Innholdsfortegnelse for 7-Sep-2022 i Shooting Times & Country

We live in a world where things are forever getting banned. From smoking down the pub to lead shot. Yesterday I was hit with another. My girlfriend said to me that, frankly, she’d had enough of me talking about my new Brandecosse boots and she’d rather I didn’t mention them again. She’s right — when I get into a particular bit of kit, I do go on. Brandecosse, based in Dumfriesshire, came into being when Hunter (also previously based in south-west Scotland) packed up and went abroad. The then managing director saw a gap in the market and Brandecosse was born. The boots are designed in Scotland with the rigours of fieldsports in mind and are made in Italy. What I like about Brandecosse, other than its brilliant products, is…

The owner of a cocker spaniel snatched from a vehicle at The Game Fair has made an emotional appeal for her return. Garret Marson, the owner and handler of Ivy, a golden cocker bitch, made the appeal as he marked the five-week anniversary of Ivy’s theft. Garret told Shooting Times: “Friday marks five weeks since our Ivy was taken, and every day is a struggle for us. Our little ray of golden sunshine is out there somewhere. We just want her back.” Addressing whoever took Ivy, Garret said: “Please just do the right thing. Ivy has been a part of our family since she was eight weeks old. Our family now has a hole in it and will until the day she is returned safely. Ivy is such an affectionate…

ISSN: 0037-4164 Shooting Times, Future PLC, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR For editorial enquiries: shootingtimes@futurenet.com For picture enquiries: max.tremlett@futurenet.com Subscription enquiries: 0330 333 1113 help@magazinesdirect.com Subscription delays Disruption remains within UK and international delivery networks. Please allow up to seven days before contacting us about a late delivery at help@magazinesdirect.com Editor Patrick GalbraithDeputy editor Ollie HarveyCommissioning editor Steve Faragher Group art director Dean UsherArt editor Rob FarmerPicture editor Max Tremlett Group production editor Maxine ClarkeProduction editors Sarah Potts, Stuart Martel Digital editor Charlotte Peters charlotte.peters@futurenet.comshootinguk.co.uk Managing director Grainne McKennaBrand director Shaun InglethorpeHead of editorial operations Jacquie SpantonDesign director Simon Maynard Production manager Vivienne Turner Advertising Alex Armstrong 0330 390 6502 alex.armstrong@futurenet.com Callum Madden 0330 390 6514 callum.madden@futurenet.com Advertisement manager Rebecca Vincze 0330 390 6566; rebecca.vincze@futurenet.com Senior advertisement production manager…

Not long ago, people used to deride the suggestion that once controlled burning of moorland was stopped, there would be dangerous amounts of fuel. Now the chickens have come home to roost. Some 15 years on, we have what may become the norm as far as our weather is concerned, with low rainfall and high temperatures. There is now something of a panic as to how and what we are going to do to manage our large, combustible expanses of countryside. At one of the many meetings I attended on the subject, a senior member of Natural England’s (NE) team said it was a risk he was willing to take. Now retired, I wonder what his current stance is? NE and, for that matter, government agencies all over the world…

But it’s essential that I teach him the importance of good reconnaissance,” I pleaded to my wife. My son, Charlie, stood next to me, eyes wide, hands cupped before him in the position of supplication. I sensed a maternal softening. “Well, you can go, but you won’t catch me on that thing. I’d be sick.” With this less than fulsome agreement given, the boy and I booked a trip on the Coastal Voyager. His mates Georgina, Charlotte and Eleanor had cried off to go crabbing, which left only the boy and I as sole participants in an excursion we had dubbed Operation Sea Bass. The River Blyth rises at Laxfield, meanders along for 30km through wildest Suffolk, then widens into a wildfowl-rich tidal estuary at Blythburgh. The river then enters…

Pheasants are a tricky and cunning quarry for most falconers — especially the older cock birds. They seem to have that ability to melt into the countryside and magically disappear. More than once, before I had dogs, I marked one and made my way to it expecting an eruption from the cover, only to find nothing. Their burst of flight can also be vastly different depending on where they live. Here on the Fens, when flushed, pheasants fly away in a low-level horizontal flight, whereas in more wooded or scrub areas they tend to fly up vertically and then away. If anything, these woodland birds are easier for my goshawk to catch as she will climb up into the air to snatch her prize. This is truly amazing to watch…

You know where you are with Auntie Beeb. She always marches to the same drumbeat: left, left, left. Take a Radio Four programme called Positive Thinking. A recent episode was a paean to the concept of throwing private land open to all comers without permission or payment. The justification was the mental and physical wellbeing of the urban masses, apparently. Unlawful mass trespass was promoted on the programme by an access lobbyist who was allowed to hold sway without being inconvenienced by any tough questions. I wonder if the Beeb will ever get round to airing a programme advocating a mass revolt against paying the TV licence fee. Trespass stunts The activist proposed that, as a bare minimum, all woodland and inland water in England and Wales should be open…

SURVEY No one enjoys sitting at a computer ticking boxes, but the Value of Shooting Survey, which is supported by all the shooting and countryside organisations, is a vital tool for capturing evidence about the importance of shooting, and it will help make the case for our sport. Find and complete it here at valueofshooting.co.uk GOOSE Any soldier will tell you that “time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted”. As the goose season approaches, this is particularly true for inland goose shooters. Observing where geese congregate and which routes they take provides vital information for successfully planning outings. Spending some time with your binoculars now will make the time you spend later with your gun more fruitful.…

Martin Parker, BASC’s head of firearms, has called for police forces to declare a critical incident as they fail to cope with the demands of the firearms licensing system. The call comes as a report from BASC shows that waits to have a certificate issued vary from 40 working days by Hertfordshire Constabulary to 178 working days by Cumbria Constabulary. Costs also showed huge variations, with Avon and Somerset Police saying it costs them £87 to process an application and Durham Constabulary citing a cost of £522. Parker said: “The failings across firearms licensing are symptomatic of wider police failures being seen across the board. This is not a new issue, but an ongoing problem compounded by a failure to adequately cope with challenges brought by the pandemic. “There are…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Sport is vital for habitats Following another top-class article from Matt Cross on the trophy hunting debate (News, 24 August), I would urge everyone to read Bringing Back the Lions by Mike Arnold (available online). This is a truly great account of why sport hunting and trophy hunting is vital to the survival of habitats, and therefore all wildlife in Africa and elsewhere around the world. It should be used as the basis of our arguments to debunk the misinformation and downright lies of the preservationists. The public and politicians need to understand the true implications of a ban. In the current economic climate, with all the challenges for both government and personal finances, who is going to fund real-world environmental habitat and wildlife protection if…

As I was driving home from stalking this morning, the radio nattered away inconspicuously in the background. I was not really listening, but I did pick up the presenter announcing there were “only one-hundred-and-something” days until Christmas. “Here we go”, I thought. The garden centres will be getting all the baubles and trimmings out. The clocks haven’t even changed yet, for goodness sake. I am sure they start this festive process earlier every year. I see the similarities among stalkers when we look at the annual roe rut. This year’s rut was good, by which I mean I was lucky enough to witness a lot more activity than other seasons. There are a number of reasons for this. I have spent more days on the ground and been able to…

Rabbiting Back in the day, it was quite normal to have a mooch about with dog and gun in the hope of bagging an unsuspecting rabbit flushed from the bottom of an old hedgerow, or a pigeon that bursts out the wrong side from its roost in an ancient oak tree. Nowadays, this kind of shooting is almost a forgotten art form. First of all, you need a steady dog. It’s no good your canine companion taking chase at the first sight of a fleeing bunny. He needs to hunt close enough so you have half a chance at getting off a safe shot. Of course, he must stop to the flush or, at the very least, your well-trained stop whistle. You will need lightning reflexes to enable you to…

Gundogs I MET UP WITH AN OLD picking-up friend last month. I didn’t recognise him at first, as he was driving a Fiesta, rather than his venerable Freelander. Had he still got his dogs? Yes, was the answer. Would he be picking-up next season? No, was the emphatic reply. Why? Apparently the keeper had told him that though he was still welcome to come, he wouldn’t be able to pay him next season. Times are hard, explained the keeper. His boss had insisted he had to make savings, so not paying his picking-up team was his first step towards balancing the books. My friend surmised that the keeper was gambling on the fact that his picking-up team all enjoyed their days out with their dogs so much that they would…

As we creep closer to the season, the dogs are showing many signs they are ready for the real thing rather than dummies. My dogs have competed and trained all spring and summer. They are starting to show me they have had enough. It is important to know your dog and how far you can push them. Some dogs will not train on dummies at all. Fortunately, I have some cold game in the freezer, ready to train my dogs on, and help bridge the gap between game and dummies. As much as we prepare over the summer, nothing can replicate the excitement of the real thing. I completed a training day a few weeks ago. One of the dummy throwers used a shotgun to put shot scent on the…

The experts THE ULTIMATE SHOOTING QUIZ TEAM Contact the team Email: ollie.harvey@futurenet.com Post: Shooting Times, Future, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR Scope options for a Ruger OPTICS I am thinking of buying a new scope for my Ruger 6.5 Creedmoor rifle. It’s quite heavy so I was going to put a 1in scope on to save weight. Will this be better than a 30mm tube scope or will I lose light-gathering abilities? It is true that a 1in body scope may be lighter than a 30mm tube scope, but it really depends on the quality and manufacturer of the scope. Some scopes are built like Tiger tanks and even 1in models can be heavy and bulky. I suspect you need a compact scope made from aluminium, not steel.…

Match called off as crows damage pitch Football groundsmen might be joining shooters in studying the small print of the general licences after corvids destroyed a football pitch and forced the postponement of a game. The rampaging birds, generally described as crows, but more probably rooks, ripped up chunks of Grantham Town’s pitch in pursuit of soil-dwelling grubs. The damage forced club officials to call off a Northern Premier League East fixture against Worksop Town. Birds have taken out several games of football over the years and, in 2021, Lincoln City used bird of prey decoys to stop corvids burying food in the pitch after scavenging it from the terraces. Angus keepers save stag from peat bog Gamekeepers in the Angus glens have hauled a young stag out of a…

I keep free-range chickens in the farmyard at home. I love having them around and they’re a great way of keeping the place clean and tidy during the winter when I’m often handling cereals and feeds for livestock. I must admit that I hardly feed the chickens at all, not from any point of principle but rather because they simply don’t need to be fed. There’s enough for them to peck around and in the summer they become excellent foragers in the fields behind the house. It’s fun to watch them hunting for daddy-longlegs, and the chicks soon learn to become actively predatory in their foraging habits. The system I have works quite well on the condition that I keep on top of the local foxes. That’s easily done, but…

The year 1955 was important for at least two reasons. As well as being the year of my birth, it brought the enactment of the Protection of Birds Act 1954 and much more prescriptive bird protection. Most of our wildfowling clubs can trace their history to the period leading up to 1954 and the immediate aftermath. Wildfowlers who had taken the freedom of the shore for granted now felt threatened and came together to secure the future of their sport. Re-reading The New Wildfowler to help get me in the zone for the new season, I am reminded that “putting something back to compensate” for what was being taken, gained currency about then and many a club mallard release scheme began. Right from the start, this was not intended to…

One of the rewards of writing this column is receiving emails from readers. I particularly enjoyed the following from David Hannam, a retired vet who now lives in Spain. David was responding to a piece I wrote on soft-mouthed gundogs. “Many years ago, Jessica the Chesapeake came trotting back from the paddock and presented me with a soggy, somewhat bewildered tawny owl chick that had fallen out of its nest. “We didn’t know what to do with him. We were advised to put him back at the bottom of the tree for his parents to look after him. Well, that didn’t work. A few hours later, we found him covered in fly eggs and dehydrated. So he went into intensive care in a redundant budgie cage and we reared him.…

FOR MOST OF US, WHEN WE BEGIN a new project we start slowly, with baby steps, as the advice invariably goes. Not so Emma Cawston. One of her first commissions was for six pieces for a Scottish country estate – the frames supplied were, she recalls, bigger than she was. “Perhaps I was naive,” she admits, “but it turned out to be a complete success. I like to challenge myself.” At the age of 32, Emma has certainly challenged herself, travelling all over the world to draw the animals that continue to inspire her. Brought up in Wiltshire, she has mostly learned on the hoof, as it were, teaching herself to paint and draw. She prefers to work in oil pencil, an unusual medium but one that, she says, helps…