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22 JANUARY 2020

Woodcock shooting Wild days in special places

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Is the springer still the best all-rounder?

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Sedge Sedge, a one-year-old cocker, is coming to the end of his first season. He watches reruns of the cocker champs regularly to pick up tips on how to improve and, despite discouragement, has developed a taste for Theakston Best.

Owned and photographed by James Murray

6

22.01.20 Issue 6,176

A new perspective Some months ago, for reasons I can’t currently divulge, I was out shooting for a few hours with my terrier, followed by a trio of cameramen.

It was not something I’d done before and the added pressure made me shoot appallingly. Three snipe on the bounce zigzagged out of the reeds in front of me and each of them lived to tell the tale.

But the experience was far from futile. Knowing that a large number of people might end up seeing my every move made me think very hard about each little thing I did.

At one point, a hare sprang from the grass in front of me and, having No 7 shot in my gun, I watched it disappear over the horizon.

A while later a cock bird got up about 50 yards away. I couldn’t be sure of a clean kill and, worrying that my terrier might dash in and behave shockingly badly, I let that opportunity pass, too.

I really believe that if most members of the open-minded public saw a day’s shooting they would come away with a positive conception of our sport. However, every once in a while it’s a useful exercise to try to see your own life through another’s eyes.

Patrick Galbraith, Editor

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16

A grand finale A keeper’s last shoot after 47 years

20

Woodcock in Dumfriesshire Habitat improvements pay off

23

Waiting for whiffling wigeon Will the elusive ducks show up?

29

Winning canines Cocker championship 2020 report

34

Checklist for the beaters Top tips to have a great beaters’ day

42

On the prowl Keeping predators under control

46

Persian perfection Pheasant stew with pomegranate

53

Kennel Diary A new column looking at hunting

Follow Patrick on Twitter @paddycgalbraith

Contents NEWS & OPINION

14

GAMEKEEPER

06 NEWS

36

ON YOUR SHOOT

10

38

RIFLE TEST

FEATURES

42

CONSERVATION

16

44 GUNDOGS

LETTERS DRIVEN SHOOTING

COOKERY

23

46 GAME SHOOTING 48 WILDFOWLING

26

GAME SHOOTING 52

CROSSWORD

29

GUNDOGS

53

KENNEL DIARY

34

BEATERS’ DAY

54

PRODUCTS

REGULARS

55

GUNROOM

12

58

SHARPSHOOTER

20

COUNTRY DIARY

SPORTING ANSWERS

4 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

“This is another example of the type of rank hypocrisy we are seeing in bucketloads”

Ollie Williams quit Love Island amid a storm of protest over his inclusion

ITV STUDIOS / T. SYKES / S. FARNSWORTH / D. TOMLINSON / ALAMY

Love Island hunter quits programme Shooter quits reality TV show as an online petition and celebrity tweets stoke up anti-hunting sentiment

B

ig-game hunter Ollie Williams has left the reality TV show Love Island after more than 40,000 people signed a protest petition.

The 23-year-old big-game hunter left the show after just three days, saying he was still in love with his girlfriend.

However, his inclusion in the line-up of glamorous young

love-seekers had fired up controversy, prompting 467 complaints to Ofcom.

A change.org petition launched to oppose his inclusion in the show claimed “victory” in an update.

The petition’s author, ‘Amey C’, had originally posted: “Ollie Williams… has been exposed as a bloodthirsty big trophy hunter.

He has proudly posed with

6 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

an array of dead endangered animals, including warthog and water buffaloes.”

Chris Packham joined the debate, saying in the Daily Mail: “Why on earth are ITV thinking about giving this man a platform?”

TV presenter Ben Fogle also criticised the decision. Fogle, who designs a range of clothing for shooters’ favourite Barbour,

told The Sun: “I have spent many years exploring the subject of big-game animal hunting.

“Although it is often excused by hunters as a ‘tool for conservation’, I find it difficult to stomach the notion of hunting for pleasure. I find it hard to relate to people who would pay money to kill a beautiful creature.”

BASC responded forcefully to the campaign and contacted change.org to highlight abusive comments, including calls for Mr Williams to be “hung from the nearest tree”. The comments section was rapidly shut down.

Shooters also took to Twitter to respond to Mr Fogle, inviting him to read an essay by conservation expert Dr Dilys Roe. Fogle responded with a tweet, saying he was “steadfast that no one who cares for animals should ever pose for a photograph with a dead animal as a souvenir”.

BASC hit back with a photomontage of the presenter draped in fur, preparing meat, posing with a large fish he had caught and posing with a cow skull.

BASC’s Garry Doolan said: “This tweet from Ben Fogle is another example of the type of rank hypocrisy we are seeing in bucketloads from celebrities at the moment. They wade into issues with emotive rhetoric because it plays to their audience online.

“But there are dangers, for example in the serious work of conservation, when they post first without truly considering the bigger picture. Their shortterm attempts at grabbing headlines can have huge longterm ramifications.”

Matt Cross

Email your stories / STeditorials@ti-media.com

Game qualification launched The GWCT has teamed up with trainer BASIS to launch a qualification for best practice in game management.

The Certificate in Game Management is designed to encourage best practice across the sector.

It will also provide qualified individuals with a professional accreditation that demonstrates assurance of high standards of practice to employers, customers and the general public.

Roger Draycott, head of advisory at the GWCT, said: “There are various academic courses and apprenticeships available for gamekeepers starting out in their careers but there’s nothing currently available for more experienced individuals.

“This qualification is tailored for all levels of gamekeeper, as well

Which is your favourite sight hound?

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To do this week The new qualification will cover vital skills in game management

as estate managers, landowners, shoot managers and shoot captains — in fact it is aimed at everyone who has responsibility for running a shoot.”

The three-day training course will cover predation control, game-bird releasing, shoot and land management, game crops and industry regulation. The

course will conclude with a multiple-choice test and short answer paper.

Mr Draycott added: “It’s worth noting that everything from the training through to the examination has been tailored to suit those with or without an academic background. This is to ensure the qualification will be accessible to all.”

£156,000 boost for curlews The Scottish government has awarded £156,000 to a project to help protect Scotland’s curlews.

The project will focus on two areas, one in the Highlands and the other near Muirkirk in East Ayrshire. However,

Weekend Twitter poll

gamekeepers have been quick to point to a study published last year that showed curlew numbers crashed at Muirkirk after grouse shooting stopped.

Upland gamekeeper and Scottish Gamekeepers Association committee

Curlew numbers crashed after grouse shooting stopped at Muirkirk

member Ronnie Kippen told Shooting Times: “It is relevant that Muirkirk has been chosen. When grouse shooting ceased, we saw conservation-listed birds fall off the edge of a cliff; something witnessed in other areas where redgrouse management has stopped or been curtailed.

“There was a decline in curlew abundance of 38 per cent and golden plover and redshank were no longer found after gamekeepers were off the moor.

“What many would like to know is on what success criteria has this money been given out?

“What different methods are going to be deployed, given that the present proscriptions by conservation charities have failed to arrest a near catastrophic decline?”

Late winter is a

G A R D E N good time to cut hazel and holly sticks. The trees are dormant and will recover well when the spring comes. If the sticks are stored inside they should be ready for use when the shooting season starts again.

Astheseason

C H E C K closes,keepers’ daysareinfullswing.Ensurethatafull safetybriefingisgivenandsomeoneis onhandtohelpinexperiencedGuns.If yourdayistakingplaceon1February, Gunsshouldberemindedthatsnipe and woodcock will be out of season.

ThankstoNickHortenofLangstone Wildfowlers,whowasthefirstofmanyto pointoutthatthewildfowlingseasonruns until20Februarybelowthehigh-water mark, not as stated (News, 8 January).

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 7

NEWS EVENTS DIARY

Cocker spaniels are the most common dogs targeted

24 JANUARY TASTE OF GAME DINNER Bodysgallen Hotel and Spa, Llandudno, events. basc.org.uk/ events

7 FEBRUARY GWCT ESSEX SPORTING BALL Braxted Park Estate, Witham, Essex georgejones@ newneyhall.com

Gundogs targeted in spate of thefts

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Criminals continue to target gundogs across the country, including smash-and-grab raid on kennel Gundog thefts have continued across the country despite efforts to raise awareness and improve security.

DogLost, the UK’s leading website for reuniting dogs and owners, lists more than 100 outstanding stolen gundogs.

The most stolen gundog breed is the cocker spaniel — more than 70 cockers are listed as stolen on the site. The next most likely to be taken was the English

liver-and-white springer Bailey, Patterdale terrier Norma, and Millie, a five-month-old cocker spaniel pup.

Gundog thefts don’t just affect spaniels and Labradors.

One of the most high-profile thefts was that of border terriers Beetle and Ruby, who were taken from a shoot in the Scottish Borders on 28 December 2018.

The terriers’ owner, Georgie Bell, told Shooting Times what

“When they didn’t come back I just knew something was wrong” springer, with 27 springers shown as missing.

Four of the missing dogs were taken from the kennels of gamekeeper Reece Ronald near Shaftesbury, Dorset, just before Christmas.

Thieves are believed to have used a vehicle to tear off the kennel gates before snatching black-and-white springer Holly,

8 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

happened. “A family friend had bought a day on the Lothian estate in Roxburghshire and we were beating with Ruby and Beetle.

“They were working about 10 to 15 metres ahead of me. The dogs would occasionally chase something but they would be back within two or three minutes. When they didn’t come back I just knew something was wrong.”

Ruby and Beetle were last seen heading towards the B6400 Ancrum to Nisbet Road. Despite extensive searches they have not been seen since. Georgie believes they may have been taken by the occupants of a white van.

Sadly, despite Georgie having a hint of who may have her dogs, bureaucracy prevented her from being able to trace them.

She told Shooting Times that on 15 August last year Beetle’s chip number was run through the Identibase chip database twice in quick succession.

When she contacted the company she was told they could not trace the IP address from which the search was made.

When she challenged this the company said EU data protection rules prevented them from sharing the information. By the time police got involved the records had been wiped.

Ruby and Beetle are now the subject of a £20,000 reward.

Matt Cross

Email your stories / STeditorials@ti-media.com

Bid to find reasons for dramatic fall in salmon A project to discover the reasons behind the UK’s rapidly declining salmon population has won funding to take its next step.

For every 100 salmon that leave UK rivers for the sea, less than five return – a decline of nearly 70% in just 25 years.

The Missing Salmon Project has drawn up a list of ‘likely suspects’ to see what is to blame for the fall.

The first phase of the project, being run by the Atlantic Salmon Trust, studied smolts in rivers flowing into the Moray Firth on Scotland’s east coast.

Scientists fitted acoustic tags to smolts, then used detectors in rivers strung across the Firth to find at what point they disappeared.

As well as finding one smolt that travelled 125 miles in two weeks, the scientist found that half of tagged smolts never made it to the sea, while 15% disappeared in inshore waters.

The next phase of the study will take place on the west coast and will study the movement of smolts as they pass between the Scottish

mainland and the island of Lewis, and between Skye and the Uists. This area has a large number of open-cage salmon farms — salmon farming has been implicated as a possible factor.

Climate change is another possible factor, with smolts migrating earlier, when they are smaller and more vulnerable and the sea is colder.

A survey aims to find the reason for the alarming drop in salmon

It’s game on for soccer fans Spectators at football stadiums might soon be tucking into game pie or pheasant sausage rolls.

A new deal between the British Game Alliance and food giant Samworth Brothers is expected to deliver a range of exciting new game products and get them into new markets.

Samworth owns a range of brands, including

Ginster’s and Walker & Son. It also provides catering to some of the country’s largest sports grounds.

Nick Anderson, group commercial director for food service at Samworth, said: “Our chefs were delighted to work in collaboration with the BGA to put sustainable game on the menu with a range of innovative game products. We think this will

resonate well with existing and new consumers.”

The new dishes will be made using just BGAassured game meat from member shoots.

According to BGA figures, game sales in the UK rose 8 per cent in the past year and now stand at £114 million, while an estimated 14% of the population now regularly eats game meat.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Vote for Simon — a true Game Hero ShootingTimes writerandrabbiting expertSimonWhiteheadhasbeen nominatedintheGameHerocategory oftheEatGameAwards.Founded byPurdey’s,Boisdalerestaurants andTasteofGame,theawardsare dedicatedto“recognisingandhelpingto developgameasavibrantandmodern additiontotheBritishmenu”.Simonis apassionateadvocateofhuntingand cookingrabbit.Tovoteforhimgoto eatgameawards.co.uk/voting

McDonald’s should sell pheasant The Duchess of Rutland has told Good Morning Britain that McDonald’s should be serving pheasant burgers and nuggets. During a discussion on the restaurant chain opening a branch in Rutland, she told host Piers Morgan that pheasant was “organic” and “the cheapest food of all”, adding: “There’s no hormones in it.”

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @SHOOTINGTIMESUK Pheasant pie could be on the menu for soccer fans thanks to a deal between the BGA and Samworth

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 9

LETTERS LET TER OF THE WEEK ISSN: 0037-4165 Shooting Times, TI Media Ltd, Pinehurst 2, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF.

For editorial enquiries: STeditorials@ti-media.com 01252 555220 For picture enquiries: max.tremlett@ti-media.com Subscription hotline: 0330 333 1113 help@magazinesdirect.com Editor Patrick Galbraith Deputy editor Ed Wills edward.wills@ti-media.com Brand assistant Sarah Pratley 01252 555220 Group art director Kevin Eason Art editor Rob Farmer Picture editor Max Tremlett Chief sub-editor Sarah Potts Deputy chief sub-editor Nicola Jane Swinney nicola.swinney@ti-media.com Sub-editor Richard Reed richard.reed@ti-media.com Digital editor Charlotte Peters charlotte.peters@ti-media.com www.shootinguk.co.uk Managing director Kirsty Setchell Group managing director Adrian Hughes Classified advertising Will McMillan 01252 555305 will.mcmillan@ti-media.com Display advertising Rebecca Norris 07929 369204 rebecca.norris@ti-media.com Charlene Homewood 07815 712678 charlene.homewood@ti-media.com Laurence Pierce 07971 605143 laurence.pierce@ti-media.com Group advertisement manager Stuart Duncan stuart.duncan@ti-media.com Advertisement production Tony Freeman tony.freeman@ti-media.com Innovator (for loose and bound-in inserts) 020 3148 3710 Can’t find ST? 020 3148 3300 Back issues 01795 662976 support@mags-uk.com

Shooting Times is the official weekly journal of BASC and the CPSA BASC Marford Mill, Rossett LL12 0HL Tel 01244 573000 CPSA PO Box 750, Woking, GU24 0YU Tel 01483 485400 Wereservetherighttoeditletters.Nolettershouldexceed250 words.Letterswillnotbeusedunlesstheauthorisprepared tohavetheirnameandcountyofresidencepublished.

Lettersshouldbeaddressedto:TheEditor,Pinehurst2, FarnboroughBusinessPark,HantsGU147BF,oremail STletters@ti media.com.Pleaseincludeadaytimetelephone number and postal address.

Doing battle with a feisty pheasant I answered my doorbell to find a fellow villager in a distressed state, asking for help. She’s a doughty lady, so I was intrigued to know what was upsetting her. She told me that a cock pheasant had taken up residence in her garden and was using her bird feeder. She had shooed it away several times but the bird had taken umbrage.

The pheasant was attacking my neighbour with startling vigour at every opportunity, chasing her around the garden, pecking at her legs and ankles, cornering her in her shed and throwing itself at the windows whenever it spotted her in the house.

Husband and gardener were tolerated but the bird was going crazy whenever the woman appeared and she was terrified.

My neighbour was keen for me to march up there and shoot the thing on sight. While she was clearly frightened of it, I was a little sceptical about the reported extent of the bird’s aggression; I’d never heard of any bird singling someone out for retribution. I phoned the farmer whose bird it obviously was to check that he was happy for me to deal with it. He seemed relieved that I was prepared to sort

near the village as it would probably return or perhaps find another local victim.

I phoned the gamekeeper on a shoot where I pick up to ask if he’d like the bird. But first I placed the well-secured hessian bundle in the footwell of the car and, thinking the dogs might investigate, got them out of it. Fortuitously, as it proved.

I returned a few minutes later to find the perishing thing had slashed its way out of the sack and was flying around inside the Land Rover. Thank goodness I had removed the dogs from the car. The eventual outcome would not have been in doubt but it would have been bloody and I suspect my gentle Labradors might have exhibited reluctance to approach a cock bird in the future.

The bird was quickly recaptured and released deep in the countryside, with no shortage of feeders, plenty of hens and few households to terrorise. If it keeps its wits about it, it has a better-thaneven chance of evading the Guns between now and the end of January. If so, I hope it doesn’t recognise me when I’m picking-up there.

R. Forsyth, via email

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Colour dependent on availability.

FUTURE OF STEEL

This week’s cover image was captured by Sarah Farnsworth

out the problem and agreed I should take whatever action I thought justified.

Next morning, I put dogs, air rifle, shotgun and — as an afterthought — heavy-duty welding gloves into the Land Rover and presented myself at the house up the lane.

The owners appeared to be barricaded in the kitchen, while the cock bird was looking proprietorial and strutting its stuff around the back door.

It advanced on me as soon as I got out of the vehicle but seemed inquisitive rather than aggressive, so I asked the lady to pass me a tub of bird food.

As soon as her hand appeared around the door, the cock flew at it. It was a fine specimen, an older bird with a razor-sharp beak and even sharper spurs — which it was a little too keen to show me. I was grateful for the gloves.

I suppose I should have despatched him there and then with a head shot from the air rifle. However, I thought I recognised character in that bird and was reluctant to shoot it. It also seemed to have taken a liking to me — or the bird food, anyway — enabling me to catch him and place him in a stout hessian sack. I decided there was little point releasing him anywhere

Further to your article (Steelproofing for a Spanish side-byside, 8 January), we would like to correct you in so much as Eley Hawk’s VIP Steel Pro Eco Wad 32gr No 3 and No 5 cartridges, with their fully biodegradable and dissolvable wads, are loaded at

10 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

standard steel load pressures (less than 740 bar), so are suitable for nitro proof guns. The load is placed in a 2¾in case at this time.

We deliberately designed this cartridge for standard steel load pressures so it could be fired through nitro proof guns. Please be assured we are developing

solutions to the environmental, market, political and legal aspects that will evolve over the coming years.

The launch of the fully dissolvable wad has been very successful so far and we will keep working to ensure there will be many more years of serviceable shooting in trusty

Email your letters / STletters@ti-media.com AIR SERVICE I am part of a small shooting syndicate near Great Ayton, North Yorkshire. We meet twice weekly and shoot a small amount of pheasants and

duck that we put down and collectively do all the jobs, as most small syndicates do.

This year we decided to raise a bit of money via a raffle prior to shooting. Yesterday was our last day and I am

pleased to say we have raised a huge £630 for the Great North Air Ambulance Service; next year we are planning on doing the same for another worthwhile charity.

B. Bearpark, via email

NEXT WEEK IN

JUST DESERTS The glory of beaters’ day: your hard work rewarded.

TASTY TREAT Tim Maddams on walkedup woodcock and how to cook them.

side-by-sides, which hold such deep affection for shooters in the UK market.

D.Thompson, Eley Hawk

STEEL VS LEAD It was interesting to see the results of Alasdair Mitchell’s first experience with steel shot (Sharpshooter, 8 January), especially as he believes that cartridges with 32g of No 5 steel shot “are killing even more cleanly than traditional lead”. He writes that he sees no reason why that should be. He does not specify his usual lead load but the following may explain it.

If his usual lead load is 32g of No 5 shot (250 pellets versus 355 pellets for 32g of steel shot) and his gun throws the same pattern for both lead and steel shot, the pattern density at a given range for steel shot will be 42 per cent greater.

Furthermore — as noted by Simon Reinhold in the same issue (Steel-proofing for a Spanish side-by-side) — steel shot typically gives tighter

patterns than lead. Thus the pellet density of No 5 steel shot might be up to 50 per cent higher than his usual lead load.

Even though the lead pellets will have greater penetration energy, such a higher density of steel shot will kill more cleanly up to ranges such as 35 to 40 yards.

Even if his usual lead load is 32g of No 6, the steel/lead pellet count will be 355/305, so the steel pattern density is still significantly higher and the energy advantage of lead smaller. All tests on live birds with different lead-shot sizes consistently show that pattern density trumps pellet energy, at least up to 50 yards.

If you could persuade Alasdair to pattern his gun with his new steel load versus his usual lead load, the real pattern density advantage of steel will become apparent. Nothing beats real-world, actual results.

I would also suggest that he performs the pattern tests as recommended by former Shooting Times technical editor Gough Thomas. One key point

of his patterning method was to shoot at a blank pattern plate or target paper that only has an aiming point. Once the pattern has been shot, the 30in diameter ring should be scribed around the centre of the pattern.

The benefit of doing this is we can see whether the gun is shooting where we are aiming.

It is just possible that the centre of the steel shot load is landing at a different point to that of the lead shot. This could be a contributory factor as to why Alasdair missed more with steel shot on his initial outings.

C. Norris, by email

ON THE MARSH Shooting cock pheasants with a single-barrel shotgun in East Anglia.

JANUARY I wholeheartedly agree with Messrs Wills and Ross about January being the finest month for those who shoot. I will be out 15 days, shooting, beating or loading. My wife is ecstatically happy about this situation. She will,however,be quite depressed in February when I am only out deer stalking at dawn and dusk.

F. Bihlmeier, via email

‘‘The wildlife of today is not ours to dispose of as we please.

We have it in trust. We must account for it to those who come after.’’ King George VI

SPEED AND HEIGHT Flighting teal in the woods: a top day on the ducks.

... AND MUCH MORE!

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 11

Richard Hardy

Country Diary

Two chance encounters highlighted the difference in attitude between some hard-working country lads and a bunch of self-entitled Guns

I

Thoughtful response This positivity was encapsulated by a chance encounter, not on a moorside flank or woodland margin but in the unexpected setting of a Starbucks coffee emporium, beside a tedious length of trunk road.

Now I’m a sucker for a flat white and blueberry muffin, so I swung into the car park behind a suitably tired working pickup that disgorged four young lads in tidy tweeds and neatly fastened ties, together with a selection of eager working dogs.

I noted that these young chaps carefully attended to their dogs’ needs in the car park and then thoroughly tidied up before entering and ordering their own refreshments before settling down to the fevered checking of mobiles phones expected of anyone under the age of 30.

Our paths crossed again outside and I asked about the dogs and where they were heading. At this point I must explain that on a working expedition to the frozen north I was pinstriped and driving my electric car, cutting a totally un-country figure.

Their response was effusive, detailed and thoughtful. They were students from a well-known northern rural college, heading off for four days helping out on grouse

Richard’s encounter with the next generation of keepers bodes well for the future of shooting

moors. They explained about the dogs, what their roles were, how they hoped to progress in the land-management industry and offered a fair, thoroughly balanced view of current issues in the uplands.

I was struck by the effect this chance meeting would have had on Joe Public — somebody who had only read George Monbiot in The Guardian would have any preconceptions thoroughly demolished by

“If you dare ruin the bright futures of those fine young men I’ll be coming for you” these fantastic young people. They were a credit to their upbringing and their college — and a great hope for the conservation of our uplands in the near future.

The next day, back in my beloved chalk valley, pinstripes exchanged for camo and electric car for my mudspattered rural jalopy, I was standing in a gateway glassing a small group of fallow high up on the skyline.

12 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

My terriers were mousing in the field margin when visiting Guns from a local let day hurtled down the lane. A tweedy pantechnicon of speeding Range Rovers passed in a trice — having to slow down past my pickup, so inconsiderately parked on my own land, was far too much effort for this convoy of cosy self-entitlement.

Acknowledging my raised hand was beneath these hard-faced titans encased in their own purchased importance.

The comparison couldn’t have been more stark — the hard-working, openminded and knowledgeable students of yesterday and the ill-mannered, chequebook-enabled cretins of today.

I know where my loyalties lie and I know where the future of our countryside is safest. If you put my ability to manage my land at risk with your boorish behaviour I’ll not take it lying down, but if you dare ruin the bright futures of those fine young men I’ll be coming for you.

Richard Hardy is a Dorset landowner. Passionate about the flora and fauna around his Wessex chalkstream, he is an obsessive tree planter, stalker and terrier wrangler.

A. HOOK

’ve been travelling the length and breadth of our glorious nations.

Professional work has taken me to Yorkshire, West Sussex and the Scottish Borders; deer have led me to the deepest, darkest recesses of Cornwall, and kind invitations for wild pheasants to Kent and Herefordshire.

I’m pleased to report that these forays from my Wessex redoubt have shown that we aren’t heading to hell in Greta’s apocalyptic handcart. Indeed, all around business is thriving — roe are in velvet and discerning old cock birds have chosen helpfully to spring up perfectly in line with my badly misaligned barrels.

My uncharacteristic cheerfulness has only been enhanced by the sporting folk encountered on these travels — keepers with real passion and gusto, and landowners with the sparkle of pride in their eye when describing the mammoth conservation plans for the new decade.

Alan Edwards is conservation manager at Bywell, a Purdey gold award estate in Northumberland

Gamekeeper

Putting down a regular supply of winter feed is a vital part of any shoot Ñ and critically important to the wellbeing of wild birds

W

Heavy rainfall It’s a joy to be working my rounds at the moment, as at every turn and in every hedgerow I see flocks of small birds breaking from cover, dancing and turning as they avoid my passing. As they twist and turn the light catches their backs; yellowhammers and linnets sparkling in the winter sunshine — what joy!

Heavy rainfall has been a signature of this season. I have been on one or two shoots where the rain has adversely affected the sporting ability of pheasants, in particular. Perhaps I was lucky on my early shoot days, as I was generally favoured by dry days and a fresh wind.

Wild birds need all the help they can get and a good keeper should be putting down plenty of seed

direction but towards them, and often proclaim at the end of the drive that they have never seen anything like it before and, as a result, hardly a shot was fired.

The experienced wild-bird shooter, on the other hand, has to work hard, be prepared to adapt to the unfolding scenario, and have a keen and vivid knowledge of the habits and requirements of wild game.

This knowledge, when exploited, brings an experience that only wild game can conjure.

Due to the poor breeding season for wild game in my part of Northumberland in 2019, shooting this season has been limited, bags modest and a preservation order placed on valuable hen pheasants.

Despite this, visiting Guns and family alike have all thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

“We have a duty to continue feeding until the spring, when birds of all kinds can forage successfully for themselves” It’s always a great pleasure to witness the reaction of visiting Guns, who on the whole are used to reared birds, when they see a wild pheasant break cover with the venom of a tiger and use every ounce of its strength and ability to avoid them.

Inexperienced wild-game Shots just stand and watch birds jink and dive in every

Although we are not quite finished with the programme for this season, my thoughts are already turning to preparations for next season.

Winter feeding will continue in earnest for several months — since December, my food handouts have not only been for game but include a variety of smaller seeds such

14 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

as millet, sunflower hearts, oilseed rape and so on for the smaller birds.

Yes, I know how much these seeds cost and for those not fortunate enough to have Countryside Stewardship to subsidise the cost, perhaps you will have to do what I did for years and find a farmer who dresses his harvest and bags up the waste.

Food handouts These seeds include several species of weeds, such as fat hen and redshank, and small or damaged wheat and barley.

Bagged and stored carefully, this bonus can last all feeding season if used wisely.

I am always looking for that sting in the tail of winter — this is when food handouts will be most vital. We all have a duty to continue our feeding patterns until the spring, when birds of all kinds can forage successfully for themselves.

This will become apparent — you will spot much less frantic feeding behaviour at hoppers and scattered food will be picked up more slowly. The flocks of songbirds will disperse and cock pheasants will be more prominent, searching out those early territories to defend.

Remember, this can happen two or three times if the weather is mild, but if it turns wintry again they will return to cover and seek out food — make sure they will readily find some.

ALAMY

inter feeding is well established now. Even though the weather for this part of the country has remained unseasonably mild, birds of all types are searching out a nutritious bite.

Most wild bird keepers will by now have a well-organised round of additional food distribution areas — these become more and more vital as the days shorten and natural food gets harder to find.

This year on the estate we are benefitting from hard work in the spring and summer sowing and establishing wild bird food crops. The Countryside Stewardship Agreement has provision for several hectares of seed mixes designed to provide a variety of differing seed types to feed not only the larger game bird species but the ever-growing population of smaller, passerine birds.

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Driven shooting

A farewell to arms It’s the end of an era for keeper David Carter, retiring after 47 years. Richard Negus went along to witness his last shoot

S. MAGENNIS

O

n 23 December 1972, perfectly penned articles

by BB, Colin Willock, Peter Moxon and Arthur Oglesby grace the pages of the 4,672nd edition of Shooting Times.

AYA has taken out a full-page advertisement to promote its No 3 — yours for a mere £67.50. Turning to the classified section, Diss-based game dealer Frostgame “urgently requires” birds, offering to pay £1.40 per brace for pheasants and £2 for English partridge.

The situations vacant column boasts 21 job opportunities. One boxed advert (cost 8p per word) catches the eye. A head keeper is required by the Rt Hon Earl Compton for his 3,000-acre Castle Ashby shoot.

The successful applicant will need to be “experienced in vermin control, wild partridges and pheasants” and be adept at “supervising modern pheasant rearing and overseeing one underkeeper”.

Unbeknown to any aspiring keeper, the vacancy has already been filled. As is often the case in gamekeeping, the best candidate has been found through personal recommendation.

Family pedigree The man recommended was David Carter. David started as headkeeper at Castle Ashby in February 1973.

With 13 years’ experience under his belt on the Copped Hall Estate near Epping and a further season in Shropshire, he was already an experienced gamekeeper.

His father, grandfather and great-grandfather had been keepers before him and doubtless that family pedigree helped to secure the role.

However, he had other attributes.

He was an intelligent man — erudite and numerate; his National Service Right: A cocker bounds back to the Guns after retrieving a pheasant

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Driven shooting

David Carter blows the whistle to call time on his last shoot day

was spent in the Royal Army Pay Corps. He possessed a natural politeness and quiet confidence, a manner he used with everyone from the marquis to the village postman.

Final shoot

Nick Denman lines up a high bird driven over his peg

All these qualities apply today. After 47 years David is still the headkeeper at Castle Ashby, albeit sadly not for much longer. Retirement beckons and this is his last season. I joined the beating line to celebrate his final shoot day.

A team of nine Guns assembled in the castle gardens car park, the guests of one of the estate’s tenant farmers.

A smartly dressed man approached

I assumed the couple must be late-arriving Guns — after all I was awaiting an octogenarian keeper and this gentleman looked barely 70. My keeper radar failed me on this occasion.

“Here’s Mum and Dad!” said Louise. I had to wade through the sea of beaters and Guns, clustering around David like eager hounds with a huntsman, to make my hellos. He is immaculate in a way that only a professional gamekeeper can be.

Following a brief consultation with his pocket-watch, David signalled with a nod that we should all clamber aboard the beater’s wagon and off we went to the first drive.

“David, aged 81, strode through the densest patches like a young man” me, ‘professional gamekeeper’ oozing from every pore, and shook my hand.

“I’m Andrew, David’s son. Dad will be along in a minute, he is just getting the game cart.”

My gamekeeper radar proved infallible — Andrew is the keeper on the neighbouring shoot on the estate.

“Come and meet my sister,” he said — “she works on the estate, too.”

I was introduced to Louise, who beamed a winning smile and we chatted about tea shops and gardening until a silver truck appeared towing an ancient trailer.

The driver, wearing a green tweed shooting suit and brambleplucked stalker hat, sprang out, then opened the passenger door to allow a glamorous lady in tweed and waterproofs to descend.

A lifetime of carrying sacks of grain is guaranteed to induce a slight stoop to the shoulder. It is only the bend in David’s back that indicates his age.

Dense cover The understorey of the first drive, The Gardens, is thick in parts. Briars snag at your clothes, snowberry and rhododendron still proliferate and bar an easy passage. Yet David, aged 81, strode through the densest patches like a young man while Doris matched him pace for pace to his right. After 53 years of marriage she remains as keen on a day in the field as her husband.

David discourages dogs in the beating line, saying his covers are not dense enough to risk an unruly spaniel running through and spoiling a drive. He does permit one collie

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 17

Driven shooting

David Carter helps the beating line, making short work of dense cover

Nick Denham sends out his cocker to make a retrieve

to join the team; Meg is a trusted ally.

I surreptitiously slipped the lead onto Mabel to be safe.

There is no shouting and bawling; sticks are tapped and a few whistles trill out, David needed only to raise his voice slightly from his gentle speaking burr to command the right to move up or left of the line to ste Each command is always tailed with a “please” followed by a “thank you” when his orders have been carried out. It i genteel here.

High birds A few birds flushed and the line halted unbidden. The Guns lined out to our left in glorious parkland amid ancient oaks and cedar of Lebanon. They were treated to high birds that had to climb up and out over beeches, Scots pine and oak.

The rising wind whipped a number back along the face of the cover and David had a walking Gun in place for that eventuality, who was blessed with plenty of sport.

The drive was completed in this calm tap-tapping, stop and start manner, with birds flushing in regular

bursts rather than a mass that noisier beating teams all too often achieve.

The third drive, Porter’s Lodge, uses the topography to its utmost.

The cover is a block of ancient mixed broadleaf trees with privet hedges growing around the edges. A dense understorey makes it as snug as any pecting pheasant could wish. nning away from this, along row of an escarpment, is a of wild bird seed mix, sown f the estate’s Environmental ship scheme. The Guns stood y elow in the valley bottom on grassland gently folded by the marks of ancient ridge-and-furrow farming.

I stood on the corner of the cover to watch proceedings and marvelled as the slow and steady tap-tapping once again brought a stream of birds over the whole line. No peg went without, birds were high but within range and all flew like proverbial missiles.

All this shooting perfection comes from the experience and knowledge of David Carter; he has forgotten more than most will know. The grateful recipients of this knowledge are the Guns and the wildlife that teems here.

Woodcock are plentiful, plovers pipe

“I am sure David will miss the estate but he will forever remain a part of it”

18 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

over the stubbles, songbirds flit in profusion and hares lollop off in the way they do when dogs aren’t about and ‘No ground game’ is on the card.

Each drive ran as smoothly as the next, yet none were the same. The minute attention to detail highlights the professionalism of this shoot and the man that is its master.

Replete Guns The Avenue was the final drive of the day. I watched David appear from the cover and blow on his whistle to signal the drive’s end, his last ever as keeper. I observed his contented nod to himself as he spied the cluster of replete Guns chattering together, retelling tales of hits and misses.

On cue, one wily old cock pheasant crowed the last post in the falling light. It set my mind wondering whether landscape makes the man or man the landscape. David has certainly put much of himself into this beautiful piece of countryside and it, in turn, has repaid him.

He is evidently still hail and hearty, his wife remains vibrant and beautiful. His children are happy and, like their parents, totally imbued within the fabric of the place. I am sure David will miss the estate but he will forever remain a part of it.

Birds flushed in bursts rather than the usual noisy mass

Woodcock and snipe shoot First snipe of the day went to Angus Milby — an astonishing shot

Woodcock odyssey Ecologist Jack Bell has gone to great lengths to improve the habitat for snipe and woodcock — but would it bear fruit?

D. MOORE

S

ix months after starting my project to improve the habitat at Craigenputtock I have been rewarded by seeing the arrival of good numbers of visiting snipe and woodcock.

These migratory birds have made ample use of the new wetland scrapes and cleared woodland rides that have been installed since last summer.

On the first Saturday in January 2020 the estate welcomed an additional 10 new visitors in the form of a team of Guns made up of friends of landowner Colin Carter-Campbell and myself. They were mainly locals though Ian Whitehall, vice-chairman of the Gloucestershire Wildfowlers’ Association, made the 300-mile trip north especially for the day.

At my safety briefing I made the decision not to carry a gun before lunch as the planned drives would be too small to accommodate fully the number of Guns present.

The first drive proved disappointingly fruitless — I had hoped this area would hold a cock pheasant that has single-handedly been emptying the closest feeder in recent months.

The second drive, a juvenile larch and spruce plantation, provides the perfect habitat for roosting

pheasants, combined with thick ground cover to support woodcock.

Each time I have been to check the feeders, several pheasants have flushed and always flew north-east.

I lined the Guns out accordingly and placed a walking Gun, who I thought would get the best of the shooting, on the open hill beside the wood.

The team of eight dogs worked relentlessly, none more so than local gamekeeper Bob Penrose’s springer

PART THREE

Billy, who was rewarded by flushing a tightly sitting brace of phea ts.

The birds turned on the wind and unexpectedly flew south, the opposite direction to what I had anticipated.

The walking Gun fired a single shot at the closest bird that was quartering away with the wind behind him, but it failed to meet its target.

Flushed pheasant

Jack’s black Lab Hugo charges back excitedly after making his own woodcock retrieve

20 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

I felt slightly relieved that a shot had been fired but my attention quickly turned as I heard the beat of wings as the spaniel flushed another hen bird from the bank above me.

As the hen pheasant gained altitude, I had the sinking feeling that I should have carried my Gun after all, as it provided a perfect 35-yard shot directly above me and the best I could do was shout “Over!”

The hen pheasant flew towards the line of standing Guns and as she caught sight of them, changed direction in mid air. The Gun was forced to fire earlier than he would have liked and two shots rang out — along with the clap of another wily and unscathed hen pheasant’s wings.

The next drive was a more mature larch plantation that is ready for

Woodcock and snipe shoot

“We had seen double figures of woodcock in some of Dumfriesshire’s most stunning scenery” felling. The ground cover was fairly poor, but thick sections of scattered bracken beds made for pockets of optimum woodcock habitat.

On entering the wood, a woodcock flushed forward but was too low for a safe shot and the bird dropped into a birch coppice. Ian worked his spaniel into a section of tangled, wind-blown trees covered in thick moss and debris, the wingbeats of a woodcock were heard but the bird disappeared.

The Guns congregated on the driveway before being split into two teams. Four Guns stood on peg, while those with dogs worked the thick birch cover.

This drive was my biggest hope for producing woodcock as it had been the focus of most of my habitat improvements.

Fooling the Gun On the previous Saturday, walking through this wood to check a lone feeder, I had flushed five woodcock on my gentle stroll along the newly created woodland ride.

The Guns were spaced evenly throughout the wood and we started to push through the cover. My Labrador Hugo paused at a thick tangle of brambles before pouncing forward and forcing a woodcock from its thorn-enclosed resting place.

The bird flew up and forward towards the standing Guns but its jinking movement and its silent approach proved too much, and once more a single shot rang out that failed to meet its target.

Towards the end of the drive the shrill cry of “Woodcock coming back!” echoed through the wood, and a Gun fired two shots. The bird dipped as if it were coming down before making height and flying healthily down a ride, its irregular flight pattern fooling the Gun into thinking it was hit.

Left: Jack Bell guides Guns around a swamp on the way to another of the drives

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 21

Woodcock and snipe shoot This confirmation of the improved habitat being a haven for woodcock pleased me, and both Guns who fired shots were happy to have had the pleasure of at least trying to bag a truly wild game bird.

The next wood was to be the last before elevenses and due to its size I hoped it may hold a lone bird. As we walked to position, I noticed the absence of our family cairn terrier, Allan, before hearing squeaks of excitement from the next drive.

At this point I lost all hope and as if scripted a lone woodcock broke cover high above the woodland long before the Guns were in position.

the second bird also fell motionless into a bed of thick heather before being added to the game bag.

Angus’s opportunity to join the esteemed ranks of the Shooting Times Woodcock Club had been scuppered, but both Guns walked away with smiles on their faces.

Less than 200yd later a snipe flushed from the top of the line and avoided two shots before Angus shouldered his 28-bore and dropped the bird with a single shot at easily 55yd. This was by far the best shot I have seen on snipe and proved the capabilities of this small-gauge shotgun in the right hands.

Well-placed shot

Boosting numbers

The Guns quickly jumped into the wood and worked the thick wet cover.

As I reached the halfway point, I noticed the closest Gun shoulder his over-and-under and I glanced up to watch a well-placed shot finally meet with a crossing woodcock. The bird was clearly hit but carried on out of the wood where it was hit again at a good range by a standing Gun, who bagged the first bird of the day.

After elevenses the Guns regrouped and I fetched my trusty 26in sidelock side-by-side in the hope of bagging a snipe. I had noticed the wind was picking up, which caused some concern as the bitter winds at Craigenputtock can push snipe off the estate into more sheltered areas.

The first and second fields held good numbers of snipe and a handful of shots were fired for no reward.

After this the Galloway cattle in the

Jack Bell checks the line of Guns as they make ready on a new drive at Craigenputtock

next field got riled up and pushed any snipe off in a stampeding rage.

After this snipe numbers were low, the bogs and flat peatlands being too exposed to the prevailing wind.

To deal with this we worked the dogs through bracken banks, rank overgrown heather and the edges of the commercial coniferous forestry.

A lone patch of self-seeded willows on the banks of a small river caught the eye of Bob Penrose and Angus Milby. As they worked their way closer a woodcock flushed and Angus made a well-executed shot.

With Angus’s attention momentarily focused elsewhere a second bird flushed; quick reactions and sharp shooting from Bob meant

After lunch we pushed through other low-lying bogs but no more snipe were seen that day. I am sure this was the result of a combination of the high winds and the low-lying, well-grazed pastures that provide little shelter in such conditions.

The final woodcock strip held a few birds but most flushed prematurely.

As darkness was closing in we called it a day.

The aim of my project at Craigenputtock has been to provide habitat improvements that would help both local ecology and sporting interests. It was never about shooting significant numbers and, in the end, the number that pleased me most was that I had brought together 10 like-minded people and we had seen double figures of woodcock in some of Dumfriesshire’s most stunning upland scenery.

“What pleased me most was that we had seen double figures of woodcock in some of Dumfriesshire’s most stunning scenery”

Gun Michael Little stands ready in the hope that a woodcock will flush his way

22 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

Wildfowling

Whiffle down the wind Simon Garnham revisits his childhood stomping grounds in East Anglia 30 years on — but will it be as successful as the previous trip?

D. ROGERS

M

oving house is tedious, time-consuming and expensive. But it’s amazing what you find while clearing out the old place.

Among game cards, wildfowling permits and diary entries I found a fading photo of two grubby-looking boys in waxed jackets and waders.

Their faces are wreathed in smiles and they grasp proudly the spoils of an outing. On the back of the photo are the words: “First teal! With George (first greylag!)”

That photo was taken 30 years ago. The frozen fingers, the muddy barrels of my precious 16-bore, the dense fog and above all the rapture of accounting for three teal — yes, three!

— are still vivid. The birds had seemed to skim and whistle and buzz like bullets in that November dawn.

I’m sure I missed plenty, too, but I distinctly recall stalking a huge pack and seeing two tumble to one shot as they sprang like fireworks.

Hunched in a convenient gutter, waiting for wigeon to come to the US six-in-one call

It still induces a shot of adrenalin. I our journey through a maze of creeks remember the excitement of hearing and across the mouth of the estuary a solitary greylag lost and calling as to a hidden gutter just a few hundred it beat its lonely way across the yards from the site of our exertions all marsh. George found himself those years ago. under it, managing to send it thumping into Richer feeding a creek. So began January is not an a serious case of easy time to build goose fever that a bag. Heavy rains hasn’t been cured over Christmas 30 years on. The meant most of the urge to pursue migratory birds sporting quarry in moved inland wild places remains for quieter and unchanged. richer feeding. Club A restless grey brown members who had been stain filled the creeks out during the holiday and lapped at the saltings season in pursuit of a Simon Garnham and as once more we met on Christmas duck or goose George Avery holding our little piece of East their first teal and greylag had reported varying levels Anglian foreshore this of success. George had month. A pale half-moon hung coldly been three times, on each occasion just off the horizon. The witching building bags into double figures, and hour approached. George had his I had enjoyed productive evening and outboard locked and loaded with a moon flights. bag of decoys stuffed in the gunwales.

Now, however, what birds Abel, his powerful Labrador, was remained were wise to the danger, already curled alongside, ready for proving less inclined to call and

“Then they were suddenly tumbling, whiffling into the decoys on a sibilance of wings”

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 23

Wildfowling

George strings out a line of decoys to tempt wigeon and mallard

more inclined to use height and speed to their advantage. We would, in the words of my old troop sergeant, have to “move fast, keep low”.

After some 25 minutes we silenced the outboard’s spluttering and ghosted into a convenient inlet on the top of the tide to unload decoys, dogs and guns. Not a breath of wind broke the pre-dawn silence; the stillness was chill and we were glad of the chance to stir limbs back into life.

Our first choice of location was occupied — ironically, considering there are more than 5,000 acres of marshes to choose from for the three local clubs — so we motored on past

so when a whirling, rushing pack of teal followed the brents, barely visible above the horizon, I snatched at two shots.

I was looking at one of our dozen decoys through a V-shaped gap in the gutter’s edge. The teal came so low they seemed to skim the surface of the water and only presented a chance in that tiny gap as they whistled past.

My first shot sent them heavenwards and I didn’t follow them with enough speed. Fortunately, George — an A Classification clay shot — stayed calmer and dropped a fine male into the decoys.

Tess, my yellow Labrador, rarely

“In they came — a tight team of aerial acrobats with that powerful wingbeat” watchful seals and through the alarm calls of angry waders to an alternative creek. Only accessible at high tide, it forms something of a main artery between inland water meadows and offshore mudflats.

Chilly gutter George strung out a line of decoys presenting as realistic a picture of roosting wigeon and mallard as we could. We settled into convenient chilly gutters for the morning and waited. The silent time as the marsh awakes is magical. Distant lights blinked into life. A tractor, its orange light spinning, moved along a farm track. The sky turned from deep granite to light graphite grey. Then birds were on the move.

First came the throaty calls and rushing wingbeats of a skein of brent geese following our creek out to sea. My heart was racing,

runs-in. Perhaps she was cold, curled on the edge of a creek with only a tuft of sea-blite for insulation, and wanted to warm up. But she bounded off unbidden. The shots had lifted a swarm of distant fowl from Farmer P’s reservoir and I felt sure any movement would betray our presence. For now the teal would have to wait. I called her back and stared through the gloom.

Greylag croaked their alarm and a huge flock rocketed past inches from our heads with such speed and purpose that I ducked instinctively.

Curlews raised their mournful keening ‘cour-li’ to accompany the fluting and ‘kleeping’ of the avocets that swirled and fell like white-topped waves in the pre-dawn stillness.

Then came the fowler’s clarion call — the whistle of a cock wigeon — that loud, clear, liquid siren, answered by the rolling growl of a female.

24 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

Nigel Thornycroft describes it in his 1955 classic Fowler’s Moon: “If you’re lucky and know your spots, and get the moon right, and the sky right, and the tide’s right, and the weather’s right, you may, if you’re lucky enough to get the saltings to yourself, achieve a night of nights.

“Or you may not… Once you’ve heard wigeon calling as they flight into you under a half-moon and a cloudy sky, I dare prophesy it’s a sound you’ll never have enough of.”

We had the half-moon and the cloudy sky. But would we get lucky?

Most birds were circling simply to have a look and decided they’d be safest where they were; they resettled on the distant reservoir.

Dalliance But was that swarm of fast-flying specks destined for a creek near us?

We crouched and hoped. A tight wedge of teal passed where I guessed our fellow fowlers were, half a mile away, but no shot. Good. Perhaps our wigeon would risk a dalliance with our decoys. I hardly dared look.

To my right, George was calling.

I chipped in with a ‘pee-pee’ on my American six-in-one whistle. It seemed to work, or at least not to deter them. Peering through the scant cover provided by skeletal samphire I saw them still coming — a tight team of aerial acrobats with that distinctive powerful wingbeat, short body and chisel of a tail.

Then they were suddenly tumbling, whiffling into the decoys on a sibilance of wings through the halflight; a steep descent. We’re up, gun to cheek, swing. Ignore the sucking knee-deep mud. Keep swinging, pick a bird. George shoots, I shoot.

Five birds explode heavenwards, undersides fully exposed as they twist and jink. Two are falling, one into the fast-receding water and one on the bank to my front. Fire again. A miss?

Another faller, curling and twisting down across the creek. Three to pick.

Then the rest are gone, out to sea to regroup; to rest. We have three down.

We prioritised the injured bird on the far bank and the dead bird drifting off with the tide. Abel snorted and spluttered his way back after a long hunt for the fallen bird — a handsome cock in full winter plumage with his golden crown and life in him still.

The first teal needed to be picked, too. Tess was on to that second time round. Then we wound in the decoys and we headed back to the boat. The tide had dropped 6ft so a shove ensued.

We travelled back into the growing light of the eastern sky, aware that the season was drawing to a close.

A coffee, four handsome ducks, an achingly beautiful marshland sunrise and another year to add to our 30 so far of shared adventures made it an enjoyable return journey.

Simon waits in the creek for the ducks to come in

Abel retrieves the teal — a handsome cock bird

Driven shooting

In war’s dark shadow A shoot at the site of the biggest wartime bomb explosion in the UK gave a unique opportunity for Ed Wills to enjoy fantastic sport the shoot’s owners, Rupert Major, casually informed me that their biggest landmark is the Hanbury Crater. Between 3,500 and 4,000 tons of ordnance exploded in a bunker in 1944 creating a huge crater 300 feet deep and 250 yards across, killing around 70 people.

A nearby reservoir was obliterated in the incident, along with a complete farm, in what was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.

Buried explosives

Beater Peter Cromack turns a bird over the Guns during drive number three

S. WALL

I

t’s not often I find myself unsettled while shooting.

One time standing on a peg surrounded by curious cattle, another standing on top of a 55ft pigeon tower with a Force 6 gale trying to blow me away.

However, when I travelled to Castle Hayes Shoot in Staffordshire it wasn’t cattle or wind that was bothering me, but bombs. Lots of them. One of

I was told there are still large amounts of explosives buried underneath. It was a tad disconcerting but James Major, Rupert’s father, assured me there was nothing to worry about.

The shoot has been run by James and Rupert for 50 years along with head gamekeeper Ian Lanchester, who has been involved for 20 years.

They are joined by a membership made up of old friends, schoolmates and regular guests. The landscape changed dramatically as a result of the explosion, with the crater scarring the scenery, but the shoot has restored some of its former bucolic beauty.

Fortunately not many landscapes are decimated by explosions on that

“Up to 4,000 tons of ordnance exploded in a bunker in 1944 creating a crater 300 feet deep”

26 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

scale but I have been to some that are blighted by derelict buildings. These can be turned into opportunities, however, given the chance, by restoring them and using them as a lunch hut, for example.

I was given the opportunity to be back gun. It’s a position I relish as not only do you get to observe the whole drive unfolding in front of you but you have the chance to help the pickers-up finish any pricked birds.

As many of you will be only too aware, we have experienced one of the wettest winters ever and walking to the first drive, churned up by the farm’s dairy cows, was not unlike a Tough Mudder challenge event.

Having suitably clogged up my boots I took position in front of a

Driven shooting small hill peppered with disused rabbit holes. Rupert had earlier told me I could expect mostly pheasants coming overhead, though they have been seeing more partridges this year. Imagine my surprise, then, as the first birds we saw were enormous numbers of partridges, curling around the hill, then flaring up when they saw the line.

The Gun in front of me, Nick Foreman, brought down a couple but such was the number of birds I was soon in the thick of the action. My first shot ended in success and the bird crashed down into the mud five paces behind me. I tried a long shot to my left but it was too good for me and flew on over the treeline of ash behind.

Good heights After the first big flush, the partridges kept coming in ones and twos at good heights, testing the Guns. I managed to shoot a couple more but I am happy to admit I missed a good number. Pheasants were now appearing on the skyline, too, and flew in the direction of the wood on my right over the higher numbered pegs. A couple of shots rang out and they tumbled into the trees.

At the end of the drive I remarked to James about the number of partridges we’d seen. He was surprised, too — not about the partridges, however, but that so few pheasants had been in the cover crop.

“They might be in the next drive,” he said hopefully.

young trees sprouting up, creating a The drive in question proved to healthy woodland. “It’s a bit harder to be just as populated with partridges see now but over that ridge it’s a bit as the first but held plenty of of a drop down.” I took his pheasants, too. word for it and changed I was standing next the subject quickly. to a car scrapyard The third drive that operates as a was centred around business in the a steep, wooded middle of the bank with a patch estate. A red of cover on top.

Porsche 944 was The Guns were sitting abandoned placed wide apart in the yard and I to cover all possible had half a mind to exits — so much so look inside when a that it was impossible shout sounded from to see both ends from the hill in front of me and any position. the sky was filled with Shannon Bagnall’s Labrador The birds started whirring wings.

Sky retrieving her marked bird trickling out of the cover This time my at the top and set their wings flat so accuracy was off; whether I was they floated gracefully above the thinking about the car or I needed a Guns at frightening heights. few shooting lessons, it made little difference. The birds sailed over the hedge behind me and disappeared.

Unscathed The Guns in front of me, however, One hen bird made the bold choice fared much better. Birds were falling of flying down the line of Guns at all around and I saw Ian Lawton 70 yards up. There was a barrage take down an exceedingly high cock of lead as the Guns fired one by one pheasant into the scrapyard. I rushed while the pheasant nonchalantly flew over at the end of the drive to look for on unscathed. it but it had already been found by the A woodcock jinked across the sky picking-up team’s army of dogs. after it. Not a Gun was lifted — the After a short break to wolf respect that this quarry has on this down some sausages and a spicy shoot is enormous and one that is beef consommé we headed off to a seldom echoed around the country’s different part of the farm. Rupert shoots. One more drive was taken in pointed out the lip of the crater — I the morning before we scrambled looked to where he was pointing and into the trailer for lunch back at the could only see a small ridge filled with farm. The lunch room is decorated

Gun Lance Gibson tracks a fast-moving bird before pulling the trigger

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 27

Driven shooting

“The giant crater dominated the image — a perfect circle in an otherwise ordered landscape” with newspaper clippings and photos of the explosion. There were also pictures of past syndicate members grinning at the camera.

It reminded me a lot of my own syndicate lunch hut, and I imagine many lunch huts around the country, where a timescale is drawn remembering the years gone by and the history of the shoot.

Explosives One of the most interesting images in the room was a map of the shoot and Rupert showed me where we had been. The giant crater dominated the image — a perfect circle in an otherwise ordered landscape. I asked Rupert whether there might come a time when you could drive pheasants off the top of the crater lip. “Until those explosives are removed, I doubt it,” he replied.

An hour or so later we were back in the waterlogged fields with pheasants soaring up in front of us. I was Below: Gun David Clift tracks a high-flying bird on the final drive of the day

Beaters on the bus looking forward to a well-earned lunch after a productive morning in the field

standing behind Andrew Ryman and Malcolm Busfield along a hedgerow inhabited by two quarrelling blackbirds. The birds apparently settled their differences and took off in separate directions just as a partridge soared into view from the other side. I jumped and hastily raised my gun but was too slow. It sped on and landed in the cover behind me, scuttling away into the depths.

I then proceeded to have a good run by shooting four cock pheasants cleanly and watched in admiration as Andrew took a marvellous hen bird that pirouetted silently to the ground not three yards from his peg.

The light was fading quickly so we hurried to the last drive, pushing a small piece of woodland out over a

28 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

couple of fields. The partridges came first, swinging low over the field before flaring up over the hedgerow.

Then the pheasants came, following much the same line, heading for the tall conifers behind the Guns. I had Michael Brown in front of me, who didn’t need any help despatching his birds, and I enjoyed watching his Labrador collecting his bounty and hurrying back.

This shoot has a big sense of tradition and history. With the Guns within their ranks, they have no need to worry about numbers or whether everybody is having a good time.

They have the same goals as they did 50 years ago — to have fun and enjoy themselves. Which, I believe, is what shooting should be all about.

Field trialling

Cocker Spaniel Championship 2020 The Cocker Spaniel Championship is one of the key events in the field trial calendar. Ellena Swift watched all the dogs in action

S. MAGENNIS

T

he 90th Cocker Spaniel Championship was held by very kind permission of the Landon family at the amazing Faccombe Estate.

The estate itself is made up of mixed farming and the shooting operation. Impressively, the estate is known as having the only wind turbine in the North Wessex Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, helping to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

The shoot itself is ranked in the top five per cent in the country and did a spectacular job as hosts for this prestigious event. The head keeper, Bob Heaver, was supported by a fantastic team over the two days but one member of the team worked harder than most.

Beatkeeper Jonny Macey had sole responsibility for looking after the ground and the birds that were used.

The ground was maintained but saved purely for these two days and not used on any other shoot day. So

the pressure was on for this aspiring young man and he came through impressively. The birds produced over the two days were consistent, strong and well spread around the grounds.

In total, 44 dogs qualified for and started the event. There was a good mix of handlers, with some extremely experienced individuals, such as Ian and Wendy Openshaw. Between them they were handling five dogs and, as always, demonstrated some extremely good dog work.

I was lucky to get some time to chat to the judges before the final day started. Four knowledgeable gentlemen judged at the event and they did a great job of giving each dog plenty of opportunities to show to its best over the two days.

Martin Ford and Martin Deakin described the first day as challenging for all the dogs. It brought those top dogs up and separated them from the rest who, just in places, weren’t quite as polished as they needed to be.

Owner Jamie Luxford with FTCh Howesyke Amey and judge Martin Deacon (right)

Despite there being plenty of birds on the ground, as Martin Ford described, it was by no means easy hunting and flushing. Each dog had to work hard to find them and demonstrate its strength and fearlessness in cover, and 21 dogs made it through to the final day.

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 29

Field trialling

The dogs had to work their way through dense cover

The judge told the handler to send and she was quickly cast.

Impressively, she went straight to the retrieve, holding a good line through thick cover to the fall.

For the handlers it is hard enough keeping their cool but in this particular cover the only way they could see their dog was by hoping they could see the cover moving. This young bitch made marking look easy, which it really wasn’t.

Bloodied nose As always, the event itself was supported by a very good team of Guns. At any event like this, it is imperative that the Guns are consistent, reliable and of a good standard. It was great to see the team working together so well by backing each other up on every bird and ensuring some sporting shots were taken. The team comprised local keepers and some of the usual estate beating team. Having such a closely knit team made for a welcoming atmosphere throughout.

We began the all-important second day in a large block of woodland with a thin covering of briars on the floor.

It was literally seconds before the first birds had been flushed and were down. One bird landed across a track in some cover the other side, which

FTCh Howesyke Daisey shows her skills, retrieving a large cock pheasant

proved a little too much for the first dog and ended up as a nice eye-wipe for the second dog.

This was Mr and Mrs Reid’s own home-bred and owned bitch, FTCh Glenugie’s Tempest, handled by Jamie Reid himself. This little bitch remained consistently impressive throughout the day, ending up with a Diploma of Merit and the Kirkstall Salver Guns’ Choice Award.

Tenacity It quickly became apparent that to see what these little dogs can offer I needed to be much closer to the action. Within a few minutes I was lucky enough to be allowed in line and right in the thick of it. Only then could I truly appreciate the tenacity and work ethic of each dog.

One little bitch instantly caught my eye. She hunted massively hard through the thick briar and bracken with real speed and purpose. She had a nice flush and a cock bird was shot in front of the line. The cover was so thick where she stopped that I couldn’t actually see her.

In typical cocker style, I noticed when she came out of line her nose was properly bloodied and cut up. This cracking little bitch was Alex Hayes’ FTCh Endowood Francesca, and she ended up with a well-deserved third place and the Chyknell Trophy.

On the other side of the line the action was moving thick and fast, with a couple of dogs going out early on. Soon a hen bird was shot across the line. FTCh Howesyke Daisey was sent by James Luxford, who is also her owner and breeder, and she quickly retrieved the hen.

Being on the smaller side, a goodsized pheasant can prove a test for even the most experienced cocker.

On this occasion, the bitch ended up with the bird’s wing across her face.

Despite this she still ran with much gusto. This dynamic duo also went on to receive a Diploma of Merit.

As we moved up the wood the cover changed to patches of briar with more open space. Despite the walking being more pleasant for us, it can present just as big a challenge for the dogs. They are experienced enough to know that in bare open ground it is unlikely there will be anything to

Owner Jamie Reid takes a retrieve from FTCh Glenugie’s Tempest, which he was handling himself

30 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

flush — the temptation to pull on is big. However, they continued to hunt hard, really showing their style.

As we moved on a couple of good strong runners were retrieved, ending the day on a high.

I caught up with judge Wayne Greig afterwards, and he said a dog’s natural marking and hunting ability had been key in making it through to the latter stages.

The eventual winner of the trial demonstrated consistent, tight and hard hunting alongside totally natural marking ability.

Championship winner FTCh Trochry Eau Rouge of Poolgreen with handler Will Clulee (centre)

90TH COCKER SPANIEL CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS 1stFTChTrochry Eau Rouge of Poolgreen

WillClulee(owned by Philip Lewis)

2nd FTCh Endowood Faith

IanOpenshaw (owned by Jay Lowrey)

3rd FTCh Endowood Francesca

IanOpenshaw (owner Alex Hayes)

4th FTCh Mallowdale Shine

IanOpenshaw (owner Steve Charlton)

Diplomas of Merit FTCh Glenugie’s Nalani

Ownedandhandled by JamieReid

FTCh Poolgreen Griffin

Ownedandhandled by WillClulee

FTCh Omachie Beinn Lui

AlecCoutts(owned by MikeForbes)

FTCh Howeskye Daisey

Ownedandhandled by JamesLuxford

FTCh Wolferton Drama

Ian Openshaw (owned by HM Queen Elizabeth II)

FTCh Murrayeden Majestic

Owned and handled by Andy Skinner

FTCh Glenugie’s Tempest

Ownedandhandled by JamieReid

FTCh Howeskye Amey

Ownedandhandled by JamesLuxford

Kiltonbeck Iron

Ownedandhandled by Martyn Elliott

Beaters’ day

T

he beaters’ day at the end of the season, sometimes known as the cock day, is the gamekeeper’s way of thanking all those who have helped on the shoot throughout the season.

For some people, perhaps more used to rough shooting than standing in a line of Guns, the beaters’ day can be a stressful exercise, but it doesn’t have to be if you bear in mind a few simple points.

Firstly, make sure you know the date and start time. It sounds obvious but I have been caught out by this on a new shoot. Having picked up all season and never moved off before 09.15, I strolled into the shoot room at 08.50 only to find I was 20 minutes late as the cock day starts at 08.15, moving off at 08.30. I hadn’t checked and spent the day apologising.

Getting all your kit set out the night before a shoot is a good start. For me, it is the beginning of the sense of anticipation that I find a hugely enjoyable part of a shoot day.

A shot at a pheasant is over in seconds but the anticipation is for me a source of great pleasure — where

might a bird break cover, will it curl to me on the wind, will it break back over the beating line?

All these questions and more focus the mind on the moment and prolong the pleasure of the day. This anticipation is not only an enjoyable part but almost without realising you are preparing yourself mentally to make a successful shot.

Good game shots often seem to have more time than others and part of the reason is they have prepared through experience and anticipation.

Relaxed state It’s all about relaxed concentration and this is a key part of finding your best sporting performance.

The added benefit of preparing your kit the night before is that there is no last-minute panic because you can’t find your ear defenders.

Starting the day with as little tension as possible means you arrive in good time in a relaxed mental state. You now have every chance of swinging the gun smoothly and shooting well.

Preparation is the groundwork of good shooting.

Beaters’ day is one of the highlights of the season for many people

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Is your gun in a good, useable condition? If the last time it was out was roost-shooting some pigeons in February, then it’s best to check.

Some shoots have no problem with semi-automatic shotguns on a cock day but check with the keeper.

The days are usually run as ‘walk/ stand’ days and you will likely not be split into two teams of Guns.

Listen carefully to the briefing.

It may be you are shooting ‘cocks only’, it may be ‘no partridges’. This year the last Saturday of the season is 1 February. Woodcock, coot, moorhen and inland duck and geese will all be out of season after 31 January.

I have known experienced shooting folk who would rather not walk with a gun. If you only want to shoot on the peg that’s fine but do explain to the keeper.

If you do shoot when walking through the woods then safety is, of course, of paramount importance.

Your finger should stay out of the trigger guard until you have a bird in view and the gun in the shoulder.

Safety catches can fail just like any other mechanism.

Beaters’ day Don’t shoot birds going forward.

You would not appreciate the standing line of Guns doing that to your team. Wily birds going back are your quarry and there will probably be plenty of experienced birds trying to make a break behind.

To turn and shoot this bird you must not turn your muzzles horizontally through the line of beating Guns. Your muzzles should be well up as you turn into position.

If someone else has shot a bird and they go back to collect it, you must be

on the standing drives, but it’s worth being clear before you get started.

There is a good deal of banter on the beaters’ day and, for some, it can make their nervousness worse about missing in front of everyone.

There is a secret to dealing with those nerves and finding your best form: everybody misses. There are no exceptions to that rule. As soon as you understand that you can move past it, relax and enjoy yourself.

No shoot day should be taken too seriously, in my opinion — but least of

“There is a secret to dealing with those nerves — everybody misses” aware of their position before taking another shot.

This is the time to maximise your chance of a pigeon. I really enjoy going into ‘target acquisition mode’ and scanning the treetops for pigeon.

They are likely to be a safe shot even if a Gun has gone back behind the line to retrieve a kill. But don’t focus so hard on pigeon that you fail to notice the beating line moving off again — it’s important to keep the line straight, for safety reasons.

After walking for one drive you will probably next stand on the peg.

With most cock days I have been on, the Guns only move up peg numbers

all the cock day. Get your breathing going and concentrate on it. Counting 10 good breaths slowly in and out during the lull at the start of the drive achieves two things.

Firstly, it means your brain is focusing on something other than negative thoughts about missing.

Secondly, well-oxygenated muscles perform better and you are more likely to swing the gun, free of tension, past the beak of the bird, giving you a successful result.

Whether you are walking or standing, good footwork is paramount. For a right-handed shot the simple act of pointing your left

foot to where you want to kill the bird can make a huge difference. Between now and the day itself, spend 10 minutes a day (with a proven empty gun) ‘dry mounting’ in the mirror, making sure you can see your eye sitting nicely on top of the rib.

Muscle preparation Once you’ve done that a few times, and you are comfortable your eye is in the right place, you can swing your gun along the ceiling lines of your living room. This mental and muscle preparation will allow you to give your best on the day.

You should understand your arcs of fire on the peg. Some birds will naturally be in your ‘window’ in front of you. With birds going between you and your neighbour you must decide whose it might be. If you make a mistake and poach one, just apologise and leave the next one well alone.

If you wound a bird, find someone with a dog at the end of the drive to help you. If help isn’t readily available, then inform the keeper. Also please remember to pick up your empties.

Cock days are some of my favourites. I’m always among good friends and spend most of the day laughing. You are also shooting at some of the most sporting birds of the year. Relax, stay safe, and remember — enjoy it.

Below: A chance to fire at some of the most sporting birds of the season

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 35

On your shoot

Finding the right shoot Thinking of moving to a new shoot? There are plenty of opportunities but you need to choose with care, says Liam Bell

R. FAULKS / D. IRELAND / A. HOOK / D. GOULD

M

ost Januaries, I get asked if I know of any syndicate vacancies coming up or any ground that is up for lease for the following season.

Mostly it is by people who have either decided their current syndicate isn’t for them, or by people whose leases have ended and who are looking to take on a new patch of ground and start again.

The struggle, as always, is that the long-established, well-run syndicates rarely have vacancies, and nearly all have waiting lists. The decent ground is usually already taken by someone else, often having been absorbed by its larger neighbours as a buffer zone or incorporated into an existing shoot because of ease of access or a singlesignature drive.

Game shooting is popular at the moment and arguably enjoying its second golden age, which is what makes finding DIY syndicate places and decent ground with sporting rights so difficult.

How, then, do you go about looking for somewhere new to shoot — how do you find that new syndicate or secure your own patch of ground?

Word of mouth Word of mouth is probably best and easiest if you already have shooting contacts. If you are new to an area or new to game shooting, it is far harder.

People quite understandably want to know a little about someone before they offer him or her a place in their syndicate. This is less about wanting to know if someone can afford the subs and more what sort of person

36 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

they are. If a person is already known, he or she is part of the way there. It’s not quite so straightforward if there are no mutual friends.

If a person comes across as happy and easy company, someone who will turn up for work parties and do their share of the feeding and dogging-in, they are far more likely to be offered a gun than if they come across as difficult moaners who are rarely satisfied and will unsettle a shoot and upset people.

Interviews for shoot vacancies are no different to job interviews, really, and shoot captains are well

On your shoot

Working together on your own shoot builds a great sense of camaraderie

shoot captain and a couple of others in a pub, offered to help as much as he could, and was as good as signed up on the spot.

He found them very reasonable, their explanation of the falling-out sad but understandable, and was even more excited when he viewed the ground. Three seasons in and he is part of the fixtures and fittings, and I am sure he has already made some lifelong friends.

Keep networking When nothing local turns up, keep networking. Clay grounds, gun shops, keepers, beaters, pickers-up, game butchers are all worth talking to. It’s a small world and the game-shooting

advised to be wary of people with a negative disposition. More especially so given the unpredictable nature of game shooting.

A friend of mine found a super syndicate on an internet forum, looking for members only some eight to 10 miles from his new home.

This particular syndicate had a falling-out of some sort among its members — something that sadly happens quite frequently when people have different ideas and want things to head in different directions.

Half of the members had left and the other half wanted to continue.

My friend pinged them a message, had an informal meeting with the

If a patch of ground does come up, do your homework. Ask for a proper tour, find out when it was last shot and, if you can, why the previous tenants gave it up. View it with a critical eye. Is it big enough? Are there any pens? Is there good ground cover and warm roosting? Will drives show good birds? Are issues being glossed over such as poaching, public access or problems with a farm over access and crop damage?

Check the lease for unworkable clauses and try to ask locally about the owner. There is nothing underhand about doing so, as they will be doing the same with you.

If you think it fits, sign up. If not, hold hard and keep looking. Not

“There is plenty of poor ground up for lease but it keeps coming up for a reason” community is tight-knit. If something is coming up, someone will know or have heard about it.

If you are part of an existing syndicate and your lease has ended or you just fancy a change but want to try and stay together, finding somewhere new is a little harder.

Finding good ground that will hold and show birds, with a sympathetic landlord who has a genuine interest in the shoot and maybe takes a gun themselves, isn’t easy.

Of course, there is plenty of poor ground up for lease, in fact the same bits keep coming up year on year, but they keep coming up for a reason.

Usually because it is unsuitable for running a shoot, despite what the adverts might say. Somewhere with problems, where the birds are low and the returns lower.

much point in putting your heart into something that is doomed to fail.

Another option to having you own patch of ground, or at least something to tide you over while you and you friends are searching, is to form or join a roving syndicate. They can be fun but aren’t for everyone.

The extra travelling, the added expense and the loss of ownership gives shoot days a different feel to those run by a group of mates who have put the work in themselves.

True, the bag might be higher and the worry less on a bought day, but very often the buzz and banter just aren’t the same. Which is really what it’s all about, and the reason DIY shoots are so popular despite an increase in opportunities to buy some of those smaller days.

If you’re looking for a new shoot, do your homework thoroughly and you won’t regret it

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 37

Rifle test

Ruger 10/22 Deluxe Carbine

T

The design of Ruger’s classic 10/22 semi-auto rimfire is more than 50 years old but it’s still a great rifle, says Bruce Potts

J. POTTS

hink of a .22LR semiautomatic rimfire and you automatically think of the ubiquitous Ruger 10/22.

Since its introduction back in 1964, its design, like so many other good ideas, has lasted and evolved over the years, serving the shooting public well.

Its simple design ensured longevity and ease of maintenance, and the revolutionary 10-shot rotating magazine was both a curse and blessing — you went through a lot of ammo but it was highly efficient.

Since its inception, a number of different models have been added to the range, including synthetic and stainless-steel options, as well as a takedown and target model, but the most popular has to be the

Deluxe walnut version. This offers far better quality both in terms of the walnut and superior handling, while the sporter barrel and inertia recoil action remain. The appeal is the same: lightweight, fast action and good accuracy when fed the correct ammunition.

Ammo issues When these semi-automatics first hit our shores there were issues with reliability of feeding due to the Americans’ love of high-velocity ammunition, and our sedate subsonic rounds were not too compatible.

Today, Ruger’s 10/22 is sprung and designed to feed subsonic ammunition reliably but like all semis it has likes and dislikes.

The Ruger 10/22 is a fine-looking rifle that has stood the test of time

38 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

The stock, on the test rifle, is a big improvement over the standard version in several ways. The hideous barrel clamp that affects accuracy is gone. Instead, you have a wellproportioned and, dare I say it, elegant sporter-style arrangement.

First of all, when it comes to the quality of walnut Black American is pleasant — Ruger always seems to use nice walnut. There is good overall colour, some nice figuring to the butt stock section and it is all finished with a stain lacquer.

The finish is not too thick, so it enhances the walnut beneath and keeps the elements from getting into the wood fibres.

Comfortable grip It’s a simple sporter configuration with a small amount of cast and length of pull of 13.75in, ideal for all statures. There’s no cheekpiece but the comb is sufficiently high for a good cheek weld to the stock and correct eye alignment to a scope.

The fore-end, too, is reasonably long, stretching more than half the barrel length, and is full and rounded enough to afford you a nice, comfortable grip.

Both this area and the pistol grip have simple but well-cut chequering.

The fore-end is not free-floated from the barrel but does have a consistent upward pressure to maintain a good degree of accuracy.

Rifle test

NEED TO KNOW Manufacturer

Sturm, Ruger & Co.

Model

10/22 Deluxe Carbine

Type

Semi-automatic rimfire

Overall length

37in

Barrel length

18.5in

Calibre

.22LR rimfire

Finish

Blued barrel and black action

Weight

5.2lb

Stock

Deluxe walnut

Trigger

Single-stage

Safety

Push-button operation

Scope mounts

Weaver and 11mm rail

Importer

Viking Arms 01423 780810

Price

£491

Finally there are two sling-swivel loops — not the quick-detach kind, which is a pain, as you have to thread the sling through the loops to attach it. The solid black rubber recoil pad affords very good grip.

Action, trigger and safety Ruger chooses to use the simple, reliable and long-lasting inertia or recoil operation for its semiautomatics, like so many other semis on the market. It relies on rearward pressure, or recoil, to cycle the action, so factors such as cartridge type, velocity and bullet diameter, to name but a few, can influence reliability.

Ruger has, over the years, fine-tuned the 10/22 and now most .22 rimfire subsonic ammunition will shoot impeccably.

You still have to keep a semi-auto clean as rimfires lead up, leaving debris and unburnt powder in all the wrong places, and the wax-lubed bullets always attract dirt that can clog any semi-auto rimfire action.

The action is 6.25in long with a black-painted finish and a polished bolt with a single claw extractor that draws the empty case out of the chamber until it is flung clear by the inset-action ejector spur. The action has a single-piece mount fitted as

The Ruger 10/22 has two mounting rails for scopes, an 11mm dovetail and a Weaver-type mount

standard, with two mounting rails.

The upper is for the conventional 11mm dovetail rail and beneath is the Weaver-type attachment, giving an excellent choice for scopes, red dot, lasers or night-vision kit.

Rotary magazine The action is fed by Ruger’s legendary 10-shot rotary magazine that keeps the .22LR rounds snug in a magazine that does not protrude from the action bottom. The release lever, however, does protrude, and a good job, too, as it makes it so much easier for a swift magazine change when out lamping.

The trigger broke at 5.75lb with a bit of creep, granted, but it’s a semi-auto rimfire — it’s what you would expect. It’s fine, in

truth, and the safety is a push-button, cross-bolt type that blocks the trigger and is foolproof.

This model has a slim-profiled sporter-type barrel with a ½in muzzle diameter that is screw-cut for a ½in UNF thread size with thread protector. Internally the barrel is well finished, with a 1 in 16in rifling twist rate and six grooves or rifling lands to stabilise bullets up to 45gr.

At 18½in long it’s a good compromise between length and balance — you could go down to 14½in, and with a sound moderator fitted it would make a super lightweight short carbine for bunnies.

You still get open sights — Ruger usually fits them. A simple blade foresight and folding adjustable rear sight are there if you need them.

Ruger’s 10-shot rotary magazine and (inset) the B&T sound moderator fitted for the test

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 39

Rifle test IN THE FIELD

A

s with any rifles it is best to try out as many different brands, bullet weights and velocities to determine what works best.

Semi-automatics are particularly fussy, so I tried out subsonic, high velocity, lightweight, heavier weights and new polymer-coated rounds, too.

It’s also important to realise that with an inertia semi-automatic, some of the energy is taken out of the fired round and often velocities are slower than with the same ammunition in a simple bolt-action rifle.

I fitted the supplied new Leupold VX-Freedom 3-9x40mm scope, a dedicated rimfire scope with

1,224fps and 133ft/lb and the Federals 1,310fps and 118ft/lb, both grouping about 0.65in to 0.75in.

I also tried the new CCI Clean polymer-coated rounds — although more target-orientated, they shot well. The red-coated HV load shot 1,138fps and the blue-coated subsonic shot 993fps.

I like this Deluxe version — yes, the trigger is heavy but you get used to it, and it’s a lightweight, nice handling little rimfire.

The rotary magazine means you have more on tap to shoot before a reload, and small details such as the quick-release magazine lever and night vision scope-mount all help. I sighted in this test rifle with

The Ruger made short work of a rabbit and squirrel

“The Deluxe is a handsome beast that handled and shot well yet still has that purpose-like build” associated reticule system — very good quality at a good price. I also used a Swiss-made Brügger & Thomet sound moderator, which is light and effective.

First up were the subsonics — if there were going to be any hang-ups, it would be with these slower rounds.

All cycled well except the Norma and RWS, the slowest bullets on test.

The best accuracy came from the Winchester 42gr Max — no surprise here, as the extra weight helps maximise the inertia bolt system, with 1,054fps velocity and 104ft/lb energy and 0.5in, 30yd groups.

The CCI Suppressor rounds use 45gr bullets, so again totally reliable feeding and ejecting. Despite the lower 961fps and 92ft/lb figures they achieved excellent accuracy, with 0.55in, 30yd groups. The CCI Suppressor was quiet and that extra 5gr made sure the 10/22 Ruger semi-auto functioned perfectly. You could feel the extra oomph in the bolt operation.

Eley and CCI Segmented were also good alternative subsonic rounds.

When it comes to high-velocity ammunition, this is where the Ruger really comes into its own — especially with the RWS HV and Federal HV 31gr loads. The RWS achieved

those excellent Winchester 42gr Max loads and headed to a small copse after some squirrels and rabbits. It was chilly and really wet on the woodland floor, so stalking was silent.

I soon had a squirrel scurrying along the ground, turning over leaves to dig up long-hidden acorns, but a single 42gr Max bullet stopped that, with another loaded instantly just in case. A rabbit went the same way with a neck shot and a back-up ready in case I winged him.

CONCLUSION It’s a real testament to the first 10/22s produced that the basic design is still going strong, and they have a loyal following. This Deluxe version is a handsome beast that handled and shot well in the tests yet still has that purpose-like build, so you can just go and get the job done knowing your 10/22 is ready for anything.

Accuracy

Fedthecorrect rimfire ammunition, this rifle shot well for a semi-auto.

17

20

Handling

Lightweight and easy to handle for a variety of different shooters.

16

20

Trigger

Heavy and a bit vague in operation.

15

20

Stock

Deluxe stock is far better than other stock options.

17

20

Value

A little pricey now.

16

20

81

100

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40 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

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Conservation

WITH MIKE SWAN

DRMIKESWAN ISHEADOF EDUCATION ANDTHE SOUTHERN REGIONAL ADVISERFOR THEGAME &WILDLIFE CONSERVATION TRUST

Predator watch When it comes to controlling predators what matters is not the number killed but the impact on vulnerable species, says Mike Swan

A. SYDENHAM / GETTY IMAGES / ALAMY

W

ith the season almost over, my thoughts are already turning to the spring predationcontrol programme.

Running a lowland wild game shoot means that protecting my nesting pheasants and partridges from predation is crucial to success.

But before we set off all guns blazing, it’s good to reflect on predator-prey relationships and how they work.

In an ever more critical conservation world, being sure that your programme is both well targeted and sustainable is essential to being able to argue your case.

The first thing to understand is that it is essential to target the real troublemakers. Most of these are what are known as generalist predators that make their living from a wide

prey base. The fox is perhaps the most serious game predator on most shoots. Foxes will take a huge range of foods, from our precious pheasants and partridges to voles, rabbits, hares, worms and beetles. Add in the food scavenged from human waste and road-kill, and you have a resilient predator for

an important item of fox diet does not mean that fox predation is not an important factor in partridge population dynamics. Indeed, this insignificance of partridges to foxes is one of the reasons why the latter are such serious predators.

When grey partridges die out in a particular area the foxes carry on as

“The important thing is not the tally of predators killed but the impact on the levels of predation” which no single item on the menu is that significant.

This is a crucial point to understand and one that is widely missed by our detractors. The fact that grey partridges are not

42 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

normal, taking other foods and not even noticing that they have gone.

On the other hand, every time a hen partridge takes to sitting still on a nest she becomes highly vulnerable to being found and scoffed by a fox.

Conservation

Corvids have a a big impact on ground nesters

With foxes held at a relatively high density as a result of their wide range of foods, they can impose intolerable predation pressure on partridges and other scarce ground-nesting birds at this critical stage of their life-cycle.

So any suggestion that I should not bother to control foxes in the spring must be overruled — not protecting my partridges at this time of year would be an abdication of duty.

Another cry from detractors, made regularly by the likes of Wild Justice, is that control should only be allowed when there is compelling scientific evidence that the species concerned does serious damage.

Impossible task This is an impossible ask, and many ‘antis’ know it is. Doing properly controlled scientific experiments to measure the effects of predation, species by species, would be

ridiculously expensive, and getting meaningful results would be wellnigh impossible.

Aside from cost, another factor here is compensatory mortality. If you reduce the impact of just one predator species, others are apt to exploit the extra food and cancel out the effect.

GWCT has been at the forefront of predation-control experiments, carrying out flagship studies on Salisbury Plain in the 1980s and the Otterburn Moor in the early 2000s.

These experiments were both costly and comprehensive but they showed that efficient predator control by committed gamekeepers had a dramatic effect in improving the productivity of ground-nesting birds.

On my own shoot, I try to target my limited time where it will have most impact on predation. However, this still means that I set about several other species alongside foxes.

Mike's crow-trapping graph shows an initial rise, but thereafter no real pattern in numbers

I use Larsen traps to control crows and magpies, thin out the rooks and jackdaws if they get too numerous, trap a few stoats and weasels, and use traps and bait to keep rat numbers where they belong. I wish I had time to do more, and I’m sure that if I did we would see more game in the bag and more benefit for farmland birds like corn buntings and skylarks.

The antis complain about the “devastating toll” we have on our wildlife but, again, just adding up numbers is not realistic and tells us nothing about the impact on either predators or prey. In fact, if you ask a gamekeeper about this, the reply will probably be along the lines that “there will always be foxes”. Here again, our detractors are quick to point out that if we have no lasting impact, our efforts are a waste of wildlife lives.

In the middle of all this lies the truth, namely that the effect of controlling predators is only temporary. While this is true, it is also the case that the temporary reduction in numbers takes the pressure off our game, and much other wildlife, too, giving much benefit to declining non-quarry species such as lapwings, curlew and corn buntings.

Predation levels I have kept a full record of my own predation-control results on my little Dorset rough shoot since we started up in 1997. This shows annual variations but with remarkably little in the way of a long-term trend in any of the species controlled.

The graph for crows trapped in Larsens, for example, shows a brief increase in the first few years and then an annual variation around an average of just under 21 from 2000 on.

Meanwhile, there is no denying that we are producing many more wild pheasant broods than we were at the start, and that our wild grey partridges have held on while all around they have declined.

Now, if this were having some long-term impact on the local crow population, there would surely be a declining trend, and there is not.

What this set of figures shows is that we are taking a sustainable ‘crop’ out of the local crow population to produce a sustainable harvest of game. The important thing is not the tally of predators killed but the impact on predation levels.

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 43

Cockers have no difficulty retrieving big cock pheasants

We’re all cocker hoop

D. TOMLINSON

Which is better, cocker or springer? Many would say a springer but the popular cocker is pretty hard to beat, says David Tomlinson IF YOU WERE planning to buy a puppy to train as a rough-shooting and beating dog, which would you get, a springer or a cocker?

It’s a question I was asked recently by a reader. My correspondent added that he had never owned a dog before and that it would be a family pet for much of the year, but a worker most Saturdays during the season.

Former Shooting Times gundog columnist Peter Moxon would have advised an English springer, which he regarded as the ideal rough-shooter’s dog and the best all-rounder.

He backed this up by saying that English springers of working stock “are natural hunters and retrievers, love working in cover and water, and are easy to train”. Apart from the “easy to train” part, I’d agree with all this. Springers can be headstrong and I have come across a few that were as trainable as a wild goshawk.

Moxon’s second choice as a working dog was the cocker — he was an admirer of the breed’s “lovely, fast, happy action” but he thought that cockers tended to be rather more selfish than English springers and not so easy to train.

“A cocker won the stake fair and square and ran 15 springers into the ground” He wrote that 70 years ago, and my feeling is that the modern cocker is a very different dog than it was back in the middle of the past century.

I’d love to know what Moxon would have made of the 21st-century cocker — I suspect he would have been impressed not only with the

smaller dog’s ability but also how biddable the breed has become. Both cockers and springers are bred to do the same thing, so when it comes to work there’s not much to choose between them.

Well-trained examples of either breed will hunt even the densest of cover with the same passion, and both are enthusiastic with similar powers of endurance.

Retrieving I’ve seen even the tiniest of cockers retrieve big cock pheasants, but if you want your dog to retrieve geese then the bigger springer is a better bet.

However, I do recall once shooting a right-and-left at Canadas in Northamptonshire and both birds fell on the far bank of the River Nene. My springer bitch swam to retrieve them but after attempting to pick them up gave me one of those ‘you’ve got to be joking’ looks before swimming

In association with Chudleys: over forty years of highly nutritious food for working dogs 44 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

www.chudleys.com DAVID’S VIEWPOINT

HANDS OFF THE WHEEL

It’s important always to stay alert with your dogs

I

try to avoid clichés whenever I can, and I hope that you don’t spot too many in my writing. However, a recent incident reminded me of the old cliché, ‘hands off the wheel’. I had one of these moments in a car park. I was sitting under the tailgate of my car, pulling my boots on, with my spaniels sitting obediently behind me.

Dogs that jump out of the back of a car as soon as the tailgate is lifted are a danger to themselves, as it is all too easy for them to get run over or struck by a passing car.

My spaniels have been trained to sit until given the command to move, and 99 per cent of the time they do just that. However, on this occasion I hadn’t

back empty-mouthed. The geese were eventually picked by a Labrador.

However, my springer had never been asked to retrieve such a heavy bird before and I’m sure with practice she would have been able to manage.

An old Canada gander might weigh as much as 5kg, so it would be a challenge for a small cocker that might weigh only twice that. If you want your spaniel mainly for pickingup, opt for a springer.

Wildfowling I’ve met a surprising number of springers that were competent wildfowling dogs, but few cockers.

While both breeds may love water, the bigger springer has the advantage of being a more powerful swimmer — an important factor below the sea wall but also significant if retrieving mallard from a flight pond.

But for everything else, do you really need a springer when the smaller dog can cope equally well?

Springers and cockers no longer compete against each other in field trials, so it’s difficult to compare the two hunting the same ground.

My fellow Shooting Times contributor Lindsay Waddell tells me that many years ago he watched his first-ever spaniel trial at Glamis Castle

anticipated that a large white standard poodle would appear from nowhere and gallop up to the back of my car. Both dogs were after it in a flash, leaping out of the car in pursuit.

Fortunately, on this occasion, there wasn’t a problem and within seconds the dogs were back in the car where they belonged, but it was definitely a ‘hands off the wheel’ moment, and a reminder that an unrestrained dog, however well trained, is subject to temptation.

Of course, it wouldn’t have happened if the dogs had been travelling in a cage or crate, which is by far the safest way to transport dogs in a vehicle.

I suspect that ‘hands off the wheel’ is a relatively new saying, and that it replaced ‘hands off the reins’. As anyone who has ridden will tell you, horses have a happy knack of knowing when their rider is relaxing and hasn’t got a firm grip on the reins.

My worst experience of this was out hunting. After a brisk morning there was a

in Angus. It was back in the days when cockers and springers competed against each other and Lindsay was fascinated to see Bill Bremner handle a cocker to victory, “winning the stake fair and square and running 15 springers into the ground”.

Cockers were scarce 30 years ago, but Lindsay was sufficiently impressed to ask Bill whether, if he ever bred any pups, he could have one. A few months later he took delivery of his first cocker, Debbie, beginning “his love affair with the wee dogs, while my days of keeping springers were numbered”.

Don’t leave dogs unrestrained in open vehicles

lull in the action and I decided to extract a chocolate bar from my coat. The hounds found their quarry unexpectedly as I was unwrapping it and the half-dozen horses I was with all set off at a fast canter.

My horse went, too, reins flapping, rider dangerously close to being unseated.

However, I’m pleased to say I didn’t drop my chocolate.

Email: dhtomlinson@btinternet.com

Lindsay trialled his cockers with success. “Debbie and her successors gave me huge pleasure and seldom let me down, with a good number of awards including an open winner.

They also proved exceptional pickingup dogs on the grouse moor.”

Lindsay is one of several people I know who started with springers but switched to cockers. Intriguingly, I’ve never known anyone change from cockers to springers. I’ve had springers for nearly 40 years but I advised my correspondent he was unlikely to go wrong with a good working cocker.

English springers are arguably the most versatile breed of gundog

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 45

46 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

Pheasant

Game Cookery

This Persian stew combines pheasant with the fruits and spices of its native land — and it’s a marriage made in heaven, says Rose Prince

P

heasant is authentically at its best when you go back to its roots — with the flavours of Asia, the bird’s native land.

Originating from the foothills of the Caucasus, pheasant tastes superb when eaten with other ingredients from those regions — the fruits, nuts and spices that give the delicious pilafs, sauces and stews their exotic characteristics.

While we quite rightly like to slather our roast game with rich bread sauce and gravy, recipes from the Middle East are lighter, sharper and perfect for healthy mid-winter eating after the excesses of the festive period.

Fesenjan is one such, a Persian stew made with pomegranate molasses and walnuts that can be adapted to all poultry

Ingredients 3 TBSP EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL 1 PHEASANT, JOINTED SEA SALT FLAKES 1TSPFRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER 1 RED ONION, FINELY CHOPPED 4CLOVESGARLIC,FINELYCHOPPED 300MLCHICKENSTOCK 200G WALNUTS, FINELY GROUND ½TSPGROUNDCINNAMON 100ML POMEGRANATE MOLASSES TO SERVE: 300G PINK WINTER (FORCED) RHUBARB, CUT INTO 2CM STICKS 1 TSP CASTER SUGAR 200G GIANT COUSCOUS 1TBSPEXTRAVIRGINOLIVEOIL HANDFUL FLATLEAF PARSLEY, ROUGHLY CHOPPED

XXXXXX

12 WALNUTS, TOASTED

and most game birds but which I believe is finest made with pheasant.

I made the dish for the first time 20 years ago, having found the recipe in Claudia Roden’s A New Book Of Middle Eastern Food. The essential ingredient, the pomegranate molasses, is a smooth, deep

range, while the Odysea brand is available in Sainsbury’s.

My recipe is close to Roden’s but I have added another ingredient with Asian origins that, like pheasant, also seems very British: the beautiful pink rhubarb from Yorkshire, grown in the dark forcing sheds on farms

“Recipes from the Middle East are lighter, sharper and perfect for healthy mid-winter eating after our festive excesses” red reduction of stewed pomegranates — not too sweet, not too sour.

Back then it was a challenge to find it but it’s now sold in many supermarkets — Waitrose sells it in its ingredients

near Wakefield, Yorkshire. The ‘fruit’ (rhubarb is actually a vegetable) adds a sharp, stimulating kick to the fesenjan.

Serve with couscous as I have done here, rice or boiled small potatoes.

FESENJAN WITH WINTER RHUBARB

THE METHOD

Serves 4

1

Preheat the oven to 170ºC/Gas Mark 3. Place a casserole dish over a medium heat and add the oil. Season the pheasant with salt and pepper and brown the pieces, skin-side down, until golden. Turn them, cook for a minute then remove them from the pan using a slotted utensil so the oil remains in the pan.

2

Add the onion and garlic and cook for about three minutes until the onion softens. Add the chicken stock, ground walnuts, cinnamon and pomegranate molasses and bring to simmering point. Add the pheasant pieces back to the pan, skin-side up, then cover with a lid and bake in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes — until the pheasant is tender enough to come away easily from the bone.

3

The rhubarb and couscous can be prepared while the meat cooks. Put the couscous in a frying

pan with the tablespoon of olive oil and toast over a medium heat until partially golden. Stir as it cooks to prevent it from burning. Add water to the pan (it will sizzle) to a depth of one centimetre. Bring to simmering point and cook gently until the water is absorbed and the couscous is tender.

Add more water if the couscous still has ‘bite’.

4

Meanwhile, put the rhubarb sticks side by side on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Sprinkle over the sugar and bake for 10 minutes until just tender. Remove from the oven and set aside.

5

To serve, spoon the cooked couscous onto a warm serving dish and pour over the sauce — it will be quite thick. Arrange the pheasant pieces on top, then the rhubarb, toasted walnut halves and a sprinkling of parsley.

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 47

SPORTING ANSWERS The experts THE ULTIMATE SHOOTING QUIZ TEAM

Build a close bond with your puppy and make playtime and training time seamless

BILL HARRIMAN BASC’s head of firearms and global authority on guns MAT MANNING Airgunner and journalist from the West Country BRUCE POTTS

Shooting Times rifle reviewer and stalker DAVID TOMLINSON Highly regarded writer and ornithologist LIAM BELL NGO chairman, Shropshire gamekeeper and keen wildfowler GRAHAM DOWNING Shooting consultant and sporting author TONY BUCKWELL Veterinary surgeon with a special interest in gundogs TOM PAYNE Professional shooting instructor and avid pigeon shooter JEREMYHUNT Runs Fenway Labradors and a professional gundog trainer TIMMADDAMS Former head chef at River Cottage and runs a shoot in Devon

D. IRELAND, A. HOOK, M. MANNING, S. FARNSWORTH, J. POTTS, ALAMY

SIMON WHITEHEAD Author, professional ferreter and rabbit controller IAIN WATSON Keen stalker and senior CIC international trophy judge

Contact the team Email: stanswers@ti-media.com By post: Shooting Times, Pinehurst 2, Farnborough Business Park, Hants GU14 7BF

Be his leader, not his boss GUNDOGTRAINING

Two friends have sent young dogs to different trainers. Both have come back knowing their job but appear to be more like machines and neither owner feels they have a real bond with their dogs. I want a close bond with my dog so am going to train him myself.

Advice for a beginner?

There are plenty of excellent trainers who do a great job with young dogs. But it isn’t unusual to hear of the experience of your friends.

You have the advantage of not being parted from your puppy at a critical stage of its development, so you will be able to remain as a constant in his life. I always want a dog to work ‘with’ me and not ‘for’ me — and it’s vital to establish trust and understanding from the start.

Don’t be in a mad panic to begin formal training. Use the early months to develop a bond between you. He must trust and understand you. It’s vital that you learn how to communicate with your puppy through what he can hear and see. Use every opportunity to develop and nurture his response to the things you do and the things you ask him to do. When you are together he needs to be watching you and listening to you as much as possible. You are the leader rather than the boss, so encourage him at all times so that he respects you rather than does what you

48 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

ask out of fear of the consequences of not doing it.

Your relationship with him as he develops should achieve a seamless transition between playtime and training time. To decide suddenly to start training a puppy is not recommended. You become master and commander and the puppy becomes confused, often unruly and resistant.

Too many people new to gundog training have a relationship with a puppy that has defined lines of demarcation between ‘playtime’ and ‘training’. In the early stages these two should almost be as one. Spend the first six months learning how to ‘read’ the puppy and the puppy will also learn how to ‘read’ you. A rapport will be reached that will be the key to making progress through the formal procedures necessary to produce a fully trained gundog.

Get this right and you won’t have to suffer the battle of wills I see so many people having to endure to enforce each stage of training. Yes, it will all go wrong from time to time but if the foundations of trust are there the pear-shaped moments will be short-lived.

Dogs don’t set out to make life difficult. In most cases, well-bred gundogs that are proving difficult to train are simply unaware of what’s wanted from them. You are asking a question but they don’t know how to deliver the answer because they aren’t ‘in tune’ with the owner. JH

Expert tips and advice

Catch up healthy birds GAMEKEEPING

We are planning to catch-up laying stock for a friend. What should we look for when we are crating them up?

All stock needs to be fit and healthy. The birds should be in good condition — neither too fat nor too thin — show no signs of any physical

deformities, injuries or illnesses, and be well feathered and sleek looking.

As far as stock selection goes, it is nigh on impossible to select hen birds on type or strain, but relatively easy as far as the cocks go. Ask your friend what type of cock birds he is looking for — if he doesn’t have enough already — and see if yours fit the bill. You need to catch up during the shooting season to stay within the law. LB

Risk of feeding a raw diet VETERINARY CARE

I am keen to feed my dog a raw diet but am put off by the risk of food-borne illnesses such as salmonella. How can I be assured of the safety of raw ingredients?

Raw feeding is regarded by many as the most natural way to feed a dog. Over the past few years it has undergone something of a renaissance to become a popular means of feeding gundogs in the UK. Raw feeding also has its critics and among the risks most commonly cited is that of illnesses such as salmonella and campylobacter.

The reason for some concern is that the term ‘raw feeding’ seems to be interpreted by some — particularly those who criticise the practice — as equating to the feeding of uncooked chicken carcases. That is not what is intended in any recommendation I may make concerning the feeding of raw diets. When referring to raw feeding, I mean the feeding of uncooked food items that are otherwise suitable for human consumption.

The feeding of raw chicken carcases is not recommended for dogs, though many will claim otherwise. Chicken bones are brittle and can splinter to damage and potentially penetrate the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, and unless properly sourced and suitably processed, chicken meat can be a cause of bacterial food poisoning.

Many people prepare their own feed for their dogs, typically using frozen ingredients. A number of companies sell specifically processed raw feeds and have developed pre-prepared complete raw foods in the form of frozen blocks or nuggets that provide all of the benefits of raw feeding with the convenience of a conventional dog food. The reputable manufacturers will routinely test for salmonellosis according to EU legislation and should, if you enquire, test for campylobacter voluntarily. Their manufacturing plants will be registered and monitored by Defra and, to all intents and purposes, their food standards will be as good as that of the comparable large pet feed companies that manufacture conventional complete feeds. TB Reputable companies will test for salmonellosis and campylobacter

Native Britain

Plants, flowers and fungi of Great Britain at a glance Latin name: Arum maculatum Common name: Lords-and-ladies Other names: Cuckoopint, wakerobin, bloody man’s finger, Jackin-the-pulpit, devils and angels, snake’s head How to spot it and where to find it: This perennial loves shade and can be found in woodlands and hedgerows. You might see it now as it pushes its first arrow-shaped leaves through the bare soil in late winter and early spring. The flowers — which appear in April and May — form on a tube-like structure called a spadix. In autumn, they are replaced by a spike of bright orange berries.

Interesting facts: Despite its elegant name, this plant has to attract flies for pollination and releases a sharp odour rather like urine. The berries are toxic but the tuberous roots are edible when baked. They produce starch similar to arrowroot that was used as a thickener called Portland sago, after an island in Dorset.

Arum starch was used for stiffening ruffs in Elizabethan times.

Pity the poor laundress, however, as renowned herbalist John Gerard wrote: “The most pure and white starch is made of the rootes of the Cuckoo-pint, but most hurtful for the hands of the laundresse that have the handling of it, for it chappeth, blistereth, and maketh the hands rough and rugged and withall smarting.”

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 49

SPORTING ANSWERS

A death’s head in the garden MOTHS

Last August I found a death’s-head hawkmoth in the potato patch of my Kentish garden. I know that these impressive moths are rare in England, but just how unusual are they?

This magnificent moth, with the distinctive skull pattern on its thorax, is a scarce but regular visitor to the UK, and a few are recorded every year. Most records come from southern counties, but they have been recorded as far north as the Shetland Islands. The death’s-head is a Mediterranean species, regularly migrating north, with overshooting individuals reaching Britain between May and September. They breed on potato plants, hence the location of the individual you found. They are the largest of the hawkmoths to be found in Europe. They have an unusual defence mechanism — they squeak rather like a mouse when they are handled. DT

Concern over hip scores GUNDOGTRAINING

I have a four-year-old Labrador bitch that I had intended breeding from, but her hip scores have turned out to be higher than we expected — not too bad but not good enough that we feel we should breed from her. However, I am now concerned that as my shooting dog and the fact that she has to pick-up over some testing ground, I may be putting her at risk because of her hips. She is and always has been active, agile and healthy. What do you think we should do?

You are doing the right thing by not breeding from her. Continuing with her as a shooting dog should be fine, given that you say she remains agile and keen to do the job and clearly the vet would have given you some precise advice if it were thought her lifestyle must change.

We have all known shooting dogs that have been hip tested and have continued gundog work well into their latter years, despite X-rays that advised they should not be bred from. The hip issue is a constant among breeders who strive for low hip scores in their dogs. Because you are now aware of her hip situation, you can implement certain approaches to her life that

will hopefully enable her to continue working and enjoying her days out with you.

You say you have testing ground on your shooting days. It would therefore be advisable not to put her into situations where she may be more at risk from strain or injury, to which she may become more prone as she gets older. There’s no need to wrap her in cotton wool but simply be mindful of her vulnerability. If there are birds to be picked that you know will ask a lot of any dog, not only her, try to avoid them if possible.

On the practical side, give her a joint supplement — there are many on the market — or speak to your vet. Make sure she is well dried off at lunchtime on a shoot day if there is a break and conditions have been wet. You don’t want her to be chilled — you could consider a fleece jacket for her when she has finished her working day for the journey home.

And depending on what you do with her outside the shooting season, it would definitely be worth taking her to a dog hydrotherapy pool from time to time — and certainly in the build up to the season — as an aid to getting her fit and supple. Remember that the information you have about her hips can be used positively if you have the right approach to her management. JH

The death’s-head hawkmoth is easily identified by the skull pattern on its thorax

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Expert tips and advice

Preparing a Better performance downy duck AMMUNITION

GAME COOKING

We recently went on a driven duck day shooting as guests of a friend. I had not shot driven duck before and thought that I would not really like it, but it was done very well, with the ducks heading from one place to another rather than going around a pond. It was sporting and great fun. I ended up with six brace of mallard. I tried plucking a couple but they are covered in tiny downy feathers and I don’t know how to get round that problem. I suppose I could breast them out but then I will not get the skin.

What do you suggest?

Actually, after testing both the rounds you mentioned in ballistic media to see the true down-range performance, I was quite surprised.

The newer 42gr bullet looks similar to the original 40gr hollowpoint lead bullet design but performs better.

Any ammunition that produces more humane kills has to be a good thing, whatever you are shooting

by Diggory Hadoke

W.J. Jeffery established something of a reputation for making big rifles.

In its 1930 catalogue it promoted what was then a novelty, described as delivering “energy almost that of a double .577 Cordite Express Rifle”. The cartridge had a bottle-necked case with a rebated rim, seating a metal-coated, lead-cored bullet.

The cartridge and the rifle were promoted together, the concept being a purpose-built standard Mauser magazine rifle with a powerful cartridge,

THE .500 JEFFERY

W S E E N RI E S

You are quite right in your thinking — breasting them out is fine and the meat works very well for stir-fries, burgers, sautés and that sort of thing. However, as you point out, you will lose the fat from the breast skin and the bones. Mallard bones make one of the very best stocks, one that I often use to great effect as an elevenses hot cup in place of the more common bullshot.

So how to proceed?

First, I’d suggest that perhaps not all the ducks will have this extra annoying layer of tiny, downy feathers. It may be worth testing a few of the others, select the least bothersome ones to pluck and then breast out the rest. This makes a good compromise.

Another good tip is to pluck and dress the birds as normal, rubbing off as much of the fluff as you can then use a blowtorch to burn of the remaining fluff and quills. TM

Does the Winchester 42Max rimfire ammunition perform better than the original 40gr bullet does?

By this I mean accuracy is still very good — it always has been — but that extra two grains of weight, and truncated bullet design with wide hollowpoint tip, make a significant increase in wound channel volume.

The standard 40gr bullet produces a 12.65ml volume wound channel, while the 42gr Max bullet produces 18.5ml at the same range with a much larger cavity all round. That means higher energy transfer downrange for more humane kills, which is good in my book. BP

designed to stop the heaviest game.

At the time, double rifles were expensive and magazine rifles were not always strong enough to handle the biggest loads.

The Jeffery .500 was a 535gr bullet with a velocity of 2,400fps and a muzzle energy of 6,800ft/lb. That rivals a then popular double-rifle cartridge, introduced

by Lang in 1907; the .470 Nitro Express, offering magazine rifle buyers a dependable heavy gun (10½lb) at half the cost of an equivalent double.

Breast meat is delicious in stir fries, burgers and sautés, but the skin and fat are sublime

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 51

SPORTING ANSWERS

Optics options AIRGUNNING

I have been shooting airguns for more than two decades. Over recent years, I have seen more and more shooters switching to expensive night-vision gear for after-dark pest control.

Is this hi-tech kit really worth the money or are people simply using it because it is fashionable?

Though some modern night-vision optics are ridiculously expensive, plenty of the more affordable models are well worth the

money. I still use traditional lamping kit and, though I appreciate its simplicity and affordability, my results are never as good as when I’m using nightvision gear.

Night-vision kit that’s suitable for targeting rabbits and rats with an air rifle tends to cost between £300 and £1,000. It’s not cheap, and I would certainly describe it as a considered purchase, but if you’re out several nights a week and have a lot of pests to deal with, the extra stealth of going lamp-free makes a huge difference. MM

Modern night-vision equipment is not cheap but the added stealth of going lamp-free can make a huge difference to results

Crossword / Compiled by Eric Linden/1440 Across 1 Jumps onto shotgun components (7) 7 Olympic flame carrier useful for after-dark activities (5) 8 Unofficial detectives get on with a Scottish gunmaker (7) 9 Gundog command, execution delayed (4) 10 Take a dim view of conditions putting scopes to the test (3,5) 11 A muntjac beside the ocean (6) 13 Do fear replacing a hat (6) 16 Unsteady hunting dogs? (8) 18 In a club lurking inside, the scope image is not at all clear (4)

20 A shout on the golf course to finish a gun section (4-3) 21 The bird of prey is legally contained, so to speak (5) 22 Destinations for hopping over perhaps to Lindisfarne and Brownsea, and so on (7)

Down 2 A duck goes to the post office for a Swiss vegetable (7) 3 The shooting federation initially dismiss fears of inclusion (4) 4 A retriever, for example, brings a rifle to the hound (6) 5 Love to make the call for a seal (1-4) 6 Shaggy dog stories are not appropriate for this German pointer! (11)

Solution 1438 / 8 January 2020

TO CATCH A FISH Daddy-long-legs fly This replicates the crane fly, which is more commonly known as the daddy-long-legs.

The fishing flies come in all shapes, sizes and colours. Sometimes called ‘daddies’, their major feature is the legs.

Using a floating line and tapered leader the fly presents itself nicely for trout. The

crane fly hatches from June to September so this would be the best time to try and catch some trout with some ‘daddies’. EW

52 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

Across: 6. Heather moors 8. Plastic 9. Spent 10. Eley 11. Edward 14. Scroll 16. Beta 19. River 20. Crosses 21. Lake District Down: 1. Whippet 2. Managers 3. White 4. Crocodile clip 5. Copper 7. Sand

7 A shotgun bore is top of the clocks! (6) 8 Dishes out punishment according to the different forms of clay shooting (11) 12 A horse is wandering on dry land (6) 14 A gun lubricant for the ranked tennis player comes from a rape crop (7) 15 One hundred forts are in ruins on agricultural pieces of land (6) 17 At the shooting facility, ammunition only goes so far (5) 19 The boar eases through a place of Ecological Focus (4)

12. Deerskin 13. Bassets 15. Creeks 17. Jill 18. Boots MYSTERY WORD: SPANIEL WINNER: R.BAILEY, BIRMINGHAM

Howtoenter To enter our crossword competition, identify the word in the shaded squares and you could win a Fur Feather & Fin Anti-Corrosive gun sleeve (suitable for barrels up to 32in).

Cut out this coupon and send to: Shooting Times Crossword No 1440, Shooting Times, Pinehurst 2, Farnborough Business Park, Hants GU14 7BF Name: Address:

Postcode: Tel no: Mystery word: Rules: Entries must be received by 29 January 2020.All usual conditions apply. Solution and winner will appear in the 5 February 2020 issue.

Photocopies accepted.

Kennel Diary

Hunting

To ensure the future of hunting we must spread the word and involve the whole countryside in our sport

C

hristmas for a huntsman is not what you might call relaxing.

Enjoyable as I find this time of year, it is inevitably the busiest period of the hunting calendar.

Apart from the obvious high-profile events on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, there are extra days added as well.

Children’s meets are a popular occasion over the festive period.

The young are the future of the countryside and hunting, and we must encourage them whenever possible.

However, the extra days come with extra pressures for all involved — hounds and horses, as well as human.

At the South Durham hunt we normally go out two days a week but during Christmas this can double to four, and managing it properly and making sure every hound in the kennels is available should its name be on the team sheet is vital.

Identifying injuries Animals cannot tell you when they are not right, so a sharp eye for identifying injuries is important. Ask someone to stand and look at 70 or 80 hounds and pick out one that is slightly lame and they would struggle.

This ability comes from years of experience. Before I hunted hounds for the

first time I spent 12 seasons as a whipperin, learning from some of this country’s most experienced huntsmen.

This knowledge is vital when taking on a pack of hounds yourself and it cannot be learnt overnight. When I first became a whipper-in I was given a useful piece of advice: “Don’t spend all your time in one place, work for a number of different men.”

“As I watched my hounds in full cry I thought, ‘Blimey, they pay me for this’” Wise words. This enabled me not only to see how different people did things and to hand-pick the best of what I saw to use myself, but also to experience hunting in different parts of the country.

Hunting in East Anglia is wildly different to South Wales, just as the South-East is to County Durham — the way in which you hunt, the different scenting conditions in different types of country, how that affects the sport you provide and so forth. It all goes into the memory bank ready to be called on should the need arise. There are no short cuts, you have to see it and do it.

For young men and women who aspire to hunt hounds, the Master of Foxhounds Association runs a bursary scheme providing a way to gain experience working

The master leads the foxhounds out for the South Durham hunt as they head off trail hunting ALAMY

under some of Britain’s best huntsmen.

They also run excellent training seminars during the summer months, furthering the knowledge of the up-and-coming huntsmen and women of tomorrow.

Thankfully there are still plenty of people keen to work with hounds even under the pressures of the Hunting Act, and they must be applauded.

Making sure we have enough country to hunt over is vital — this means visiting farmers and landowners, and liaising with gamekeepers and farm managers.

Farmers’ generosity Despite the horrendously wet weather we have experienced, hounds have always been welcomed and that is a huge testament to the generosity of farmers.

Maintaining good relationships like these are of the upmost importance.

When it goes right, all the long hours and extra pressures are forgotten. As I watched my hounds in full cry crossing some lovely old turf on Boxing Day, their cries echoing across the valley, I thought to myself, “Blimey… they pay me for this.”

Life returns to normal for a few weeks until the end of January, which signals the end of the shooting season. This means certain parts of the country, usually off limits due to shooting interests, become available to hunt again. I have heard some old huntsmen refer to the beginning of February as the Glorious 1st.

We are planning a Countryman’s Day towards the end of the season when we will encourage as many farmers and gamekeepers as possible to ride for a day’s hunting. Why not join in?

Harry Beeby lives in County Durham, is a keen huntsman and a dedicated conservationist with a passion for country sports.

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 53

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Gunroom

Bill Harriman

Of the many gunmakers working in London in the mid-19th century, action maker Edwin Hodges is perhaps the most overlooked

O

ver the Christmas break I was shown a gun by Edwin Hodges by a guest at our shoot. I hadn’t heard of him before and a bit of quick research on the mobile revealed him to be an actioner to the London gun trade.

Initially I thought he was just an obscure craftsman but, in fact, he was a major player and produced guns in his own name.

Edwin Charles Hodges was the son of Edward Hodges, a leather dresser. He was born on 9 October 1831 in Bermondsey.

At 14, Edwin was apprenticed to his uncle, Ebenezer, a gun-barrel maker in Camden.

In August 1852, Ebenezer emigrated to Australia. As Edwin had completed his apprenticeship, he set up his own business as an action filer and gunmaker at 23 St James’s Street, Islington.

Great Exhibition It is sometimes said that Edwin was so impressed with the breech-loading shotguns he saw at the Great Exhibition in 1851 that he badgered Joseph Lang to build them in England. However, this charming story of youthful enthusiasm is without foundation.

On 22 December 1855 Edwin married Emma Lane. In 1858 he and his family moved to 8 Florence Street, Islington, which had a workshop attached. Edwin’s business prospered and in the 1861 census he was recorded as a master gun-action maker employing two men and three boys. One of his employees was John Wilkes, who later set up his own business in London.

In 1862 Edwin exhibited improved breech-loading actions at the International Exhibition in South Kensington. One of his customers was Thomas Boss and in 1858 he worked on the first breech-loading shotgun built by Boss. In 1864 he actioned a pair of 12-bore pin-fire guns for Boss.

In the 1871 census, Edwin was recorded as employing nine men and three boys — one of his sons, Lionel, followed his

Much of his output seems to have gone to Henry Atkin.

Edwin was an ingenious inventor, too. From 1865-1899 he was granted six patents. His most successful design was the side-lever, snap-action mechanism that he patented with Stephen Grant in 1871. The side lever became the signature feature of Grant’s guns thereafter, and Hodges’ part in its genesis is largely forgotten.

“One of his customers was Thomas Boss and in 1858 he worked on the first breech-loading shotgun built by Boss” father into the trade as a stocker. An 1876 advertisement in the The Field magazine described the firm as “gun and rifle manufacturers”, established for 24 years.

On offer were patent guns built to several designs, a service revolver, ammunition of all types and “every requisite for shooting”.

In the same year, further premises were acquired at 95 Mount Street to cater for trade customers in the West End. In 1881, the Mayfair branch moved to 69 Ebury Street and then to 34 South Audley Street in 1884. Two years later, the only address listed was 8 Florence Street, so perhaps having two premises became uneconomic.

Edwin Hodges worked for most of the best makers in the London trade, including Purdey, Lang & Hussey and Stephen Grant.

In 1886 a young man called Ernest Charles Lawrence became an apprentice actioner with the firm. He would go on to work for Woodward and Purdey’s.

Edwin retired to Golders Green in 1919 and died on 10 February 1925. He lies next to his wife, Emma, in East Finchley cemetery.

His son, Lionel – known as Leo – managed Henry Atkin until his death in 1941.

As an actioner, most of Hodges’ work was anonymous. So it’s nice to find his name on a gun and see a tangible example of the work of someone who made such a great contribution to the London gun trade.

Some 33 Hodges guns are still registered in the UK. If you have a Hodges mark or name on your gun, the family would like to hear from you — visit hodgesgunmakers. yolasite.com for more information.

One of EC Hodge’s first guns made under his own name

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 55

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Alasdair Mitchell

Sharpshooter As my mother-in-law will testify, age is just a number. Joking aside, let’s make an effort to get potential silver shooters out into the field

I

n a recent column (Sharpshooter, 11 December), I explained my delight in discovering that a Labrador I had assumed was a mere pet turned out to have a natural affinity for retrieving.

However, the dog’s owner read my piece and took umbrage at my description of her as “an elderly relative”. The relative in question is my mother-in-law. The word she objected to was “elderly”.

In my defence, I reminded her gently that she is in her 88th year. But I could see she was unimpressed at my attempt to wriggle off the hook.

I should explain that she is a solicitor and still has a practising certificate; she goes into the office most mornings. She doesn’t regard herself as “elderly”. And good for her. Many lazy assumptions about age are being turned on their heads these days.

The observable fact is that mere age is not, in itself, a bar to any countryside activity. Just look at Yuichiro Miura — a Japanese mountaineer. In 2013 he climbed Mount Everest. On the day he reached the summit his age was 80 years and 224 days.

Or look at the video footage of George Jedenoff skiing in powder snow in Utah at the age of 101. Back in 2014 he told an interviewer: “Age is just a number. Forget about the number and live each day you

get, and you’re gonna last much longer.”

Meanwhile, in November a lady called Florence Teeters bagged a buck on the first day of the deer season in Wisconsin.

It was her first deer, ever. Oh, and she just happens to be 104 years old.

The head of Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources told a local newspaper: “We join the rest of Wisconsinites in celebrating her outstanding accomplishment. On behalf

“Are we neglecting elderly newcomers?

These senior folk should not be written off” of the DNR, we thank Mrs Teeters for her participation in this year’s annual gun deer hunt and for helping keep Wisconsin’s hunting heritage alive. This proves that Wisconsin’s gun deer-hunting season is for every generation.”

God bless America. Can you imagine a body like Natural Resources Wales issuing that sort of plaudit? On this side of the pond, the Daily Mirror carried the story

under the headline: ‘Elderly woman, 104, guns down deer on her first day of hunting’.

We hear a great deal about encouraging youngsters into fieldsports, but are we neglecting elderly newcomers? These senior folk should not be written off. Many have time on their hands and want to keep up their physical mobility. Fishing or following the local hunt in a car might seem appropriate. But some are capable of more strenuous pursuits as long as they take things at their own pace.

I accompanied my father-in-law when he went stalking for his first stag in his seventies. He was a life-long game shooter but had never been stalking.

On the day, the weather was appalling.

But he was an excellent tactician and it got him to a stag, which he then dropped neatly. The beast had a very moderate head but my father-in-law was delighted.

The achievement seemed to take years off him.

Later that week, while staying at a hotel in Perthshire, he summoned a waiter.

Proffering a carrier bag containing the skull and antlers, he asked blithely: “Would you be kind enough to boil my head?” To its credit, the hotel performed the task without further ado. Senior citizens often exude a certain sense of authority.

DOG BY KEITH REYNOLDS

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