Innholdsfortegnelse for 10-May-2023 i Shooting Times & Country

The libel trial between Chris Packham and the Country Squire Magazine website finally got underway last week, with both sides presenting their initial statements. The key allegations that Packham is suing three writers of Country Squire Magazine for are that he led a fundraising campaign to rescue tigers from a zoo, when in fact they were well-cared for animals not in need of rescuing, thus conning the public out of money. In an impressive witness statement presented to the court, over 50 pages in length, Packham set out in great detail his background, his many awards and his contribution to animal rights. In it, he completely repudiated the claims against him. He went further, and described the impact the allegations have had on his life, saying: “I believe the defendants’…

The last weekend in April saw a gathering of the faithful at Deep River in North Carolina to celebrate everything side-by-side, with British dealers prominent among the exhibitors. American collectors have been buying British guns since the end of World War II, and their passion for British sporting guns remains high. Every spring, Bill Kempher at Deep River Sporting Clays hosts a gathering of dealers from the US and UK and puts on several sporting clay competitions to draw a good crowd over four days. This year’s event attracted all the major US dealers as well as representatives from Dickson, Westley Richards, Atkin, Grant & Lang and Heritage Guns. J-P Daeschler of John Dickson & Son said “I love the passion Americans have for British guns, they really love the…

In January, I whiled away the New Year’s Day bank holiday meandering through the woods in search of a rabbit. While it is always a joy to be out in the woods, the rabbits well and truly beat me that day, and I returned home without a single bunny in the bag. It was very disheartening and, in truth, it set me back for the rest of the season. I had several frustrating days thereafter. “Early May has to be one of the most glorious times of the year” Such was my frustration with the whole day, I took myself off to a nearby clay ground to practise on rabbits; I think I shot at 50 clays, all of them flinging along the ground and bouncing erratically. By the end…

This being the season when the fair-weather motorcyclist ventures forth after the long hibernation of winter, I finally hauled on the protective gear, lubed up the moving parts — on the bike, thank you — and sallied forth. There is one thing that immediately strikes you when you abandon the four-wheeled biscuit tins that the rest of the world roar or, almost as many these days it seems, buzz about in, and that is how appallingly other people drive. I’m not talking here about the simply mad manoeuvres: overtaking on blind bends and into the face of oncoming traffic, thundering through villages at twice the prevailing speed limit or waiting at traffic lights with 120 decibels of drum ’n’ bass thumping out at a pitch fit to rattle the catseyes,…

Al’s sporting tour There aren’t many shows that are as dedicated to stalking and hunting as The Stalking Show. This new event was first launched in 2022 at the Staffordshire County Showground. I remember the first time I heard about it. I was really excited to have a dedicated day just for deer. When I got there, I wasn’t expecting it to be as big or as well attended as it was. In fact, it caught a lot of people by surprise. Over 8,000 people attended the show in 2022. Not too shabby. It was an absolute success. This year, there was no doubt that it was going to be even bigger and bolder. I woke up early on Saturday morning and got ready for the long drive down south…

The wildfowling season was coming to an end, and the pinkfeet were on the move to their northern nesting grounds. I had nothing to do during the next two months except help my father kill rabbits and attend vermin traps on his 1,500-acre partridge beat. The only chance I had of earning money during the summer was to act as warden on the ternery. In that job I would receive 14s for a seven-day week, but it would finish about the first week in July, leaving three empty months before the geese returned. I was feeling unsettled because of an offer I had received from my elder brother, who had settled in the United States of America. The offer was to pay my passage and other expenses to his home…

Across 5 Change your diet due to the rise and fall of the sea (4) 7 A job on the estate for the school chief and goalie (4,6) 8 Sweden’s leader listens to tools for game preparation (6) 9 Rugby players lose heart with US guns (6) 10 A bike on all fours forms part of the squadron (4) 11 Are wasps doing the rounds? (7) 14 Those in a shooting syndicate have a real sense of belonging (7) 16 and 6 down I see dark exotic stalking targets (4,4) 18 Charge too much for a warm type of gilet (6) 20 Ammunition designed for the stages of competitions? (6) 21 Guardians of crop fields spread fear with cocky cries (10) 22 Stop being silly about a fallow deer marking…

NEWS Comments made by a Welsh minister claiming there is no place for shooting in a ‘civilised society’ have been slapped down by shooting organisations. The statement was made by the Minister for Climate Change, Julie James MS, during a debate in the Senedd on shooting’s benefits to the Welsh countryside. In response to a question on the role of shooting and conservation, she said, “I do not think killing anything as a sport or for leisure is anything that any civilised society should support.” The debate, held by James Evans, MS for Brecon and Radnorshire, came at the midpoint of a 12-week Natural Resources Wales consultation that proposes restrictions on releasing gamebirds in Wales. Speaking in support of shooting in Wales at the debate, James Evans MS said: “Shooting…

Fifty years ago, there were estimated to be more than 125,000 pairs of turtle doves breeding in Britain. Today it is a mere 2,000, making this dove one of the most endangered of all our farmland birds. One of the most important reasons for the decline is loss of habitat, and thus loss of food. This has led to a dramatic fall in breeding success, with most pairs only attempting one or two broods, instead of three which used to be the case. Another factor in the dove’s decline has been unsustainable shooting on the migration route through France, Spain and Portugal, with spring shooting being particularly damaging. However, this year, for the third year in a row, a hunting moratorium has been established in these countries, with no dove…

Fly-fishing for trout and salmon on rivers has an accessibility problem. However hard we try to preach inclusivity, it is usually done in £500 waders with a £1,000 rod on a river owned by a friend. Even when I’ve written about the most glorious beats on Dartmoor through the Duchy of Cornwall or the Westcountry Rivers Trust, which are cheap and affordable, I’m usually stood in the middle of nowhere. In the UK, 17.2 million people live in households that don’t have a car. For readers of Shooting Times this probably comes as a surprise; it did to me. However, over the course of my short tenure as a contributor to this magazine, I have come across a number of reasons why living in a town, city or not having…

My first stalking diary was a Christmas present from a family friend. Her husband had kept them his entire sporting life, and she was keen, I think, that I should not miss out on the great joy that he derived from leafing through their pages in later years. It was a hardbound thing of beauty, and although I have occasionally reflected that the desire to preserve a matching set has cost me dearly over the years, I am deeply indebted to her for the thought. I started out quite ambitiously, assiduously recording everything from the temperature to the phase of the moon. After a couple of seasons, it ceased to be a chore, and now, years later, it has become such a rewarding part of my stalking life that not…

OUR VERDICT Stalking rifles really need to handle and not constrict one’s considered movements through woods or hills, so a lightweight and reasonably compact design is always beneficial and welcome. We stalk with moderators fitted these days but this can lengthen a rifle, so a fully suppressed gun with a shorter barrel and over-barrel shroud is a great alternative to this problem. The Steyr CL II Breeze, available as a walnut or carbon fibre stocked version, perfectly addresses this issue with a short 16in barrel in either .308 Win or 6.5 Creedmoor, which is covered from the action to beyond the muzzle with a carbon fibre suppressor. It perfectly balances the rifle as well as achieving a very low nose signature for stealthy shooting. Steyr is also well known for…

Maize has been receiving some bad press of late. This doesn’t mean we should do away with using it as a game crop altogether, it is just that people are becoming more aware of the downsides to growing it. One of the biggest issues associated with the growing of maize is soil erosion and the connected loss of topsoil, as well as the leaching of chemicals into watercourses. It is also hungry crop, and as such is relatively expensive to grow when compared with something such as a millet mix, which requires less fertiliser. Add to that the fact that maize cobs feed significantly fewer farmland birds than the small seed crops do, and that a maize crop can be a magnet for undesirables such as rats and crows —…

The low temperatures of April have had, and will continue to have, an impact on our early nesters, especially lapwings. The severe frosts a few weeks ago have rendered some eggs infertile; this is backed up by the first hatches in the north, some with only two chicks. The problem now is food supply, as it is too cold for the insect world to get going and all the newly hatched youngsters are going to need to find some protein. Curlew and many other waders are still to hatch and will have missed the frosts so, all being well, their numbers shouldn’t be impacted too severely. On the moor, the lack of heat has had an impact on the heather as it has not yet managed to green up after…

NEWS The Government has launched a new wild venison quality assurance scheme, which aims to support the sustainable management of deer A new scheme to boost consumers’ confidence in the venison market and support the sustainable management of wild deer in the countryside has been launched. According to the Government, the UK’s deer population is believed to be at its highest level for 1,000 years, with some two million deer in our countryside and semi-urban areas. A growing deer population with no natural predator puts more browsing pressure on woodland ground flora through their consumption of tree shoots, shrubs and woody vegetation that sequester carbon. The new wild venison quality assurance scheme, which will be open to applicants in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, will ensure a set of audited…

There are degrees of seriousness to clay shooting. To set up and run a sim game operation that turns a profit is no easy task. At the outset, you have to ask yourself one simple question: how many weekends are you and your family prepared to sacrifice? And you must be honest with the answer because many of your clients will only want to come at weekends. Even at the other end of the scale — looking to have fun shooting driven clays with friends — there are some things you need to get right for everyone to have a safe and enjoyable time. Testing clays In my late teens I set up and ran my first clay shoots with my best friend. The chosen charity was MacMillan Nurses, who…

Remembering the experience that ignited a lifelong passion for stalking Although I work in the deer management industry, you may be surprised to learn that I didn’t shoot my fist deer until the age of 18. As part of the course I was on at Sparsholt College, taking a year out to gain experience in the field was required. I had chosen to do this on deer, should I ever need it to go with a bird keepering job. However, after doing five months of stalking it became clear that deer were more of an interest than gamebirds. Placement I gained a placement with New Zealander Blue Thomas, who was based just outside Hereford. He had set up as a self-employed deer manager following retirement from a career in the…

For those of us who don’t spend vast amounts of money shooting hundreds and hundreds of pheasants in Wales, it’s pretty easy to throw stones at ‘the big boys’. They reckon that every Welsh mountain has a pheasant shoot on it these days. It’s an obvious overstatement, of course, but Wales does benefit from mountainous areas, which are ideal for showing testing birds. There are a number of good shoots in Wales, most of them run to the highest standard. After all, game shooting is a pastime designed to test your skill and respect is given to quarry that tests top Shots. My late father-in-law had a saying: “You need a lot to show a few.” When birds are high, even a tiny shift in direction, usually due to wind,…

Will Pocklington speaks to some of our leading shooting instructors Two kills and two losses on a £4 have-a-go stand at the Midland Game Fair and Anita North was hooked. It was the late 1980s and she was in her twenties, with no previous experience of shooting. Could anyone have guessed that 20 years later she would climb to the top of the podium at the Commonwealth Games? The next few paragraphs could easily be filled with the finer details of Anita’s trophy-laden exploits. She represented and captained the England team and became the first English woman ever to shoot 100 ex 300 (that’s 100 consecutive first-barrel kills) in DTL. During our chat, she reflected on World Championships, lessons with John Bidwell and Ian Coley, the British set-up and narrowly…

Pressing the television remote, trying to find something that did not involve cooking, gardening or interior design, I stumbled across a channel showing the original Star Trek series. Utter joy on a wet afternoon, though the children were totally bemused; couldn’t I see that the landscape was made of papier mâché, the scenery was a bit wobbly and that the Starship Enterprise was probably an Airfix model? Even worse, they said, was the non-woke depiction of female crew members — why did they all wear very short dresses with leather boots? Happily they didn’t stay around or they would have discovered that it wasn’t just human females that were so depicted: Captain James T Kirk was constantly falling for alien ladies with full figures wearing not much. Had those aliens…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD Anyone who owns a hairy dog will be all too aware of Galium aparine, better known to most as cleavers, goose grass or sticky willy, depending whereabouts in Britain you hail from. The annual wildflower is most adhesive at this time of year, readily attaching itself to the ears, chests and belly fur of spaniels with a Velcro-like persistence. Although also a bane to farmers and gardeners alike, thanks to its vigorous growth and crop-choking ways, cleavers do have many medicinal benefits. The plant is exceptionally rich in vitamin C; dogs seem to know this and you will often see your them nipping off the young tips with gusto. Cleavers also make a useful first field dressing — a handful pressed against a wound will stem…