DISCOVERY 5 AND CHRISTIAN HUNTER SIDELOCK ON TEST
DRIVEN SHOOTING’S FINEST JOURNAL
EXMOOR PARTRIDGES Dizzying sport from the South West
SEPTEMBER 2017
McKay Brown at 50 How a Scottish icon is marking half a century in the trade
Gamekeeping family tree David Whitby opens up his personal archives
PLUS
YOUR CHANCE TO WIN £1,000 WORTH OF ALAN PAINE GEAR
$ ! # $ # ( ) ( ! #! ! % # # % ( $ $ # ' ! # # # % (# & ( ( $ $ # ( !! ! % ' ( $ #! '
Welcome
MILTONS SHOOT
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FROM THE EDITOR
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t’s September, and that means only one thing: partridges. In this issue, Roderick Emery is exploring how partridges and partridge shooting change between September 1 and February 1, extolling his usual brand of wit and wisdom to make sure you get the most out of your days, whether you’re on late summer stubbles in shirtsleeves or trying not to get swept away in a winter gale as the redlegs pour over your peg. Staying with the partridge theme, Chris Warren and Robert Cuthbert bring us reports from the famous Miltons shoot deep in the valleys of Exmoor, and the Manydown shoot in the rolling fields of Berkshire, both of which proving why they are centres of excellence for challenging sport with stunning topography to match.
Don’t miss this month
Elsewhere in this issue, David Whitby is examining his family’s lengthy involvement in gamekeeping, Ben Samuelson is taking the new Discovery 5 around the block and Jeremy Hobson is pondering whether game birds really are as witless as they make out. September also sees us bidding a very fond farewell to editor Will Hetherington, who is departing for pastures new after 13 years at the helm. I’d need more pages than I’m allowed to tell you what I’ve learnt about my trade from Will since I joined Shooting Gazette, and I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing him all the best for the future. Thanks for everything, Will. For Will’s final sign-off, turn to page 49. We hope you enjoy the issue. Martin Puddifer, editor
If your sporting wardrobe is looking a little threadbare (and even if it’s not) you’d be a fool not to enter our fantastic competition to win £1,000 worth of shooting clothing and accessories courtesy of Alan Paine. The question you’ll need to answer to be in with a chance of winning is about as difficult as putting on a hat, we promise.
Competition
p54
What shotgun would you love to be presented with on your anniversary? David McKay Brown’s (right) half-century in the gun trade will be extra special for one American customer, who is about to come into possession of a very special pair of Glasgow-made shotguns that bear all the hallmarks of this iconic gunmaker’s skill and passion.
Happy anniversary!
p56
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September 2017
THIS MONTH MANYDOWN SHOOT
34 COVER STORIES 20 Would you have what it takes to bring down Exmoor’s finest? 54 Could you be the lucky winner of our freeto-enter competition? 56 A special birthday present from a very special Scottish gunmaker. 72 Charting the Whitby family’s involvement in game shooting. COVER PHOTOGRAPH: CHRIS WARREN
OPENERS 8 14 16 18
SHOOT BRIEFING ELEVENSES SHOOTING GALLERY IN THE HOT SEAT
GUNDOGS
44 READY, PRESENT... PARTRIDGE!
56 A GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY GIFT
How to make sure you get it right from September to February. By Roderick Emery.
The pair of guns that salute David McKay Brown’s 50 years in the trade.
86 ONE LEGEND AND HIS DOGS 88 GUNDOG UPDATE
REGULARS F E AT U R E S 20 MILTONS, EXMOOR
50 A JOURNEY INTO SIGHT AND SOUND
Keeping up with partridge royalty in the West Country. By Chris Warren.
Are game birds really as half-witted as they make out? By Jeremy Hobson.
34 MANYDOWN, BERKSHIRE
54 SHOOTING GAZETTE COMPETITION
Mixed birds and serious leg pulling amongst friends. By Robert Cuthbert.
Win £1,000 worth of Alan Paine shooting clothing and accessories.
THE REVIEW 76 GUN TEST 78 CARTRIDGE CORNER 79 SHOOTING ADVICE 80 MOTORING 81 PROPERTY 82 SHOOTING GAZETTE LIKES
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30 LETTERS 48 WELLYSEARCH 49 A WORD FROM THE EDITOR 63 PATRICK LAURIE 65 A DOG’S LIFE 66 GREAT GUNS 71 WILL GARFIT 72 DAVID WHITBY 98 THE GREAT DEBATE
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Image from the ямБeld
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Image from the ямБeld
In Focus THE MILTONS SHOOT ON EXMOOR EXPLOITS ITS TOPOGRAPHY TO THE FULLEST TO SHOW SOME SPECTACULAR PARTRIDGES. FOR THE FULL STORY SEE PAGES 20-28.
PHOTOGRAPH: CHRIS WARREN
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SHOOT BRIEFING
News
OPENING SHOTS Praise for shooting as government lays out its post-Brexit rural agenda Mr Gove said that those involved in shooting have an interest in sustainability.
BOB ATKINS
Environment secretary Michael Gove MP has highlighted the importance of both game shooting and land management as plans are drawn up on the future of the countryside in preparation for the UK’s exit from the EU. Mr Gove praised the conservation work of the shooting community during an address to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Game and Wildlife Conservation in July, stating, “those who have an interest in game shooting have by definition an interest in sustainability”. The comments came at the event aimed at discussing the government’s Agriculture Bill, which will provide a framework for a new policy that will eventually replace the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Mr Gove
praised the high number of agriculture workers who were involved in fieldsports and said they are “just as important to listen to” as any other workers in the agriculture
sector when developing the new policy. Mr Gove also highlighted the importance of game meat and its marketing post-Brexit. In a speech the following week, Mr Gove shared his hopes for a “green Brexit”, highlighting how “70 per cent of our land is farmed” and that the UK’s “beautiful landscape has not happened by accident” but is the result of active management. Mr Gove also critisised the CAP, which he said “puts resources in the hands of the already wealthy, and encourages patterns of land use which are wasteful of natural resources”. Mr Gove added that the postBrexit policy would ensure farmers would only receive payments for environmental goods and the enhancement of rural life.
COULD YOUR PHOTOGRAPH WIN A JULIAN GARDNER AWARD? Entries are now open for the sixth Julian Gardner Award, an amateur photography competition run by the GWCT. The competition, which is split into an adult and a junior section (for those 16 and under), seeks to encourage photographers to capture images of the countryside that are of interest
to them, whether their preferred subject is people, game and wildlife or landscapes. The winner of the adult category will receive a sculpture of a hare while the winner of the junior category will receive a sculpture of a leveret. The top three photographs from both the adult Richard Gunther’s winning entry from the 2017 competition.
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and junior sections will be printed in the GWCT’s Gamewise magazine and also uploaded to the GWCT website. Richard Gunther won first prize in the 2017 adult competition with his image of a deer herd. The junior category was won by Lauren Smewing. Organiser James Swyer, editor of Gamewise, said: “It’s a fantastic competition in memory of a great man who was an ardent support of the trust and its work. Each year, the competition seems to grow in popularity and we are spoilt by the great selection of photos which are submitted. I have no doubt this year will be no different and we look forward to receiving the entries and then have the difficulty of judging them.” The Julian Gardner Award was set up five years ago in memory of Sussex farmer Julian Gardner, a lifelong supporter of the GWCT, who died in 2010. The closing date for entries is April 30, 2018. For more details, visit: gwct.org.uk/photocompetition
HELP THE GWCT THIS SEASON WITH A SHOOT DAY SWEEPSTAKE
Visitor numbers were up eight per cent on last year.
Hats off to Hatfield after strong Game Fair debut Members of the Shooting Gazette team were amongst over 116,000 people who attended the 59th Game Fair at Hatfield House in late July. The three-day event was opened with a spectacular – and rather loud – 59-gun salute on Gunmakers’ Row, and visitors wasted no time in spreading themselves across the 396-acre site to browse 800 exhibitor stalls, various arenas and other attractions. The 585-metre long clay shooting line, sponsored by Subaru, proved particularly popular, while Gregg Wallace’s Shot to Pot restaurant catered for over 3,000 guests for breakfast and lunch. Amongst the many competitions that took place were Best Dressed Keeper, Best Dressed Lady and Game Fair High Gun. It was the first time the Game Fair had been held at Hatfield House, and the close proximity to London, not to mention the fact Hatfield railway station is virtually on the Hertfordshire estate’s doorstep, helped to increase visitor numbers by eight per cent compared to last year’s fair, which was held at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire.
WIN A PEG AT RIPLEY CASTLE WITH CORDINGS Cordings of Piccadilly is once again offering two guns the chance to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime shooting experience at the Ripley Castle shoot near Harrogate. The shoot day, hosted by Frank Boddy, will be held on November 24, and will act as the perfect opportunity for both a novice to get their first taste of driven
shooting and present a challenge for those with more experience. Overseas entries are welcome, equipment will be provided on the day and partners are welcome to join the two winners. The closing date for entries is midnight on October 29. For more details and to enter the competition, visit cordings.co.uk/winapeg2017.
The increase in footfall certainly seems to have had a positive impact on retail sales. Mark Osborne of William Powell said: “We have been coming to The Game Fair for more than 25 years and we sold more guns at Hatfield House than any game fair ever before.” David Robinson, CEO from Le Chameau, said: “The opportunity The Game Fair gave us to engage with our core audience was unsurpassed. The traffic on our stand throughout the weekend was incredible and we were perhaps one of the only exhibitors happy that it rained!” Clare Brownlow from Pheasant Feather Art said: “This has been my best ever Game Fair. My stand took no time to break down as I had sold almost all of my paintings.” Organiser James Gower also announced the launch of Game Fair Christmas 2018, an initiative that will see numerous retailers head to London on November 22-24 next year. The Game Fair will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2018 when it heads to Ragley Hall on July 27-29. Tickets are on sale now. For more information, visit thegamefair.org.
ART EXHIBITION SEEKS TO HELP INNER CITY’S YOUNG CONNECT WITH THE COUNTRYSIDE The Redspot artists are holding an exhibition at All Hallows-onthe-Wall, London, in October to raise funds for XLP, a charity supporting young people growing up in deprived inner city areas. Organisers hope the artwork will inspire the young people in these areas to connect with the countryside. The exhibition will
also host an art competition involving local schoolchildren. The exhibition will start with a private viewing on October 10 and runs until October 13. For more information on the Redspot artists, visit redspotartists.com. For more information on XLP, visit xlp.org.uk.
WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2017
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TWEED MEDIA
The GWCT is once again asking shoots nationwide to help raise funds for its research by running a shoot day sweepstake. The money raised by the shoot day sweepstakes will go towards funding the GWCT’s vital research into wildlife conservation and to demonstrate how the countryside benefits from good game management. The GWCT has run the Shoot Sweepstake Initiative since 2002 and since its inception the income has been invested in areas including woodcock migration, predator control research, scientific game management projects and communicating the trust’s work to government. Individual shoots, whether DIY or commercial, can help the GWCT by holding a sweepstake where half of the proceeds go to the trust and the other half goes to the winner. For every £100 raised, shoots will receive a bottle of Gordon’s sloe gin. The GWCT sweepstake package is free and contains items including peg markers, shoot cards and a copy of The Code of Good Shooting Practice. Packs can be ordered via email: hacors@gwct.org.uk.
SHOOT BRIEFING
Shots from the shires Time Inc (UK) Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF
by John Walker
EDITORIAL 01252 555220 Editor Martin Puddifer (martin.puddifer@timeinc.com) Design director Dean Usher Design editor Geoff Barton Editor at Large Robin Scott ADVERTISING Display sales Larry Pierce - 01252 555328 (laurence.pierce@timeinc.com) Becky Norris - 01252 555368 (rebecca.norris@timeinc.com) Charlene Burr - 01252 555376 (charlene.burr@timeinc.com) Directory sales Brad Turner - 01252 555374 bradley.turner@timeinc.com Head of market Stuart Duncan - 01252 555337 TO SUBSCRIBE/ SUBSCRIPTION ISSUES For enquiries and orders please e-mail: help@magazinesdirect. com, alternatively from the UK call: 0330 333 1113, overseas call: +44 330 333 1113 (Lines are open Monday- Friday GMT, 8:30am- 5:30pm ex. Bank Holidays) 1 Year (12 issues) full subscription rates: UK £56.40 (delivery 3-5 days); Europe and Eire €112.05 (delivery 5-7 days); USA $170.59 (delivery 5-12 days); Rest of World £108.40 (delivery 5-7 days) Online shootinguk.co.uk
alk to any qualified nutritionist and chances are that both milk and meat, now including game meats and venison, would be recommended in balanced diets. Take milk first. My school provided full fat milk which we consumed ad lib and later, milking 120 Friesians, I watched this white gold go into the dairy food chain. But two things have changed: children don’t drink as much milk now and the price paid by wholesalers has depressed the market, but not as much as it has depressed dairy farmers. Now, we have an advertising campaign with the tag line ‘Humane milk is a myth, don’t buy it’, over a cow seen pictured
T
PRINTERS Printing: Printed in the UK by The Wyndeham Group Published by Time Inc. (UK) Ltd. Editorial contributions, photographs and illustrations are welcome. Contributors are advised to retain a copy of their manuscript. The magazine assumes no responsibility for the safety of material submitted, although all care will be taken. Distributed by Marketforce (UK) Ltd, a Time Inc. (UK) Ltd company, 2nd Floor, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HU Tel: +44 (0)20 378 79001.
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behind barbed wire. Perversely misleading, it is promulgated by an anonymously funded organisation started by an Irish animal rights activist who describes herself as abolitionist vegan, dedicated to the memory of a dead hen, aimed at people who have no concept of how milk, or any other staple foodstuff, gets into their larder or fridge. Another example of the ignorant attempting to influence the uninformed comes in the shape of the proselytisers who say that we should give up meat because it damages human health, forces producers into bad animal welfare practices and that world agriculture is screwing the environment. See the theme here? As with many single-issue crusaders, their arguments ignore inconvenient facts, but their campaigns are aimed at the impressionable and the young, and look what they just did in an election. It is claimed that sales of vegan food in the UK increased by 1,500 per cent in 2016, that there
are more than 540,000 vegans amongst us and 42 per cent of them are under the age of 34, a segment of society where eating disorders are most common. In my experience by far the biggest percentage of dairy, beef, pig and poultry farms in this country are run by people who care deeply for the welfare of their animals, and we know that when game reaches the table it has, by its very nature, been respected. Perhaps influenced by the pressures of social media where everyone’s view is considered equal, opinion formers of all stripes are divided on the issues of balancing food production techniques and what constitutes human wellbeing, but it is surely a signal passed at danger when teaching in schools allows the more extremist views to grow unhindered in the minds of the young. Choice yes, bad science no.
News in numbers 10
2,000
£13,000,000
Number of shooting and wildlife organisations involved in the production of The Code of Good Shooting Practice
Number of qualifications awarded by Sparsholt College in 2017.
Size of a government fund aimed at increasing the size of England’s woodland
10th The birthday gundog retailer Sporting Saint is celebrating in September
SEPTEMBER 2017 WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK
£800
£260,000
Amount raised for the GWCT following a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Glemham Hall, Suffolk
Amount raised over the past 15 years by the Paglesham Clay Pigeon Club’s annual charity shoot
SHOOT BRIEFING FIVE MINUTES WITH…
Barney Stratton The Stockton shoot owner on hosting days, keeping keepers happy and the start of the partridge season. How did you get involved in game shooting? We’ve always had a shoot on the farm I grew up on and I couldn’t get out enough from the earliest age. How did you get involved in shoot management? From 1992 I ran the shoot while working in London but only as a family affair. When I left London in 1999 I rented the shoot next door and that meant selling days. I was worried about turning a hobby into a job, but found it was rewarding so I carried on and here we are today. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a shoot manager? Don’t forget to enjoy it. Ultimately you are selling pleasure and if you are grumpy you fail that objective, however good the shoot is. What advice would you give to those who are just starting out in shoot management?
Get a good team around you: plenty will go wrong over the years and how the team responds will help you recover the situation. Don’t be afraid to experiment; keep moving the shoot forward or it will go stale. Make sure you are pleasant to everyone all the time on a shoot day – you are a host not a bag-filler. How do you keep your gamekeepers happy? I don’t know if I do. My two principal mantras are (a) always be positive when things aren’t working and never apportion blame; and (b) always get the best possible equipment. If you expect keepers to put in top effort, their results shouldn’t be hindered by poor kit. When would you say that your birds are at their absolute peak? Late September/October for partridges and December for pheasants. When a drive is in progress, are you also ‘mentally’ shooting yourself
Have Your Say We asked for your reactions to the news that ScotRail had banned the transportation of firearms on its services following the discovery of an unattended licensed firearm on one of its trains last year. Aonghas Johnson wrote: “It’s nothing you wouldn’t expect from ScotRail. Perhaps the “prawn” that left his gear unattended could have cared about the consequences but, sadly, didn’t. Use EasyJet?”
How many times a season might you shoot, and do you feel any pressure when it’s on your home patch? I did 30 days last season, four in Spain and the rest evenly split between home and away. Our family days are mostly from Christmas onwards when the commercial days are largely over and the pressure is off. I enjoy the fact that the bag is for once immaterial and my guests are invited to have fun, not criticise how I run it!
We throw questions open to our Facebook followers and always attract some interesting responses…
Mark Rogers wrote: “Another example of how shooting will slowly but surely be made an impossible sport to participate in. It would be difficult to ban it outright, but death by a 1,000 cuts...add to this the likes of banks, financial services, insurance etc. all refusing to offer or removing services from legitimate shooting related businesses is making it hard to participate in and operate services for fieldsports.” Angel Dempsey wrote: “Anyone travelling with firearms to the Scottish Borders is
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or just enjoying the spectacle? I get as much pleasure watching a drive as shooting, often more. I place the guns each drive, so I’m always concentrating to see if I called it right that time and looking for tell-tale signs of what might happen next. Only rarely do I think how I’d be shooting on that drive.
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welcome to check out ‘Cycles, Rifles & Rods’ on either Facebook or Airbnb. A warm welcome is guaranteed for visitors and their weapons!” John Clements wrote: “It will mean fewer customers for them and more comfortable seating for shooters.” Malcolm Wallace wrote: “Another small minded act, as if banning legally held firearms being transported would stop any form of terrorist type attack.”
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SHOOT BRIEFING
My dream team By Chris Hanks Manager and instructor at Lady’s Wood Shooting School. e would have to shoot at Perrystone in Herefordshire, the estate that I grew up on and where my father is still headkeeper today after 34 seasons at the helm. We’d start at Jacobs Ladder, move onto Lawns and Bennets 2. For lunch would have to be Henrietta’s famous partridge tagliatelle and we would finish with the Bracken Bank (I would be on Peg No.2). The team would have to be made up of family and friends and first on the list is Adrian Hanks, not only is he my dad and an excellent headkeeper but he is also one of my best friends. I have learnt a lot from him and to top it off he’s not a bad shot either. Tim Hanks, my younger brother, is a butcher by trade and good with a rifle. I had to square up his shotgun shooting a few seasons ago on the tower at Lady’s Wood
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and he hasn’t looked back since. Next is Mike Eldridge, we have been best friends for nearly 20 years, best man at each other’s wedding and a fatal lamping buddy whilst he was keepering. Bert Hanks, my grandfather, who gave me my first shotgun, is sadly no longer with us, and it would be a dream to share a day in the field with him again. Ernie Hemmings, the proprietor at Lady’s Wood, and owner of the syndicate that I have keepered for 10 years now. He is not just a good boss he is a very good friend as well. A real high bird fan and can knock down archangels with his 34” Perazzi all day long. Robert Everitt tells a great tale, shoots well and can hopefully bring some ‘samples’ of Hull Cartridge’s finest for us all to use. Robert Chipperfield, a long-time family friend who has been so generous to me in the past. He is a deadly shot at partridge
Game recipe of the month Partridge and peanut with bang bang sauce Ingredients 8 partridge breasts 50g peanut butter 10g chopped chillies 10g chopped ginger 10g chopped garlic 10ml soy sauce 10ml sesame oil 10g chopped coriander Cornish sea salt Milled black pepper
with a side-by-side in his native East Anglia. As it’s a dream team it would be amazing if I could shoot with my wife Laurie and daughter Maisie (she’s only four). I’m not sure Laurie will ever pick up a gun but Maisie is already keen and I have my eye on a .410 for her when she is old enough.
Lee Maycock is the development chef for Game-to-Eat (gametoeat.co.uk)
SERVES FOUR PEOPLE
Method Mix the peanut butter with chilli, ginger, garlic, soy, sesame and coriander to make the bang bang sauce. Season well. Dice the partridge
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in equal pieces and place onto bamboo sticks, marinade in a little olive oil and chopped coriander. Season the partridge and sear in a hot pan or over a chargrill
for two minutes each side. Remove from the grill and allow to rest for two minutes. Serve with the bang bang sauce.
Elevenses
Dear Uncle Giles... Putting your mind at rest concerning issues in the field and beyond. Dear Uncle Giles, I have been invited to shoot some pretty senior driven partridges and I really want to do them – and myself – justice. When chaps talk about shooting partridge they all say, “Two in front and two behind! Just so! That’s the way to do it!” I am not sure that makes as much sense as they confidently assert it does. Could you explain, perhaps? Yours fretting MS, by email Uncle Giles writes It is interesting, is it not, how easily these old adages and aphorisms roll off the tongue? Aided and abetted, I’ll warrant,
by a tincture or two. Well, yes, it would be smart to snap two partridges in front as they clear the hedge and then turning smartly on your heel - “Two-threefour!” as the drill sergeant taught us - to add a brace more behind with your second gun. But is it the best way to shoot partridges? Probably not, I venture. For a start if you set out to shoot two in front – with a normal game gun – you are trying to shoot your second bird directly over your head, at the shortest distance possible, with your choked barrel. You might as well try to hit it with a golf ball at that range. And if you do connect,
Points of law Peter Glenser, firearms barrister and BASC chairman, answers your questions on shooting and the law. I was planning to travel to Scotland from London this season with a friend to shoot. I understand that ScotRail has banned the carriage of firearms on all its services. Is this true? If I carried, say, my friend’s barrels and he took the stocks and foreends in his suitcase would this change things?
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At the time of writing, ScotRail has banned the carriage of firearms on its services. I understand someone absent-mindedly left a shotgun on a train and this has led to a review of
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its policy and a departure from the National Rail Conditions of Travel. The website says: “Unloaded firearms, properly licenced, with prior permission of the Train Company and carried in accordance with the law and any other specific instructions are permitted.” As customers have not been complying with the National Rail Conditions of Travel by requesting prior permission, we have taken the position of not allowing the carriage of licensed firearms on our services.” Caledonian Sleeper, which runs the sleeper service from London to Scotland, is however still welcoming “responsible
by some miracle, there will be precious little left to show for it. And you will be wearing most of it. How smart is that? And if you then turn round you are shooting your latter brace up the backside which is not very sporting frankly, as well as being quite difficult and very often leads to pricked birds which impresses no one. Plus you will often find yourself – these days - firing in the direction of pickers-up which leads to heated exchanges in the letters columns as we all know. In my view, the best way to shoot partridges in today’s world – whether with single or double guns for that matter – is to consult with your neighbours before shooting commences and agree the following: coveys, or groups
more probably, coming directly over a peg should be enfiladed by neighbours on both sides while the gun on that peg should focus on outlying or extremely high members of that group. Second barrels – or second guns – should be deployed closely above or behind your neighbours while the birds are side-on to you. This makes them eminently killable and tends not to upset the pickers-up. This technique makes your first bird, or birds, a quartering driven target and your second bird, or brace, a long crosser which makes for sporting – and smart, in every sense of the word – shooting. It also enhances the social aspect because it involves a degree of teamwork and mutual assistance rather than everybody competing like mad.
customers” with licensed firearms. Presumably that means everyone with a certificate. So if you are travelling with them there is no difficulty - although you must comply with the National Conditions which require you to obtain prior permission of the Train Company and follow any other specific instructions. It is very difficult to see how ScotRail will police the ban - it is not immediately obvious if shotguns are broken down and carried in regular luggage – although gun cases are rather more noticeable. Under no circumstances should the ban be flouted. Doing so may lead to the end of your journey and possibly awkwardness with the police. It is also an offence under the railway byelaws which could ultimately lead to your being fined and is therefore a
threat to your certificate. The second point you raise is a good one. Component parts of Section 2 firearms are not themselves firearms (unlike Section 1). So in the scenario you suggest neither of you would actually be in possession of a firearm – although you would have to make sure that remained the case – you could not look after the other’s bag if for example he or she popped along to the bar because you then would be in possession of both shotguns. It might be tedious having to explain this technicality if called upon to do so. Perhaps you would be better sitting in different carriages – although that is not so convivial and a poor start to a shooting holiday.
Peter’s advice here is intended as a guideline only and all readers are advised to seek further advice. If you have any legal questions for Peter Glenser, please email them to Martin Puddifer at: martin.puddifer@timeinc.com
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Shooting gallery
Shooting gallery For your chance to win a bottle of Taittinger Champagne for Picture of the Month, send us a team photograph or a picture of something unusual from your shoot. Send high-resolution images or prints with captions to Shooting Gazette Gallery, Time Inc. (UK) Ltd., Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF or email: martin.puddifer@timeinc.com.
PICTURE OF THE MONTH
Pictured are the guns, the beaters, pickers-up and gamekeepers from the Manydown shoot in Berkshire, which is featured on pages 34 – 40 of this issue.
Victoria Cree sent us this photograph of five-month-old Freddie William Easton who can be seen poring over our July issue. Freddie’s father is a headkeeper at Newburgh Priory in North Yorkshire. We’re honoured to have you as a reader, Freddie, and here’s hoping that you follow in your father’s footsteps one day in the future!
CEMENTING US-SCOTTISH RELATIONS Members of the McKay Brown family (shotguns that is) came together last September for a day on partridge near Dumfries. Pictured, from left, each with their own McKay Brown over-under is: Bob Grutza, Carey Seven, David McKay Brown, Lou Browning & Courtney Smith.
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Pictured are the guns, the beaters, pickers-up and gamekeepers from the Miltons shoot on Exmoor, which is featured on pages 20 – 28 of this issue.
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In the hot seat
ANTHONY ALBOROUGH-TREGEAR Westley Richards’ managing director discusses dangerous game, deer management and his distaste for elitism. What was your season like last year? Most of my sport is international big game hunting as opposed to game shooting in the UK. I am lucky enough to go on at least one or two safaris a year. In recent years I have hunted in Tanzania, South Africa, Alaska, Texas and Austria. I’ve hunted a lot of different species and feel that each one brings its own challenges. I do a small amount of bird shooting here with friends, which includes wildfowling and driven partridge/pheasant. Over the years I’ve shot just about every quarry species in this country and have then progressed elsewhere in the world. What is your favourite story with dangerous game? During a relatively recent safari to Tanzania the client fell ill on the very first day of the safari and so offered that I take his brand new Westley Richards .577 double rifle out with me. Typically we encountered two good bulls in the thick tall elephant grass common to this area. With some very careful stalking the professional hunter and I were able to approach to within 13 paces and shoot a nice buffalo. I then thought to myself this client had spent all that money on a brand new rifle and I was the first person to get an animal down with it! In fairness he could not have been happier and was pleased that the man responsible for getting his rifle built was the one responsible for the first successful hunt with it. Who got you into the shooting world? I’ve been doing it since I was 11 but got into it seriously when I was about 15. Years ago, a friend of mine gave me some large calibre rounds, .450 Nitro Express etc., and this really sparked my interest in big game rifles and hunting. A few years later I bumped into the late Simon Clode, the
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INTERVIEW: ROBERT CUTHBERT PHOTOGRAPHY: WESTLEY RICHARDS
then owner of Westley Richards, at an arms show in London. He offered me a job, but I’d just accepted a place at university. After university I went back to him and he gave me a role. I’ve now been doing this for 20-odd years. I initially did four-and-a-half years here at Westley Richards, then seven years at E.J. Churchill before returning to Westley Richards where I’ve been ever since.
“It’s not just about guns - you need to show what sport is out there and how lucky we are to be able to partake in it.” Sometimes the passion burns brighter if it is something you’ve found yourself? That’s true. I think so many people force their children into doing things, especially in this day and age. They start them very young and then by the time they’re 20 they are bored with it. If you come into it yourself you normally have a passion for it. I really enjoy the big calibre rifles and the manufacture of them. My speciality is the building of these, putting some truly unique projects together. I am also very keen to change how the industry will be perceived going forward and I’m working on some projects now that are looking to the future both here in the UK and internationally. You need to engage with a younger generation of clients so that companies like Westley
Richards can continue to build best guns and rifles for another 200 years. It’s not just about the guns, though - you need to show what sport is out there and how lucky we are to be able to partake in it. What was your first shooting trip? When I was a kid I remember bunking off school to go and shoot on my friends’ farms. We often decoyed pigeons, shot rabbits and, if we were lucky, shot the occasional game. Since those early days I have done all sorts of shooting and consider myself non-elitist, rather a have-a-go-guy. I am actually into all aspects of the sport. Even though I am now managing director of Westley Richards, my best buddies are the people I started out with and I still have as much fun lamping with them as I do chasing dangerous game internationally. Roe stalking is your favourite sporting pursuit at home? Yes, I love roe stalking because it is a singular pursuit, often for a specific animal. I think it is the most spectacular trophy in Britain and we are privileged to have such an iconic deer species on these shores. The management of deer is more important to me than the actual killing. The ground I have now has some fantastic quality but I have been careful to remove older bucks, poor quality and young heads this year. I manage does in a similar way, taking care not to remove key genetic stock that has bred with the better bucks. I have left a lot of great heads this year and hope to see the benefit of this in the future. Years ago I would have been far less selective and was solely focused on hunting. However, as I got older and more experienced I become more interested in the management of things and how you can improve a place.
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Miltons SHOOT A colourful team from Belgium samples the high delights of this stunning pocket of the Exe Valley. WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRIS WARREN
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EXMOOR
On the shoot
Guns make their way towards Church.
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On the shoot The views on Church were spectacular wherever guns were looking.
Jan Lavrijsen (left) and his brother Peter stood out on the peg.
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hat is it about me and Exmoor? Should there ever be a drought in that part of the West Country they just need to call on C. Warren Esq. to visit and the clouds will thicken and the rain will fall – I guarantee it. I know it doesn’t always rain there – I’ve seen the pictures – but whenever I put my head out of the door I know it will at some stage become moist. Never mind, my cameras are pretty waterproof and it beats working for a living. Every time I visit Exmoor I’m astounded by two things: how good the topography is for presenting demanding birds, and that it wasn’t until 1981 that the first commercial shoot on Exmoor opened its doors. It was as if the scales had fallen from people’s eyes and what now seems obvious seemed possible. This National Park is now a mecca for high bird shooting and the effect on the local economy must be staggering. Chargot, North Molton, Castle Hill, Withycombe, Haddeo; 22
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the list of shoots many of us would give our right arm to visit goes on and on. But where did it all start? Miltons in the Exe valley, that’s where. Alan Milton (the name is just a coincidence) took on Miltons
“Exmoor is now a mecca for high bird shooting and the effect on the local economy must be staggering.” in 1974 as a small syndicate shoot and brought in Brian Mitchell as headkeeper. They saw the potential and, seven years later, with Roxtons on board, it became the first proper commercial shoot on Exmoor and the model on which the others are built. Not only do they offer high
pheasants but high partridge as well – another first for Exmoor. The face of driven shooting was changed forever. Since then the popularity of the shoot has soared with royalty, celebrities and the famous, together with many of the finest shots in the country taking on the challenges Miltons has to offer. Though Brian Mitchell went on to Castle Hill and helped set up the whole high bird Exmoor thing, Miltons has gone from strength to strength.
The Belgians are coming I was invited down there at the start of last season by Dan Reynolds, and his assistant Ollie Maxwell joined
Headkeeper Paul Lugg directing operations alongside his now wife Melanie.
me at the Royal Oak in Winsford the evening before to give me a heads up on the shoot and the day to come. Ollie told me: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The estate is owned by the ThomasEverard family and is managed by Dan Reynolds on behalf of a private syndicate. We shoot over 5,500 acres of pasture and woodland across the steep valleys and combes of the Exe Valley. Tomorrow, we are looking to shoot 300 partridge across four drives with most of the team coming from Belgium.â&#x20AC;? When the season gets going they shoot three or four times a week, and Roxtons lets days to teams of guns from all over, some of whom have been coming for many years. WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2017
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buzzards and ravens flying above the combe. I was interested to see how the birds would fly this early in the season; the answer was rather well. The beating line did a fine job of controlling the birds that flew high and handsomely over the guns, curling across and down the valley and providing entertainment for all. The signs of a good day were all there: well presented birds, selective guns and a team of experienced pickers-up that knew their job. There was drizzle in the air but the
Harvey Crane and Chloe Parkhouse, daughter of Matthew Parkhouse.
Whether a team stops for lunch or shoots through is up to them, but Ollie’s reading of the weather forecast had persuaded them to shoot through. It might rain in the morning but it was going to pour in the afternoon: the Chris Warren effect in full swing. It was an interesting team that met at Hollam Farm the next morning, nine Belgians and four guns who had come up from Cornwall. They had met last season at a neighbouring shoot and when Jan Lavrijsen was putting this day together he had persuaded the four from Cornwall to join his compatriots (not that they needed much persuading). Some of the guns were sharing pegs so there were nine guns actually shooting. Jan is an Anglophile, at least with respect to shooting, and last year spent no fewer than 35 days in England shooting and stalking – this despite the eight- to 10-hour journey from Geel near Antwerp to Exmoor. He has taken a few days at Miltons every year for the past five and clearly enjoys the way the shoot is run and the quality of the birds. 24
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High and handsome sport It was a short journey to the first drive, Barn, where the guns lined out along a steep-sided valley so typical of Exmoor with its combination of ruggedness and bucolic charm. The short wait before the partridges began to come over the guns was enlivened by the
“The guns lined out along a steep-sided valley so typical of Exmoor’s rugged, bucolic charm.” torrential stuff was a long way off, or at least so I hoped. During this drive Ollie was unfortunately called away and the job of hosting devolved on Paul Lugg, headkeeper here for some 18 seasons. As you would expect for a man with his enormous experience this fazed him not a jot and the day continued in a calm and relaxed manner, which pretty well sums Paul up. The second drive was called Church, named after St. Peter’s, Exton, the tower of which you can see peeping over the ridge to the right of the gun line. Although this drive uses the same valley as Barn, because of the geography, the birds this time round were higher and more challenging but the guns rose to the occasion and the pickers-up had a lot of work to do. Beatkeeper Matthew Parkhouse.
On the shoot
Claire Oldham and her team did a sterling job picking-up.
During the autumn, elevenses is usually taken in the field so everyone can appreciate the superb setting that Miltons enjoys but because of the somewhat damp weather we returned to Hollam Farm and the warmth of the shoot room. With wet coats jettisoned the guns were able to relish the sausages, sandwiches, Champagne and soup that were on offer - they do rather good elevenses at Miltons - and I was able to ask Jan what it was that attracted him to the shoot. “It is our dream destination,” he said simply. “My brother Peter and I enjoy the breathtaking terrain and the birds to match.” He elaborated, “The rest of the team are incredible and will do everything in their power to make sure your day goes according to plan. Paul and his
keepers, pickers-up and beaters are all top class. Miltons was one of the pioneers of high bird shooting and I think after all the years on top it is still the team to beat.” High praise from someone who shoots regularly in this part of the world. Aerial was next up. This part of Exmoor is a little wilder than the first valley and the view was stunning – so were the birds. They flew like miniature fighter planes and they needed quick reactions and a lot of lead. Paul sat with his then partner (now wife) Melanie on a bench in the middle of the team of guns and used his walkie-talkie to speak to two of his underkeepers, Matt Parkhouse and Will NeateBurke, who were running the beating line, to fine tune the presentation of the birds. Twins
Kris and Wim Nijs were sharing a peg and certainly got their fair share of partridges on this drive. Their English was better than my Dutch or French but we didn’t need words, you don’t get smiles like that after a mediocre drive. It was another signature drive to finish, Squeakitts Top, which was wilder still. It had even better views and taller, curling birds, and provided a fitting climax to the day’s shooting. I watched as Greville Richards, one of the Cornish contingent and a first timer at Miltons, achieved at least two left and rights (or, more accurately bottom and tops) watched by his loader Stirling Babbage. At the end of the drive he was clearly exhilarated and I asked him about his first experience of this Exmoor WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2017
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A spaniel retrieving at full speed is always a sight to see.
shoot. “All the drives have lived up to their reputations,” he said, “showing some extremely high partridge even in these warm early season conditions. This last one was definitely my favourite with great high birds and some amazing crossers.” Again, this is from someone who shoots often and well, his wife calls herself a shooting widow and with some justification.
beating line, Tim White was driving the game cart and Josh Caton and Ellis Brooks had spent all day dogging in, something Paul thinks is very important: “I am a strong believer in dogging in. In terms
of the partridges, from the minute they are released until the end of the partridge season Tim and myself push them home every evening.” I asked him what had altered in 18 years, particularly regarding
No rain on this parade (sort of...) It had never really been dry but as if on cue, while the pickers-up were sweeping the bushes, the clouds grew lower, the light dropped and the heavy stuff began. I looked at my watch: 1.45pm. All done in just over four hours and yet it had never felt rushed. I talked with Paul as he led the line of 4x4s to Winsford and the Royal Oak for lunch. He has five underkeepers who help him run Miltons. As well as the two in the 26
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Shoot helper Anton Pearson (left) and beatkeeper William Neate-Burke.
On the shoot The rain did nothing to dampen the gunsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; resolve on The Barn.
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On the shoot
Lunchtime at the Royal Oak Inn in Winsford.
partridges: “I have made significant changes to the plots of cover in terms of increasing the acreage and the mix of cover crops, using mostly maize. Approximately five years ago we took back the whole of Church valley for the season (previously the landowner ran a small shoot on this ground) and that adds to the number of drives we can offer.” Paul likes to keep his birds happy and has devised a new feed system.
The area guide How to get there, where to stay and what to eat.
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“It’s a standard 40 gallon drum with a manola feeder attached via a tube - very simple but very effective. The partridge are used to the manola from an early age. Likewise I introduced an automatic water system into the plots.” The guns kindly insisted I join them for lunch at the Royal Oak in Winsford which specialises in catering for shooting parties. The wonderful slow roasted pork with
all the trimmings, and I mean all the trimmings, went down extremely well with all and there was a particularly good claret which sadly I could only taste as I had a long drive ahead. In the rain.
For information about shooting opportunities at Miltons, email: dan.reynolds@roxtons.com
T R AV E L
S TAY
C AT E R I N G
The shoot is only 45 minutes by road from Taunton and the M5, and the closest airports are Exeter and Bristol. Tiverton Parkway, Taunton and Barnstable railway stations will get you in the area. Going by road is the simplest but if you can drive in daylight so much the better as the views are tremendous.
With so many good shoots in the area there are a number of hotels catering for the shooting man or woman. I stayed at the Royal Oak in the village of Winsford, which with its drying room, dog friendliness, gun safes, et al, plus rooms and cuisine all floated my boat. It is also a pebble toss from the shoot (royaloakexmoor.co.uk). The Hartnoll Hotel in Tiverton is another fine choice with all the extras a team of guns needs (hartnollhotel.co.uk). Tarr Farm is another venue popular with visiting guns and was designed with the comfort of shoot teams in mind (tarrfarm.co.uk).
There is nothing to moan about the way Roxtons and the team at Miltons provide food and drink at this shoot. Everything from breakfast, through to elevenses and lunch was perfect, toothsome and tasty. Bacon baps, honey-glazed sausages, soup and Champagne, – it's very difficult to find a negative. And then, of course, lunch at the Royal Oak. Superb. Challenging birds and beautiful food, what’s not to like?
Letters
Readers’ letters SHARE YOUR VIEWS Email: martin.puddifer@timeinc.com
LETTER OF THE MONTH
A single smack has its place in the field Further to the article on gundog discipline in the July issue, I thought I would offer the following comments… Far be it for me to cross swords with such eminent experts who are quoted in the article, but methinks they are not talking to likeminded people but to people who are shooting men (or women) first who have a dog to help them in their sport, and they may need more tools in their box to ensure their dog is more of a help than a hindrance. Also, perjurious language such as whipping and physical violence should not apply to any right thinking
person regarding dog training. However, I do not regard a single smack, when all other methods such as gruff tones and lead jerking etc. have been tried without obtaining the needed correction in behaviour, as being either harmful or injurious in any way, so long as they know the reason for such a smack, and that it is a punishment of last resort, rarely used. Let me give you an instance. My present dog, Bertie, is a Border terrier who was very reluctantly given to me by a person who had two litter brothers and who could not control them, citing that they led each other in their mischief. I suspect a local farmer had
delivered an ultimatum that if they continued to chase his sheep he would use his shotgun. When I first had him he would chase everything that would run away from him, and as I live on a large shooting estate, with many sheep in the fields, this could not be tolerated. He totally ignored gruff voices etc. One day he ran off by the pheasant pen and gleefully chased pheasants all over the place, refusing to stop or return
WIN A PAIR OF DUBARRY BOOTS THE AUTHOR of the Letter of the Month will receive a pair of Wexford boots from Dubarry of Ireland (RRP £325). The knee-length side-zip boots– designed for both men and women – are handcrafted from waterproof Dry Fast-Dry Soft™ breathable leathers. The high quality of the boot is reinforced throughout with an insulated GORE-TEX® lining that wicks moisture away from the foot, ensuring the wearer remains dry and comfortable all day. Dubarry’s new hard-wearing durable outsole gives maximum grip whatever the ground conditions.
Help required with new shooting book I am writing a third edition of my book The Great Shoots – Britain’s Best Past and Present, published by Quiller, and would be grateful for a little help from your readers.
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The book has been in print since 1987 and was revised in 2007, but 10 seasons further on another revise is necessary and I am looking to include more pheasant, partridge and grouse shoots in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern
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Ireland. Therefore, if any reader would like to propose any game shoot – past and present - which they regard as having been consistently outstanding for its sport, atmosphere, management, surroundings, or anything very
to me. I caught up with him, grabbed him in mid riot and administered a smack. This obviously shook him, as he no longer chases birds. The other day my wife and I were enjoying a quiet drink in our summerhouse, with Bertie lying outside on the lawn, when a cock pheasant came by, no more than four yards away, followed by a rabbit. Bertie watched them both but did not move a muscle. I rest my case. Oh, and by way of closing, I disagree with rewards, as they can become part of the problem. “Good dog” goes a long way. Peter Harrison By email If you have any thoughts on Peter's views email: martin.puddifer@timeinc.com
unusual or exceptional, then I would be pleased to hear as soon as possible. Please email: brianphilipmartin@yahoo.co.uk or alternatively write to me via the editor. Brian P. Martin By email
Letters
Winning with the comeback kids Patsy Kenton’s Letter of the Month in the August issue has prompted me to write to you. At the open working test held by the Bakadam (Kent) Gundog Training Club back on July 9 at the Montreal Estate in Kent my wife and I managed to secure first and second places, something which we have been told is somewhat unusual. This is principally a tribute to my wife, Bernadette (pictured third left) who has endless patience when training our dogs, particularly as she specialises in dealing with dogs who have had their spirits broken by previous harsh handlers or lack of understanding of their particular needs. Our dogs -
six labs - all love both training and competing and we have quite a string of successes to
prove it. Picking-up is what really rocks them; we do about 50-plus days each season and
we love every minute of it. Paul St. John Restorick By email
MORE VIEWS ON FIREARMS LICENSING An early Christmas present
Temporary licences come in handy
Further to the letter from Dr Nikki Thompson in the August issue, my renewal was due on February 21 this year. I can confirm my reminder letter arrived on October 31 of last year and that the home visit and medical checks were both prompt. My shotgun certificate was returned to me on December 19. Not quite so fast, but I have had renewals
My shotgun certificate and firearms certificate came up for renewal in September 2015. I have held licences for over 30 years. My application was made in early June 2015, I was able to notify a change of address ahead of moving house at time of June application with location of new gun safe
that have run quite close to the renewal date before, so I was quite impressed with their service. I am a BASC shotgun coach and get clients who are applying for certificates for the first time and these seem to take about eight to 10 weeks, which to me seems reasonable. David Cater By email
facilities duly inspected the following November, leaving the original safes behind at the previous address on moving day the following January. Temporary licenses filled the gap and my certificates finally arrived a few weeks later in the March. Name and address supplied
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Claire Sadler amongst the turnips and stubble on Nutwood.
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On the shoot
A team of close friends gathers for a day of mixed sport and serious leg-pulling.
WORDS BY: ROBERT CUTHBERT | PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRIS WARREN
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I
n the final interview I conducted with the late AA Gill for this very magazine, he quizzically brought up the notion that people in cities rarely look up, look up at the skies during their everyday lives. They never consider the clouds…why would they? Although describing the ‘complete narrative’ that is a day stalking on the hill, his suppositions on what was hugely important and relevant to him at that time, extends to the field in general, ‘being wrapped, cocooned in the day’. I tumbled snippets of our
conversation over in my mind the last time I was in London’s West End, charging from tube station to my destination. In a city, one’s senses are…I don’t want to say assaulted, as the negativity jars, but tumultuously swamped with so many noises and smells, from the sublimely good and beguiling to genuinely gag-inducing. I wonder if our fatigue after a day in a city is just our struggle to process so much; we’ve yet to be fine-tuned to it all. So with fresh, strong coffee intensifying our senses and the memory of smoked bacon rolls already sharpening our thirsts to an edge, I joined Rufina Pavry at her
Jen Suman pulls the trigger on Pithers Hill.
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peg in the middle of the line for Pither’s Hill, the opening drive at Manydown, near Kingsclere in the Berkshire and Hampshire borders. The only sensory prompts and intrusions lancing the silence were the stubble-washed breezes, the keening of a distant buzzard and the crackle and rustle of the shoot host’s feet in the long straw stalks. I honestly think that distillation of just a handful of sensory markers helps make our days so soothing and relaxing. An accelerated ruffling sound heralded the arrival of the team’s quarry; a hard-flying covey of French partridge, sounding not
On the shoot
Headkeeper Kevin Rolls.
Chris Pask’s son Henry.
Chris Thorpe scans the horizon for signs of movement.
unlike a multitude of playing cards clothes-pegged to a multitude of bike wheel spokes. The guns were more than ready, guns up, keenly eyeing the skyline. Now, I must declare an interest in that the headkeeper Kevin Rolls is a dear friend, but I did marvel at how his partridges had read
Kevin has keepered and managed the shoot at Manydown since 2010, along with his friend and venture partner Angus Irvine. At just 20 days, it’s refreshingly lightly shot, almost entirely by a syndicate. Interestingly, they’re just entering into another venture at the renowned estate Bagnor, nearer to Newbury. Manydown, an important part of the then GCT’s pivotal biodiversity study in the 1980s, is now at the core of a shoot taking in around 2,000 acres of barley, wheat roots and mature woodland. Mrs Pavry was swiftly off the mark, taking her birds in good, clear silhouette above the seemingly endless shelter belt trailing away to our left; this style of shooting clearly suited her; nine from a dozen or so shots, nailed cleanly in front, at the central apex of that neat imaginary funnel shape emanating from her peg, to tumble neatly at our feet. Rufina, shooting a fairly standard Beretta 20 bore, perhaps a nod to her illustrious Italian pedigree, seemed happy to leave any birds quartering to her right, her friend Jen Suman gratefully mopping them up neatly with her demure Englishbuilt 16 bore.
“The only sensory intrusions lancing the silence were the keening of distant buzzards and the crackle of the host’s feet in the straw.” a pheasant’s script in arriving in smartly arranged bundles of threes and fours all the way along the line. It was testament to an extremely well-disciplined beating line. The well-spaced individual shot reports echoed away across the vast stubble field, in a huge vale, resembling the most titanic game of pick-up-sticks any child could ever dream of.
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Jen Suman and Paul Graham compare notes between drives.
Chris Pask, accompanied by his little boy, was quite abstemious throughout the drive, picking out the birds that really stretched him; he had a great view of proceedings, slightly higher than the other guns on the far right of the line. This was no gentle loosener; the team were straight in to it, with over 30 partridges rolled into the dusty stubbles. With some quick hedgerow pit stops squared away, the second drive, Nutwood, afforded me a slightly better view of the guns I hadn’t seen much of in the opener. Knee-deep in a rolling emerald sea of vivid green stubble turnips, Claire Sadler was first to shoulder her gun; reloading in a slick, well-honed movement, to the chortles and gentle sniping of her friend Victoria Knowles-Lacks; both ladies were back-gunning Jen Suman on the sloping ground on drive one. There 38
was a little light sledging from Paul Graham, who in fairness had taken plenty on the gunbus on account of his questionable whiskers, a lamé shooting suit of almost mythical reputation, a magnificently selected yellow silk pocket square (sadly, all too rare these days) and a dozen or so other points. The initial wave of partridges prompted a united intake of breath from the team as the large initial flush of birds breasted the hedge line. Luckily, half of the large covey ducked the breeze or arced away to the flanks, as any degree of tidy shooting would have put a large question mark over the chance of a third and fourth drive. However, there was no cause for alarm as the remainder trickled through in restrained but inviting groups for the guns to pick out without haste. Count Odon de Bellissen, Chris Thorpe, and a newcomer to the
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group, Piers Powell-Shedden, were all busy taking the lion’s share of the sport. Thorpe, The Count and in a much broader, far hairier sense, Paul Graham, are that essential thing on a shoot day – social glue; they simply couldn’t stop with myriad observations and witticisms; a sort of gleeful incontinence of repartee. Elevenses was robust, unfussy and plentiful; the chorizo and bean soup was inspired and quite superb, but it did come back to haunt one or two guns later in the day, with one end of the gunbus sounding not unlike a Year Five remedial clarinet lesson warm-up. At the appreciably fresher end of the bus, I wriggled in next to the reliably more fragrant Claire ‘Sads’ Sadler, a London lawyer, to interrogate her about her season. “How many days each season? Well, it has varied over the last few years due to work commitments but
On the shoot the number of days seems to be growing, although this year I’ve had only had about six days as I was out in the US for two weeks in November shooting nearly every day, so I needed a bit of a rest when I got back. That was a trip with Victoria,” she explained. “We first met when I attended my first ever Shotgun & Chelsea Bun Club event at Royal Berkshire Shooting School a few years ago. We have since become very close friends. We really lift and support each other through everything we do. We’re very similar in that we love our clays and adore everything about our game shooting too. I practise hard during the close season and I take huge pride in cooking game for friends and family, particularly game I've shot. It’s about being part of something that is such an integral part of our country life and British culture and I am passionate about encouraging others to get involved.”
disdain they display for each other, generally. It’s wonderful to be around, that display of not daring to show just how fond of each other they really are. With the third drive approaching, they’d just nudged into three figures, not that it mattered a jot. As Paul Graham, a director at Pol Roger, poured the remnants of a bottle into his friend’s
The core of this team has shot together for a number of years now and it really shows in the casual, withering and unrelenting
flute, he reflected: “My, I just love shooting really traditional partridges like that,” to a knowing nod of agreement from Chris Thorpe, an accountant…but a fun and interesting one. “At, Paul, you really love shooting at those partridges,” corrected a friend with a twitch of an eyebrow. The slight was
unfounded, as both Graham and Thorpe had really shot out of their skins on the previous drive, each wielding a hefty Browning and Beretta 12 bore, respectively. Any racket was mercifully kept to a minimum for once as the guns were positioned by the chirpy shoot host Darran Ritchie at Hungry Hill, one of those problematic ‘big sky drives’ with no real discernible markers to help in taking some gauge of height and distance. Once again, I took up a position with Rufina, who back-gunned the line at the base of a good slope, with us now squinting into a watery sun, Victoria, Chris Thorpe and Claire in front of us. And as no one in particular once said, partridges wait for no one taking a comfort break, so with one chap still shaking and one lady still dripdrying, at opposite ends of the line, the opening volley of little birds whistled through the interrupted line to a staccato ripple of snatched shots which touched not a feather. Once the action started, it was brief but fast and furious and during a lull, a pearler of a pheasant came storming towards Chris Thorpe, only to be taken at 40 yards by Victoria
Sporting agent and Shooting Gazette contributor Robert Cuthbert.
Rufina Pavry acquitted herself extremely well during the day.
Darran Ritchie was the shoot host on the day.
I love you really
“The opening volley of little birds whistled through the interrupted line to a staccato ripple of snatched shots.”
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On the shoot
Lunch was taken at The George & Dragon in Wolverton Tadley.
with one shot off her left shoulder and an immediate apology, followed by hoots of laughter, pheasant earrings flashing in the sunlight. With only 30 or so to find, the team assembled for Hutchins – the final drive of the day. As Kevin Rolls gave me a wave from a distance, one or two guns mentioned their rumbling tummies; the timing could not have been better. One of the guns, who
affected a shooting stick, shot quite well once parted from it, they all did really. In fairness, the team were that wonderful thing of blissful restraint considering the opportunities afforded them. It wasn’t long at all until partridges and then pheasants started rising, quartering across the line from the bottom right flushing point, with birds doing all sorts with myriad cover options. Without the
The area guide How to get there, where to stay and what to eat.
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need for blanking in, it was just one of those finales which suddenly unfolded without a slow build and walloping crescendo, it just bounced into the latter with so many shots and echoes at the end, it sounded like a double gun day at full tilt. A pair of glossy black labradors, efficient enough to impress, but with plenty of character, mopped up with little correction from their friendly handler. Jennifer Suman, a vivacious City girl with a big heart in the Highlands, picked up her empties and her nearest birds, whilst pointing out her kills, further behind her, with her thumb-stick… ever the traditionalist. They looked around for the remainder of the team as the birds were being braced together on a nearby truck. They smiled the smile of an unspoken mutual appreciation of a good day shared, and shared with friends.
For more information about shooting opportunities at Manydown, visit seriousshooting.co.uk
T R AV E L
S TAY
C AT E R I N G
The shoot is easily found between Newbury in Berkshire and Basingstoke in Hampshire. Heathrow Airport is just over 40 miles away, so less than an hour from the shoot. Southampton Airport on the coast is slightly nearer at around 40 minutes; both have good road links to the shoot. Newbury’s rail link is around 20 minutes away, but the nearest train station would be Basingstoke, just an eight-mile cab ride away. The shoot is a 56-mile drive from Piccadilly Circus, W1 – a pretty do-able 90 minutes from town.
For a little refinement, the Tylney Hall Hotel near Hook is really very sumptuous, but The George & Dragon near Tadley is right on the shoot’s doorstep, with either headkeeper Kevin Rolls or shoot host Darran Ritchie usually picking up the teams from the pub. The pub and shoot have a good working relationship. They’ve ample room to accommodate a team and boast five rooms with wet rooms; the 10 courtyard bedrooms are all en suite with LCD televisions and WiFi. (georgedragoninn.co.uk)
As most teams kick off from The George & Dragon, a full English or bacon baps and fresh coffee can be arranged here. Elevenses at Manydown is always a well-judged and robust affair, with little room for spun-sugar baskets or dusted plate edges. Locally sourced bangers, pies and delicious home made soups keep grumbling tummies at bay until lunch. For those wishing to take an alfresco lunch, there’s a local reputable hamper provider, but most teams take lunch in The George & Dragon, where steak and ale pies, fish and chips or juicy steaks are on offer.
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Ready, present... partridge! From your cartridge choice and the clothes you wear to the refreshments you serve, a partridge day on September 1 is markedly different from one on February 1. Roderick Emery explains how guns can be fully prepared throughout the seasons.
S
o, partridge shooting, eh? Always an exciting start to the lowland shooting season. Let us not forget, however, that it is a season and it runs from September to February these days. There can be a fair old difference between a day out in the early part of the season and an invitation to an end-of-season clear up or a beaters’ day in the murk of the New Year.
GARMENTS MAKETH THE GUN Let’s think about clothing for a start. In early September, for example, it can be hot. We could easily be in shirtsleeve order. We definitely shan’t be wearing the 24oz estate tweed shooting suit over heavy twill shirtings and a full set of woolly underpinnings, now shall we? I should say not.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: BOB ATKINS
No, what we are looking at here is a pair of cotton breeks, a cotton shirt and perhaps a pully and one of those fleece gilets that are all the rage these days. And very natty they are too. That shirt does not want to be too pale though, does it? Sky blue with the dapper pink over-stripe might look the bee’s proverbials in the bedroom mirror of a morning, but once the sun gets warm enough to leave your sweater in the truck you are going to be standing out like a beacon in the line and every bird will be swerving away from you like Federer’s sliced backhand. Muted hues, remember, muted hues. Similarly, those spectacular red, white and blue Brexit stockings may be ever so amusing in principal but
Whatever the time of year, we want the partridges to be brought down cleanly.
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unless considerable rain is forecast we will be wearing stout shoes or short boots today, so it will pay to have a pair of leggings handy to mask the full glare of their hilarity. Or switch to khaki drab, perhaps? Less funny, of course, but you will get more shooting. And if we are wearing less than for a late season outing, might it not pay to consider how that might effect gun handling? If your gun is fitted for you while wearing the full uniform of the pheasant battue – thermals, tweeds, sweater and shooting jacket – the stock could be half an inch short by now. A thin rubber recoil pad or a lightweight shoulder-guard can easily compensate and ensure your mount is as secure and regular as ever. Hats can be something of a contentious area. If I am shooting proper partridges on a sunny autumn day, I can see nothing wrong with a long-rimmed cap. Yes, a baseball cap for want of a better term. And why not? I am not suggesting a day-glo orange version smothered in logos but there are plenty of perfectly acceptable versions of the same thing these days. There are even tweed ones available. If you think that your host or friends might raise an eyebrow at such a thing then a wide-brimmed trilby or a racing felt will serve to satisfy traditionalists and keep the sun’s glare out of your eyes at the same time.
The partridge season
Muted hues and short boots are vital when shooting partridge.
And speaking of eyes, a decent pair of sunglasses is de rigueur if you are going to address autumn birds with any real degree of success. RayBans and Oakleys are all very well, actually they are very well indeed, but price is not necessarily a certain indicator of value and in my life the cost is usually inversely related to my length of ownership. That is, if I spend three figures on a pair of natty shades I will sit on them before elevenses for sure. Meanwhile, I have some bargain basement pairs that have been with me for years and seem to do just as well. Perhaps it is just me. Either way, do not opt for the mirrored
lenses, will you? Leave those for track days in the AC Cobra. Muted hues, remember?
ON WOOD AND METAL What about the gun? Or guns? I should be so lucky. Early in the season the chances are there will be plenty of birds. Actually masses. It stands to reason, right? They are not going to be at extreme ranges and they are, when all is said and done, partridges, which means they don’t actually take a lot of killing. We might well want to move a bit faster to get onto the birds so perhaps a smaller, lighter gun might be appropriate? If a full-length season is
your preferred recreation then you will doubtless have a cabinet full of masterpieces of the gunsmith’s art to choose from. And why not? Obviously, you will have been using your short-barrelled 12 bores for the last six weeks at the grouse and you may wish to stick with them, though I would be inclined to lighten the load somewhat. A 26gram, No.6 or No.7 shot cartridge is more than adequate for partridges early in their season, though I would switch to 28gram perhaps as the days get shorter. Or we could switch to the 20 bore. Up and down or side by side as you choose. A lot of people
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The partridge season Steak and kidney pudding? And claret? In double-digit heat? Treacle pudding and custard when all the windows are open? Warm salad of partridge goujons with a garlic aioli is more the mark. A dish of spicy salami, wild boar pâté and olives, some cheese and a flinty white burgundy. Raspberries and ice cream. Think Wimbledon not windblown. Be creative. Be more creative at any rate.
RESPECTING ONE’S QUARRY
Refreshments should match the conditions; why would you want fortifying soup when it’s warm and there are ice cold beers or sloegasms just waiting to be poured?
are using these now with a light load for autumn outings and then moving up to more powerful cartridges as the season progresses. If you are using modern guns with interchangeable chokes or a barrel selector it might be as well to switch to the open barrel for your second shot. Remember, driven partridges are further away when first addressed topping the shelter belt than they are when taking your second shot overhead.
AND REFRESHMENTS... So what about elevenses? On a warm, perhaps even hot day, do we really want a steaming mug of nourishing broth and a lot of sausages in the middle of the morning? Some hosts just get into a 46
“A sky-blue shirt means you’re going to stand out like a beacon and every bird will be swerving away from you like Federer’s backhand.” routine and start dishing out snacks more suited to a January blizzard than a September sauna. Whatever is wrong with a smoked salmon sandwich and a jug of Pimm’s? Chilled cucumber soup, a bowl of cherries and lashings of Prosecco? How about a bucket of iced beers? Lunchtime is more of the same.
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Finally, let us consider the little partridges themselves. In the early weeks of the season they will be arriving in positive swarms. When the cover crops and coverts are packed with game it is difficult to keep a steady flow of birds over the guns. A handful of birds at a time is as much as most guns can cope with. A hatful and they go all to pieces and start poking into the brown and missing everything. The key to shooting partridges well is to pick a bird and kill it dead. Then move onto the next. And shoot that too. But never try to choose a second before the first is on its way downward and never, ever, try to change to an easier one at the last moment. One at a time is the only way to build a score. In the latter part of the season, when partridges are mixed in with pheasants, it is all too easy to overlead a partridge. They look faster than the pheasants because of their rapid wingbeat and they seem further away because they’re smaller. Actually they are slower and nearer than any of the pheasants, so take your time and just pot them. And don’t forget to take plenty home with you because they are easily prepared, extremely versatile to cook and, most importantly, absolutely delicious. At any time. As a matter of fact, I have a couple of brace spatch-cocked and marinating for the barbecue right now!
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Competitions How many birds?
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There is nothing quite like the sight of birds passing over your peg. So, rather than ask you to guess where a single bird is in this image, we thought we'd have some fun and ask you how many birds there are in this fellow's line of sight instead. Head to our Facebook page and submit your guess – remember this is just for fun, no prizes for the correct answer!
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WIN a pair of Hunter ® GTX Evo Extreme boots from Lowa he Hunter GTX Evo Extreme® from Lowa is the boot of choice for guns and keepers who demand strength and comfort when out in the field. Handcrafted in Germany using the finest leather, SPS midsole technology and Vibram outsoles, your feet will be stylish and well-supported, while the PRIMALOFT® insulation and GORE-TEX® waterproof lining will keep your feet warm and dry. For more information visit lowa.co.uk. To win a pair of these Lowa boots find the 11 listed words and send the completed entry form to: Wordsearch, Shooting Gazette, Time Inc (UK) Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF. Entries to arrive no later than September 30. The first correct entry to be drawn will win. July's winner was B. Perry from Buckland Monachorum in Devon.
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End of an era
Farewell and good shooting Outgoing editor Will Hetherington signs off with memories of his term in office.
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fter 13 thoroughly enjoyable years in the Shooting Gazette editor’s chair I am now moving on to new challenges, following the sudden and devastating death of my wife Wendy earlier this year. But don’t worry, the magazine will be in good hands because Martin Puddifer will be taking control. Martin and I have worked together on the magazine for the last 11 years so his apprenticeship has been long and fruitful, and I have no doubt he will serve Shooting Gazette and its readership extremely well. Apart from being diligent, intelligent, witty and perceptive, he is also considerably more organised than I am, which is an increasingly important skill in the world of modern publishing.
In all of my adventures there has always been a strong camaraderie amongst sporting men and women. When I started in magazine publishing, Friday lunchtime in the pub was almost a contractual term for any journalist or member of the advertising sales team. And if you couldn’t get three drinks down your neck in that precious hour then you soon learned how. But some of the older guys back then it was every lunchtime and that meant 12.30pm till 3pm. These days it’s all fruit smoothies, granola and breakfast meetings, which is OK if you like that sort of thing, but there’s something to be said for a good old fashioned get together in the pub. After all, this is where guards get dropped and colleagues become friends. But we do still have the game fairs as the great social gatherings for the shooting world. During my recent Saturday visit to The Game Fair at Hatfield House I was regaled with stories from the parties the night before. I was reassured to hear that history is repeating itself and
the younger generation are happily making many of the same dubious decisions after one or two drinks too many. After all, life would be rather boring if there was no room for letting your hair down. In fact the whole atmosphere of this show was reminiscent of some of the great CLA Game Fairs of the past, and even the presence of a small group of antis protesting at the main gate was strangely reassuring. It’s hard to explain but it felt almost validating to see some opposition. In my time as editor I have been lucky enough to travel the length and breadth of the UK and further afield to the likes of Spain, France, Portugal, Hungary the Czech Republic and even southern Africa, and all in pursuit of winged game. In all those adventures there have been common themes. There is a strong camaraderie among sportsmen and women and a deep appreciation of the opportunity to go shooting. Whether you are heading out for a 400-bird double gun day at the Brigands or just a walk around the farm with two or three friends the excitement is the same. In fact sometimes the farm day can be even more thrilling. When you shoot five birds all day between you, each one is memorable. So, as with most things in life, we should appreciate every moment and consider ourselves fortunate to be able to pursue this most traditional and rewarding of country sports. And the tweeds and the breeks and the ties and the stockings are all part of that appreciation. Some say it’s showing respect to the birds, which I think is fair enough, but I think it’s also about marking the day as something a little bit different and very special. It can be hard to express the unique feeling of a good day in the field, but as long as we continue to value and cherish what we have then we will not go too far wrong. Keep it simple; look forward to your shooting days and make sure you take a moment to stop and appreciate them. I know that’s what I will be doing this season. So, I will sign off with that message and wish you all many more happy days in the field and Martin many happy days at the keyboard and on the phone. It’s been a blast.
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A JOURNEY INTO SIGHT AND SOUND As another partridge shooting season begins, Jeremy Hobson explores the likely hearing and seeing abilities of game birds.
“H
ear all, see all, say nowt” is just part of an old maxim beloved of Yorkshire folk, but it serves very well when discussing the importance of being quiet on a shoot day. Partridges and pheasants – particularly pheasants – are often not credited with much intelligence but, as any keeper will tell you, they are pretty adept at sneaking away from potential trouble at the first sound of any undue noise or sight of unusual occurrence. As far as the former is concerned, Charles Alington, in his classic book, Partridge Driving, was quite emphatic about the effects of unnecessary noise by the beaters: ‘It may be laid down as a rule that the drivers should beat in silence’. 50
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However, obviously not one to be totally dictatorial, he did go on to say that: ‘…there are two cases… when it may prove beneficial to make exceptions to this rule’. The first of these, so Alington claimed, was when driving cover crops upwind. ‘In this case birds cannot hear the approach of the beaters till they are close to them, when they are almost certain to go back’. The second instance concerned the beaters tapping at a high impenetrable hedge running across the middle of the beat and which runs parallel to the line of guns: ‘Here the beaters will be obliged to go round… in order to get through to the next field. There will probably be birds close [to the hedge] on the
far side, and these are… likely to go back…when the beaters line up again. If, however, the drivers make a good noise before getting through, these birds will run out into the field, and can thus be surrounded and sent forward’. Whilst Charles Alington may have provided the beaters with certain exemptions, he gave no such lee-way to the guns when it came to the subject of inattention and noise: ‘Nothing is more exasperating to a host…than to see his guests wandering about in the wrong direction, apparently taking no interest in the primary object of the day and talking over some matter of far greater importance to themselves or the nation at large’.
Game bird senses
DAVID KJAER
The next time you're enjoying a day of mixed sport keep an eye out for the first bird you see crossing the line before the real action starts – it could be a wary partridge.
WHAT WAS TRUE THEN IS TRUE NOW… Although written in 1904, what Alington wrote then is as applicable in 2017 – at least if my experiences as both a keeper and a shoot host are anything to go by. Voices carry, as do the sounds of car doors slamming as guns un-bus in readiness for the next drive and, whilst you might get away with a bit of ill-considered rowdiness at the beginning of the season, you most definitely will not at the end when game birds are wise as to what’s going on. A game bird’s hearing should never be underestimated. Many of us have heard tales of pheasants along the south coast who were said to have uttered their ‘cock-up’ vocals at the sound of artillery fire in France during the First World War. It wasn’t, though, only in southern England where this
phenomena was observed. Writing his regular Country Diary for the Manchester Guardian in February 1915, this unknown diarist wrote the following: ‘It has been suggested that unusual activity among pheasants noted on the day of the recent North Sea battle was due to their consciousness of the firing. Before we condemn as a mere fable or credulously accept the suggestion, let us consider and weigh the evidence. First the Rector of Saxby, in Lincolnshire, in his letter to The Times, quotes his parish clerk – “The pheasants are all over the place with their fuss.” Another observer in Lowther, Penrith, has affirmed that the gamekeepers noticed the unusual crowing of the pheasants at the time the battle was taking place’.
“Pheasants along the south coast were said to have uttererd their ‘cock up’ vocals at the sound of artillery fire in France during the First World War.” Our mystery diarist further remarked that: ‘Every gamekeeper, and indeed every field ornithologist, knows that thunder invariably excites cock pheasants and causes them to crow’ and then wrote: ‘In spite of all our boasted knowledge we really know very little about the power of hearing in birds… Nevertheless we are aware that
aerial vibrations are set in motion by explosions [so] possibly the pheasants could not hear as we understand hearing, but could feel the sound waves’. A century on, despite the fact that those of us involved in game shooting are very aware that unnecessary noise will have partridges and pheasants running long before the guns are in position at one end of the drive and the beaters are at the other, it seems that biologists have paid relatively little heed to a bird’s hearing – not because it is unimportant – but because it is difficult to study.
IS ORANGE THE NEW WHITE? For one reason or another, having more or less ascertained that a quiet approach is essential on a shooting day, what about the importance of keeping out of sight of game birds? That their vision is excellent can be safely assumed, given their need to keep a constant lookout for predators, particularly in the case of partridges, which obviously spend all of their life on the ground, but it might also be of interest to consider whether they can see in colour. Both amateur observations and modern science suggest they can. With regard to the former, writer and naturalist, W. H. Hudson, had it that coloured streamers would keep bullfinches out of the Kent orchards if used en masse – and that scarlet ones worked the best. Many keepers equip their beaters with extremely serviceable flags made from cut-up feed bags – which are predominantly white – whilst other keepers and their beaters prefer the bright orange type that can be slid over the end of WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2017
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BOB ATKINS
Game bird senses
Research suggests that birds have better sight than humans, so might it be time to change the colour of your beaters' flag?
their stick and then folded neatly and carried in the pocket when not required. But, in the eyes of a partridge, does one colour make them react differently to the other? Research carried out five years ago suggested that birds of all kinds can, in fact, see colours far better than humans. A study – some of the findings of which were published in the journal Behavioural Ecology – found that birds, ‘not only can see more colours than they have in their plumage, because of additional colour cones in their retina that are sensitive to ultraviolet range, but they also see colours that are invisible to humans.’ Prof. Richard Prum, a professor of ornithology, ecology, and evolutionary biology at Yale University, further mentioned that: ‘The startling thing to realise is that although the colours of birds look so incredibly diverse and beautiful to us, we are colourblind compared to birds.’ Food for thought when it comes to those beating flags. 52
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On a sporting estate where both pheasant and partridge feature, whether it’s sight or sound that first makes partridges aware of approaching beaters pushing through the cover crops or striding
“When two pairs of partridge joined the dozen pheasants for a feed every day they were always more alert and easily alarmed.” over stubble, it’s impossible to be certain but, as one keeper recently remarked: ‘they must know something the pheasants don’t as they [the partridge] are always first out of the drive!’ Perhaps we’ll never know whether partridges have more
acute hearing than pheasants, or if they are just a little more wary. One experienced fieldsportsman to whom I spoke in connection with this article was of the opinion that it was wariness – and gave the following example: ‘When two pairs of partridge joined the dozen pheasants for a feed in my garden every day, they were always more alert and more easily alarmed. The pheasants would run right up to me to be fed... the partridges wouldn’t come anywhere near as close’. And what of that old Yorkshire saying with which I began this article? Well, the full version is: ‘Hear all, see all, say nowt. Eat all, sup all, pay nowt. And if thou ever does owt for nowt, allus do it for thissen’. So, with that adage in mind, do ‘thissen’ (yourself) a favour on shoot day, particularly with partridges and, as far as is practicable, keep out of sight heading towards the pegs and make as little noise as possible. It’ll cost you nothing and could pay dividends.
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lucky Shooting Gazette reader the chance to win items including a shooting suit, which comprises a shooting coat, waistcoat and breeks
from its popular Compton tweed range. A ladies’ equivalent of the clothing offered in this competition is available to lady guns.
Compton men’s shooting waistcoat (RRP £154.95) Specially designed for shooting, this waistcoat is a classic shooting fit which allows you to take unhindered movements when it matters. Beautifully crafted from a water repellent pure wool tweed.
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Compton men’s breeks (RRP £149.95) Crafted from pure wool tweed, these breeks come with a water repellent outer so there are no nasty surprises if caught in a shower. Fully lined with cotton, they also come with several handy pockets.
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Compton waterproof men’s shooting coat (RRP £319.95) Engineered with a pure wool water repellent outer, this robust and hard wearing garment comes with a waterproof and breathable membrane specially created for Alan Paine under the AP-EX name.
DISCLAIMER: Other colours are available in the event of those shown being out of stock.
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Compton men’s cap (RRP £39.95) This pure wool tweed classic flat cap is waterproof and breathable; an absolute must when you’re out in the field.
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One of the astonishing shotguns by McKay Brown that will make its way to the US.
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Scottish gunmaking
A GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY GIFT As David McKay Brown marks his 50th year in gunmaking, Patrick Laurie examines the Scotsman's life in shooting and a special pair of shotguns he has made for an American customer.
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The American client was keen that the guns should be decorated in a manner befitting their intricate lightness, and from the beginning of the process he was determined to avoid the usual scenes of gundogs and game birds. Working alongside David in the design phase, the client asked for engraving based on butterflies, and this has finally been realised in two of the most
exquisite and ornate shotguns it is possible to imagine. The engraving has been elegantly rendered by Italian craftsman at Creative Art in Lombardy, and the work has taken over a year. Minute gold details have been inlaid into dovetail sockets, and the rich colours of the precious metals combine to create an astonishingly threedimensional effect.
FROM DAVID MCKAY BROWN: SCOTLAND'S GUN AND RIFLE MANUFACTURER BY DONALD DALLAS, PUBLISHED BY QUILLER BOOKS
T
he stamp of an English shotgun carries a ringing endorsement wherever shooting folk gather together. In a world of modern design that is often dominated by big-name brands from America, Scandinavia and Europe, English shotguns retain their relevance with a note of classic cool. We might be drawn to Marlon Brando or Gregory Peck, but we always return to David Niven and James Bond. But as with Niven and Bond, there are some wrinkles in the English shotgun’s pedigree. Both Purdey and Boss had strong connections to Scotland, and many of the “coolest” features of the “English” shotgun have their roots North of the border. Viewed independently, the history of the Scottish sporting gun has taken some unique and extraordinary turns over the past century. This innovative tradition remains alive and well today, and nowhere is it expressed more clearly than in the work of David McKay Brown, whose presence in the gunmaking world has now been delighting shooting folk for more than half a century. Building on the traditional “Edinburgh” designs, David’s take on the Dickson trigger plate round action became the foundation for a business based on efficiency, elegance and quintessential Scottishness. Celebrating 50 years in business in 2017, David has recently completed work on a major project for an American collector. Around 60 per cent of McKay Brown shotguns head over the Atlantic where an enraptured audience waits with baited breath for every new tweak and revision in David’s work. An American trend towards shooting small-winged game such as quail often means David is asked to make light shotguns in .410 or 28 bore. His 50th anniversary project has been to build a matched set of over-unders in both of those gauges.
David has spent years honing his skills in his workshop with myriad tools.
Scottish gunmaking drawing guns. Technical ideas of design and engineering were balanced in a life which seemed to swing from dark, lonely workshops to the wide open hills of Argyll. David’s stories of his early life are spellbinding to a modern audience which has grown used to declines in wild game; his stirring tales of capercaillie and black game are enough to make your hair stand on end, but they simply reflect the fact David was just the right man in the right place at the right
“David’s stories of his early life are spellbinding; his tales of capercaillie and black game make your hair stand on end.”
The beautifully engraved details were rendered by Italian craftsmen in Lombardy.
It would be easy to mistake these guns for a victory of style over substance, but the barrels “clop” shut with a joyous ring, and even swinging the 28 bore through an imaginary quail in the confines of David’s office revealed the gun is beautifully balanced. Make no mistake – these shotguns will be as lovely to use as they are to look at. The link between design and function has always run through David’s work, and much of this can be traced back to his roots in the shooting field.
A LIFETIME IN FIELDSPORTS David McKay Brown is a countryman through and through.
His entire life has revolved around shooting and wildlife, and his earliest childhood was spent with his father poaching partridges and grouse from the moors around his home in Bellshill, Glasgow. The post-war years saw a surge in poaching, and David’s father was reputedly able to kill an entire covey of grey partridges one by one with his trusty .22 rimfire. The young David accompanied his father and noted every detail. Determined to make a career with his hands, David was building fishing rods and fiddling with guns in his early teens, and within six months of taking an apprenticeship as a draftsman, he was already
time. Employed by the Forestry Commission for two years, first as a trapper and then as a ranger, he was given complete sporting control over 26,000 acres along Loch Lomondside, relishing the freedom and joy of the work. Although much of his work is now carried out at a desk with high-tech software, those rural origins bind his shotguns to a real, practical functionality. Even in the thick of his time as a deer stalker, David’s fascination with gunmaking continued at weekends. After a five-year apprenticeship with the gun trade, he worked on repairs and servicing for Dickson’s in Edinburgh, building a reputation for quality workmanship. David parted company with Dickson’s and set up his own firm in 1967, servicing and repairing shotguns for some of the biggest names in the business and travelling from Cornwall to Caithness in the process. It wasn’t always an easy ride, and the work WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2017
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Scottish gunmaking
David's unassuming shop hides an intriguing interior. The smell of linseed oil, old papers and heavy lathes is intoxicating.
was sometimes supplemented by driving taxis and working as a contract deer stalker. David built his first round action shotgun in 1974, and this would prove to be the first in a new stable of Scottish shotguns. He has almost been forced to sell his first gun on two occasions when times were hard, but thankfully he has been able to keep hold of it. It is the perfect grouse gun, but it comes with a unique downside. David is a good shot by all accounts, but as he explained, “when you’ve designed and built your own gun, you’ve got no excuses for missing”. Grouse were a mainstay of David’s sporting world for decades, and he loves the flavour of a well-cooked bird so much he still makes sure to have enough in the freezer to eat one every fortnight throughout the year. He regards grouse as the world’s finest sporting quarry, but he is losing his appetite for the big bird days. Clients often invite him to shoot by way of 60
thanks, but while he enjoys these trips out, he often finds more pleasure in shooting ducks on his flightpond at home. David is a mine of old stories. It would be easy to lose track of time in his little office on Hamilton Road in Bothwell where his guns are built. The unassuming shop front belies the intrigue of its contents, and as soon as you enter 32 Hamilton Road, a sporting treasure trove awaits. A shouldermounted cape buffalo looms over the desk, and the walls are hung with endless certificates and commendations from major names in the gunmaking world. David alternates stories from a Hebridean snipe bog with tales from the African bush, and the smell of linseed oil, old papers and the heavy lathes downstairs is intoxicating. After 50 years in business, David still has an immense appetite for his trade. A current trend towards high pheasants stirs his enthusiasm, and his work reflects changing tastes
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and fashions in the shooting world. On the rack beside the butterfly shotguns stands a special 12 bore over-under with 32” barrels – custom built to tackle high birds. It is easy to imagine that gunmaking can soon become formulaic and hide-bound in tradition, but David’s shotguns are responsive to change and progress. Fashions come and go every year, and there are always new boundaries to push and explore. Under David’s management, the firm has been able to balance the refinement of traditional ideas with totally new and progressive techniques which simply did not exist in the 1960s. Leaving him to his work and stepping out into the rain, I felt confident that the future holds plenty of surprises from David McKay Brown.
For more information about David McKay Brown, visit mckaybrown.com.
Dogs and deer
Scoop to the rescue A faithful labrador assumes control when a roe stalk takes an unexpected turn. By Patrick Laurie.
A
s the years go by, I foster a growing respect and admiration for my dog. Scoop will be six years old in September, and she has entered middle-age with the kind of regal dignity known only to labradors. During her life, she has toiled over grouse moors, hunted for partridges and plunged into frozen estuaries, taking it all in her stride without a moment’s hesitation. I couldn’t have chosen a more enthusiastic partner if I’d tried. We took on a second labrador last year, and it has been interesting to see how the old matriarch has adapted to share the spotlight with a younger model. Despite some initial doubts, the two dogs were soon closely bound together, and they get so much pleasure from one another that it’s now hard to imagine how we ever kept just one dog on its own. At the same time, I think Scoop values one-on-one time with me, particularly when I’m
My dog has entered middle age with the kind of regal dignity known only to labradors. heading out for a roe. Most of my stalking is on open ground and it’s rare for me to need help from a canine tracking specialist, but she loves to come along and is usually so well-behaved that I hardly know she’s there. Scoop and I recently left the young dog at home and headed for the hills with the rifle on a warm, bright summer’s evening. We covered a couple of miles and settled on a steep granite face to spy a likely spot as the sun slowly sank behind the Galloway hills. A light mist was rising up from the low ground, and the sound of farm machinery worked away into the gloom, cutting silage far off in the distance. From the deep rushes, a buck emerged and began to rub his antlers dreamily on a foxglove. It was still early in the rut, when young bloods pout and show off before the real business begins. This was a fine, white-faced five pointer, and he was almost exactly what I was looking for. Scoop and I crawled in
to 150 yards, then I squeezed off the shot as the dark shape browsed quietly through the bog myrtle. The reaction was immediate; the buck reared up and ran off in a panic. The sound of the bullet’s impact had been inconclusive, and he bounded away as if he had been lightly grazed in the front end. My last glimpse saw him vanish at a steady pace behind a bank of scree. Silence sealed over the chaos again and I was left in turmoil. I had recently upgraded to a .308 precisely because I hate these moments. I like my deer dead on the ground, no questions asked. Horrible doubts crept in about the rifle’s zero. The shot had felt good, so where had the bullet gone? Scoop was at my shoulder with her ears cocked. I sent her in for a closer look. I usually like to stand back after a shot and let the dog find the trail, but I was frustrated to see her follow a line almost 180˚ in the opposite direction, into a bed of thick bracken and rushes. Assuming that she was following a hare, I called her back and pointed her in the right direction, then was outraged to see her go precisely back the way she had originally gone. Cursing the dog and hoping to find the buck on my own, I set off along the tangent I had seen the buck take immediately after the shot had been taken. Ten minutes went by, and darkness was beginning to fall. My stomach twisted at the possibility of losing the roe – the damn dog had stopped clattering through the bracken and sat looking at me 100 yards away in the wrong direction. She was mocking me, and I cursed the decision to bring along such a useless, wretched animal. Another 10 minutes had passed before I decided to see what she was doing. Perhaps inevitably, she was sitting beside the roe buck, which lay dead in the heather. The shot had passed perfectly through the heart, but somehow the dying animal had run over 100 yards, doubling back on itself once it was out of sight and falling at last in a horribly thick, remote spot. There is no way that I could ever have found it without the dog, and my fury turned to delight as a fat moon rose up over the Solway and glowed through the larches. I pulled out my knife and began the gralloch as Scoop wagged her tail in the dew. Despite all the distractions of the young dog at home, I remembered why there will only ever be one dog for me. WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2017
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NEXT MONTH DON’T MISS
ALL THE FUN OF THE FARM
How one small team is making miracles in Leicestershire
ORDER! ORDER! Sporting and culinary conversation with Lord Tebbit
CATCH YOU LATER, CASSEROLE? Expert advice on rebooting your shoot lunch
WHAT MAKES A GOOD SHOOT?
Why there’s more to it than good birds and banter
BOB ATKINS
PLUS
Place your bids in the Countryside Learning art auction THE OCTOBER ISSUE IS ON SALE FROM SEPTEMBER 28
A dog’s life
FOLLOW MY LEAD Establishing who is in control with a few pearls of wisdom from across the pond. By Roderick Emery.
Human How do we stop a springer spaniel pulling at the lead? More specifically, how do we stop a young springer spaniel pulling on the lead? Now I don’t know how many of you will recognise the name Cesar Millan, but he’s the hot thing in canine psychology in the US right now and has therefore all the answers to your dog training needs. The Batty Spaniel Woman is all over his stuff like a rash. Which, I grant you, is not the traditional approach of Batty Spaniel Women I have known in the past. However, contrary to much of the dippy hippy nonsense which comes out of the US, a good deal of what this fellow says makes real sense. This may come as a bit of a shock to the “regular damn good thrashing” brigade. Their training regime is founded upon the dusty tome pinched from the library of a highland lodge which contains the advice of some Victorian dog breaker of note, but there we go. We must move with the times. Uncle Cesar’s first comment is: “What is your dog doing on a lead to start with?” Reliance on a lead to keep your pup under control is a glaring admission of failure in the modern era because you have not established yourself as pack leader, and your dog – or dogs – are constantly challenging your authority by getting ahead of you. And they pull at the lead for the same reason: because they want you to come with them to somewhere else. The answer, therefore, is not to pull back increasingly savagely with choke chains and growling ever louder, but to stop. Dead. Like a tree. And not to go anywhere until the dog has sat down. At heel. And recognised – as it soon will – that pulling is a non-starter because pullers go nowhere at all, let alone anywhere interesting. And it definitely works.
my nose hasn’t fallen off yet. Fox after a cat, I shouldn’t wonder. Probably stalking a pheasant and didn’t notice Mr Fox sneaking up behind. The hunter hunted, eh? Still, there’s no point pulling because we never go that way. And if you pull he just gets redder and louder. Oh, I used to pull. In my day. Nearly had him flat on his arse more than once. Of course, I’m bigger than you, aren’t I? Didn’t change things though. ‘Cos he’s bigger than me, when you come down to it. And he’s got this really tight collar thing as well. And he has the key to the food store, too, you’re not wrong there. I should say not, eh? We wouldn’t want to jeopardise that, now would we? Not to mention Mr Naughty Newspaper, what? Who is Mr Naughty Newspaper? Well, let’s just say that he was a bit of a feature in my young life. And he will be in yours, if you keep pulling like that.
Young dog Let’s go over here! Can we go over here? Pleeeeease! No? No. You’ve stopped. We’ve stopped. We’ve all stopped. Hmmm? Can we go? No? No. OK, I’ll sit down for a bit. Maybe I’ll lie down. Uh oh, off we go again. Can we go this way? Pleeeaa...... you’ve stopped again. We’ve all stopped again. This is not interesting. This is dull. Off we go then. What about....... what’s with the stopping already? I was only thinking that we might just go over....... THAT WASN’T A PULL!! That was scarcely even a tug. That wasn’t fair. OK, I’ll do you a deal. If I walk like this can I have a bit of a run about when we get wherever we’re going? Bit of a hunt? Sniff of this or that? Waddya say? Do we have a deal. OK you’re on. For now we walk and later we run. And I don’t get to meet Mr Nasty Kneespopper, OK? Whoever that is. You know, sometimes I simply can’t understand a word that old dog says. Lives in a different world.
Old dog I say, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I know that there are some very interesting smells over there. I may be old, kid, but For the opportunity to purchase Bryn Parry original cartoons visit brynparrystudios.com
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Great guns Gunmaking historian Donald Dallas examines a gun once used for a long lost sporting pastime.
The Greener Blue Rock pigeon gun
B
oxlock non-ejectors, the mainstay of the rough shooter for over a century, are in little demand these days and are difficult to sell. Similarly, their upmarket cousin, the boxlock ejector, is also out of fashion as the Beretta continues to impress with its functionality. But what about form? If you can find certain unusual boxlocks they still command very high prices. I am thinking of such guns like Harkom of Edinburgh’s very individual boxlocks with gold washed internals, or Holland & Holland’s Aero Gun, originally designed for shooting down Zeppelins. To this list can be added the Greener Blue Rock pigeon gun. The Greener Blue Rock was a variation of its popular Empire model, designed specifically for
either live pigeon shooting on the Continent or trap shooting. Greener Empire guns were made in their thousands but the Blue Rock model was made in only small quantities.
“The Blue Rock was a variation of the Empire model, which was designed specifically for live pigeon shooting.” This rarity, combined with the excellent quality of the gun and its suitability for the current fashion for high pheasants, makes it a highly sought after gun, hence the fantastic prices they can achieve.
W.W. Greener liked to make all his firearms as simple as possible; with fewer parts there was less to go wrong, vital in the large export trade he had created. With this in mind he introduced the Emperor boxlock model in 1894, a gun that had only three parts in the lock, the simplest action devised to this date. However, what W.W. Greener and his son Harry were really aiming for was a simple gun that could be produced virtually entirely by machinery, thereby reducing costs. The result was the Empire boxlock patented by Harry Greener in patent no. 12012 in 1910. It had the same number of lock parts as the Emperor but unlike the Emperor had a conventional V-shaped mainspring with its apex protruding through the knuckle. When the barrels were lowered, the fore-end
The Empire Patent 1910 W.W. Greener’s intention in gun design was to build a gun composed of a few simple, strong parts. His son Harry Greener continued this tradition and in patent no. 12012 of 1910 created the Empire boxlock utilising just three parts: a tumbler, a sear and a spring. The spring is ingenious, being both a cocking device and a mainspring. It is a V spring with the upper limb longer than the lower. After the gun is fired, the forward end of the mainspring projects forwards slightly through the knuckle. As the barrels
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open, the fore-end iron forces back the mainspring and as it moves backwards, the upper limb rotates the tumbler to full cock. In doing so, the bottom of the tumbler rises and compresses the spring. The mechanism was simple and robust, and with so few parts was very reliable. It is no wonder that from the first gun built in 1910 to the last in 1965, over 17,000 were built and a reliable reputation created.
The mechanism of the three-part Empire showing the sear, the tumbler and the mainspring.
ANDREW ORR/HOLT’S AUCTIONEERS
W.W. Greener Blue Rock ejector pigeon gun no. 77818 of 1955. Bored ¾ choke in both barrels, weight 7¾lbs.
The Blue Rock pigeon The type of pigeon used in live pigeon shooting was the variety known as the Blue Rock pigeon. The best variety was known as the Lincolnshire Tin Blue Rock. They were fed in Lincolnshire by farmers in the wintertime who also built dovecots for them. Other Blue Rocks were bred in Oxfordshire specifically for the purpose of live pigeon shooting. A great many Blue Rocks were also bred in Antwerp for
use in the Continent and W.W. Greener, writing in his book The Gun And its Development, 1884 edition, stated with just a hint of jingoism: “They possess none of that gameness peculiar to the English bird”. At some of the large and permanent live pigeon grounds, such as at Monaco, large dovecotes were erected and many birds were bred at The Blue Rock pigeon.
the grounds to save on transportation costs. All four sides of the traps were hinged so that upon the cord being pulled, the trap collapsed entirely leaving the pigeon in the open. Of course the pigeon could then fly off in any direction compared to clay pigeon shooting – one factor in its popularity. It was important that pigeons intended for trap shooting should not become used to being handled to keep them wild and at all the clubs there were stringent rules in force against any mistreatment of birds.
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Great guns iron acted against the mainspring and pushed it backwards to cock the tumbler. The result was a triumph for Greeners, a high quality, strong gun, simple and easy to maintain and above all relatively cheap. The first Empire grade E10 appeared in 1910, costing 10 guineas and from then on they were sold in the thousands. The early Empires were all non-ejectors with long 3” actions known as “Long Empires”. In 1925 a shorter action was introduced, this model being known as the “Short Empire”. Later, an ejector version was offered, usually of the Southgate variety. Between 1910 until Webley’s takeover in 1965 some 17,000 Empires were built. It was a relatively simple matter to offer a variation on the Empire, and Greeners modified it to create a specific pigeon gun for live pigeon shooters on the Continent of Europe and for trap shooting. In a very clever marketing exercise, Greeners named this gun the “Blue Rock” pigeon gun after the type of pigeon used in live pigeon shooting. The name caught the era perfectly and all Blue Rock pigeon
“Greeners cleverly named the gun the ‘Blue Rock’ after the type of pigeon used in live pigeon shooting during this era.” guns have such a pigeon engraved upon the top rib. The Blue Rock was either an E25 or E35 gun and was available as either a non-ejector or ejector. It was a medium-grade gun and was sold for 25 guineas before 1939 and 35 guineas after 1945. It was a typical pigeon gun and quite heavy, weighing in at a substantial 7¾lbs The barrels had 2¾” chambers and were proved for 1¼oz of shot, the maximum permissible in live pigeon competitions. When originally made, both barrels were heavily choked, invariably full-choke in both barrels. This specification explains why Blue Rock guns, particularly the ejector versions,
are in so much demand for high pheasant shooting today. The model pictured on page 67 is no. 77818, a late-built example dating from 1955. It has 30” barrels with a matt file cut top rib engraved “W.W. Greener, Maker, 40 Pall Mall, London, Works, Birmingham”. A Blue Rock pigeon is engraved on the top rib. Unusually the breeches are fluted at the top for better vision over the breeches. The barrels have 2¾” chambers and both are bored ¾ choke. It has a treble-grip action due to the large loads that would be put through the gun. Like most pigeon guns, the safety is manual only. It weighs 7¾lbs, is of excellent quality and is nicely engraved on either side of the action. Live pigeon shooting was banned as long ago as 1921 in Great Britain but the practice still continued on the Continent of Europe, no doubt where this gun spent most of its life. It is gratifying that this gun, although built for a use not pertinent today, will have a new lease of life among the copses and woods not foreseen in its original manufacture.
Pigeon shooting on the Continent During the late 19th century there had been a growing disquiet about the practice of live pigeon shooting, particularly as it was a sport driven by gambling. With the Captive Birds Act of 1921 live pigeon shooting was banned in Great Britain but it still flourished on the Continent of Europe. It was very popular in several countries such as France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Monaco and Italy, and many of the big challenge matches were very much on the social calendar of the day. The leading pigeon shooting ground in France was the Cercle des Patineurs situated in the Bois de Boulogne, in the west of Paris.
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The type of trap that opened on all four sides at once.
Pigeon shooting was particularly popular in Monaco and the International Concours was held there during January and February. This competition attracted the best shots of all nations including many English and American shooters and the prizes offered were valuable such as rare works of art. Charges in pigeon guns were limited. The maximum powder load was four drams of powder and the maximum shot was 1¼oz. In a sport dominated by money and gambling, there were a plethora of rules covering every eventuality, but one rule I particularly liked stated: “It is forbidden to shoot both barrels at the same time”.
Auctions
Hidden treasures at Holt’s Donald Dallas takes a deeper look at some unusual auction lots.
ANDREW ORR/HOLT’S AUCTIONEERS
T
he Holt’s sale in June coincided with one of the hottest spells in London I have ever experienced, with the temperature reaching a whopping 35˚C. Princess Louise House, where the sales are held in Hammersmith, is at least cavernous with little glass, but we did have to ask for permission to loosen our ties. To me, the star lots in the sale were a group of six rifles from the gunroom of the WindsorClive family. They were all high quality rifles but what made them particularly appealing was this was the first time they had seen the light of day since they were bought last century. Out of the six rifles, the best example was a magnificent .400/.360 boxlock ejector double rifle by Daniel Fraser of Edinburgh. It was in its original case and in superb condition. It was built for Archer Windsor-Clive who was a lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards and killed at Landrecles, right at the beginning of the First World War, on August 25, 1914. As Lot 1154 it was estimated at £6,000-£8,000 but it made a whopping £11,000. There were more than 3,000 lots in the main sale and in the sealed bid sale. As usual, where do you start? Gems abound everywhere, and one I spotted was a 12 bore boxlock ejector by Joseph Harkom of Edinburgh (Lot 3103). I know boxlock ejectors are 10-a-penny and difficult to sell, but Harkom boxlocks are a cut above the rest as they were actually built in Edinburgh and have gold-washed internals. They are high-quality boxlocks with very distinctive fences particular to Harkom. The example in this lot was tired and black powder proofed only but, at £300-£500, it was a bagatelle
The .400/.360 Daniel Fraser boxlock ejector double rifle no. 3163. Originally estimated at £6,000–£8,000, it eventually sold for £11,000.
“The rifles were all high quality but hadn’t seen the light of day since they were first purchased last century.” for such a quality boxlock in original condition. Sold for £315. Now, .410 guns are always in demand, even more so if they are double-barrelled. Add to this a stock of adult dimensions and they are very desirable. In Lot 2932 there was such a gun, a double .410 hammer gun with an original finish and a 14” stock. There was no maker’s name on it but it must have been built by one of the leading Birmingham gunmakers. With its top lever and pistol grip, estimated at £500-£700, it was just the job for a stroll in the farmyard. Sold for £654.
There are literally hundreds and hundreds of over-under guns in the sale but one that caught my eye was a Beretta 686 Special, in excellent condition it has to be said. As Lot 2686 it was estimated at £400£600, a third of the price of a new Beretta. Sold for £462. Antique accessories and guns abound, and in Lot 2212, six powder flasks were on offer at £100-£200. A group of powder flasks is always a good buy – I’m sure you will have noticed how much individual flasks fetch in antique shops. Sold for £126. Another quantity in the sale that I have to say I found fascinating was Lot 2218: six British military flintlocks by various makers for East India Company muskets. They were all in sleeper condition and estimated at £200-£300, quite a find if you’re a collector of military muskets. Sold for £366. Anybody with an interest in firearms must surely have a library of related books. I find 19th century books fascinating, as not only do they provide information, they feature high-quality engravings, too. Probably the most famous 19th century book of this kind is The Gun And Its Development by W.W. Greener. This title was in Lot 2435, estimated at just £25-£30. Another 1880s’ Greener book is Modern Breech-Loaders, which was in Lot 2449 and estimated at £20-£30. Sold for £41.
Auction diary dates SEP
14 SEP
21 NOV
30
Southams Sporting Guns and Antique Arms southamsauction.co.uk Holt's Fine Modern and Antique Guns holtsauctioneers.com Bonhams Modern Sporting Guns bonhams.com
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Pigeon shooting
A testing situation How do you shoot pigeons when there are so many obstacles in your path? By Will Garfit.
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here are occasions when pigeons are decimating a crop but it’s almost impossible to shoot over the affected field because of the difficult conditions surrounding it. This was the situation on a field of peas where pigeons had eaten from about five or six acres. The farmer had put out a number of spinning deterrents but the birds had got used to them and fed confidently. A gas gun was not an option as it was the first field outside a town. Residents would have been more disturbed than pigeons with regular loud bangs from dawn till dusk throughout the summer months. The proximity of the town was the limiting factor on the western side of the 25-acre field. There was a busy road on the northern side and public footpaths in the tree belts on both the eastern and southern boundaries. Therefore it was impossible to shoot from a hide on any of the four sides. Shooting from a hide out in the field was the only option, but from the middle, all the
As if on rails, a steady trickle of ones and twos came downwind and turned to swing into my safe shooting area. boundaries would have been within shot. Had the footpaths been on the edge of an open field, shooting could have been possible with care – and with no walkers in the vicinity – but as they were hidden in trees it was not safe to shoot in the direction of the footpaths on either of those two sides. I decided there was just one possible option: wait for a strong westerly wind. This would mean I’d be shooting away from the town and the sound of my shots would hopefully be carried away downwind, minimising disturbance. Therefore by making a hide about 100 yards out from the houses and then shooting diagonally across the field in a north westerly direction there was a narrow safe field for firing. All this is complicated to explain without a diagram of the situation
but if you are still with me the story becomes clearer. A dip in the ground in front of my hide created a slightly wider arc of fire to my right if birds flew low into the decoys, as my shooting would be into the hillside beyond them. I was going to be spot-shooting at birds only when flying in very limited safe areas, not to my left, right or behind – only straight in front, low or high. Could it work? The perfect wind was forecast and the day dawned to try my plan. Time was taken to build a good hide out in the field with camouflaged netting and freshly cut sycamore branches. Decoys were strategically deployed to funnel incoming birds into the narrow, safe arc in which I could shoot. Being near houses, I had phoned the police to inform them I was to be shooting pigeons at the request of the farmer as crop protection. This is a procedure I have found to be successful to preclude police helicopters and armed response units being deployed (which has happened to me twice), should the public phone to complain. Incidentally, I have always found the officers to whom I have spoken were grateful to be informed, and usually take my name, reg number and location. Then, having noted the report number, I contact them when leaving at the end of the day. The first birds arrived and decoyed perfectly, making straightforward, safe shots as planned. As if on rails, a steady trickle of ones and twos came downwind from behind and turned to swing into my safe shooting area. A couple of birds were then missed as they cut out to my left and I failed to swing through, having hit my mental invisible stop limit on that side. In the same way, doubles were limited as the second bird was out of the safe area by the time the first was shot, limiting my bag considerably. However, in the circumstances, it was a bonus shoot to make it happen at all. Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that there was another footpath diagonally across the middle of the field in front of me. Fortunately this wasn’t used and the one chap walking his dog was clearly in view and therefore in no danger. The result was better than I could have hoped, with the interesting challenge of so many limitations. Precisely 153 pigeons would not return to eat any more of the crop, but this form of simulated trick shooting to maintain safety is not recommended for amateurs and would definitely be in the “advanced decoying” chapter of a book! WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2017
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Gamekeeping Headkeeper David Whitby opens his truly fascinating family archives to chart the lives of gamekeepers of old.
The keeper’s view
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Diana airgun, a punch ball and tiny pair of rugby boots were waiting for me when I was born. The first helped shape my life, the latter two shaped my nose. I wonder where does a passion for hunting really come from? Is it in the blood, or influenced by peers? If I’m honest I suspect it may be either, or often both, as indeed it was in my case. My ancestry on my father’s side was that of Norfolk gamekeepers; my grandfather, who I worshipped, had left Norfolk as a young man. His nickname as a youngster was Demo, short for Demon, and I gather it was well-earned. The son of a gamekeeper, my grandfather was apparently always in hot water. He had killed and skinned every cat within cycling distance. Skins made 2s 6d in old money, a veritable fortune in those days. He was rather useful with his fists, too, and possibly one of his greater misdemeanours was to shoot a car with his ‘twigger’ (a special design of catapult they used in that part of north Norfolk). Reading through the lines, his best chance of employment was to be had where people were less likely to know him, so he moved to the Midlands, shot all his life and did rather well in business. Though my father was also a passionate shot and fisherman, my grandfather broke the gamekeeping mould, and the family had no gamekeeper for two generations. He was one of five boys and four girls. Two siblings died very young, one when he fell through the ice at the mill pond in Snettisham. My great grandfather, who was born in 1857, started keepering for
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the Greens at Ken Hill. My facts are rather sketchy, but I believe that after a poor season the entire keepering staff were sacked by Sir Edward. Not here to defend himself I know, but I seem to remember grandfather’s description of the man as being rather less than complimentary. From there, my great grandfather went to Sandringham, and I believe that is where the photographs of him you see here were taken. The picture opposite, far right, shows him in a jacket and waistcoat of velvet, bowler hat and breeches, with his
Great uncle Billy, left, entranced the author with his Boer and WW1 stories.
curly coat retriever by his side – very much his dog of choice. Great grandfather is the keeper on the left, the poacher apprehension tool held by the man third from right looks rather impressive and one would presume the axe-man on far right is a forester rather than gamekeeper. In another photograph, a very tall keeper died of rabies. Apparently, he had to be tied down because he tried to attack and bite people like a mad dog. At some stage,
great grandfather worked freelance killing vermin and as a bird warden for a Colonel Creswell where he monitored tern numbers on Wolferton and Snettisham beaches – a long time before the RSPB had even heard of such places. Just prior to the outbreak of the First World War, great grandfather was asked to return to Ken Hill as headkeeper. My grandfather remembered Sir Edward’s son, Sir Lycett, going to their house. When it was pointed out that Sir Edward had sacked all the keepers in a ‘hissy fit’ [my words], Sir Lycett’s exact words were: “That was my father, I am me”. My grandfather told me that as a boy he saw four generations of Greens in the shooting field, and remembered both King Edward VII and Sir Lycett shooting over 100 birds each on one stand at Ken Hill. Great grandfather remained at Ken Hill for the rest of his life. He had a stroke on a shoot day when, aged 89, they carried him home on a five-bar gate. Of my grandfather’s siblings, two were at one time keepers: George, and for a short time, Billy. I know little of George, other than he worked for Lord Vivian as a keeper. Great uncle Billy I knew very well, one of my all-time heroes and without doubt the most remarkable man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
WHITBY WAR HEROES Private William Arthur Whitby of 1st Bn. Norfolk Regiment lied about his age and went off to South Africa to fight the Boers. I spent hours talking to Billy as a youngster. I was apparently the only person he had really spoken to about the South
IMAGES COURTESY OF DAVID WHITBY.
The author's great grandfather as an old keeper at Ken Hill.
The author's great grandfather is in the front row, third from left, pictured with a group nicknamed ‘The Velveteens’.
African campaign, First World War or indeed his involvement in the Second World War. Perhaps it was the innocent persistence of youth that bought out his war experiences. Whatever it was, I remember one statement above all else about the Boer War: “We were wrong, boy, we were wrong!” Billy returned from the Boer War relatively unscathed, but re-enlisted prior to the outbreak of the First World War. Billy was one of the first British expeditionary forces to meet the enemy. He fought the duration, and one can only begin to imagine the horrors he witnessed. Wounded twice, he spoke of Ypres, Hill 60, Vimmy Ridge and that name synonymous with hell: Passchendaele. It was at Passchendaele that he met up with his brother Guy, just prior to the attack. Guy was killed, his remains never found and his memory is a white cross at Tyne Cot Memorial. After the battle, another Tommy found Billy and told him he was with Guy when he died, that they were pinned down in a shell hole and Guy took a bullet in the head, “strange how many people died from a single bullet to the head”, Billy said. He was 93 when he died, smoked and drank rather heavily all his life, perhaps drowning scars. The day before he died a slither of shrapnel worked its way out of his
ear, I wonder why it waited until the last minute? Guy, by all accounts, was a remarkable man, a wonderful swimmer, boxer, cricketer and soccer player. He was in both grandfather’s and Billy’s words “as hard as nails”. He was also the apple of his father’s eye, somewhat surprising considering Great uncle Guy was a renowned poacher. He promised to show my grandfather how to tickle trout in Babblingly Brook when he returned from France, so sadly, my grandfather never got to learn. There are no more Whitby gamekeepers in the offering, but thanks to their upbringing, both my sons are ecologists, something that I am extremely proud of. My stepson is, however, training to be a keeper, a classic case of that ‘peer influence’
I would suggest. Due to start his final year at Sparsholt, his hope is to work with wild or bantam-reared birds and deer. I wish him all the luck in the world, as shooting faces a very uncertain future. So, there we have it, a potted history of my gamekeeping ancestors. Am I proud of what they did, of course I am. Would they be proud of what I do? Difficult to say. They certainly would not recognise the British countryside. They would wonder where grey partridges, lapwings, curlew and so many other species had disappeared to. They would be utterly dismayed at predator numbers and though big bags may not have been a stranger to them, I wonder what they would make of the beast that game shooting has morphed into.
The author's great uncle George, who keepered for Lord Vivian.
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The REVIEW
GUNS, P R O P E R T Y, SHELLS, CARS, SHOOTING KIT & SHOOTING ADVICE
GUN TEST
76 TOP PICKS IN THIS SECTION
Cartridge corner
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Motoring
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Shooting Gazette Likes 82
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THE REVIEW
Gun test
Can our American cousins fill the hole left behind as we turn our backs on Europe? Alex Flint discovers a gun willing to take up the challenge.
FROM
£ 1 2 , 5 00
Christian Hunter sidelock he fascination of US-based collectors for English sporting guns has long been known, but what of the trade in the other direction? When one considers American gunmakers the name of John Moses Browning of course leaps the front of the mind, but even Browning has a whiff of the ‘Old West’ about it. Indeed, perhaps the best known of the American manufacturers are those from the films and games of our childhoods, with the likes of Colt, Remington, Smith & Wesson and Winchester ingrained alongside images of weather-beaten wanderers and the strains of Morricone’s great scores. This is, of course, doing a great disservice to the American gunmaking industry, a feeling brought sharply to light the moment one lays one’s eyes upon the beautiful Christian Hunter sidelocks which are the subject of this review. Beautiful lines, natural feel and topend finishing characterise an American-made gun more than a match for most guns you would care to mention– including those carrying a much larger price tag. These guns are the brainchild of Tony Galazan, a man who has devoted much of his life to the pursuit and manufacture of fine sporting guns and will perhaps be familiar through his Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company (CSMC). Founded in 1975, the company have been producing best quality shotguns for some time, though without ever
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puncturing the consciousness of the British buying public. That they haven’t met with enormous fanfare and success is somewhat surprising given the quality of the product, and this is something Mr Galazan doubtless hopes will change with the Christian Hunter brand. Based on the CSMC A-10, the Christian Hunter over-under is a very low profile, shallow frame true sidelock shotgun, and is sure to appeal to the eye of any sporting gun enthusiast. Reliability should be no concern for those wary of an unfamiliar name, since the A-10 (and hence the Christian Hunter) was designed to be a truly durable and usable sidelock shotgun, not just
a work of art to be admired from afar. Indeed, in a Shooting Gazette interview with Roger Catchpole in 2016, Mr Galazan revealed he had put over 100,000 rounds through his personal A-10 gun. The Christian Hunter is based on the Beretta SO, itself a sidelock over-under shotgun inspired by the shallow-actioned Boss over-under. The wood on display is absolutely exceptional and features the carved teardrop
shape at the rear of the lock plate one tends to associate with highend guns. The lock plates provide plenty of room for fulsome engraving, first applied by laser and then finished by hand. On our 12 bore test gun the pattern took the form of bold sprays of ornamental foliate scroll of a surprising and impressive depth, with real areas of contrast almost giving the appearance of carving. The gun also featured wonderful
The engraved cap.
View from the gun shop The Beretta SO sidelock is a very fine basis for any gun, and the Christian Hunter is no exception. This style of sidelock has been around since 1935, so you should have no concerns over the reliability of strength of the gun, especially since the design has subsequently been altered and improved by Tony Galazan. I like many of the visual decisions which have been made in designing the gun. The engraved cap on the Prince of Wales grip (shown above) is particularly attractive and an optional extra I would probably be persuaded to swing for. The wood is as good as you will find on any best gun and has been finished to an exceptionally high standard. There is delightful figuring present with good, strong grain through the hand. If I were being really picky, I would say that the safety catch is perhaps a little unrefined and the grip a little narrow and quite deep, though this is really only a problem for those with
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smaller hands. While by no means unattractive, I also might like to see a push-rod fore-end rather than the Deeley Edge, though this is a matter of personal taste. Overall, the gun is hard to fault, especially considering the price. I might also be persuaded to order the gun with fixed chokes and then have multichokes fitted by the likes of Teague should you so desire. These guns are being looked after in the UK by Criddle Fieldsports, a company run by Will Criddle who has worked for the likes of E.J. Churchill and Bettws Hall, and who certainly knows his way around the British shooting scene. Anyone concerned over taking the plunge with one of these guns while waiting the four months for delivery should be reassured by this - you are sure to be well looked after. In the USA the A-10, upon which these Christian Hunter guns are based, come with a lifetime warranty, so you can be sure they are likely to be reliable. Bill Elderkin
Gun test
blued lock plate pins and trigger, with some exceptionally fine chequering work on the capped Prince of Wales stock and Deeley fore-end. As standard, the gun includes many elements normally found as expensive extras, such as an extended trigger guard tang, either coin or colour case hardened finish, your choice of straight, Prince of Wales or full pistol grip and high quality American black walnut wood. Given these are bespoke shotguns, a full fitting service is also offered at various shooting grounds around the UK. Alongside the 12 bore variant on test here, I also had
the pleasure of testing a 20 bore gun with a straight-hand stock, rose and scroll engraving and colour case hardened finish which one might easily have mistaken for a best English gun. With a gold trigger and brass sight bead, this gun was a lovely thing to behold, and both 12 and 20 bore variants are sure to inspire envy in the line. Indeed, the only real aesthetic complaints one might make were over the standard sportingstyle ventilated top rib which can be replaced with a solid rib for £600, and the red plastic sight bead found on the 12 bore test gun. While by no means a
significant problem, I was happy to discover a brass sight bead is a standard option! For those with a desire for something truly special, these guns can also be ordered with custom engraving and higher grade wood, including Turkish or English walnut. Visually, then, the Christian Hunter is a certain triumph - but what of its performance in the field? Thankfully it is just as good to shoot as it is to look at, with superbly weighted trigger pulls, mounting in a consistently positive fashion and rewarding
THE REVIEW
considered shooting. Given the quality of these guns and a price best described as extremely competitive (and likely to find several European gunmakers waking up in a cold sweat) you might find yourself wondering where the catch is. Simply put, there doesn’t appear to be one.
For more information on Christian Hunter, visit christianhunter.co.uk
In the field
Fine chequering offers excellent feel in the hand.
Scores Engineering: 9/10 Built to exacting standards on an evolution of a design first seen in 1935. Handling: 10/10 Consistently pleasing. Excellent, positive mounting and movement. Looks & finishing: 9/10 A few small issues as standard, but hard to criticise given the price.
Reliability & customer service: 9/10 You are sure to be well looked after by the UK distributor, Criddle Fieldsports. Value: 10/10 A crowded price point, but few other makers can offer guns of this quality at this price - let alone a true sidelock. Overall: 47/50
When you have been testing shotguns for as long as I have, it is easy to get a little blasé when something really special appears for a trip to Grange Farm for testing. However, shooting with the Christian Hunter over-under was one of those rare occasions where I was reminded what a uniquely privileged position I find myself in each month - it was an absolute joy. Grange Farm instructor Bruce Marks and I were able to test a 20 bore Christian Hunter alongside the 12 bore, which made for an interesting comparison. The 20 bore was short in the stock and had obviously been built for a lady or a youth, and though I found it to be quite lively in the hand it nevertheless impressed. The straight-hand grip was a real pleasure and
the gun swung beautifully, as you would expect of a 20 bore. The 12 bore, meanwhile, at just a shade under 7lbs 7oz was consistently excellent, being well balanced, mounting beautifully and moving steadily, whilst allowing for quick and precise alterations in aim without losing control. It is a very positive gun, refined and satisfying to operate with particularly crisp trigger pulls. The flared barrel at the breech end, as well as being attractive, worked well with the intricately patterned top rib to create a strong sight plain. Both Bruce and I were left very impressed by the Christian Hunter, finding it more than a match for the very best guns we have tested.
With thanks to Grange Farm Shooting School, Peterborough. grange-farm.co.uk Bill Elderkin is the managing director of Elderkin & Son (Gunmakers) Ltd. of Spalding in Lincolnshire – call 01775 722919. WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2017
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THE REVIEW
Antique shells
Cartridge corner
Tom Grange brings you a selection of fine old cartridges from his collection.
The Extra Special from Chas. Smith & Sons of Newark (1910); the Special from Chas. Smith & Sons of Newark (1900); the Keepers from Chas. Smith & Sons of Newark (1927); and the Star from A.J. Rudd of Norwich & Yarmouth (1910).
The Standard from A.J. Rudd of Norwich (1922); the Original from Plumbers Ltd. of Great Yarmouth (1910); the Pheasant from E. West of Retford (1900); and the By Royal Appointment from West & Son of Retford (1922).
A COMET OF BELGIAN EXTRACTION The County from West & Son of Retford (1927); the Smokeless from James & Tatton of Longton (1919); the Special Smokeless from James & Tatton of Longton (1919); and the Brown Quality from Skinner & Co. of Leek (1910).
A box of .410 Comet cartridges handloaded by Frank Dyke & Co. Ltd. of London with cases made in Belgium.
Tom will be joining Shooting Gazette at the Midland Game Fair at Weston Park, Shropshire, on September 16-17. Dates in brackets are the first year the cartridge was manufactured. Tom would like to hear from anyone who is interested in collecting or dealing in antique cartridges. To contact him, call 01778 570226.
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Shooting advice Adam Calvert is a freelance shooting instructor with a global reputation, offering bespoke shooting instruction in addition to being a Fabbri ambassador.
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THE REVIEW
Expert instruction
How should I tackle high partridge during the season?
We are now seeing more and more shoots presenting partridges like pheasant and as a result they are getting taller and taller. Indeed, on certain shoots like Drumlanrig or Linhope the partridges could be argued to be extreme and often higher than most pheasant shoots. However, for the purposes of this article I am going to talk about a normal 40-yard partridge. The first thing to get right is your equipment. I have talked at length about this in previous articles so won’t dwell on it, but I would advise somewhere around a ¼ to ½ choke and a 30gram No.6 cartridge, preferably copper coated as I know it will improve the pattern.
With partridges, bird selection is everything, especially when there are multiple numbers or coveys coming at you. Keep in mind how the human eye works; it is drawn to movement and as a result your eyes will be trying to look at all of the birds. Try and resist the temptation to do this and force yourself to maintain a hard focus on the bird you are trying to kill. Remove any thoughts of a showy right and left. Kill them one at a time and do not be tempted to move onto the next bird until the first one is dead. When you are picking a bird that you want to shoot, try and look for the one that is in clear air, by that I mean one that is not right next to other birds. This way it is easier
BOB ATKINS
“When you are picking a bird that you want to shoot try and look for the one that is in clear air, that is, not right next to other birds.”
Getting your cartridge choice and choke configuration right is crucial to taking down those higher partridges. for your eye to focus on the bird and as you give it lead you will not be drawn into looking at another one. Partridges are much more prone to influence from wind direction and as a result when you get to peg it is well worth working out how the wind may affect the birds. If time allows then study the line very carefully and watch for the curl of the bird.
Then hopefully you will put into play what you have learnt on the shooting ground; make sure your feet are set correctly, match the gun speed to the target speed, collect the bird with your muzzle and pick the gun speed up and accelerate to the kill point being careful to keep the gun moving and watch the kill before breaking the swing. Above all, enjoy your day.
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THE REVIEW
Motoring Despite its detracters, the next generation Disco might just win people round if they give it a chance, as Ben Samuelson explains.
While the exterior isn't to everyones' taste the SUV earns its keep once you're on/off the road.
SPECIFICATIONS Land Rover Discovery 3.0 Td6 HSE Luxury Price: £64,195 Top speed: 130mph 0-62mph : 7.7 seconds
Land Rover Discovery 5 t is testament to the esteem in which the old Discovery is held that no car I can think of had engendered as much hostility before anyone had even driven it than Land Rover’s fifth generation SUV. As the owner of six Discoveries over the years, I’ll admit I greeted designer Gerry McGovern’s proclamations of premium this and luxury that with dismay. When I first saw the show cars with their Range Rover front, rounded off slightly weird back and ivory leather interiors, my mood didn’t really lift. The last version of the Discovery was like a favourite old waxed jacket for me – worn absolutely anywhere, not to everyone’s taste but adored nonetheless. So it was with a degree of trepidation I walked out to the test Discovery that was to be mine for the week. And first impressions weren’t favourable. I don’t especially like the way it looks, but then I was reminded I didn’t especially like the way the Discovery 3 looked when it was first launched. The inside is much, much better. It is a very nice place to sit, with much more space in rows two and three than the old model, and an infotainment system that is more up to date than
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the sextant out of the sunroof version we’d all grown to hate. It is light and airy, even for back seat passengers, which is a far rarer commodity than you’d expect when children complaining of feeling sick because they can’t see out is hardly the most premium experience imaginable. The only negatives are Mr McGovern’s hatred of knobs and buttons has caused the key controls to be no longer all to be operable while wearing gloves and the owners of dog boxes would do well to check their old one fits into the boot. Oh, and the tailgate isn’t now split but it does have a little shelf that folds down so you can still change into your wellies in comfort. Fire it up and the top of the range V6 diesel version I’d been lent settled into a muted version of the familiar Discovery tune and was no less welcome for such. Taking advantage of the new more lightweight architecture, the Disco 5 is now available with a four-cylinder diesel too, which I tried very briefly and which is brisk enough and much more quietly installed than it is in the rather rattly Discovery Sport. Once on the road it is reassuringly Discovery-like
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and still rides comfortably, with plenty of relaxing stability around the straight ahead but no pretence to sportiness. Even though parent company JLR has a facility at the Nürburgring, I am pleased to say it doesn’t feel like this car has been anywhere it. Off-road, it has gained some wading depth and, while its overall ground clearance has dropped a fraction, my enthusiastic testing showed it retains its title as Land Rover’s, and therefore the world’s, most competent off-roader. Even on the tyres it left the factory on, it is incredible on the rough stuff and will get you further than any other gunbus that doesn’t run on tracks. I hitched it up to one of our big trailers too, and it
Combined: 39.2mpg CO2 emission: 189 g/km hardly noticed it was there. With all its cameras and electronics, it can even reverse them for you so it’s even better than the old one there too. If you think I’d started to warm to the new Disco, you’d be right. Off-road, it’s superb. Towing it’s superb. I did a long motorway journey in it and it was quiet and comfortable. The satnav, fuel economy and back seat space are much better than the old one. Before the week’s end I’d specced myself a car. V6 diesel, muted colour and all black interior so as not to show the dirt. It might be a shiny new Barbour right now, but I reckon I’ll grow to love it as much as the old one soon enough. 4½
Insider dealing It has recently been announced that only electrified cars will be sold in the UK from 2040. While this doesn’t mean the death of the internal combustion engine, as hybrids are exempt from this, it does beg a few questions. One does have to wonder where all the electricity for these cars is going to come from, given that brown outs are being predicted as it is. Furthermore, the infrastructure of charging points, especially for people who park on the street, is going to take some serious thinking about. And lastly, the types of batteries used in cars are far from the most environmentally friendly things to make or recycle just now, so some radical rethinking is required for this grand policy pronouncement not to backfire badly.
Property
THE REVIEW
The Barlings Estate, Lincolnshire ituated at the gateway to the Wolds about nine miles from the city of Lincoln, the Barlings Estate is a diverse farm with a beautiful Grade II listed principal house. The estate has been carefully developed to bring a good blend of conservation and farming activities, along with significant amenity assets. The estate also has further potential for development, particularly from a sporting perspective. At just over 845 acres, the estate offers a significant parcel of productive agricultural land, suitable for flexible cropping, together with extensive grazing paddocks, a ground-based solar farm and mature woodland and amenity lakes. There is an excellent road infrastructure throughout the estate, allowing access all year round to all parts of it. Woodland takes the form
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of ancient limewood, mature broadleaf, and some more recently planted areas which would form the basis of an excellent wild bird shoot. There is a good population of wild English partridge and wild pheasant on the estate, with no birds being released for the last 20 years. Careful management under environmental schemes has created a tremendous natural habitat, and with the introduction of predator control and careful sporting management, there is great potential for the rapid establishment of an excellent shoot. There are significant bodies of water on the estate, including a nine acre reservoir with log cabin set in 22 acres of grass and woodland, currently used for jet and water skiing, sailing and fishing. Along with this large lake there are several smaller carp lakes totalling a further nine
The market James Adamson Director – Forestry Investment Savills It is now becoming clear how the market for UK forest property is taking shape this year. Although a good number of plantations have been advertised for sale, supply is down on 2016 and at the end of June this year supply of investment forests (excluding mixed use or amenity woodland) was back by about 40 per cent. The drop was less pronounced in cumulative asking price, which showed a 20 per cent correction; this highlights the regional
differences between forest values – it is actually very difficult comparing like-for-like in forestry as each property has unique characteristics affecting value. Of course, forestry - like any property asset class - has different grades or qualities that influence marketing and price. To be classed as ‘prime’ investment assets, forests should typically have scale (perhaps over 500 acres), be growing a good proportion of the higher yielding conifer species such as spruces, have (or at least have the ability
The Grange is a 17th century Grade II listed property at the heart of the estate.
acres, meaning there is potential for wildfowling too. On the market for a guide price of £9,000,000 this superb estate is ideal for those looking
for a country retreat no matter what the season. Contact Savills on 01522 508933 or Knight Frank on 02078 611069
to develop) good access, and be well located for a range of competing timber markets. Matching all these criteria tends to be limited to the southern half of Scotland and in a few isolated parts of northern England and central Wales. But there are plenty of poorer-quality assets in these areas too, and indeed other more remote parts where an ‘investment microclimate’ occurs producing the odd hidden gem. The investment market has a number of very active buyers in the prime sector, but our research shows activity drops off quickly with some secondary or unexceptional forest property having longer marketing times or put under offer without going to a closing date. Large spruce-dominated forests in
prime areas sell quickly and normally attract competing buyers, but, like any form of in-demand commercial property, yields are low in competitive bidding situations (sub three per cent) and buyers will have to expect lower returns for the best assets. There is now some sentiment that capital values, which have seen sustained annualised growth of around seven per cent for the past 20 years, are nearing their zenith, but that ignores the effect timber prices have on forestry valuation; if timber prices continue to rise – which they are forecast to – they can continue to drag forest values up further.
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THE REVIEW
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Off the peg Suitable attire for when the shoot day is done.
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Melrose tweed sports jacket by William Powell £249 williampowell.com Shawl collar jumper by William & Son £445 williamandson.com
Calvay Castle Harris tweed jacket by Cordings of Piccadilly £435 cordings.co.uk
Wyvill tweed dress coat by Purdey £750 purdey.com
Pheasant canvas and leather belt by Wingfield Digby £35 wingfielddigby.co.uk
Velvet slippers by Oliver Brown £195 oliverbrown.org.uk
Rami five-pocket corduroy trousers by Alan Paine £79.95 alanpaine.co.uk
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St. James tweed formal trousers by William Evans £200 williamevans.com
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BOB ATKINS
GUNDOGS
EXPERT ADVICE, OPINION AND NEWS FROM FIELD TRIALS & WORKING TESTS
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GUNDOGS
Iconic images
One legend and his dogs The story of how one photograph from 1986 perfectly sums up the relationship handler John Halstead had with the Drakeshead team of that era. By Graham Cox.
Y
ou know the sort of thing. A photographer is invited to talk about the circumstances surrounding what they consider to be their ‘best shot’. Well, I have one. But it’s not what you might suppose. It isn’t in colour and it doesn’t show a dog spectacularly clearing a fence with a pheasant in its mouth. For me, though, it ticks all the boxes. Most importantly it shows a very strong and mutually supportive relationship between a man and his dogs. It is the sort of relationship that must underpin any effective working partnership. And, not for nothing, is it at the heart of everything my book The Gun’s Dog tries to emphasise. It was taken, without any contrivance, in August 1986 at the Game Fair at Harewood House. It shows John Halstead leaving the arena in a superbly orderly fashion, with the five dogs he has just exercised. The quality of the light provides clues this is early morning. The photograph was a chance shot taken before breakfast on what would become one of the Game Fair’s hottest days. A Punch cartoon I have shows a man walking behind his three dogs which are on leads and marching in formation. One of a couple passing the other way on the pavement comments: “Frankly, I feel he over-disciplines his animals”. Well, there is not the merest hint of that in this portrait of John Halstead who could not look more relaxed. He is looking straight ahead rather than glancing down to check on 86
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IMAGE COURTESY OF GRAHAM COX
his dogs. His dogs, meanwhile, could not look more alert whilst remaining, however wide of him they might necessarily be, behind his knee. Moreover, whilst looking more than ‘up for’ whatever life might bring, they exude a sense of health and condition. If being the embodiment of healthy and relaxed initiative and control were not enough, the five dogs have amongst their number the highest distinction. The middle dog of the three to John’s left is FTCh Breeze of Drakeshead
“Most importantly, the photograph shows a very strong, mutually supportive relationship between a man and his dogs.” who had won the IGL Retriever Championship held in torrents of rain at Welbeck Abbey the previous year. He would go on to repeat the feat in Scotland on the Arniston Estate later in the year. Then, in 1987 at Sandringham, and despite a bandaged paw, he beggared belief by winning the Glen Kidston Challenge Cup outright for a third successive win. That achievement was, and remains, unique.
That made it possible to resolve the many debates I had with Gareth Davies as we put together The Best of the Best: A History of the IGL Retriever Championship 1909-2011. I had that title long before the book was completed and that phrase was intended to indicate what was, and is, indeed, the case: namely that qualifying for the premier event is a singular achievement in itself whilst winning it is utterly special. Whereas I was quite content with those connotations, my co-author argued our title obliged us to decide which of the 1,572 dogs that had qualified during our period should be considered ‘the best’. I suggested it was, perhaps, unwise to compare dogs that had been outstanding in what we had argued were completely different eras. Gareth was insistent and his obstinacy led us to delve deeper into the records, only to find there had in fact been eight exceptional dogs whose records effectively distinguished them from all the others who had qualified, however many times. What was compelling was the way their records combined distinction and consistency.
THE ONE AND ONLY BREEZE Amongst the eight is FTCh Breeze of Drakeshead who began his championship career with a diploma of merit at Stratfield Saye in 1984, when John also handled FTCh Glencoin Drummer of Drakeshead into the reserve position. It is what happened over the three subsequent years that sets Breeze apart from all
Iconic images
GUNDOGS
John Halstead with the Drakeshead team, including FTCh Breeze of Drakeshead, at the CLA Game Fair in 1986.
the other dogs, if such a distinction must be made. No other dog has ever won three successive championships and if, when the photo was taken, only the first of these was in the bag, both handler and dog look supremely capable of what they would go on to achieve. When describing the qualities which made Breeze such a dominant force there is no need to mythologise. First and last he was an assured game finder. Whether marking brilliantly or owning and holding the line of a runner after others had failed to make any headway, he showed the same uncanny natural ability that so often set him apart. But as John Halstead emphasised, when reflecting on his peerless champion, such brimming talent is only really effective if it can be controlled and channelled so that trust and responsiveness characterises the teamwork of dog and handler. Breeze, time and again, showed that special combination of silky smooth handleability and the initiative to hunt hard and systematically when no help could be offered. Used for picking-up and regularly shot over, Breeze was in no sense a ‘trial dog’ and yet his trial record is beyond compare. In the 2016 championship programme, John told of a time when, under Keith Chudley, a partridge was shot which flew the length of the line and was seen to tower at some distance over the horizon. Evidently, Keith wanted to leave it for the picker-up, but the guns thought it should be tried for.
John noticed Breeze’s ears were pricked and so, when Keith said ‘Come on we’ll go and see if we can find it’, John asked to send him and then walk on. They had yet to walk 50 yards before Breeze was on his way back with the bird. I witnessed similar quality early in 2014 when I judged the Italian Retriever Championship. David Latham, who has just equalled another record of his ‘hero’ and mentor John Halstead by winning the IGL Retriever Championship for the fourth time, had as his final retrieve at Molinella, a bird only briefly visible some 150 yards beyond two belts of trees with rough ground between. I thought his dog had seen it shot and got him underway, indicating as I did so that we would run to the first belt so that he might have a chance to handle if need be. We had barely started before we saw his dog emerging from the further belt with the bird. It was a most emphatic way to win and it underlined the superb game-finding that had characterised his run throughout the championship.
David, who always acknowledge his debt to John, has succeeded him as the England gundog team captain. But, although the runner he took in winning the 2016 championship with FTCh Beileys Aguzannis of Fendawood recalled the exploits of FTCh Breeze of Drakeshead, the record of that dog, who retired from competition just before his sixth birthday, distinguishes him from all others. David’s career, though, reminds me of those debates I had with Gareth. Criteria of excellence, though not ‘many and various’, are never simple and it is surely noteworthy that David’s four championship wins have been with three different dogs because FTCh Delfleet Neon of Fendawood won in both 2010 and 2012. Might FTCh Beileys Aguzannis of Fendawood go on to emulate Breeze? It’s not impossible, but the odds have to be largely against it and that’s what makes FTCh Breeze of Drakeshead so special. And he most certainly looks it in my favourite photograph from the summer of 1986. WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK SEPTEMBER 2017
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Gundog update
REPORTS, RESULTS, COMMENT AND NEWS Challenging conditions for URC Border Counties & Cotswold Area The URC Border Counties & Cotswold Area held its open qualifier at The Elms Farm Rockhampton, by kind permission of Mr and Mrs Mike Goode with judges Nick Coates and Craig Perry, writes Ian Wilson. A fierce south westerly wind was challenging at times both for the organisers and the competitors. The event was kindly sponsored by Skinner’s with more 20 dogs competing over five tests. The first was a long swim to an island. We had a blind in a stand of ash saplings over the water and the dogs were sent from a corner of grass across a track to the island. Next there was a shot to a dummy which was not to be collected. A dog was sent, stopped at a hedge and directed right through the hedge over a dry ditch to find the blind a little way into a field. The third test was a long double mark, sending from behind a gateway, and both marks had a shot. The first was thrown onto grass behind game cover, and the second thrown over an embankment into a dry pond. The competitors had to choose the order of collection. In the fourth test the dogs were sent from a corner under a willow tree beside a pond. A seen was thrown into the water
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Open test winners and judges, from left: Clare Baker, Annette Shearman, Craig Perry, Jennie Dimmock, Nick Coates, Nick Jordan & Kate Green. to the right of the small island. This was collected and the dog was then sent for a blind on the far side of the jump tucked into the grass. After lunch and a little break, we continued with the final test which was a short walk-up followed by a drive. At the start of the test the competitors were told there might be the odd bird about and to be aware that there was a gun in the wood. Walking towards the ploughed square we heard two shots in the wood but unfortunately there was no game in the field. The drive commenced, each gun fired a shot and a dummy thrown in the air, for each shot, landing out
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of sight over the brow into the plough. This was repeated for another shot for each gun. The dogs picked a bird in order and there were plenty of dummies. Remembering the shots in the wood, there was a bird in the trees. The dogs were sent, in turn, from the right hand side of the plough, along the line of dogs, through a gap and into a wood to collect the dummy. At the end of the afternoon we all returned to base for tea and cakes prior to the awards being presented. Jill Gardner did the honours, giving the Lonelinar Shield to the winner, the Amorosa Cup for the Best Labrador, which also went to
Jennie Dimmock, and the Amber Shield for the Best Golden Retrieve, which was awarded to Annette Shearman. We also greatly appreciate the time given by the judges and all the helpers without whose tireless dedication competitors would have no competitions in which to run.
Results
OPEN 1 Mrs J. Dimmock with lab.d. Millerise Leo at Lyanmoreshot 2 Miss C. Baker with lab.b. The Windbreakwhisper of Arcklebear 3 Mrs A. Shearman with gr.b. Hickorywood Heart of Gold 4 Mrs K. Green with lab.d. Ford Bank Oaksey CoM Mr N. Jordan with lab.d. Hollowbrook Saker
Gundog update
Gundog Q&A My seven-month-old springer is chasing sheep and I cannot seem to stop or recall him. It is very concerning as he now knows how to get into the field and takes every opportunity to chase them.
Q
Unfortunately this is quite common amongst dogs that are not exposed to farm animals. They, of course, see it as great fun, even if they mean no harm. You need to very quickly go back to the basics of socialisation. Being around livestock, horses, chickens and sheep should be no big
A
deal to the dog, coupled with a healthy awareness that it is not acceptable to chase anything in a field. You need to spend a lot of time finding animals and deliberately walking through and near to them quite calmly with the dog on the lead. And I mean a lot of time, until the dog is capable of ignoring them. So walk, sit, get near, let the dog get the scents, give lots of praise with equal amounts of verbal discipline if the dog starts to go. It is one of the few areas in training where there is little leeway and the dog has to know it’s unacceptable. In the last issue of Shooting Gazette there was some debate
GUNDOGS
By Mike Barnes on whether or not to smack dogs. I am certainly in the ‘not’ camp but the use of higher levels of verbal discipline is certainly necessary here if the dog continues. Try and advance from a lead to a long line (or some washing line will do). It gives you the chance to test the steadiness with control. If you know someone with a chicken run or pheasant pen, try the same procedure. Most dogs at that age like to play and we are not stopping that, just enforcing what is acceptable to play with. I am currently working with a dog that is completely steady and at ease with livestock, but bumped into some goats for the
Mike has been rough and game shooting, stalking and fly fishing for over 30 years. His passion is working and training gundogs in the field, with a particular emphasis on developing the trainer as well as understanding the dog and its particular purpose. He is an instructor with the Guild of Dog Trainers and coaches with Lincolnshire Pet Gundogs. He also runs Rutland Gundogs and can be contacted on 07803 617859.
first time recently and it all went pear-shaped. Back to the drawing board!
Heavy going for retrievers at Mavis Enderby The Lincolnshire Area of the United Retriever Club held its open working test at Mavis Enderby by kind permission of Mr and Mrs Avery, writes Gilly Bell. The heavy cover and crisscrossing lines of bushes and trees certainly tested the 21 dogs. Our judges were Charlotte Jeffrey, Brian Barker and John Iacono, with Sue Lowe as chief steward. Our thanks must go to them, our willing helpers, and our sponsors, Mole Country Stores. Test one was a double mark in a small field of long grass and clumps of reeds, made beautiful by a host of golden buttercups and plenty of tall cow parsley. The first mark was thrown about 50 yards across the meadow to the left and the second was thrown beyond the gap in a line of bushes. Both marks were heralded with a shot and the first mark was picked first.
Test two was a picking-up exercise. Three dummies were put out in heavy cover and one shot was fired. The dogs had to pick two of the dummies. Test three was a marked retrieve with a shot, but a blind in heavy cover – with just a small window to allow the handler the opportunity to see the dog – had to be picked first. Thirteen dogs went through to the next tests. Test four was a two-dog walkup along a grassy track. The first retrieve for both dogs was to the right, the other side of a dry reedy area and into grass dotted with young trees. After a 30-yard walk-up, the second retrieves were thrown to the right of the track. All marks were heralded with a shot. Test five was a very long mark into cover, followed by a blind in the same place.
Judges and award winners, from left: John Iacono, Brian Barker, Charlotte Jeffrey, Richard King, Dan Higgs, Mike Birchall & Gary Wilson. Finally, there was a run-off for fourth place. A mark, with shot, was thrown to the right into water 100 yards across a
drilled field. A distraction was thrown onto the field to the left. Only the dummy in the water was picked.
Results
1 (& winner of the Lincolnshire Area Shield, the Glebespray Tankard for the highest placed Lincs Area member and a voucher donated by Crawfords for the best retrieve) Richard King with lab.d. FTCh Saxaphone Brown Ale of Lincwolds 2 (& winner of the Ansoncha Shield for the runner-up) Dan Higgs with lab.d. Higgscroft Avenger 3 (& winner of the Riaghyll Black Shadow Shield for the youngest
dog in the awards) Mike Birchall with lab.b. Squareclose Rachael of Owmbywold 4 Mike Birchall with lab.d. Kelmagra Ace of Owmbywold CoM Gary Wilson with lab.b. Pigeonman Alize CoM Dan Higgs with gr.d. Abbottshall Pioneer of Higgscroft CoM Dan Higgs with fcr.d. Feather in my Cap at Higgscroft
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Gundog update
Busy day for North Mids Area of URC Novice test winners and judges, from left: A. Richardson, A. Cook, G. Dobb, S. Plant, D. Turton, E. Welburn, S. Corden, D. Boldy & P. Robinson.
The United Retriever Club (North Midland Area) held its retriever working tests at Welbeck Estate in Nottinghamshire by kind permission of Mr W. Parente and the estate, writes Philip Wagland. Several competitors joined us from neighbouring URC areas. The judges were Elaine Welburn, Sue Corden,
Alan Richardson and Philip Robinson. There were classes for puppy, novice handler and novice and the prizes were sponsored by Alpha. The puppy and novice handler tests comprised five exercises, judged by Alan and Elaine. There were 18 puppies and nine novice handlers entered, with three breeds competing. One
Puppy test award winners and judges, from left: A Richardson, A. Kinta, A. Crookes, S. Burns, E. Welburn, S. Corden & P. Robinson.
test stressed basic obedience, with the dog at heel through a gated pen with a send back for a retrieve. There were two marked retrieves, one in water, one in grassland. A walk-up at heel along a grassy track was followed by a shot and a blind along the track. After lunch the better puppies were tested with the first of two marked dummies to be picked. The finale for the novice handlers was a mark on the right of a bracken bank, with a distraction landing in water further left. The 26 dogs entered for the novice test faced tests simulating work on the Welbeck shoot. The morning started with two marked retrieves falling to shot. Sue Corden judged a mark from the lake with each
Results
PUPPY 1 Anne Crookes with gr.b. Moscargrange Copper 2 Andy Kinta with cbr.b. Mattaponis Tainn at Lateshift 3 Steve Burns with lr.b. Lowforge Pebbles at Jollybrow 4 S Bourne with lr.b. Belmesthorpe Ferne
Novice handler winners and judges, from left: P. Robinson, A. Richardson, J. Straker, H. Smith, E. Welburn & S. Corden.
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NOVICE DOG/NOVICE HANDLER 1 Jane Straker with lr.d. Tithelea Ground Control 2 Helen Smith with lr.d. Kenquince Sneak Right In
dog having to wait its turn alongside the preceding dog to test for steadiness. Meanwhile Philip Robinson judged a mark in a swathe of grass and cover bordering a wood. Sue then judged a mark on undulating grassland, while Philip judged a blind, representing a rabbit shot by a gun along a track running parallel to a fence. In the afternoon, when four judges were available, two more tests took place. Philip and Elaine judged a mark in the lake, with the dog sent some distance from the bank. One judge was near the lake watching entry to the water. Meanwhile Alan and Sue judged a walk-up which took place in the dry valley of Nightingale Drive. With three dogs in line, retrieves alternated between a mark and a blind. The first dog was sent for a mark thrown high up on the steep slope to the right. The next dog was sent forward to the left where a dummy represented a rabbit lying in light cover close to a fence along the edge of a wood. With three dogs tying at the top a run-off for the top prizes produced a clear result. The awards were presented by Margaret Rowson, representing the Welbeck Estate.
CoM K Bowman with lr.b. Lanatawood Heligan CoM Rosie Featherstone with lr.d. Clarkesbush Fallow NOVICE 1 Sally Plant with lr.d. Flashmount Cracket 2 Geoff Dobb with lr.b. Woodcockhill Hirola 3 Alison Cookwith lr.b. Vilendal Mercedes 4 Daryl Boldy with lr.b. Garrenwell Colorado CoM Danielle Turton with lr.d. Stokes of George at Ashwynd
Gundog update
GUNDOGS
URC Border Counties & Cotswold novice and open working tests Our first tests this year were held at Orchardleigh, near Frome, by kind permission of Charles Fuller and his keeper Neil Perrett, writes Ian Wilson. We were pleased that Charles Fuller was able to spend much of the day with us and present both the novice and open awards. Our judges were Judy Rainey and Stuart Robson and the event was kindly sponsored by Skinner’s. We had over 40 dogs across the two classes with four tests planned for each in a fairly compact area of parkland. The first test for the novices was a mark and blind in a woodland clearing where a fairly high ‘bird’ was shot, falling into a clear area but with a couple of piles of brashings between dog and bird, such that the dog had to make a curved run to pick it. When the dog was nearly back to the handler a ‘rabbit’ was shot crossing a track some distance from the first retrieve requiring the handler to send the dog along the track, stop, turn and pick just off the track. A wide range of competence of both dog and handler was seen. The second test was into a shallow valley bordered by woodland to a long mark, the bird flying toward the dog, and falling into some cover surrounding a tree standing in the open. Although the retrieve seemed straightforward many of the dogs went out with style but rather than go straight into the cover they went around one side of the tree and entered from the back of the cover. Once in the cover the bird was easily found.
The third test was a long mark on open grassland where a bird was shot while the dog was being walked at heel, the bird falling just beyond a slight crown in the ground requiring a good mark and hunting ability in a featureless area. Most dogs did this well although some ranged far and wide. The fourth test was into a woodland clearing for a hunting exercise to pick two birds from three which had been dropped within a defined area. Most dogs made a fair job of the task while a few had difficulty getting to the area or failed to stay within the area. The awards were presented by Charles Fuller along with the Borage Shield to the winner after a superb buffet lunch. Running in the afternoon the open dogs took on tests similar to those for the novice dogs but stretched in distance or with slight changes. The mark and rabbit blind was replaced by a double shot with the second resulting in a dead bird seen dropping behind the brashings, the dog being sent first for the blind as it was thought to be injured. As often happens a number of dogs seemed keen to go for the seen bird first with some handlers having difficulty convincing them otherwise. The mark into cover around a tree was only made slightly longer for the open dogs but in general they did not do as well as the novices in the morning, some handlers having surprising difficulty getting their dogs to go back the full distance.
Open judges, landowner, keeper and award winners, from left: Jennie Dimmock, Stuart Robson, Judy Rainey, John Cornforth, Charles Fuller, Neil Perrett & Nick Jordan.
Novice judges, landowner and award winners, from left: Karen Pinker, Christine Collins, Stuart Robson, Judy Rainey, John Cornforth, Charles Fuller, Glenn Lambert, Michelle Cox and Jane Prichard. The mark into grassland was lengthened slightly. The hunting exercise was modified to a double blind in which the birds had been shot before the handler arrived and, having had the situation explained by the judge the handler was asked to send promptly for the bird on the left as it was thought it might have run. Most dogs did a good job although a few handlers took time to assimilate the subtlety of the information regarding the bird which might have run. At the end of the afternoon we all returned to base for tea and cakes prior to the awards
being presented with the Milheath Shield for the winner.
Results
NOVICE 1 Mr G. Lambert with lab.d. Hawksgarth Colorado of Wickmoor 2 Ms J. Prichard with lab.d. Percival Pembroke 3 Mr J. Cornforth with lab.b. Roxhart Tehaya CoM Mrs C. Collins with gr.d. Fallowfens Tinker CoM Mrs K. Pinker with lab.d. Oliverstone Sydney CoM Miss M. Cox with lab.d. Manormynd Vision of Wickmoor OPEN 1 Mr J. Cornforth with lab.b. Mucklehart Gracie 2 Mr N. Jordan with lab.d. Hollowbrook Saker 3 Mrs J. Dimmock with lab.d. Millerise Leo at Lyanmoreshot
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Gundog update
A team from Ireland has won the Kennel Club International Retriever Team Event, held at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire by the gracious permission of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. The judges were Alan Schofield, Graham Slater, Malcolm Thwaites, Diana Harrison and Keith Barnes. The event is kindly sponsored by Eukanuba. The test saw teams of retrieving breeds tested on their natural working abilities including marking the fall of a dummy and fast delivery to hand. The winning team consisted of: FTCh The Newcam Boss, owned and handled by Billy Lundy; Lettergreen Razzle,
owned and handled by Sean Nolan; Ir FTCh Copperbirch Mandell, owned and handled by Sean Diamond, and Ir FTCh Miller McDuff, owned and handled by Declan Boyle. Tony O’Hare, team captain, said: ‘’It has been a great two days and I have really enjoyed it. The tests were extremely well done and very sensible with the ground being good. The dogs worked really well and everyone was happy. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved.’’ Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club secretary, said: “The Irish team did brilliantly to triumph over such stiff competition. Their hard work has obviously paid off and the team work
STEVE DAVIS
Ireland wins Kennel Club international retriever team event at Chatsworth
The winning team from Ireland celebrates victory. and bond we saw between the dogs – all labradors – and their handlers was fantastic. “To beat eight other international teams of exceptional quality is no mean feat and we congratulate Tony and his team on winning the event. The UK and German teams should also be very proud of themselves, and we wish them continued success. This competition fits well with the Kennel Club’s ‘Fit For Function, Fit For Life’ campaign and aims
to assess the working abilities of gundogs. It is all about the dogs putting their natural instincts to good use to work well for their handlers, and the Chatsworth Estate is the perfect place for it, with woodland, moors, lakes and walls that can all be used in the retrieves.”
Results
1 Ireland 2 United Kingdom 3 Germany Best Individual Dog was awarded to FTCh The Newcam Boss
Field trials and tribulations by Amy Bates Here we all are back at the start of the field trialling season. As my column is written in advance there will already be a win in a two-day open by the time this hits the stands! We will all be waiting for draws and keeping everything crossed that we get a run. I was really glad to hear that we may well be getting a lot more retriever one-day open field trials if the recommendations put forward by the retriever working party of Sara Chichester, Jane Coley,
and Phil Highfield for the Field Trial Committee are put into place. Having read their paper on collecting and collating the necessary information to make the recommendations regarding Preference in Retriever Open Stake Draws, I think we are finally on the road to common sense. Using another award in a field trial as well as winning an all-age or novice stake is also very sensible. It won’t be news to many that the average entry in central England for a twoday open is 127; the average in southern England is 113; and the
highest entry for an open stake last season was 164. The best place to trial is undoubtedly Northern Ireland in which both two-day and one-day opens are actually undersubscribed. The new regulation they are putting forward is: “Societies whose Open Retriever trial/s are significantly over-subscribed for two consecutive years or more, may apply for a licence to hold an additional one-day Open Retriever trial each season.” Hurrah! This is great news. Hopefully they will let
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retrospective dates apply. The wheels turn very slowly at the Kennel Club so it may be a few years before this happens but at least we are on the right track. I wish everyone the very best of luck for the forthcoming season.
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Gundog update
GUNDOGS
The best dog I ever had By Peter Bates, founder and owner of Levenghyl Labradors. FTCh Glenpatrick Eve was born on April 29, 1999. She arrived at eight weeks and grew up with my homebred cocker spaniels. Her temperament was outstanding and Mary Rountree even told me she was a quality bitch after seeing her training at Alston. Glenpatrick Eve won her novice trial under Dave Garbutt, which was a good marker of her abilities. She was a kind bitch. I had total faith in her and never doubted her abilities. I like to think she had total faith in me. She was gentle and kind in her demeanor and would always listen. She was good with people, dogs and children. It was a partnership made in heaven.
Retrieves judges would not normally have the courage to send, as she made it look easy. She was the sort of bitch everyone wanted to own and run. I remember Guy Bennett once commenting she was an “alien” after picking a momentous retrieve. She was easy to train and, indeed, I had the best training in the world. We will never see those days again. She showed extraordinary qualities very early on. With her ability and my exceptional training opportunities and enthusiasm she became a legend. Glenpatrick Eve was truly an amazing bitch and I was lucky to make her and two of her progeny into field trial champions. There are not many bitches that can win and also
Breed stake at Teffont Magna The Golden Retriever Club held its novice trial at Teffont Magna by kind permission of Edward Waddington and the generous invitation of Mr and Mrs Henry Pelham, writes Bruce Ross-Smith. The trial was judged by Colin Pelham, Allan Buckland, Bruce Ross-Smith and Jill Gardner. The weather was not the kindest but gradually improved during the day as did the scent. The guns shot brilliantly and the standard of the dogs was very high. Six dogs from the 12 starters went through to the last round.
Results
1 Mrs B Becksteiner-Bickler with gr.d. Bell Oktave Benjamin 2 Bill Warnett with gr.d. Pandapaws Brigand CoM Andrew England with
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gr.b. Dairycott Populus Tremula CoM Fiona Baird with gr.b. Treuniar Drimmie CoM Marion Hanman with gr.b. Haddeo Teyla
produce winning stock. She was the bedrock of my Levenghyl line of labradors. We were lucky to have had a litter this year that produced five great grandsons. We have kept four and I gave my friend Mark Bettinson the fifth. Obviously I have high hopes for all of the puppies but nothing can be taken for granted.
I dream of how many field trials they will win and what champions they will become. Glenpatrick Eve’s legend lives on. To date, she was the best dog I’ve ever owned and handled and I will always be grateful for having the opportunity of owning that truly exceptional bitch.
Derbyshire springer wins Kennel Club open spaniel gundog test at Chatsworth A three-year-old English springer spaniel from Ashbourne, Derbyshire, has won the Kennel Club open spaniel gundog working test held at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, by the gracious permission of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. The judges were Malcolm Taylor and Terry Frost. The event is kindly sponsored by Eukanuba. Deepfleet Deni of Moonreed, owned and handled by Alastair Ross, was awarded first place at the test which saw spaniels tested on hunting, quartering and retrieving to hand.
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Caroline Kisko, the Kennel Club secretary, said: “English springers and cocker spaniels are both very attentive, intelligent breeds, which lends well to their ability to use their natural working instincts to perform for their handlers in the field. Congratulations to Alastair and Deni for their victory against such tough competition. We wish them much continued success in the future.”
Results
1 Alastair Ross with Ess Deepfleet Deni of Moonreed 2 Jamie Smith with cocker Abiann Flawless 3 Anne Austin with Ess Morskye Andromeda 4 Julie Thatcher with Ess Shalloakwest Shadey
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Gundog update
GUNDOGS
BASC Chudleys Scurry League at the Royal Welsh Spring Fair
Dove Valley Working Gundog Club a.v. spaniel tests at Bagots Park
The BASC Chudleys Scurry League continued at the Royal Welsh Spring Fair at the Royal Welsh Showground in Llanelwedd. With the first two qualifiers already taken place, dogs and their handlers were vying to cement their place in the grand final with those allimportant qualifying points up for grabs. Handlers were faced
The Dove Valley Working Gundog Club’s a.v. spaniel tests got the season off to a very competitive start. The first test took place at Bagots Park, near Abbots Bromley, and welcomed people of all ages and abilities. With both an open and novice test running simultaneously, it was a busy day for the judges with lots of dogs turning out for the first fixture of the Dove Valley calendar. The day came to a climax with a run-off between the open winner Glanhowy Lark of Greenbrush with its handler Alastair Ross, and novice winner Glenugies Ruff Diamond with its
with testing scurries such as the Long Retrieve, Multi Pick Up, Pick N Mix and the Obstacle. A huge congratulations goes to Keith Welsh and his dog Will.I.Am for impressively clinching first place overall with a staggering 180 points tallied over the weekend, which sits him at the top of the league table on 270 points.
Results on day one
Results on day two
SCURRY: PICK & MIX 1 Keith Welsh with Will.I.Am 2 Steve Cumbridge with Meg 3 Shelley Sandiford with Theo
SCURRY: PICK & MIX 1 Keith Welsh with Will.I.Am 2 Kevin Warburton with Echo 3 Steve Cumbridge with Meg
SCURRY: WATER RETRIEVE 1 Keith Welsh with Will.I.Am 2 Julie Higgins with Cody 3 Steve Cumbridge with Meg
SCURRY: WATER RETRIEVE 1 Keith Welsh with Will.I.Am 2 Julie Higgins with Cody 3 Shelley Sandiford with Theo
SCURRY: OBSTACLE 1 Shelley Sandiford with Theo 2 Paul Williams with Nell 3 Julie Higgins with Cody
SCURRY: OBSTACLE 1 Shelley Sandiford with Theo 2 Sue Pask with Milo 3 Julie Higgins with Cody
JUNIOR OBSTACLE 1 Finley Jones with Flynn 2 Connor with Bonney
JUNIOR OBSTACLE 1 Elliott Jones with Flynn
SCURRY: MULTI PICK UP 1 Keith Welsh with Will.i.Am 2 Julie Higgins with Cody 3 Paul Williams with Edward
SCURRY: MULTI PICK UP 1 Keith Welsh with Will.I.Am 2 Steve Cumbridge with Meg 3 Shelley Sandiford with Theo
Gundog picture of the month
handler John Parr. The novice dog was victorious on the day. The final novice spaniel test was held at the Osmaston Estate, near Ashbourne. Many congratulations must go to Derbyshire Daisy of Holsan and handler Scott Bendikas for placing first.
Results (Bagots Park) NOVICE 1 John Parr with Glenugies Ruff Diamond 2 Scott Bendikas with Derbyshire Daisy 3 Keith Onions with Cressett Enis of Kanreith 4 Peter Bell with Whipman Storm
OPEN 1 Alastair Ross with Glanhowy Lark of Greenbrush 2 Alastair Ross with Deepfleet Denis of Moonreed 3 Steve Brooks with Griffinwell Martha May 4 Paul Woodcock with Rosebay Opal
Results
(Osmaston Estate)
Scott Bendikas with Derbyshire Daisy of Holsan.
NOVICE 1 Scott Bendikas with Derbyshire Daisy of Holsan 2 Liz Davenport with Verstone Dairies 3 Stephen Shimwell with Peppercrest Bewitched 4 Dave Gallimore with Boggwater Charlton Star of Oncote
THIS MONTH’S WINNER
Congratulations to Jack Fellowes for this wonderful picture of his lovely cocker spaniel.
HOW TO WIN For your chance to win a Ridgeline Bushmaster Smock, email your high-resolution pictures to: katemaxim@outlook.com. Please put “Gundog Picture of the Month” in the subject line. The winner will be chosen by the Shooting Gazette judging panel. Good luck! The prize will only be posted to winners with a fixed UK postal address.
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97
The great debate
HIGH PARTRIDGE v TRADITIONAL PARTRIDGE High partridge
Traditional partridge
By Ben Samuelson
By Giles Catchpole
I
T
’m all for the concept of centuries of tradition unhampered by progress, but I have to say that I draw the line at head-high partridge. How is it that, in terrain surrounded by hedges, footpaths and beaters, it is acceptable to shoot at a partridge that, if it had been a pheasant, would have seen the gun in question catapulted into the middle of an H.M. Bateman cartoon? Now, I accept that some people have the strange idea that it’s socially acceptable to live in places like Lincolnshire. I mean to say, some of my best friends, or at least employees, do. But even if you find yourself in possession of an unusual number of toes, it must be possible to get into one of those strange horseless carriage contraptions, which are written about so admirably elsewhere in this august organ, and transport yourself to somewhere that isn’t entirely flat. Now, bear with me here as it may be new to some of you, but you can then put the guns at the bottom of the hill and drive birds off the top. (Ed – I sense your tongue is firmly in your cheek here, Ben!). This enables you to shoot at things that aren’t at the same height as your chums’ heads, even if said chums are as gratuitously gangly as Comrade Catchpole. You see, when you do this sort of thing with partridge, they become the very best of game birds. Little rocket ships launching themselves off the top of chalk escarpments, high partridge require a swing that is uniquely satisfying when you get it right. I can imagine that Giles is extolling the joys of English partridge hopping over hedges watched by bowler-hatted keepers. What he won’t be saying is how distracting it is for both sides that partridge and bowler hats are at the same altitude… 98
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he modern fashion for shooting – one might reasonably say shooting at – extremely high pheasants has lead, inexorably, to a trend for shooting at extremely high partridges. Because if you are going to stock your extremely high pheasant shoot with extremely high pheasants you might as well extend your shooting season by stuffing it with some extremely high partridges too. It makes sense. What makes less sense, to me, is why folk have this urgent need to shoot at things which are a very, very long way away. Distance is only one aspect of difficulty, after all. Speed and direction also make for challenging shooting and the covey is perhaps one of the finest defence mechanisms ever invented. Traditionally, partridges were driven across hedges or, at a push, over shelter belts and they would come forward in coveys which would flare dramatically as they spotted the guns waiting beyond or below them. Those were English partridges, of course, which were smaller and faster and generally more dynamic than their French cousins and as the reared Frenchmen have progressively populated our lowland shoots increasing height has supplanted speed and vigour as the definition of sportingness. However, there are still estates – and more importantly, there are still keepers and owners – who will make creative and imaginative use of topography, cover crops, hedges and shelter belts and, crucially, peg placement to present partridges that will challenge the best. Little packs of birds pushed steadily across a tallish hedge just often enough to make quick and efficient reloading a proper skill, which flare and fizz above the line with a bit of sun behind them will bamboozle even experienced guns. While nothing can completely recreate the thrill of wild birds starbursting across a Norfolk hedge, really skilful presentation of reared partridges can achieve a thrilling level of challenging shooting without the need to have them launched of some vast escarpment. And if you want to shoot them far, far away as well, just shoot your neighbour’s birds for him. And invite him – or her - to shoot yours, obviously. Otherwise, it’s just showing off. For the opportunity to purchase Bryn Parry original cartoons visit brynparrystudios.com
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