Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2017 i Sporting Gun

Robin Scott’s provocative piece (page 6) about the threat of terrorism to rural communities made me think. It’s all to easy to assume the next attack will be in a city, when it could very well be in a crowded event in the country. Where my opinion diverges from Robin’s is on his suggestion that some of us should be armed to allow an immediate response to a terrorist threat. My objections are two-fold. First, arming certain members of the public who have experience of firearms would cause confusion, making it difficult for the police to ascertain who is an armed “friendly” and who is a terrorist. Without uniforms the armed members of the public would look just like the terrorists. Secondly, anyone involved with responding to these types of…

To celebrate Sporting Gun’s 40th anniversary, we have 5,000 limited edition pin badges to give away. Fill in the coupon and bring it to the Sporting Gun stand at The Game Fair (Hatfield House, 28- 30 July 2017) and Midland Game Fair (Weston Park 16-17 September 2017) to receive your FREE LIMITED EDITION pin badge celebrating the 40th anniversary of Sporting Gun. Our stand number at The Game Fair is F880. If you are unable to visit our stands at the above fairs, fill in the coupon and send a postage-paid, addressed envelope (postage value 76p or large letter) to Sporting Gun 40th Anniversary Pin Badge, Time Inc. (UK) LTD, Pinehurst 2, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hants, GU14 7BF. Closing date for postal entries will be 14th July…

Jack Pyke English oak decoy bag – 120 litres £27.95 At 75cm tall, 43cm wide and with a capacity of 120 litres, this is a handy bag for all outdoor pursuits. It is large enough to fit plenty of pigeon or duck decoys, full bodied or shells, as well as camo netting and more. It is built for comfort with two adjustable padded shoulder straps, which helps when carrying heavy game for long distances, and the straps don’t dig into your shoulders because of the padding. It also has a carrying handle for convenience, useful for around the hide. To close it you simply flip over the internal top flap and tighten the pull cord. On the outside there are two seven-litre zip pockets, big enough for your decoy stakes…

PARK LIFE: The Memoirs of a Royal Parks Gamekeeper If you live in the south of England you will probably be familiar with Richmond Park. Those who live further afield might have seen the place through the YouTube video that captured Fenton, a lively black Labrador, chasing a herd of deer through the Park in 2011. This ancient and wonderful piece of parkland is the stunning backdrop to the story of John Bartram, Royal Parks Gamekeeper and Senior Wildlife Offi cer. Told in the last year of Bartram’s employment with the Royal Parks, Park Life gives a snapshot of life behind the scenes of London’s largest Royal Park, which is steeped in history and often full of visitors. We get a glimpse of how Bartram managed, not only the deer…

Last month I wrote about introducing my girlfriend, Charlie, to shooting by getting her started on clays and building her competence level to allow her to bag her first pheasant. We are a long way from the cold wet days of winter and are now firmly fixing our sights on summer corvid control. Charlie expressed her interest in wanting to get involved in the less glamourous work of crow control, which I was happy to help her with. Decoying crows can be a fairly complex subject for a beginner, one that takes a vast amount of first-hand experience to understand. I’ve been shooting crows since I was a child with my father and I’m still learning and testing new techniques with every trip into the field. The good news for…

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. PIGEONS PETER THEOBALD Author of Woodpigeon: The Ultimate Quarry. STALKING GEORGE WALLACE Former National Gamekeepers’ Organisation’s firearms consultant. RABBITS ED COOK Professional rabbit catcher working over 30,000 acres. PEST CONTROL & WILDFOWLING TOM SYKES Passionate wildfowler and pest controller.…

Name of estate: Portloughan Type of estate: Split arable and woodland County: County Down, Northern Ireland Acreage: 200 INTERVIEW TOM VEITCH Why did you become a keeper? I’ve always been a keen shooting man. When I was at school I bought some second-hand incubators when my father first bought the farm and brought up some pheasants and released a couple hundred pheasants. I suppose when other schoolboys were reading the Beano I was reading the Easy Game Advisory booklet. Did you do any formal training? Over the years I’ve attended a number of GWCT shoot visits and I’ve picked up stuff there. I also attended the three-day course in Loddington, which is really the GWCT amateur keepers course about four years ago. I’ve been very lucky to have three very…

 That’s a good question! If I gave you my full answer, you would need to be towing a large trailer around with you just to fit all the kit, never mind the caravans for the vet and nurse. But here goes. Every first aid kit worth its salt is going to have bandages, dressings, a wee pair of pretty useless plastic scissors and some cotton wool. There may be some useful additions you have not thought of… “The canine tongue does not possess potent antibacterial properties” Video calling A decent mobile phone with your friendly vet’s telephone number firmly plumbed in under “Vet”. These days, some clients shop around relentlessly for the cheapest deal for every veterinary item and therefore fail to develop a great relationship and rapport with any…

INGREDIENTS Serves 4 Ingredients Cooking method 1 Season the loin or fillet with Sichuan pepper, chilli flakes, salt, pepper, cumin and rapeseed oil in a bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film and marinade for two hours. 2 Heat a pan until it is very hot (smoking). Sear the meat in the pan on all sides, take off the heat and let cool. At this point you can place the venison tightly wrapped in cling film in the freezer to semi-freeze – this makes it easier to slice – or just leave to cool. 3 Take the orange peel and divide into segments. Thinly slice the red onion into rings. Serve the venison with the orange segments, red…

When readers ask me what they can and can’t do to their guns at home, I am always wary of making recommendations – for the simple reason that the shooter might be a skilled precision engineer, or he may be a charming guy who needs help when changing a light bulb. You never can tell. So, don’t do anything which is beyond your ability, because mistakes can be, at best, expensive to put right and, at worst, dangerous. One thing which can be very dangerous is to stone the sear engagement in an effort to improve the trigger pulls. That really is a job for a skilled gunsmith – and I once interviewed such a craftsman who confessed to making a lot of money out of re-setting triggers which gun…

Roe stalking is a strange business and I have written often enough about the passion we have for stalking them. This is not a deer we see in herds, unlike fallow and red deer they are, on the whole, a solitary deer. The roe deer holds a territory that is often exclusive to that individual. In the case of bucks they will attempt to keep any other male deer out of their territory but of course they will not fully succeed in their quest. Other roe bucks will constantly test the holder of territory hard won by edging into their ground, youngsters will generally, and sensibly, stay on the boundaries so as not to end up with a battle they know they cannot win. That will have been learned earlier…

GUNS adj— adjustable ble— boxlock ejector blne— boxlock non ejector brls— barrels c/w— complete with cyl— cylinder db— double barrel dt— double trigger ej— ejector ex con— excellent condition fac— firearms certificate fc— fixed choke gc— good condition grd— grade hg— hammer gun imp— improved ltwt— lightweight m/c— multi-choke mod— modified o/u— over and under ono— or near offer ovno— or very near offer p/x— part exchange pa— pump action rf— rimfire rnds— rounds (ammunition) sa— semi-automatic sb— single barrel sbs— side by side sle— side lock ejector slne— sidelock no ejector sst— single selective trigger tge— teague chokes u/l— underlever vgc— 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 hpr— hunt, point…

Schöff el Gunthorpe Shooting Vest Schöffel’s new shooting vest is made from Polartec Thermal Pro fleece featuring reinforced a shoulder pad for recoil protection. The removable recoil protection pad can be inserted on the left or right shoulder. It comes with two reinforced scoop pockets as well as an inside zipped pocket. The vest is available in sizes 34in to 54in chest. Price: £159.95 Visit: www.schoffel.co.uk In Your Sights Atom riflescopes In Your Sights have added new riflescopes to its Atom range that are packed full of features and represent unbeatable value for money. Scope are available in 1-4 x 20, 6-24 x 50 and 3.5-10 x 50. Price: From £39.99. Visit: www.inyoursights.co.uk Gerber Bear Grylls Compact Perang Part of Gerber’s survival range collaboration with Bear Grylls, the…

As the largest outdoor countryside-themed event in the world, the 59th Game Fair is set to attract around 120,000 visitors and 1,000 exhibitors to its brand new venue – Hatfield House in Hertfordshire across three days from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 July. Reaching the new venue could not be simpler, a 20-minute train journey from King’s Cross will take visitors to Hatfield station which is just five minutes’ walk from the event. Plus extra train carriages are being laid on especially. We’ve rounded up the highlights of this year’s event for you: High Pheasant, Grouse Butt, Pigeon Stand If you’re looking for a challenge that is a little out of the ordinary, you need to try these three game shooting competitions. The three courses will give the clay shooter…

The first thing I’m going to say about this shooting waistcoat from Jack Pyke is that it looks much more expensive than it is, which so often isn’t the case. The waistcoat is stylish, it’s made from a heavy cotton canvas with suede effect material on the shoulders, so it doesn’t matter if you are right or left-handed, and has the perfect material for protection and for gun mount. The heavy fabric also gives a good fit, it isn’t flimsy and it’s proved to be hard wearing. Personally I would have liked it to be treated with some sort of waterproofing because I’ve got wet in it a few times after misjudging the weather – it doesn’t hold the rain off at all. But, to be fair, it doesn’t claim…

It was a case of now or never! With the field due to be cultivated in a day or so there was nothing to be lost, and I couldn’t think of a better way of spending a boiling hot afternoon than relaxing in a shady hedge overlooking a small flock of pigeon decoys on the very first bit of barley stubble. Within sight of my workshop window, a few woodies had been working the stubble during the afternoons, but though 15 or 20 birds might be my lot – or worse – giving it a whirl would provide a few fresh pigeon breasts for the barbie, and a supply of carcases for use as decoys to start off the stubble season. And besides, I really felt like having a shot…

“My gamedealer’s cold store is as though the woodpigeon has been wiped from Earth” Writing this in the middle of May, we in the south-eastern part of the country are experiencing near drought-like weather, with barely measurable rainfall over the past two months. The flow of pigeons has also dried up since the last of the spring drillings six weeks ago. My local gamedealer’s cold store was rammed with trays of woodpigeons just eight weeks ago, but now it is as though the species has been wiped from the face of the Earth, so few am I seeing. Of course, both Paul and I are doing our usual scouting trips and waiting for things to change for the better, as they surely will, but where the hell are they? I…

“You may have been unsuccessful in class and have difficulties in reading and writing, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t excel as a shooter” Usually when you read about guns in schools it is not good news. However, there is one school in Gloucestershire where shooting can be seen to transform lives for the better, giving youngsters self-belief, raising their self-esteem and improving their academic performance. Bredon School is a small independent school, specialising in teaching pupils with dyslexia. It has many extra curricular sporting activities, but one sport in which it excels is clay shooting. It already has a thriving boys shooting team and there is now a girls team. Transformation Andy Wright, technology and engineering teacher in the school, helps organise the shooting team. He says, “I…

Set in the rolling Dorset countryside, a stone’s throw away from the site of the world famous Great Dorset Steam Fair held in late summer every year, The Charles Holland Shooting School is a pleasurable spot to spend a few hours honing your skills. Founded by 29-year old Charles Holland, the school stands on the site of what was a former clayground. Cosy and upmarket If you are a travelling clay shooter you will almost certainly have experienced a broad range of clubhouses at different grounds. Some on the large grounds can be modern and spacious, others are wooden structures that have been there for years with faded newspaper clippings of past winners and other clay shooting memorabilia on the walls, while others can simply be a caravan or a…

The causes No matter what you plan to do with your gundog in the future, it should be steady to all ground game and that includes deer as well as rabbits and hares. In my part of the world (Oxfordshire) we have a lot of muntjac and these can be very tempting for a dog. The danger is that game, hares especially, can take a dog a long way from the handler and apart from perhaps spoiling other drives, there is always the fear that the dog could end up chasing it across a road. Handlers that have problems with dogs chasing ground game quite often think that is the problem, in fact the real issue is that the dog has not been properly trained on the stop whistle. The…

MAX PRICE: £4,500 or more TYPE: Side-plated O/U PREFERRED MAKE: Any prestige maker Mike George’s buying advice There’s no mechanical reason why a boxlock should not shoot just as well as a sidelock, as long as the design is good and the gun is made of the correct materials and put together with great care. Certainly there is a fine tradition behind sidelocks, which is why “London Best” guns always follow that form of construction, but beyond that the boxlock has much in its favour. Just think of some great boxlocks. There’s John Moses Browning’s immortal B25, most of the Italian-built Berettas and Perazzis, Germany’s Krieghoffs, Japan’s top-grade Mirokus, the modern-series AYAs from Spain – the list is almost endless, and some of the guns are very expensive, with buyer-defined…

GUNS FOR SALE BSA 20-bore, sbs, ble, offers. Tel 01455 845043 (Leicestershire). Franchi auto, 20-bore, offers. Tel 01455 845043 (Leicestershire). DB Boss hammer 12-bore, three old muzzle loaders, BSA Airsporter Mk1, telephone for details. Tel 07966 169555 (Bedfordshire). Beretta SO5 trap gun, 30in barrels, c/w Beretta hard case, excellent condition, £8,500 ono. Tel 01914 606891 or 07982 743398 (Tyne & Wear). Beretta ASE90 trap gun, 30in barrels, c/w spare stock and fore-ends, Beretta hard case, excellent condition, £4,000 ono. Tel 01914 606891 or 07982 743398 (Tyne & Wear). Browning B25 B2G 30in Sporter, Teauge long choked, from custom shop in 1995, beautiful gun, hand engraved and signed, grade 3 original stock, c/w motor case and paper work, £4,350. Tel 07710 153594 (Dumfries). Browning 525 Sporter, 28in multi-choke, cased, used a…

£57,000 Nottinghamshire members of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust have raised £57,000 for the research charity at a gourmet dinner and auction. £2 million The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution paid out more than £2million to help support struggling farmers last year. 60,000 pupils are expected to receive pheasant cookery lessons over the next three years as part of BASC’s Taste of Game campaign. 41 According to a recent report by the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), 41 golden eagles out of 131 monitored by the SNH had disappeared under suspicious circumstances between 2004 and 2016. £25,000 BASC has pledged £25,000 to support a balanced independent study into the management of the UK’s uplands after Government withdrew its funding. £8,000 James Purdey & Sons paid £8,000 at an auction to buy…

Start’em young This is the first time I have written in and please find attached a picture of my five-year-old daughter, Amy-May, and my seven-year-old nephew, Alfie enjoying a day’s beating during their first season out on the Ottenden Shoot in Kent. You can see from their faces that they are having a fantastic time, but the differing reactions to the photos from friends was extraordinary. Some were very supportive but others were disgusted that the children were holding the dead birds. I fully appreciate shooting divides opinion. In fact my brother, Alfie’s dad, is certainly not a supporter of shooting, but wants his children to experience the outdoor pursuits, increase their knowledge of wildlife and conservation, the countryside, working dogs, respect for firearms and what they can do, not…

CPSA Live in association with Sporting Gun is an event that will inspire you to take that first step in turning your hobby into a career. You might think that it is impossible to be paid to do what you enjoy doing, but this event will show you that it might not be as difficult as you think. On the CPSA Live stand you can meet Olympians such as Steve Scott, who won bronze in a tense Double Trap shoot off at the Rio Olympics. He will be answering questions about what it takes to become a champion. British Shooting, in the form of John Offord and Christian Schofield, will be on hand to explain the “Talent Pathway” for aspiring competitive shooters. So if you think you have what it…

Lincoln Vogue HSX The Lincoln Vogue HSX Sporting (Hunter Sporter Crossover) has been designed around the very popular Lincoln Vogue game gun that was introduced last year. The Vogue HSX features a few subtle adjustments to better suit those looking for a comfortable and reliable gun they can use on the game shoot, in the hide and at the clay ground, without breaking the bank. The Vogue HSX is the ideal all-rounder, available in 12, 20 or 28-bore with 28in or 30in barrels. Price: RRP £1,199.95. Visit: www.bisley-uk.com Schoffel Sedbergh tweed waistcoat Renowned clothing brand Schoffel has launched a brand new waistcoat. Made from 100 per cent pure labswool, this tweed waistcoat is available in Windsor and Sandringham tweed colours. The waistcoat will be launched on 1 July and…

Rabbits are a familiar sight around much of the British countryside, and are a mainstay quarry of air rifle hunters, rough shooters and ferreters. Their population is estimated at over 50 million, and can spike rapidly during the spring and summer months. With adult rabbits able to consume around a pound of fresh green food every day, they can soon munch a dent into farmers’ profits, and many landowners are grateful for assistance in keeping their numbers in check. Rabbit is held in very high regard by chefs. Land yourself a productive bunny shoot, and time spent bringing the burrowing menace to book will be rewarded with some first-rate meat for the table. Born survivior It is thought that rabbits were introduced to Britain sometime around the 12th century. Since…

“I was a little excited to finally get my hands on a Sauer that is affordable” With the Glorious Twelfth just around the corner it’s time to dust off the loaders kit and get the dogs back under control prior to picking-up. With that in mind, it’s time to break out some game guns to show you all in anticipation for the forthcoming game season. This month I’ve been lucky enough to be given the new Sauer Apollon to take a look at. I had heard that there was something new coming to market when I last spoke to Ian Spicer of Blaser Sporting UK (importers for Blaser, Mauser, Sauer and Minox) and I was really looking forward to getting my hands on whatever it was! Sauer history Sauer is…

The propensity for things to go wrong when you’re operating in the dark is almost limitless, but it’s not always a kit failure that can mess your session up. A recent example of this was when I got called to a small farm where the lady owner had just started lambing. She’d called me in because she didn’t want to repeat the losses she’d experienced last year. Expect the unexpected In response to the request, three of us went over, and after assessing the layout we got ourselves nicely hidden in under a hedge at the top of a hill. This looked down onto the paddock where her ewes were, so I set the caller out, and a brief blast of rat squeaks brought a fox out of cover and…

Age 17 months Countdown to first shoot Two months To be quite honest it had not been a good night. Mrs R kept tossing and turning because she was very excited about taking part in a 10-mile sponsored ride on “Bertie”, her Irish cob, and I was getting a tad worked up about my entry into the working test. Consequently, when the alarm shrieked at 4.45am we were both wide awake. Over the previous few weeks I had put in a lot of time with Ted’s training. I had hunted him most days in a variety of cover and he had come on in leaps and bounds. The main difference was that he would now cast off straight away without jumping up at my hand, which apart from being annoying…

“There are manythings you can do to adaptyour guntoyour shootingstyle” There are many things you can do to adapt your gun to your shooting style without falling foul of the law or rendering the gun out of proof. To give you a good example, let me tell you the story of my favourite gun – my Winchester 6500 fixed-choke sporter. In the 1980s Robin Scott (Sporting Gun’s longest-serving editor, and now editor-at-large) and I both bought brand-new guns. Robin, who was getting seriously into FITASC (the international sporting clays discipline) bought the Winchester which is now mine, and I bought the newly-introduced Beretta 682. The two guns were as different as chalk and cheese – to me at any rate. I found the Beretta to be a heavy, unresponsive gun,…

“Only about 10,000 were produced before the Swiss gave up on it” A few months back we had a look at one of the most recognisable and well known submachine gun ever produced: The Thompson gun. This month I thought we should have a look at one of the world’s least known, the Swiss MP41. Possibly the most impractical (and costly) submachine gun ever manufactured, the MP41 and MP41/44, as pictured here, was not a huge success to say the least. It was adopted in 1941 by the Swiss army when they realised that they were falling behind other countries by not having a submachine gun in their arsenal. Locked breech The MP41 (not to be confused with the German MP41, which was a completely unrelated gun) was designed by…

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