Innholdsfortegnelse for 31-Aug-2022 i Shooting Times & Country

An early end to cereal harvesting has seen shooters out on stubble fields as they attempt to reduce the burden of future crop damage for farmers. The hot, dry weather that dominated across much of the country ripened cereal crops early and meant that combines were out weeks ahead of schedule. According to figures from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, harvesting of winter oilseed rape and barley is now complete and the only winter wheat still to be cut is in Scotland and the North-East of England. Traditional shooting of problem bird species to protect crops has been disrupted in recent years by legal challenges to the general licences. Anyone unsure of what can legally be shot should contact a shooting or gamekeeping organisation for advice. The harvest has…

A paper by Belgian scientists that claims released pheasants have significant negative effects on reptiles has been enthusiastically promoted by anti-shooting campaigners, although an expert has pointed out that the paper has some “serious flaws”. The effect of pheasants on adder numbers has been under scrutiny for some time, with herpetologists claiming that pheasants are pushing adders towards extinction, and gamebird experts pointing out that while adders are mainly found on open ground pheasants are released in woodland. The new paper from the Belgian team found no reptile species on sites where pheasants were released and three different reptile species on the control sites where no pheasants were released. However, pheasant expert Joah Madden, of the University of Exeter, questioned the methods used by the authors. Dr Madden pointed out…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Has bird flu done our sport a favour? We all know that in recent years there has been increasing scrutiny from our opponents about the number of pheasants and partridges released for shooting in the UK. Justifying the release of 50 or even 60 million birds is close to impossible when there is little or no market for the birds that are shot. Perhaps bird flu has done us a big favour, as it will certainly lead to a huge reduction in the number of birds released, which will inevitably lead to smaller bags, possibly even restoring the market for game (though, of course, shot with non-lead cartridges). It might also lead to more people discovering the satisfaction of small days, where the enjoyment of the…

Hari’s number appeared on my phone on Wednesday evening. It could only mean one thing. “They’re on the barley in the top field. Dozens of them!” “Diolch, Hari. I’ll be along on Friday and see what I can do.” When I started shooting, every farm in my part of Wales grew barley. Getting permission to shoot the woodpigeon before harvest was easy. With permission secured, I’d work out which fields were attracting the birds, where the flightlines were and where best to intercept the blue hordes, with Archie Coats’s dictum, “time spent on reconnaissance is never wasted”, in mind. My bags were never huge — 20 birds was a red-letter day — but the quality of the shooting, whether flighting or decoying, was second to none. Woodpigeons are masters of…

The towpath of the Waveney was chest high with dusty stinging nettle and magenta-coloured loosestrife. This floral barrier added to the challenge of finding a chubby-looking swim in which to trot a size 16 hook baited with writhing maggots. I spotted a likely place ahead of me. An arthritic crack willow bent its gnarled back over the slowly trundling water, casting a cooling shadow beneath. I spied a swirl in an eddy and my mind immediately raced to visions of plump chub holding station there. As I began to part the fronds to make my way from towpath to bankside, I discovered, with no little annoyance, another angler was already ensconced there. A large, shaven-headed man sporting serious biceps and a vest was staring intently into the water. His rod…

A couple of nights ago, I watched a splendid programme on Italian truffle hunters — beardy boys in knackered pickups, with dogs they loved more than their wives and children. Most of them were very old friends and family, happy to share their chianti, grappa and black olives — all jollity and la bella vita. Until, after a third grappa, one of the sons incautiously asked his father where he finds his truffles. The atmosphere immediately turned from sunny to arctic. Though Italian families are famously close, paternal affection has limits and papa cannot be pushed to reveal his favourite truffle haunts — not until he’s on his deathbed and the priest has read the last rites. This deep secrecy is not altogether surprising given Italian white truffles can sell…

Snipe have always fascinated me since I first used a gun, but the opportunity to shoot snipe constantly and not as the occasional bird did not come my way until I had been using a gun for some years. My battalion was ordered to move to Ireland and the gun, as usual, went with me, and I then got my first experience of being able to shoot snipe constantly and steadily. To begin with, we were in Co Down where the bogs were not particularly extensive, but were more in the nature of wet corners in the fields. These small pieces, however, are always most profitable, and if birds were at all wild would fill a bag as quickly as any of the large bogs. Here the birds were quiet…

NEWS Grouse is being offered on multiple menus at The Ritz London, despite claims in The Observer that the hotel had dropped it. The claim that the top hotel had abandoned grouse originated with anti-shooting campaign group Wild Moors, which claimed online that grouse had been dropped from the famous hotel’s menu. Wild Moors has a longstanding record for spreading claims around grouse shooting and within a few hours of it being circulated the story had already been widely debunked. Key to proving it was wrong was a recording of a telephone call in which the caller received confirmation from the hotel that it was simply waiting for the first birds of the season to arrive. This did not stop it being welcomed by Green Party peer Natalie Bennett, who…

The French government’s support for its hunters has continued with a halving of the cost of the hunting licence and a huge increase in the support provided to hunting associations. French hunters are a politically powerful group and president Emmanuel Macron has been keen to ensure their support. In the presidential election earlier this year, National Hunters’ Federation president Willy Schraen endorsed Macron, who was re-elected. Macron has cut the cost of hunting licences from €400 (£340) to €200 (£170). Macron’s government has also greatly increased the support provided to hunting organisations with grants rising from €27,000 (£22,800) to €6.3 million (£5.3 million) over the past five years. The change is partly due to increased numbers of hunters, but since 2019 hunting societies have taken over responsibilities from local governments…

There are no tigers in New Zealand, at least not in the wild. But there are sambar, a favourite food of tigers in India, where the large deer can keep a cat sated for days. Widespread throughout India, China and East Asia, sambar are the favoured prey of big cats — tiger, panther, clouded leopard and Asiatic lion — but are also taken by dholes (wild dogs), crocodiles and python. In New Zealand, their only predators are human beings, but that could be changing. Ironically, the deer might now be falling victim to another introduced species — the pine tree. “They are a blot on the landscape,” Gerald muttered as he and I crested a ridge that overlooked an expanse of lowland hill country: meandering creeks threading from twisted gullies…

The first Champion Stake for pointers and setters was held in April 1869 on Sir Vincent Corbet’s estate near Shrewsbury, 40 years before the first retriever championship and 45 ahead of the first spaniel championship. The judges at that inaugural Champion Stake were Viscount Combermere, Sir Vincent Corbet and Captain Denman and the trial was held in April on paired partridges. The winner of that first Champion Stake was Mr R Garth’s pointer dog Drake, who was, by contemporary accounts, a truly outstanding dog. For the next three years, the event was split into two sections, one for pointers and one for setters. Drake was the top pointer again in 1870, with Mr T Statter’s English setter dog Bruce winning the setter prize. From the earliest days, field trials were…

Greatest poachers When I was bound apprentice in famous Lincolnshire/ I served my master truly for nearly seven odd year/ Till I took up to poaching, as you shall quickly hear/ Oh, ’tis my delight on a shining night in the season of the year.” So goes the famous folk song The Lincolnshire Poacher, for this county has produced its share of such men, none more famous than Mackenzie (Kenzie) Thorpe of Sutton Bridge. Born of Romany stock in 1908, Mackenzie Thorpe demonstrated the instincts of a hunter from an early age. His father told a story about Kenzie once being lost, only to be discovered safe and well down a rabbit hole. School held little attraction. Truanting often, he was drawn to the woods and fields around Sutton Bridge…

On your shoot How far and how soon you let your poults spread out, will very much depend on the size and layout of your shoot. If the boundaries are tight or you have no alternative but to site your pens close to a minor road, a busy farmyard or even a neighbouring shoot that doesn’t play its part and relies on your birds for its shooting, you will want to keep them at home for as long as you can. When they do start exploring, you then need to be able to steer them away from any trouble, towards the centre of your shoot. Keeping them in the pen longer than the three or four weeks it takes them to settle down and learn to roost isn’t really an…

Across 5 The bird home pushes an aviation subsidiary to the outskirts (6) 7 Someone with a stable job should brush up on their dog care skills (5) 10 & 23 across After 3, steering control gets us a trip by car with off-road ability (4-5) 11 Trap-shooting, initially, has limited backing (3) 12 At a loss for feathers? (4) 14 Quality of clay target? (8) 16 A choice of bread for the tell-tale rodent (5,3) 17 A waterproof scope component gets the stamp of approval (4) 20 Depressed by bullet velocity (3) 21 Guns, guns, guns (9) 23 See 10 across 24 Mum’s excited to meet the Queen during Game Fair season (6) Down 1 A semi-auto system requires US petrol according to an FBI agent (3-3) 2 Blows…

Shoots are continuing to experience problems with receiving pheasants as supply chains for gamebirds remain disrupted by the outbreak of avian influenza in France. A severe outbreak of the disease ravaged poultry and game farms in the north-west of France earlier this year. The gamebird-producing departments of Vendée and Loire-Atlantique were particularly badly affected. The outbreak was brought under control early in the summer, but the lack of birds, combined with inherited EU regulations, prevented a swift resumption of exports. This left many shoots short on birds. In response, a number of shoots agreed to take birds much later than normal, with some agreeing to take deliveries as late as September. However, several of them are now being left disappointed as game farmers fail to deliver. One Scottish shoot operator…

NEWS Shooting organisations have pushed back on a Welsh government proposal to review the release of gamebirds in Wales. The Welsh Labour government has pursued what many see as an anti-shooting agenda in recent years, with an end to shooting on land managed by Natural Resources Wales, no COVID-19 grant support for some shoots and significant new restrictions on the use of the general licences. The initial call for evidence on the release of gamebirds closed on 22 August after running for only six weeks and civil servants at Natural Resources Wales have said they will present a ‘preferred option’ to ministers later this year. Countryside Alliance claimed that the timescales were far too short for proper consideration, pointing out that Defra, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and Natural…

You have to be aware before you even contemplate walking-up a grouse what might be involved. Let’s begin with the weather. You’ve never seen a picture of happy, smiling people walking-up grouse in torrential rain. Or mist. Or cloud. This is because cameras do not work well in torrential rain, thick mist or low cloud. It is also the case that people under such circumstances are very seldom happy. Or smiling. If they are out, they will be cold, wet and miserable, wishing they were back in the lodge playing cards. And if they are back in the lodge playing cards they will be grim-faced and grumpy because their precious and much anticipated day of walking-up grouse has been cancelled because of the weather. Aye, it’s a right chancy business…

The history of keepering In 1990 two paintings by the realist artist George Earl were discovered in a Liverpool pub. Going North, Kings Cross Station and Coming South, Perth Station, painted in 1893, were commissioned by Sir Andrew Barclay Walker. These two artworks give a valuable insight into the life of an upper-class family going to, and returning from, a stalking, shooting and fishing trip to Scotland. Going North shows the party waiting for the 10am train to Perth, and depicts the wealthy passengers, their servants, young daughter with her Indian nanny, a gamekeeper, grooms, footmen and dogs, on their way to a sporting country retreat. The dogs appear to be setters and pointers, which means that the game was walked-up and grooms would indicate not just the use of…

OUR VERDICT I have tested quite a few Lithgow rimfires of late but I’d never had the chance to engage with the centrefire version of the Crossover model, a stalking rifle with a fine pedigree. Lithgow Arms, based in New South Wales, has that typical Aussie bloodyminded sort of ethic and it shows in the rifles it produces. Since 1912, Lithgow small arms have been used in conflicts from Gallipoli during the Great War to modern-day conflicts in Afghanistan. This Crossover model blends a technically and materially superior-made bolt action with integral Picatinny scope rail fixture, single stage adjustable trigger, Tikka T3 compatible detachable magazines to keep the costs down, and an easy handling wing-type three-position safety for ease of use. You also get a superb, hard-wearing ‘chuck it in…

Georgie Stanford still considers herself relatively new to the sphere of professional shooting instruction. Enquire about her journey so far, however, and you’ll glean an understanding of the secrets to potential longevity in her chosen field. Georgie’s willingness to learn is abundantly clear. “I can’t emphasise enough the value of shadowing a reputable shooting instructor,” she asserts, referencing her two years spent training at Holland & Holland’s shooting ground in Northwood, London, while setting up as a freelance coach. In Georgie’s case, that exemplary figure was H&H head instructor Nathan Dudley, whom she watched and learned from over many lessons with lots of different people, each with their own style, experience level and goals. She looks back on that time fondly. “It was an opportunity that came about after I…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD The end of August sees the maincrop potato harvest in full swing. The spud first arrived in Europe in the 16th century, brought back from South America by explorers. Today, thanks to selective breeding and the influence of different soil types, there are thousands of potato varieties, about 500 of which are found in the UK. A survey by the NFU in the 1980s revealed a north/south divide in our taste for potatoes. Northerners appeared to prefer a floury variety, while southerners voted for a waxy tuber. It is estimated that the average Brit eats 105kg of potatoes per year, with our national favourite the roasting and chipping staple, the King Edward. It’s not only we humans who love a spud. A sure-fire hotspot to shoot…