Innholdsfortegnelse for 17-May-2023 i Shooting Times & Country

Chris Packham’s libel case against online blog ‘Country Squire Magazine’ rumbled on in court last week. The lawsuit was filed in response to articles published on the magazine’s website, which accused Packham of deceiving people into donating to a tiger rescue charity. The defendants in the case, site editor Dominic Wightman, writer Nigel Bean and Paul Read, are now defending themselves against the claims. During the trial at the High Court, Wightman described Packham as ‘Marmite’, implying that the public’s opinion of him is divided. Wightman claimed that some view Packham as an animal saviour, while others perceive him as a dangerous activist. The court previously heard that the magazine had accused Packham of dishonestly claiming that five tigers were rescued from a Spanish circus after mistreatment, when instead they…

LETTER OF THE WEEK A pragmatic approach to badgers Rose Sutcliffe (Country Diary, 3 May), brings up statistics that show an enormous increase in the national badger population. As much as we all like to see badgers — and undeniably they have a natural place — and as much as we admire their robust character, there can be little doubt that badgers have a negative impact on ground-nesting bird populations and our disappearing hedgehogs. And I would have thought that it is not possible to run a wild bird shoot in areas where badger numbers are high. There is common ground, and what should be a common aim, shared between hedgehog and wild bird protection groups and the shooting community. On this subject they should put their differences aside and…

Pretty much all of us who stalk deer will, at some time, want to enjoy the venison we have harvested from the hill, the fields or the woods. Even those who manage large estates, who shoot prodigious numbers of deer and take most of their venison to the gamedealer will from time to time want to process a carcass for their own use. But there’s a great deal to be considered between the time that your freshly shot carcass is extracted from the wood and the time that those juicy, succulent steaks, fillets or haunches are delivered to the kitchen, let alone plated and brought to the table. Much of the success in producing tasty venison depends on how long and how well the carcass is matured, and that in…

No one likes a whiny dog, or a human being for that matter. In a moment of self-reflection, I realised I had become a member of the bleating fraternity, forever complaining to others about my aches, pains and assorted spasms. I did something about it, returning my sore back and wonky arm to a semblance of functionality, courtesy of repeated trips to a chiropractor. After his ministrations I could bend over once more without shrieking and swing a gun fluidly, albeit in my own habitually jerky version of finesse. To maintain this current happy state of good health, I turned to Helen Stammers for guidance and all-round fitness advice. Helen has served her country well. Her military career spans three decades, and she is currently officer commanding the Royal Army…

Hunting It was amazing how quickly things ‘greened up’ a couple of weeks ago. One minute the hedges were black and trees bare, and the next minute spring had well and truly sprung. With the weather being how it is, sunshine and showers, the lawns here at the kennels could nearly be mown on a daily basis. Keeping on top of them along with everything else would have been enough by itself, but naturally the belt on the mower chose the worst moment to decide it had had enough of remaining intact and retired with a bang at the end of last week. Hopefully all will be fixed and returned to action before the lawns resemble a jungle. Painting the Forth Bridge With the hunt fair at the kennels at…

Catlow’s notebook There were two days in April when I drove home from fishing the Tees with an empty bag. Usually this means I drive home feeling frustrated, because in most circumstances I regard fishing days without fish as days of failure and disappointment. You may have guessed that on the two days in question it was somehow different. It was indeed different, and there were two important reasons. The first of them was that on both occasions I drove home from the Tees feeling that the emptiness of my bag was not my fault. I told myself it was too early in the season and too cold to expect much action where I fished the river above High Force. I looked upon both days as days of reacquaintance, days…

Aidan Hartley is a farmer, keen Shot and fisherman A while back, Barnaby Rogerson, a publisher from the excellent Eland Books, asked me to write a new preface to Richard Meinertzhagen’s Kenya Diary, describing his soldiering experiences in this country between 1902 and 1906. Richard was a great diarist. Decades after the events of his exciting younger life, he brought out a sequence of edited papers covering his adventures in Africa, the Middle East and his Army years, as well as a memoir of the way he saw himself as a black sheep. The first, edited version of his diary appeared in 1956 — and nearly 30 years later, John Hatt, Eland’s founder, reissued this volume with a preface by Elspeth Huxley. Richard Meinertzhagen, noted Elspeth, “was a killer. He…

NEWS The shooting community gathered together at the Northern Shooting Show in Harrogate on the Saturday of The King’s Coronation and celebrated the event in some style with a gun salute from a signal cannon and a line of shotguns. “It was a great event,” said Duncan Thomas, BASC’s North regional director, adding: “It never fails to deliver.” “We are thrilled to rebrand to the National Shooting Show” The show was held over the coronation weekend and saw more than 22,000 people descend on the Yorkshire Event Centre for a weekend of shooting entertainment that included mini rifle shooting, .50 calibre have-ago, big prize money clay shooting competitions and the World HFT Championships. BASC-accredited coaches also provided 120 clay shooting lessons, raised £500 for the Gamekeepers Welfare Trust and oversaw…

Natural England has decided to extend its hen harrier brood management trial for another two years. The decision comes on the back of encouraging data published in March that suggested the number of successful hen harrier nesting attempts had increased from only 12 in 2018 up to 49 in 2022. ‘Brood meddling’ does have its critics, with the process involving removing chicks from their nest and rearing them in captivity before re-releasing them into the wild. But so far in the trial the process seems to have gone well, with 35 captive-reared chicks surviving to the point of release, good survival rates to one year and beyond being recorded, and five individual birds going on to successfully breed and raise their own chicks in the wild. A spokesperson for Natural…

Sport abroad The dirt track that winds up from the valley floor to the hut near the top of the mountain is eight kilometres long, climbs 800m in altitude and connects two locations that seem worlds apart. The terrain, weather and views in the high peaks differ greatly from those languishing at the foot of the slopes. Up here, the snow lingers, even in May. Chamois — a native species of goat-antelope — are everywhere. But two men who have just arrived at the lonely outpost seek a different quarry. Daniel Smith and local guide Otto Schatz are after shootable roebucks and plan to use the hut as their base. The season is set to start the following day. For Daniel, who has stalked plenty of roebucks in the UK,…

Game cookery Cooking game that you have hunted, prepared and lovingly cooked is a passion many of us game shots have in common. The joy you get sharing your catch with friends and loved ones is unequalled, but deep down there is always a hint of trepidation, a nagging worry that one of your guests will be the unfortunate soul who bites on to that single wayward bit of shot, taking the edge off your spectacular dinner party. While guests laugh and chat and commend you on the wonderful food, you catch sight of your unfortunate guest putting hand to jaw to check all is well, while the single pellet sits hauntingly on the side of their plate. The problem with shot has now moved into a different league, as…

After the worries of the past 12 months, it is reassuring to know that there are few issues relating to the supply of this year’s pheasant eggs, chicks and poults. Barring any major outbreaks of avian influenza, there will be enough birds to go round. Partridge poults are still in relatively short supply, but they are there. While it is unlikely there will be a surplus, game farmers should still be able to fulfil their orders, even if the birds are a week or two late. If you are going to give a repeat order to the people who supplied your poults last season, then all well and good, although I would advise you to do it sooner rather than later. If you were unhappy with your birds, were let…

The incomerA beginner’s diary: awareness training I was lying on a dusty track in the middle of a Hampshire field. A target board stood 100m away, guarded by a huge backstop in the form of a redundant railway embankment. I fired two shots from the .243 calibre RPA rifle, and then squinted down the scope to see where they’d landed. “You’re not firing a shotgun, Jim.” It was the voice of Chris Howard, our instructor. He’d been paying more attention to my shooting technique than I’d realised. “This is a rifle,” he went on. “You don’t yank the trigger.” My ego was outraged, and it protested in the strongest terms. “Excuse me, sir,” it blustered. “I’m currently lying eighth in my airgun club’s 25-yard benchrest league. I didn’t get to…

OPTICS TEST Buy with confidence As more and more shooters switch to bullpups and stubby carbines, the demand increases for diminutive optics to match their downsized guns. SWAT Prismatic scopes from MTC Optics fit that niche perfectly, and the 10x30 model, nicknamed the ‘Atom’, is the smallest option in the range, with a 12x50 version also available. Apart from being compact — just 135mm long and a mere 434g with its supplied mount and flip-up lens cover — these telescopic sights also boast a very wide field of view. Eye relief is almost zero, which means you’d get a bit of a whack if you were to use them with anything that has a kick to it, but they are extremely well-suited to recoilless PCP airguns. The Atom made for…

Although the severe winter took such a heavy toll on bird life, it also supplied the birdwatcher, wildfowler and naturalist alike with a mass of interesting observations, as the great struggle between wildlife and the severe frost dragged on and it became more and more apparent that for many of our birds, waterfowl in particular, it had been a losing battle. Some species of birds seemed quite unable to break away from their normal habitat, or to adapt themselves to circumstances and try to seek a living elsewhere. Foremost among these were the small wading birds, such as the dunlin, redshank and knot. For example, on 14 January I picked up 27 redshank lying dead along the tidemark on Breydon Water, and two days later 44 more were found. Scores…

Until the end of the last century, curlew were common and familiar breeding birds throughout much of the Welsh uplands. Today, the population has crashed from around 6,000 pairs 40 years ago to a mere 400 today, while the breeding success of the remaining pairs is abysmally low. Now, however, there’s hope that the decline may not just be halted but reversed, thanks to a £1m grant for the Gylfinir Cymru (Curlew Wales) action plan. The money comes from a Welsh government grant programme, financed by the National Heritage Lottery Fund. The action plan is a three-year project, put together by the GWCT Cymru, the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB, Curlew Country and Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. Lee Oliver, GWCT’s project manager in Wales, believes: “Curlew will…

NEWS Is climate change affecting deer birth dates? That’s the question the British Deer Society (BDS) is hoping to answer by conducting a survey to understand how deer might be reacting to changes in their environment. The UK deer birth dates survey will help the BDS learn how deer are being affected by climate change and in particular how their birth dates may be changing. “The survey will help the BDS understand how deer are affected by climate change” The survey contains seven questions and takes around three minutes to complete. It can be found at surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PMHDG6B or by scanning the QR code. It asks when you first saw deer kids, calves or fawns this year and you will be asked to submit an individual return for each recently born…

Sporting club You have a choice, my boy,” I said to my son. “You can go to your school disco this Friday or come fishing with me. It is entirely up to you.” His response was both speedy and emphatic, giving me a glow of paternal pride. “Fishing, obviously!” he replied, adding a gurn of feigned incredulity by raising a corner of top lip and his eyes to the heavens. With that he shot off to find the keys to the shed, where our fishing tackle lurks amidst a jumble of chainsaws, cobwebs and mice. “Charlie, it’s only Thursday. We’re fishing tomorrow!” His blue eyes now rolled for real, as this meant homework rather than casting was on the evening’s agenda. Rallying the troops As the boy chewed his pencil…

Across 1 Heading south for furniture from equine accommodation (7) 7 The tutor is mad about fish (5) 8 For the purpose of preservation, they give shot game a frosty reception (8) 10 Gold, with a blast of wind, puts grouse shooting on the calendar (6) 11 A gun stock measurement taken on the sports field (5) 13 At H&M, there’s grouse terrain (7,4) 16 The pigeon with a wild side (5) 17 This one gets a bit shirty with the gun cover (6) 19 Brassed off embracing information on gannets and the like (8) 20 Manages heather in fiery fashion during a celebratory night in Scotland (5) 21 Dogs that catch unshot game see a horse surrounded by its peers (7) Down 2 Ottoman Empire furniture maker delivers gun…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD British summer time (BST) came into effect on 17 May 1916 with the Summer Time Act, after a campaign by builder William Willett. He had noticed, while riding out in early summer, the number of workers’ cottages where blinds remained shut, despite the sun being high in the sky. This observation inspired him to publish a pamphlet titled “The Waste of Daylight” in 1907. He proposed that clocks should be advanced during April and reversed during September. His campaign was taken up by a number of politicians, including Winston Churchill, becoming the subject of a parliamentary select committee in 1909. The idea stalled until the outbreak of World War I. The need to save coal for the war effort brought BST back into focus. The act…