[Music]
Welcome to Fieldsports Britain.
Coming up:
We're launching a new Browning shotgun,
We have a gentleman shot with a pair of Mirokus,
We're shooting duck coming in below sea level to a line of wildfowlers.
First: the best way to shoot rabbits is if you can see in the dark. Well, Dom Holtam
has the technology...
For starters, we're going to take advantage of the last few hours of daylight on a farm
near Biggin Hill in Kent.
Later, when it gets dark, we'll be off to Andy Crow's farm to try out the Nite Site
that Sporting Shooter editor Dom Holtam has to play with.
The Biggin Hill farm and its shoot are suddenly being over-run with roe.
They need to be knocked back a bit - not eradicated - just to manageable numbers.
They are probably attracted by the super bird feed which is going down here.
It's also attracting Crows.
Nice - it's just a special feed that they feed here.
It's expensive.
Sultanas there - look.
They eat sultanas.
That looks better than my breakfast cereal, Andy
I tell you what, if you were as hungry as I am you could eat this.
It's got banana there - look.
It's got bits of everything in it.
It's all sweet stuff. And it's got, like, molasses in it as well. That's why it's sticking
together.
So that's good. Do the deer eat it?
Deer love it.
I'm telling you it's quite good.
Is the food THAT bad at home, Andy?
Don't put that on camera.
I'm absolutely starving.
In between snacks, we keep our eyes peeled. There are plenty of slots but nothing on view.
With the setting sun silhouetting the racing-snake physiques of our wonderful team, Dom explains
to the lamp-loving Andy why he should have a go with Nite Site's night vision tonight.
Then you watch the TV and that shows you what's being seen through the camera.
So if you've got your cross hairs, you're looking at the crosshairs through the screen.
Yes. So you watch the screen and when the crosshairs are on the target you pull the
trigger.
In theory.
In theory.
In theory.
We'll find out shortly, won't we?
At least I've got something to blame is I miss.
Andy sends Dom to the high seat where we hope the roe will materialise as the light goes.
Hopefully nothing will be coming out on this side of the seat because I can't see anything.
But anything that comes out in front should be OK.
It's not up to the usual standards, this, for a fat bloke.
Feels a bit fragile. Good job you are not up here, David.
Charlie Fox makes himself known, has a pee and makes sure everyone is aware that he's
out and about.
[Fox barks]
He doesn't pee on our parade, but someone else does: a dog walker on a part of the farm
he shouldn't have been.
Jinx strikes again.
Never go stalking with David Wright. Fact.
I don't think the dog walker helped a great deal.
Or the fact that David has got a cough.
I've got a cough.
Even the dog had a cough.
So anyway...
The fox had a cough.
The fox was quite good.
The fox was good.
I should have shot the fox, really, shouldn't I?
Anyway. There we are. Play with the Nite Site and hopefully we will have a bit more success
with that.
Can't be much worse.
After refuelling Andy with some homemade soup chez Crow it's time to test the Nite Site.
Dom talks us through the set-up.
So, we are back at Crowman's farm now with the Nite Site night vision system.
Got sent it. I saw it at the CLA last year.
It's basically a TV monitor. This bit. Night vision camera. And a mounting system that
allows you to put these components on your rifle and day scope set-up.
So, you don't have to change between dedicated night vision, dedicated day scope.
One size fits all.
We're going to get it set up.
It's got a battery pack you can take round with you.
Various adaptors to fit various different sizes of scope.
We're going to get set up now and see how we get on with it.
The quality of the picture produced inside the barn by the powerful NS200 model is promising.
So, the advantages of this over a dedicated night vision system: obviously you don't have
to change your set-up.
It took us two minutes.
Exactly. Once you are familiar with it, you can just bolt it on and you are good to go.
I can drop this off in two minutes and I can be using it in daylight.
And when it becomes dark it takes me two minutes to put it on.
This is... The original system I think had a range of about 50 yards.
This has got a more powerful infra-red lamp and, apparently, it is good for about 200
yards.
So, ideal for rabbit shooting and fox shooting.
I'm not sure whether I would want to try it with a big recoiling .243 or something but
I think for rimfires it would probably do the job. Of course the other problem: you
can't hold it like a normal rifle. So, you need to have a rest of some description, whether
it's a tripod or a quad-pod or, obviously, in your case you have got your buggy, so you
can rest it, and then it's a question of learning to trust whether or not that is going to hit
the point of impact, and I guess there is only one way to find out that.
We're just going to do that.
The image also looks good on first inspection in the darkness. Dom and Andy play with the
brightness settings.
The lowest setting... you see the image is getting brighter. It's basically like having
a more powerful...
...lamp...
...torch put on, yeah.
Exactly.
The UTV sags under the weight of the slimmer looking Dom but manages to make the field.
The Nite Site does take a bit of getting used to.
Even though there aren't many about we christen the new technology.
If you had a barn full of rats...
...Oh yeah, it would be ideal...
...armed with an air rifle or something, you could sit in the pitch darkness.
Especially these gas-operated air rifles. The only time you can hear the shot is when
the pellet hits something.
Yeah.
So they would be ideal for that, for shooting rats. Yeah, they would be brilliant.
Once in the groove, Andy fails to miss and we have a huge bag of four to be proud of.
So what does the natural born lamper think of going black-and-white?
I think if you were sitting up a high seat, shooting rabbits out of a high seat, or if
you got a problem with rabbits, you could sit up along a hedgerow it would be - well
- I think it would be good.
To tell the truth for that it would be great. For riding round on the buggy... and it's
the finding of them, like Dom was saying earlier, it's the finding of them. You need the lamp
to find them. So, with me, I shoot with the lamp anyway. So for me it would be quicker
to find them with the lamp, shoot them with the lamp.
But we are just playing around tonight, just experimenting, but I think sitting in a high
seat or sitting up along a hedgerow shooting rabbits, I think it would be good.
Dom also sees where this bit of kit is going to make the difference especially at the price.
First time out, Andy has done the business, put a few rabbits in the bag.
I think the important thing to stress with all night vision is that you can't just pick
it up and use it straight away.
You need to learn them. You need to work out how to get the best from them. And I think
that's definitely the case with this, especially the fact that you are not looking through
the scope in a traditional fashion.
Certainly got a lot of potential and a lot of potential uses.
About GBP600, it is not much more than half the money of something like the Pulsar which
is probably the best-selling of the modern night vision rifle scopes. The think I like
about it it is that it means you don't have to give over a rifle specifically for night
vision. You can use it as your normal shooting gear and then, if you do need night vision,
this bolts on in a matter of a few moments.
I would like to experiment with it a bit more.
I think it's got good potential for rat shooting, air rifle shooting. Definitely would like
to experiment a bit more with the rabbiting and maybe a bit of fox shooting.
So, yeah, pretty pleased with how it has gone for the first night and looking forward to
having another go with it.
So a versatile tool for anyone wanting to stay on top of their rat, rabbit, or fox problem.
For more information about the Nite Site system, visit www.nitesite.co.uk
Now, someone else with something of the night about him. It's David on the Fieldsports Channel
news stump.
[Music]
This is Fieldsports Britain news.
DEFRA minister Jim Paice has stepped in to stop the hooded crow being removed from the
bird pest species list.
His quick action followed lobbying by shooting organisations.
The Countryside Alliance has hit out at the Government's proposal to build a high-speed
railway line between London and Birmingham and then on to the North-West.
It says HS2 will have a 'devastating impact' on Britain’s countryside as it slashes through
the Chiltern Hills.
Record salmon and grouse seasons have pumped more than £50 million into the Scottish economy
from sporting lets alone in 2011.
Grouse shooting accounted for £30 million of that figure, according to sporting agent
CKD Galbraith. It was a record season for the wild game bird, especially in the Angus
Glens and the Lammermuirs.
And finally, awards for silliness in the national media, called the DAFTAs, have been announced
by the website Newslite.
One runner-up in the animal section is the cross-eyed opossum Heidi from Leipzig Zoo
who became famous last year and then died. Another is this well-endowed squirrel which
shocked viewers when it appeared as part of covering footage in BBC Two's The Great British
Bake-Off. But the winner - well-deserved in our opinion - is, of course, Fenton the dog
from Richmond Park in London.
You're now up to date with Fieldsports Britain news.
Stalking the stories.
Fishing for facts.
[Music]
Thank you, David. That boy takes himself too seriously.
Now, when John Prescott parachuted a new village on to he edge of farmland in Somerset, he
probably didn't think about the local shoot. Well, this is how the shoot coped.
Shoots get carved up by property development. Several shoots will be entirely destroyed
by the plans for a high-speed rail link from London to Birmingham. But some shoots take
what central Government flings at them and they learn to work with it.
When Milton Keynes was built, crime rates soars in the first five or six years. Until
the village gets together, gets a community spirit, has people who stand up, put their
heads above the parapet. And this has been repeated here.
At one stage, the crime rate in Cotford St Luke was the highest in the West of England.
And we saw these boys. They came out twice to watch us shoot down there, so I went down
one day to them and I said, "Why don't you come and join us?"
And they have been with us ever since.
The Heathfield shoot is a lovely family shoot in the heart of the Vale of Taunton.
I'm a great believer that on a day's shooting everyone should be having fun. If it's a commercial
shoot from the person who is buying the day down to the most junior stop: the man, you
know, tapping on a hedge somewhere, and he never gets seen. They all must be enjoying
it for a day to go ahead. And I think it would be wrong and possibly unsustainable that if
one section of the shooting party is not enjoying it then really it shouldn't be happening.
We've had good success in the last few years in bringing on I think now, well, certainly
two young chaps who were totally new to the countryside.
One of them now has a fulltime job on a commercial shoot on the Dorset/Wiltshire borders and
the other one has just gone to Harper-Adams agricultural college.
Today we are shooting eight guns, not hitting much, happy when we do, having a lovely, lovely
time.
Pheasants, partridge, pigeon, woodcock and even a teal are counted in the bag.
John Prescott is far from our minds.
And there are plenty of dashes of eccentricity to remind you that this is England, and we
must not be ashamed of enjoying ourselves. Yes - the shoot lunch table centrepiece is
indeed a Bren gun.
Richard runs the beating line but he is also a keen shot.
A pair of Boss twenty-bore over-and-unders would cost you new about GBP140,000 at the
moment? GBP150,000?
I would have thought probably, yes.
How much did these cost you?
Well, I reckon the guns cost me, I think, GBP1,800-GBP2,000 each.
And then they probably had GBP600-GBP800 spent on the woodwork and the pistol grips.
So you are a farmer with a bargain? You must be very happy.
Well, yes. I think I am. They are lovely guns. All guns shoot straight. It's the person behind
it which doesn't.
So, no, they are great.
Richard and his father run a charming West Country shoot - but if they hadn't learnt
to cope with the new development which sprang up on the edge of their land, it could have
been a different story.
The shooting trade show season is about to start and there is a major new shotgun launch
this week in Britain. It's the Browning 725.
Andy Norris of Browning is one of the great characters of the British gun trade. But can
he actually shoot?
We're at the awfully smart Royal Berkshire Shooting School's incredible grouse layout
to find out in front of an audience of sneering gunshop-owners.
Well, today Andy has a secret weapon: the new Browning B725 shotgun.
This is no time to mess it up, Andy!
[Music]
Well done, Andy.
Fantastic.
725 forever.
Fantastic.
Well shot mate, that was brilliant.
Gunshop owners are not easy to please. But they are giving the B725 the thumbs up.
I've been very impressed with it so far. It's much better than the pictures. And I am impressed
with the handling, the trigger pulls. I think it's going to sell. I think it's a very good
gun. I'm very pleased with it.
Andy, you are from Browning. You are supposed to be impressed with it.
Well, I am impressed with it. That's my honest opinion. However, when someone like Chris,
after 30 years in the industry, can give an opinion like that, then it really does tell
us we are on to a winner.
Something we already knew, but it just confirms it.
Borrowed a gun from a clay ground? Chances are it was a Browning B425.
Been to a posh shooting school like this one? It was probably a 525.
Now Browning has skipped two centuries and brought out the 725. So, what's it all about?
Charlie, this is the new generation of what we call the B series from the legendary B25
range. It is called the 725 and pretty much every part of the gun is changed and has been
redesigned.
And we're previewing the new B725 game gun and the 725 Sporter. We call it the S1 for
Sporter 1 in a Grade One format, and the Hunter 1, the game gun.
For the first time ever we have made a deliberate differentiation between game and sporter.
The characteristics and specification for both are completely different.
Is that the way the world is going? I mean, on a Sunday... your arms are going to fall
off.
Yes
Put them down.
[Laughs]
Is the world splitting between your kind of Sunday clay shooter and your Saturday game
shooter?
I think these days people are looking to specialise. You know - a lot of people specialist game
shooters. A lot of people like their clays and target work. For the first time, we've
actually made quite a bit of difference with the two versions: a very specialised target
gun and a very specialised game gun.
Principal differences between the Sporter version and the Hunter version?
The game gun is a more slender-looking stock.
No palm swell on that one.
Slightly lower in the comb.
And the trigger pull on the Sporter is actually set at 3lb from the factory. The game gun
is about 3lb 8oz. So, it's slightly heavier on the game gun, that is quite deliberate,
but with the mechanical trigger now, the beauty of it is obviously the reliability but also
the new design. The Browning guys at FN have worked for years to develop this. It's a very
crisp action, a very light trigger pull. People who have shot it already have commented on
it's a big improvement over 525.
And Browning of course is big on its surfboard graphics. Your engraving is very modern.
Yes, well, I'm glad you noticed that Charlie. We have deliberately aimed this 725 at the
younger shooter, with a nice plain design using the orange colour. I think it's appealing
to the younger generation, a design-led audience that we are now targeting. They are the future
of our sport. They're the guys we are trying to attract with our new designs.
The Hunter, again, it's a very modern interpretation of a game scene. It's still a game scene on
there: partridges and pheasants but again it's a modern interpretation of a traditional
game scene.
Everyone wants the B725 to do well. Double trap champion Stevan Walton is a Browning-sponsored
shooter.
It's trying to keep the tradition of the Browning while obviously bringing the new-age look
to it and the new technology of the chokes and recoil pads and everything else really
to the new age, for traditional shooters and the up-and-coming new youth of today.
The press is here, too. This is well-known shooting writer Vic Harker.
New departure for Browning going for a low-profile action, though it's not that low.
I think the market will be very interested. They're interested in anything that comes
from Browning and I don't think this will be any exception.
For the real answer, however, let's ask a shooting instructor. Nigel Muir works for
the Royal Berkshire Shooting School
It's the one-size-fits-all dimensions on these modern guns so, for most normal people, when
they come for a shooting lesson, this will be perfect.
Yeah, you can just pick that up straight out of the box and, without too much adjustment,
actually shoot it quite nicely. Very nice.
Next, out wildfowling with the Bridgwater Bay Wildfowlers in Somerset, it's Team Wild
TV.
[Music]
We're in the South-West of England, several feet under sea level on fields that are no
more than a thin skin of peat that floats on the marsh. Jump up and down in one corner
of a field here and a wildfowler in another feels it.
This can only be described as a somewhat humbling experience for me. Although it's great fun.
There are a lot of birds coming in. They are coming in thick and fast out of the gloom,
really low and they are breaking early. There's this huge wind coming from behind us so I
am having to double, triple, quadruple the lead on some of these birds just to get close
to them. When you do connect with a bird it's like the first bird, the best bird you have
ever shot.
But at the moment, if you look at the cartridges strewn around the floor, I am not as successful
as I had hoped to be. But there is still plenty of time.
There's still plenty of time in the day as you can see. They are on you before you can
even see them, so I can see why guys spend all of their winter days, every day after
Christmas out here on these marshes. But, it's exciting fun. And these boys sure are
dedicated.
When I packed to come here, I expected to need waders and a handful of cartridges. We
start the day in wellies and with our backs to an RSPB reserve.
Under the watchful eyes of the early-bird birdwatchers, we enjoy some of the best duckshooting
I have come across.
Pack after pack of teal, widgeon, mallard, and one spectacular pintail come spinning
in across the Somerset Moors, pushed by gale-to-storm-force wind.
The morning is a real test for my kit.
When it comes to wildfowling, it is absolutely essential you stay warm, dry and comfortable
throughout the day. Now, this is January so it is pretty cold. It is not as cold as it
has been in previous years - in fact the whole year has been reasonably mild - but still,
when you are out there at 5.30 in the morning and it is raining sideways, you want to be
warm and dry.
Now, I have started wearing for wildfowling at this time of year my Rivers West Eider
jacket and original bib. This is Rivers West's heaviest weight H2P fabric. It's completely
waterproof and it's very comfortable. In addition to that, it's in Realtree Max 4 which is the
world's finest waterfowling pattern, and it is also the same jacket I use for pigeon shooting.
So the star performer today is this Armsan A612 semi-automatic shotgun.
Now, I only received this last week from Viking Arms who have brought them into the UK. This
is a Turkish-built shotgun. And I have been incredibly impressed with it, as soon as I
opened the box. The build quality is outstanding, the finish is superb and, given the fact it
is a budget shotgun, it is only GBP550 it retails for, it is also packed full of really
cool features.
26 inch barrel, multi chokes, 3 inch magnum chambered and, as you can see, fantastic chequering,
it's an incredible all-round shotgun and I am looking forward to taking it on my next
pigeon shooting outing, too.
The kit helped me help myself to the duck. However, while the duck poured in, the snipe
were hard to find. And, once found, they were even harder to get a shot at.
Added to that, bridges were down.
We've come to have a look at these drainage ditches here but unfortunately the culvert
- the bridge - has been taken out.
There is some fairly deep water there. Although I think I am athletic enough to leap over,
I don't think my hosts are, so we are going to head on and find somewhere else that is
a little bit more easy going.
Stuart is a larger-than-life character: warm, friendly and absolutely passionate about wildfowling.
I first met him at the Midland Game Fair.
Like all wildfowling club chairmen, he has to deal with knotty issues.
His knottiest is nuclear.
Clearly you're a passionate wilfowler, but you also put an awful lot of effort into the
club. Just how much effort goes into bringing this kind of shooting together and what happens
behind the scenes? Because I don't think people really appreciate what it takes to make all
this happen.
No, the hours that I spend, and if you speak to the wife she will no doubt elaborate on
that in more depth. But just lately it seems like this is the only piece of real estate
in the whole country. I've explained to you that we have got the big new first-generation
PWR to be built.
Just round the corner by our land there are two lots of 'managed retreats' which, if they
come into existence, and it looks like they will be, they will be the biggest managed
retreats in the country, and I am sorry about how you feel but we want to put some windmills
up? Stop the shooting. We want a solar farm? Stop the shooting. We want a managed retreat
with European money that we pay? Stop the shooting. So, we have got to be there pushing
and holding the rights, the traditional rights and the traditional pursuits of people that
wildfowl.
The real excitement is reserved for the last call of the day. We walk up the drainage ditches,
known locally as 'rhynes' looking for springing teal.
Most people know about springing teal from clay pigeon shooting. But this teal is the
real deal.
That to me is some of the exciting sport.
And I have used the term ditches. We use the term rhynes here. It's a common name for them.
And you saw that we walked right up to the ditch, thought - just about to drop our guns
- thought there is nothing there. And you get twenty teal come up and you snap shoot
and, well, you had a right and left.
It was extremely exciting, yeah.
It is so much fun and excitement but it is not a sure thing. And you can tell from the
shooting.
Bridgwater Bay wildfowlers are welcoming, ordinary blokes who love their sport.
This is not just a weekend jaunt.
To these people, it's a way of life.
[Music]
Well, we're back next week when we're going Stateside to Las Vegas to the Shot Show, the
biggest hunting, shooting, fishing show in the world. Everything is bigger but is it
better?
Now, if you are watching this on YouTube please click the Subscribe button which is somewhere
there off the edge of the screen, or go to our website, FieldsportsChannel.tv, click
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This has been Fieldsports Britain.
Yee-haa.
[Music]
