Innholdsfortegnelse for 15-Mar-2023 i Shooting Times & Country

One of Britain’s greatest grouse moors has had its right to use the general licence for controlling predators withdrawn after a police investigation found three dead buzzards in 2019. Millden, the 20,000-acre Angus Glens estate, is recognised as being a real jewel in Britain’s sporting landscape. The general licence, which allows the estate to control some corvids and predators such as stoats, has been withdrawn for three years. The estate has said that it believes it is being made an example of and is planning to appeal. Donald Fraser, head of wildlife management at NatureScot, said: “We believe this a proportionate response to protect wild birds in the area and prevent further wildlife crime.” Although the situation is deeply regrettable, it will be interesting to see what impact the measures…

Poult prices are set to rise by at least 20% this coming year, with an average price of £6 to £6.50 being quoted for pheasant poults and between £7 and £8 for 12-week-old red-legged partridges. The increase in cost is down to a number of factors — not least the price of feed, which is £50 a tonne up on last year. The rise in the cost of electricity, increases in wages and the higher cost of producing eggs from overwintered hen birds are also having a big impact. Overwintering laying stock is set to become more common as UK game farms look to offset the risks associated with avian flu and an over-reliance on imported stock. Currently there appear to be few concerns about supply, but things could change…

It was nearing the end of the shooting season when I was contacted by an old shooting buddy of mine, Simon. He had seen one of my posts on Instagram about a snipe day I’d had in Devon and messaged me saying, “Guy, I‘d love to try my young GWP bitch on snipe with you one day.” And with that, the seed was firmly planted. Simon is one of the finest game Shots I have had the pleasure of shooting with, he’s a pigeon shooter par excellence and an all-round nice guy. I have never shot over pointers, so it was an offer I just couldn’t let slip by. The problem was, the season was coming to an end and I only had one day free in the remaining weeks.…

A conversation I have had many times over the years has centred around the different challenges faced by hunters as they try to master stalking the resident deer on our small island. UK stalkers are lucky to have relatively easy access to six species, with most well scattered across Britain. If we believe what we are being told, deer numbers are rising and the population is higher now than it has ever been. So, by definition, it should be easier to hunt them. I consider myself lucky to stalk all of our native species on a regular basis and, as a stalking outfitter, this is often while guiding clients. I get to hear the opinions of many as to which deer they prefer to hunt and why. I have always…

Buy with confidence OUR VERDICT Let it not be said that CZ rests on its laurels. Far from it. This Czech arms manufacturer has reinvented, updated and improved its product lines year in, year out for some 85 years now. This CZ 600 is not your usual ‘tweak here and there’; much like the 455 to 457 makeover, this centrefire rifle is something completely different. Key features include a new bolt design, which maintains a 100% controlled cartridge feed for reliability, as well as a vertical safety system that is silent and easy to operate. There is also a novel magazine lock system. Like most CZ rifles, the 600 series comes in a range of styles for sports, target or hunting, and this Alpha model is designed with a slimline,…

March is still at least a month too early to be moving soil and working down game cover plots if you are putting in maize or planting small seeds such as millet and sorghum. Move the soil too early and you risk it drying out and losing its moisture between now and when it is warm enough to drill, and there is the added risk of it becoming unworkable if it is heavy ground and the clods dry into brick-sized lumps. For now, ground that is being drilled in May and early June is best left as it is. That’s not to say you shouldn’t make a start if you are planting spring cereals such as triticale as feed crops. March is a good month to get them in, but…

It was inevitable: we’d eventually reach a stage with this series where repetition loomed. John Heagren has featured before — we discussed footwork, gun mount, gun speed and the like. But our recent discussion focused on a broader topic — one that, for another month at least, will keep the ‘R’ word firmly at bay. John was keen to talk about adaptability. As applicable to the pigeon shooter as it is to those who fill their calendar each season with days by a peg, the ability to adapt to different situations is central to being a good all-rounder and ultimately a great Shot, John reckons. It’s what keeps him from teaching one single ‘style’ of shooting to his clients, instead preferring to have a proper look at how someone is…

NEWS The National Trust has banned grouse shooting on more than 1,600 acres at Park Hall in the High Peaks due to “concerns over management techniques”, according to the Sheffield Star newspaper. A National Trust spokeswoman told the Star: “The National Trust chose to not renew the shooting lease at Park Hall in Derbyshire in December 2022. We regularly review leases as part of our organisational processes and on this occasion chose not to renew due to concerns over the management techniques utilised. We have no plans to initiate a new shooting licence at Park Hall, as our objectives for the land are to work with our grazing tenant to mitigate the nature and climate crisis.” “The decision follows years of campaigning by activists” She added: “The aims of the…

LETTER OF THE WEEK When the old ways are best I really enjoyed this week’s Shooting Times, there was a good array of stories and subjects. Of particular interest was David Tomlinson’s section, which mentioned the cheap natural-fertiliser benefits from grazing sheep, over expensive modern chemical alternatives. By coincidence, I was talking to a local farmer who was moaning about the herd of 20-plus red deer that he often finds grazing on his emerging winter wheat. He was concerned about the reds causing irreparable crop damage, but my father can remember when, in the 1950s, it was commonplace for ewes to be turned out on the winter wheat in spring. It was felt that the wheat being grazed off was beneficial to the crop, as it returned stronger while also…

Drey poking I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you want to shoot big numbers of grey squirrels, you’re probably best doing it with an airgun and feeding stations. However, if you want to have a thoroughly satisfying day out with friends while bringing the grey menace to book, then grab a shotgun and dust off your drey poles. Drey poking is hard work, and rather hit and miss, but it is seriously exciting stuff when you do flush a squirrel from its slumber. Add some friendly banter with mates, a generous spread of tasty nibbles when it’s time to refuel, and — if you’re really lucky — a crisp, sunny early-spring day, and you have all the ingredients for an outing to remember. “A squirrel bolted…

The dog has eaten my shooting gloves. Not chewed or gnawed, but eaten. Consumed. Except the buckles, which he brought to me with a wholly unjustified pride, rolling them about his teeth. “Look,” he seemed to say, “I’ve saved these for you.” You might imagine that we went hotfoot to the vets for emetics or laxatives, perhaps even surgery. We didn’t. I did follow him about with a stick and a rubber glove for a few days, just in case they made a difficult reappearance, but nothing eventuated so after a while I gave up. They were deerskin, you see, and unlined, so the fact of the matter is that he probably digested them. My favourite shooting gloves. Well, my current favourite shooting gloves; I have had many pairs over…

100 years of keeperingWISDOM AND TRADITIONS GATHERED OVER A LIFE AT THE COAL FACE, THIS WEEK WITH DAVID WHITBY Some years ago, I joined a group of gamekeepers on a visit to Austria and Hungary to look at their shoots and game management, as well as sample the product of their local vineyards, though not necessarily in that order. All had either a vested or keen interest in what is the king of lowland gamebirds, on a par with grouse. This is the grey — or, as it is sometimes known, the ‘Hungarian’ — partridge. It was a fascinating insight into what constitutes game management in another country. Its different techniques and array of traps were reminiscent of something seen in the UK a century ago. I know that historically…

FerretingNew SERIES AL’S SPORTING TOUR It has been a while since I tried something new. It was a welcome change when I got an invitation to join Simon Whitehead for a day of ferreting in North Yorkshire. I have never been ferreting: this was to be my crash course in this rare art form. I didn’t know what to expect but I can tell you I was pretty excited. I should point out, however, leaving my house in field gear but without a gun or rifle felt strange. I met Simon a couple of miles from the ground, not far from Scotch Corner. We drove into the site together in Arctic conditions with hailstones not far behind. As we got close to the open moor, I was not expecting the…

VINTAGE TIMESCELEBRATING OUR BEST WRITERS In the days of my early youth, the gun catalogues used to be full of wonderful-looking weapons called pigeon guns that fired special heavy loads. I shot my first pigeon with a marvellous old gun made by Charles Lancaster. It was a 14-bore but shot a 12-bore load and kicked like the devil. I paid £7 and 10 shillings for it. Goodness knows what it would be worth now. Anyway, I part-exchanged it for a BSA Magnum and used to shoot pigeons with 3in No 4s. Now I shoot them with a game gun and No 6 shot. I have to use a 1oz load because I get gun headache, but I find my Impax No 6s very good for everything. But the last time…

Across 5 A playground fixture comes via shooting style (5,7)8 Small ceramic pieces on rural access structures (6)9 Launches gundog dummies and holds a party (6)10 A cut of venison is a bit astonishing! (4)11 Something indicative of a gundog (7)13 Possibly lapsing like a young tree (7)15 Shacks are thus rebuilt (4)16 Silly Alfredo is left out with his hat (6)18 Get to grips with a batch of eggs (6)19 They’re given for seconds in Olympic shooting (6,6) Down 1 On/off devices make stags distinctly recognizable (8)2 A television’s showing vehicles on the estate, initially (4)3 The scope component brings feature to castle architecture (6) 4 Reveal a British Shooting event (4)6 New York and London will shortly get clothing material (5)7 Snitching when hunting vermin (7)11 It’s confidential…

The icy blast coming on the heels of a fairly benign spell means real trouble for many of our quarry species. Some woodcock and mallard, our earliest nesters, will already be down on eggs and, depending upon how long the freezing weather lasts, many may simply abandon this clutch. On the moor, where the snow is at its deepest, the grouse will stay put if at all possible as they won’t want to leave hard-won territories. Our waders, especially lapwing, snipe, golden plover and curlew, will have to drop down to lower areas and will have a hard time of it, with frozen ground making feeding almost impossible. It’s quite possible many will head back to the coast until this spell eases. I’m feeding my grey partridges and wild pheasants,…

NEWS The past week has seen two news stories, both recently reported in these pages, turned unfairly against the shooting community. First came the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) report on the tragic Plymouth shooting where five people were killed. Despite acknowledging that the issuing of murderer Jake Davidson’s initial licence was “attributable to a lack of training, supervision and inadequate force processes” and that the officers who issued his licence renewal should face disciplinary action, the report suggests sweeping changes to firearms licensing anyway. The proposed changes include making the licensing regime for shotguns as strict as that for Section 1 firearms, such as rifles. “The fault lay not with the existing laws but with their inconsistent application by police” Under this change, shotguns would need to be…

Wildfowling aside, a walked-up day in the company of a good friend and a couple of dogs is just about the best sport there is. Richard Gould and I enjoyed just such a halcyon day in early January at Flea Barn. We put 13 cock pheasants in the bag, along with a squirrel and a hare – life was good. The next day, I awoke to a nagging pain in my right arm, just below the elbow. Discomfort dogged me all Sunday – my wife even noticed the wince I gave each time I raised a glass of Rioja to my lips over our roast beef lunch. Despite the fact that I stoically waded through a second bottle, the pain continued and things looked bleak indeed. That evening I went…

I was eating my breakfast when I heard an ominous thump emanating from what an estate agent grandly described as “the garden room”. The big window gives a fair view of the arable prairie behind my meadow but on a sunny morning holds a large area of glaring double glazing. It’s usually in summer that we find a stunned woodpigeon, collared dove or blackbird that has flown into the window pane, but this winter morning’s collision proved fatal to the unfortunate cock blackbird. It was only as my dog Nell gently delivered the stiff corpse to hand with nary a ruffled feather that I thought about the hard- and soft-mouthed dogs I have owned and encountered over the seasons. “I’d often have to ‘run-in’ to nab a retrieve when Flash…

The farmers haven’t started the spring drillings yet and the local pigeons aren’t using my woods to roost, so I’ve had plenty of time to read Ben Macintyre’s new book, Colditz. The Saxony castle, dating back to the 11th century, sits atop a small hill and, like many castles, was built to dominate a river; in its case the Zwickauer Mulde, a tributary of the River Elbe. It’s fame — or perhaps notoriety — is of course not based on its somewhat romantic aspect, but the role it played as Oflag IV-C, a German prisoner-of-war camp for Allied officers with a record of escape attempts. Yet despite its formidable walls and heightened levels of security, Macintyre records that 32 prisoners successfully broke out of Colditz and made it across the…

I was introduced to stalking rather late. Despite having spent my entire childhood in pursuit of rabbits and pigeons, deer seemed to belong to another realm. My father wasn’t interested in stalking, and while there were plenty of roe deer on the family farm, I always lacked the confidence to stalk them. Asking around for advice on stalking, I was cowed by a sense of overbearing complexity; everybody seemed to have different advice and most of it was based on caution. Roe deer represent a big step up from rabbits and hares. You don’t want to make any mistakes, and a venison carcass is an object of value and wonder. I had an almost unlimited opportunity to stalk deer, but I suppose I was worried that I might do it…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD On 15 March 2014 we said goodbye to the unassailable champion of fieldsports, Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmeralda Dickson Wright. Clarissa rose to fame as one of the Two Fat Ladies, which aired on the BBC from 1996 to 1999. In it, she and Jennifer Paterson toured the UK in a Triumph Thunderbird, sampling and cooking seasonal and local fare. Following the death of Jennifer in 1999, Clarissa joined forces with Sir Johnny Scott for the BBC series Clarissa and The Countryman. Clarissa was a character in every sense; she was a recovering alcoholic, a disbarred Silk, an unabashed gourmand and outspoken critic of vegetarianism. In 2012, she outraged former Queen guitarist Brian May after saying about badgers: “There’s going…