Innholdsfortegnelse for 1-Feb-2023 i Shooting Times & Country

Last Monday, I was standing next to a keeper who was working his dogs through the cover. We were looking down on a Lincolnshire stream that inspired Tennyson, the poet, to write The Brook. Ben Pocklington has been a keeper for a fair few years now and has seen it all, from grouse to grey partridges. As his sprockers worked back and forth, I asked him whether he believes that keepering is a job for the long-term, what with ever-growing pressure and restrictions. He thought about it for a moment then told me he reckoned it’ll certainly see him out. There will doubtless be changes, he admitted, but landowners, he reasoned, will still need gamekeepers in one form or another. The day was perfect. The sun shone, the pheasants sat…

Deer farmers in New Zealand have unlocked a lucrative use for their red deer; selling their milk for use at haute cuisine restaurants or for high-end ‘nutraceuticals’ — products derived from food sources with health benefits — and are receiving up to £32 per litre in return. According to a recent report on thatsfarming.com, one New Zealand chef, Geoff Scott, who trained at Monaco’s Le Louis XV and London’s Chez Nico, is smitten with the product, which he uses to make high-end, creamy desserts. “It’s like satin in your mouth,” he enthuses, “wonderfully rich but delicate.” FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @SHOOTINGTIMESUK…

As I write this we are halfway through January and, while there’s a little light glimmering at the end of the tunnel, we still have a good number of days to go and expectations to try to meet. “You can’t beat January shooting” is something that’s often said to me. In some ways I tend to agree — but by this time of year you’ve shown your hand, and what game you have on the ground is what you’ve got to deal with for the rest of the season. Hopefully, if you’ve got it right, you will be OK. Although January shooting can provide some memorable days, mid-December is often, for me, when some of the best pheasants are presented. The birds are stirred up and on their toes but…

WORKING UNFAMILIAR FERRETS TOGETHER At one point or another when ferreting, you are going to come across a warren where you need to join forces and work ferrets together that have never seen each other before. I was recently ferreting with someone who had never done this before and she was keen to know my thoughts. At the start of the season, working young ferrets with older ferrets has drawbacks as well as advantages, especially because they aren’t used to each other. Some immature ferrets can mither older ones if they are worked too early. It’s not just the physical disposition that they need; they also need to be mentally ready. Playing about in the pipes isn’t working and is a sure-fire way to develop bad habits, especially skulking. At…

WISDOM AND TRADITIONS GATHERED OVER A LIFE AT THE COAL FACE, THIS WEEK WITH LINDSAY WADDELL The humble rabbit has been a part of the gamekeeper’s lot since the beginning. There are records of rabbit bones left behind by the Romans, but it was not until the Norman conquest that the rabbit got its foothold in Britain — and it made the most of it. The fact that it can breed at a few months of age, and carry on doing that throughout the year with only a 30-day or so gestation period, gives the rabbit the edge on the other things in the countryside that would eat it — and there are plenty of them. Indeed, once it became established it also became the major food source for most…

ROOST Now that the game season is over, why not gather a crowd and head out to roost some pigeons. Getting the right conditions is essential — you want a windy day. Above 15mph with strong gusts is about right. Fir trees or hardwoods covered in ivy are popular pigeon-roosting spots as they provide warmth. Lots of pigeon droppings are a good clue as to where to go. ATTEND If you’re hoping your next night out will go with a bang, the Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust has just the thing to help. Its quiz pack contains a range of fieldsports-related questions and is free to anyone holding a quiz to raise funds for the charity. Get it from enquiries@thegamekeeperswelfaretrust.com…

Hull & East Riding Wildfowlers’ Association (HERWA) celebrated its 70th anniversary with a commemorative dinner at the Mercure Hull Grange Park Hotel in Willerby. The event, held on 21 January, was attended by over 70 members, their partners and invited guests. Guests were addressed by the club’s honorary president Arthur Hampton who, as a co-founder, is the club’s oldest surviving member. His wife Liz is the club’s long-standing honorary treasurer. The principal guest speaker for the evening was Ian Coghill, a former chairman of the GWCT, currently sitting on BASC’s council and a long-standing member of its wildfowling liaison committee. Ian, whose book Moorland Matters highlighted the hidden issues about the UK uplands conservation, entertained guests with stories and anecdotes from his sporting experiences, which were well received by all…

LETTER OF THE WEEK Cars and shooting — a fine cocktail May I congratulate you on a particularly enjoyable issue of Shooting Times. As someone who has spent 25 years training and instructing health and safety in the field-based industries, I found that Richard Negus’s article (Close to losing your audience, 25 January) struck a chord with me. However, I would add one extra category; ‘old gits’. They know it all and think none of the legislation applies if money changes hands. God bless them. In the same issue, you manage to combine two of my passions — shooting and the Bentley marque (A life at full throttle). I have long been an admirer of the Bentley Boys but had never considered Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin’s shooting career. Thanks for…

The first goat I ever shot was a young nanny, accompanied by two other barren nannies around a similar age. When I shot the nanny, the other two jumped forward at the noise, paused for a moment to look at the carcass, pretty much shrugged apathetically then went straight back to munching grass. I had an inkling that they weren’t the brightest sparks back then, but over the years they have well and truly proved their case as being ‘thick as mince’. But regardless of their apparent lack of intelligence, goats truly are a joy to encounter. They have individual characters and, despite being far easier than deer to stalk, being in their presence often makes for a memorable experience. Goats are not native to Britain; they originate from the…

Suddenly, he was there. A stocky dog fox, bold, alert and crystal clear, standing in my thermal. I quickly muted the electronic caller before the fox honed in on it. He had, no doubt, already pinpointed the location of the noise, but if he rushed in and saw the caller the ruse would be up. I flicked on the infrared illuminator sitting atop the night-vision unit and, in one smooth and slow movement, swung the rifle round to line up on the incoming predator. The fox was almost on the caller, padding softly through the damp grass in the darkness; his piercing eyes hunting between every blade of grass for the dying prey he had heard so clearly. Suddenly, he froze. His sixth sense alerted him to danger; nose twitching,…

IF YOU ASKED AN independent observer with no knowledge of shooting to watch and contrast a day’s shooting in England with one in Germany, their comments would not only be interesting but, I suspect, predictable. One would certainly be the fact that everyone involved in a shoot in Germany — that’s Guns, beaters and dogs — has to wear something bright orange or yellow. Another would be the size of the bag, for German shoots rely on wild game, so the bags are invariably modest. You can also be sure that they would notice the difference in the handling of dead game. In Germany, as in most continental countries, it is treated with great respect. Sadly, that’s rarely the case in this country. Here, it’s quite usual to see Guns,…

It was with some trepidation that I approached my second trip to the Moselle region of Germany. I’d visited the area with my family a few weeks previously for a driven hunt (Stalking dogs, 4 January), but sadly the boar, the day’s only permitted quarry, had failed to materialise. The ground had been heavily churned up, which meant we needed to wait for things to settle before scheduling a rematch. I only hoped that the hunters would come out on top this time. The plan of action in the interim had been simple: the local hunters had set up a nightly watch in order to track the boars’ movement through their hunting grounds and discover where they were foraging and the location of their shelters. For several weeks, not a…

Pheasant As much as I like to write about cooking different types of game, there is no way around the fact that pheasants are the most commonly shot gamebird. Although I am told there are far fewer birds around this season owing to avian influenza, I have to say that I haven’t noticed — pheasants are everywhere and we still need to eat them. I have, over the years, come up with many fancy ways to cook pheasant, but I find I come back time and again to the same old reliable favourites. This one requires nearly no imagination or culinary flair and yet still tastes fantastic. The golden rule with pheasant breast meat is not to overcook it. We make so much of it being lower in fat than…

Looking for something nobody else has got? How about a hammergun with a stock made from a genuine rhino horn? Wilson55 is offering the item in its auction on 8 February. Made by Alfred Lancaster in the early 1870s, this is not the only such gun he made because it is one of a pair. He also made a rhino horn-stocked double rifle for the Maharaja of Bulrampore, which sold in the US a decade ago for over $140,000. However, laws have tightened since then to restrict the sale and export of rhino horn, which is prized in Asia as an aphrodisiac and cure-all. Estimated at £7,000 to £10,000, the gun is in good order and would make a great conversation piece. Anyone tempted to powder the horn and try…

The police department that returned Plymouth shooter Jake Davison’s gun has admitted it does not have enough staff to process firearms applications. Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Superintendent Roy Linden told an inquest into the shootings — in which five people were killed in August 2021 — that the force gets 3,000 applications and renewals for shotgun and firearms licences every year, and had the most licence holders in the UK. Asked if the force had enough staff to deal with that number, he said: “The simple answer is no.” He also admitted a backlog at the force at the time had “probably increased now”.…

The other day I was kindly invited on a little shoot nearby, within walking distance of home. The pheasants, all truly wild, flew fantastically well. There weren’t many of them, but by God, they flew as if they had somewhere to go, climbing steeply off to distant woods and hedges. In a couple of cases they went out of sight. It was really good fun to see. Sadly, a few hens were shot — surprising, because this was on 12 January, and the total bag of only about 20 would have made no difference to the fun had it been 10. We also saw at least 20 pairs of grey partridges. They were not shot at because, as everyone knows, no gentleman shoots English after 1 January. Old-fashioned keepering Truly…

Christmas and New Year not only gave me welcome opportunities for some foreshore wildfowling, but also allowed for time to catch up on a little essential reading. My wildfowling books seem to have multiplied by themselves and I’d not found time to read them. Sorting my books into piles, the thought struck me that wildfowling, among all shooting disciplines, is well represented in the written word. Considering that coastal wildfowlers currently number fewer than 10,000 individuals, wildfowling punches above its literary weight. Innumerate tomes have been published on other forms of shooting, yet it is wildfowling that has attracted and inspired adventurous, creative and passionate writers. The oldest references to wildfowling in my collection come from Colonel Peter Hawker, the father of modern wildfowling, in his Instructions to Young Sportsmen,…

You may have read a recent report in the papers about scientists from the University of Helsinki undertaking research to investigate the differences in cognitive traits between dog breeds. Their conclusions were interesting, with a Belgian breed, the malinois, ranked highest across the tests, followed by the border collie, with the hovawart in third place. Incidentally, if you’ve never heard of a hovawart, you’re not alone. I hadn’t until I read about the report, but it’s a large German breed that, according to Wikipedia, “is an outstanding watchdog”. However, as Emma my sprocker spaniel was quick to point out, this wasn’t really a very scientific survey at all, despite the claim that 1,000 dogs took part. They only represented a mere 13 breeds, yet there are thought to be around…

The experts THE ULTIMATE SHOOTING QUIZ TEAM BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and global authority on guns MAT MANNING Airgunner and journalist from the West Country DIGGORY HADOKE Vintage gun expert, firearms dealer, author and journalist BRUCE POTTS Shooting Times rifle reviewer and stalker MIKE SWAN Conservation expert and head of education for the GWCT DAVID TOMLINSON Highly regarded writer and ornithologist LIAM BELL Shropshire gamekeeper, keen wildfowler and amateur naturalist GRAHAM DOWNING Shooting consultant and sporting author TONY BUCKWELL Veterinary surgeon with a special interest in gundogs TOM PAYNE Professional shooting instructor and avid pigeon shooter ELLENA SWIFT Award-winning gundog trainer and canine behaviour specialist TIM MADDAMS Former head chef at River Cottage and runs a shoot in Devon SIMON WHITEHEAD Author, professional ferreter and rabbit controller IAIN…

The British countryside is a crowded place. All sorts of outdoor interests jostle for priority. But some countryside activities are more likely to bask in the warm glow of official approval than others. Recreational shooting is not one of them. In Scotland, private property no longer really exists in rural areas, outside of buildings and gardens. But at least the Scottish Outdoor Access Code attempts to instil some balance. Walkers are not supposed to impinge on privacy nor disrupt farming, fieldsports or deer culling, for example. No such qualms hinder the access lobby in England and Wales, as I have discussed before. Legal right “Millions of people want to use private land for recreation without payment” The Orwellian mindset of the access lobby is evident in a statement issued by…