Innholdsfortegnelse for 21-Jun-2023 i Shooting Times & Country

Opponents of rewilding will be encouraged by the warning from TV presenter and survivalist Ray Mears, who says that public support for rewilding schemes will evaporate as soon as the first pet dog is killed. He believes reintroducing wolves and lynx to Britain would be a disaster. Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, he stated: “There’s a part of me that loves the idea of seeing these animals in the wild but I just don’t think, as a realist in Britain, where we have 13% woodland, we are ready for the consequences. “These animals only have to consume somebody’s dog and they then become the hound of hell — and what happens is you end up with more hatred for the animal than before you started.” Beavers, boars and pine…

The first of several oral evidence sessions of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill took place last week in the Scottish parliament. The Scottish Government Bill Team were the first witnesses, giving evidence to the Rural Affairs and Islands (RAI) Committee on the Bill itself. The team took questions from MSPs on all sections of the Bill, including traps, muirburn and grouse shoot licensing. It follows the committee’s call for opinions, which generated more than 5,000 responses, with the majority believed to be against further regulation and licensing of grouse shooting. Further consideration was given to granting additional specific powers to the SSPCA through a draft amendment. BASC remains opposed to the latter proposal, suggesting powers should be retained by statutory bodies — not charities. Muirburn was also discussed,…

There is nothing as delicious as a fresh fish that you have caught yourself, and cooking a trout, on the riverbank, that has been caught in the past hour or so is one of life’s great joys. There is only one problem; you need a backup plan in case the fish do not cooperate. With Sunday lunch at the fishing hut in mind, and a guest list of my son, Peter, and Chris Bright of Bright Seeds fame, I began to eye up the pigeons on my allotment. Fried trout to start, followed by pigeon breasts flashed in butter in a skillet and then served with fresh bread and salad seemed a fair menu. Even if there were no fish, it would not be a total disaster. Pigeon attacks My…

When the UK voted to leave the EU on 23 June 2016, the winds of change in the British countryside shifted from strong to gale force. The majority of UK farmers voted to leave, citing the EU’s monolithic Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as the leading factor in their decision-making. While no firm details were given of what would replace it during the campaign period, Vote Leave’s narrative was British agriculture would be greener, more prosperous and freer to operate out of the aegis of an overly bureaucratic Brussels. Farming and shooting are inextricably linked; the countryside over which we enjoy our sport is overwhelmingly farmland. The new Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) purport to bring about not only an agricultural revolution but a complete restructuring of how the countryside is…

DAVID’S VIEWPOINT Some years ago, I was a regular visitor to the Somerset Levels. On several occasions I walked along a footpath running through a nature reserve on which dogs, even on leads, were banned. The reason was simple. The reserve was not only well known for its rich variety of birds but also its otters, and it was thought that they wouldn’t tolerate the presence or even the scent of dogs. Otters were regarded as rare and vulnerable, so it was felt important to do everything possible to protect them. I never thought much about this until a February day in 2013. I was in the Norfolk market town of Thetford when I came across a group of half a dozen people, one of whom had a dog on…

THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD This year, the longest day falls on 21 June, with the sun rising at 4.42am (in Greenwich) then setting 16 hours and 38 minutes later. It is thought that Neolithic Britons marked the summer solstice by jumping over lit fires, dancing and sacrificing animals and humans. These religious gatherings were largely held at wooden or stone henges, built specifically to mark the seasonal equinoxes. The solstice continues to be celebrated today at many ancient stone circles. However, due to the lack of any written records, the rituals that modern ‘druids’ adopt largely reflect the romanticism of the 18th and 19th centuries, rather than any original forms of sun worship. Chanting and horn blowing have replaced human sacrifice, overwhelmingly due to legal implications. Similarly, English Heritage, custodian…

NEWS Sources close to the Government have told Shooting Times that the long-awaited Lead Ammunition (Restriction) Bill, which will ban lead in live quarry shooting, will be put before Parliament in the autumn. Given the broad cross-party agreement on the matter, it is very likely that the Bill will pass largely unopposed. The only major issue left to be discussed is how long the grace period will be from the Bill being passed to it becoming law. The Health and Safety Executive’s original time limit was 18 months, but the gun trade has been lobbying hard for more time, suggesting at least another five years. The only other issues still on the table are some possible exemptions for target shooting. Once these matters are decided, the Bill will become law…

Shoots across the country have had a torrid few years, with the double impact of COVID-19 and avian influenza bringing some parts of the sector to its knees, particularly in the West Country. And it doesn’t look as though things are taking much of a turn for the better. The cost of living is hitting Guns hard. Even high earners — those on salaries exceeding £100,000 — are struggling to find the readies to indulge their love of driven days. When the going is good and shooting is being bought, very few days advertised – last year’s bookers simply book again — but there are plenty of days up for grabs. Liam Bell, a keeper in Shropshire and former chairman of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, is aware of some shoots…

Corrib in Galway wears its fame well; it has rightly earned its place among the classic fly-fishing waters of the world and thankfully can still claim membership of this exclusive club. Stretching for 40km in length and 185sq km — 44,000 acres in old money — Corrib is a big, serious piece of water. Festooned with islands, bays and promontories for most of its expanse, it is a fly-angler’s dream. Without doubt Corrib is one the last great lakes where the angler can expect to catch large, wild, indigenous brown trout that have dwelt there since the last Ice Age. It is famed for its mayfly hatch and rightly so for, during this festive period, the lough takes on an almost carnival-like atmosphere, with boats all over the water, islands…

There was determination and exasperation in his voice in equal measure: “You’re definitely coming, aren’t you?” In truth, I wouldn’t have missed it. The chance to spend even a few hours on the moor is an opportunity I take when I can. But organising a conference entitled Why Moorlands Matter, to try to spread the word of the importance of these places, had proved more difficult than Tarquin Millington-Drake had imagined. He had put together a list of speakers and hospitality that most people would have spent a large sum on. The private (deliberately unnamed) lodge, complete with chef and great wine, was laid on in an effort to get both sides of the driven grouse moor argument to come together and talk. I guess it’s what young people would…

Regular readers of this column will no doubt have noticed my sometimes cynical view of wild foods. If it doesn’t taste good, I will say so, and not fall into the trap of recommending something because of its novelty value, as, I have noticed, many ‘posh’ restaurants seem to do. Perennial wall-rocket is simply superb, and I can recommend it without hesitation. Perennial wall-rocket, Diplotaxis tenuifolia, is a small, shrubby plant found in odd locations such as car parks, urban roadsides and, notably, in exposed areas near to the sea. In part this is down to a preference for sunny locations and in part it reflects its status as an escapee from cultivation that has yet to find a plant community into which it fits — wild populations of fennel…

Squire Osbaldeston relates in his autobiography how he shot 18 snipe with 20 shots from his single-barrelled flintlock Manton 14-bore. Osbaldeston was the “sportingest man in England”, and anyone who has shot snipe will probably agree that 18 from 20 is pretty sporting shooting. And that’s the nub, really, isn’t it? When you boil it down to its essentials, it is overcoming the difficulty that makes the thing sporting. Why do we not shoot birds on the ground? It would be unsporting. Why not shoot duck on a pond? It would be unsporting. This is why the fascination with shooting exceedingly high birds has developed. If a 10-yard bird is unsporting but a 40-yarder is sporting, then it stands to reason that a bird that is 80 yards up must…

The memory of my first stalk lingers in my mind for all the wrong reasons. Looking back, I was poorly prepared. My shot connected behind the doe’s shoulder, hitting the liver and clipping the stomach. This made for a nerve-racking 20-minute wait before following a blood trail, heart in mouth. While easily done, the poorly placed shot spoke of my experience, or indeed, my lack of it. The gralloch was messy and I vowed then to work hard, learn more and be better, none of which is easy. It took me years to get myself on the right track towards consistent success, and it was only by sheer luck that I stumbled upon a mentor. While I appreciate the time he dedicated to guiding me, the overall learning experience left…

There has been a rapid rise in bird flu at game farms in southern France, which has prompted warnings of a disruption in supply chains. Dr Kenny Nutting, of St David’s Game Bird Services, is warning shoots and game farmers “not to put all your eggs in one basket”. Dr Nutting reveals that cases in the region’s second largest duck area have increased significantly in the past three weeks and there is added concern that the level of bird flu is not only active but also rising rapidly with the recent high temperatures, when it should be declining at this time of year. While this has not affected the mid-west of France, where most game bird breeding takes place at the moment, the news is a warning not to be…

NEWS The Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill had its second reading in the House of Lords as Shooting Times went to press last Friday. Next, the Bill goes to the committee stage when tabled amendments are debated. With support from across the House and the Government, it was not expected that the Bill would be voted out at this point. However, there are several amendments tabled that seek to prevent the potentially catastrophic effects the new legislation could have on hunting-led conservation abroad. One such amendment suggests an exemption for cases where the hunting trophy is shown to have been obtained in a way that contributed to the conservation of flora, fauna or natural habitats. Another requests the addition of a clause that would require a three-year progress report to…

Ferreting The most important part of creating a good ferreting team — that team being made up of dogs and ferrets — is looking ahead and gradually introducing new members; you need to mix energy and youth with skills and experience. Good teams don’t just happen overnight. Behind the scenes there is a lot of hard work and reflection that goes on, not only to make the right decisions but to source the right animals. If I rest on my laurels, I could find myself with the prospect of being unable to carry out rabbit control work properly in years to come. This wouldn’t just be a loss of one of my greatest pleasures, but it would also represent a loss of income. My rabbiting life isn’t just confined to…

Whenever the newspaper headlines are grabbed by incidents of raptor persecution, it becomes painfully clear that certain individuals within the shooting community need to be weeded out and disposed of. Raptor persecution is rightly pitched as a stain on our sport, but the attention paid to one aspect of conflict in conservation is powerfully overbalanced by the enormity of another. Badgers don’t attract the headlines half as much, but our failure to have sensible, meaningful conversations about this species creates a profound divide in the countryside. It’s become very clear that we need to talk about badgers. It’s no so long ago that badgers were a rarity in my part of the world. If and when a badger turned up dead on the side of the road, cars would stop…

I recently tackled the subject of feather plucking in this magazine, passing on my store of knowledge gathered over a lifetime of tearing the outer coating off creatures destined for the pot. I even suggested how the home plucker might avoid marital strain by keeping feathers under control in the kitchen. However, as I might have expected, our American sporting colleagues are well ahead of me, thanks to a device enticingly called Duck-a-Minit. I owe this discovery to Mr G Margison of Bury, Lancashire, who sends me this intriguing extract from an American trade publication called Rubber World. “Hunting wild birds is a popular pastime and a fine way to escape — all too briefly — the pressures of lab or office. Some of that exhilarating tramping-the-brush-on-a-frosty-morn feeling tends to…

Across 6 Those focused on wildlife monitoring lag behind snappers (5,7)8 A better alternative for the Italian gunmaker (7)9 A small US coin is something hounds may track (5) 10 Yearn for the rabbit net (4)11 The colour of labrador retrievers who are afraid? (6) 14 Disease causes chaos in Serbia (6) 16 Gravitational force is an argument to make crops flourish (4) 19 Wrote about a clay ground structure (5)20 Groove on terrain in a small county (7) 21 Sets of guns best suited to duos? (7,5) Down 1 Take a razor to it in the field of shooting (7)2 A new, rarer variety of rabbit manager (8)3 A butt component makes the chief of police tardy (5) 4 The pheasant, in oriental speak, is environmentally-friendly (8,5)5 The Italiano…