Innholdsfortegnelse for 26-Apr-2023 i Shooting Times & Country

We’ve all heard of it happening I’m sure, but until yesterday I’d never actually seen it myself. I was out with my new puppy, working on the basics, when I noticed a large bag of dog poo hanging from a tree. I looked around, instinctively, assuming that somebody was going to be wandering back for it — perhaps the phone had rung and they needed a free hand or some such mundanity — but no, they had literally picked it up, tied the bag in a knot, and then hung it for all to enjoy. I like to think I’m a fairly open-minded sort of person — as a journalist I’ve spent time with everyone from naturists in Yorkshire and moose hunters in Finland to Mormons in Utah. The world…

Shooting Times has been bought by Europe’s biggest sporting publisher, Fieldsports Press. The news came just a week after it was announced that the group has also bought Trout & Salmon magazine. The sale from Future PLC also includes Sporting Gun magazine, the shootinguk. co.uk website and The Shooting Show. The news was met with positivity from the gun trade, with key manufacturers saying it is good to see the titles with a publisher that is passionate about shooting and understands the sporting world. An insider commented that Fieldsports Press is the only publisher that has really invested in sporting media in recent years. It is expected that Fieldsports Press will continue with the same contributors, while bringing a few new ones into the fold and growing the digital potential…

Pine martens are a conservation success story, but according to Rory Kennedy, Scottish director of the GWCT, their resurgence is threatening the existence of the largest remaining group of capercaillie within the Cairngorms National Park. Talking to The Times, Mr Kennedy said that shooting pine martens was politically unacceptable and relocating them was ineffective as other animals simply moved in. So the suggestion has been made to see if it is possible to divert the contraceptive measures being brought in to control grey squirrels in other parts of the country, and use them on the pine martens instead. Kennedy told The Times: “We lost the last west coast population of the capercaillie in the Loch Lomond area in 2021 so we need to do all we can to protect the…

Chris Rogers is a deer manager in East Anglia, CIC head measurer and NGO committee member As the end of March also marks the end of my annual season, we tend to have a family break over Easter. Apart from that we are flat out, with plenty of clients hoping to make the most of the low crops and easy culling conditions before the rest of the spring and summer. As is typical with deer, there is the inevitable roebuck lull that accompanies the start of the season. Bucks that were being seen regularly through March can become scarce, in the same way that the does hide up until the end of the female season, only to appear more abundantly once their season has finished. This phenomenon is known well…

Predators Your dogs won’t like it when they come to stay; that kennel stinks,” said my father almost 40 years ago. He had given up keeping dogs by then, but there was still a kennel at the bottom of his garden so he could board mine when I was going away. Dad was a keen vegetable gardener and if there was one thing that would really wind him up it was the neighbours’ cats, or in this case a vixen, digging in his carefully prepared onion bed. This particular year the crop rotation brought the onions right alongside the kennel, so he had “left a lamb bone from Sunday lunch in it, rigged a figure-of-four trip to hold the door open, and stretched a bungee to snap it shut”. One…

Pigeon Pigeon, so flexible and versatile in the air and likewise in the kitchen, must be up there for one of the most deeply vibrant meats. And with it being in season all year round, you can appreciate its differing flavour from young birds through to old, from its winter diet through to the fat-covered, plump birds of harvest. “Here is a recipe born of a desire for sunshine and the presence of pigeon” It’s springtime now, and so we are really still on the winter birds where they are available. While I’d like to reflect this new season in my recipes, up here in north-east Scotland the dream of asparagus is still far away and the wild garlic is only just beginning to send its slender green tips questing…

If you try to tell an urban dweller that foxes can cause problems for wildlife, they may not really believe you. They have been so imbued with the ‘balance of nature’ view, as put forward on their TV screens, that they think it applies to our own, heavily modified countryside. They think the countryside is natural and looks after itself. Certainly, they have no sympathy for a gamekeeper bemoaning the loss of his pheasants — those birds are going to be shot anyway, aren’t they? Yes, lambs are definitely cuter than pheasants, yet ultimately the same applies. Besides, these days eating meat is a recreational indulgence. The poor fox is only doing what nature intended. A dose of reality But a few friendly chucks kept at the bottom of a…

NEWS BOOK We are delighted that the Shooting Times Woodcock Club dinner, which raises money for woodcock conservation, will be held this year on 1 June at the Savile Club. Email shootingtimes@futurenet.com to book tickets. This year, we have Will Garfit who will be joining us to talk about his life as a sporting artist and Andrew Hoodless from the GWCT, who is coming along to update the club on woodcock conservation. The auction lots are also looking stellar. UPGRADE One of the most important parts of off-road driving is having the right tyres on your car. It might be spring now but the season will roll round soon enough — why not see what the options are for your car? Hybrid tyres are a good shout if you need…

The Countryside Alliance has blasted Wiltshire Police for its recently published guidelines on rural staff that suggests the force “ensure staff do not have personal links with hunts past or present”. The guidelines follow on from the removal of police officer PC Cheryl Knight from the Rural Crime Team after her links with the Beaufort and Avon Vale hunts were made known. Her removal was proclaimed as “a victory” by hunt saboteurs. In what may be a contravention of its own equality, diversity and inclusion strategy, Wiltshire Police also requires that staff “disclose links to any rural-based hobby or initiative that could potentially call into question their policing impartiality”. Tim Bonner of the Countryside Alliance has written to Wiltshire’s police and crime commissioner Philip Wilkinson and accused him of “failing…

Some people love grey seals, but I don’t. I do, however, wonder if they’d make good waterproof mittens. A business opportunity perhaps. When you ask people what they admire in the grey seal, they regurgitate the same nonsense: “Oh, they are so sweet.” Some say they have “beautiful liquid eyes” — they look more like dead black marbles to my mind. “They are so clean,” say others. But let me tell you, a thousand-odd defecating in the water of a small harbour is not clean. Well, I was out on the Point the other morning with a friend in the dingy looking for bass, when an adult female seal bobbed up out of the water about 10 yards away, head and shoulders slathered in blood. The water around was a…

A recent jaunt to a Welsh upland llyn (lake) in pursuit of wild brown trout taught me two things. First, that it was too early in the season to entice a wily Welsh wild brownie to take a fly and secondly that my neoprene chest waders, the ones I usually wear for midwinter wildfowling, had sprung a leak. Not a huge leak but enough for me to endure a cold, wet foot for the couple of hours as I stood chucking a fly at disinterested trout, and one that is likely to be terminal for this pair after only 18 months of use. Thus, item one on my list of wildfowling kit I’ll need before the next season is a new pair of neoprene chest waders. There’s no particular rush…

As responsible gun owners, the security of our guns should be a top priority — it’s both a legal obligation as part of the terms of our certificate and also a moral duty. When it comes to our guns’ storage and security at home, there are strict rules to govern this — from the type of cabinet needed, how it must be fixed into position and even how ammunition and cartridges should be stored. All of these are designed to prevent guns falling into the wrong hands. When it comes to transporting guns in vehicles however, the rules on security are a little more subjective, with even more onus placed on the individual to ensure they take all reasonable precautions depending on the situation. This throws up its own hurdles…

DECIDING ON WHICH HOBS TO HOBBLE The ferreting season is over so all the phone calls about rabbits that I should have received in the winter are now coming in. Typical. My ferrets have now been separated because they are all deep in season. This not only increases the husbandry aspect of keeping so many but also handicaps my rabbiting efficiency and which ferrets I can use together when called out. For a long time, I have been a big advocate of keeping and working neutered hob ferrets (hobbles) and this is usually the time of year when they come into their own. Sadly, some of mine had got old and died. I am waiting to get a few neutered soon when they are fully in season and ready for…

Gundogs LAST SEASON, I watched an unusually short-legged labrador picking up on a shoot. It was performing well, so it never occurred to me that there was anything wrong with it until I chatted to the dog’s handler. She told me that it was a two-year-old bitch that had been given to her by its breeder because it suffered from dwarfism, so he had been unable to sell it. Dwarfism is a relatively common problem in labradors, but it’s not always immediately obvious, and certainly doesn’t stop mildly affected dogs from working. According to a vet friend who has seen several cases of dwarfism, it can be easily overlooked in dogs that are only mildly affected, while in others it is both obvious and conspicuous. Short legs are usually the…

Stalking dogs The end of the hunting season is often a busy time for our tracking teams. In many places, there are still plenty of driven hunts going on, most of which have been organised to comply with mandatory shot figures — the aim being to cull any cervids not accounted for before the season for that species closes. Occasionally, the government grants an exception and the mopping-up process can continue, but that doesn’t reduce our workload. This year was no different. Our association’s tracking teams were standing by right across Belgium, with a few even stationed in Germany and France. I was on call for the weekend with my dog Jazz in a 2,000-hectare terrain close to the French border. It was a real deer-hunting spot, with a good…

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…

Farmer jailed over destruction of river Farmer John Price has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for destroying a 1.5km stretch of the River Lugg. Price used bulldozers and excavators to dredge and reprofile the river, and in doing so destroyed otter, kingfisher, trout and salmon habitats. The case is the first prosecution under the farming rules for water legislation. The sentencing was met with positivity from anglers and conservationists, but some pointed to the lack of sentencing when it comes to businesses polluting rivers. PG Applications open for ‘dream’ job A castle estate in the Outer Hebrides is advertising for what many would see as the ultimate ‘get away from it all’ dream job. Amhuinnsuidhe Castle Estate on the Isle of Harris is calling for a gamekeeper and…

Mark Fitzer is the head gamekeeper on the famous Holkham estate in North Norfolk It doesn’t feel like five minutes have passed since we closed the gamebook on last season. I suppose that is the beauty of this job; there is always something to be looking forward to — or not as the case may be. When I used to pen my own laying stock on a previous estate, I always looked forward to picking up the first pheasant eggs of the new season. But, after a few weeks of egg collecting, the pleasure of picking the first eggs was completely overshadowed by the longing to pick the last ones. One job that has always signalled the start of a new campaign is the spring pair counts for the grey…

GundogsDAVID’S VIEWPOINT How do you feel about dogs in restaurants? It’s not a subject that I’ve ever really thought too much about, though I remember observing years ago that the French take their dogs into restaurants and nobody seems to notice, let alone complain. However, I was reminded of the subject earlier this month, when I was dining in a restaurant in the Estonian town of Haapsalu. The restaurant was the most popular in town — I had to book to secure a table — but it was patrolled by the proprietress’s pair of bulldogs. The two bulldogs were exceedingly friendly, methodically working their way around the crowded restaurant and greeting every table. No doubt they would have wagged their tails if they could, but neither dog had a tail…