Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2016 i Shooting Gazette

WMS FIREARMS Training has installed a new professional 50m moving target system for driven boar, running deer and other targets near to its headquarters in Dyfed. The system, supplied and installed by the French company Laporte, enables targets to travel at speeds of 1-30kph up and down a 50m track, making it one of the longest moving target systems around. Rifle shooters will be able to test their moving target shooting skills from a range of 30-300m, with shooting possible at a 90-degree angle, as well as from 45 degrees both left and right. The system can be altered via radio remote control during shooting. Andrew Venables of WMS said: “Proper hunting preparation is vital, not just for driven boar and dangerous game, but for any hunt and the ability…

10% THE PERCENTAGE rise in turnover at Yorkshire Game as a result of its investing in state-of-the-art processing equipment (Countryside Alliance). £18 – the cost of an adult ticket to the Field & Country Fair 2016 when bought in advance (Time Inc.) £155,000,000 – the amount “country sports tourists” spend while in Scotland each year (SCSTG). 17 – the number of quizzes, dinners, auctions and other events being held by the GWCT in March. £8.99 – the cost of a brace of grouse at Iceland supermarket (Countryside Alliance). 4,000 – the number of people who tried shooting sports for the first time in 2015 using BASC's state-of-the-art shooting simulator.…

A good shoot day is all about pace and timing – it can’t be crash, bang wallop all day long. And the elevenses break comes as the perfect opportunity to stop and reflect on the privilege of spending a day in the field. So in recognition of this most excellent of sporting traditions we have teamed up with Foxdenton, makers of traditional drinks for the perfect elevenses and famous for their Goliath bottle, to select one shoot to feature in excellent elevenses each month. And this month our winner is Mark Coleman Sporting & Game. Mark sent us these pictures and he said: “We firmly believe game should be promoted so we serve game during our morning break. We like to serve a good mug of home-made warming hearty soup…

In a sentence I thought never to write, I confess to an association with Cecil Rhodes and Donald Trump. Both men are tinged with controversy: one had countries named after him and both have buildings funded by them that carry their name. As a member of Oxford Young Farmers Club, I spoke in debating competitions in Rhodes House and, as a jobbing journalist, I once lunched with The Donald aboard his yacht in front of Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. Both men are now in the centre of debates which highlight freedom of speech and seek to see history rewritten. In these days of electronic communication, causes of all sorts can be promulgated and espoused and people’s reputations can be destroyed in hours. The rural community is not…

TRAVEL The estate sits just off the A170 between Pickering and Scarborough. Those coming by car should turn off the A1 at Thirsk, which is also the location of the nearest railway station. Given that you’re brushing the underside of the North York Moors National Park to get to Wykeham, the journey along the A170 alone gives visitors a real flavour of Yorkshire, passing market towns like Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside on the way. If you’re travelling up via Sutton Bank be sure to take a moment to admire the views once you reach the top. STAY As we always say on these pages, you’re spoilt for choice in North Yorkshire, what with the likes of Helmsley, Malton and Pickering being on the doorstep. Shooting Gazette stayed at the White Swan…

Having recently spent a mostly enjoyable 10 days’ shooting in the UK, which I do every year, I am prompted to add my thoughts to the increasing number of comments made by guns in your wonderful magazine. Tipping the keeper is and should be a personal way of saying thank you for what was hopefully an enjoyable day. Using the ‘bag to tip’ method is one way of working out what to offer, but it is not the only way. I will not be party to being told to tip X amount at the end of the day. It is my choice and I will do it personally. Uncle Giles, in his wisdom, rightly says the tip should not be an expected part of the keeper’s wage, but I feel…

“Traditionally the best moors were for grouse only, and sheep or livestock were refused access.” Having spent the past seven years working on a black grouse conservation project in the Galloway hills, I have learnt an enormous amount. Thousands of hours on the hill have given me a really good grasp of some of the basic principles of practical upland management, and while I’m certainly no expert, I’ve come to terms with the huge amount of work that goes into producing wild game for shooting. When I first started on the hill, I had only the vaguest notion of what I was letting myself in for, and I imagined that improving red and black grouse numbers would simply be a matter of lamping foxes and burning heather. As it turned…

Anyone with a Shotgun Certificate may legally own a semi-automatic shotgun, though it will be limited to holding a maximum of three cartridges. These guns may be converted to hold more than three cartridges, however the owner must then hold a Firearms Licence – as many gamekeepers may well do. And this is when the semi-auto becomes a really useful tool. Having those extra shots, even one, is very definitely the key advantage of owning a semi-auto as they prove very useful for pest control. They have a clear use as a tool and are generally very tough – essentially they are maintenance-free as long as they are kept clean. Bear in mind too much oil is far worse for the longevity of a semi-auto than not enough. Any good…

Q My shooting season has been better than normal on driven birds, with some great days. I want to keep this momentum going. Will shooting pigeons help this? A I have said many times over the years and will always say that any shooting you do outside your normal game shooting will be good for keeping your shooting consistent. Sadly, all too often shooters put their guns away on February 2 and don’t enjoy any sort of shooting during the close season. It is so important to shoot as much as you can, not only at clays but also real birds, so shooting pigeons will be extremely beneficial. Taking this to the extreme, if you’re lucky, go and shoot doves in Argentina, then your shooting will improve tremendously. Shooting pigeons…

SPECIFICATIONS 6.6 V12 Price: £235,416 Top speed: 155mph 0-62mph: 4.4 second Combined: 20.2mpg CO2 emission: 327g/km There was a time when an awful lot of shooting chaps would have owned a Rolls-Royce. Estates up and down the country had a Royce sitting in the motor house, with coachwork fettled by chaps with chewed pencils behind their ears working for companies with brown coverall coat names like Gurney Nutting. The headlights were the same size as the searchlights on HMS Hood and would have deposited a puddle of butter-coloured light about six feet in front of the swooping cycle wings. But then death duties and a brave new world changed things and estate owners became more likely to drive Defenders and ageing Subarus for their occasional trips to Waitrose (or Booths…

Lot 1199 at Holt’s sale in London on March 17 will be keenly followed by the Gunmakers’ Company Charitable Trust. It is a W.J. Jeffery & Co. .275 (Rigby) rifle, donated by J. Roberts & Son. The rifle is valued between £3,000 and £5,000 and all proceeds will go to the Trust. Auction diary dates MAR 10 Southams Modern Sporting Guns, Antique Arms & Edged Weapons Bedford Auction Centre, Bedford (guns.southams.com) MAR 12 Southern Counties Sporting Goods Sale Netherhampton Salerooms (salisburyauctioncentre.co.uk) MAR 13 Country Leisuresports Auctions Llandeilo Fawr Civic Hall (countryleisuresportsauctions.co.uk)…

The Long Range from Wanless Bros. of Sunderland, South Shields and Stockton-on-Tees (1880); the Crest from Wanless Bros. of Sunderland and South Shields (1896); the Waterloo from Wanless Bros. of Sunderland and Stockton-on-Tees (1896); and the Long Range from Wanless Bros. of Stockton-on-Tees and West Hartlepool (1922). The Weardale from Wanless Bros. of Sunderland and Stockton-on-Tees (1919); the Waterproof Pegamoid from Wanless Bros. of Sunderland (1900); the Sixteen Pegamoid Brand from Wanless Bros. of Sunderland and Stockton-on-Tees (1900); and the Long Range Fourteen from Wanless Bros. of Sunderland and Stockton-on-Tees (1922). The Reliable from Atkinson of Lancaster and Kendal (1900); the Lancaster Castle Brand from Atkinson of Lancaster, Kendal & Morecambe (1900); the Reliable from Atkinson and Griffin of Kendal (1900); and the Kendal Castle from T. Atkinson & Sons…

Q MY DOG is very steady and retrieves and recalls well, walks to heel and is great with dummies and direction work. However, he will not hunt more than a short distance from me. I am constantly saying “get on”. What can I do? A THIS IS typical of a well trained dog that has not yet been to a shoot. He is used to commands, knows the responses, relies on you and looks to you for guidance. You will have spent many hours honing your ‘short game’ and well done. We, as a result of all this patience and determination, are also conditioned to keep issuing commands and guidance as we train the dog over a long period. You will catch your dog coming to you and looking for…

THE HUNGARIAN wirehaired vizsla association held its first HPR all-aged field trial stake on the Ammerdown Estate, Kilmersdon in Somerset, by kind permission of the Kilmersdown Gentlemen’s Club Shoot and sponsored by Skinner’s, writes Sharon Newman. The judges for the day were Jennifer Hurley and Rob Gould. Chief steward was the previous association chairman Richard May. There were a number of different breeds from within the HPR group in the full card of 12 runners. Although hunting well, some early runners failed to locate game but were put forward for a second run later in the day. A couple of dogs were ‘lost’ when they failed to retrieve birds that landed in the fast-running water and on the opposite bank from where they were working. One dog, HWV Gunnerwood Moo’s…

HOW TO WIN For your chance to win a Ridgeline smock, email your high-resolution pictures to: katemaxim@outlook.com. Please put “Gundog Picture of the Month” in the subject line. The winner will be chosen by the Shooting Gazette judging panel. Good luck! The prize will only be posted to winners with a fixed UK postal address.…

A NEW competition to find the best shooting conservation project managed by individuals under the age of 21 has been launched by BASC. The Young Shots Conservation Award will seek to highlight those projects that illustrate shooting’s positive impact on nature and wildlife and raise public awareness of the good work shooting does in the process. The winner will receive a tailored shooting suit from Nomad, a year’s worth of free Eley cartridges and a day’s driven grouse shooting in Lancashire on the Glorious Twelfth. The runner-up will win a day’s airgun hunting or coaching. Every entrant will receive a BASC gift bag and certificate. Duncan Thomas, BASC’s acting regional director for Northern England, said: “We have invested an enormous amount of time and effort in our Young Shots projects…

What was your first shotgun? A Belgian side-by-side hammer .410. The best thing it did was to teach me what a hopeless and dispiriting first gun a .410 can be so that I started my children with a single barrel 20 bore. Where was your first shoot day? The water meadow at Upper Clatford, Hants. I don’t remember much other than my host, and best friend’s father, shouting at his completely disobedient yellow lab as it chased pheasants all over Hampshire. Do you remember your first bird? I remember my first successful shot was a rabbit on the moor above Kilnsey in Wharfedale. Who is your shooting mentor/who's been the biggest influence on your shooting? BB – Denys Watkins-Pitchford – his books, especially Dark Estuary and Tide’s Ending, fuelled a…

Sloe gin and wild game sausage roll SERVES FOUR PEOPLE Ingredients • 100g game mince• 100g pork mince• 500g puff pastry sheet• 50g diced onion• 50ml sloe gin• Chopped fresh thyme• Chopped fresh sage• Cornish sea salt• Milled black pepper Method Mix the game mince, pork mince, diced onion, chopped herbs and sloe gin. Season well. Place the mixture on the pastry and roll over to form a sausage roll. Crimp the edges, score the top and brush with egg wash. Place into a pre-heated oven (180°C) for 25 minutes. Once cooked removed from the oven and allow to rest. Slice and serve warm with a little spiced apple chutney.…

Dear Uncle Giles I have both heard and read somewhere that in the UK one does not wear Loden shooting clothes on driven game shoots. What do you think? GEB, by email Uncle Giles writes I seem to recall that I advised against wearing the full Loden in Birds, Boots and Barrels, my early book of advice to new shooters. This was not a blanket prohibition. Loden, the traditional hunting gear of the Austrian Tyrol and points beyond, is warm, durable, largely waterproof and extremely comfortable. But it does make something of a statement. Consisting of a long cape over a short jacket paired with brief leather shorts, all embroidered, and the whole topped off with a matching trilby-style hat, it is a look which takes considerable self confidence to…

The guns, keepers and beaters from the day at the Wykeham Shoot in north Yorkshire, which is featured on pages 22-28 of this issue. Alan Woods sent us this picture with the following explanation: “Last week we had the great pleasure of shooting with John Nichols at Barrow Farm, Witham Friary in Somerset. Honk is the head picker-up for John, and myself and all my fellow guns were particularly enamoured with his new choice of hat. Honk is great fun but does enjoy observing any faux pas made by the guns.” A happy bunch of guns from the day at Carham on the England-Scotland border, which is featured on pages 48-54 of this issue. From left: Malcolm Plant, Stuart Reid, Helen Horton, Godfrey Chapman, Barry Horton, Steve Rowlands, Emile Van…

“There is no better feeling in shooting than performing well on a drive.” In his article this month Barney Stratton reviews the season just finished and mentions some very interesting statistics about shot-to-kill ratios. Having visited his shoot in Wiltshire a few times over the years, I know he is enthusiastic about record keeping and has discovered that most visiting teams also find it interesting to learn a bit more about the average ratios on the shoot. To this end, he often adorns the walls of the lunch room with graphs illustrating the ups and downs of teams over the years. Obviously no names are mentioned, but it does show some teams shoot better than others. If this all sounds a little bit too analytical for you, then please bear…

TRAVEL The Upton Pynes shoot is just to the north of Exeter and to the east of the A377 Crediton road. Leave the M5 motorway at J27 for Tiverton and turn southeast on the A396 down the Exe valley, tracking and criss-crossing the river’s serpentine course until it reaches the outskirts of Exeter and avoids the frustrating gridlock that often besets the city when approached from the east or south. Less than eight miles out of the city lie the two villages of Upton Pynes and Brampford Speke, nestling in the soft folds of reddish Devon soil that single out the county. Upton Pynes is 195 miles from London, 105 from Southampton, 50 from Plymouth and 20 from J27 on the M5. Exeter International Airport and St. David’s rail stations…

“The shoot crosses the border into Scotland on many drives.” The drive to Carham, a shoot near Cornhill-on-Tweed in Northumberland on the Scottish border, could not have been more beautiful. Heading north from Wooler we went through the Cheviots with mist settling in the valleys and the hilltops bathing in autumnal sunshine. The roads got narrower and the views more spectacular as we neared the shoot. The Carham Shoot, named after the village of Carham – the last village in England on the Cornhill to Kelso road – covers 2,300 acres, 150 of them woodland, and has been in the same family – the Straker-Smiths – since the 1940s. The present incumbent since 1982 is Peter Straker-Smith and he has developed the shoot over the years, following on from his…

Human It is traditionally the case that on the last shooting day of the season, the guns take up their sticks and attempt to hoof some pheasants towards those other chaps who have hoofed pheasants towards them over the past three months or so. Yes, it is the Beaters’ Day. And yes, the dog and I are happy to switch roles and to repay some of the effort which has been made for our benefit across the season past. And, while we are about it, perhaps to redress the balance somewhat concerning elements of the commentary on my shooting: “Shall I tek’ yer birds, sir? Shall I tek’ ’em for you? Oh, you haven’t any. I see, sir. It’s just that I thought I saw you shooting at several, sir.…

In 1864 the British Government set up the Russell Committee, charged with investigating the possibility of obtaining a breech-loading rifle for the British Army. Its primary concern was the approximate half million muzzle-loading Enfield rifles in existence, all relatively new. Consequently it wanted a system to convert them to breech-loaders. Some 50 or more breech-loading systems were considered and in 1866 the hinged breech block of Jacob Snider was accepted. As we have seen, conversion was relatively simple and a very large number of muzzle-loading Enfield rifles were converted quickly to Snider rifles. Snider proposed a self-contained cartridge for his rifle with a metal base, central cap and cardboard body. It was an unsatisfactory round and inaccurate to boot. Colonel Edward Boxer, superintendent of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, designed…

“Aged 13 I would take my 12 bore wrapped in a towel and catch the bus.” Years ago, if you went from Walsall towards Litchfield on the No.6 bus, crossed the Shire Oak traffic lights and carried on for a couple of miles, you would come to a farm just before the Boat Inn. The man who farmed it was my grandfather’s best friend, a man called Harmour Stanley. Affectionately known by all as “The Gaffer”, he was a huge, ruddy-faced man with a booming voice and raucous laugh. The Gaffer was one of my childhood heroes and to say that I worshipped the ground he walked on is no exaggeration. His farm was mixed arable, with sprouts, cauliflowers, cabbages, cereals, lettuces, beans and potatoes – indeed all manner of…

Engineering: 9/10 The Maxus has a number of unique and useful features and can happily shoot a range of cartridges making for a very flexible tool. Handling: 8/10 Very good. Lively in the hand, lovely crisp trigger pulls and excellent control of recoil and muzzle flip. Looks & finishing: 7/10 Not one for purists but by no means ugly. Those taking one out onto the foreshore in the early hours won’t care what it looks like! Reliability & customer service: 9/10 You are sure to receive excellent customer care from Browning, and you would be extremely unlucky to have any reliability problems with this superb semi-auto. Value: 9/10 This gun is extremely good value for money – especially when you consider the number of years' service you are likely to…

Two days before Rolls-Royce announced it was developing a 4x4, it wrote to interested parties, including the Prime Minister and HM the Queen. Whether either ends up running one remains to be seen, but Project Cullinan, as the prototype is know, promises to be even bigger and more luxurious than the recently launched Bentley Bentayga. It won’t be launched until 2017, but expect to see disguised prototypes running around Sussex, and BMW’s home town of Munich in the meantime. We’ll reveal more details as they become known.…

As an expert in producing high-quality, nutritious food for working dogs, Chudleys is proud to announce the launch of its new Gundog Championship to be held at Countryman Fairs events throughout 2016. The Chudleys Gundog Championship will run at seven events throughout the UK in 2016 as part of Countryman Fairs’ vast collection of fieldsports competitions. The Kelmarsh Country Show, Highclere, Sussex, Lowther and Countryman Fairs’ newest additions – the Broadlands Country Show and Knebworth – will play host to qualifying rounds, with the grand final being held at the Midland Game Fair. Competitors and spectators can look forward to sensational scurries such as Up ‘n’ Over, Long Retrieve, and Duck Distraction, as well as the working test, which requires skill and aptitude. With some excellent prize packages up for…

AFTER ACQUIRING almost 40 years of knowledge in the physiology and maintenance of working dogs, Chudleys prides itself on producing highly nutritious dog food to maintain working dogs’ health. Chudleys’ in-house nutritionists now provide working dog owners with helpful tips and advice on healthy diets for working dogs via Chudleys’ latest social media programme, Nutritional Notes. Consisting of handy question-and-answer sessions, informative posts on Facebook, and dietary advice at a range of events throughout the year, Chudleys’ team of expert nutritionists are always on hand to guide working dog owners on healthy diets for their active companions. This, combined with a fantastic variety of products to suit almost every working dog’s needs, from Chudleys Lite to Chudleys Senior, means there’s something to suit every working dog.…

TICKETS ARE now on sale for the Field & Country Fair at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire on June 10 – 12. The fair is owned by Time Inc.UK, publisher of some of the UK's best-known magazines and supported by the best-selling country and shooting portfolio, including Shooting Gazette. The fair will be divided into distinct areas such as Gamekeeping & Estate Management, Falconry, Game Fishing Village, Gundogs, Shooting Line, Stalking, Real Food Fair, Sporting Art & Sculpture, The Retail Experience and Gunmakers’ Row. Fiona Eastman, show director of the Field & Country Fair, said: “This will be a celebration and coming together for everyone that loves fieldsports, country pursuits and the rural way of life, as well as attracting those who would like to get involved. It will have a…

In his foreword to this lovely book George Digweed MBE says of Philip Fussell: “Unrivalled in this (sporting) field is a countryman and sportsman whom I have had the great privilege of spending the last 25 years plus with, knowing him, not only as a revered figure in the shooting and fishing world, but also as a friend.” Some tribute from arguably the finest shot to have ever come from these shores and a man not known for dishing out false praise. For those who don’t know Fussell, now 84, is a son of the Wiltshire soil who once won a world clay shooting championship and played cricket for Somerset. But beyond that he is a man who has enjoyed the sort of shooting life that we can only dream…

Back in January the leader of the Green Party, Natalie Bennett, suggested in an article for the website Business Green that over managed grouse moors made the recent floods that affected parts of England worse. Below are a selection of your reactions… Ruth Kerr posted: “I'd like to see an article about flooding and the range of contributing factors, rather than an article using flooding as a vehicle for anti-shooting comments. It would be useful to see an article that looks at the range of factors that have contributed to millions of pounds worth of damage to people's homes. That article may well include something about outdated and/ or poor land management (rather than grouse moor management), but it should also include things like the increase of water on the…

Woodcock have been in the news during the past few months as scientists have started to examine their strange and worrying declines. The main problem has been that the number of breeding British birds is going down quite steeply, so while thousands of Scandinavian birds still come over every winter to the delight and entertainment of shooting folk, the real problems facing our own birds are harder to see. There is no doubt woodcock are some of the finest and most exciting British game birds, and the challenge of knowing where to find them and how to shoot them has given them a hallowed status. So, for anyone with a love of the birds, the late Colin McKelvie’s exceptional book is an absolute must. McKelvie wrote broadly about the British…

Q: I have a query regarding the old chestnut of guns being borrowed on a commercial game shoot, by persons who are not in possession of a shotgun certificate. On the shoot where I help out, a regular team of experienced guns book a day with the estate and all the parents have current shotgun certificates. The sons of the regular team, who are all adults aged between 18 to early 20s, accompany them. None have certificates. The night before the shoot, the keeper contacts a loader who brings shotguns for each of the sons, which he rents to them for the day. They each have a loader charged with keeping an eye on gun safety and basic instruction, in addition to loading duties. Needless to say, this is expected…

“A team fired 1,954 shots in a gale for 146 on a 250-bird day.” Another season finished and this year with some relief. Not that it didn’t go well – far from it – but more because it wasn’t last year, which might sound a bit daft except that we inevitably analyse the current season against the most recent and last year was exceptional. It had another knock-on effect in that I was a tad over-optimistic in letting days in January because last year had been so bountiful. In the event a couple of these days were a struggle. The story of the season was of course the windy, wet and mild weather which made for some very spicy shooting but wasn’t conducive to holding pheasants. We were lucky that…

TRAVEL Cornhill-on-Tweed lies across the river Tweed just east of Coldstream, up on the border between England and Scotland. Nearby Berwick-upon-Tweed has a railway station on the East Coast mainline, which makes it a very convenient place to travel to by train. If you are driving, it’s an hour-and-a-half north of Newcastle or an hour south of Edinburgh, both cities also hosting the nearest airports. And if you are coming from the west it’s an hour-and-three-quarters from Carlisle in the car. STAY The Roxburgh Hotel (roxburghe-hotel.net) is about half-an-hour away on the other side of Kelso and offers splendid luxury as well as its own shooting ground, where you can get your eye in before shoot day. Closer to Carham is the Collingwood Arms (collingwoodarms.com), which is highly recommended and…

“The rifle was now bang up to date and a lot easier to load.” It is a characteristic inherent in mankind to constantly make things better. Just think of how our lives are different now compared to just one century ago. And yet, sometimes function overtakes form in this quest for progress; think of 3½ litre Rover V8 engines installed in Series I Land Rovers, PVC windows fitted to Georgian houses and so on. Guns have also evolved rapidly over the centuries, from matchlocks to hammerless ejectors, and occasionally firearm form has taken a backseat to function with unattractive consequences. Probably the best examples of this are the drum and nipple percussion conversions fitted to thousands of flintlocks from the 1820s onwards. True, the ignition system was vastly superior but…

To improve upon the original Snider cartridge, Colonel Edward Boxer (1819-1898) took out patent no. 137 of January 15, 1866, to create a coiled brass cartridge forever associated with his name: the Boxer cartridge. The existing paper case of the Snider was unsatisfactory for military use and the technology of the time prohibited solid drawn cases like we have today. What Boxer patented was a coiled brass case – a thin brass strip wound round to create a cylinder. When the cartridge detonated, the coiled brass expanded to seal the breech and yet returned to its original size to permit removal. The coiled brass was covered in waterproof paper to seal and protect it. Boxer did not claim to be the inventor of the coiled case as it had been…

Semi-automatic shotguns very rarely find their way onto the pages of Shooting Gazette. Though it seems unlikely we’ll ever see the day they become an acceptable sight on the peg, if Browning continues to create products like this one they may become a far more familiar sight for our other sporting activities. For a gamekeeper, especially those with a firearms licence, they are an extremely flexible and almost essential tool, and the Maxus is one of the very best on the market. The semi-automatic has been synonymous with Browning since the creation of the Auto-5, a recoil-operated gun patented in 1900, manufactured until 1998 and resurrected in 2014 in the guise of the redesigned A5. The Maxus has been around for a significantly shorter time but has made no less…

I took the Maxus for a stroll around the farm, hoping to tackle a few of the innumerable crows which have taken up residence and to make a small dent in the pigeon population. And I am pleased to say the Maxus was mightily impressive. The gun feels light in the hand and was easy to manoeuvre as I traipsed around the hedgerows, coming up to the shoulder quickly when called upon for a pair of passing pigeons. I had feared the balance of the gun might lead to somewhat inconsistent mounting, however a positive lead with the front hand meant this was not the case. Immediately noticeable were the trigger pulls, being sharp but also consistent and satisfying. Recoil was kept under control and muzzle flip was remarkable for…

Catering: Meals were prepared using ingredients from the adjacent farm or kitchen garden. Guests are asked to supply their own alcohol. 7/10 Accommodation: We slept soundly in one of four rooms (one double, three twins) available to overnight guests. 7/10 Atmosphere: We were the only guests at the hall but still had a very pleasant evening. 7/10 Service: The Hurt family were helpful and were there whenever we needed them. 8/10 Suitability for shooters: As this is a privately owned Grade II* listed manor house, guests will have to accept a lack of certain creature comforts: there are no TVs, no en-suite bathrooms, no well-stocked bar or detailed food menu. That said, the facilities are good, you have complete privacy, welcoming hosts and a building so full of character you…

For the first time in 10 years forecasting future values for the farmland sales market will not be easy. It seems one of the most resilient asset classes in recent years has been unable to withstand the pressures being heaped on it by various sources, causing average prices to drop slightly in the last quarter of 2015. Overall, statistics hide an increasingly polarised market where growth will always be dependent upon location and quality. We expect values to be much more varied than in the past five years, with farms not ‘best in show’ failing to reach expectations. Exceptional prices may still be achieved if all the right factors come together, as seen in the sale of Wield Wood Estate in Hampshire. Set in 368 acres in the heart of…

“The sort of relationship that expresses itself in the wag of a dog’s tail has to be worked at.” Sometimes cartoons can go right to the nub of something with a telling image and a line to match. Over the years The New Yorker has been special in this regard. It first appeared in 1925 and by 1930 was well-known for its one-panel comedic commentaries. The topic that soon became more prevalent than any other was the relationship between humans and their pets, and today readers can find at least one dog or cat cartoon in almost every issue. A master of the genre, who became a staff cartoonist in 1970, was Charles Barsotti, who died aged 80 in 2014. His dog character became well known and, in 1996, it…

THE 2015 HPR Championship was held on Lord Masham’s Swinton Estate, writes David Hudson. The judges were Sheila Kuban and Phil Pearson, and the guns were Costas Wilkinson, Paul Nixon, Stephen Robson and Karl Field. Head grousekeeper Gary Taylor worked hard throughout to ensure that each of the 22 runners had the best possible chance of finding game but was not helped by the rain, hail and high winds that made the first day’s work difficult for dogs, guns and handlers alike. The trial ground is moorland consisting of a mixture of heather, bracken, white grass and rushes. Often boggy underfoot, it is hard going for both dogs and people but excellent ground for testing the ability of HPRs to really get out and hunt. In order to find game,…

THE UTILTY Gundog Society held an open springer qualifying stake at Fallow Hall in St Oysth, writes Julia Reed. We were very lucky to come to this fantastic spaniel ground again this year and Rose and Eddie Greig made us most welcome. A good supply of game and a card of excellent dogs made judging by Rod Chapple and David Sowerby difficult and in the end they had a three-dog run-off for first place. I am indebted to my guns for their financial input and to sponsors Kronch and Sporting Saint. Thanks must also go to all the helpers and a special thanks to Sue and Graham Searle without whose support I would be very stressed indeed! Results 1 Mark Watson with Biteabout Conquest of Wrenmarsh 2 Mark Light with…