Table of contents for September 2022 in Sporting Gun

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought out a report a few months ago proposing a ban on the sale of lead shot for game shooting. This will have a profound effect on the 539,212 shotgun and firearm certificate holders and 6,000,000 plus airgun users in the UK. There is no adequate lead alternative yet, but the HSE cites science which says there is “no safe level of lead” for human consumption. It neglects to cite research as to whether the alternatives, such as steel and bismuth, are safe if accidentally consumed. Very little scientific research has been done on alternatives – astonishing, since some shooting organisations want us to start using them as soon as possible for game. Happily, they are digging their heels in at the prospect of…

July 1-August 31 Browning Game Challenge, The Oxford Gun Company August 12-14 British Open English Skeet Championship, Eriswell Lodge August 13-14 Olympic Trap British Masters, National Clay Shooting Centre, Bisley August 13-14 English and British Open Single Barrel Championships, Brook Bank Shooting Ground August 18 Novice Introduction To Shooting course, Orchard Park Farm, Somerset August 18-19 Basic Metallic Cartridge Reloading course, Kells Pistol & Rifle Club, Co Antrim August 19 BASC Young Shots: Introduction To Clay Shooting, Kibworth Shooting Ground August 20 BASC Shotgun Safety Officer course, BASC Scotland Centre, Perthshire August 27-28 Wild Boar Certificate course, Elveden Estate, Norfolk August 31-September 4 British Open Sporting & Sportrap Championships, Barbury Shooting School September 2-4 Chatsworth Country Fair, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire September 9-11 GWCT Welsh Game Fair, The Vaynol Estate, North…

SPORTING GUN OFFER The first ever GWCT Welsh Game Fair will take place from 9–11 September at the historic Vaynol Estate in Bangor, Gwynedd. Sporting Gun has collaborated with Stable Events Ltd, the event organisers, to offer two free tickets for new subscribers to the magazine. The three-day event is set to be a fantastic shop window for the Welsh countryside and its rich culture and heritage, with attractions including fishing, horse riding, clay shooting and gundog demonstrations. It will also bring together representatives from fieldsports, farming and conservation to discuss pressing rural issues. The hope is to foster greater communication and promote the benefit of country pursuits and conservation to a wider audience. Chef Bryn Williams will be celebrating the best of Welsh cuisine. He has hosted a successful…

Deerstalking We went off on holiday and Andrea’s sister came to dog-sit. Typical of the little horror, as soon as we left for the airport she decided it was time to come into season. So instead of long walks off the lead, it was controlled walks. For some reason, having shown no previous interest, she became fascinated with the baby rabbits that also appeared just as we left. She can be a beggar once she has made her mind up on something. She showed a keenness to crawl under the container yesterday until I grabbed her. This is a new development that I will have to keep an eye on; I don’t fancy digging her out when she gets stuck.…

Much of my daytime work involves ferreting and installing drop-boxes, along with a bit of fencing and trapping. But when darkness falls, I can often be found shooting. In days past this would have been with the aid of a lamp. We do still use one, but mainly with the .410/quad combo if we are doing bigger farm jobs or if we are working with the lurchers or hawks. These days, it is night vision (NV) that guides us on our quest. It is very popular and we use it for a lot of our rabbit work, plus some fox and licensed deer shooting. Array There are hundreds of different models of NV and thermal-imaging equipment at a vast range of prices to choose from, so much so that it…

As one of the UK’s most established Sporting grounds, Southdown Gun Club has seen it all. English Opens, Clay Shooting Classics and even the World English Sporting Championships have all been held in this picturesque corner of the South Downs National Park. Today, Sporting grounds are a dime a dozen, but by looking forward, rather than reminiscing on past glories, Southdown remains one of Britain’s best. “The ground was founded by David Peckham in the 1980s,” says Shaun Miller, the managing director. “I started shooting here in 1995, but when the opportunity presented itself to take over the ground in 2010, Greg Swan, my co-director, and I jumped at the chance.” Future Since then, Shaun and his team have been hard at work ensuring Southdown has a future as bright…

Over the past few years there has been a growing trend for ‘positive only’ gundog training. In fact, I have been asked on a number of occasions if I am a positive only trainer and the more I think about it, the more confused I get. To start, let me share a couple of scenarios that I have recently been involved in. The first was a phone call from what I would describe as a quite desperate owner of a 14-week-old flatcoated retriever pup. The chap had owned the pup for only six weeks and, as all pups are prone to doing, it was nipping and getting rather overexcited at times and the new owner had no idea of how to deal with this. I suggested two courses of action.…

Letter of the month Bad form My son is going through the process of renewing his shotgun certificate. Last year, I renewed mine with Avon and Somerset Police successfully and painlessly. However, this year there is a questionnaire to be completed by your doctor. This questionnaire has been returned to my son as “it is not the practice policy to complete such forms”. I know over the years of reading Sporting Gun that I have seen articles on alternatives to using your doctor should circumstances such as this arise. However, I can’t find these articles, so please can you let me know what the alternatives would be? Mark, via email Ed – Your email highlights a frustration some people are having. Medcert (medcert.co.uk) should be able to help, though it…

The Coley Classic, Ian Coley Sporting’s famed 120 Sporting Open, returned to the ground just outside of Cheltenham from 6 to 8 July. This year the event was shot, for the most part, in brilliant sunshine, with competitors enjoying the weather and the challenging stands winding their way through woodlands. Matthew Davis set the targets, which were designed to suit all contestants – while still offering plenty of trickier ones to catch out the professionals. Richard Faulds dropped just four targets to finish as Overall High Gun on 116/120, followed closely by Martin Myers on 113 and Joshua Brown on 112. Topping the Junior scoreboard was Robert Carberry with 92, while Jennie Cartwright claimed the Ladies High Gun with 90. Their scores stood testament to the difficulty of some of…

Somehow or other I’ve been roped into a farm walk not a million miles from here to look at its rich insect life. In particular the pollinators – to find out how numbers have been boosted. Doubtless I’ll go “oooh, aaah” at whatever crawls or flies from our host’s undergrowth and then say: “Well done, pal, you’ve got a mind-boggling bug collection here.” And no, I’m not being sarcastic. Very much not so. We all know without bees, ‘flees’ and creepy crawlies this delicate food chain of ours could be fatally compromised. If insects suffer, we’ll be up you-know-what creek without a paddle in the time it takes to pull the lavatory chain. Well, maybe not quite as quickly as that, but I’m sure you get my drift. “It’s encouraging…

Ingredients • 1 venison loin, cut into steaks• Salt and pepper• 1tbsp olive oil • ¼ pint stock Gooseberry and mint jelly • 2lb gooseberries• Large bunch of mint• 2lb sugar Method 1 Make the jelly. Wash, top and tail the gooseberries, put them into a pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and add the mint. Simmer until the fruit has softened. Place in a muslin cloth and strain overnight. Next day, place in a preserving pan and stir in the sugar. Once it’s dissolved, increase the heat and boil rapidly. After about 10 minutes, test for a set. Once a set is reached, skim off any scum and spoon it into sterilised jars and cover. Leave to cool. 2 When you are ready to eat, fry…

During a clay shoot in August 2004, I mentioned to my friend Bernie that although I had done a lot of loading on grouse moors, I had never actually shot a grouse. I added that I had, however, eaten quite a few North Yorkshire native birds in local restaurants. “I can fix that for you,” came the reply. “Our DIY pheasant syndicate has enough of a moorland edge to provide a small grouse drive.” So it was that, on a warm day in the second half of September, we commenced the 800ft climb to the moor. Bernie had omitted to mention the climb. On reaching the top, the four of us who had been nominated as standing Guns, still puffing a bit, were told where to stand to cover one…

Schöffel Ptarmigan Cirrus coat Lightweight, breathable and waterproof, this jacket features a removable recoil pad, large bellows pockets, an adjustable sleeve, microfleece hand warmer pockets and a two-way zip. Price £499; schoffelcountry.com Schöffel Ptarmigan tweed waistcoat II Made from 100% lambswool, this machine-washable waistcoat has a moisture and stain repellent finish and suede leather shoulder pads. Price £329.95; schoffelcountry.com Alan Paine Axford men’s field coat With its action back, technical tweed and light reinforced shoulders, the Axford has a shooting-specific design as well as practical features, including knitted windbreaker cuffs. Price £329.95; alanpaine.co.uk A Guide to the Deer of the World by Charles Smith-Jones The Sporting Gun writer has produced an accessible reference work on the world’s 55 ‘true’ deer, focusing on conservation. It’s beautifully illustrated. Price £55; quillerpublishing.com Ariat…

I was recently asked to review some hunting clothing, but knew nothing about what was coming until it arrived on my doorstep. I have to confess that I’d never heard of the brand Stoney Creek, which comes from New Zealand, so had absolutely no preconceptions. The intention in this article is to give my first impressions, and I will come back later with a fuller review to give the gear the test of time. On opening the parcel, I discovered that I’d been sent a full outfit, from a cap to a pair of boots. I was certainly intrigued by what I saw, as I’d not seen the camouflage pattern before, and it definitely looked interesting. Branded as Tuatara, it honours a native Kiwi lizard – considered to be a…

Latest figures published by the Home Office have revealed a drop in the number of firearms and shotgun certificate holders in England and Wales. As of March this year, 539,212 people held a certificate. This is down from 586,351, a fall of 47,139 (or 8%), from March 2020, the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK. Unsurprisingly, police force firearms-licensing departments came in for criticism, not least from BASC. It highlighted that 18 forces were taking over 100 days to turn around applications, with some taking up to a year. BASC criticised them for failing to allocate adequate resources to reduce the backlog that built up due to the pandemic. Martin Parker, BASC’s head of firearms, said: “These delays are impacting our grassroots and the next generation of shooters.…

Conservation raffle The winner of a fundraising raffle for the World Pheasant Association will become the owner of an original painting of black-necked pheasants by the artist Jonathan Pointer. The painting has been valued at £4,800 and the money raised from each ticket (£20) will go towards the black-necked pheasant restoration project in northern Greece. For information, visit pheasant.org.uk Fair shots Women took centre stage when they competed at the R&B Sporting Ladies Novice Clay Shooting Day recently. The event, in conjunction with BASC, took place at the South Worcester Shooting Ground and was aimed at beginners and novice shots. Clare Farquhar, director at R&B Sporting, said: “We want to encourage more ladies to take up the inclusive sport of clay shooting.” R&B Sporting and BASC are hosting another Ladies…

A grouse-shooting estate in Strathbraan, Perthshire, has donated an eaglet to a major population-recovery project. With the help of the estate’s gamekeeper, licensed climbers on ropes descended to a nest on a steep rock face overlooking a grouse moor in June, safely collecting a seven-week-old male eagle chick. The bird has now been transported to a purpose-built aviary in the south of Scotland where, after being fed and prepared for release, it will augment the fragmented eagle population in that part of the country. It is a collaboration between The Scottish Gamekeepers Association, Tayside and Central Scotland Moorland Group and the award-winning, multi-partner South Of Scotland Golden Eagle Project. At one stage, populations around the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway fell to just three breeding pairs before the first eaglets…

Precision sports are struggling. Disciplines have been removed from the Olympic roster. Shooting has disappeared from the Commonwealth Games. The increased cost of clays, cartridges, bullets and pellets have affected us all and Covid has wreaked havoc on game and competitive events alike. Fortunately, the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) and British Shooting have a solution – a way to re-popularise shooting to make it more accessible. Enter Target Sprint. Imagine a miniaturised version of biathlon, but without the snow. Competitors must run 400m, hit five targets at 10m, run another 400m, tackle another set of five targets, then race a final 400m to the finish line. Simple yet varied It sounds simple, and that’s the point, but there’s unlimited scope for innovation and variation. “That’s what’s so attractive about…

New and increasingly sophisticated thermal kit seems to appear on the market with alarming regularity, with every new model that surfaces an upgrade on the previous one. It’s hard to believe but when I started stalking, I remember being told that using a telescopic site was unsporting, though I am convinced they resulted in fewer injured deer and were a vast improvement. Anyway, how times change. I am now getting well into the ‘auld gadgie’ category, and I can sense a smidgen of the same prejudice creeping in towards technological progress. I do have it under control but there are always provisos. New technology does change how things are done or perceived, and that may not always be better for progress. A question that regularly comes up during courses or…

Tundra Jacket When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and that’s why the Tundra Jacket has been armed with an ultra-tough 500D Oxford Nylon exterior to withstand the rugged mountainous terrains and harsh alpine precipitation that you encounter on your big alpine expeditions. But don’t be fooled – this toughness is balanced with exceptional breathability, convenient features and a performance fit that will keep you comfortable and on the go. So you can be confident and focused when chasing big game in the most extreme environments. Price: £349.99; for more information, visit: stoneycreekeurope.co.uk/tundra-jacket.html Suppressor Jacket This jacket is specifically designed to maximise your experience in the outdoors, where adventures may take you across rugged mountain terrain, dense bush or open plains. It’s purpose built for all-round outdoorsmen who…

Lea Valley Shooting Association DISCIPLINES English Sporting. ADDITIONAL FACILITIES Airsoft pistol and rifle range. MOBILITY Lea Valley has a hardstanding car park and several stands are wheelchair accessible. However, wheelchair users are advised to call ahead to discuss their requirements. WHEN IS IT OPEN? Wednesday, 10am-4pm Thursday, 4pm-7pm Saturday, 10am-4pm PRACTICE ROUNDS Plug and play Sporting practice sessions are offered. Clays are 40p, or 30p for members. TUITION One-hour individual lessons are £80, or £70 for members, excluding clays and cartridges. Have-a-go sessions begin at £25 for 10 Shots. MEMBERSHIP Adult membership is available for £9.80 per month. Family, concession and joint memberships are available. Members pay reduced rates on clays and lessons. DESCRIPTION Two miles from Hertford town centre, tucked between rolling hills and mature woodlands sits Lea Valley…

Training Last month I shared the wonderful experience of whelping our Percy and Dott’s litter of cocker pups. The past eight weeks have been both exhausting and exciting, and all the pups have now left to begin new lives with their new owners. To watch the pups develop and grow was a privilege. It has been amazing to see how they transformed from blind and deaf little creatures to fit, healthy pups that fizzed with energy and a typical cocker zest for life. We had a few health issues with Dott, which added to the stress levels early on. She contracted a form of gastroenteritis at a vital time when she should have been cleaning up after the pups and was constantly feeding them. We took her to the vet,…

FRAN ARDLEY GUNDOGS Owner of Tarncrag Gundog Training, with more than 10 years’ experience. NEIL MCINTOSH VETERINARY A keen shooter and a practising vet in Scotland. TONY BRACCI TUITION Bisley Shooting Ground’s deputy shooting manager and master gunfitter. DAVID FROST LEGAL SG’s legal expert and author of Sporting Shooting and the Law. PETER THEOBALD PIGEON Pigeon-shooting expert; author of Woodpigeon: The Ultimate Quarry. ROBERT MORGAN ANTIQUES Arms and armour valuer at Holts Auctioneers. ED COOK RABBITS Professional rabbit catcher working over 30,000 acres. TOM SYKES PEST CONTROL & WILDFOWLING Sporting photographer, wildfowler and pest controller. IAN SWEETMAN GUNSMITHING Owner of I S Sweetman Gun & Rifle Makers and former gunsmith at Purdey. RICHARD ATKINS TECHNICAL Expert on the technical aspects of ballistics and shotgun performance.…

Schöffel tweed culottes If you are looking for something a bit different when it comes to shooting clothing, why not consider culottes? These beautifully crafted lambswool tweed culottes from Schöffel are flattering, comfortable and stylish. The Britishmilled tweed is Teflontreated for moisture and stain repellence, and is practical as well as fashionable. Featuring a high waist with a side zip and a wide leg for freedom of movement. Colour: Skye Tweed. Price £229.95; schoffelcountry.com Musto Women’s Fenland Lite jacket When it comes to lightweight country coats, the Musto Fenland range is hard to beat. The Fenland Lite jacket is fully waterproof, tested to Musto’s BR2 waterproofing standard. Crafted from a two-layer outer with a breathable mesh lining, it can be packed away into its own pocket. With a high neck…