6 MAY 2020 Since 1882

Pigeon Goat
stalking

over
As tasty as
they are
testing

peas

HARE COURSING

A victim of
ignorance?
CAPERCAILLIE

Why there
are so few

FISHING TRUCK TEST

MONSTERS THE NEW HILUX: A

ON THE FLY TOP SHOOT PICKUP
 DOG OF THE WEEK
Shooting Times recommends chudleys.com
Fuelling gundogs for generations

Betty
Five-year-old springer Betty loves going in the hide for a spot of pest control, but is less partial to the downy feathers
that pigeon possess. She is always banging her head, be it on a table or door frame, hence her nickname ‘Bumpy’.

Owned and photographed by William Bone

 6 Issues
06.05.20
Issue 6,191
for £6
*

For less than the cost of a driven

Finishing the job pheasant, get the best blend of shooting,
I keep reading that news, product reviews and keepering SALE
during lockdown, lots advice, delivered every Wednesday
of us are having bizarre
dreams. The thinking, shootingtimessubs.co.uk/sub20
from Sigmund Freud
types, is that when we dream we are

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Cast aside that flabby
processing troubling memories.
In a sense we are dealing,
Digital game ** chicken and get more
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business. Needless to say this new
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been very troubling.
I am not ordinarily a dreamer but
over the past fortnight, I have awoken,
on three occasions, from a vivid
vignette in which I’m in the Hebrides
and a covey of grouse flushes over a
lochen, only for me to miss with both
barrels. I’m not sure psychoanalysts
would think it worth studying but in
the sportsman’s mind, it’s certainly
a case of unfinished business. Cut to the chase A passion for pike
Optimistically, I’m working on the
14 A history of hare coursing
17 Fishing for monsters in the sunshine
basis that it will be possible to get out
shooting in the autumn and last week
I booked a walked-up day in Ross-shire.
Under the circumstances, I’m looking
forward to it with childlike excitement.
I only hope that by the time the leaves
start falling from the trees, we will be
able to look back and say it wasn’t as
bad for rural jobs as we feared and
perhaps, unlike in that dream, I’ll
put the shot in the right place. No poults, no problem Slipping out of our grasp
20 The joys of a wild bird shoot
27 Is there hope for the capercaillie?
Patrick Galbraith, Editor

Follow Patrick on Twitter

@paddycgalbraith

Contents
NEWS & OPINION REGULARS
06 NEWS 12 COUNTRY DIARY Vehicle test — Toyota Hilux Irish stalker
34 A workhorse pickup with style
36 Managing Kerry’s feral goat herds
10 LETTERS 33 GAMEKEEPER
FEATURES 34 VEHICLE TEST
14 HISTORY 36 STALKING
17 FISHING 44 GUNDOGS
20 GAME SHOOTING 46 VINTAGE TIMES
24 STALKING 48 COOKERY
27 GAMEBIRDS 50 SPORTING
30 BOOK EXTRACT ANSWERS
38 PIGEON 54 PRODUCTS
SHOOTING 55 THE GOOD LIFE
41 AIRGUNNING 58 SHARPSHOOTER Pigeon shooting over peas Game cookery
38 Protecting food production
48 Pigeon breast bruschetta

4 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

 Coronavirus Appeal
Never before have we seen so much demand from
the charities we support and we are responding by
providing as much food as we can.

We have launched an appeal to raise funds to provide

an additional 250,000 meals to all people in need and
frontline providers affected by COVID-19.

We cannot do this without your support -

please make a donation if you can

virginmoneygiving.com/fund/CFT-Coronavirus
 NEWS
Moorland groups have
raised concerns about
unauthorised cutting
Heather cutting on moor
spells disaster for birdlife
Fears for the welfare of red-listed ground-nesting birds on Yorkshire
moors as tractors are spotted cutting heather on council-owned land
F
ieldsports enthusiasts
have exposed
unauthorised heather
cutting on council-
owned moorland in Yorkshire.
A vigilant local shooting
enthusiast spotted a tractor
cutting vegetation on the moor
during the breeding season
for ground-nesting birds. If
cutting destroys nests, it is an
offence under the Wildlife and
Countryside Act 1981.
The man, who wishes to
remain anonymous, filmed the
work and passed the video to the
Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group,
which posted it on Facebook.
Fieldsports and conservation
organisations were quick to
ALAMY / GETTY IMAGES
condemn the activity.
“It is truly heart-breaking for
our ground-nesting red-listed
birds at this time of year,” said
6 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
Sonya Wiggins of Yorkshire Dales
Moorland Group.
Using their local knowledge
and contacts, other local
shooters — including Nic Smith
and members of the Campaign to
ProtectMoorlandCommunities—
launched their own investigation
“Residents raised concerns
about the cutting of heather on
the moor and its effect on birds”
and traced a suspected tractor
and mower. Local sources told
Shooting Times that heather
has been cut on the moor for
a number of years without any
action being taken. We put the
allegations to the business but
had received no response at the
time of writing.
The shooters also raised
the matter with Bradford City
Council, which owns the moor.
The council denied authorising
the cutting and, in a series of
social media posts, said it had
reported the matter to the police
and to Natural England.
However, questions remain
about Bradford City Council’s
ability to properly protect the
moor. Fieldsports activist Simon
Grace, who lives in the area,
commented: “Either Bradford
City Council knew this cutting
was taking place and allowed it
to go ahead or it doesn’t know
what is happening on its own
land. Either way, it clearly is
not able to manage sensitive
moorland habitats properly. Two
years ago it decided to take over
management of Ilkley Moor from
local gamekeepers, even though
it can’t cope with its other land.”
We can reveal that local
residents spoke to Natural
England in June 2018 to raise
concerns about the cutting
of heather on the moor and its
effect on birds. A Natural England
officer visited the site, but no
action was taken.
The illegal cutting of the
moor is now the subject of a joint
investigation between Natural
England and the police. Bradford
City Council had not responded
to our request for comment at the
time of going to press.
Matt Cross

COVID affects vital control
BASC is urging the police to
be consistent in the COVID-19
advice given to the shooting
community amid reports that
some forces have blocked
essential fox control during
the lambing season.
Duncan Thomas, regional
director of BASC North, said:
“Some forces are getting
this right and some forces
are getting it wrong. But with
lambing season in full flow,
a refusal to allow essential
fox and crow control is of
significant concern for
farmers’ livelihoods and
the lambs’ welfare.
“It is a nonsense to
suggest that this work
can only be done by paid
‘professionals’,” he added.
“The countryside does
not operate like that and
BASC is challenging this
with the police.”
Fox shooter and Shooting
Times reader Eric Zwiggelaar
said: “At this time of year fox
Positive signs for the crane
Cranes are establishing a
foothold in Britain again with
200 of the birds now calling
the UK home. Cranes were
once quite common in the UK
and were frequently featured
in medieval banquets, but
by the late 1600s they were
extinct. In the late 1970s a
small number began to nest
in Norfolk and the population
has steadily grown.
Cranes were once common in the UK but were extinct by the 1600s; they are now bouncing back here
Email your stories / STeditorials@ti-media.com
Fox control is more essential now with lambing season in full flow
control is vital for livestock
as this is when sheep are
lambing. It is also vital for
wildlife, particularly for
nesting birds. We are starting
to get lapwings back on the
They recolonised
Scotland in 2012 and Wales
in 2016. The population has
been boosted by habitat
conservation and hand-
rearing and releasing
crane chicks.
Damon Bridge, chairman
of the UK Crane Working
Group, said: “The increase
of cranes over the past few
years shows just how resilient
ground where I have been
shooting foxes and recently
we saw a partridge, the first
one around here for 18 years.
This is the most important
time to protect them.”
nature can be when given
the chance. With the support
of our wonderful partners
we’ve been able to recreate
more and more of the cranes’
natural habitat, giving them a
place to recuperate after the
winter and raise their chicks.
They are not yet out of the
woods, but their continued
population climb year after
year is a very positive sign.”
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 7
Weekend Twitter poll
What’s your favourite bird to see when
you’re fishing?
4% Heron
5% Teal
4% Oystercatcher
87% Kingfisher
follow us @shootingtimes Respondents: 244
To do this week
Stepupgarden
CONTROL
pest control.
With birds now busily nesting, this is the
time to deploy maximum effort to keep
them safe. To legally control pest birds
they must be causing serious damage;
however, pest mammals such as rats
and grey squirrels can be hit as hard as
possible to give birds the best chance.
Lookandlistenout
LOOK forcuckoos.Ifyour
dailyexercisetakesyounearareasof
woodland,youmaywellbeabletohear
cuckooscallingorevenspottheir
distinctivehawk-shapedsilhouettes.
Thefirstlargebandsofswiftsshould
alsoarrivesoon;theirsilhouetteisoften
describedasanchor shaped and their
cry is a ‘scream’.
 NEWS
Curlew chicks are under
threat of predation by
corvids and gulls
Ban on corvid control
threatens our curlew
GWCT warns that Britain’s ‘globally important’ curlew population is
under threat of predation by crows and gulls due to licensing red tape
A stark warning that the English curlew
population faces potential disaster has come
from the GWCT.
The Trust’s director of communications,
Andrew Gilruth, said: “If we want to stop the
curlew going the way of many other birds —
such as the corncrake and the nightjar — we
need Defra to allow landowners to resume
protecting the curlew’s young on their most
important English breeding grounds, just as
they can in Scotland and Wales.”
“A study found 70% of European curlew
S FARNSWORTH / P QUAGLIANA / ALAMY
nests failed to hatch a single chick”
Changes to the general licences for
England, introduced after a legal challenge
by Wild Justice, limited the use of licences on
Special Protection Areas and Special Areas of
Conservation (News, 19 June 2019). Instead,
8 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
wildlife managers are required to seek
special licences from Natural England
to control crows, which are voracious
predators of curlew chicks.
However, Natural England has so far
failed to issue the licences for 2020. This
means that abundant carrion crows cannot
be controlled to protect vanishing curlew on
England’s most sensitive sites.
Curlew also face a threat from gulls.
Herring and black-backed gulls could
previously be controlled under the general
licences. New restrictions have been
introduced and a quota has been set for
the total number of gulls that can be killed
in rural areas.
Gamekeepers across the country who
have applied for licences to protect wild
birds including curlew may well be facing
disappointment. According to a blog by
Dave Slater, Natural England’s director
of wildlife licensing: “The scale of lethal
control of these gulls that has been applied
for is considerably greater than the levels
of lethal control which Natural England has
concluded are ecologically acceptable for
these species. We understand that some
applicants will be disappointed if they do
not receive licences.”
Britain is home to a globally important
population of curlew and the bird is one
of Britain’s top conservation priorities.
Scientists have found that the reason the
bird is declining is poor breeding success,
with one study finding 70% of European
curlew nests failing to hatch a single chick.
Matt Cross

Gamekeepers help to
fight raging Tayside fire
A team of gamekeepers
have saved nesting birds
from yet another wildfire.
Six keepers from the Tayside
and Central Scotland
Moorland Group rushed to
the scene after smoke was
spotted. They used high-
powered leaf-blowers and
a tractor fitted with a mower
to bring the blaze under
control. Their swift action
prevented the flames from
reaching areas where birds
were nesting and restricted
the blaze to only three acres.
Alice Bugden, co-
ordinator of Tayside and
Central Scotland Moorland
Group, said: “Because of
their skills in managing
controlled muirburn, local
keepers have a lot of fire
Following Abbie’s habits
Satellite tags fitted to
woodcock by the GWCT
have unexpectedly sprung
back to life. The tags fitted
to two birds suddenly began
transmitting locations again
earlier this month.
GWCT tags on two woodcock have been sending signals again
knowledge and equipment
to help. They have all pretty
much signed up to assist,
when called upon.”
Sadly, another much
larger fire has caused
devastating damage in
the Tay estuary, where the
internationally important
Tay reedbeds caught
Scottish gamekeepers’ experience of muirburn has proved helpful
One of the birds whose
movements Shooting Times
has been able to follow
is Fonthill Abbie II. Last
autumn we reported that
this bird seemed to be on
her way to the UK for the
Email your stories / STeditorials@ti-media.com
alight. The 40ft-high flames
swept through the reeds,
destroying nearly two miles
of habitat for bearded tits
and marsh harriers. The
blaze was finally brought
under control by firefighters
backed up by a helicopter
dropping river water on to
the flames.
winter as she moved steadily
eastwards from Russia
(News, 30 October 2019).
True to her name, her
tag placed her just outside
Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire
in early March. Now there
may have been a glimpse
of her return journey. By
17 March she had arrived
in eastern Poland near the
town of Bezledy. She spent
12 days in woodland there
before heading east.
By early April she was in
western Russia on farmland
near the town of Zarubino.
She continued eastwards
and her latest transmissions
were from a huge area of
woodland and lakes on the
border of the Novgorod
and Leningrad oblasts.
Around the same time
as Abbie’s most recent
transmission, the tag fitted
to a bird named Holkham
— which was caught and
tagged in Norfolk in 2018
— also began to transmit
again, placing her in Norway.
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 9
NEWS IN BRIEF
New head at BGA
Liam Stokes has taken over as the
chief executive officer of the British
Game Alliance (BGA). Mr Stokes
(below), who was previously head of
campaigns at the Countryside Alliance,
has been working outside the shooting
world developing rural policy at Defra.
He takes over from Tom Adams, who
previously worked at GunsonPegs.
The BGA aims to promote best
practice at all levels of the game
supply chain through an accreditation
scheme for shoots, game farmers
and processors.
Defra reminded of
benefits of shooting
BASC has reminded the Government
about the value of shooting as it looks
to relax the COVID-19 lockdown.
In a letter to environment secretary
George Eustice, BASC chief executive
Ian Bell wrote: “We all look forward
to the day restrictions on outdoor
recreations such as shooting are
lifted or changed. When that is being
considered we would welcome the
opportunity of working with you.
“Shooting contributes not only to
personal well-being but also benefits
and shapes the natural environment
and supports livelihoods and local
communities across the UK.”
FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM
@SHOOTINGTIMESUK
 LETTERS
LET TER OF THE WEEK

Bringing the country to the class

ISSN: 0037-4164

Shooting Times, TI Media Ltd,

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Editor Patrick Galbraith
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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
sarah.potts@ti-media.com
Deputy chief sub-editor Nicola Jane Swinney
nicola.swinney@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
I am a teacher who has, in the
past month, had to completely
rethink how I would teach my
students in lockdown due to
COVID-19. We are running a full
timetable of virtual lessons and
I wanted to link my students to
the wider world.
I have a year group
who are studying a unit on
environmental ethics. To
engage them with external
‘speakers’ I reached out to
some of your contributors —
and others who would disagree
with their views — to provide
pre-recorded interviews on a
range of topics from forestry
monoculture to the morality
of the food we eat. Their views
were presented via YouTube
videos and discussed through
an online learning portal. My
students loved the first week’s
lessons and are asking about
the topic for next week already.
Megan Rowland has gone
down a storm with my female
pupils in particular, who have
noted their admiration for her
work in such a male-dominated
world. I think she may have
inspired more than a few girls.
The following week featured
Richard Negus talking to my
students about how farming
can work hand-in-hand with
conservation, followed by
Matt Cross talking about the
dangers of monoculture.
You have clearly brought
together a team with a passion
for the natural world and our
place in it. Thank you.
Name and address supplied
The Editor responds: Thank
you for taking the time to write.
They are a tremendous bunch
whose passion is evident in
everything they do and Megan
is fantastic at championing
women in a traditionally male
sector. I have always been very
keen that Shooting Times is a
magazine that showcases the
environmental benefits and
inclusivity of our sport and
I’m really pleased that
comes through.

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SHOOTING PR To support our lifestyle we dog certainly has a strong prey
Innovator (for loose and bound-in inserts) should focus on adding value to drive and is visibly excited while
020 3148 3710
Can’t find ST? 020 3148 3300 Thank you for the article by Guy society. We know the financial awaiting its turn.
Back issues 01795 662976 Adams (Why shooting should stay benefits of trophy hunting are The spinning didn’t go down
support@mags-uk.com
in the shadows, 22 April), which material to species survival, but too well with some working test
was one of the most intelligent the arguments against it make for judges who marked the dog
articles regarding publicity a volatile debate that generally down for this behaviour, though it
Shooting Times is the official weekly journal
of BASC and the CPSA I have ever read. It was pragmatic, strays from any progress. made a perfect retrieve. This was
BASC Marford Mill, Rossett LL12 0HL
Tel 01244 573000
logical and professional, and not Charities such as the Country annoying for Allan as it spoiled his
CPSA PO Box 750, Woking, GU24 0YU driven by emotion. Food Trust directly add value chances of success.
Tel 01483 485400
K Byrne, by email by creatively feeding game Around two years ago Allan
Wereservetherighttoeditletters.Nolettershouldexceed250 meat to those who need it most. was training with a mutual friend,
words.Letterswillnotbeusedunlesstheauthorisprepared
tohavetheirnameandcountyofresidencepublished.
ADDING VALUE Supporting them is an example of Marc, who doesn’t participate in
Lettersshouldbeaddressedto:TheEditor,Pinehurst2,
FarnboroughBusinessPark,Hants,GU147BF,oremail the smarter way to go about this, working tests but has a couple
STletters@ti media.com.Pleaseincludeadaytimetelephone
number and postal address. I could not agree more with Guy rather than duelling in the press of reasonable working bitches.
Adams. I come across all sorts of with anti-hunters. Having watched Allan’s dog spin
different personalities as I split C Paxton, by email when setting out on a couple of
my time between the concrete retrieves, Marc’s keener bitch
jungle of Canary Wharf, suburban SPIN DOCTORS suddenly began spinning before
north-west London and the setting out to retrieve.
beautiful Eden Valley in Cumbria I have two friends whose dogs Marc jokily blamed Al’s dog
— this last being my preference. have been ‘spinners’ (Sporting for teaching his bitch bad habits
The majority of people I come Answers, 15 April). Allan’s at the advanced age of six years
across have zero experience of previous three dogs have all old. The bitch carried on like this
hunting or shooting but they are won novice working tests and for the next two years, spinning
generally interested in discussing been placed in open tests, but on at least half the retrieves she
the topics in passing. But for the his 18-month-old dog suddenly was sent to make. Over this winter
This week’s cover image was
captured by Sarah Farnsworth masses shooting and hunting are began spinning. As Jeremy Hunt Marc wasn’t often able to get to
not priorities. suggested in his answer, the his usual training ground and

10 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE


instead gave his dogs plenty of
practice with short retrieves in
his garden. It was only when we
went out training together before
lockdown that we noticed that,
now approaching nine years old,
his bitch had kicked the habit of
spinning. She is still as keen as
ever, though none of this helps
explain why she stopped (or
started) the tendency to spin
in the first place.
W Robb, by email
RIP KEITH
Keith Bishop (below) from
Warrington, a highly respected
gamekeeper and conservationist
of 20-plus years for High Legh
estate in Cheshire, sadly passed
away after a short illness aged
79 years. My father taught me
everything to do with shooting
and fishing from a very early age,
which has been passed on to my
children. Rest in peace Dad, you
will sadly be missed by many.
D Bishop, by email
UNITED
EFFORT
There have been
recent reports of
an overdue but
welcome united
effort by our
nine shooting
organisations
regarding the phasing out of
lead shot. No news, however, of
a similar unified stance against
lively restrictions by Defra in
the new general licences due to
become effective on 1 August.
Our shooting organisations
have between them many
thousands of members who
shoot woodpigeon, crows and so
on, whose sport could be affected
by these licences. Yet having
perused the shooting press,
I have seen nothing relevant
from the aforementioned
organisations to which we
subscribe. It is hoped that
restrictions are not imposed
through lack of fight or lethargy,
‘‘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
Email your letters / STletters@ti-media.com
GIFT HORSES
I enjoyed reading about N
Vardy’s discovery of a letter
to James Wentworth Day
(Letters, 22 April). Some years
ago I was invited by a work
colleague to look through his
deceased grandmother’s
library and take away any
wildlife or fieldsports books
before he dumped them. One
of the books was Wentworth
Day’s Marshland Adventure,
of which I already had a
copy and, being a Broads
sportsman myself, had read.
A few months ago I decided
to read it again and picked
up the rescued edition. I was
amazed, on opening it, to find
it was signed by the author
(above) and dedicated to Sir
which leave us, the shooters,
appearing utterly defenceless.
The present system works
well, with woodpigeon
populations reportedly
ncreasing, so why is
here a need to impose
ny restrictions that
ould result in massive
opulation explosions
th dire consequences
r wildlife and crops? It
hard to believe that the
tional Farmers’ Union
is not fighting this vigorously.
How I hope that my
assumptions are incorrect
and that our leadership has
shown unified strength and
not compromised the minority
voices whose sole aim is to
gradually curtail and then ban all
forms of shooting irrespective of
consequences. We must unite
against this.
J Wilkins, Lancashire
COUNTING COSTS
As an avid user of 28-bores
— and sometimes a 20-bore —
with which I have shot grouse,
partridge, pheasant and clay
NEXT WEEK IN
SELF-IMPROVEMENT
No excuses: how to
improve your shooting
during isolation.
Robert Bignold. Sir Robert
was a keen Shot and chairman
of Norwich Union at the time
the book was dedicated.
I have no idea if it has any
value but simply to know it was
handled by the great writer
himself gives this Broadsman
a real buzz. VISION PRECISION
I Barnett, Norfolk How well can deer see?
pigeon, I have not heard what
steel alternative cartridge will be
available for the 28-bore, if any.
With a 28-bore, the pellet size,
number of pellets and load of the
powder are dictated by the actual
size of the cartridge and have
to be carefully balanced for an
optimum killing load.
My chosen 28-bore load for
game is the 24g No 6 shot, with
a fibre wad, at approximately FOR THE POT
£280 per 1,000. Bismuth for No Walking-up bolting rabbits
5 shot at 21g, with a fibre wad — a in Ireland.
similar 28-bore load I would guess
— comes in at £1,170. This is a jaw-
dropping £890 per 1,000 more.
So what are the options?
Is there a steel shot available
for 28-bores, are there any
alternatives that are financially
viable, or will 28-bore users be
allowed to continue to use lead, as
I understand other countries have
done previously? I hope either
the cartridge manufacturers FORGOTTEN FOES
or supporting groups that are Wolves and giant deer —
asking for a voluntary ban on lead Britain’s lost beasts.
can answer my questions. As an
aside, steel is also banned from a
number of clay grounds I use, due
to ricochet issues.
D Oddy, by email
... AND MUCH MORE!
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 11
 Richard Negus

Country Diary
After initial displays of rank selfishness, it is heartening to see the
work people are doing to help their communities through lockdown

A
few weeks before the
Government officially
announced the coronavirus
restrictions, it was already
clear that we would all need to dramatically
change our behaviour.
The default setting of selfishness that is
largely the sum of human nature required
a revise. We would have to embrace a
communal spirit if, as a nation, we were
to counter COVID-19. Unsurprisingly,
greed and self-interest reared their heads.
Cheltenham Racecourse opened its
gates so that people could gamble on
racehorses, drink stout and cough viral
spores on their neighbours. Shoppers went
to the supermarkets and bought supplies
in gluttonous quantities, ensuring others
went without.
It even occurred in the shooting world.
My lip curled at the sight of Guns posting The British Trust for Ornithology is urging us to note the birds in our gardens, such as the chaffinch
images on social media of bulging freezers,
boasting of their profusion of game and Such enterprises are not restricted The Barkers, of Lodge Farm in Suffolk,
venison. In any crisis, the best and worst to the countryside. My friend, James have been daily posting photos of their
of humanity is exposed. I will therefore Chiavarini, has had to close his restaurant, farm’s abundant springtime flora and
disregard the mercenaries and concentrate Il Portico, in South Kensington. He has kept fauna on Twitter (@The_Barker_Boys).
on some of the people who embraced his kitchens open, however, and jokes that The British Trust for Ornithology has run
humanity over egotism. he has now become a grocer. an excellent series on its feed (@BTO_
Since lockdown started, he has been GBW), which encourages us all to watch
Provenance producing boxes of fresh produce and and take notes on the birds in our gardens.
One Facebook page that has impressed me dishes of prepared venison ragu. He sells It is reassuring that the selfishness we
is Giving up the Game, created by Billy Wyatt. and delivers these, at cost, to self-isolating witnessed is waning and we are all trying
A simple idea, the page enables Guns and elderly local residents. to make the best out of a surreal time for
stalkers to advertise and give away surplus our country.
game. In some cases, prepared packs are “It is reassuring Despite being able to continue working,
sold to a willing non-shooting public embracing I have taken the opportunity to use the
the benefits of seasonality, traceability and that we are all evenings more creatively. Now that I cannot
provenance that game provides.
One of the page members is Paul, from
trying to make go fishing, pigeon shooting nor pubbing,
I have restarted stick-making and fly-tying,
Taste of the Wild, based in rural Somerset. the best out of and have crafted a box for my pike lures.
Thumb sticks made from hazel, blackthorn
Before the outbreak, he sold the venison
that he shot and game from two local a surreal time” and ash with red deer antler heads have
estates via local farmers’ markets and appeared like weeds in a patio. Badly
country shows. Lockdown meant these Away from food, conservation dressed flies swarm. It has kept me amused
events were cancelled and Paul was facing organisations and individuals have been as I while away the hours, dreaming of sport
a bleak future. using social media to try to bring a flavour to come when this ghastly virus is beaten.
So he changed his business model. of the countryside to those who are locked
Using the Giving up the Game page, he down (see Letters, p10). The GWCT kept
Richard Negus is a professional
advertised a new delivery service. No my son entertained with its 10 wildlife
hedge layer and writer. He lives in Suffolk,
longer having to pay stall fees, he passed projects for families — he has already is a keen wildfowler and a dedicated
these savings on to his customers and the conducted his own bird survey, investigated conservationist with a passion for
stalker now delivers meat boxes to isolating bugs and created a “work of art” out of grey partridges.
buyers, who give them rave reviews. twigs and leaves.
ALAMY

12 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

 Sporting history
Waterloo sunset
Now illegal under the Hunting Act, hare coursing has a rich history,
from the Romans up to the Blair government, says Sir Johnny Scott
S
ometime during the first
century AD, continental
brown hares were introduced
to Britain as being stronger
and more suitable for coursing than
the indigenous mountain hare. Every
wealthy Roman Briton, particularly
landowners with their extensive
estates, aspired to owning several
leashes of vertagri — greyhounds
— and coursing had developed
into social occasions, with owners
travelling considerable distances
to match their dogs against those of
others. When a hare was sighted and
given a decent head start, the vertagri
GETTY IMAGES / ALAMY / BRIDGEMAN ARTS LIBRARY
were unleashed simultaneously and
the one closest to the hare before it
escaped was judged the winner.
Such was the popularity of match
coursing that, early in the second
century, the Roman historian Arrian
recorded the rules: “Whoever courses
with greyhounds should neither slip
them near the hare, nor more than a
brace at a time… The true sportsman
The Waterloo Cup Coursing Meeting,
painted by Richard Ansdell in 1840
14 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
does not take out his dogs to destroy
the hares, but for the sake of the
course and the contest between the
dogs and the hares, and is glad if the
hares escape.”
Sport of pharaohs
The ethos of match coursing, where
the object was not to kill the hare
but a competition between two
of the fastest breed of dog and the
fastest land mammal, was already
many centuries old. The Romans
adopted coursing from the Gauls,
but greyhounds and coursing date
back to the pharaohs.
There are frequent historical
references to greyhounds and hare
coursing over the following millennia,
both in art and literature, but the next
time the rules were written in detail
was during the 16th century.
“Carrier pigeons took news of the Waterloo
winner to be telegraphed to all major cities”
Match coursing had become so
popular that Queen Elizabeth I, a
devotee, instructed her Earl Marshal,
the Duke of Norfolk, to produce
a formal code of conduct. The 18
“Laws of the Leash” established such
things as the distance of head start
a hare was given before the brace
of greyhounds were slipped and a
complicated method of scoring points
for each time the hare was turned by
either dog. As ever, the object was not
to kill, but a test of skill and agility.
King James I was even keener on
coursing than his predecessor and,
having heard hares on Newmarket
Heath were particularly strong and
active, brought his greyhounds
and courtiers there for a meeting.
He was so impressed he became a
frequent visitor, engaging Inigo Jones
to build him a hunting lodge. For

Coursing began as a competition between the fastest breed of dog and fastest land mammal
further entertainment, races were
held between his horses and those
of his courtiers, beginning the royal
patronage of racing at Newmarket and
the development of the thoroughbred.
Valuable
By the 18th century, match coursing
had developed into an increasingly
popular sport among royalty, nobility
and the squirearchy with heavy
gambling and valuable prizes for
the winner.
The first coursing club, the
Swaffham Society, was started in 1776
by the Earl of Orford, who devoted
his life to breeding the ‘perfect’
greyhound, from which the modern
breed descends, by cross-breeding
with deerhounds, Italian greyhounds,
lurchers and even bulldogs. Like-
minded landowners soon formed
their own clubs, such as the Ashdown
Park Club at Lambourn, started in
1780 by Lord Craven, or the Malton
Club in Yorkshire, founded in 1781 by
Colonel Thornton and Major Topham.
By 1827, at least 17 clubs had
been established, including five in
Scotland. Membership was limited
to the aristocracy and gentry, but an
enormous social change occurred in
1831. The old, draconian game laws
of 1671 — restricting the right to hunt
game to those owning land producing
an income of £100 and the eldest sons
of squires, knights and nobles — were
abolished. These were replaced with
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 15
Sporting history
a game licence that enabled anyone
to hunt, provided they owned land or
had permission of the landowner.
Coursing now entered a golden age,
encompassing all sections of society,
and coursing clubs mushroomed. In
1834 there were 52, increasing to 466
by 1856 and to an astonishing 1,168
by 1918. The emergent rail network
enabled owners to travel and fuelled
spectator attendance.
Knock-out
All coursing meetings during the
season — September to March — were
simple knock-out competitions of
eight, 16, 32 or 64 dog stakes with the
winners in each round proceeding
to the next, until only one survived.
Some meetings might be walked up
with ‘meuses’, natural escape routes
for the hares.
At others, hares were driven on to
the running ground and as each came
forward the slipper would decide if
the hare was fit to course and give
a 100-yard law before slipping the
hounds. If there were no meuses,
‘soughs’ — purpose-built underground
chambers — were provided and at all
meetings, mounted judges awarded
points much like those of the Laws
of the Leash.
Big meetings attracted massive
crowds. The Netherby Cup at
Sporting history
Master McGrath, shown in this engraving from 1870, won the coveted Waterloo Cup three times
Longtown, for example, required
a special train from Carlisle to
cope with the numbers and at the
Carmichael meetings in Lanarkshire,
the local coal fields stood idle. The
same was true of the Bothal meetings
in Northumberland, which came
to be known as Pitman’s Holidays,
from the thousands of Geordie
pitmen who attended.
Grand National
The most famous meeting of all
was the Waterloo Cup, held on
Lord Sefton’s estate at Altcar. It was
started in 1836 by William Lynn — the
proprietor of the Waterloo Hotel in
Liverpool — as an eight-dog stake, in
tandem with a steeplechase at nearby
Aintree, which was to become the
Grand National.
“Hare numbers fell so low that from 1978
to 1980 the Waterloo Cup was not run”
By 1857 the Cup had grown to a
three-day 64-dog stake. Such was
the national interest that in 1871 the
three-times winner Master McGrath
was summoned to Windsor Castle, by
Royal Command, to be presented to
Queen Victoria. In the Cup’s heyday,
crowds of nearly 100,000 flocked to
the bare marshes north of Liverpool.
Coverage of the event was printed on
the front page of The Times, carrier
pigeons took news of the winner to
16 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
be telegraphed to all major cities and,
when it reached London, the Stock
Exchange closed early.
In 1858, the National Coursing Club
(NCC) was formed and controlled
coursing in the same way that the
Jockey Club controls racing, and in
1882, the NCC created the original
Greyhound Stud Book. This official
registry of British-bred greyhounds
has been administered ever since and
from that date the breed was ‘closed’.
All dogs running on the coursing
field, and later on the track, had to
be registered in the stud book.
The intense competition of
Victorian coursing produced a
remarkable creature with classic
looks, incredible speed, stamina and
courage. All greyhounds running
on track and field in Britain, Ireland,
the US and Australia, trace their
lineage directly to past winners
of the Waterloo Cup.
The Ground Game Act of 1880,
allowing tenant farmers to treat hares
as vermin, resulted in a significant
decline in population and a number
of coursing clubs ceased to exist. In
Scotland, only three remained after
the act. However, the hare population
and popularity of match coursing
remained high in the rest of the
country where landlords actively
preserved hares for coursing. Crowds
at principal meetings, particularly
the Cup, were as big as ever. The
development of greyhound tracks in
1929 took some of the urban interest
away, but there were still 39,000 at
Altcar in 1939.
Collapse
In the 1960s and 1970s, traditional
mixed farming was replaced by
grass and cereal monoculture, with
stubbles ploughed immediately after
harvest. Denying hares the varied
diet and cover they need to survive,
this caused a predictable collapse in
population. After the death of the last
Lord Sefton, hare numbers fell so low
at Altcar that from 1978 to 1980, the
Waterloo Cup was not run.
With the determination of the
Waterloo Cup committee, support
of Lord Leverhulme, the new owner,
and farming practices that included
a mix of permanent pasture, roots,
vegetables and cereals, the hare
population rapidly increased. The
Cup was resurrected and, despite the
disruptive presence of League Against
Cruel Sports saboteurs, spectators had
built up to more than 15,000 by 1990.
Agricultural set-aside, enlightened
farming and conservation efforts by
individual landlords brought the hare
population back up and at the time of
the Hunting Act 2004, some 20 clubs
were holding 100 days of meetings.
The last Waterloo Cup was run in
February 2005 and it is a paradox
the ‘Blair Bill’ — that monument to
ignorance and prejudice — not only
destroyed centuries of culture and
sporting heritage but stopped the
one fieldsport where the object
was not to kill the quarry.
Slipping the greyhounds, a print from 1870
 Fishing

Highs, lows and hilo

There is nothing like the joy — and despair — of a quiet day fishing in
the sunshine to escape the troubles of the world, says Jamie Tusting

S
aturday morning broke hilo, but in the end it was merely
bright, sunny and windy. big, red and shiny.
It felt like the first When I arrived at the
Saturday in a long sparkling blue waters of
time that the weather was the lake on that blustery
pleasant enough to spend Saturday, I found that
all day outside. It was the wind was puffing
strange then that, only straight at me. Having
a few days before, the broken my shoulder
country had been in early January, I was
told to stay indoors. still struggling to
When that wield a fly rod at full
announcement came strength, so casting
through, I thought not into the wind
of whether I needed became an almost
to bulk buy pasta, but impossible battle.
about the fishing trips I’m not sure fly-
I had planned over fishing is a recognised
the next few months. rehabilitation technique
Trout fishing in and my physiotherapist
Derbyshire, sea trout would probably suggest
in Denmark and the resistance bands and
possibility of sharks stretching instead. But I have
off Penzance. All of them found fishing a gentle way to build
were put abruptly on hold. strength again. The conditions
It wasn’t long before though dictated that the fly-rod
my innovative fishing would have to wait for a moment.
friends found a way to
pursue their passion Cast after cast
for the sport and In anticipation of this, I had packed
I was promptly added a spinning rod with an old mackerel
to a WhatsApp group lure on the end. A trusted companion
named “fly-tying “On such a lovely on many Scottish coastal excursions,
through corona”. it was now to have its first outing on an
Though I have persevered day, I couldn’t have ornamental lake. The wind chugged
with fishing for quite some years, away and I put cast after cast out into
I have never had the inclination
felt further from the lake. I felt incredibly guilty, with
to tie my own flies. Perhaps this had the melee of the so many others stuck at home on such
been due to the lack of a willing tutor, a lovely day, and fishermen up and
or possibly the lack of time in an current world” down the country longing to be on the
otherwise hectic life. But with time water. I couldn’t have felt further from
now a luxury we all had, I was up for my newly acquired skill to practical the melee of the current world.
the challenge. It didn’t take me long application sooner than the end of The spinner soared through the
to find a fly-tying starter kit online and the lockdown. fresh air and plopped into the lake
troutcatchers.co.uk despatched my With a 25-acre lake only a short 30m or so out. I immediately started
purchase within hours. walk away, and knowing I could fish to reel it in, winding in sharp bursts,
it without seeing another soul, I trying to imitate an injured fish. It
Fun and rewarding flicked through Flytying for Beginners started to become frustrating because
I very quickly found tying flies to be in search of a pike fly. With no luck, it seemed all I caught on each cast was
fun and rewarding, despite being I resorted to YouTube. After digging another bit of pondweed.
rather fiddly and at times frustrating. out from my fishing bag a hook that There are more than 100 different
After a few attempts at a pheasant tail had previously been used for dead species of pondweed and I think
S. TRINDER

nymph and a botched march brown, baiting pike, I tied what looked almost I nearly managed to catch a piece
I began to think about how I could put like a pike fly. It was supposed to be a of each one. The lure was sinking

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 17

Fishing

a bit too much in the shallow lake and

it made fishing rather tricky. I moved
around the edge and eventually found
a spot slightly deeper and a little bit
more sheltered. The bank shelved
sharply and the water lapped the top of
my wellington boots. I flicked the lure
out and finally managed to return it
without a member of the potamogeton
family attached to the end.

“I was devastated.
I had lost the best
pike I’d ever had
on, simply because
of my stupid line”
I had caught a good-sized pike on
the lake around the same time last
year. Pike start spawning in February,
when water temperatures are above
6°C and, with the relatively mild
winter, I was sure they’d have been
spawning for a good few weeks.
The chance, then, of finding a
hungry pike seemed a good one and
I had this encouraging thought in my
mind as I made another cast. It hit the
water and I must have landed it almost
on his nose, as the lure was walloped
seconds later. I had missed it, wound
a little more and then it was hit again.
Another miss.
Pike are the most arrogant fish out
there. They know they’re the top
predator so often seem cocky when
taking prey. I carried on winding and
the lure came into sight, followed
closely by a beast; long, sleek and
menacing. I wasn’t concentrating on
the amount of line I had left, my eyes
were fixed on the stalking pike.

The fly rod came good in the end, helping to
land a ‘monster’ pike at the second attempt
My line shortened enough that
the lure leaped from the water with
a pop. The pike halted 2m away and
I dabbed the lure in about half a body
length in front of him. He struck and
this time I made no mistake in striking
back; the line went tight.
The monster on the end realised
he was snagged, turned tail and
bolted. Though the reel was tensioned
quite high, this fish wasn’t messing
around and quickly took the line out.
I had lost about half the line fishing
off the back of a boat off Mallaig in
Scotland last year and hadn’t got
round to replacing it, so my line was
a lot shorter than I would have liked.
Thankfully, I brought the fish to a halt
before it got that far, but it was close.
Fight
The battle then raged for a good few
minutes and I worked hard to bring
him in. I don’t think I’d ever caught
a pike with as much fight as this
one. Eventually, I brought it close to
the bank and could tell the fish was
exhausted. He had almost given up
and I reached down into the water
to claim my prize. Suddenly, the rod
went light. The line had snapped just
at the rod tip and the pike slunk off

18 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE


into the murk. Quick as a flash, I piled
into the lake after him, going well over
my boots, and grabbed his tail. The
slick body of the pike meant I couldn’t
get a grip and the fish squirmed free,
disappearing into the darkness. I was
utterly devastated.
I sat on the bank with my head
in my soggy, slimy hands. I had lost
the best pike I’d ever had on, simply
because of my stupid line. The Mallaig
trip had clearly had more of an impact
than only the loss of line.
I sat motionless for about 10
minutes. Not only had I lost the fish,
but I had lost my only mackerel lure as
well. The only chance I had now was
the fly-rod. With the wind dropping off
slightly, I put the pain in my shoulder
to the back of my mind and made a few
casts. My feet were getting cold and I was
more than ready to go home for a bath.
Volte-face
The hilo on the end of the line took
a big hit and I knew instantly it was
another pike. Perhaps my luck was
going to volte-face; I put the fly back
into the same spot. He smashed into
it and I struck. This time there seemed
to be no fight at all and I reeled the fish
in with relative ease.
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 19
Fishing
The pike escaped with the mackerel lure in its
mouth but ultimately succumbed to a hilo fly
I breathed a huge sigh of relief as
I landed it. I rolled the fish over and
looked down in amazement. Not only
did he have the fly in his mouth, but
he also had my mackerel lure. I lay on
the bank in the sunshine. My feet felt
warmer, my shoulder less painful and
the hectic world a million miles away.
Of all the fish I have caught, I was
sure this one would be one of my most
enduring memories. Insignificant
in the world prehaps, but it was
significant in mine at that moment.
Game shooting

No birds doesn’t
equal no sport
Many syndicates have decided not to release any poults
due to COVID-19 but a bit of habitat creation, fox control,
and feeding will mean you can still enjoy some shooting
WRITTEN BY MIKE SWAN

20 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

 W
ith the uncertainty
over whether we will
be able to assemble
for shoot days, some
shoots have already decided to
suspend their releasing programme
this year. What happens if the
coronavirus crisis is over, you are
allowed out and you would like a shot?
How about chasing some wild game?
The best wild bird shoots, whether
lowland or grouse moor, take years
to develop, so you cannot expect
miracles in a single season. But
pheasants, partridges, grouse and

Wild pheasants can

be productive if they
have plenty of food

mallard are all incredibly productive

birds, producing big broods of young.
They are also capable of having
another go if a first nesting attempt
fails. If you are prepared to nurture
what you have got, you might be
pleasantly surprised by the result.

Get feeding
Spring has sprung and the insects
are getting going, but May is still
a low-calorie month as far as our
lowland gamebirds are concerned.
There is precious little by way of
natural food left after a long winter.
GWCT research in the 1990s showed
that where pheasants were fed well
into May and June, they fledged twice
as many chicks per hen.
It was also clear that hens on
fed sites were much more likely to
try again if they lost eggs or chicks
early on.

It’s always wise to watch the body

language of dogs on walked-up days

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 21

 Game shooting
Predator control is vital and snaring, if done
right, can be both effective and selective
In this context I remember acting
as radio tracker’s assistant to my then
girlfriend and now my wife, Mo, who
carried out much of the fieldwork for
this research. Several times we found
hens with chicks on unfed sites that
were so weak they could not fly. A bird
in this condition is simply not strong
enough for the rigours of raising a
brood, and I’m convinced this is the
origin of the view that leftover reared
hens are poor mothers.
Whether we like it or not, captive
rearing allows parasitic worms to
build up, and birds can take a long
while to shed these when they get into
the wild. Making sure there is plenty
of food into the spring helps to make
stronger pheasants that can shake off
the parasites. Survival and predator
avoidance will be better as a result, so
even if there are few young, there will
still be more pheasants on the shoot
come the start of the season.
S FARNSWORTH / C WARREN / ALAMY / GETTY IMAGES
Predator control
Please do understand, though, that
just feeding at the winter sites is not
the answer. Hoppers should be sited
along wood edges, hedgerows, ditches
and at pit holes, where pheasants set
up their territories. A final fill in late
May means grub till the longest day,
which is peak hatch time for wild
22 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
partridges. You must also remember
to start feeding again after harvest to
help hold on to your birds.
To get the most out of a feeding
programme, protection from
predation is fundamental. There’s
not much point encouraging nice big
clutches, only to have them robbed
by predators or the hens chomped
off the nest.
Foxes are the number one predator
on most shoots and, with spring
growth now obscuring them, getting
a shot can be hard. However, a well-
organised snaring campaign can be
very selective and humane — I have
covered this in detail previously
“Making sure there is plenty of food
into the spring helps to make stronger
pheasants that can shake off parasites”
(Caught unawares, 15 April). As well as
helping your game, controlling foxes
right now will help a wide range of
ground-nesting birds such as skylarks,
corn buntings, lapwings, curlew, and
grey partridges.
The other key predation issue that
can be easily addressed is corvids,
particularly crows and magpies. As
well as raiding game nests, these two
are serious predators of a wide range
of birds, including many species that
nest high enough up to be pretty
immune from foxes; species like
the amber-listed song thrush come
particularly to mind.
Larsen traps
At this time of year it should be easy
to scrounge crow and magpie decoys
and set to with a Larsen campaign,
but there is not a moment to lose. In a
normal year I would expect to start at
the beginning of April to ensure I have
nailed the bulk of the established pairs
before they start to nest. The GWCT
has just updated its guidance note on
Larsens (bit.ly/GWCTlarsen), so do
download it from the website to make
sure you are up to date.
There is a little wet field of about
three acres that I know in the Ebble
valley. Being small and of low
productivity, it had not been used
for years and became overgrown
with things such as rank grass, rushes
and meadowsweet. Then one summer
a few cattle broke through the fence
and grazed it down, poaching the
wetter patches in the process.
Come autumn, several snipe
showed up and a new little sporting
resource was discovered.

Now is an excellent time to spruce up that
neglected pond by cutting overgrowth back
These days, with a bit of mowing
at the driest time, and some more
carefully managed cattle grazing, it
has become better still. The trick with
these situations is usually to try to
organise low-intensity but long-term
grazing to get the best results. A few
beasts for several months are likely
to create a lovely mosaic of short turf,
rushy patches and wild flowers that
delivers great conservation value as
well as a superb snipe habitat.
Many a shoot has a neglected pond
that has not seen a duck for years. But
what if it were opened up? Often, the
reason the ducks no longer visit is that
the surrounding trees have grown up
and closed over, making it hard for
ducks to get in and out. Sometimes
all you need to do to free things up is
to lop a few big branches, but usually
it pays to be more adventurous and
Looking after wild stock, improving habitat
and being choosy with dates will pay off
Allowing cattle to graze dry meadows helps wild plants to thrive, which provides essential habitat
fell trees and scrub for 10m or so back
from the pond.
That said, it can often pay to keep
any overhanging oaks, so that the
acorns drop into the water — mallard
love acorns. But, just to make sure,
if you scatter a little bit of barley in
the shallows from late July onwards,
you are likely to draw some ducks
each night, offering the chance of
an evening flight as the grand finale
to your shoot days.
Pollution
Do make sure you don’t overdo the
feeding though — too much grain
dumped in the water will pollute it,
negating the great conservation job
that you have done in opening up.
With few pheasants to pursue,
think carefully about dates. In any
ordinary winter, regular shoot days
are fine but now, with only a few wild
birds — plus the leftovers from last
season — going out every Saturday
would be a big mistake. You would
undoubtedly find that birds run out
quite early and you may also discover
that a combination of old stagers and
truly wild pheasants learn the ropes
quite quickly and soon manage to
outwit you.
Think in terms of perhaps two or
three shoots for the season, rather
than a dozen days. Remember, too,
that migrants such as snipe will
probably build up from October
onwards, so choose your dates
accordingly. You should check moon
phases for two reasons. New waves of
migrants often arrive under the full
moon. Also, if you plan a duck flight,
a full moon at sunset often spells
disaster, with ducks refusing to move
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 23
Game shooting
until late into the night, so not a shot is
taken at ‘normal’ flight time. Choosing
dates around new-moon time lets the
new migrants settle and the flighting
pattern stabilises. A decent breeze
rather than a still evening helps too,
if you are able to be flexible.
These days we are careful not to
overshoot woodcock and rightly so.
Keeping a ‘no woodcockÕ rule till
December should not change but if
you are only having two days from
then on, allowing those who like a
roast woodcock to shoot one should
do no harm, while adding an extra
spice to the day.
With the woods much quieter, you
might just find that there are more
pigeon about, and that some careful
ambushes of favourite daytime
resting woods can provide some
really testing sport.
Cream of sport
Forget any notions of instructing your
Guns not to shoot pigeon until the
game starts to come forward — those
pigeon could be the cream of the day’s
sport. Getting your Guns in place
quietly, while keeping out of sight,
applies equally when driving that
soggy field for snipe too. Noisy chatter
should be reserved for indoors when
you are after truly wild game.
With no released birds to chase,
your days out are likely to be very
different with modest bags. But
a combination of armed nature
ramble, careful skirmish and patient
waiting for evening flight is likely to
bring just as much satisfaction, and
more variety. Indeed, you might
decide that you want to change tack
for the longer term.
 Stalking
Anyone can make
a mistake
There is a fine line between a shot that kills
and one that wounds, so why do so few people
stalk with a dog, wonders Richard Negus
T
he maxim for all shooting
sports is to kill your quarry
humanely and efficiently.
Inevitably, despite your
best endeavours, there are occasions
when this does not happen and
the beast or bird is wounded. Your
immediate responsibility then shifts
to locating the unfortunate and
swiftly ending any suffering.
This is why for most wildfowlers
the idea of going out on the foreshore
without a gundog is akin to venturing
forth wearing a polka-dot bikini and
snorkel — something that you just
don’t do. Game Shots on driven days
are supported by a team of pickers-up
and their dogs, whose sole job is to
D IRELAND / A SYDENHAM / S BUCK
ensure dead game is retrieved and the
winged are speedily accounted for.
So it is interesting that, when
it comes to deer, how many stalkers
embark upon an outing without
a dog. Most stalkers, particularly
those who shoot alone, are proficient
24 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
Shots. However, what if the worst
should happen and an animal is not
cleanly killed?
As an admittedly apprentice stalker
I had, until recently, only experienced
clean kills, clean misses or blanks.
However, following my recent trip to
Borrowdale with restaurateur James
Chiavarini, I witnessed for the first
time the aftermath of a misplaced shot
on a hind (Righting a terrible wrong,
18 March). The only reason James was
able to right his wrong was thanks
to the professionalism of hill stalker
Jonathan Standing and his Hanoverian
schweisshund, Urka (Keeper of the
month, 22 April).
Inexperienced
Jonathan is a superb Shot and a great
advocate for the need to have a trained
deer dog on hand when taking to
the hill. I asked Jonathan if this was
largely due to him taking potentially
inexperienced paying Guns out.
“No, I think the most experienced
Shot can make a mistake,” he replied.
“The last hind I personally shot
this season wasn’t a clean kill. I was
shooting on the low ground near
woodland. The margin between
a shot placement that kills and one
that wounds is minute. I saw the hind
fall and she rolled over a ridge.
“I couldn’t find her at the strike
site and waited for an hour before
getting the dog. She tracked the hind
for a mile and I eventually discovered
her having taken to water where
I despatched her.”
Jonathan has used deer dogs for
the past 25 years. He started using
labradors and vizslas before working
Bavarian mountain hounds. He
found the British-bred Bavarians to
be somewhat temperamental and
to suffer from genetic problems.
Having heard from German stalkers
about the qualities of the Hanoverian
he managed to buy one from the

Continent six years ago. So impressed
was he that he bought a second and
now would work with no other breed.
“The Hanoverian is highly
trainable, has a superb nose, is as
brave as a lion and possesses an
excellent temperament,” he said.
“They are a rare breed and breeders
on the Continent are very choosy
about who they will sell a puppy to.”
While Jonathan has discovered this
specialist hound suits him, he believes
any breed is better than no dog at all.
I wondered if this ethos applies to
lowland stalkers.
“The Hanoverian is highly trainable,
has a superb nose, is as brave as a lion
and has an excellent temperament”
My friend Jim Allen goes stalking
in East Anglia at least three times
a week. While his labrador Sauze
is usually to be found in the back
of his truck, he is never used to track
a wounded deer. On rare occasions
Jim will use his dog to track a deer
which, though fatally shot, staggers
out of sight into thick cover; for
example, when lung shot.
Despite shooting more than 100
deer each year, Jim wounds very
few, thanks to his level of skill. The
majority of these wounded deer he
will find using his thermal monocular
that he carries at all times. The heat
Bavarian mountain scent hounds are fine trackers and are also said to make great companions
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 25
Stalking
signature given off by a shot deer
will continue to register for up to
six hours. However, there is a risk
with deer that have been lightly
wounded. When closely followed
using a thermal, a leg-shot beast will
most likely bolt further away from the
strike site. So on the rare occasions
that a deer is known to be hit but has
moved out of immediate thermal
range, Jim calls in specialist trackers.
Tony Lowry is chairman of the
exemplary not-for-profit organisation
UK Deer Track & Recovery (UKDTR).
Formed six years ago, it — as well as
the United Kingdom Scent Hound
Association (UKSHA) — has a
nationwide network of experienced
handlers and dogs who can be called
upon by stalkers and local authorities
to track and humanely despatch
wounded deer.
Licensed
The use of tracking dogs is
commonplace in northern Europe
and Scandinavia. Tony said the
UKDTR follows similar protocols to
those found in Denmark, where he
first learned how to train tracking
dogs. First having to pass a rigorous
testing procedure, Danish trackers
are licensed by the government and
enrolled as members of the state
humane deer despatch network.
It is a requirement that all stalkers
in the country must shoot with a
tracking dog to hand or a licensed
tracker available within 20 minutes
of trigger-pull.
The Danes have a policy that
trackers may cross boundaries,
without the landowner’s permission,
in pursuit of wounded deer, even
while in possession of a firearm. This
is not the case in England where such
activity could result in an arrest for
‘trespass with a firearmÕ. The law
in Scotland regarding this matter
is somewhat grey.
Tony also works a Hanoverian and,
like Jonathan, considers the breed the
ultimate specialist deer dog. However,
he does say that the best tracking dog
he has ever seen was a labrador which
tracked a trail some 72 hours old “like
it was on rails”.
Stalking
Tony Lowry, chairman of UKDTR, which
runs training courses for stalkers
Training a tracker dog is a time-
consuming business. While those
of us who train our dogs to retrieve
wildfowl or game can make do with
a snatched half an hour in a paddock
with some dummies, the deer tracker
needs regular access to woodland
and considerable time to lay a trail,
then return hours later to work the
dog. UKDTR runs introductory
and development training
courses that lead to tests
that, if passed, qualify
the handlers to become
registered trackers.
Obedience
The final challenging
test involves the dog
following a laid trail
a minimum of 20 hours old
and covering a distance of at least
800m with right-angled turns and
backtracks. Steadiness and obedience
are also tested during the process.
Pure-bred dogs are encouraged, with
all breeds of retrievers, spaniels,
HPRs and hounds being used.
A tracker and his dog work most
effectively when a wounded deer is not
pursued immediately after the shot.
Danish research has shown that 85% of
26 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
wounded deer are successfully tracked
and despatched if the animal is left to
make its escape post shot. While this
sounds counterintuitive to our natural
reaction to immediately make amends
for a mistake, it is ultimately better for
the deer. Generally when wounded, if
left unharried for an hour or so, deer
will not travel a great distance. Most
will seek cover and lie down.
The Danish research
also revealed that only
“The final challenging test involves
the dog following a laid trail a
minimum of 20 hours old”
15% of deer are recovered
if they are tracked immediately
after being wounded.
The cold-scenting abilities of
the hound breeds particularly
come into their own in woodland
stalking. It is often a necessity to
track a deer that was wounded on
an evening stalk in the daylight
of the following morning. If both
the shot and strike site are marked
by the stalker, this can provide
vital information for the tracker.
Intelligence such as the species, sex
and approximate age
of the beast should be reported.
Notes of the type of blood trail
found, any visible gut contents, a
broken leg or antler may reveal the
type of injury the deer is carrying
and thus influence the actions of
the tracker.
For most of us amateur stalkers,
there is little need to own a tracking
dog. However, for professionals such
as Jonathan, his pair are as essential
to his work as his rifle. We can,
however, be thankful that, from
southern England to the Scottish
Highlands, there are willing
volunteers and their dogs who are
prepared to track wounded deer,
and do it free of charge.
For more information, contact
the UKDTR, ukdtr.co.uk, and UKSHA,
uksha.org.uk
 Gamebirds

Slipping out
of our grasp
There is a real risk that we will lose the
capercaillie forever, warns Patrick Laurie

S
omething is stirring in the of eggs nearby and she will be solely rumbling through the forest like
depths of the ancient pine responsible for raising the chicks over cannonballs. In the sporting lodge
forest. As spring creeps north, the coming weeks. It’s chancy work at Rannoch Barracks, the mounted
creatures are emerging from for her, and her success will depend heads and tails of capercaillie cocks
the trees to strut and prowl. upon an obstacle course of predators, hang alongside antlers and framed
Capercaillie are substantial birds; cold weather and the relentless hunt salmon, but these have become dry,
the males can stand as tall as a traffic for insects to feed the youngsters. fragmented remains of a fading past.
cone and it’s hard to imagine how Today, your best chance of finding
they could ever be overlooked. The Myth a living, breathing capercaillie is on
reality is that they are also shy and Capercaillie have almost slipped a few estates around Speyside and
wildly secretive. They will see you out of our grasp. Their numbers the northern end of the Cairngorms
long before you see them and they have ebbed over the past half National Park. Concerted efforts have
find it easy to sink down and hide century and a bird that used to been made to rescue their numbers
in beds of blaeberry and heather. be locally abundant across the and reverse the decline, but these
But as April runs on towards May, Scottish Highlands has now become birds depend upon vast areas of
this secrecy will fade. Cock birds little more than a myth. It is not well-connected forest habitat.
meet in prearrang
and display, and th
spectacle in the ea
Hooked beaks and
deployed as weap
rings to the bizarr
of combat. Hen bir
watch as the battle
down now and aga
warriors what is at
and shuffle, shiver
like arrowpoints a
ALAMY / GETTY IMAGES / UNIVERSITY OF READING

tails into a broad fa

As often happe
most of the mating
male capercaillie.
many other males
hens will usually b
master. The act its
is the last point of
bird will have with
The hen bird will l

A male bird puts on a flamboyant

mating display to attract a hen

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 27

Gamebirds
are carefully joined up, they quickly
fizzle out. There are a few capercaillie
holding on in the old forests which
lie along Royal Deeside, but these
are badly isolated and they only
fizzle along in very low numbers. A
few wet, cold springs could easily tip
chick mortality into a dangerously
precarious position from which
recovery might be impossible.
End of the line
The official population estimates
for capercaillie seem to suggest
that there are around 1,000 left in
Scotland, but this is an old figure and
the reality may be considerably fewer.
Some places have recorded stable
numbers, but others have now lost
all their birds since the last surveys
were undertaken. The more places
that lose capercaillie, the harder it
is for the few remaining strongholds
to retain their numbers. It looks like
we are facing the end of line for these
extraordinary birds and, despite
stalwart efforts from gamekeepers
and conservationists, it feels like the
end is rushing up very quickly.
Capercaillie were found across
Great Britain from the end of the
last Ice Age. They prospered in the
ancient wildwoods, though a natural
The gamebird is now a
protected species, but
numbers are still declining
28 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
preference for pine forests meant return also coincided with some
that they were probably always most major changes in Scottish land use.
abundant in the colder north. Recognising a shortage of home-
Gradual human expansion and the grown timber, landowners were
subsequent loss of native forest had planting new forests across Perthshire
driven them back into the Scottish and Aberdeenshire. Capercaillie
Highlands by the end of the 17th began to infest these plantations and
century and they became extinct in the birds spread like wildfire across
Britain around the 1760s — roughly Scotland during the Victorian era.
the same time that the last wolves Soon they were well established from
were also lost. Argyll to Sutherland and landowners
But unlike wolves, capercaillie had in the Southern Uplands and
friends in high places. Landowners northern England were looking
made a concerted effort to restore to spread the birds even further.
the birds and they were imported Many of these schemes failed to
from Scandinavia during
the Regency period by
a number of Scottish
aristocrats. It is not
easy to keep grouse
in captivity, but these
early conservation
pioneers had almost
limitless resources
and manpower at
their disposal. From
one site on Tayside,
capercaillie began a
slow resurrection. Their
Before World War I,
capercaillie were shot
in large numbers

bear fruit, but the core population
in the Highlands seemed to go from
strength to strength.
The biggest bag of capercaillie shot
in a day was 69 birds near Dunkeld
in Perthshire, taken by seven Guns
on 4 November 1910. This moment
seems to represent something of
a high-water mark for the species.
World War I was already brewing and
the forests that had fired capercaillie
into prosperity would soon be felled
and cleared to provide timber for
the war effort. Modern planting
techniques that came in the wake of
the war were much less suited to the
conservation of woodland grouse
and the conflict also signalled the
end of gamekeeping as it had been
for almost a century.
Blips and upturns
Scotland now has a great deal more
forest cover than it did a century ago,
but modern plantations have little
to offer capercaillie. Dense blocks
of non-native conifer trees actually
impede the movement of birds across
the landscape and their habitats are
fragmented by the wrong kind of
woodland. There were a few blips
and upturns for the birds during the
1960s, but their story has otherwise
been one of decline and loss.
Despite being a valuable and
exciting gamebird, capercaillie
were given protected status almost
20 years ago. This move was almost
redundant because the birds were no
longer being shot. As if to prove that
point, their numbers have continued
to decline ever since.
Research on Speyside seemed
to have claimed that capercaillie
numbers were rebounding, thanks
“It sometimes feels like capercaillie simply
aren’t compatible with the pressures of a
modern world, given their steady declines”
to innovative forestry techniques,
and conservationists were keen
to emphasise that it is possible to
balance commercial forestry with
capercaillie conservation. Perhaps
that is the case, but it may be a
matter of too little, too late. Some
of the best capercaillie strongholds
depend upon predator control and
proactive habitat management, but
it is also worth noting that these birds
are desperately sensitive to human
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 29
Gamebirds
A lack of habitat and increased predation
of nests are major mortality factors
disturbance. Studies have shown
that hens will abandon their eggs
if they are panicked by people nearby
and one of the best capercaillie
conservation techniques is to stay as
far away from the birds as possible.
Unfortunately, that is not always
straightforward and there have been
several cases where ramblers and
walkers have clashed with estates that
have been trying to protect important
breeding sites.
It sometimes feels like capercaillie
simply aren’t compatible with the
pressures of a busy modern world.
That is a gloomy interpretation but
it is not unreasonable, given their
steady declines over the past century.
There is still plenty we can do to help
these birds, but knowing that they
depend upon extensive, interlinking
habitats, we have to be ambitious.
Book extract
Casting shadows
Fish and fishing in Britain
In his cultural history of fishing, Tom Fort charts the rise and
decline of eel trapping in Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland
L
ough Neagh was fished for
its eels from the time of the
first human occupation
several thousand years
ago. But until the middle of the 19th
century consumption was local and
trade minimal. The growth of the rail
C MASON / ALAMY / GETTY IMAGES
network changed all that, as so much
else. The fish merchants at Billingsgate
in London began shipping live eels
over to Liverpool from Coleraine,
the port near the mouth of the Bann,
and then by train to London. The
trade was much helped by the eel’s
30 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
remarkable tenacity in clinging to life —
kept cool and damp, they comfortably
survived transportation, and on arrival
could be kept in good condition in tanks
for weeks.
Quite suddenly Lough Neagh’s eels
became a valuable commodity. I told
the long and complicated story of the
struggle between the fishermen and the
landowners over who had the rights to
take them in The Book of Eels, and I do
not propose to retell it here. Suffice to say
that — as any student of history would
expect — the courts and the judges
 Book extract

consistently favoured the landowning

and capitalist class over the working
class. The upshot in modern times was
the acquisition in 1959 of the company
that controlled the fishing by a
consortium of Billingsgate merchants.
It was headed by a Dutchman, Hans
Kuijten, whose company, based at
Maldon on the Essex coast, had been
a major customer for Lough Neagh
eels for many years.
Kuijten and his partners had a clear
business strategy. They wanted more
of the silver eels, which were best for
smoking and eating, could be kept
alive for weeks in his storage barges Two-thirds of the eels
on the Blackwater estuary, and could taken in 2000 were netted
be caught with comparatively little or caught on long lines
effort in the traps on the Bann. They
were much less keen on the yellow
eels from the lough itself because caught on long lines on the lough, the price steeply upwards. Furthermore,
they were generally smaller, not so rest migrating silvers caught in the the biologists were agitating about
firm and tasty, and came with the traps in the autumn. The business the crash in wild eel stocks across
hooks on which they had been caught turned over £6million a year and Europe, and some were arguing that
still rusting in their mouths. But for provided part-time livelihoods for a ban on fishing wild eel was the only
the several hundred fishermen, the 300 or so fishermen. In return, they appropriate response.
yellow eels were the staple; not being were generally content to tolerate
able to sell them would be tantamount their priest’s habit of treating them Threat
to losing their livelihoods. like children who, left to their own Father Kennedy died in 2013,
and until late in life maintained
“Silver eels were best for smoking and his pugnacious defence of the
fishermen and the fishery’s unique
eating and could be kept alive for weeks” status. He fought successfully for
it to be recognised as a “protected
The consortium attempted to devices, would poach and overfish geographical identity” and kept it
enforce its preference. The fishermen the eel to extinction. alive and kicking while elsewhere — in
resisted. Smuggling across the Irish Even then clouds were gathering the Irish Republic, for instance — wild
border became rampant, as did over the heads of Father Kennedy eel fisheries were shut down. Today
poaching. The merchants went to and his flock. The run of elvers — Brexit again threatens the export
court to stop the anarchy; they won which historically were collected trade on which the Lough Neagh
their case, but in time lost the war. at Coleraine and brought to the fishery depends. The annual catch
This was as a result of the formation lough overland because of the many is down to around 300 tons, and the
of the Lough Neagh Fishermen’s obstacles on the river — had pretty number of fishermen to below 200.
Association under the direction of much collapsed. The co-operative The lough is also in the throes
the priest of Toome, Father Oliver thus became dependent on stocking of a wider environmental crisis.
Kennedy. The Billingsgate consortium elvers from elsewhere — chiefly Its natural resources are being
wearied of the struggle and in 1971 the Severn — but the pressure of plundered on all sides — most
the Association — now transformed competition for them had forced the notoriously by the dredging
from a trade union into a members’
co-operative — raised the money to The co-operative looks
buy the company. after the interests of
Lough Neagh fishermen
Formidable
When I first visited Toome in 2000 to
research my book, Father Kennedy
was still very much running the
show. I described him as looking
remarkably like a rounder, more
substantial version of Alec Guinness,
but he was a formidable operator
and exercised dictatorial power over
the co-operative. At that time the
annual eel catch still averaged 750
tons — two-thirds of them netted or

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 31

Book extract
We have largely lost our taste for the eel,
and soon we will lose our eel fishermen
Casting Shadows: Fish and
Fishing in Britain by Tom Fort
is published by HarperCollins,
harpercollins.co.uk; RRP £20.
32 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
E X TR ACT (CONT )
from the bed of the lake of more than
1.5million tons of sand each year for use
in the construction business.
This extraction, not far from
Toome, proceeds without benefit of
planning permission, with officials
from the Department of Infrastructure
seemingly content for it to do so
indefinitely. Nitrate and phosphate
pollution from intensive farming and
sewage from defective septic tanks have
enriched the water’s nutrient content
well beyond historic levels, setting off
damaging algal blooms. Illegal netting
for the lough’s pollan (a whitefish which
looks like a freshwater herring) and
its unique strain of Dollaghan brown
trout is persistent, and the policing
of it clearly inadequate. In January
2018 a new patrol boat bought by the
Fishermen’s Co-operative for £60,000
was set on fire and destroyed.
Northern Ireland suffers from the
lack of independent monitoring of
environmental standards. Its own
toothless environment agency is merely
part of the Department of Agriculture,
which itself is committed to promoting
an all-out expansion of industrial
farming without any evident regard for
the environmental consequences. The
collapse and subsequent suspension of
devolved government and the inability
of the politicians to agree on anything
has made a bad situation worse.
Anachronism
In my eel book I noted that the fishing
community of Lough Neagh was
something of an anachronism in our
world, surviving by exploiting a natural
— or semi-natural — resource in ways
that had not materially changed in
2,000 years. The lives of the fishermen
I met were a lot easier than those of
their forebears, but a lot harder than
is commonly the case these days. Try
this for a working schedule: going out in
the afternoon to bait 2,000 hooks with
worms and set a line the best part of a
mile long; back out that night to cast and
retrieve a draft net for six hours until
dawn breaks; back out again in the day
to retrieve the long line, cutting off the
sizeable eels with a knife to drop in the
bucket; and all of it on a lake that can
turn thoroughly nasty in the wrong kind
of wind. I did that once, in an observer
status, and it nearly did for me.
I wondered then how long it
could last. Last it did, but again I am
wondering. It seems highly likely
to me that, within a generation,
eel fishing in this country will have
joined commercial salmon fishing
as a historical curiosity, something
to be recalled in museums where
visitors will pause in front of displays
of eel grigs and spears and fyke nets
and elver nets and black-and-white
photographs of the eel men of old
posing with a seething confusion of
eels and wonder what that was all
about. Eel fishing never approached
salmon fishing in economic
importance, and salmon fishing was
never of more than local significance.
But the eel was, in Walton’s words, “a
dainty dish” and one for which, until
fairly recently, the English retained
a considerable fondness.
Niche
Across the Fens and the Somerset
Levels, along the Thames and the Trent
and the Humber, on the chalkstreams
and the slow streams, on lakes and
meres and canals, fishermen netted,
speared, trapped and put out baits for
eels, and ate them and traded them.
The Dutch came and took over the
London eel business and floated their
eels across the North Sea in strange
semi-submerged barges known as
schuyts, and took ours home in return.
The Irish and the Ulstermen shipped
them to Liverpool. Londoners ate them
in eel pie and jellied them and stewed
them to be served with ‘liquor’ (green
parsley sauce). But now only vestigial
markets remain, and a niche market
for smoked eel. We have largely lost our
taste for this delicious fish, and soon we
will lose our eel fishermen.
I phoned Alan on the Fleet to find out
how the season had been. Not bad, not
bad, he said — he reckoned that between
the four of them still doing it properly,
they’d had about six tons all in. The
biggest share had been caught by his
brother, which was a bit annoying like.
But that’s eel fishing for you, Alan said,
philosophical as ever. I asked if he’d be
out for the next season. He reckoned
so, as long as there was someone to buy
them. He’d heard that the Dutchman
had sold out to two lads from Honiton,
so maybe they’d take them.
But after we’ve gone there won’t
be any, Alan told me. I asked if his
son was interested. My son, he said —
articulating the words carefully — is
a patent lawyer. Doesn’t really go with
eel fishing, does it?
 Liam Bell is chairman of the NGO and headkeeper on a family-owned estate in South Shropshire

Gamekeeper
The immediate fallout from coronavirus is having an impact on all
our daily lives, but the effects on shooting could last for many years

W
e live in extraordinary
times. COVID-19 has
changed the world as we
know it. Even those of us
who are lucky enough to live and work in the
countryside will have had to make changes
to our daily routines, and rightly so.
True, we are shielded from many of
the day-to-day problems affecting those
without spreading room. Many of us can
continue to work and, to a degree, carry
on as normal, but the shooting community
hasn’t escaped unscathed.
There has been lots of discussion, both
locally and nationally, on how shoots are
going to cope, function and ultimately
survive the 2020-2021 season (Sporting
spirit will live on, 22 April). No one has
a clear answer as to how things are going
to pan out and a lot of the forward planning It remains to be seen whether anything can be salvaged from the virus-hit game shooting season
is purely guesswork.
A month ago, the situation was changing form or another, even if it involves social Keeping businesses afloat, families and
almost by the day. Shoots that were distancing and a change in how we operate. mortgages will, quite rightly, be put first.
mothballing were changing their minds and How the COVID-19 pandemic will affect In turn, I wonder if the Guns who have
deciding to shoot, and others that had been shooting long-term is a difficult one. It may had to reduce their days, or chosen to shoot
going ahead as normal were deciding to have no long-term effect and things could a number of smaller ones this year, will
scale back a bit. soon be back to normal, but I feel it will. want to go back to bigger days.
In 2008, in the immediate aftermath of They might not. They could look at their
Decisions the financial crisis, bookings from overseas bank balances and weigh the cost of the
With chicks going into incubators at the customers and firms wanting to spoil bigger days against the enjoyment they had
beginning of April, game farmers were their staff and clients on corporate days on the smaller ones. They could find they
understandably needing deposits and plummeted. Many cancelled days, despite enjoyed the smaller ones just as much and
sporting agents and shoot captains wanting having paid their deposits. no longer see the need for bigger bags.
the same. Most shoots have at least made Private clients who, hitherto, had been This, in turn, could see the closure
a decision on this coming season. willing to shoot ‘overages’ and in effect of a number of shoots that are currently
The bulk seem to have scaled back
plans somewhat. Many have decided not
to shoot at all and have refocused their
“Selling shooting by the experience
keepers’ efforts on additional conservation could replace selling by the bird. People
work or woodland management, and some
are carrying on as before. A few have sadly will still shoot, but perhaps shoot less”
had to make some or all of their keepers
redundant, unable or unwilling to invest in offer their hosts an blank cheque for their struggling to break even and lead to a
a season that may not happen. Sad all days, reined in their spending. It took three rethinking of the way shooting is sold
round; a situation with no winners. or four years for things to get back to where and let.
The two big questions are: will we they were. Selling shooting by the day, by the
be able to shoot, and what effect will this The difference this time is that the experience, could replace selling by the
trimming of budgets and tightening of financial fallout from COVID-19 will affect bird. People will still shoot, but perhaps
purse strings have on game shooting us all in some way, not only the financiers they will shoot less and appreciate their
in the future? and the City’s big boys. days, and the birds they shoot, more.
I can’t give a definitive answer to the It could take another four or five years I don’t know, and I don’t want to seem
first question any more than anyone else for people to feel they have enough money overly pessimistic, but I do feel we are
can, but I feel we will be shooting in one to go out and spend on shooting again. entering a time of change.
S FARNSWORTH

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 33


Toyota Hilux £20,423
The Toyota Hilux has been shifting loads for 52 years and its latest
incarnation lives up to that workhorse reputation, says Ed Coles
Despite being a real
working truck it’s
easy on the eye
W
hen you think of
a pickup truck, the
Hilux is probably one
of the first to spring
to mind. It’s been around in various
forms since 1968 and, over the years,
it’s proved itself to be a formidable
off-road vehicle, popular with farmers
and keepers.
The Hilux comes in several guises,
but it’s safe to call this the proper
workhorse version or, to give it its
official name, Hilux Active Wide Body
Single Cab.
My first impression is that I could
have done with this at the start of
the season. It’s a pretty big beast and
there’s something a bit retro about
the black 17in steel wheels. I like the
colour too. Despite its workhorse
nature, the overall silhouette is rather
D GOULD
pleasing for a pickup. Admittedly,
it’s not an Aston Martin, but it still
34 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
VEHICLE TEST
looks sleek and by no means offensive
on the eye.
It looks fit for purpose and viewing
from front to back, you won’t have
to worry about ground clearance —
227mm to be precise. It’s more than
enough to deal with all that the British
countryside has to offer.
It’s time to pull out my trusty feed
bag and explore underneath. At the
back, it all looks industry standard:
ladder chassis, solid, lockable rear
“Admittedly, it’s not an Aston Martin, but it
still looks sleek and by no means offensive”
diff powering the rear wheels and
hefty leaf springs cushioning the load.
It’s not overly glamorous underneath,
but it has the right amount of
everything that we need. Perhaps it’s
slightly agricultural, with only a hint
of the new-fangled. Minding my head
on the robust tow bar, I’ll go in for a bit
more of an exploration.
The workhorse bit of the Hilux is
pretty impressive. This version comes
with a nice lockable storage box for
expensive tools such as a chainsaw.
Unfortunately, despite being
reasonably deep, it’s not long enough
to accommodate a gun slip. As it is the
wide-bodied version, I’m guessing five
full feed bags wide and five rows long
— a total of 25-plus full bags overall.
You could fit a full pallet in with room
to spare though, despite the room,
payload sits at just over a tonne.
As it’s a bit of a wide boy, it looks the
perfect width for moving partridge

pen sections about and there’s
plenty of places to secure them
to. Lugging things about isn’t going
to be an issue for the Hilux.
Time to have a peek under the
bonnet. It’s quite novel in that I
can see a fair bit of the engine; it’s
not overly draped in plastic. The
Hilux is powered by a four-cylinder
2.4 turbo diesel, which stables 148
horses and comes with a six-speed
manual gearbox. It produces
enough grunt for towing up to 3.5
tonnes, which is pretty impressive;
more than a lot of its competitors.
Climbing in, the first impression
is that it’s quite smart for a
workhorse. I am greeted with a
sensibly dark interior. You almost
forget you’re in a commercial
vehicle. Though a single cab, it
doesn’t feel cramped. There’s
a reasonable amount of space
behind the seats, where you could
put your gun slip.
Everyday essentials
Not too many overly complicated
controls. I want to say it’s basic
inside, but that would do the Hilux
a disservice. Just the everyday
essentials would be more apt.
The spec is reasonable: electric
windows, central control screen
for radio and phone, adjustable
steering column, aircon with a
cooled glovebox. This version has
a few extras: metallic paint, tow
bar and a parking pack which
includes camera and sensors.
The 4x4 controls are pretty
simple. One rotary switch to
select 2 high, 4 high and low, plus
an electronic lockable diff. The
Hilux has a host of electronic aids:
hill start control, active traction
control, trailer sway control, vehicle
stability control and brake assist.
PROS: AROBUSTWORKHORSE,SMART
INTERIOR, BAGS OF SPACE IN THE BACK
Tested and reviewed by Shooting Times
On country roads, it feels CONCLUSION
stable around the corners. The
characteristic 4x4 wobble and roll
is minimal, but it is there. On the
whole it’s quite manoeuvrable
and doesn’t feel like it should come
with a sail, as some 4x4s can. It
handles the bumps well, though
the suspension may feel a little
soft. But it’s for carting stuff, not
racing around a track.
Smooth gear changes THE HILUX ticks all the boxes for me: good
On the open road it feels on the open road, fantastic off-road and
comfortable and it’s rather enough room to carry pretty much anything
pleasant cruising along. Not you want to. The only thing it could do with
lightning quick with a zero to is the addition of a rear canopy to cover the
62mph of 13.2 seconds, but back, other than that top marks from me, but
enough power and speed to keep what is the bottom line?
me amused and out of trouble. It The Hilux does seem to hold its price
feels smooth going through the in the second-hand market and they’ve
gears and, again, you could forget appeared to be one of the more pricey 4x4s
you’re in a commercial vehicle. over the years. However, this workhorse
With 4 high selected and diff version isn’t overly expensive. With the
locked, it’s time to see how she optional metallic paint, parking pack and tow
copes off–piste around the bad bar, it comes in at £20,423.33 + VAT, which is
lands of Edwardshire. Despite pretty reasonable. So, the question is, can
the wide body, the Hilux is rather I hide one in the wheat bill?
manoeuvrable through the wood,
almost nimble you could say.
It deals with the ruts and bumps
with ease, which is no surprise.
Not too much squirming around
through the mud, which is helped
by the relatively sensible tyres
fitted. At no point did I think
I would get stuck. It can certainly
deal with everything and more,
but I was reluctant to test its Our test model has a useful lockable storage box
700mm wading depth.
I can see the appeal of the
Hilux and its reputation as a good
off-road vehicle is well justified.
The latest incarnation lives up
to its predecessors.
The Hilux is powered
by a four-cylinder 2.4 The new Hilux is ‘industry standard’ underneath
turbo diesel engine
NEED TO KNOW
Model Toyota Hilux
Top speed 106mph
Bhp 148
0-62mph 13.2 seconds
Fuel consumption 39.8mpg
Co2 emissions 187 g/km
Towing weight braked 3,500kg
CONS: NOREARCANOPY,CANBEVIEWED Towing unbraked Green 750kg
AS SLIGHTLY AGRICULTURAL Insurance group 49
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 35
 Irish stalker
Ireland’s goat talent
County Kerry has a healthy population of feral goats that cause much
damage but luckily they’re tremendously tasty, says Barry Stoffell
E
ven without a nationwide
lockdown thrown into
the mix, this is a relatively
quiet time of year in the
Irish stalking calendar. Seasons for
all Irish deer species — except for
muntjac, which is rarer than a dry
November in Kerry — end on the last
day of February and remain closed
until September.
There’s often a small amount of
Section 42 work (under the Wildlife
Act 1976 ) to do into March where
deer are still causing damage. Open
ground deer counts, where possible,
are usually attempted in this month
when hinds and calves remain
distinct and most stags still have their
antlers. But by the middle of April,
attention is free to turn to another
species entirely; the goat.
Feral goats are not a protected
species in Ireland and can be actively
managed where they are causing
A GEARD
unacceptable amounts of damage
at any time of year. Though they are
36 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
present in most counties, they are
particularly successful in high, remote
places where they aren’t a bother to —
nor bothered by — anyone, provided
they have enough shelter.
County Kerry, in particular, has
a very healthy population of these
hardy ungulates tucked away in the
high passes and remote mountainous
regions; Killarney National Park has
a fast-growing feral goat population.
As a species, the goat has been
part of the rural Irish landscape for
millennia. Believed to have been
brought to Ireland around 4,000
years ago by Neolithic settlers, their
numbers were added to by both the
Vikings and the Normans.
However, almost all the current
stock owe their presence to escaped
or released domesticated goats of
African or Swiss lineage, breeds which
rose to popularity and great numbers
in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
As recently as the 1980s many small
farms in Ireland would keep a goat
or two for milking or merely from
nostalgia, and they were widely
considered to be a ‘healthy’ animal
to have about the place.
I must confess a distinct fondness
for the feral goat. Once you get past
the smell — which can be surprising
when you first get up close to winter
billies — their unfussy palate and
gregarious nature give them an air
of quiet contentedness in the wild.
I find it tends to rub off on me if I sit
and watch them for long enough.
High and wild
I feel no small sense of kinship with
these hardy animals in their choice
of habitat, as for the main part they
are to be found in the high and wild
parts of Kerry that are among my
favourite places to be.
In such locations the goats can
thrive. They have a long mating
season; the rut, such as it is, starts in
August and runs more or less through
the end of December, giving ample
Herds of feral goats can
do significant damage to
fences and dry stone walls
 Irish stalker

Goats, young and old, make good eating and

Getting above the feral goats can require hours of careful advance under watchful caprine eyes their flavourful meat is consumed worldwide

opportunity for nannies to conceive instances. Fortunately for those small number of nuisance goats that
and, five months hence, it is not of us who are fond of goats, they are I cull each year are butchered and
uncommon for them to give birth intelligent creatures and often even distributed locally to a small but
to twins. light shooting pressure will tend to growing number of recipients.
Females are fertile from around displace them from the areas in which
six months old and, in the absence they are causing damage. “The absence of
of natural predators, this means Stalking goats in their natural
that feral goat populations can grow habitat can be surprisingly natural predators
quite quickly. The major downward challenging. Even a fairly large
pressure on the growth of their herd has a collective wariness that means feral goat
numbers — apart from human
intervention — is the high mortality
makes getting close rather tricky and
with so many caprine eyes on their
populations can
rate among kids, which are born surroundings creeping up on them is grow quite quickly”
early in the year and are therefore no mean feat. Once you’re rumbled,
susceptible to harsh weather. you are on for a merry chase across I am often amazed at people’s
the hills and, if successful, a long drag reaction to goat as a game meat in the
Menace back to the vehicle. UK and Ireland, given that it is one
As their numbers grow, feral goats Good use is made of every animal of the most widely consumed meats
can shift quite quickly from being taken. Here in Munster, wild goat is on the planet. This may be changing;
something that’s nice it is gaining popularity as a number
hill to a nuisance and of companies have begun to rear
a downright menace ‘unwanted’ male kids — previously a
sheep farmers have h by-product of the booming goat dairy
contend with large fe industry — for meat production. There
herds established on was even a rumour that it was soon
high ground, which to appear in Waitrose, though I’m
frequently demolish unsure if this ever came to fruition.
the upper sheep
fencing as they Mountain strongholds
descend and With all our movements still
establish a daily necessarily restricted at the time of
commute to the writing, the feral goats of County
lower grasslands fro Kerry are safe for the time being,
which the farmers’ though I’ve been asked by several
livelihood is derived farmers to pencil in urgent trips when
Newly planted for restrictions are relaxed. I can’t deny
can also be heavily im the memory of last spring’s fragrant
where goat numbers goat curries and spicy barbequed goat
enough, as the goats kebabs leave me hoping that this will
leader shoots and can be possible sooner rather than later.
the timber stock in th But for the moment, given my
years. It is, of course, fondness for these hardy little
to do something abo blighters, the very thought of them
looking down on us from their
Shooting feral goats off t mountain strongholds is itself enough
dragging the carcass a l g to put a smile on my face.

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 37

 Pigeon shooting
War and peas
Frustratingly for farmers, there is nothing that woodies like more
than young peas — Tom Payne heads to Norfolk to tackle the issue
B
ack in February and
March, when we were
in the doldrums of the
warmest and wettest
winter on record, farmers were quite
understandably gloomy. But when
spring finally came and the sun
started shining, conditions for
drilling were ideal.
As a pigeon shooter, there is
very little that can beat a day on the
drillings when you’ve got a warm
breeze on your back, a flask of tea,
and birds floating into an irresistible
spread of decoys chucked on the
ground. Archie Coats — the spiritual
father of modern pigeon shooting
S TRINDER
— always used to say that a good
pattern should be chucked not
38 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
placed, because otherwise “it doesn’t
look natural”.
Right crop
If you want to make the most of the
first weeks of May and early June, you
have got to be on the ball and have
the right sort of crops in front of you.
Spring rape is one of the best crops
for these months but is now as rare as
hen’s teeth. Grazed clover, failed rape
or lucerne — a type of clover grown for
hay feed — can all be very popular but
again are not often grown.
The crop that yields the best results
— and is more commonly grown — is
peas. The word is music to the ears of
any keen pigeon shooter. However,
one difficulty during spring is that
there is an abundance of natural
food available, such as tree buds,
which can keep a population of birds
occupied in the woods.
However, they always seem to
maintain a lust for peas and will
devour them from when they are
drilled through every part of their
growth, all the way to harvest, much
to the farmer’s distress. Interestingly,
I have noticed a slight drop in the
amount being grown this year, which
Jack Coleman, a farming friend in
Essex, tells me is because a very wet
winter means that the soil isn’t quite
right for peas.
But of course, many people
are persevering. Some weeks ago,
I received a phone call from a friend

who said he was “extremely worried”.
When I asked why, he said: “I’ll send
you a video.” The video showed his
flailed maize strips were holding
hundreds of hungry woodies.
He was about to put in a small
acreage of peas and wasn’t too happy
“Pigeon will devour peas through every
part of their growth all the way to harvest”
about the resident population. After
we worked out a plan, he drilled the
peas in and we kept an eye on it for
a little over two weeks.
Damage
I turned up early 15 days after
they’d been drilled to have a look.
Frustratingly, due to the farm being
in Norfolk, I couldn’t do any proper
reconnaissance. As I walked the crop
I saw that it had established itself well.
Early signs looked good to me but not
the farmer. There was clear pigeon
damage and quite a few of the local
population were hanging around the
trees bordering the field.
A wet winter isn’t perfect for peas but
many farmers have still planted them
Tom’s decoy pattern
seemed almost irresistible
to any approaching pigeon
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 39
Pigeon shooting
This was a single 70-acre field
so I felt confident that with the ideal
shooting conditions — warm with
a light breeze — I would be getting
in among it later in the day.
Making a decision on where to
shoot was a simple one as a handful
of early arrivals gave away their
intent. With the time approaching
11am, I chose to put my hide next
to a small broken hedge close to the
middle of the undulating field, with
the light breeze perfectly off my back.
I had plenty of time before peak
feeding from 2pm so I took my time
setting up. I placed about 30 dead
birds in cradles to offer a good picture
on the high ground, as well as two
rotaries and two flappers. One rotary
was a long way down the hedge to
my left and one 70 yards in front
Pigeon shooting
to the right, with two flappers in the
heart of the pattern. The wind kept
changing speed and direction but the
pattern stood out well against the blue
sky. It looked simply irresistible to
oncoming pigeon traffic.
Alas, as I turned my gaze to the
heavens, not a single bird was aloft.
I was beginning to wonder whether
I had got it wrong. I kept my confidence
looking at the broken crop of winter
rape behind me in full flower still
“It was peak feeding time and birds were
flying with only one thing on their mind”
carrying the battle scars of a winter
pestered by pigeon. Birds were
certainly around. But another hour
and a half passed and I hadn’t fired
a single shot.
Finally a local bird drifted up from
the neighbouring village and dived
straight into the decoys. I lifted off my
seat, pressed the gun to my shoulder
and fired. The bird flared upwards
with both shots missing over the top.
This was not a good start.
However, the shots did stir up a few
birds; one of which, after considering
its options, decided to commit on its
The pigeon were decoying mostly in small groups — which made shooting them fairly easy for Tom
40 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
second look. As it slid into the far end
of the decoys I fired and missed again.
I declined the second barrel as I had
a little team talk with myself, going
back through the rudimentary basics.
If it was going to be like this I was
going to struggle to make a bag at all.
The time drifted on with nothing
to show. After 45 minutes, a pair of
pigeon off my back left flew over the
pattern, made a sharp turn into the
wind and into the decoys. I killed
the first but annoyingly missed the
second. One for five. I poured a cup
of tea and regrouped.
Far in the distance to my left I could
see a bird approaching. It entered the
field and lost altitude. This was more
like it, I thought to myself, a bird flying
with intent and purpose to feed. It
smashed to the ground with the first
shot and another pigeon following
its trail quickly followed suit. Things
were starting to go my way.
Another pair arrived and were
both killed over the decoys. With the
early misses now behind me, I was
C OV I D -1 9
Shooting in lockdown needs to
be essential pest control for food
production and you must have
permission from the farmer. It is
advisable to have a letter from the
farmer or landowner saying you
have permission.
BASC recommends shooting
should stop when a member of the
public approaches and resume
when they are out of earshot. It is
also a good idea to contact your
local police because different
forces may have different rules.
focused and back on the ball. Another
line to my right showed birds arriving
and committing brilliantly.
Back on form
This was turning into a classic
decoying day, with two lines now
— one from over the distant village
on the left and one coming up the
valley from the right. I was starting
to get busy and back on form. It
wasn’t rushed and birds arrived at
comfortable intervals, which makes
shooting very straightforward and
enjoyable. There were never any
groups of much more than four and
as I killed the arriving birds, those
following were not relating the bangs
to danger, simply seeing one of their
comrades landing among friends.
I had a few more misses but
I was winning the war. It was around
3.30pm and the bag was into the late
80s. The peak feeding time was on and
birds were flying with commitment
and only one thing on their mind.
I knew I was on for 100 by 4pm but
could this be a double century?
There were a few lulls as I cleared
the battleground of upturned birds
then quickly raced back to the hide for
the action to start all over again. By
about 6pm things were slowing down.
I had definitely done some damage
and after a few more pigeon had hit
the deck I decided to pull up stumps
at 6.30pm. After picking up the bag
my tally stood at 197 — a fine innings.
It was a day where one moment
all was lost and the next it was one of
the finest I had ever had. It’s not easy
going in blind sometimes but you have
to keep the faith. If you don’t shoot to
your ability in patches, keep calm and
carry on — focus on the shooting and
trust your fieldcraft.

Rats entertainment!
Before lockdown, Mat Manning heads to some release pens — now
free of pheasants — to eradicate greedy rodents gorging on free grub
I
t wasn’t so long ago that most
of us were bemoaning the fact
that we were having to endure
a long and very wet winter, and
were looking forward to the longer,
warmer days of spring. Better weather
certainly came but the coronavirus
lockdown meant that most of us could
only enjoy it from our gardens, not out
in the fields or by the rivers where we
wanted to be.
As I write, we are in our fourth
week of being restricted to our homes
and, though it is frustrating, it’s not
M MANNING
exactly the greatest of hardships.
I have whiled away many hours
preparing my shooting gear and
fishing tackle for future adventures
and, of course, by reminiscing on the
highlights of past outings.
One evening that really sticks in
my mind is a ratting session with my
friend Kev Hawker in February. As the
pheasant season had drawn to a close,
we were allowed to shoot inside the
release pens on a local estate and the
“I didn’t see any rats by day but the
network of holes around the bases of trees
was clear evidence of their presence”
early signs suggested that we were
in for a busy time.
My first investigation was by day,
while out on my rounds checking
on grey squirrel feeding stations. The
main release pen is close to a river and
the high water levels, resulting from
the winter’s seemingly endless rain,
had driven many rats out from their
nests in the banks of the waterway
Above: Kev steadies his
aim. Left: Mat’s
spare magazine
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 41
Airgunning
and into the higher ground of the
woods. With numerous pheasant
feeders dotted around the pen, the
rodents didn’t take long to find an
easy food source and settle in.
The place appeared to be
absolutely riddled with them. Though
I didn’t see any by day, the network
of holes around the bases of trees
was clear evidence of their abundant
presence. The main hotspots were
around a couple of remaining
pheasant feeders, which had,
unsurprisingly, created areas
of increased attraction.
The following evening, Kev and
I turned up at the pen about half
an hour before nightfall, equipped
with night-vision gear and full
of expectation. I was using my
Weihrauch HW100K with an ATN
X-Sight 4K Pro optic, and Kev had my
Brocock Bantam Sniper, which I had
set up with an ATN X-Sight II HD.
Airgunning
The remaining feeders had created areas
of high attraction for the greedy rodents
A few months ago I wrote about
Kev’s reluctance to spend money
(Creatures and discomfort, 18
December 2019) and the fact that
he had converted an old camera
tripod into a shooting support to
avoid splashing out on a proper set
of sticks. Because I had laid on the
hardware and ammunition for this
session, Kev’s sole responsibility was
to remember his tripod and, you’ve
Mat’s first scan through his night-vision scope revealed two rats scavenging grain around the feeder
42 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
guessed it, he
still managed
to forget it.
Kev’s lack of
a shooting support was
going to present something of
a problem. Heavy night-vision optics
make for wobbly off-hand shooting,
so you need a rest to deliver clean head
shots reliably. Thankfully, the tripod
I use for my video camera was in the
boot of my car. It lacked the fancy
wooden yoke that Kev had crafted
for his own tripod but at least he
Early signs confirmed there were more
than a few rats holed-up in the pen
had a rest for
his gun, and
his reputation for
never buying essential
items of equipment
remained intact. What Kev lacks
in preparation he more than makes
up for in entertainment value. As we
crept into the pen, a startled rat shot
out from beneath an old pallet and
darted through the gloom in front
of us, inches from our boots.
That was shocking enough but
Kev’s shriek almost stopped my heart.
The combination of terror and hilarity
soon had us laughing hysterically.
If anybody had heard us they would
certainly have wondered what on
earth was going on.
Back to back
After regaining our composure we
had a quick look round and settled
on two spots. Kev picked an area that
enabled him to cover the pallet stack
and a couple of tree trunks that were
peppered with rat holes. I found
a place that gave me a clear view of
a feeder next to a very ratty-looking
tangle of undergrowth. Our chosen
spots put us back to back about 10m
apart — a safe arrangement that
meant we were just about able to talk
to each other.

Scanning through the darkness,
Mat picks up a rat in the X-Sight
4K Pro’s night-vision display
I like to be comfortable when
I dig in for a night’s ratting, so
I unfolded my backpack stool and set
it up on a flat patch of ground before
positioning my Trigger Stick tripod
in front of my knees. Expecting a lot
of shots over the next few hours,
I loaded one of the Weihrauch’s 14-
shot magazines and popped it into
the breech before filling another and
slipping it into my pocket.
Filling magazines in the half-light
is a much easier task than it is in
complete darkness, so it was good
to know that I would be able to pull
out the empty magazine and snap
in another without any fiddling
around after my first 14 shots.
A few minutes after I’d finished
loading up, I heard a ‘pop’ from Kev’s
direction over the commotion of the
roosting crows. Another one followed
a moment later, before I had even
fired up my scope and illuminator,
so there were evidently a few rats
on the move.
The light had more or less
completely gone, and my first peer
through the X-Sight confirmed that
the rodents were indeed out and
about. Scanning towards the feeder,
which was only about 15m from me,
I could clearly see two rats scavenging
grain from around its base. I flopped
one over with a wallop to the head
and the other darted for cover at
the sound of the impacting pellet.
Another rat, possibly the same one,
“I found a position that gave me a clear
view of a pheasant feeder next to a very
ratty-looking tangle of undergrowth”
was soon back out, lapping at the
fresh blood around the dead one.
I quickly added it to the tally.
Over the next hour, the croaks
and screams of the crows were
replaced with the hoots and shrieks
of tawny owls. The atmosphere of
a wood at night is unique and it’s
always an exciting place to be. It was
particularly exciting on this occasion
because I was getting plenty of shots,
and the frequent ‘pap’ from Kev’s
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 43
Airgunning
spot suggested that the rats were also
keeping him busy.
As is often the case, the remaining
rats became very wary during
the final hour of our foray. After
witnessing their mates’ misfortune,
they understandably refused to
venture out to the feeder but
I managed to nail a few more by
sniping them as they peeped out
from the undergrowth.
Happy keeper
By the time we pulled up stumps
I was well into my second magazine
and estimated that I’d shot about 24
rats — we picked 23 so I wasn’t far off.
Kev had also made the most of the
opportunities he had been presented
with and we managed to gather 16
from around his zone. A tally of 39
rats is pretty good going for a relatively
short session. We’d had a thoroughly
enjoyable time and the keeper was
delighted when I texted him to let him
know how we’d got on.
Hopefully it won’t be long before
we can all get back out and make some
more great shooting memories.
It didn’t take long for Mat to start building
a bag as rats ventured out to raid the grain
 Gundogs

The history of the curlycoated retriever

can be traced back to the 16th century,
but it is a vulnerable native breed today

A curlycoated comeback
The decline of the curlycoated retriever was accelerated by the rise
of the labrador, but David Tomlinson makes the case for a revival
I’VE ALWAYS
believed that our old
and rare native breeds of
gundogs have much in
common with classic cars.
They often look good, albeit in a
somewhat old-fashioned way, and
though they rarely perform as well
as their more modern counterparts,
the charm and pleasure of using
them more than makes up for their
shortcomings. However, their appeal
is limited as they are frequently high
maintenance, while even reliability
can be a problem. The plus side is
turning up at a shoot with a breed of
dog few people have ever seen before
and the satisfaction of keeping part
of our shooting heritage alive.
GETTY IMAGES / ALAMY
awarded to the top dog from the BASC
gamekeepers’ classes. The dog was a
five-year-old called Twister, owned
by gamekeeper Brian Twigger and his
wife, Dawn Hall. Last season, Twister
did 19 days picking-up, so we can
assume that he is a proper worker and
not a show dog that is occasionally
exercised in the shooting field.
“The classic Victorian gamekeeper’s dog,
valued for its stamina and ability in water”
The curlycoated retriever is an old
breed, its history stretching back as
far as the 16th century. The original
dogs were most likely the progeny of
an English water spaniel, crossed with
St John’s Newfoundland, while the
curly, waterproof coat seems most
likely to be thanks to the poodle. The
poodle was once bred in France as a
duck dog, while a modern standard
poodle is not radically different in size,
nor even conformation, to a curlycoat.
As a working dog, the curlycoat
reached its peak of popularity towards
the end of the 19th century. Early
photographs of the shooting field
often depict curlycoated retrievers,
usually accompanying gamekeepers,
for this was the classic Victorian

These thoughts went through my a retrieving setter. The blood from gamekeeper’s dog, valued for its
mind when I heard that a curlycoated other breeds was no doubt added later. strength, stamina and ability in water.
retriever won the Northesk Memorial Their size — this is the biggest of the However, its reign as our top
Trophy at Crufts this year, the prize retrievers — probably comes from the retriever was brief, initially eclipsed

In association with Chudleys: over forty years of

highly nutritious food for working dogs

44 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE


DAVID’S VIEWPOINT
CANINE OFF
THE MENU
‘Companion animals’ ruling
is step in the right direction
E
ver fancied spaniel steak, loin
of labrador or perhaps a cocker
cutlet? Of course you haven’t.
However, according to the Humane
Society International (HSI), a staggering
30million dogs are killed across Asia
annually for their meat. Of these, about
10million are killed in China. In contrast,
nearly 100million pet dogs and cats
are kept in China. Most Chinese people
don’t eat dogs, only a minority have ever
sampled it and many would like to see the
marketing of dog meat banned.
Thus one good result from the
coronavirus pandemic might well be a
Chinese ban on not only eating dog meat,
but also on the so-called wet markets
where dogs — along with a wide variety
of other animals, ranging from civets to
bats — are sold live. There is a Chinese
by the flatcoat before that modern
upstart, the labrador, assumed the
dominant position it still holds today.
As the labrador’s popularity
soared, so that of the curlycoat
went into sharp decline and it soon
became a rarity in the shooting field,
something it remains to this day. That
the breed has survived at all seems
remarkable for, unlike the flatcoat,
it has never been popular in the
show ring, while its size rules it out
of most pet homes. Not surprisingly,
it features on the Kennel Club’s
Vulnerable Native Breeds list.
tradition that eating freshly killed meat
is the healthier option, hence the sale of
live animals in these markets, even if the
animals themselves have been kept in the
most appalling conditions.
Last month, China’s Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Affairs stated, for
the first time, that dogs are companion
animals, not livestock. This follows the
decision of the city of Shenzhen to ban
the eating of cats and dogs from the start
of this month. Schenzhen, by the way,
has a population of 12million people and
is third in its economic output in China
to Shanghai and Beijing. The significance
of its decision cannot be overestimated.
As far as I can gather, the meat of dogs
or cats has never been eaten in Europe,
except at times of siege or when there has
been a threat of starvation. It’s simply not
part of our tradition.
There is another reason, too. The meat
of mammalian predators has never been
thought to make good eating, as lean
muscle tends to be tough and grisly, often
stringy in texture and without fat to give
it flavour. I’ve never tried it, and nor do
In 2019, a mere 68 puppies were
registered with the Kennel Club, a
typical annual figure. In the past
decade, only once have more than 100
puppies been registered in a year —
118, in 2013 — while its worst year was
2017, with 53 registrations.
Promotion
The Curly Coated Retriever Club is
one of the oldest of the gundog breed
societies, having been founded
in 1890. Its website is an excellent
starting place for anyone interested in
the breed. It does its best to promote
the curlycoat as a working gundog.
The website has photographs
of curlycoats working on a shoot,
pictures that I took long ago but had
forgotten about. My encounters with
proper working curlycoats have been
few and it’s some years since I last
saw one in action. Alas, I have never
been impressed with the working
individuals I have seen. They were
certainly big and handsome, but
they lacked that essential drive and
enthusiasm we take for granted in a
working-bred labrador.
A pair of curlycoated retrievers accompany
an immaculate Edwardian gamekeeper
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 45
www.chudleys.com
Cooked dog meat is sold at a Chinese market
I know anyone who has. I have, though,
sampled a wide variety of herbivores, from
zebra to camel, kudu to springbok.
In recent decades, the amount of meat
eaten in China has grown enormously, in
line with the country’s economic growth.
There is, however, a small but growing
interest in vegetarianism and even eating
a vegan diet, along with an increasing
appreciation of the health issues of eating
an unhealthy or unbalanced diet.
This is not only good news for dogs, but
for world health in general.
Email: dhtomlinson@btinternet.com
One of the problems for the survival
of the curlycoat as a working gundog
is that few shooting people consider
taking one on. Instead, individuals
with no background in shooting buy
a puppy, then discover the breed’s
gundog history and, commendably,
decide to train it as a retriever.
Without shooting connections, they
find it difficult to find ground where
they can work their dog.
Whether the curlycoat has a future
as a breed, let alone as a gundog, is
debatable. With so few individual
dogs, the gene pool is tiny. However,
the COI (coefficient of inbreeding) is
11%, which isn’t as bad as you might
expect — the higher the number the
greater the cause for concern. The COI
for the labrador is 6.5%, but the field
spaniel’s is 21.3%. Field spaniels are
only a little rarer than curlycoats.
Gundog historian David Hancock
is an admirer of the curlycoat, arguing
that it deserves wider patronage.
I agree, but to get wider patronage this
is a breed that desperately needs new
blood to survive. Whether the breed
society or the Kennel Club will ever
sanction an outcross — perhaps using
a suitable labrador or even a standard
poodle — is another matter.

With bear, elk, reindeer and red deer and its stunning topography,
Norway makes for an exceptional and challenging sporting destination
I
n parts of Norway we find such
‘friends’ of the sportsman as
the polar hare, ptarmigan,
capercaillie, black grouse, hazel
grouse and partridge. However, the
species of game most likely to attract
visiting sportsmen are the bear, elk,
red deer and reindeer.
From the Swedish frontier in the
south to the Finnish frontier in the
north, the Atlantic salmon (Salmo
salar) makes his way up nearly every
river of fair size, besides those small
waterways whenever its passage is not
barred by insurmountable waterfalls
at the mouth. There are something
like 200 rivers that contain salmon.
Trout fishing is general and good.
Norway, then, affords such excellent
opportunities for varied sport as are
seldom found in other European
countries, while the beauty of the
scenery is too well known to warrant
description in this short article giving
an outline of the type of sport visiting
sportsmen may expect.
To give you an idea of the
geography of the country I cannot
do better than to quote from The
Norway Year Book: “Norway is far too
long and narrow in proportion to its
length. With the exception of Russia,
no other country in Europe exhibits
such great distances. It is just as far
from Lindesnes to North Cape as from
Lindesnes to the Pyrenees, to Rome
or Moscow, and it is nearly one half of
a distance between New York and San
46 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
E B R ATING OUR BEST WRITE
C EL RS
“Two fish were caught in the Bolstad river
in 1922, weighing in at 68½lb and 69½lb”
Francisco in a straight line over North
America. In North Norway, especially,
distances are enormous… With the
exception of a few polar Eskimos
in north-west Greenland, and in the
American archipelago, no human
beings live so far north as is the case
in Norway, and in no other country do
civilised people live so near the pole.”
The bags of game killed in Norway,
appear comparatively small to those
obtained in certain other European
countries. The reason for this,
however, is that the breeding and
preservation of game in small areas is
quite unknown. Consequently, sport
is enhanced by the fact that the test of
the sportsman’s skill must lie not only
in his performance with any specified
firearm, but in a combination of this
with his sense of locality, powers of
physical endurance and a knowledge
of the game he pursues.
In a nutshell, mere skill with the
gun or rifle counts for little without
the ability to tackle the question of
woodcraft as applied to the country
and its fauna.
Bear country
The Norwegian bear frequents the
easily accessible forests and mountain
regions from far down in the south
to the coasts of the Arctic Sea in
the north. This great beast, whose
weight may reach 250kg, roams the
lonely, sunlit valleys of the higher
altitudes where the woods are thin
on the mountain sides. Since 1846
prizes have been awarded annually
for shooting about 130 bears. Though
the animal has seriously decreased
in numbers, any suggestion of
preserving it is hotly resented by
peasants in bear-infested districts.
Since shooting regulations have
been introduced the elk has greatly
increased, so much so that more than
1,000 head are now shot annually.
Most elk are found in the woods north

“No human beings
live so far north as is
the case in Norway”
of Trondhjem, but they will appear
quite suddenly quite close to Oslo.
A full-grown male may weigh about
500kg and has 10 to 14 branches on
its antlers, though animals have been
shot with 30 branches.
In this form, the country should
always be drawn against the wind,
for the elk is difficult to approach. Elk
hunting is almost exclusively carried
on with dogs which not only find the
animals, but can hold at bay.
Tame reindeer
The reindeer, found in herds up to
500 strong, owe much of their present
strength to sensible protective
measures. Reindeer stalking is
carried on in the high mountains,
which these animals frequent in their
thousands. Towards the end of the
last century it was estimated that
the race in the south had dwindled,
thanks to the modern rifle and the
tame herds, to about 5,000 head.
Even so, something like 1,000 were
shot annually.
By 1910, following on a five-year
period of complete preservation, it
was estimated that there were 16,000
reindeer south of the Bergen Railway.
It is wisely forbidden to use rifles with
a smaller bore than 12mm for this
kind of shooting, while raised sights
and magazines are prohibited.
“Any suggestion of
preserving bears is
hotly resented by
peasants in bear-
infested districts”
Approximately, there are 350 red
deer shot annually in Norway. On the
island of Hitteren there are estimated
to be about 1,000 of them and about
150 are killed every year.
“Trout are present in practically
every river and stream”
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 47
Vintage Times
As the smaller game is reserved for
Norwegians, the bear, the elk, and the
reindeer and the red deer are the only
kinds of game that visiting sportsmen
are likely to shoot in Norway.
For angling, no country in Europe
has such good natural conditions as
Norway. Salmon begin to ascend the
rivers in April. Most of the fish arrive
between the end of May and the close
of August. The heavier fish come first;
the grilse by midsummer. Norway
holds the record for the biggest
salmon caught on rod and line. Two
fish were caught in the Bolstad river in
1922, weighing 68½lb and 69½lb. In
Norway, more than 2,000,000kg of
salmon have been caught in the river
every year during the last generation,
this, of course, including fishing for
livelihood.
Important fish
Sea trout ascend hundreds of the
larger rivers and, when they are in
flood, thousands of smaller rivers that
are usually dry beds. After the salmon
this is the next most important fish for
sport and is said to attain a weight of
no less than 15kg. Between 75,000kg
and 150,000kg of sea trout are caught
annually along the Norwegian coast.
While freshwater trout angling has,
up to more recent years, been carried
on by the Norwegians, a great many
tourists now bring their tackle and
find it well worthwhile. It is a cheap
form of sport that can be indulged in
all over Norway. Trout are present
in practically every river and stream
and, though the fish are on average
smaller than those in England,
there are advantages. These include
the trout’s fighting powers and the
exceptionally delicate red flesh that
make trout fishing in this country
a most popular and cheap sport.
Trout fishing in these streams is
almost always done with a wet fly,
as the water is rapid. On the lakes,
however, and on some of the slow-
flowing rivers, it may possibly pay
to fish dry. Red char and grayling
are to be found in great numbers
but are seldom fished for as sport.
The best time for fly fishing in the
mountain streams and lakes is in July
and August. In low-lying districts
fishing starts in June and lasts to
the beginning of September.
This article was first published in the
9 May 1936 issue of Shooting Times.
48 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

Game Cookery
Easy to make and full of flavour, this twist on the classic bruschetta
provides the perfect introduction to pigeon meat, says Cai ap Bryn
T
he sun is finally shining. It has
been the hottest April that
I can remember for a long time.
My birthday is usually a great
occasion round Easter time, with lots of
friends and family surrounding me.
This year, I spent it sitting in front of a
webcam and waving. How life has changed.
It’s all very surreal. Conditions have been
perfect for heading out shooting, yet all
I can do is watch pigeons float by the
window instead. I thought of this recipe
when shooting was plentiful and we were
all hoping for a successful season. Now,
I’m writing it with the excitement of
heading back out when we are all released
from our pens.
I have noticed a lot of well-known chefs
are taking to social media and sharing their
recipes at home using a phone or small
camera. It is great to see that people are
still inspiring each other behind closed
doors. People are donating game to food
charities and others within our shooting
PIGEON BREAST BRUSCHETTA
Ingredients
HALF A SMALL WHITE ONION,
FINELY DICED
1SWEETPEPPER,FINELYDICED
4 CHERRY TOMATOES,
FINELY DICED — I USED SOME
LOVELY ORANGE ONES
FOR MINE
1 CLOVE OF GARLIC,
FINELY DICED
2 PIGEON BREASTS
YOUR FAVOURITE LOAF OR, IF
YOU ARE LUCKY — LIKE I WAS —
A SMALL SEEDED LOAF ABOUT
3IN IN DIAMETER
PARMESAN CHEESE
(LIGHT SHAVINGS)
6 BASIL LEAVES
A. SYDENHAM
industry are volunteering for the NHS. It
makes you feel truly proud being British.
My local butcher in Bexhill has had a
busy few weeks, with people desperately
searching for fresh meat and game as
the supermarkets are empty or there are
huge queues. I hope that this reliance on
“It is great to see that people are still
inspiring each other behind closed doors”
local independent retailers continues after
the lockdown, as it’s people like this who
really step up to the mark and provide the
community with what they need.
While not many pigeons are being
shot, you may still be able to get some
that are frozen or shot by farmers for crop
protection. If you struggle to get pigeon,
you can try this with a small duck or even
grouse. This pigeon bruschetta recipe is
a quick gourmet fix. It’s tasty, bursting with
flavour and can be prepared in advance.
THE METHOD
Serves 5 to 6
1 Dice all the vegetables and soften in
a pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Once
they have gone soft and coloured, place
to the side.
2 Season the pigeon breasts with salt
and pepper.
3 Place the pigeon in a searing hot,
lightly oiled pan for 45 seconds on
each side. Take care not to overcook
the meat.
4 Set aside the pigeon breasts and
let them rest.
5 Cut a 3in circle (or square), about
half an inch thick, out of a decent
piece of your favourite bread until you
have six pieces.
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 49
Pigeon
It is very easy to make and a good dish for
anyone trying pigeon for the first time. The
usual trick is not to overcook your pigeon;
a simple 40 to 45 seconds on each side is
all it needs, then let it rest for five minutes.
What I like about the bruschetta is
that you can either have it as a snack or
a canapé, or even make it slightly larger
and have it for a lunch. The recipe is for
a slightly larger crowd with the diameter
around 3in wide, but you can make smaller
ones if you so desire.
I was looking for a good wine to go with
this and my wine expert friend Georgie
Fenn recommended a nice, crisp English
wine such as Bacchus from Chapel Down
or perhaps a nice viognier, something light
and bouncy that will reflect the flavour
combination from the bruschetta.
6 Lightly toast your bruschetta
pieces in the pan you used to sear
the pigeon. If the pan is dry, add some
extra olive oil, but let it get hot first.
7 Place the softened vegetables on
the bruschetta piece, slice the
pigeon breast lengthways into thin
strips and place two pieces crossed
over on top.
8 Season with salt and pepper then
cover with a sprinkle of parmesan
shavings and touch of chopped basil.
It really is that easy and can be made in
10 minutes. Take it to the garden with a
glass of wine as you self-isolate and enjoy
a little bit of luxury during these very
odd times.
 SPORTING ANSWERS
The experts Breeding from polecats
is not advised – you don’t
THE ULTIMATE know what you will get
SHOOTING QUIZ TEAM
BILL HARRIMAN
BASC’s head of firearms and
global authority on guns

MAT MANNING
Airgunner and journalist from
the West Country

DIGGORYHADOKE
Vintage gun expert, firearms
dealer, author and journalist

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
SIMON WHITEHEAD
S FARNSWORTH / J MACPHERSON / M MANNING / P QUAGLIANA / ALAMY
Don’t try polecat breeding
FERRETING
I caught a large polecat hob
in one of my rabbit drop boxes
and was wondering if there were
any benefits from breeding from
him this year with my ferret?
Over the years, I have caught
my fair share of feral ferrets
in my traps, as well as a few polecats.
Naively, I used to think that these were
completely wild, until I delved into the
what benefits they could bring. To me,
breeding is all about improving on what
you already have. I found that polecats
simply do not bring anything other than
size and power that a good working ferret
couldn’t. Humans have spent many
years eradicating the bad traits out of
the polecat so it could evolve into the
modern ferret, so why go backwards?
They might be beautiful to look
at, but beauty is as beauty does. They
have next to no social skills and can
be a nightmare to handle. They are

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
world of polecat breeding. I now know
that this isn’t always the case. They may
be genetically wild polecats, but a lot
have been bred in captivity. Sold as kits,
once these powerhouses grew up and
matured, illustrating their heritage, a
large percentage were — and still are —
liberated back into the wild.
I believe this is why, over the past
decade or so, many polecats have
been seen in places where they really
shouldn’t have been.
Would I breed from a wild polecat?
Many years ago, I did just that to see
too fast and powerful, working a
warren at speed, are very skittish and
have a tendency to skulk at the holes,
and are far too possessive. These
are all traits that were taken out in
the domestication process without
hampering their drive too much.
That said, I have seen some work
well. For consistency, I would steer
clear of breeding from them, as you
simply don’t know what you are going
to get. We must breed responsibly —
and remember, we domesticated the
polecat for a reason. SW

50 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE


Watch out for eye worms Native
VETERINARYCARE
I recently overheard someone
talking about worms that live
in dogs’ eyes. I had never heard
of this and wondered if the person
was either misinformed or simply
confusing the risk of roundworm
larvae from dogs infecting human
eyes. Could you comment?
While you are correct that visceral
roundworm larvae can migrate
to the eye, this person could well have
been referring to an infectious parasite
that has become increasingly common
on the Continent and could represent
a health risk to dogs in the UK.
The canine eye worm, also known as
Thelazia callipaeda, is carried by fruit
flies, which are now quite common in
the UK. The risk of a dog contracting eye
worm infection in the UK remains low,
unless your dog travels abroad to an
area where the infection is endemic or
has been imported from such an area.
Branchers make best pies
GAME COOKING
I have been shooting some big
bags of rooks over freshly
drilled beans and have thought
about using some to make a rook
pie. Would they be suitable to eat?
While rooks that have been feeding
on beans should be safe to eat, the
traditional ingredient of rook pie is
branchers. These are the newly fledged
The breast meat from
branchers is better for a
pie than adult rook meat
Infection is brought about by a fruit
fly carrying the worm parasite laying
infected larvae on the dog’s eye. Signs
of infection can include red and sore
eyes (conjunctivitis), swollen eyelids,
mucous around the eye, excess tears,
ulceration of the eye, visual impairment
and, in some cases, you might be able to
see the worm(s). However, some dogs
will show no symptoms.
The disease is infecting increasing
numbers of dogs in south-eastern
Europe where the parasites are typically
found in areas of oak woodland in
warm conditions, with a peak season
in late summer/early autumn.
If treated promptly, dogs make
a full recovery with no lasting effects
but, if left untreated, there is a risk of
permanent blindness. Some of the
products that are already used to
prevent other parasites can be effective
in preventing eye worm. Speak to your
vet about this and, if travelling abroad
in future, ensure all worming and flea
treatment is up to date. TB
young rooks that perch on the branches
of the rookery before taking wing, and
are shot after they leave the nest. The
breast meat from branchers is tender, but
this will probably not be the case with
the adult rooks that you have shot.
However, if you want to experiment,
then breast the rooks and chop the meat
into small cubes. Add some beefsteak,
mushrooms and seasoning, and cook
the mixture thoroughly before making
the pie. GD
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 51
Expert tips and advice
Britain
Plants, flowers and fungi
of Great Britain at a glance
Latin name: Myosotis sylvatica
Common name: Forget-me-not
Other names: Robin’s eye,
snake-grass, love-me
How to spot it and where to
find it: Most people will have seen
a bright blaze of blue in ancient
and wet woodlands, hedgerows,
roadside verges and gardens.
Without those clusters of five-sided
blooms, however, the forget-me-not
is unprepossessing, with narrow
leaves and hairy stems. It likes
moist but well-drained soil in sun
or in shade.
Interesting facts: In the language
of flowers, the forget-me-not
stands for friendship, loving
remembrance and fidelity, and it
was worn by lovers to ensure they
would not forget each other while
they were apart. Henry IV adopted
the forget-me-not — and its French
name, souvenez-vous de moi —
as his emblem and motto in 1398.
In Canada, the flower is worn on
1 July to remember those who died
in World War I. When freemasonry
was banned in Nazi Germany, it
was said that the little blue flower
appeared on discreet lapel pins so
the brethren could recognise each
other. After World War II, lapel pins
exploded in popularity, becoming
widely used to remember the
sacrifice of masons during the war. It
was a symbol that masonry was not
dead but had merely gone dormant
to weather the long winter. Much like
the forget-me-not itself. NJS
 SPORTING ANSWERS
by Diggory Hadoke
The .270 Winchester was
designed in 1923 as a hunting
cartridge for long-range —
then 500 yards — medium
gameshooting in mountainous
areas. It is a necked-down
version of the .30-03 Government
and originally carried a 130-gr
bullet at 3,140fps.
In the post-war period, the
.270 became extremely popular
in the US, where gun writer
Jack O’Connor championed it.
It later gained popularity in the
UK with stalkers.
After some manufacturers
began selling lightweight rifles
chambered for the .270, it
developed a reputation for
being excessive in recoil and
Sizing up woodie eggs
GAMEBIRDS
Compared with their size,
woodpigeon lay notably small
eggs. Is there a reason for this?
Woodpigeon do lay remarkably
small eggs in proportion to their
size, especially when compared with
other birds of similar weight.
It is thought that the main reason
for this is that they nest in the open
and, as a result, suffer from high
rates of predation. Losing a small egg
means loss of a smaller investment of
their reproductive energy — in other
52 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE
.270
WINCHESTER
The popularity of the .270 Winchester,
designed in 1923, is now on the wane
uncomfortable to shoot. That
reputation dogs it still, making
it hard to sell used .270 rifles.
Yet there are bargains to be
had for those who appreciate
the capabilities of this round,
which, with modern optics and
well-built rifles, is capable out to
1,000 yards in the right hands.
words, the egg has not required a
great amount of energy to produce, so
the bird can soon lay again. Another
advantage of smaller eggs is that
they have a reduced incubation and
nestling period so are vulnerable to
predation for a shorter time.
The success of the woodpigeon
is partly explained by its ability to
reproduce quickly. An egg takes only
17 days to hatch and the chick fledges
within 33 days. The nesting season
starts as early as April and continues
until well into the autumn, with a
pair making as many as four or five
nesting attempts. DT
How high is
high enough?
STALKING
As part of a conservation project
about nesting birds on our shoot,
we were asked by our landlord to
fence off an area of woodland, which
he financed. Having taken advice,
we did this with 2m sheep netting
and deer posts, but a year later we
often see both roe and muntjac in the
wood. We are at a loss to explain
how they are getting in. Do you think
we have set the fence high enough
and should we try to raise it?
Keeping an area deer free is a
difficult and ongoing task. There
might be times when roe will use the
topography to clear a high barrier
fence, particularly if they can take
advantage of a high side, but I doubt
muntjac have the same abilities.
Windblown and fallen timber can often
provide access opportunities.
These species of deer also have an
ability to exploit any weakness in the
bottom of a fence to push their way
under. If they can get their head under
the bottom wire, it’s likely that they will
get their body to follow. Go round the
perimeter looking for signs of entry and
exit points. Also, search for evidence of
humans cutting the main fence.
Ground-level wires below the bottom
of the netting need to be tight to keep
deer out so should be retightened on
a regular basis. It’s easy to let nature
encroach so that the bottom wire is
difficult to access, but time spent keeping
it clear will always pay dividends. IW
Fences need to be checked frequently for damage
 Expert tips and advice

Wet weather, crops

and subsoiling
GAMEKEEPING
My contractor has
recommended we
subsoil our game crop
this year because of
the rain we had last
year. What is
subsoiling? Is there a
connection with wet
weather? And do we
really need to do it? I
am cost-conscious and
don’t want to pay any
more than we have to.
Subsoiling is a
process whereby
the soil is lifted by a series
of ridged plates on legs
Subsoiling can improve the subsequent crops in years to come
TO CATCH A FISH
and allowed to fall back
down. It breaks the
plough-pan, airs the soil
and reduces compaction.
We subsoil every
five years as a matter
of course because
we farm fairly heavy
ground, and I would
definitely recommend
you do it to your own
soil, especially after the
compaction caused by
this winter’s rain if you
haven’t done it before.
Yes, it is an extra cost,
but the improvement in
subsequent crops will
pay for it several times Crossword / Compiled by Eric Linden/1455
over. LB Across 18 & 5 down An advantage 6 Article of luggage useful
1 What’s on tap is for quartets in hunting for a game-shooter’s
evidence making clothing (4,5) return (3,3)
specialist clothing 20 Show a GB insider the 11 Informally airgunning
resistant (10) BASC’s founding initials (5) while the head of police
7 A hothead averts 21 The call of the tawny owl is getting connected (8)
disrupting the agricultural attracts a noisy reaction 14 Boots that will see
gathering (7) from angry drivers (7) development (7)
8 Stay awake in bed as 22 Shooting gloves prove 15 An idea from the
animals get some that the fish stick is no drawing board giving
rest (3,2) more (10) guns their style (6)
9 Protective hat part 16 One skilled at pulling
featuring brushed denim Down strings in the world of
on both sides? (4) 1 I’m wrong to change shooting (6)
10 An area’s residents the routine treatment 17 One of Snow White’s
ensure pubs are never of dogs (7) seven friends crops up
far away (6) 2 Digits reveal stock with sorghum (5)
12 The goose collective take parts (4) 19 A female deer
a joke with leg bent (6) 3 Baby toy defining the embraces victory like
13 Cooked jugged hare sound of dog crates in a bird (4)
in fancy tweeds! (6) transit, perhaps (6)
17 Make a meal of the annual 4 Help animals to get
Shooting Times Woodcock a move on? (8)
Club event (6) 5 See 18 across

Yellow drake mayfly

Solution 1453 / 22 April 2020 8. Try-gun 11. Images 13. Harrier
Across: 1. Helice 6. Creep 7. Brown rat 14. Field 17. Drop
The drake trout fly is to the surface, so it’s 9. Roosts 10. Night 12. Hard-mouthed MYSTERY WORD: HERONS
most popular in the important to always 15. Grain 16. Alpine 18. Straight WINNER: T GRIFFIN,
19. Knoll 20. Sports CARMARTHENSHIRE
first months of the have a couple in your fly Down: 1. Harris Holland 2. Lowther
season. The name box, especially in May 3. Cars 4. Groom 5. Left-and-rights
originates from the and June. EW
duck feathers used
in the wing of this Howtoenter
fly. Drakes are large To enter our crossword competition, identify
the word in the shaded squares and you could
insects and evidently win a Fur Feather & Fin Anti-Corrosive gun
taste very good to sleeve (suitable for barrels up to 32in).
trout. When they hatch
in large numbers, Due to COVID-19 we are only accepting submissions via email
trout tend to forget all Please email the solution with the crossword number in the subject line, and
other foods and target giving your name, address and mystery word answer to:
them only. A dense STeditorials@ti-media.com
hatch of drakes can All prizes will be despatched as soon as possible.

bring the largest trout

Rules: Entries must be received by 13 May 2020.All usual conditions apply. Solution
and winner will appear in the 20 May 2020 issue.

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 53

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3
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4
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Thesetrousersareeasytopullover
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Available in sizes XS-4XL.

54 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE


I
t has been quite remarkable just
how many people have taken an
interest in my challenge to go meat
self-sufficient for a year. Casual
conversations with friends led to offers of
chickens or some home-reared pork, the
gamekeeper left pigeon on the doorstep
and I’ve been given the chance to fish on
various beats across the Stamford and
Rutland area. Everyone I have spoken
to has been hugely supportive and, dare
I say it, a little envious.
My most triumphant trade thus far
came after a call from a friend who was
helping an Anglesey-based fisherman find
an alternative outlet for his lobsters. Usually
sold straight on to the Continent, the
market had dried up, but not in Stamford.
Ben had managed to sell more than
80 lobsters and shipped them across the
country in freezer boxes. I explained to Ben
that I’d love some lobster, but I couldn’t pay
for it. In the end, we settled on a pike fishing
lesson for his son in exchange for two
lobsters. They were grilled on a barbecue and,
I have to confess, I had never eaten lobster
before this; they were absolutely exquisite.
March and April were strange months,
with most people confined to their homes.
Jamie bags two muntjac — a buck and a doe — in one outing to prepare for freezing and curing
J TRUSTING
The good life
Some early wins in the quest to be meat
self-sufficient — including muntjac ham
It was fortuitous that I had managed to get
out into the woods before lockdown to bag
some muntjac for the freezer.
Stocking up the freezer
One of those people who had taken an
interest in my challenge was a good friend
who works just up the road as a land agent.
He was only too happy to help me stock up
the freezer.
The walled parkland at Burghley has,
over the years, provided a haven for
muntjac and, with year-round breeding
and plenty of food, the population has
thrived and is now at the point of getting
out of control. Any new tree planting on the
estate has to be heavily fenced to protect
“We settled on a pike fishing lesson for
his son in exchange for two lobsters”
against the diminutive foe. A reduction
in the population would not only help with
this, but would also see me through the
next few weeks.
The muntjac stopped about 50 yards
away, standing and looking straight at us.
I could see the suspicion on its face down
SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 55
Jamie Tusting
the scope of the .243 as it turned to the left,
edging its way through the wood and behind
a large sycamore. It reappeared and I had a
clean line of sight.
I could feel my heart chugging away and
the adrenalin flowing… I flinched the shot,
sending the round riffing over the cautious
muntjac. In a second it was gone and I
didn’t get another chance at it.
After missing that first shot of the day,
we carried on through the woods with the
wind gently freshening our faces and it
wasn’t long before we saw another, quietly
grazing through an area of large beech
trees. There was a lot of ground cover and
finding a shot was tricky. I let it graze up
towards us for as long as I dared before
squeezing a round through a gap between
two trunks. The good-sized doe was
gralloched and hung in a tree for us to come
back to collect later that morning.
Before too long, we were returning home
with two muntjac, a buck and a doe, which
I skinned and butchered that night. I tend
to mince a lot of the muntjac I shoot, as
I find it more versatile when it comes out
of the freezer. For the buck, however,
I was fancied trying something a little bit
different. I had read about people dry-
curing venison and I eventually found
a recipe for mocetta, an Italian goat ham.
Near enough, I thought. I made a mix
of curing salt, garlic and some herbs,
including rosemary and thyme. The haunch
of muntjac was covered with half the
mixture, wrapped in cling film and put in
the fridge. A month later, it was taken out,
washed and re-covered in the remainder
of the curing mix before being wrapped in
a muslin and hung in a cool spot to dry for
a further five months. I’m already looking
forward to some muntjac ham and a glass
of red wine on a warm autumn evening.
Jamie Tusting is a keen Shot,
fisherman and stalker, who runs a small
driven shoot on his farm in Bedfordshire.
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56 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE

CLASSIFIED DIRECTORY for all enquiries please call 01252 555305
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to adverts

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE • 57

 Alasdair Mitchell

Sharpshooter
Tensions between town and country can be fraught at the best of times
but some divisions have spilled over during the coronavirus lockdown

I
recall the owner of a holiday cottage breaking lockdown and spreading the virus Locals complain their children cannot afford
complaining that her guests didn’t in remote areas with sparse health resources to buy homes in their own neighbourhood
want to see people carrying guns causes real anger. I read of one exchange in because outsiders have hiked the prices. A
in a place known for its wildlife. The which a second-home owner said: “But it’s preponderance of part-time occupiers may
cottage is located on a site made famous my property.” The snarled response from a effectively destroy a community. In parts of
for wildfowling by the Victorian sportsman- local was: “And it’s our hospital.” Cornwall, certain seaside villages become
naturalist Abel Chapman. In 1964, the area In truth, it’s the nation’s hospital. The ghost towns in the winter, devoid of any
was designated a national nature reserve NHS is funded by national taxation, of which sign of life save for the calling of gulls.
with the active support of wildfowlers. It the reviled second-home owner may well Yet who sold those pretty fisherman’s
remains an iconic wildfowling destination be contributing more than the outraged cottages in the first place? Did each
with a permit system. local. In Wales, certain councils charge a successive generation of locals even stop
It emerged that there had been some to think about their children’s future before
noisy behaviour by a few early-season “In Cornwall, some trousering the money?
fowlers using an access point near the
cottage in question. That was easy enough villages become Burden
to put right. But the notion that holiday In our national parks, local resentment
makers who visit the countryside should ghost towns in the is fuelled by draconian planning policies
not be exposed to countryside traditions
is not so easy to address. Who was there
winter, devoid of that make it all but impossible to build
for residential use, while bending over
first, wildfowlers or holiday cottage visitors? any sign of life” backwards to facilitate yet more holiday
During the lockdown, the latent friction accommodation. Those who benefit
between town and country has erupted council tax premium on second homes, financially from tourism are not always
into outright hostility in some localities. even though the owners only use services the same as those who carry the burden
Signs proclaiming messages such as “If you for a fraction of the year. Some owners of having the visitors on their land. In any
don’t live here, keep away” have sprouted grumble they are being soaked by greedy, case, a lot of tourism jobs are badly paid
in tourism hotspots. Mind you, this is mild jealous locals. There have been allegations and highly seasonal.
compared with France; in one Alpine village, that by letting second homes for part of the With the bulk of the UK’s population
vehicles with Parisian number plates have year, owners can register them as small living in built-up zones, there are no easy
been vandalised and even set on fire. businesses and avoid paying council tax. ways of relieving the tensions between town
When people are scared, they lash out. The divisions exacerbated by the and country. But at least we can try to be
The prospect of second-home owners pandemic have been festering for years. courteous and considerate to each other.

DOG BY KEITH REYNOLDS

SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE, ISSN 0037-4164, is published weekly, incorporating Shooting Magazine, Shooting Life, British Sportsman, The Angler’s News & Sea Fisher’s Journal and Field Sport, by TI Media Ltd,
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58 • SHOOTING TIMES & COUNTRY MAGAZINE