Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2020 i Shooting Gazette

Oxleaze Farm in Lechlade has won the 2020 Cotswold Grey Partridge Trophy. The award, run by the GWCT and supported and sponsored by Mark and Jane Tufnell of the Calmsden Estate, recognises the efforts of those seeking to reverse the decline in grey partridge numbers. The Mann family, who run the farm, were noted for their work, which included: provision and enhancement of hedgerows, pollinator habitat, grassy margins and wild bird seed mixes and use of the supplementary feeding agri-environment option to deliver food, nesting habitat and cover from predators. The organic farmers have taken part in the GWCT’s Partridge Count Scheme since 2014 and have seen autumn grey partridge density rise from just over eight birds per 100 hectares to 47 per 100 hectares; 148 grey partridges were counted…

For your chance to win a bottle of Taittinger Champagne for Picture of the Month, send us a team photograph or a picture of something unusual from your shoot. Send high-resolution images or prints with captions to Shooting Gazette Gallery, Future plc, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 7BF or email: martin.puddifer@futurenet.com. PICTURE OF THE MONTH…

Dear Uncle Giles, I’d like to do something to say thank you to everyone in our syndicate shoot for all their hard work and efforts to get this season off the ground, with the added difficulties of COVID-19. We are a team of roughly 40 Guns, beaters, pickers-up and other helpers. Do you have any ideas, given the current restrictions? ASB, by email Uncle Giles writes, Given the pace of change with regard to restrictions it is hard to be specific at the moment, but your idea is a proper one and does you credit. A little while ago I attended a similar event at a shoot nearby. The Guns had a good morning – there were four busy drives — and then everyone assembled in the meadow beside the…

One of the strongest arguments in support of game shooting is the amount of money it generates for businesses in rural communities during the winter months, a time of year when visitor numbers to those areas are much lower than others. Recent figures from a survey jointly undertaken by the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association (SGA) and regional moorland groups show that visitors heading to areas surrounding Scottish grouse moors are spending around £3,500 before their guns were even taken out of their slips. Figures from 22 grouse shooting estates aimed at quantifying visitor spend in areas affected by COVID-19 constraints show each visitor (mostly from the UK) spent an average of £3,593 (?450 a day) in local communities, with hotels, shops and car garages amongst those business benefitting. The lack of…

One of the excitements in the gun world is that occasionally you come across an absolute gem of a gun by a lesser known maker that can often be far more interesting than one from the bigger names. I recently examined a very fine percussion stalking rifle by a maker I had never heard of and when I researched this maker, I found out that he lived in the mid-19th century not four miles from me in rural Fife. Unfortunately, everybody else spotted its quality too and my bid was unsuccessful. The single percussion gun illustrated this month is a beautiful and very unusual example with not only an 18-bore shot barrel but also a 60-bore rifle barrel, and just to make it that little bit more exciting, the rifle…

Q Can you recommend a way to reload a shotgun quickly that does not compromise safety? I’m all thumbs when the weather gets colder and was wondering if a stuffer or a reloading aid would be a good idea? A This is a question I am asked time and time again. Many people seem to struggle loading even when it’s not cold and raining, let alone when it’s cold enough to freeze you to death or you feel as if you are standing under the shower whilst on a peg. My first comment should be that the more accurately you shoot then the slower you will need to load as you won’t have to fire as many cartridges, so spending time on improving your shooting rather than your loading is…

If Laura Hill has missed anything out of this impressive new book, we’d love to know what it is. At almost 160 pages, this book is bursting with training advice that will help everyone, from the handler seeking help to those with ambitions of competing with their four-legged friends. From how to manage handler-dog relationships to getting nutrition right, nothing is left out. The book is well written, easy to reference and bursting with images of the author practising what she preachers. It would make a great Christmas present for anyone who needs a hand with their gundog training.…

My phone pinged. It was a text from MM. It was not an offer of undying love and affection, nor was it on a par with a letter from your late great aunt’s solicitors telling you she has left you the family grouse moor, but it was on the same continuum. The message read: “Pigeons savaging newly sown wild bird seed. Can you bring a gun?” Cecil and I immediately set off on a recce and, at about 5pm, the grey hordes were still hurling themselves over a tall hedge and flopping on to the field, even though MM, Cecil and I were very visible. We noticed they mostly flew out along a line over an oak tree, so it was there that I built our hide the next morning.…

See the bigger picture: As we fulfilled our online orders via Piccadilly it became apparent within 24 hours that we needed to reassess that aspect of the business in order to ensure we were keeping our team safe — not travelling on public transport. We therefore took the monumental decision not only to close the stores but also to cease trading online until we felt we could do so safely. Sometimes you need to make business decisions that aren’t about money but people. Be flexible and react quickly: Cordings is very well established in how we operate, but when something unprecedented comes along you need to think on your feet. Being a small, tight-knit team we were able to formulate a plan and implement it efficiently. The situation evolved rapidly…

Wild controversy sprung up around the subject of mountain hares in 2020. Amid accusations that gamekeepers were driving hares to extinction through culls, campaigners fought to have these animals protected in Scotland. Lurid headlines and some ugly video footage of large-scale culls emerged to drive support for the ban, and it is easy to see why the public was swayed. Mountain hares are often shot in their white winter coats, and nothing looks more sordid than white fur splashed with blood. Sporting estates often cull hares for a variety of reasons, but one of the most compelling is an attempt to control ticks and tick-borne diseases which affect grouse, livestock and humans. To be effective, these culls have to work across extensive areas and often produce a large bag of…

“The pheasant appears to have been especially invented in order to provide not only the best of shooting, but one of the finest table birds.” So begins the sportsman, soldier and spy Major Hugh Pollard in his 1936 opus, Game Birds & Game Bird Shooting, in his chapter concerning Phasianus colchicus. “The history of the coming of the pheasant to Britain is still obscure,” adds Pollard, whose storied career saw him fight in the First World War and run an MI6 station in Madrid in the late 1930s. “Actually, the native habitat of our original black-necked pheasant was the River Rion in the district of Colchis near the Black Sea [modern-day Georgia]. The bird, however, occurs in a wild state as far west as Dalmatia, and there is abundant literary…

Please keep me up to date with special offers and news just by email from carefully selected companies. Your personal details will not be shared with those companies - we send the emails and you can unsubscribe at any time. Offer closes 1 February 2021. Offer open to new subscribers only. Direct Debit offer is available to UK subscribers only. *£14.99 payable by 6 monthly Direct Debit. This price is guaranteed for the first 12 months and we will notify you in advance of any price changes. Orders purchased as a gift before 1 December 2020 will start with the February 2021 issue published in January. All gift orders purchased after this date will begin with the first available issue. If you would like your gift subscription to start with…

Nominations for the BASC Ladies’ Star of Shooting Awards 2020 are now open. The awards, now in their fourth year, have become increasingly popular. There are three categories: Game and Gamekeeping Star; Field to Fork Star; and Target Shooting Star. Kathleen O’Connor, BASC ladies’ shooting coordinator, said: “The awards are there to celebrate and recognise those who continue to make positive contributions to our sport. If you know anyone who deserves a nomination, please tell us about them. “The awards continue to go from strength to strength, so much so there is ample space to create categories and further celebrate the growing sector of ladies shooting.” The Ladies’ Star of Shooting 2019 award was won by Emma Norbury-Perrott, who founded the Ladies Rifle Club as a ‘group for ladies with…

SHARE YOUR VIEWS Email: martin.puddifer@futurenet.com Game shooting isn’t a competition I was pretty disappointed to read Chris Warren’s Judge Height Lest Ye Be Judged article [October issue]. Once again, the ugly subject of ‘extreme’ high-bird shooting was discussed rather flippantly and I think the sentence: ‘Those pheasants must be more like 70yds high and very few guns can shoot these consistently’ answered more questions than the rest of the article asked. While on the 2002 Countryside March I remember passing through Trafalgar Square and squinting up at a pigeon sitting upon Norfolk’s finest son’s hat; I have since discovered Nelson’s Column is 169 feet tall (about 56yd) and it made me realise I wouldn’t even dream of shooting at a pheasant at that altitude. Most folks I know are average…

SERVES 4 PEOPLE PREP TIME: 10 minutes COOK TIME: 50 minutes Ingredients • 1 large onion• 1 red pepper• 2 garlic cloves• 1 tbsp oil• 1 heaped tsp hot chilli powder• 1 tsp paprika• 1 tsp ground cumin• 500g venison• 1 beef stock cube• 400g can chopped tomatoes• ½ tsp dried marjoram• 1 tsp sugar• 2 tbsp tomato purée• 410g can red kidney beans• 1 packet of tacos Method 1. First prepare your vegetables: cut onion into small dice; cut red pepper in half lengthways and deseed then chop; peel and finely chop garlic cloves. 2. Put pan on hob and add oil. Once heated add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is soft, squidgy and translucent. 3. Add the garlic, red pepper, chilli powder, paprika and cumin.…

First, many congratulations on your MBE. How does it feel to have those three letters after your name? I feel very proud to have been given the MBE but, at the same time, very humbled. This has been a huge team effort from all the families and supporters behind the scenes, over many years. They are equally deserving, if not more so. What kind of year has it been for you, the SGA and Scottish keepers in general? We have seen far more local access being taken due to the COVID-19 situation. Because of the restrictions, there have been fewer holidays abroad. This has led to our estates being busy with people, at the weekends especially. In Scotland, we have open access everywhere and, while this has some positives, it…

For me and those who enjoy pigeon shooting with a passion, there are a number of elements of our sport that have seen a big change this year. All are directly or indirectly related to coronavirus. There are few sports more self-isolating than the pigeon shooter sitting alone all day in a hide, so what problem could there have been? Although crop protection was theoretically allowed during lockdown, I and many pigeon shooters chose not to go out for several weeks as we felt that to do so would contravene the spirit and reason for it. When things eased after a few weeks I was comfortable to get out on crop protection of growing peas. However, we were then faced with a very difficult issue as our game dealer had…

As I write in early November, England is on the brink of entering a month-long lockdown. While its conditions will not be quite as severe as the ones announced in March, the new lockdown will nevertheless have far-reaching consequences for game shooting and associated businesses, which were finding their feet again after months of disruption. I cannot begin to imagine the frustration and upset that has been felt by readers across the countryside who have seen their favourite shoots close for the season, possibly permanently, or have had their hopes of shooting dashed at the last moment due to regional lockdowns. All any of us wants is to reconnect with friends we haven’t spent time with for months, stand on ground that means so much to us and see those…

Engineering: 10/10 This gun has been well thought through and is built to last. The engineering of the loadbearing surfaces in a way they can be replaced has been well designed and completed. Looks and finish: 9/10 If you’re looking for a gun with bling then this not for you. It is, however, exceptionally well finished and the looks match the job it is expected to do – perform on shooting challenging birds. Handling: 10/10 The Zenith L is one of the best handling high bird guns I have come across, the balance is just in front of the pin and the trigger-pulls are first class. The handling and patterns are just exceptional; it will outperform guns costing significantly more money. For high birds this gun will do the job…

Q My labrador is 14 months old and to date has been very good in training and progressing well. Just recently he has gone very flat and has started to ignore dummies after finding them and responding less often to commands. It’s very unusual for him and I am getting frustrated and a little concerned. Any ideas? A Let’s assume there is nothing health related and it’s happening regularly in your training and agree between us that this is not unusual. A gundog in training can go flat for a number of reasons and the first might simply be boredom. The repetitiveness of certain tasks can simply lead to no interest in a bright dog. It might be that, as the dog matures and gets more honed, hunting instincts and…

John Finch’s 12-year-old cocker Jack was the coolest in a very strong class this month. John writes: “Jack is a fantastic dog and has spent many years both beating and picking-up on local shoots. He is in semi-retirement now and goes out picking-up occasionally with our other dogs. He does enjoy his daily walks, but he has to endure being dressed up by the grandchildren.” How to win For your chance to win either a Pintail Explorer II smock (top right) or a Seasons jacket (right), email high-res images to martin.puddifer@futurenet.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.…