Innholdsfortegnelse for 22-Mar-2023 i Shooting Times & Country

BASC has published an open letter to the RSPB warning of “disastrous consequences” for our important moorland landscapes unless the bird charity reassesses its evidence base and rethinks its position on managed moorland burning. In the letter, addressed to the charity’s chairman Kevin Cox, BASC chairman Eoghan Cameron called out the RSPB’s “increasingly negative” public attitude towards sustainable shooting and our community, accusing the charity of “entrenching positions and creating barriers between groups and organisations which should be working together more than ever to tackle our climate and nature emergencies”. BASC is concerned that the charity’s recent high-profile campaign, calling for the public to report all fires — and the subsequent media coverage — is misleading and designed to further an “extreme and inflexible objective” that is at odds with…

Sport abroad My mentors never had anything positive to say about how our American cousins conducted game shooting. In summary, they believe US shooters “walk through boring covers, shooting with no regard for sportsmanlike conduct, tradition or safety”. I had long concluded their sentiments were nothing more than blindly patriotic and plainly ignorant lunch-break chat. But when I took part in my first quail hunt, I must admit some small taint from that childhood influence remained. The story started with a call from Jim Stewart, owner of Longthorne Guns. “Mr Carter, I have made a quail gun,” he began. “It’s a 28-gauge over-and-under sidelock with 32in titanium barrels.” He then asked if we would be interested in testing the gun out at its intended quarry, quail. How could I say…

Gundogs If you want to start a heated debate on social media, bring up the topic of puppy prices. Particularly for breeds such as French bulldogs or anything crossed with a poodle. What has happened to the price of dogs? Like everything at the moment, the price of dogs has increased. This is always to be expected as associated costs rise. Veterinary treatment is one of these, as are health testing, caesarian sections, milk, food, wormers and so on. Around 20 years ago, I recall a Kennel Club-registered puppy being around £600. Now the average is around £1,000. This price has fluctuated massively over the past three years for various reasons. Prepandemic, prices had been stable with a steady increase for years. COVID-19 then hit and despite people being laid…

And how does Sir tend to load?” The question came from the sporting and military outfitter as we embarked upon the construction of my shooting suit. “Sir loads from his right-hand jacket pocket,” I replied, secure in the knowledge that it was the unvarnished truth. A crease of disappointment flitted across his brow and vanished; so it was not until much later that I fully realised how much he had learned by that answer. I loaded my own gun, therefore no loader. No pairs of Best guns here. From the coat pocket, only carrying a handful of cartridges, for a drive. Modest days, small bags and thus small change. And the right pocket at that; meaning the gun is held in the left hand, so not even a self-opener. The…

From the south shore of the lake we watched the geese turning into the wind then, on set wings, planing straight down into one of the two fields that still showed green in a frozen countryside. Protected from the persistent blast of the north-east winds by two small pine coverts and a shoulder of high ground, these meadows shone like well-lit landing grounds in a white world to the geese that recognised the lush, easy feeding they offered. Through the glasses we watched and noted every detail, plotting approaches, pitching area, grazing tendency and the position of every ditch, tree and hedge in relation to the feeding grounds, as far as could be seen. Later on, back at base, we sifted and discussed this intelligence. A flight plan was worked…

Across 1 Squeezed into a smaller space allowing PCPs to get some air (10)7 & 16 down As opposed to a solicitor’s area of expertise, poaching isunacceptable (7,3,3) 8 Contravention that involves a crow family member? (5)9 The hero often carries a top trap section (4)10 Makes uplifting adjustments to comb height (6)12 Sort of loses heading north for a shooting tuition session (6)13 Had an urge as dogs got rid of fleas (6)17 Load guns here in Belgium’s capital then cheer crazily! (6) 18 Pigeon magnet parts for those going out on a limb (4)20 A Finnish rifle with an Indian flavour? (5)21 Guiding followers while shooters are applying forward allowance (7)22 A stalked species on arable land for doe or roe (6,4) Down 1 Leathery European quarry species?…

NEWS At the time of going to press, the House of Commons has voted to ban the import of ‘trophies’. The bill, introduced by Conservative MP Henry Smith, aimed to prevent big game hunters from bringing everything, from pelts and horns, back into the UK. High-profile MPs and public figures — including Downton Abbey actor Peter Egan, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Joanna Lumley — had backed the bill, which had become a celebrity pet cause. However, last week African leaders wrote toThe Times to say that trophy hunting is an essential part of conservation. Time and again it has been shown that where trophy hunting is carried out successfully, such as in Namibia, endangered species flourish. Where trophy hunting is limited, poachers often take over. In 2019, Boris Johnson declared…

One of Scotland’s oldest hunts has announced it is to close after more than 250 years, with its hounds being drafted to other kennels. Established in 1771, the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Foxhounds held their final meet at kennels in Houston on 5 March. The hunt said increasing urbanisation and a lack of accessible rural land had made keeping its hounds “unviable”. The final straw appeared to be the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023, introduced three days before the hunt disbanded. Polly Portwin, director of the Campaign for Hunting at the Countryside Alliance, said the decision was “logical and sensible” as costs rise and available land disappears. She added: “Hunting has always adapted to changes, be it farming practices or other factors out of their control, so mergers and country-sharing…

Shooting’s future What is shooting worth? Of course, this question cannot be answered definitively. How can you place a value on a day out with your friends; on a child learning to climb a barbed-wire fence; on serving your friends food you have hunted yourself; on the feeling of the wind in your hair; on watching a red-listed wader getting a brood away? There’s more to value than money. But once we have acknowledged all of that, let’s ask the question again. What is the value of shooting, in pounds and pennies? If the numbers were neatly written out in columns and totalled at the bottom, what would an economist conclude shooting is worth? Of all the many forms of shooting, grouse shooting is the most intensively studied, though the…

Sporting club The older my son gets, the more specialised he has become. Well on the way to his 13th birthday, he has ceased to be simply a ‘rugby player’. Instead, he is now most assuredly a ‘full back’ — well drilled and schooled in the dark arts required of a number 15. Similarly, he has become a stalker rather than merely a ‘Shot’. In truth, he finds the whole shotgun thing a bit lacking in precision and stealth. He prefers the man versus beast challenge that a rifle brings. Additionally, as we enjoy a walk together with the dogs, I have discerned him becoming a naturalist, with a decided specialism in deer. Car journeys are frequently punctuated by a shout from the passenger seat: “Look Dad, roe/Chinese/red/muntjac!” and so…

Catlow’s notebook February was a kind month, sending a generous allowance of sunny days or soft days under cloud. There were a few days when it would have been wrong to say that it felt like spring because it really was spring. The mild air, the thrushes and the dunnocks, the robins and the wrens and the drumming woodpeckers were all proclaiming the season, and the sound of curlew was back in the sky and the lapwings were tumbling over the fields. There were, of course, more days that were still only thinking about spring, looking forward to it but not quite there, days when the morning frost and the edge on the breeze were too sharp to belong unequivocally to the spring of the year. But they were still…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD Tommy Thumb’s songbook It was an auspicious day for English literature, 22 March 1774 being the date Tommy Thumb’s Songbook, the first-ever book of nursery rhymes, was published. Allegedly penned by a nursery maid called Mary Cooper, it was written not so much for children themselves but as an instructional aid for Georgian childcare professionals. The book contains the lyrics to eight nursery rhymes and a section called “Artificial Memory For Infants”. This details animal sounds children should be able to imitate, including magpies, crows and dogs. There then follows a somewhat abstract poem on human features and concise details on how to mould young minds. Miss Cooper appears to have been keen to encourage children to stroke any domestic animal they came across, believing it…

A Welsh springer spaniel called River has been crowned overall winner of the BASC Gamekeepers’ Classes at Crufts 2023. Bowdonia Moon River JW, to give the dog her full name, is owned by underkeeper Peri Burchmore from Peterborough in Cambridgeshire. With entries to the BASC Gamekeepers’ Classes and other gundog handler classes up by almost 20% this year, the event was hotly contested. The top individual dogs owned by gamekeepers went head to head in a final show in the main arena, with Ms Burchmore and River beating off competition from five other finalists to take the title of Best in Gamekeeping Class and the coveted Northesk Memorial Trophy. Five-year-old River has reached the final for the past four years. Ms Burchmore and River, of Lenamore Gundogs, were presented with…

NEWS Scotland’s rural communities are braced for the publication of the Wildlife Management (Grouse) Bill, which will introduce a licensing scheme for grouse shoots. The Scottish government carried out a consultation on the bill towards the end of last year and the text, which is to be placed before parliament, is expected imminently. The bill arose from a review conducted by Professor Alan Werritty into grouse shooting in Scotland. The review chose not to recommend the introduction of licensing but suggested waiting five years and then reviewing the status of key species around grouse moors. However, the Scottish government pushed ahead with licensing. Crucially, the government will not need to meet the criminal standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt but is expected to be able to take away a licence…

For thousands of years, deer were the foundation of human existence in Scotland. Hunting them provided us with food, clothing, tools and a rich cultural imagination that is hard to envisage in the modern world. Deer were a universal currency for our ancestors and everybody had a right to use them. It’s the kind of thought that had its roots in ancient understandings of nature and the significance of hunting. That much is evident from the old Gaelic expression: ‘Breac à linne, slat à coille is fiadh à fìreach — mèirle às nach do ghabh gàidheal riamh nàire.’ This loosely translates as ‘A fish from the river, a wand from the wood and a deer from the hill — thefts of which no gael is ashamed.’ That sense of open…

Book extract BOOKSHELF SIR JOHNNY SCOTT Colonel Peter Hawker, the father of wildfowling whose prowess as a Shot, while serving with the 14th Light Dragoons during the Peninsular Wars, earned him the soubriquet of Wellington’s Honorary Wildfowling Officer by the members of the duke’s staff, invented a sauce that can only have been intended to disguise the flavour of very high game. It consisted of port, lemon juice, lemon rind, chopped shallots, pounded mace, coarse red pepper, strong vinegar, tarragon, thyme, brandy, grated horseradish and a healthy dollop of mushroom catsup. Hawker’s mushroom catsup, or ketchup, bore no resemblance to anything on sale today and was more a loose paste made from salted mushrooms boiled with mace, pepper and vinegar. Professor John Wilson, writing under the pseudonym Christopher North, was…

The incomerA beginner’s diary: Beating Part 6 of 6 We were in the woods, with just 30 yards to go on the final drive. I’d been working hard, covering some eight miles on foot, asking lots of questions and picking up useful snippets. One thing I’d learned was that late-season pheasants are not easily disconcerted. Despite the cacophony and eager dogs running hither and thither, they would crouch under a bush and let you pass within inches if they thought they could get away with it. With this in mind, I diverted slightly from my path to give a squat rhododendron bush a good shake. A cock bird immediately launched itself skywards, aiming for a crack of grey cloud between the trees, desperate to gain height before it had to…

I have a fondness for Nikko Stirling scopes as my first telescopic sight was the firm’s Silver Crown 4x40. Things have come a long way since the simple optic that adorned my beloved Webley Vulcan in 1988, so I jumped at the chance to put the current Diamond FFP model through its paces. Retailing at £409.99, the 6-24x50 model sent to me by Highland Outdoors costs significantly more than the Nikko I bought with my pocket money in my early teens, but you get what you pay for. It still strikes me as being a scope made primarily for airgun use, although its shock-proofing should be sufficient to stand up to the recoil of a powder-burner. It certainly has a significant zoom range, which will cover everything from close-range ratting…

The weather gods threw us another curveball for the final day of the season. After a scorching start, there were frozen spells before and after Christmas, followed by a return to unseasonably warm weather in February. Then we had to finish the season on our feet as snow blanketed the Fernie country two weeks ago. While it may not have been the finish we were expecting — nor would have wanted — we enjoyed a lovely day. Many turned out to follow hounds on foot and were rewarded by a great day’s trail hunting. It allows people to observe hounds in a totally different way than they would from a horse. But my legs the next day wished that the conditions had allowed for horses. Many hunting people whose seasons…