Innholdsfortegnelse for 14-Dec-2022 i Shooting Times & Country

A petition to stop the iconic Ledbury Boxing Day meet has failed. The petitioners had targeted the road closures in Ledbury town centre by asking the county council to refuse the application to stop traffic. A Herefordshire Council spokesperson said: “Provided our Highways Team are correctly notified of any request for a road closure, the council does not differentiate between the different types of event that may take place under temporary road closures. “If event organisers request a closure for a lawful event and there are no operational issues (such as planned highway maintenance works), there are no legal grounds on which the council can refuse the request.” A similar effort targeting a meet in Bungay, Suffolk, also failed. The Ledbury, and particularly its Boxing Day meet, has been the…

Avian influenza cases in France have surged as weather cools and migratory birds pour in. A total of 40 French departments have now confirmed at least one case since August. Worryingly for UK shoots, the worst-affected departments are either in or adjacent to the key gamebird production areas in the Pays de La Loire. Vendée has now recorded a total of 26 proven cases, Loire-Atlantique has nine cases and neighbouring Deux-Sèvres has recorded 11 cases. It remains too early to say what effect this will have on gamebird production in the spring, but the picture is increasingly concerning. In the UK, new cases are continuing to be reported. Most of these cases are still in the prevention zone of Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of Essex. However, in addition, a new…

The mention of Lapland brings to mind childhood dreams of Father Christmas and his band of elves beavering away in their preparations for Christmas. Sleighs, reindeer and all the Christmas carols that one man can endure completes the stereotype. Let me paint a new picture for you. A picture for the hunter, adventurer and inner child. Lapland is the most northern region of Finland, and Inari is the most northern municipality of Lapland. Inari is considered to be the heart of the Sámi culture — hunting, ice-fishing and reindeer herding on the borders of Russia to the east and Norway to the north and west. There are ski resorts, hotels, tour operators and a host of outdoor activities that many tourists enjoy. But we are not among the many tourists.…

As the walking Gun for the last drive, I had one eye scanning for a bird going back, the other at the sun falling lower in the western sky. A cock pheasant erupted from my feet, I lifted my gun, then lowered it; it was a better bird for the standing Guns. We had had the most wonderful day on a family shoot where everyone mucks in, and over some of Staffordshire and Shropshire’s most beautiful farmland. What was to come, however, was something else again, in a hidden Eden. The farm, predominantly dairy, is gloriously wild-bird and wildfowl friendly. When my host’s father first took over the shoot, the season’s tally of ducks stood at two. With a focus on improving insect life, ponds were restored and created, rivers…

Whenever I talk with shooting friends about how we were introduced to the wonderful world of fieldsports, it never takes long for the conversation to turn to fondly recalled memories of our first airguns. Affordability, simplicity and comparatively low power output make the air rifle the ideal tool for new recruits, and I have no doubt that most Shooting Times readers will have started out with one. In the late 1980s, just before I hit my teens, many of my friends had cheap airguns. Things were different back then — they certainly were where I grew up in rural Somerset — and we whiled away long summer evenings roaming the fields unsupervised while attempting to bag rabbits for the pot. I was fortunate to have an uncle who took the…

I like Finland. The people there don’t say much but when they do, they make it count. When I visited nearly four years ago, I spent five days with two men who said almost nothing at all. But on the second night, after dinner, one of them told me that as a child he wasn’t allowed out to play after dark because of wolves and the other, in the sauna one evening, said that what he wanted most was for his small grandson to be a great ice hockey player. It wasn’t much but I left feeling like I knew those men. Those of you who’ve shot with me will know that, as much as anything, I’m there to talk to people. I can’t really recall how I shot last…

NEWS Gamekeepers, landowners and local residents have pushed back at an attempt to prioritise rewilding and tree planting over livelihoods in Scotland’s new national parks. Alongside the existing Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park and the Cairngorms National Park, the Scottish government is currently looking at creating one or two new parks, with Galloway and the Scottish Borders both being promoted as contenders. Scotland’s current parks, particularly the Cairngorms, have seen fierce debates between a rewilding-driven tendency and traditional land managers looking to preserve jobs and landscapes. Scottish Land & Estates expressed its concern about focusing the new parks on ‘net zero’ and nature recovery — often seen as coded terms for tree planting and rewilding. “The lack of representation by ordinary citizens is apparent” Karen Ramoo, policy adviser…

An osprey which was feared to have been the victim of illegal persecution has been found alive and well after its satellite tag suddenly came back online. The bird, nicknamed Glen, was fitted with a satellite tracking tag at its nest in Scotland. The tag told a remarkable and rather bizarre tale as the osprey hitched lifts on southbound cargo ships, before eventually taking to its wings again for a flight across the Bay of Biscay and into Portugal. Police were called when Glen’s tag suddenly and mysteriously went offline. Officers were unable to find anything, but the tag came back online unexpectedly, showing that Glen had made it safely to Morocco. Sudden tag failures have frequently been used to accuse shooting estates of raptor persecution, and a spokesperson for…

Is it possible to target multiple duck species while flighting? You’d be forgiven for thinking it impossible. Surely a “take what you can get” approach is more suited to a wild duck flight, where the possibility of seeing nothing at all is distinct. Picking and choosing birds, as if you were standing on a peg, would be nonsensical, wouldn’t it? To a certain extent, you’d be right for thinking this way. But there are occasions when the luxury of targeting multiple duck species on a flight is afforded, as I happily discovered this season while flighting a small freshwater marsh near the Carmarthen Bay. Location, timing, meteorological conditions and a good dollop of luck combined to help me put no fewer than four species of duck in the bag. “The…

Shooting Times has long been a magazine that airs differing opinions. The shooting world, after all — despite what some of our detractors might think — is a pretty varied place. A recent piece by Gethin Jones, a fellow Welshman, aired an opinion that stuck in my craw — it wasn’t just ‘differing’ but, to my mind, it was flat-out wrong (Are people starting to over-duck their days?, 21 September). Rarely, Gethin wrote, do Guns look forward to “that duck drive” with the same enthusiasm as the partridges or pheasants. Poor Gethin might have experienced what the Editor referred to a couple of years ago as “flaccid quackers”. There are plenty of people out there, this season particularly, who have stuck a load of ducks down and are now realising…

Celebrating our best gunshops For many working folk, a gunshop is more than just a place to buy bullets or cartridges; it is a much-needed reprieve from the isolation that this line of work can often bring. Being a gamekeeper or a deerstalker often means long spells alone, but a trip to the gunshop can break said isolation and provides a chance for much-needed conversation, which as we all know is vital for the upkeep of good mental health. The gunshop is more than just a shop — it is somewhere to get updates on what’s happening in the local community. For some, it is a sanctuary, providing a brief break from the estate to escape an overbearing laird or trouble at home. Despite the importance of gunshops from a…

Subaru has been in the estate crossover game for 25 years and is a proven and capable 4x4 manufacturer. We’re taking a look at Subaru’s new Outback, which is available in three versions: Limited, Field and Touring. We’re playing with the 2.5i Field, which, as the name would indicate, should be right up our country lane. The Outback Field is definitely eye-catching. There’s only so much you can do with an estate car silhouette but Subaru has done a pretty good job with a long and tall design. The styling is modern yet rugged. The obligatory off-road estate side and bumper trims give the impression it’ll go anywhere and the matching roof bars add to the beastieness. I quite like the autumn green paintwork, which works well with the black…

The fight to save rough shooting in Scotland continues, as shooting organisations step up efforts to prevent an effective ban being imposed as part of fox-control legislation. As Shooting Times has reported previously (News, 9 November), provisions in the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Bill aimed at preventing the use of hounds in foxhunting and illegal hare coursing could be interpreted as banning rough shooting where rabbits are part of the intended bag. A round-table meeting at the Scottish parliament examined the issue. Round tables, rather than more structured evidence sessions, are relatively rare and are used to unpick particularly knotty problems. Moves to change the wording of the bill were opposed by the League Against Cruel Sports. In a bizarre intervention, the League’s Scotland director claimed that rough shooting could…

The remarkable success of a Fife estate in turning round the fortunes of grey partridges has been highlighted by the GWCT. Grey partridges are among the most threatened of all the UK’s breeding bird species, and their numbers have declined rapidly over the past 50 years in response to agricultural intensification. However, with help from the GWCT, Balgonie Estate has been working to change those statistics. To help bring the birds back on the estate, the team created nearly 7km of four-metre wide strips of chicory and mustard. This has given the birds cover and, by providing seeds and habitats for insects, has helped feed them. “The density of partridge pairs at Balgonie is more than double the average for Scotland” Dr David Parish, the GWCT’s senior Scottish lowland research…

The common perception of a lady picker-up is one of a tweed skirt, neat hair, clean boots and one pretty dog. This is not the reality. Like many, I go on various shoots and each one is quite different. Today I am picking up for my brother, the keeper, on a 100-bird day. If I am beating, I take my border collie, but he has no desire to pick birds so for this one the labradors are stepping up. I always take a team of dogs because I believe a team is better than working only one. Picking up usually involves a lot of sweeping. This is done when the handler is not sure where the birds are and so, rather than give instruction, the dog needs to use its…

Delving deep into the way sport, land, and big houses are run now English country estates are a vital part of rural living, often founded centuries ago through service to the Crown, heroics in war or accumulation of vast wealth. Whatever their foundation, through the centuries estates have often been the glue that holds communities together, providing land to farm and houses to live in. Estates have required employment of many different types, from skilled trades and house staff to gardening and forestry. There are curators of fine art collections, accountants, bookkeepers, gamekeepers, riverkeepers, farm managers and building surveyors. All these jobs are skills, trades and professions that an estate must call on to survive, but they are jobs that are also found outside of the English estate, and ultimately…

Using a hide is fairly uncommon for most shooting people. But to us pigeon shooters, you could say it’s as familiar as a sloegasm with elevenses. There is an art to shooting from a hide and it does take experience to do so effectively. As with all forms of shooting, safety is the main priority and, if carried out incorrectly, shooting from a hide can be very dangerous. So, first and foremost, you must consider how to shoot correctly. Only then can you have success from a hide. The size of your hide is not only important for remaining hidden, but also for being able to operate safely. I often see hides that are too small and make it very difficult to operate your gun comfortably, especially with camouflage netting.…

CELEBRATING OUR BEST WRITERSVintage Times I lay on a bank shaded by a tall willow, in the top of which remains the nest belonging to a pair of crows,from which I shot, last spring, five old birds. From this vantage point, I was just within shooting range of the centre of a pond and its islands of brown rushes. I was able, through my telescope, to watch a small, shrinking sheet of floodwater half a mile away on and about which were a score of so of swans, 50 mallard and one nice lot of wigeon. On the grass margins ran many green plover and among these hopped small, black rugs of starlings. The grass of the bank on which we lay was of that very coarse nature that grows…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD There is no little disquiet of late among rural dwellers about unwanted soaring house prices caused by wealthy incomers. These modern woes pale into insignificance when compared to the those faced in the 1770s by the denizens of Middleton in Dorset. Joseph Damer, 1st Earl of Dorchester, found this small market town disturbed the “vision of rural peace” of his newly built stately pile. To rectify this, he evicted the residents, demolished their houses and enlisted Capability Brown to landscape the site. To Damer’s credit, he didn’t leave the Middletonites homeless, and had 36 identical cob and thatch houses built to accommodate them — well out of view from the abbey — thereby creating the village of Milton Abbas. Somewhat ironically, the ‘new’ village has become…