March). The west of France, particularly the departments of Vendée and Loire-Atlantique, are crucial to the supply of chicks and eggs to the UK game production industry. An outbreak began with a series of cases in commercial duck production premises in the area earlier this month and has rapidly spread. In response, the French government has introduced a series of strict measures intended to control the outbreak and protect the French poultry industry. These include mass culls of birds and strict controls on the movement of adult birds, chicks and…

CREATE Not every pond has to be deep and full all year. Ephemeral ponds, which appear in wet weather and disappear in dry spells, are great for amphibians, because the fish that eat their tadpoles can’t get established in them. So if you are perhaps planning to create a few conservation ponds (see p34), consider some that will dry up in the summer. CHECK If you are expecting a shipment of partridge poults later this year, it may be a good idea to speak to your game farmer and make some contingency plans. The situation in Europe is rapidly changing, but disruption to partridge poult supplies is a real possibility (see lead story, left) — better to take action now than be caught out later.…

More than 40 Scottish sporting estates have offered to house Ukrainian refugees as the conflict in the country intensifies. Dee Ward, vice-chairman at Scottish Land & Estates, said: “Estates in Scotland are very keen to help in any way they can to those fleeing the devastation in Ukraine. “We are under no illusion how difficult it will be for Ukrainians coming to stay here, especially in the short term, but we want to work with the Scottish and UK governments to provide opportunities for individuals and families where we can.” Meanwhile, the Scottish government is continuing to look closely at a number of other Scottish estates as it hunts for the hidden assets of Russian oligarchs. Among the properties under scrutiny is Tulchan Estate. The 22,000-acre Speyside property is often…

Early spring is a crucial time for deer managers, and I spend a lot of time on the ground monitoring deer movement and activity. Both sexes are becoming more active as the days lengthen, with the does feeding longer as embryos develop and the bucks thinking about territories and starting to fray. With the cover down, we are still experiencing ground frosts and deer are becoming more visible as they are drawn out to feed on young tender shoots and buds, which are now emerging full of nutrients in the forest and hedge margins. It is time to assess if cull targets were correctly set. Deer have a habit of disappearing, which can lead you to hold off on shooting before you reach your original target, only for them to…

Beyond the romance and the abdication, another element that certainly influenced the exceptional 1991 Sotheby’s sale of the Purdey shotguns was Edward’s impact on the world stage while a young man. His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales (pictured with Wallis Simpson), served in the Army during World War I and his experience is well documented. He received the Military Cross after serving in France and witnessing war in the terrible trenches. He gained a pilot’s licence in 1918 and remained popular with veterans’ groups across Britain. During the 1920s and 30s, the Prince of Wales gained quite a reputation as a ladies’ man and social bon vivant, sometimes to the chagrin of the royal family and the consternation of the government. His dashing good looks only heightened the aura…

The first day of March, we are told, marks the beginning of meteorological spring. I am not sure what other sorts of spring there are but, for me at least, as surely as 1 September is the first day of my autumn, so 1 March marks the end of my winter and ushers in another spring, even if it is snowing. I like winter and the sport it brings very much indeed, but I have had enough of it by the end of February, especially when February consists of a succession of wild storms with silly names. By the end of a particularly wet and windy second month of 2022, I was readier than usual and I was exceedingly happy to greet March’s first day as the opening day of…

Throughout the year, but particularly in bitterly cold, frosty weather and the winter months, the majority of woodpigeons will usually seek a feed at first light, flighting from their roosting woods to their regular feeding grounds. You can be fairly certain of obtaining some early sport if you are decoying on a field that the birds are using and can be ready in a hide before they arrive. Frequently during the winter months, you may kill several pigeons during the first hour at dawn as they drop in from the woods, but after this initial flight is over, you will find that — especially where there are alternative feeding grounds in the vicinity — sport may become slow or peter out altogether. The policy to adopt concerning these early pigeons…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD On 24 March 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez came to grief in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, tearing open its single hull on Bligh Reef. The accident caused 11 million gallons of crude oil to be expelled into the sea, creating an oil slick that stretched for eight miles, end to end. Despite ExxonMobil claiming “the ecosystem in Prince William Sound is [once more] healthy, robust and thriving”, conservationists and local residents say wildlife continues to feel the effects of the disaster 33 years after the spill. While salmon have returned, the shoals of Pacific herring now avoid the seas here. As a result, populations of many seabird species, notably pigeon guillemots and black oystercatchers, have dwindled or failed. Last year, mink were culled on Naked Island…

Confusion surrounds a proposed ban on hunting trophy imports. At the weekend, the Guardian claimed that the proposal to ban the import of hunting trophies was set to be dropped. It supported its reporting with quotes from anonymous ‘senior sources’ and the story was picked up by a number of other outlets, including the Mirror, which has campaigned for the ban. The Mirrorcited its own sources for the claim that “pressure on Parliamentary time because of the war in Ukraine has scuppered the plan”. However, it was rapidly contradicted by the BBC, which quoted yet another set of anonymous Conservative Party sources who described the claims that the proposal was being dropped as “complete nonsense”. Shooting Times understands that shooting organisations are working on the basis that the ban will…

Wild Justice has been forced to make an embarrassing climbdown from its latest claim of victory. The campaign group announced earlier this month that it would challenge the inclusion of gamebirds as livestock for the purposes of using general licence GL42 to protect them from predation (News, 16 February). It appears to have hoped that by preventing the control of corvids to protect gamebirds, it could disrupt shooting activities. However, gamekeepers have pointed out that losses of adult gamebirds to corvids are not generally very high. Explaining its legal case, Wild Justice argued that Defra had acted outside its powers by broadening the definition of livestock from that in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It went on to make a high-profile claim that Defra had conceded the group’s main…

Success for flatcoats at this year’s Crufts A flatcoat retriever has taken top honours in the Gamekeepers’ Ring at Crufts. The powerfully built dogs are considered to be the original keeper’s dog and dominated the shooting field before the arrival of the labrador. Entry into the Gamekeepers’ Ring is restricted to working gundogs and this year’s winner Ruger (below) has just completed his first working season. There was further success for flatcoat retrievers when a liver-coloured six-year-old from Norway called Baxer landed the Best in Show honours — only the third time the breed has done so since 1928. Hospitals to offer a taste of game No one looks forward to a trip to hospital, but there may be some consolation for fieldsports enthusiasts — their meals may include a…

The Army Ranger Wing is Ireland’s Tier One Military Special Operations unit. It has both conventional and counterterrorism roles and is structured around the US Special Forces Land, Sea and Air model. Within this framework, my specialist skill set centred on sniping, reconnaissance and land mobility. We were all trained in the basics of land, maritime and air insertion, whether it was fast-roping in darkness on to the X, parachuting from above the clouds, helocasting into the icy sea or finning from a RIB for hours in your drysuit — I have fond memories of it all. These methods are very physical and pretty demanding, but even in a world of drones and cyberattacks, they are still considered essential. In my hunting I get to employ my old skills of…

Sotheby’s had enticed them and, shoulder to shoulder, they pressed into the saleroom, black ties and evening gowns shuffling towards an extraordinary pair of guns. On this night — 18 June 1991 — the exclusive Beau Rivage Hotel in Geneva, its chandeliers shimmering with anticipation, was the white-hot focus of the fine firearms universe. “The atmosphere in the saleroom was electric,” remembers firearms expert and auctioneer Gavin Gardiner. “This was the pre-internet world and a time when relatively few people hid behind agents or telephones for their bidding. The room was packed with almost all the significant collectors from around the world.” The wave of excitement approached its crest as the presale buzz lived up to the high-profile billing. Shouts and gestures of approval rang out as a princely matched…

People often ask me if they should add a duck pond to their shoot but, like so many simple questions, there isn’t a simple answer. Some will be outspoken in their disapproval, having witnessded ducks in a fithy, muddy enviroment — which is of no conservation value— with apparently no desire to fly. But if you get it right, a well thought-out pond can be a first-class addition to your shoot. Introducing a pond should add variety and possibly more challenging shooting. In terms of expenses, ducks provide a better prospect than partridges and are easier to rear than pheasants. Their shovel-like beaks will mean a higher food bill than other releases, but with luck a higher return as well. Water features can really add to the conservation value of…

Some time ago, I wrote a piece on the ‘joys’ of dragging a safe out of a deep pool, fishing out nappies and dodging hypodermic needles, one Saturday in January (Restoring the Wandle, 10 May 2018). I raised a call to arms to get everyone into our rivers to clear them of junk and for fishermen to give something back. But I confess I’ve probably only been once since that article was published. I moved house, the trout season started and lockdown life became the norm. All these excuses and I reverted to being an armchair conservationist, a sofa scientist and, worst of all, I lamented endlessly that we needed to do more while doing very little. What I found strange is how few of the volunteers clearing that river…

I well remember my first serious encounter with a muntjac. It was on a rough day in Northamptonshire in the 1990s. At the time, I lived in Kent, where we had no muntjac, so my spaniels had never come across these diminutive deer before. I was hunting a hedge with my two spaniels, mother and daughter, when they came across a muntjac doe with a small fawn. My senior spaniel retrieved the latter, while her daughter chased the doe. My spaniel was soft-mouthed, so I was able to release the fawn unharmed. I look back on my action with some guilt, for I really should have been sensible enough to have tapped the youngster on the head. Muntjac are a serious menace in the countryside and every opportunity should be…

Situated amid the fertile north-east lowlands of Scotland, near the market town of Inverurie on the borders of Aberdeenshire and historic Banffshire, the 19,000-acre Keith Hall estate was considered to be one of the finest pheasant shoots north of the border by Edwardian sporting journalists and agents. Seat of the Keith-Falconer family, Earls of Kintore, from 1661 until 1984, the estate was gradually broken up and disposed of between 1914 and 1965, when all that remained was the baronial-style mansion, the landscaped gardens and 635 acres of the surrounding land. Walked-up shooting started in the vicinity of blocks of woodland that had been planted in the 1730s, but sport did not start to take precedence over farming at Keith Hall until Adrian Keith-Falconer, the 7th Earl of Kintore, inherited the…

With the season done and dusted, and the coat hung up for another summer, it’s only normal to look back and take stock. This season hasn’t been without its challenges — hounds have hunted 52 days and four days were lost to the weather. My first thanks must go to the ever-supportive landowners and farmers who, like countless others up and down the country, continue to welcome hounds during the season. Luckily, the wet weather of the previous two seasons didn’t materialise, or not to the same extent, which certainly helped keep country open. We had some excellent days of sport. We took hounds to hunt the Fernie country in November and, despite the whipper-in coming off and breaking a leg, we had a memorable day around Hallaton. Hounds produced…

This paper label looks like an old copy of an original, made and pasted into the lid of a gun case. William Rochester Pape was a prominent gunmaker in the mid-1800s and, as this label states, he patented choke boring in 1866, the first man in England to do so. He was outsmarted by W W Greener in the perfecting and marketing of choke boring and became embittered, seemingly stooping to cheating in some of the trials in which he participated. His North of England Gun Works sounds grander than it was and most of the work was done in Birmingham. The business traded from Collingwood Street from 1902 to 1937.…

We are getting to that time of year when cows that have been overwintered in sheds are being let out into the fields again. Inevitably, there is a certain amount of conflict between free-range cattle and walkers exercising their right to ramble. The situation reminds me of a visit I once made to the Morgan Car Company’s factory in Malvern. Today, I believe, you get taken round by a tour guide. But when I went, you could walk round on your own. I was fascinated to see how these cars are put together by skilled craftsmen. The only stipulation was that you had to stay within two parallel red lines painted on the factory floor as you meandered through the various workshops. The idea of the red lines was to…