Fieldsports Britain – Paul goes intercontinental calling
We know Paul can call in bucks to his clients in his native Bedfordshire (and we give that a go just to make sure he is on song) – but can he do the same with a duiker ram in South Africa? Paul takes guest Claes Björksten from Sako rifles out after muntjac – then […]
Can you call in antelope?
Paul finds out in South Africa. He is out with Nico Els in the Eastern Cape – plus he is guiding a guest, Claes Björksten from Sako rifles, after muntjac in Bedfordshire – just to show it can be done. It’s all a big surprise for Nico. ▶ For more information about the Sako range […]
Eco hunting clothing from Red Kettle
Forget microfibres and ceramic-based fabric. What could be more environmentally friendly than cotton? Well, that’s all very well – but cotton doesn’t keep you warm and dry. Not true, says the founder of hunting clothing manufacturer Red Kettle, Christian Saugmann, who has worked out a system of using venture cotton for his jackets. ▶ For […]
Grilled Rabbit with garden herbs barbecue recipe
Jason Doyle takes rabbit meat from a recent shoot and gives us his grilled rabbit with garden herbs barbecue recipe. Ingredients 2 Jointed rabbits 1 Chopped onion 4 Cloves of garlic Some fresh thyme A sprig of rosemary Salt & pepper For the marinade A handful of fresh thyme A handful of fresh rosemary 2 […]
Pro gun fit – Smokin’ Targets with Ben Husthwaite
Where do you put your gun stock on your shoulder? Top Shot Ben Husthwaite explains the mysteries of gun fit, how fitting the shotgun to your shoulder properly can help you achieve medal success in clayshooting and raise your game on the pigeons, pheasants and grouse. ▶ Smokin’ Targets is sponsored by Gamebore Gamebore.com ▶ […]
Shooting geese in the Netherlands
We join a Dutch pest controller for a morning’s goose shooting. In a country where they even gas geese outside airports, we are after a range of birds, including Egyptians, Canadas, greylags and barnacles. ▶ For more about Igor’s magazine, go to Waidmannsheil.nl ▶ Find out more about the UK’s general licences chaos at Fcha.nl/generallicences […]
Fieldsports Britain – How the Dutch cope with general licences
As the UK general licences chaos continues, we go to the Netherlands to see how they shoot pest birds there. We join shooters Igor Timmermans and Bastian Maris on a morning after Canada, Egyptian, greylag and barnacle geese. It’s just across the water from the UK but completely different rules. Meanwhile, top shot Ben Husthwaite […]
Knocking over foxes in Co Wexford
Stephen Dunbar and Jason Doyle are up early to look for foxes and check the larsen traps. When the ewes start lambing in Ireland, it’s all hands to trap and gun to keep the vermin away. Stephen uses Viperflex sticks and Hausken moderators, imported into Ireland by John Lambert, tel: (086) 261 6907 For the […]
Rabbit from field to barbecue
Stephen Dunbar and Jason Doyle go to a dairy farm in Co Wexford to shoot rabbits for the table. Stephen shows a quick way to paunch a bunny – by treating it like a piping bag. Stephen uses Viperflex sticks and Hausken moderators, imported into Ireland by John Lambert, tel: (086) 261 6907 For the […]
Foxes, magpies and rabbits – Fieldsports Ireland, episode 10
We’re shooting foxes, trapping magpies and then shooting rabbits in this month’s Fieldsports Ireland. Jason Doyle has put together a Stephen Dunbar double bill, as Stephen tidies up pests around the farm, protecting lambing sheep. Here are the links: ▶ Foxes Stephen uses Viperflex sticks and Hausken moderators, imported into Ireland by John Lambert, tel: […]
RSPCA ‘too middle-class’ to police dogfighting
Five years ago, Julie Wright, a single woman from Slough in Berkshire, had two happy Staffordshire bull terrier crosses, Jack and Homer. Both of them were up to date with their injections, they were chipped and insured. She had been looking after another, Honey aged seven, who had gone back to her owner in 2013, […]
Behind the scenes: Maral Movie, with Alberto Rizzini
Alberto Rizzini made a beautiful film about hunting a Maral stag in Kazakhstan with a Browning Maral rifle. So, what really happened on his trip? He tells the story of the making of ‘Maral Movie: the Ultimate Maral in Kazakhstan’ ▶ Watch the original film: ▶ Join the Fieldsports Nation. Just £/$/€4.99 a month gets […]
General licences: the blame game
Charlie Jacoby sits in on the parliamentary committee charged with finding out what went wrong at Natural England to have caused such chaos with the general licences. He listens to the excuses, and talks to committee chair Neil Parish, plus gets reaction from shooting organisations including the GWCT. ▶ Find out more at Fcha.nl/generallicences ▶ […]
Summer deer management – A Year in the Life of Highland Sport part 2
For around three months of the year, red deer are off the shooting menu. Well, that doesn’t mean that Scottish deerstalker Niall Rowantree can hang up his boots. There is general gamekeeping to do – including dealing with pine martens – there are deer to select for culling, and when a crofter complains that stags […]
Fieldsports Britain – Marauding Stags
Summertime for Scottish deerstalkers is a time to make plans. Which deer must be shot – and which will go on to be the fathers and mothers of future herds. In part two of our series A Year in the Life of Highland Sport, Niall Rowantree from Ardnamurchan is looking at what he has got […]
Birds kill 200 lambs on a single Isle of Wight farm
We visit Cheverton Farm on the Isle of Wight, where ravens, crows and other birds have killed 200 lambs in spring 2019. The farm has a herd of 1,750 sheep. However, this is just the start. Natural England and the Roy Dennis Foundation want to impose 60 sea eagles on the Isle of Wight. Farmers […]
Why push and pull when you can twist? – Smokin’ Targets with Ben Husthwaite
Top clay shot Ben Husthwaite does the hokey-cokey to explain how to shoot clay pigeons better. He says shooters (right-handed) are too keen to use their left hand to push and pull the gun barrels on to the target – and that’s a bad habit. ▶ Smokin’ Targets is sponsored by Gamebore Gamebore.com ▶ For […]
On Test: seven different carbon-stock rifles
Gun reviewer Tim Pilbeam has more than £50,000-worth of rifles to test. He looks at the latest carbon rifles from manufacturers including Blaser, Mauser, Sauer, Sako, Browning, Christensen Arms and Dane & Co – and a Canyon bike. ▶ Blaser R8 Carbon Success ▶ Browning Bolt Pro Carbon ▶ Christensen Arms Ridgeline ▶ Sauer 404 […]
Fieldsports Britain – Tim’s crackers about carbon rifles
New materials are revolutionising rifles. The same carbon technology that’s creating amazing new bicycles, tennis rackets and fishing rods has come to guns. Tim gathers together seven examples, from Browning, Blaser, Sako, Sauer, Mauser and Dane & Co, gives them all the once-over and looks at increasing his carbon footprint. We are also reporting form […]
How to prepare for shooting – Smokin’ Targets with Ben Husthwaite
Top clay shot Ben Husthwaite explains the pre-shot routine: what you need to do to get ready to go shooting. ▶ Smokin’ Targets is sponsored by Gamebore Gamebore.com ▶ For more from Ben, visit Facebook.com/benhusthwaite ▶ Join the Fieldsports Nation. Just £/$/€4.99 a month gets you Fieldsports Channel membership. Click here This item appears on […]
Rifle skills with Browning: shooting beyond 1,000 metres
Want to shoot super-accurately at more than half a mile? Browning brings the new X-Bolt Pro and Winchester XPR to WMS Firearms Training in West Wales, where Andrew Venables shows some of the UK’s top gundealers how to do it. ▶ For more about Browning’s and Winchester’s ranges of new rifles, visit Browning.eu ▶ To […]
Fieldsports Britain – Crunch Week for Pigeonshooting
The UK government may or may not restrict pigeonshooting and other pest control this week. It all depends what we, the shooters, tell them. There are three ways to get your message across to the bureaucrats:Email DEFRA direct: glevidence@defra.gov.ukFill our our survey: Fcha.nl/2019surveyFill out BASC’s survey: Research.net/r/BASC-GLsurveyDespite what the British government is trying to do […]
General licences protestors plan London march
Shooters, farmers and other country people are planning a London March on Saturday 29 June 2019. It starts at 11am at Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park, and heads for Westminster. Here is one of the organisers explaining it: Called The Countryside Rally 2019, its main method of communication to protestors is Facebook. The UK’s countryside is […]
Now Natural England mucks up the new general licences
The first of the new general licences is not fit for purpose, the second ‘appalling’. That’s what shooting organisations are telling Natural England. The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation condemns a new general licence for controlling crows in England as “hurried, botched and completely unfit for purpose.” Meanwhile, BASC chairman Peter Glenser QC says its drafting is […]
First look at the new general licences
Two shooters – the same problem. How do they shoot pest birds legally? Shooter A is a pest controller on a large arable farm in the South of England. He followed the advice on the Natural England website. Last week, Natural England said new general licences were coming out last Monday. They didn’t. An unworkable […]
Not a very ‘Good Morning Britain’ with Chris Packham
As the general licences chaos rumbles on, Packham has been on British television at his manipulating worst. Speaking to Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, he has been manipulating the truth, claming there are no records of pest birds. That’s a lie. The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust has been keeping a pest bird census […]
Fieldsports Britain – General Licences Havoc
Crow’s out after jackdaws just before the government withdraws the general licences. He has a good day – but he explains what the havoc caused by Chris Packham means for farmers. Cai Ap Bryn is cooking pigeon and rabbit, and showing how to do it to a group of people who didn’t realise wild meat […]
Crow hits the jackdaws – just before Packham’s ban – Crowhow
Andy Crow has one more chance to shoot the jackdaws and keep them off his bean crop. The jackdaws are digging up and eating the young beans. The problem today is that the UK government – forced by animal rights activist Chris Packham – is about to ban pest bird shooting. The government agency concerned, […]
The appetite for game meat – Hunt & Cook
You’d be amazed how many people don’t know the first thing about meat they can shoot for themselves. That’s what makes Cai Ap Bryn’s outdoor cookery courses so attractive. We join him on a Game &B Flames course in Sussex woodland and find out how to prepare pigeon and rabbit. ▶ This item is […]
Knife buyer’s guide
Knife maker Phil Siddell explains the three things to look for in a new knife: tang, steel and edge geometry. ▶ Find Phil on Instagram Instagram.com/wellington_blade_works ▶ His new website is WellingtonBladeworks.com ▶ Join the Fieldsports Nation. Just £/$/€4.99 a month gets you Fieldsports Channel membership. Click here This item appears on YouTube in […]
Sea Eagles take lambs: Fieldsports News, 1 May 2019
Here is this week’s news stump: ▶ Sea eagles catch lambs ▶ Packham manipulates the media ▶ Piers Morgan’s anti-hunting crusade ▶ Game meat feeds the homeless ▶ Lurcher man gets prison for deer attacks ▶ Beaver shooting banned in Scotland ▶ Scottish salmon die in algal bloom ▶ Knights Order of St John […]
Piers Morgan blathers at elephant hunter
Celebrity anti-hunting campaigner Piers Morgan is floored on his own chat show, by a hunter who calmly explains to him how the maths of elephant hunting works. Morgan loses his temper with big game hunter Ron Thomson on the ITV show Good Morning Britain, who quietly justifies his reasoning for shooting around 5,000 elephants over […]
Skinning and butchering a deer, start to finish, with John Griffin
Here’s a masterclass on how to skin and butcher a deer. Jason Doyle meets game butcher John Griffin and they talk through the process part by part. ▶ Click here to watch Jason and his buddy Daniel stalking and shooting this deer ▶ Click here to watch Jason’s video about gralloching ▶ John’s YouTube channel […]
Hooded up for hoodie shooting
Hooded crows (grey crows in Ireland) are coming into a farmer’s shed and stealing cattle feed – but they are wily. In the latest of his Wild Wing Shooting series, that’s why Jason Doyle is disguised as a ninja, hiding out and waiting for them. Plus he using the new Benelli 828U Sporter. ▶ Gamebore […]
Deer: from Field to Freezer
Jason is guiding a friend, Daniel, on his first sika deer. Sika deer were introduced to Co Wicklow in 1860 and quickly became the county’s most prolific deer. Daniel is after a yeld hind and, once he has it, we go to butcher John Griffin to find out how to cut it up […]
Gralloching a deer, start to finish, with Jason Doyle
Jason Doyle grallochs a deer: a sika hind his friend Daniel has just shot. ▶ here to watch Jason and his buddy Daniel stalking and shooting this deer ▶ Click here for the skinning and butchery This item appears in Fieldsports Ireland, episode 9 Fcha.nl/fieldsportsireland9 Click here for all of our Fieldsports Ireland shows Join […]
Shooting grey crows – Fieldsports Ireland, episode 9
There’s a farm with a hoodie problem – the grey crows are nicking the cattle feed, so Jason Doyle is out to stop them, and he is using a new Benelli. Also for Fieldsports Ireland episode 9, Jason is guiding a friend, Daniel, on a sika deer stalk. Shooting the animal is fairly simple. Then […]
Nuclear power stations pause pest control
There are unconfirmed reports that England’s nuclear power stations have cancelled pest control while Natural England solves the general licences debacle. Under pressure from animal rights activists, Natural England introduced a ban on pest bird shooting on 25 April 2019. Read the full story here. Pest control is essential for the smooth running of nuclear […]
‘Don’t Sack Packham’ hits 100,000 just before ‘Sack Packham’
A petition on the petitions website Change.org, asking the BBC to sack its star presenter Chris Packham, is on course to hit 100,000 signatures in 72 hours. An opposing petition on the environmental activist network 38 Degrees, asking the BBC not to sack Packham, and started three years ago, is slightly ahead on numbers. It […]
Who will get sacked: Gove, Packham or Marian Spain?
Heads will roll. MPs furious about the general licences debacle want sackings. Most likely to lose their jobs are Marian Spain, acting chief executive Natural England – and Chris Packham, who has had 140,000 signatures calling for the BBC to sack him. The reason is that Natural England gave England’s 400,000 shooters just 48 hours […]
Best of British: the shooting suit
Everything you always wanted to know about shooting suits: the tweed, the cut, the options. Charlie Jacoby meets Justin Block of Justin Block Tailoring to find out what the well-dressed English pheasant shooter is wearing. ▶ Justin’s website is JustinBlockTailoring.co.uk ▶ Join the Fieldsports Nation. Just £/$/€4.99 a month gets you Fieldsports Channel membership. Click […]
Marsupial pest hunt
Wallabies are an agricultural pest on New Zealand. They came from Australia, and now it is up to Kiwis to control them. Scottish deerstalker Niall Rowantree goes after the 3ft ‘rabbits’. This film is supported by: ▶ Magic Safari Lodges MagicSafariLodges.com ▶ Leica Sports Optics Leica-Camera.com/Sport-Optics ▶ Blaser Blaser.de ▶ Spartan JavelinBipod.co.uk ▶ Nomad UK […]
Fieldsports Britain – Wallaby Control
Scottish deerstalker Niall Rowantree is in New Zealand to deal with a local pest problem. Wallabies and possums, imported from Australia and released, are wreaking havoc on the islands. He shows what a problem agricultural pests can be. Plus we find out the latest on the general licences debacle: Natural England has banned the shooting […]
Gamekeepers fight wildlife: Fieldsports Channel News, 24 April 2019
General licences shambles Fcha.nl/generallicences Should gamekeepers be compulsory? ALF kills more pheasants The Times takes on a 27-year-old YouTuber Yorkshire beavers Josh James Kiwi Bushman gets shot at Credit card pistol Russian sells seal sausages Kiwi deerhunter pranks McDonalds Piranhas turn up near Doncaster For a full news round-up, go to FieldsportsChannel.tv/category/fieldsportsnews
The Times can’t crush a shooter called Callum
The Times of London might once have been called the Thunderer and brought down governments – but now it is engaged in a war of words with a 27-year-old YouTuber called Callum. In an article in March 2019 under the headline ‘Shooting group faces losing charitable status’, The Times chief reporter Sean O’Neill demonises the […]
White deer shows itself in Michigan
Magical, mysterious, white deer evoke a reaction wherever they are seen. The classic ‘white hart’ of British myth is an albino red stag or fallow buck. In April 2019, An American captured this photo of an albino deer in Michigan, USA. There are places where leucism in deer happens regularly. In 2009, Dumfries & Galloway […]
Animal Lib Front slaughters more birds
After cutting the wire on a game farm in Wiltshire and driving 5,000 pheasants to roost unprotected on the ground, where they are easy prey for foxes, the Animal Liberation Front has done the same for 9,000 birds in Suffolk. ALF claims it cut the wire at Heath Hatcheries in Suffolk during the Easter […]
Blundering Bradford bureaucrats massacre grouse
Bradford Council’s mismanagement of Ilkley Moor has killed more grouse in a single day than a season of grouse-shooting. That’s the accusation levelled at the council by local shooters and gamekeepers, as wildfire rips across the moor at the height of the bird breeding season. On day one, Easter Saturday, firefighters left two fires burn […]
US politician plans trophy ban
An American politician has introduced a bill to Congress that will see the end of most trophy imports. A democrat congressman from Arizona, Raúl Grijalva, introduced Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large Animal Trophies Act (CECIL Act). Its main aim is to amend the existing Endangered Species Act (ESA) to ban the unpermitted […]
Grousemoors are curlew’s last refuge
Endangered curlews are safest on grousemoors. That’s the claim of one of the world’s top habitat researchers, ahead of World Curlew Day. An international scientist claims the ability of the endangered curlew to cling on in Scotland and beyond could lie in the hands of gamekeepers managing key moorland habitats. Dr Daniel Hoffman, a biogeographer […]
