Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2016 i Sporting Gun

“To keep waterfowl happy and healthy, a decent stretch of water is the main ingredient” It was still quite dark, but as a faint red glow crept slowly upwards over the eastern horizon, the first hint of a breeze began to rustle the bed of tall Norfolk reed on the far banks of the water. A cock wigeon whistled close, answered by another, and I could just make out the low growling of unseen females and the occasional whistle of teal somewhere in the darkness beyond. Drowning out the distant chatter of mallard, across the river valley, greylags were already warming up ready for flight. Eager to set off to their early feeding ground away to the east, the bouts of cackling were getting more urgent and prolonged as the…

Clay disciplines: Sporting, grouse butt, six high towers up to 120ft that will throw clays to 160ft. Pre-booking only for competitions and individuals accompanied by an instructor. The RBSS also runs a highly regarded Sporting Agency. Cost: Lessons cost £99, £52 for 100 Sporting clays including instructor. Acreage: 89 acres. Gun storage: This is available – check for details. Parking: Grass and gravel parking for around 100 vehicles. Registered shoots: Three-day 100 bird registered Sporting event in August each year. Membership: The school runs the Calibre Club that is £30 per month and includes a free lesson straight away, 20 per cent discount on clays, clothing, further lessons and cartridges and a host of other benefits including clothing and club partners. Instructors and coaches: There are seven full time dedicated…

GUNDOGS: GRAHAM WATKINS A professional gundog trainer for more than 35 years and runs Gamegoer Gundogs. VETERINARY: NEIL MCINTOSH A practising vet in Scotland. TUITION: JOHN BIDWELL 6 times World FITASC champ and pro shooting coach. LEGAL: DAVID FROST Author of Sporting Shooting and the Law. TECHNICAL: MIKE GEORGE Engineering author with a deep love of gunmaking. GUNDOGS: LEZ GRAHAM Gundog trainer and author of the Pet Gundogbooks. PIGEONS: PETER THEOBALD Author of Woodpigeon: The Ultimate Quarry. STALKING: GEORGE WALLACE Former National Gamekeepers’ Organisation’s firearms consultant. FERRETS: ED COOK Professional rabbit catcher working over 30,000 acres. PEST CONTROL & WILDFOWL: TOM SYKES Passionate wildfowler and pest controller…

“Perhaps there would be less scope for confusion if they were called ‘conditional’ licences” It was the final week of the game season on a shoot I visit regularly. Out of curiosity, I tagged a question to the end of the usual briefing. I asked the Guns to imagine that they had just dropped a stratospheric wood pigeon. As their dog races off to retrieve the woodie, an RSPB inspector or Wildlife Crime Officer emerges from behind a tree and demands: “Why did you shoot that woodpigeon, sir?” Given that I was addressing an experienced team of Guns, their answers surprised me. “Because we can” and “Because they are on the General Licence” were the favoured replies. While both answers may be true, either could lead to prosecution in the…

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Back in March I caught up with my good friend “young Jack” while he was at home for the weekend from college. Some of you may recognise the face and name, as Jack Depledge is also a contributor of Sporting Gun, who writes about college life for young keepers. Jack and I have been pals for a number of years and I always like a catch up where possible – and what better way to do so than with a morning’s crowing? Plan of attack The main concern was trying to find a spot that would be worthwhile to shoot, as March is normally a quiet time on the crowing front for me. I decide to hit the same area where I tested my homemade lofting decoys last year. I…

After five months of the shooting season, I like to get back to some good old keepering in the form of trapping. When I first started keepering more than 25 years ago in Shropshire, we had to tunnel trap every hedgerow and gateway on the estate. Life was slightly slower paced back then, and for the modern keeper finding time to do some trapping can be hard. Where once there may have been four or five keepers on a shoot, now there may only be one who is looking after 10 times as many birds. This can leave little time for trapping. What are you trapping? When siting a trap it is important to understand what you are trying to catch and why. Where rats are concerned; trapping prevents possible…

“One of the most important factors is getting the height of the sticks right” It was Townsend Whelan – famous writer, hunter, and shooter – who made the classic remark: “Only accurate rifles are interesting”. He was absolutely spot on, in more ways than one. You have no business targeting live quarry unless you have a better than reasonable chance of a clean kill. If the animal in question is further than 50 yards away, for example, you need a good, stable rest of some kind. While I would love to use a bipod for all my shooting, the sad fact is that where I live you’d rarely see anything if you were lying down that low. Apart from the fact that the vegetation is usually higher than the rifle,…

Those of us who like rifles and rifle shooting often develop an interest in calibres and cartridges that are a bit out of the ordinary. It also gives us something else to talk about. However, it is a huge subject, so for today’s purposes we’ll just look at .22 centrefires and restrict it even more to those for which factory ammunition is available, even if you have to ask your dealer to order it especially. In the UK, most of us choose a .22 Hornet, .222, .223 or .22 250, for the same reason that most people drive similar, mass produced family cars – they are affordable, easily available and do the job perfectly well. However, that can easily become synonymous with bloody boring, which may be why I drive…

Venison stuffed cabbage leaves Ingredients Olive oil 1lb minced venison 2tsps chopped parsley 4tbsp cooked rice ½ onion skinned and finely chopped 1 pint stock 12 medium-sized cabbage leaves How to cook Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the venison mince stirring to brown evenly. Add the parsley, rice, onion and ¼ pint of the stock. Continue cooking for five minutes until the stock is absorbed. Prepare the cabbage leaves by cutting out any of the hard stalks and then blanch them in boiling water for two minutes. Drain well. Place a spoonful of filling in the centre of each leaf and roll up, tucking the ends in to form a neat parcel. Place the rolls closely together in a casserole and add enough stock to half…

Ingredients Serves: 2 goose legs 500ml v egetable oil 2 spring onions 1 shallot 1tsp honey glaze Juice of ½ lemon Splash of fresh orange juice 1tsp olive oil Salt and pepper 125g butter Pinch of mace Pinch of cayenne pepper 1tsp roasted pine nuts 1tsp broken hazelnuts For the marinade 4 juniper berries, crushed 2 sprigs of thyme, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 1 bay leaf, chopped Pinch of C hinese five-spice Pinch of sugar Cracked black pepper and rock salt (pinch of each) COOKING METHOD 1 Roll each goose leg in the dry marinade and leave for 24 hours. This draws the moisture from the meat and helps to break it down while cooking. Once the goose legs are ready, brush off the marinade and gently poach in…

Following on from my piece on Victorian inventiveness in the May issue, here is another example of firearms curiosa. The reasons for its failure in the market place will be all too obvious to anyone seeing the photograph, for here we have an example of the legendary, or should I say notorious, Porter Turret rifle. Invented by P.W. Porter of New York in 1851 and manufactured in this instance by G.P. Forster of Taunton, Massachusetts, a couple of myths have grown up around these distinctive icons of Victorian gun collecting. The first is the urban legend that the inventor shot himself dead while demonstrating the mechanism to Samuel Colt. This complete un-truth – while completely believable – was dreamt up by a pre-World War II auction catalogue to imply rarity…

» You can shoot under supervision at an approved club or school with one of their guns without having your own shotgun certificate. » There is no lower age limit on firing a gun – only on using it unsupervised, and buying one. » Don’t have a friend who shoots? Don’t worry! Clubs, schools and shooters are always happy to welcome new people so don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and ask if you can come to their next shoot to watch, and have a chat with the organisers. You will find contact numbers on the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association’s website – or visit Sporting Gun’s own website www.shootinguk.com for details.…

Prices » F16 Game 12-bore, 28 to 30in barrels, grade two wood, three chokes included – £2,535 » F16 Sporter 12-bore, 30 to 32in barrels, grade two wood, adjustable trigger, barrel balancing system, five chokes included – £2,777 » Grade four wood upgrade – £248.95 When Blaser launched the F16 at the Stonely Shooting Show back in February we can all honestly say the after burners were fully on, I could feel my eyebrows smoldering with one of the most dramatic gun launches I have seen in the gun trade. The question is: “does the Blaser F16 pack the punch that we are all expecting?” Well, let’s find out! Firstly, when I heard Blaser was launching the F16 as its mid-range entry-level gun I was a little worried. As a…

“The steam started to rise as I developed the biggest blush ever known to mankind” Following a conversation I had with someone at a game fair recently, I realised that despite there being many thousands of gundogs working in the field not many of their owners have shot over their dogs – and I think there are a lot of people missing out on a lot of fun. Over the years I have been fortunate enough to not only photograph some of the top gundogs in the country, but also had the opportunity to shoot over many different breeds and without any doubt some of my most nerve wracking moments have been when shooting over HPRs. In fact, some of the memories are so embedded in the inner sanctuary of…

1 Name: Jon Matthews Location: Herefordshire This photo was taken of Jon Matthews, in Herefordshire. He said: “A lovely lady called Mary gave me permission to shoot crows over maize on her farm. I’m 30 years old and it was the first time I shot over decoys without my dad being with me. I was nervous that I would set the pattern up wrong and have a bad day, but thanks to your decoy article and my dad teaching me well, I ended up with 61 crows and five pigeons.” 2 Name: Jack Robnson Location: North Yorkshire Pictured here is Jack Robinson, age nine, with his three year old cocker spaniel Jasper. The photo was taken by his dad, Dave Robinson, he said: “After his first day’s decoying, Jack bagged…

Many years ago, when I started out photographing gundogs, I used to attend quite a few spring pointing tests and it was at these events where I not only saw my first HPR working in the field, but I also developed some lifelong friendships with a number of handlers that are avid fans of the hunt, point and retrieve breeds. Over the following years those friendships have enabled me to watch and shoot over most of the HPR breeds and although I have never owned one I can appreciate the excitement and thrill of working one of these dogs. The HPR breeds we see in the UK all originate from continental Europe and although you will very rarely see them in the beating line they are truly a versatile group…

I have been messing around in the workshop trying to come up with another cheap and cheerful homemade decoy to join the long line of current inventions. The morning crowing with Jack was the perfect chance to start the first tests of a new lightweight floating crow decoy. I am a big fan of using dead crows on floaters to add movement and give another dimension to a decoy layout, but you normally have to shoot a bird or two to get them set up unless you have some cold birds from the day before or keep the odd one in the freezer. I wanted to design something lightweight and easy to make that could be set up straight away and would be just as effective at pulling wise crows…

The new Fenland Packaway Jacket delivers freedom to shoot, is fully spec’d with features like chest high handwarmer pockets and packs into its own internal pocket. It offers year-round waterproofing and breathable versatility, where its low weight adds to its exceptional performance. RRP £175. Agriculture manace > I found reading Ian Mason’s piece on the ring-necked parakeet (April issue) to be very interesting. The menace that increasing numbers of the birds pose to agriculture should not be underestimated and reminds me of my late grandfather telling me about his experiences in Burma and India during World War II. He was a member of the “Forgotten 14th” and was once stationed at a hill-fort near the border. Apparently the local villagers would have to stand guard over their crops literally from…

The most important factor is to make sure your sticks fit you. They should be adjustable for height and preferably allow you to sit on an incline. Over the years, I’ve grown to depend on tripod versions – each to their own, however! » Your sticks must be both light and quiet to carry with no shiny bits or bright colours. I like to cover anything that stands out with camo tape, and also add pieces of foam in the relevant places. » Keep your left arm straight (if you’re right-handed) – I like to grasp the front sling mount with my left hand and pull it against the rest. » A good stance is vital – your feet should be placed so that you are nice and stable. »…

Ferreting is one of the few rural art forms practised today. Other than the use of locater systems, it is much the same as it was more than 150 years ago. While ferreting can be made as complicated or as simple as you like, at the end of the day the idea is to place a ferret in a hole and a rabbit bolts – simple. I’ve used ferrets for the purpose of catching rabbits since I was a child and in the last 16 years they have been a massive ally in my profession. You may hear people say it isn’t effective, but I find such comments laughable – especially if the task is carried out correctly. Generally speaking, ferreting with the correct equipment can easily achieve a 90…

Due to the popularity of Shop Front we cannot guar antee when your FREE advert will appear. We operate on a strictly first come first served basis. GUNS FOR SALE Beretta EELL 20-bore, diamond pigeon, 29.5in barrels, ¼ and ½ chokes, autosafe, £3,450 ovno. Tel 07831 147856 (Nottinghamshire). Weihrauch .22 air rifle, model 80, c/w scope and moderator, gc, £130. Tel 01642 710834 (Middlesborough). Midland O/U, 12-bore, 28in barrels, good game gun, gc, £150 ono. Tel 07469 732164 (Lancashire). CZ .527 Varmint .17 Hornet rifle, mint condition with no marks or scratches, only fired 45 rounds, bought new in June 2015, unused for five months, cw Redding dies, approx 45 factory bullets, 290-plus bullets, approx 40 once fired cases, approx 95 .22 Hornet -.17 Hornet resized new cases, £800. Tel…

Mike George chooses three value-for-money Sporters available on the second-hand market MEDALIST SPORTER More than 30 years ago, the UK Browning importers could offer an impressive range of guns – everything from £1,000-plus competition and game guns to exotic and expensive hand-built examples of John Moses Browning’s immortal B25. But one thing they didn’t have was a “starter” gun retailing under £1,000. To redress this imbalance, they went to the Italian company, Zoli, and bought a gun they chose to call the Medalist. It wasn’t a success, which was strange for Zoli. Maybe they had been asked to produce a gun down to a price rather than up to a specification – who knows? The importers soon dropped it and turned to another Italian maker, FIAS, which stands for Fabbrica…

New guidelines in the Policing and Crime Bill might well clarify the role of police officers in the grant and renewal of gun certificates, but the Home Office has messed up badly on the subject of medical records. Instead of the amendment to the Firearms Acts “better protecting the public by closing loopholes that can be exploited by criminals and terrorists”, the PCB actually puts the security of gun owners at greater risk. And the public too! Under the new provisions the medical records of every gun owner will be tagged so that doctors and surgery staff now know which patients own firearms. Police then want GPs to tell them if they think a certificate holder shouldn’t possess a gun due to worsening health, or if there’s a likelihood of…

On the face of it, what could be simpler? You don’t want pigeons to spot you as they approach your decoy layout, so you build a screen behind which you sit to prevent them from doing so. On that basis, an article on hide building would be very short indeed, so it got me thinking as to how Paul and I actually construct ours. When we tackle a situation there are so many elements to consider, from the position of the hide to its location in regards to the birds’ flightline, and, also, wind direction. It’s only when I think about what we do, that I realise how many conscious decisions have to be made. Starting with the absolute basic requirement of a hide in the first place – to…

Matt Clark – Sporting Gun’s new Editor A NEW editor will take the helm of Sporting Gun from next month. Matt Clark is an experienced journalist and has been shooting since he was a youngster. He said: “I’m very lucky to have a job that combines my professional skills with my passion. Working on a magazine that I grew up reading is a tremendous privilege and I know many shooters would give their eyeteeth for this job.” Matt started shooting airguns when he was eight years old and it wasn’t long before he bought his first shotgun, a single-barrelled Baikal. He spent his youth rough shooting on farmland in Cumbria and if he wasn’t doing that, he was out rabbiting with his lurcher. Since then he has used a large…

At this time of the year many of us are looking to either buy a new pup or a slightly older youngster. I tend to look two years ahead as this is roughly the time that it takes for most trainers to get a dog into the shooting field. One issue that you may come up against is when you have two (or more) dogs which need to work together as a team. So, how can you control the inevitable competition that can occur between the dogs, especially when picking-up? Back to basics If you have previously only owned one dog and have worked it on its own you may have to spend a bit of time just going back to some basic retrieving exercises as you may need to…

Spring is sprung and summer approaches. Maybe, like me, you are itching for a day in a pigeon hide. I relish the peace and quiet, the absence of a ringing phone or squawking nurse and the time to relax and ponder the world. Your dog, however, might be itching for other reasons. From now until autumn is peak season for atopy and that means one thing – an itchy dog. Itching to know more? Atopy is a genetically predisposed tendency to develop an allergy to normal substances that occur in the environment. The most common of these are pollens (including grasses, weeds and trees), house dust mite (Dermatophagoides farina), storage mite, shed skin dander, moulds and food proteins. Of the pollens, wheat, sweet vernal, couch grass and docks are the…

The countryside is changing with towns and cities now encroaching upon our rural landscape. In this environment it has become clear that my work as a pest controller would have to involve greater use of suppressed shotguns. There are some great benefits — the decreased noise levels mean quarry don't disperse with every shot and I have been lucky enough to try 12, 20 and .410 in a synthetic pump action and I found 20-bore to be the most versatile – giving me a wide range of cartridges and more than enough range all in one quiet package. Why 20-bore? So, “why the 20 bore?”, I hear you ask. If it was a matter of noise it would be the .410 –it is an extremely quiet gun especially when shot…

“It is still looking likely that the Fenn trap will be forced out of use” Keeping on top of the pests and predators on the estate at this time of year can be vital to the success or failure of many wild birds, mammals and plants. Recently at The Northern School of Game and Wildlife, we have been working hard to reduce the populations of pests and predators on the college farm to try and give some wildlife an extra help to recover from winter and reproduce through the spring months. One method we have been employing is the use of Fenn Mk4 traps around our assigned beats. As part of our Pest and Predator control unit, we have been learning how to correctly set a Fenn Mk4 trap legally,…

The right height Here’s a good example of the height issue – on the top, the sticks are too short, causing my shooting partner, Paul, to hunch down. This creates point of aim instability, which is much worse on uneven ground, inclines and in the dark. Below, the sticks are the right height, Paul has a good solid stance and the bullet’s point of impact will be much more reliable. The system on top is the Vanguard Quest T62U – I’ve used it for years as it fits me perfectly. The unit below is the Vanguard Pro T68 – a much taller alternative. Height difference Here’s a comparison of the maximum heights achievable with the Vanguard Pro T68 on the left, and the Vanguard Quest T62U on the right. Personally,…

The damage caused by the storms over the winter has been considerable and the ongoing work within woodlands is still being carried out throughout Northumberland and Cumbria. Some of the damage is quite spectacular and, due to the sheer volume, it will take a considerable period before it is cleared and the pathways that have been washed away are renewed. I expect this work to carry on throughout the year and even in to the next. I am only glad that I had the sense not to be out in the woods during the worst of it and particularly glad I wasn’t sitting in a new high seat at the time, which is no longer in one piece! Some ancient trees that seemed to be a part of the landscape…

Alfie is up to his usual behaviour and is pleased to be out and about after all of the cancellations. However, this month isn’t about Alfie but my old loyal pal, Patch, who was a springer spaniel. The time to leave comes to us all and sadly Patch reached that point last week. He had suffered a stroke of some sort two years ago, but he recovered well, albeit slightly more dodgy on his feet. He had been going blind and now he couldn’t see much at all, he was also stone deaf. We brought Patch into the house three years ago due to his age and also because Patchy and Alfie did not remotely get on. They were as bad as each other, but Alfie drew the short straw…

PROFILE NAME AGI CHAPMAN AREA MARKET DEEPING, LINCOLNSHIRE MEDIA PASTELS PROFESSION ARTIST Agi was a keen artist at school, taking art at A level and then going off to college to study interior design. She did the odd painting for friends before life took over. She married a farmer, had three children and ran a livery yard for 40 horses, as well as competing – there was barely time to breathe let alone draw. But life changed as they left the farm and moved to the Loire Valley in France. Agi started breeding coloured sport horses (skewbalds and piebalds) that were competing in either eventing, dressage or showjumping. And as Agi didn’t have so many horses to look after and the children were getting older, she had time to start…

“Even a gun of low value seems to be a good investment” The Webley & Scott Model 700 was one of the great value-for-money guns of its day. Around 28,000 were made during its production run from 1947 to 1979, and a remarkable number are still available second-hand, both at auction and through conventional trade outlets. The gun was described by its critics as ugly, and even fans admitted it was a bit of a “plain Jane”, but in truth it was a traditional Birmingham-made double-trigger side-by-side boxlock built on well-proven principles, with an Anson & Deely-type action and Southgate-pattern ejectors. Okay, the wood was a bit plain, but the gun’s mechanical strength is borne out by the fact that so many have survived into the 21st Century. Look through…

GUNS adj — adjustableble — boxlock ejectorblne — boxlock nonejectorbrls — barrelsc/w — complete withcyl — cylinderdb — double barreldt — double triggerej — ejectorex con — excellentconditionfac — firearms certificatefc — fixed chokegc — good conditiongrd — gradehg — hammer gunimp — improvedltwt — lightweightm/c — multi-chokemod — modifiedo/u — over and underono — or near offerovno — or very near offerp/x — part exchangepa — pump actionrf — rimfirernds — rounds (ammunition)sa — semi-automaticsb — single barrelsbs — side by sidesle — side lock ejectorslne — sidelock no ejectorsst — single selectivetriggertge — teague chokesu/l — underlevervgc — very good condition DOGS b/w — black and white ess — English springer spaniel ftaw — field trial award winner ftch — field trial champion ftw — field trial winner…

Funny old world, isn’t it? In spite of society throwing its hands up in horror at the mere mention of guns, shooting as a sport has never been more popular. Almost 700,000 people own shotguns in Britain, and the number is growing across all age groups, and both sexes. Add rifle shooters to the equation (and more than one million air rifle users) and it’s a far bigger participant sport than fishing by miles. And safer, too. Takes some believing, doesn’t it? But the official statistics prove it: in case you, or any parent reading were wondering, gun accidents in the field are as rare as hens’ teeth. The sport’s safety record is second to none. The aim of this little booklet is to show just how easy it is…

» If you’re too shy to go it alone and make that call, why not get a group of pals or work mates to visit as a party and all have some fun? Nothing beats one-to-one instruction, but this isn’t far behind! Group tuition also spreads the cost, and is cheaper. » Clay pigeons are made from a mix of chalk and pitch able to be broken easily when hit by two or three shotgun pellets but tough enough to withstand being launched at high speed from spring-powered traps. » It is best to hone your skills on clay pigeon shooting before attempting to shoot live quarry. To do otherwise increases the chances of wounding, not killing cleanly.…