Innholdsfortegnelse for 27-Jan-2016 i Shooting Times & Country

THE FACT THAT sales of game have increased dramatically over the past few years is fantastic news (see p4). Game is a key way to normalise shooting in the public mind. If people come to appreciate the delicious, nutritious, free-range and environmental benefits of eating venison, pheasant and partridge they will be more sympathetic to the wider case for shooting. Both BASC’s Taste of Game and the Countryside Alliance’s Game to Eat campaigns have made great strides in promoting game. The general greater interest in where food comes from has been driven in no small part by celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall and the Hairy Bikers, who have promoted game to a huge audience. As a result you increasingly see it on the menu not just in swanky London…

Farmers and vineyard owners in Tuscany are backing plans by the regional government to cull up to 250,000 wild boar and deer. The producers of popular red wine Chianti Classico say that its vineyards are targeted every night by wild boar, roe deer and fallow deer, and have hailed proposals to reduce their numbers by a quarter of a million over the next three years to protect crops. Giuseppe Liberatore, head of the Chianti Classico Consortium, said the situation was “out of control”, referring to it as an “invasion”. Producers estimated that in 2014 wild animals damaged or ate grapes equivalent to 130,000 bottles of wine. Marco Remaschi, the councillor for agriculture, told Italian newspaper Corriere della Serathat the density of “these species in Tuscany is four times the national…

Broadband scheme is flawed, says CLA The CLA says that the Government must not abandon plans to deliver 10Mbps broadband to the entire country in favour of its new voucher system. The scheme allows those with poor broadband download speeds to apply for subsidised satellite broadband access. But the vouchers are only available online, which makes them difficult to acquire for those without Internet access in the first place, says the CLA. Shooters warned of EU bird flu outbreak Shooting groups have urged their members to take notice of an outbreak of bird flu in France. So far the disease has only been reported in kept flocks of geese, duck and poultry, but BASC and the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation have warned that the EU control measures could affect the import…

Who are you and what do you do? I am the CEO and founder of the website Eagle-Review.com — a sort of Tripadvisor for the global shooting and fishing industry. I am a Dutchman with a multinational track record in the IT and service industry and I own Château de Villette, a sporting estate in Burgundy. What does a typical working week involve for you? It is divided between running Eagle Review and our shooting estate. I am also a French national wine judge. How does Eagle Review benefit shooters and other field sportsmen? When researching a new, often costly, shooting or fishing destination, all too often one has to rely on trawling the Internet, or descriptions provided by an agent or owner. Eagle Review allows sportsmen to evaluate and…

I am amazed by the number of shooters who seem surprised by the recent moves from the EU to further regulate and restrict legitimate firearms ownership following the atrocities in Paris (News, 25 November and 2 December). I understand that some of these matters have been under discussion in Brussels for years, though now is seen as a useful time to bring them forward. We should remember that the EU is built on regulation and control. We may find this difficult to comprehend as at one time British law was based on the principle that what is not prohibited is permitted, while EU law is based on the idea that everything is prohibited except what is permitted — a system designed to aid centralised control. As a mere member state…

Why is Les Taylor, who used a 12-bore up until 2009, such a fan of the .410? “I was sceptical at first when a friend persuaded me to try one,” he said. “But I quickly realised what a great little calibre the .410 is. Shooting clays, I won the 2010 World Championship, then progressed to game and now I only shoot the .410. “I realised that I also needed to reload if the cost was to be kept to an acceptable level, so I bought a MEC Sizemaster from Clay & Game (www.claygame.co.uk). I make my own shot, and have experimented and settled on a good load that is fast and patterns well. I use an American powder called Hodgdon LIL’GUN, putting 14 grains of powder behind 18g of shot…

Everyone is aware of the concerns being voiced by conservationists about the continuing decline of many of our farmland birds. Farmers are often blamed, though many are keen conservationists. All sorts of factors are involved — and modern farming is one of them — but farmers are hardly to be blamed for responding to the national need for food security after World War II. Farmers are apt to respond by pointing out that there are more magpies, sparrowhawks and other predators out there, and many suggest that predation rather than intensive farming is to blame. All this “finger pointing” creates an atmosphere of mistrust, which results in something of a stalemate; progress is stifled, to the detriment of both birds and people. Let’s try to take the heat out of…

“The gun was quite bulky but at least there was no chance of your leading hand being injured by gas-flash” The idea of a shotgun that fires a number of times without being reloaded is nothing new. There was always a demand from a small number of shooters who felt that several shots gave them a better chance of hitting more of their quarry, or stopping it if their first shot failed to connect. From the earliest days there were revolver guns that were mainly novelties for the very well-to-do. Then design settled down into the double-barrelled gun with which we are now familiar. The development of the percussion cap paved the way for self-contained cartridges, which, in turn, made the mechanical repeating shotgun a practicable proposition. The American Civil…

The short days and cold temperatures of January should offer challenges for red kites, particularly inexperienced juveniles, but garden feeding is providing individuals with easy pickings in many parts of the UK. Research at Reading University has demonstrated just how important this supplementary feeding is for hundreds of red kites that commute into the city on a daily basis. Dr Mel Orros and her colleagues estimate that roadkill and discarded food within Reading could not feed more than 30 of these birds per day, but that targeted feeding is capable of supporting 320. The Chilterns Conservation Board is worried that an unnaturally high population is being sustained in this way and is urging the public not to feed red kites. When not provided with chicken carrion, red kites will also…

“Managers should not be allowed to mark their own homework” The classic definition of “news” is: “Information that somebody, somewhere, does not want made public.” Right now, there are serious proposals to extend the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to include charities, on the basis that bodies that receive public money should be more open and accountable to the public. This could be interesting. Just imagine organisations such as the League Against Cruel Sports, the RSPCA, the RSPB and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust having to respond to FOI requests. What fun! The inevitable consequence will be that these groups will start to be very careful about what information they store. But they cannot turn back the clock. Nor can they deny requests for all sorts of juicy information that…

COLLECT Lancashire-based gundealer Entwistle Guns (see p. 44) has recently produced a UK version of the Yildiz guns catalogue. Anyone interested can receive a copy free of charge by contacting Entwistle, tel 01772 718048. CLICK Log on to http:// shop.ejchurchill. com and take a look at EJ Churchill’s new online shop. Customers can now browse and purchase the award-winning country outfitters’ full range of products without even having to leave the house. SHOOT The inland wildfowling season in England, Wales and Scotland comes to a close on Sunday, 31 January, so you don’t have long to bag a few birds before you can only shoot below the mean high water mark. Despite the floods, wildfowlers are still achieving decent bags, as you can read in our report on p.6. LOOK…

BASC is planning a celebration for the 40th anniversary of the Gamekeepers’ Fair this year by getting in touch with those who attended the inaugural event in 1976. The organisers are keen to obtain photographs, programmes or other memorabilia from the first show, held at Packington Park. Visit www.bascgamekeepersfair.co.uk. The RSPB has launched a blanket bog restoration project at Dove Stone in the Peak District, after securing a grant of more than £228,000 from landfill tax charity WREN. The National Farmers’ Union is urging milk-buyers to look at ways to help farmers manage price volatility after dairy producer Müller announced a 1p per litre drop in milk price to its suppliers. A pheasant caused a lorry, a pickup truck and two cars to crash on the A41, just outside of…

TODAY’S YOUNG ARE MISSING OUT I dug out some old issues of Shooting Timesto re-read and found the comment by Alasdair Mitchell (Sharpshooter, 7 October) on the pampered youngsters of today. Parents appear to prefer spending £400 on an Xbox so that their children can play indoors all day and grow obese. Let them out and everything needs to be risk-assessed. Today’s youngsters are missing out. I can recall, as a child, setting off on my bike with camping gear and some rations to a smallholding with a great waterfall. We would set up camp, and some of us would sleep in a thatched hut that we built. The fishing lines would be set in the stream to catch our breakfast, bows and arrows would bag a rabbit and the…

“Despite tales of loss and decline, the overall picture for hen harriers is far less depressing” With all the anti-shooting publicity in the press and online regarding hen harriers (News, 20 January), you might be excused for thinking that these birds are on the brink of extinction. The word “extinction” is quite misleading in this context, particularly since it should only be used to describe a species that is about to disappear totally and finally from the face of the earth. Hen harriers cannot be “extinct in England”, as is so often quoted by anti-shooting enthusiasts, because a species is either extinct or it isn’t. It can be “absent” or “missing” from England, but its massive distribution across most of the northern hemisphere means that it is a long way…

Get a properly proportioned gun; many cheaper .410s are too small and too light. Buy the best you can afford. Make sure it fits — get the gun fitted if necessary. Try as many different brands of cartridges as you can to find out which one gives you the best results. Reloading is by far the best option in terms of cost and great performance. Learn how to control your gun — with a lighter gun it is easy to overswing. It does not matter whether you go for an over-and-under or a side-by-side, but it must weigh at least 6½lb. Use a good degree of choke in both barrels — I shoot three-quarter-choke in both. Use 18g or 19g of shot with No.7 or No.9 shot for clays and…

For all the gloom and doom, there are still lots of birds to be seen in our countryside. So the GWCT decided that it was time to demonstrate that farmers and shoots really do care about the wildlife with which we share our working environment. In February 2014, the Big Farmland Bird Count was launched — an opportunity for farmers and gamekeepers to record what they have on their ground, and see where they are going. This is the third year of the project and there is nothing to stop many more people joining in. In 2015, almost 1,000 people participated. It takes just half an hour of sitting quietly, counting the birds and noting the species. Instructions are available at www.gwct.org.uk/bfbc and you can do your count on any…

“The walking was hard but Ciska seemed to float over the ground, hunting with style and grace” PRESIDENTIAL invitations always take priority, so when the president of the British Falconers’ Club (BFC) asked me if I would like to join him for a day’s hawking, I jumped at the opportunity. Nick Kester is an exception among BFC presidents, as he is an austringer rather than a falconer, the charmingly old-fashioned term for anyone who flies shortwings (hawks) as opposed to longwings (falcons). Nick’s invitation was for a day’s hawking in the Cambridgeshire fens. “We’ll be hunting wild pheasants,” he said. “They’re small, wary and fly like rockets, so there’s no guarantee of success. I will be flying Baldrick, an imprinted male goshawk that I’ve had since he was 10 days…

BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and global authority on guns MAT MANNING Airgunner and journalist from the West Country BRUCE POTTS Shooting Timesrifle reviewer and stalker DAVID TOMLINSON Highly regarded writer and ornithologist LIAM BELL Shropshire gamekeeper and keen wildfowler GRAHAM DOWNING Shooting consultant and sporting author PAUL RAWLINGS Gundog expert and A-panel spaniel judge CHRIS DE CANI Riverkeeper, with specialist knowledge of chalkstreams TONY BUCKWELL Veterinary surgeon with a special interest in gundogs TONY JACKSON A game Shot, keen stalker and former editor of Shooting Times TOM PAYNE Professional shooting instructor and avid pigeon shooter SIMON WHITEHEAD Author, professional ferreter and rabbit controller IAIN WATSON Keen stalker and senior CIC international trophy judge Contact the team Email: stanswers@timeinc.com By post: Shooting Times, Blue Fin Building,…

No hedgerow plant is more charmingly named than Clematis vitalba, better known to most of us as traveller’s joy or old man’s beard. Like the varieties of clematis we grow in our gardens, old man’s beard is a vigorous climbing shrub, capable of reaching 20ft or more. It produces delicate white flowers in August and September. These fade away to leave the familiar white tufted balls that are such a feature of winter hedgerows. These are the plants’ seeds. Old man’s beard is native to southern and eastern England, where it is common, but it becomes increasingly scarce the farther north you go. It is the food plant of several species of moth, including the pug moth and the small waved umber. Though it’s a much-loved plant in England, it’s…

5 FEBRUARY GWCT REALLY WILD DINNER Hassop Hall, Derbyshire Tel 01773 546400 5 FEBRUARY BASC END OF SEASON SHOOT LUNCHEON The High Moor, Wrightington, Wigan Tel 01257 252364 12-14 FEBRUARY THE BRITISH SHOOTING SHOW Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire Tel 01258 857700 21 FEBRUARY SAVILLS COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE POINT-TO-POINT Badbury Rings, Dorset Tel 01752 830430 3 MARCH GWCT RACE DAY Taunton Racecourse, Somerset Tel 07850 616181 12 MARCH BASC 2016 WILDFOWLING CONFERENCE Ramada Hotel, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, West Midlands Tel 01244 573007…

Golden eagles are nesting in 58 areas managed for grouse shooting in Scotland, according to a survey released last month by the Scottish Gamkeepers Association (SGA). The survey looked at four key regions of the Cairngorms National Park and surrounding land, with the results slightly surpassing the previous eagle study of 2013, which found 55 eagle nests on grouse moors. Ronnie Kippen, one of the four SGA members tasked with collating the survey information, said: “It is good to see more eagles nesting on occupied territories where our members are working every day. Without their local knowledge, it would not have been possible to pull the survey work together as it covers grouse areas from the Monadhliaths, the Cairngorms National Park and land which lies outwith the boundary. “Legal predator…

Alex Hogg is chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association and is an experienced keeper on a 7,000-acre estate that puts up pheasants and grouse “Have you ever tried swimming with wellies, Barbour jacket and a gamebag?” When a shoot starts at 1,000ft above sea level, any wind, rain or snow is amplified 10 times over compared with a shoot at sea level. The beaters were my first concern. If they had been on the radio telling me that trees were blowing over, we would have cancelled the shoot right away, but luckily the wind wasn’t at storm force. The rain was blowing horizontally, making it difficult for the Guns, who were wearing glasses to see the pheasants. On the first drive I positioned the Guns a little nearer to the…

Another area where shoots can really help farmland birds, and other wildlife, is through encouraging good management of link habitats. Whether it is gapping up old hedges, planting buffer strips alongside, or organising a sensible trimming regime that encourages good fruit production, it all adds to the wildlife value. At the same time, improved links of this sort are likely to help with game-holding and even shoot day management, leading to one of those “win-win” situations.…

“The deer weren’t too bothered by the dog, pausing to look back” There’s no doubt that hawking takes you closer to nature than any other fieldsport. Using a bird to catch another bird isn’t easy, even with the help of a top pointing dog. It’s a low-impact pursuit, as it’s silent and creates only minimal disturbance. Falconers, or austringers, are invariably satisfied with the most modest of bags. Nick Kester, Ciska, Baldrick and I had enjoyed a memorable outing, despite just a single bird ending up in the bag. If you’re going along for a day’s hawking as a spectator, don’t forget your binoculars. I took my new Leica 8x32 Ultravids — they’re small and lightweight, so I can forget that I have them around my neck until I really…

At this time of year, if you see a small moth with rudimentary wing stubs crawling up a tree trunk, the side of a house or another vertical surface, the chances are it is a female winter moth (Operophtera brumata) looking for a place to lay her eggs. The female, which is brownish grey in colour, cannot fly because it is virtually wingless, so it must crawl to a suitable location to breed. By comparison, the males, which have a wingspan of 22mm to 28mm, are strong flyers and are typically active from late autumn through to February. The winter moth is abundant in the UK, mainland Europe and the Middle East. It is also found in North America, where it is regarded as an invasive species.…

“One EA department might support dredging; the other may prefer as much reed as possible” Anyone involved in fishery management will deal with the Environment Agency (EA) on a regular basis. In my experience it has some great people with knowledge of the field and an understanding of their local environment. It is a tad beleaguered at times, and underfunded, and some of the centralisation did the EA no favours — regional is always best with regard to rivers and lakes — but it will often go the extra mile and is at the end of the phone if you have the right number and are not diverted to command centre central in Sheffield, or possibly Norfolk. In the past few months, the EA has had a bit of a…