Fieldsports Britain - Shooting badgers and wheelchair guns
Uploaded by fieldsportschannel on 10.10.2012
Transcript:
[Music]
Welcome to Fieldsports Britain. Coming up Roy Lupton is out of hospital and the first
thing he wants to do is go shooting. We have a dazzling array of guns for you with the
Oxford Gun Company. First, badgers, let's put control back in the hands of the countryside.
We have been sent a disc and a statement. It was postmarked Essex, well outside the
current cull area. It doesn't mention cattle. It doesn't mention bovine TB. It talks instead
about the damage that badgers do to wildlife on the ground from hedgehogs, to harvest mice
and ground nesting birds from oystercatchers to English partridge.
It also suggests that shooting badgers.
Badger shooting is still illegal except under licence or if you are destroying a sick or
injured animal. However, this film shows the strength of feeling in the countryside about
badgers which, protected by law, are wiping our countryside clean at night.The over-population
means the animals are turning up in surprising places.
This is a badger sett near my home in the south west of England. It is on a road. It
is lucky that this government calls it a badger problem, some governments would call this
a housing problem.
Whatever you think of people shooting badgers willy-nilly, the debate is currently bogged
down between farmers and badgerhuggers.
The farmers have a lot more to lose. Stars such as Brian May might say he deplores it,
but some of his animal rights activist gang have threatened to burn down barns and superglue
supermarket cashpoint machines in protest against the cull. They have already spraypainted
an office of the National Farmers' Union's insurance arm, NFU Mutual, in Gloucestershire.
They have threatened farmers and their families in the cull areas and say they will wait out
at night on roads and around setts armed with walkie talkies in order to sabotage the cull.
Filmmaker Chris Chapman who has spent years recording the effect on farmers of government
mishandling of first BSE, then Foot & Mouth and now Bovine TB has strong views about where
responsibility for looking after badgers should lie.
I mean Brian May. I have written to Brian, I have written to him in the past. He is a
very intelligent man, but he is missing the point. It has become too emotive and emotion
tends to override common sense. Common sense tells us there is a big problem in the countryside.
It isn't like foot and mouth because the public can't see it. This is a hidden disease. They
understood foot and mouth of 2001, because when they sat down at night and watched the
television they could see all these cattle on burning pyres. So that was brought into
their living room night after night. This is a hidden disease. How do you show the public
this disease. Very, very difficult, but it is there. You can't deny that it is there.
For more about Chris's work, go to BovineTB.info, scroll right down to the bottom and click
on a link called Bovine TB - A Way Forward. If you are watching this on YouTube, there
is a link to Chris's latest film.
Chris lives on Dartmoor in Devon. Despite Fieldsports Channel's good links with the
farming community across the South-West, we could not find a single farmer in the cull
area in Somerset prepared to go on camera. All of them tell me they do not want to become
a target. Despite what Mr May would like you to believe, our furry friends do not die in
their bed surrounded by their grand children. Here is badger specialist, Richard Gard speaking
to Chris Chapman in one of his in one of his films about bovine TB.
You can see the extended claws. This animal has had a very difficult end to its life.
It has been unable to dig properly, to forage for its food. This is fairly typical of the
situation we see. The sett had been impregnated by rats, they have been feeding on the carcass.
On the other side of this carcass is quite badly eaten and it is possible that this one
was dragged out by a fox. It has been nibbled all over the place. This situation with the
unhealthy badgers is really important to be aware of. They don't have a simple existence
from life right through to death.
Farmers, shooters, country people - we're all after a healthy population of badgers
- but you don't get that without management. Celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson-Wright wants
healthy badgers because she likes eating them.
When I was young, badger was still very much eaten in country districts, quite legally
- it would solve the badger crisis wouldn't it - because pubs in the west country used
to have a badger ham on the bar.
Like a ham on a ...... very good it was too.
Was it fatty, in the same way?
It had that rich depth of flavour about it. If you think what a badger eats it is very
much on a par with a pig.
So, what number of badgers to have? As shooters know, wildlife management is not an exact
science. In the fieldsports community, we know there are a lot of foxes but we can't
say how many, we know there are not enough hedgehogs, and we are sure there are too many
badgers.
Scientists discovered the link between badgers and bovine TB in the 1970s. The explosion
in the badger population since then has meant an explosion in bovine TB. These maps show
how fast it has spread.
This disc we were sent, Clarissa on cooking, and the destruction of the British cattle
herd - it's all about the same thing. It is about putting the management of wildlife in
the countryside back into the hands of country people, and taking it away from the urban
whingers, who don't understand it.
Now from a hot news topic to David with the Fieldsports Channel News Stump.
[Music]
This is Fieldsports Britain News.
British shooters face a double whammy from antis over lead shot. The Wildfowl & Wetlands
Trust says that 10% of birds die from eating lead shot, which is now banned for wildfowling
in England and Wales, and banned over wetlands in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Meanwhile,
the Food Standards Agency has advised pregnant women and children to cut down on game meat
because of the risk of eating lead shot. The European Food Safety Authority says the greatest
source of lead in food is from cereals and potatoes and BASC points out that, pound-for-pound,
there is more lead in chocolate than game.
American states are gearing up for the pheasant shooting season - and it's all paid for by
the government. In one state alone, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division
of Wildlife has released 15,000 pheasants at 28 public hunting areas. It's youth-only
shoots for the last two weekends of October with the stateside seasons starting in November.
The RSPB has awarded its top prize for farming to the owner of a well-known shoot The 2012
RSPB Nature of Farming award goes to Henry Edmunds from the Cholderton Estate in Wiltshire,
a well-known partridge shoot, with three other shoots making the final selection.
The number of wild salmon caught and then released in Scotland last year is the sixth
highest on record, according to the Scottish government. Recorded since 1952, the figures
show 87,915 salmon were caught by rod in 2011. Sea trout catches have declined since the
1950s, but the government says the 23,324 caught last year is 4% higher than the previous
five-year average. Numbers of salmon and trout caught in net fisheries continue to fall.
Mark Gilchrist is an ‘appy' man. Our report on his new hunting app, which records where
you shot your rabbit, fox or deer, has led to hundreds of you paying £2.99 and downloading
it to your phones, for which he says thanks very much. There is even talk of organisations
here and as far away as Australia using an adapted version of the app. If you want to
find out more, click here to watch the film. Mark is asking people with iphones to be patient.
That version should be available very soon.
And finally, a man got the wrong side of a rutting red stag in a park in London. Luckily
he was on the right side of the tree. After several minutes of here-we-go-round-the-mulberry-bush,
the film posted on YouTube shows our hapless townie escaping upwards.
You are now up to date with Fieldsports Britain News. Stalking the stories. Fishing for facts.
Now with the map that matters it is calendar.
[Music]
Welcome to Calendar for those important dates for the diary and those seasonal reminders.
Moon is waning crescent, with nights getting darker and heading for a new moon on Monday
15th October, so a bit of wild weather over the weekend could make for exciting wildfowling.
The best of the wildfowling and gooseshooting is still in the North East of England and
along the East Coast of Scotland as birds start coming in from their summering grounds
in what is already becoming the frozen north.
Game shooting is underway all over the UK with released birds reportedly on average
smaller than usual because of the rain earlier in the year. The lack of moon should be good
news for foxshooters.
On the deerstalking front, we are between the best of the fallow rut and the best of
the red rut, though lots of wildlife activity has been later than usual this year all over
the UK.
There are still plenty of country events to enjoy, including the Tackle & Gun trade show
this weekend at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire.
Are you going to be in the Essex area on 25th October 2012? That's next Thursday week. Independent
Shooting Supplies in Mountnessing is holding an open evening, starting at 5pm. The first
10 people through the door get 20% off clothing, footwear and accessories. The next 10 people
get 10% off. And there is a charity raffle - all proceeds going to Essex Air Ambulance
- where the star prize is a day's pigeonshooting with our own legendary Andy Crow. Other prizes
include cartridges and a shooting lesson with former England team member Tracy Ridington.
The evening goes on until 9pm and includes wine and cheese. So don't forget. Independent
Shooting Supplies - Mountnessing - Essex - 25th October. For more information call Andrew
Stephens on 01277 356181 or email admin@independent-tool.co.uk.
Also if you are in or near Wiltshire on Friday 12th October, there is a charity clay pigeon
shoot at Winkworth Farm, Lea, near Malmesbury, with six stands of team flushes and on Saturday
13th October, the Schools Challenge Winter series is offering 50 sporting at the Oxford
Gun Company. You will see more from the Oxford Gun Company later in the programme.
That was this week's Calendar. And if you have an event that needs a plug on next week's
programme, talk to james james@fieldsportschannel.tv.
[Music]
Thank you David. Like Fiona Bruce, but no, come to think of it not really. Now Roy Lupton
has recently come round from an operation and he wants to go shooting.
The road to recovery can be a long boring trip - so just a week after hip replacement
surgery Roy has plans to get out and about as quickly as possible, especially as it's
one of his favourite times of year - the fallow rut...but first he needs to learn how to walk
before he can run, probably not the best turn of phrase! We start with pimping his ride
and testing his shooting position.
As long as my surgeon, my physiotherapists and all the nurses on the ward don't find
out we should be ok. Obviously it looks a little bit ludicrous what we have done here
and just set up, but it does have a serious side I promise you that. What I wanted to
do was just practise shooting from the wheelchair so we have made a bit of a Heath Robinson
attempt at making a bit of a rest so we have cable tied a few sturdy sticks and used my
rest which usually goes on the side of the truck. So we are going to have a bit of a
play and see if I can shoot straight with it. Hopefully the morphine hasn't taken too
much of a toll on my shooting skills and we will see how we do.
So his accuracy is OK - but he's got to move up to a .243, plus get close enough,while
rumbling through a wood in a wheel chair to get a chance of a clear shot.
Roy's also got to find someone who is willing to take him stalking. His consultant has told
him no bumping around ..of any kind.... for 6 weeks..so we'll just have to let him stew
until he gets the all clear..
Right... two weeks have passed and Roy has been given permission to drive - He can get
to his shooting ground but he can't load bear - This means crutches to get through the really
rough stuff and a wheel chair in the wood...
I have finally managed to get out and I have got the cure for cabin fever so I am heading
out to just one of my little spots where there is normally a bit of deer activity on. Unfortunately
with this one it is all the apples in one basket because we are just going to go to
one stand and sit there and wait and hope. There is definitely no chance of stalking
through the woods tonight, but it is a damn sight better than sitting in and watching
the television and going stir crazy at home
Roy's chair does make a bit of a rumble in the jungle but he gets himself into a position
where a group of does are 100 or so yards ahead of up through the wood. He is not using
the sticks gaffer-taped to the chair and instead chooses to use his faithful shooting sticks
which drop to a comfortable level. With them firmly planted he doesn't think he'll being
blown backwards off his chair.
Where we are at the moment, we were just coming in on an old rutting stand and we were going
along really slowly and all of a sudden we have come into a big group of deer. There
is now a deer which has moved in on our right. There is a buck, there is 2 bucks having a
bit of a spar and one buck rubbing here and a big group of does there. But we are literally
pinned to the spot at the moment. I daren't move, just see what pans out. The only trouble
is we are going to be running out of light in about 20 minutes so we just hope something
walks by.
What we hope will walk by is a pricket - however we get something or someone else instead - a
dog walker passes between us and the group of deer. ..Roy is really disappointed..and
frustrated that people don't stick to the footpaths.
Again there is no footpath here at all. Yet again we have got another dog walker who is
now walking down towards us.
Roy doesn't shout out as there is a slim chance there's a buck to the left of us - we leave
the wood and Roy perches on the crutches to do some calling - it's last chance saloon.
We are on a part of the estate where there shouldn't be anybody at all. There are no
footpaths, no public access what so ever. I am on one of the main rutting stands on
the far part of the estate and all of a sudden you get a guy walking past with his bright
blue top on and his dog. With this fading light you really have to be careful. So again
you have to rely on your optics and in this half hour of last light it really does pay
to have good optics and see what is going on.
Roy hasn't made all this effort not to give it his best shot and he heads over to the
other side of this patch of ground to see if we can catch up with a fox we filmed a
few weeks ago - This time Roy sets himself up on the bonnet -
The calling works a treat - the Taclight torch picks up some eyes but he runs but stops for
a second glance - Roy takes his chance..
Oh that was so nice. We had a very quick response from that fox coming in there. That was absolutely
superb. Definitely a cure for cabin fever. Two or two and half weeks locked in doors
and a lot of bed rest and a lot of sitting there. It has got its bonuses, a lot of people
have been round and bringing me around grapes and making me cups of tea and whatever else.
Dom you have been noted in your absence. It is absolutely superb to come out and above
all else really it is nice to know that everybody out there cares and wants you to get back
to it. Right shall we go and pick that fox up.
Although we can't be a hundred percent certain, there's a really good chance this is the one
that got away.
Now I think this is actually the fox that we had come up to us on camera when David
and I had a bit of a breakdown in communication and what I wanted to do was see if we could
catch up with him, because I knew pretty much where he would be and the field we are in
now is just overlooking the wood where we called him in before. So what I wanted to
do this time was start off with a different call, as he already knew the call I was using
previously. So just kicked off with another call, a slightly lighter call. So it is not
quite as harsh. And all of a sudden it came bolting out from the brambles. It looks like
it could be, it is very, very difficult to say obviously. It is definitely the same territory.
It could be the lad who got away.
The healing process can be a long and difficult one - and the medical world often find that
animal contact can speed things along. This fox ain't no dolphin but it certainly got
Roy's mojo firing on all cylinders once again.
From rifles to shot guns and we are at the Oxford Gun Company, where we have a large
collection for you to admire.
It's all happening here at the Oxford Gun Company today. They are having an open day
to start the game season. Representatives from AYA, Rizzini, Browning, Beretta and Miroku
are showing off their products. And that's not all. There are the Winter Schools Challenge
and the Game Compact Sporting competitions, too.
The Oxford Gun Company is at the forefront of promoting shooting to all. So, what a good
place for companies such as Browning and AYA to come and show off the cream of their merchandise.
They are hoping it's going to be bang-bang-ker-ching! The family firm has set up a day that allows
customers to try the guns before they buy. Plus they'll get a little free tuition when
they try them.
Vaughn and son Charlie are trying out the Beretta A400. They are torn between Browning
and Beretta. After much deliberation and negotiation the Beretta is the one they go for.
Yes, we just bought a Beretta A400 Semiautomatic. My son Charlie, he is 13. He has been shooting
with a 12 bore over and under for the last 6 months. After about 50 or 60 shots it starts
to make his shoulder quite sore, but with a gas operated semi-automatic there is no
recoil very much. A bit more lenient on the shoulder. So we have come along and had a
look at a couple of guns and chosen the Beretta A400.
Edward King is here today representing ASI, which is the company that brings the AYA marque
from Spain to an adoring public in the UK. Currently it is not selling through the Oxford
Gun Company.
The main strength of both Rizzini and AYA is that they are both able to attend to small
details which make a gun specific and tailored to the individual's requirements. So unlike
mass produced off the shelf guns these can be really guns that suit you down to a T.
Ask anyone - most people own either a Beretta or a Browning. Vaughn and Charlie might like
their new Beretta but most people who walk out of the Oxford Gun Company with a shiny
new gun walk out with a Browning.
We have had a mixed bag of people today, predominantly game shooters. So we have been showing them
a range of game guns and the most interest I think today has been with our heritage gun
which is our top of the range production gun in 12 gauge and 20 gauge and that has had
a lot of attention.
While the gun reps are sweetening the customers back at the shop, out in the field we have
two competitions under way: the Winter Schools Challenge, run by David Florent plus the new
Game Compact Sporting.
Got a new thing. One of our instructors, Robert he actually came up with the idea, that as
it is the game season, doing a game contact little competition type thing. Which is all
gamey type targets for game shooters to come out and practise. Because game shooters put
their gun away at the end of the season and they don't touch it for a year. They need
to go out get some shells down the gun, get shooting so that when you are out on the field
you have actually got a bit of experience how to shoot a pheasant or a partridge.
Will Ford, James Lewis and Sam Clark, keen shooting enthusiasts are taking part in the
Schools Challenge, while James and Will hope to have some luck in the Game Compact Sporting
as well.
While David has been trying to promote shooting to the younger generation, the Oxford Gun
Company still introduces shooting to all ages.
I had a friend who is a member here of the club who brought me down for having a go.
Then I got introduced to the instructors and they took me on another day's course and I
have been loving it.
It's been another day out for Home Counties shooters, keen to have sparkly news guns for
this game season.
Now from Oxfordshire to the rest of the world. It is Hunting YouTube.
This is Hunting YouTube, which aims to show the best hunting, shooting and fishing videos
that YouTube has to offer.
An old favourite for starters. HuntersVermin has produced Air Rifle Hunting, Rabbit Hunt
33, where he is out again, this time with his new Napier Game Bag. He's good with kit
is HuntersVermin - and with a quarter of a million views a month, I hope the gun trade
is helping him out.
Staying in the UK vermin department, KernowVerminControl has put up Tail-less squirrel. As he says:
"I did feel a bit sorry for it but at the end of the day it is a squirrel, it does the
same damage as any other squirrel that has a tail would do, so he gets the same treatment"
wise words.
Let's go to the USA for 2012 Long Bow Hunt Deer Kill #2 by LeatherwoodOutdoors. Brits
don't know much about nowhunting as we're not allowed to do it but this film gives an
insight.
Now the nations get muddled. OnlineFishingTV is a UK angling channel but its latest film
is New Zealand Style Rig, which is an unusual way of tying on a dropper fly and has the
serious flyfisher saying ‘Well that will never work'.
More on fish and How To Fillet A Mackerel And Cook It In Real Time by TheScottReaProject
shows how to go from whole fresh fish to plate in just six minutes, all while you listen
to that lovely Stranglers track - Waltz In Black - ah brings back memories.
Now let's hop over the English Channel to France where VideosChassePeche is after wail
boar in Chasse sanglier - Camsports Coach. As well as the hunting he is trying to flog
a some lunettes caméra HD which I could have translated for you if I hadn't been sitting
in French thinking about the Stranglers.
Now, creatures' corner. It was while researching badgers this week that I came across Badger
Bin Fight by SlugVod who seems to be planning a regular series called Whitey's Wonderful
World of Wildlife but used up all his luck in just one film.
Meanwhile, viral animal vid of the week goes to the lucky tourist who filmed LeopardKill,
which combines big cat gymnastics with a healthy love of impala steak. It is being watched
at a rate of about a million views a day.
You can click on any of these films to watch them. If you have a YouTube film you would
like us to pop in to the weekly top eight, send it in via YouTube, or email me the link
charlie@fieldsportschannel.tv
Well if you like shooting, you will love the Shooting Show.
Sporting Rifle magazine's Mark Nicholson is out with lamp and rifle after foxes. The Shooting
Show also catches up with Richard Cooke, acting chair of the Lowland Deer Network Scotland,
and news this week covers anti scaremongering on lead, the latest BASC trophy heads and
shooting on nature reserves.
Well this has been Fieldsports Britain. If you are watching this on YouTube please don't
hesitate to hit the subscribe button which is somewhere on the bar above me. Or go to
our shows page www.youtube.com/show/fieldsportsbritain , should be coming up just there. Or go to
our website www.fieldsportschannel.tv click to like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter,
or scroll somewhere on the bottom right is our constant contact form. Put your email
address in there and we will constantly contact you. This has been Fieldsports Britain.
Welcome to Fieldsports Britain. Coming up Roy Lupton is out of hospital and the first
thing he wants to do is go shooting. We have a dazzling array of guns for you with the
Oxford Gun Company. First, badgers, let's put control back in the hands of the countryside.
We have been sent a disc and a statement. It was postmarked Essex, well outside the
current cull area. It doesn't mention cattle. It doesn't mention bovine TB. It talks instead
about the damage that badgers do to wildlife on the ground from hedgehogs, to harvest mice
and ground nesting birds from oystercatchers to English partridge.
It also suggests that shooting badgers.
Badger shooting is still illegal except under licence or if you are destroying a sick or
injured animal. However, this film shows the strength of feeling in the countryside about
badgers which, protected by law, are wiping our countryside clean at night.The over-population
means the animals are turning up in surprising places.
This is a badger sett near my home in the south west of England. It is on a road. It
is lucky that this government calls it a badger problem, some governments would call this
a housing problem.
Whatever you think of people shooting badgers willy-nilly, the debate is currently bogged
down between farmers and badgerhuggers.
The farmers have a lot more to lose. Stars such as Brian May might say he deplores it,
but some of his animal rights activist gang have threatened to burn down barns and superglue
supermarket cashpoint machines in protest against the cull. They have already spraypainted
an office of the National Farmers' Union's insurance arm, NFU Mutual, in Gloucestershire.
They have threatened farmers and their families in the cull areas and say they will wait out
at night on roads and around setts armed with walkie talkies in order to sabotage the cull.
Filmmaker Chris Chapman who has spent years recording the effect on farmers of government
mishandling of first BSE, then Foot & Mouth and now Bovine TB has strong views about where
responsibility for looking after badgers should lie.
I mean Brian May. I have written to Brian, I have written to him in the past. He is a
very intelligent man, but he is missing the point. It has become too emotive and emotion
tends to override common sense. Common sense tells us there is a big problem in the countryside.
It isn't like foot and mouth because the public can't see it. This is a hidden disease. They
understood foot and mouth of 2001, because when they sat down at night and watched the
television they could see all these cattle on burning pyres. So that was brought into
their living room night after night. This is a hidden disease. How do you show the public
this disease. Very, very difficult, but it is there. You can't deny that it is there.
For more about Chris's work, go to BovineTB.info, scroll right down to the bottom and click
on a link called Bovine TB - A Way Forward. If you are watching this on YouTube, there
is a link to Chris's latest film.
Chris lives on Dartmoor in Devon. Despite Fieldsports Channel's good links with the
farming community across the South-West, we could not find a single farmer in the cull
area in Somerset prepared to go on camera. All of them tell me they do not want to become
a target. Despite what Mr May would like you to believe, our furry friends do not die in
their bed surrounded by their grand children. Here is badger specialist, Richard Gard speaking
to Chris Chapman in one of his in one of his films about bovine TB.
You can see the extended claws. This animal has had a very difficult end to its life.
It has been unable to dig properly, to forage for its food. This is fairly typical of the
situation we see. The sett had been impregnated by rats, they have been feeding on the carcass.
On the other side of this carcass is quite badly eaten and it is possible that this one
was dragged out by a fox. It has been nibbled all over the place. This situation with the
unhealthy badgers is really important to be aware of. They don't have a simple existence
from life right through to death.
Farmers, shooters, country people - we're all after a healthy population of badgers
- but you don't get that without management. Celebrity chef Clarissa Dickson-Wright wants
healthy badgers because she likes eating them.
When I was young, badger was still very much eaten in country districts, quite legally
- it would solve the badger crisis wouldn't it - because pubs in the west country used
to have a badger ham on the bar.
Like a ham on a ...... very good it was too.
Was it fatty, in the same way?
It had that rich depth of flavour about it. If you think what a badger eats it is very
much on a par with a pig.
So, what number of badgers to have? As shooters know, wildlife management is not an exact
science. In the fieldsports community, we know there are a lot of foxes but we can't
say how many, we know there are not enough hedgehogs, and we are sure there are too many
badgers.
Scientists discovered the link between badgers and bovine TB in the 1970s. The explosion
in the badger population since then has meant an explosion in bovine TB. These maps show
how fast it has spread.
This disc we were sent, Clarissa on cooking, and the destruction of the British cattle
herd - it's all about the same thing. It is about putting the management of wildlife in
the countryside back into the hands of country people, and taking it away from the urban
whingers, who don't understand it.
Now from a hot news topic to David with the Fieldsports Channel News Stump.
[Music]
This is Fieldsports Britain News.
British shooters face a double whammy from antis over lead shot. The Wildfowl & Wetlands
Trust says that 10% of birds die from eating lead shot, which is now banned for wildfowling
in England and Wales, and banned over wetlands in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Meanwhile,
the Food Standards Agency has advised pregnant women and children to cut down on game meat
because of the risk of eating lead shot. The European Food Safety Authority says the greatest
source of lead in food is from cereals and potatoes and BASC points out that, pound-for-pound,
there is more lead in chocolate than game.
American states are gearing up for the pheasant shooting season - and it's all paid for by
the government. In one state alone, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division
of Wildlife has released 15,000 pheasants at 28 public hunting areas. It's youth-only
shoots for the last two weekends of October with the stateside seasons starting in November.
The RSPB has awarded its top prize for farming to the owner of a well-known shoot The 2012
RSPB Nature of Farming award goes to Henry Edmunds from the Cholderton Estate in Wiltshire,
a well-known partridge shoot, with three other shoots making the final selection.
The number of wild salmon caught and then released in Scotland last year is the sixth
highest on record, according to the Scottish government. Recorded since 1952, the figures
show 87,915 salmon were caught by rod in 2011. Sea trout catches have declined since the
1950s, but the government says the 23,324 caught last year is 4% higher than the previous
five-year average. Numbers of salmon and trout caught in net fisheries continue to fall.
Mark Gilchrist is an ‘appy' man. Our report on his new hunting app, which records where
you shot your rabbit, fox or deer, has led to hundreds of you paying £2.99 and downloading
it to your phones, for which he says thanks very much. There is even talk of organisations
here and as far away as Australia using an adapted version of the app. If you want to
find out more, click here to watch the film. Mark is asking people with iphones to be patient.
That version should be available very soon.
And finally, a man got the wrong side of a rutting red stag in a park in London. Luckily
he was on the right side of the tree. After several minutes of here-we-go-round-the-mulberry-bush,
the film posted on YouTube shows our hapless townie escaping upwards.
You are now up to date with Fieldsports Britain News. Stalking the stories. Fishing for facts.
Now with the map that matters it is calendar.
[Music]
Welcome to Calendar for those important dates for the diary and those seasonal reminders.
Moon is waning crescent, with nights getting darker and heading for a new moon on Monday
15th October, so a bit of wild weather over the weekend could make for exciting wildfowling.
The best of the wildfowling and gooseshooting is still in the North East of England and
along the East Coast of Scotland as birds start coming in from their summering grounds
in what is already becoming the frozen north.
Game shooting is underway all over the UK with released birds reportedly on average
smaller than usual because of the rain earlier in the year. The lack of moon should be good
news for foxshooters.
On the deerstalking front, we are between the best of the fallow rut and the best of
the red rut, though lots of wildlife activity has been later than usual this year all over
the UK.
There are still plenty of country events to enjoy, including the Tackle & Gun trade show
this weekend at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire.
Are you going to be in the Essex area on 25th October 2012? That's next Thursday week. Independent
Shooting Supplies in Mountnessing is holding an open evening, starting at 5pm. The first
10 people through the door get 20% off clothing, footwear and accessories. The next 10 people
get 10% off. And there is a charity raffle - all proceeds going to Essex Air Ambulance
- where the star prize is a day's pigeonshooting with our own legendary Andy Crow. Other prizes
include cartridges and a shooting lesson with former England team member Tracy Ridington.
The evening goes on until 9pm and includes wine and cheese. So don't forget. Independent
Shooting Supplies - Mountnessing - Essex - 25th October. For more information call Andrew
Stephens on 01277 356181 or email admin@independent-tool.co.uk.
Also if you are in or near Wiltshire on Friday 12th October, there is a charity clay pigeon
shoot at Winkworth Farm, Lea, near Malmesbury, with six stands of team flushes and on Saturday
13th October, the Schools Challenge Winter series is offering 50 sporting at the Oxford
Gun Company. You will see more from the Oxford Gun Company later in the programme.
That was this week's Calendar. And if you have an event that needs a plug on next week's
programme, talk to james james@fieldsportschannel.tv.
[Music]
Thank you David. Like Fiona Bruce, but no, come to think of it not really. Now Roy Lupton
has recently come round from an operation and he wants to go shooting.
The road to recovery can be a long boring trip - so just a week after hip replacement
surgery Roy has plans to get out and about as quickly as possible, especially as it's
one of his favourite times of year - the fallow rut...but first he needs to learn how to walk
before he can run, probably not the best turn of phrase! We start with pimping his ride
and testing his shooting position.
As long as my surgeon, my physiotherapists and all the nurses on the ward don't find
out we should be ok. Obviously it looks a little bit ludicrous what we have done here
and just set up, but it does have a serious side I promise you that. What I wanted to
do was just practise shooting from the wheelchair so we have made a bit of a Heath Robinson
attempt at making a bit of a rest so we have cable tied a few sturdy sticks and used my
rest which usually goes on the side of the truck. So we are going to have a bit of a
play and see if I can shoot straight with it. Hopefully the morphine hasn't taken too
much of a toll on my shooting skills and we will see how we do.
So his accuracy is OK - but he's got to move up to a .243, plus get close enough,while
rumbling through a wood in a wheel chair to get a chance of a clear shot.
Roy's also got to find someone who is willing to take him stalking. His consultant has told
him no bumping around ..of any kind.... for 6 weeks..so we'll just have to let him stew
until he gets the all clear..
Right... two weeks have passed and Roy has been given permission to drive - He can get
to his shooting ground but he can't load bear - This means crutches to get through the really
rough stuff and a wheel chair in the wood...
I have finally managed to get out and I have got the cure for cabin fever so I am heading
out to just one of my little spots where there is normally a bit of deer activity on. Unfortunately
with this one it is all the apples in one basket because we are just going to go to
one stand and sit there and wait and hope. There is definitely no chance of stalking
through the woods tonight, but it is a damn sight better than sitting in and watching
the television and going stir crazy at home
Roy's chair does make a bit of a rumble in the jungle but he gets himself into a position
where a group of does are 100 or so yards ahead of up through the wood. He is not using
the sticks gaffer-taped to the chair and instead chooses to use his faithful shooting sticks
which drop to a comfortable level. With them firmly planted he doesn't think he'll being
blown backwards off his chair.
Where we are at the moment, we were just coming in on an old rutting stand and we were going
along really slowly and all of a sudden we have come into a big group of deer. There
is now a deer which has moved in on our right. There is a buck, there is 2 bucks having a
bit of a spar and one buck rubbing here and a big group of does there. But we are literally
pinned to the spot at the moment. I daren't move, just see what pans out. The only trouble
is we are going to be running out of light in about 20 minutes so we just hope something
walks by.
What we hope will walk by is a pricket - however we get something or someone else instead - a
dog walker passes between us and the group of deer. ..Roy is really disappointed..and
frustrated that people don't stick to the footpaths.
Again there is no footpath here at all. Yet again we have got another dog walker who is
now walking down towards us.
Roy doesn't shout out as there is a slim chance there's a buck to the left of us - we leave
the wood and Roy perches on the crutches to do some calling - it's last chance saloon.
We are on a part of the estate where there shouldn't be anybody at all. There are no
footpaths, no public access what so ever. I am on one of the main rutting stands on
the far part of the estate and all of a sudden you get a guy walking past with his bright
blue top on and his dog. With this fading light you really have to be careful. So again
you have to rely on your optics and in this half hour of last light it really does pay
to have good optics and see what is going on.
Roy hasn't made all this effort not to give it his best shot and he heads over to the
other side of this patch of ground to see if we can catch up with a fox we filmed a
few weeks ago - This time Roy sets himself up on the bonnet -
The calling works a treat - the Taclight torch picks up some eyes but he runs but stops for
a second glance - Roy takes his chance..
Oh that was so nice. We had a very quick response from that fox coming in there. That was absolutely
superb. Definitely a cure for cabin fever. Two or two and half weeks locked in doors
and a lot of bed rest and a lot of sitting there. It has got its bonuses, a lot of people
have been round and bringing me around grapes and making me cups of tea and whatever else.
Dom you have been noted in your absence. It is absolutely superb to come out and above
all else really it is nice to know that everybody out there cares and wants you to get back
to it. Right shall we go and pick that fox up.
Although we can't be a hundred percent certain, there's a really good chance this is the one
that got away.
Now I think this is actually the fox that we had come up to us on camera when David
and I had a bit of a breakdown in communication and what I wanted to do was see if we could
catch up with him, because I knew pretty much where he would be and the field we are in
now is just overlooking the wood where we called him in before. So what I wanted to
do this time was start off with a different call, as he already knew the call I was using
previously. So just kicked off with another call, a slightly lighter call. So it is not
quite as harsh. And all of a sudden it came bolting out from the brambles. It looks like
it could be, it is very, very difficult to say obviously. It is definitely the same territory.
It could be the lad who got away.
The healing process can be a long and difficult one - and the medical world often find that
animal contact can speed things along. This fox ain't no dolphin but it certainly got
Roy's mojo firing on all cylinders once again.
From rifles to shot guns and we are at the Oxford Gun Company, where we have a large
collection for you to admire.
It's all happening here at the Oxford Gun Company today. They are having an open day
to start the game season. Representatives from AYA, Rizzini, Browning, Beretta and Miroku
are showing off their products. And that's not all. There are the Winter Schools Challenge
and the Game Compact Sporting competitions, too.
The Oxford Gun Company is at the forefront of promoting shooting to all. So, what a good
place for companies such as Browning and AYA to come and show off the cream of their merchandise.
They are hoping it's going to be bang-bang-ker-ching! The family firm has set up a day that allows
customers to try the guns before they buy. Plus they'll get a little free tuition when
they try them.
Vaughn and son Charlie are trying out the Beretta A400. They are torn between Browning
and Beretta. After much deliberation and negotiation the Beretta is the one they go for.
Yes, we just bought a Beretta A400 Semiautomatic. My son Charlie, he is 13. He has been shooting
with a 12 bore over and under for the last 6 months. After about 50 or 60 shots it starts
to make his shoulder quite sore, but with a gas operated semi-automatic there is no
recoil very much. A bit more lenient on the shoulder. So we have come along and had a
look at a couple of guns and chosen the Beretta A400.
Edward King is here today representing ASI, which is the company that brings the AYA marque
from Spain to an adoring public in the UK. Currently it is not selling through the Oxford
Gun Company.
The main strength of both Rizzini and AYA is that they are both able to attend to small
details which make a gun specific and tailored to the individual's requirements. So unlike
mass produced off the shelf guns these can be really guns that suit you down to a T.
Ask anyone - most people own either a Beretta or a Browning. Vaughn and Charlie might like
their new Beretta but most people who walk out of the Oxford Gun Company with a shiny
new gun walk out with a Browning.
We have had a mixed bag of people today, predominantly game shooters. So we have been showing them
a range of game guns and the most interest I think today has been with our heritage gun
which is our top of the range production gun in 12 gauge and 20 gauge and that has had
a lot of attention.
While the gun reps are sweetening the customers back at the shop, out in the field we have
two competitions under way: the Winter Schools Challenge, run by David Florent plus the new
Game Compact Sporting.
Got a new thing. One of our instructors, Robert he actually came up with the idea, that as
it is the game season, doing a game contact little competition type thing. Which is all
gamey type targets for game shooters to come out and practise. Because game shooters put
their gun away at the end of the season and they don't touch it for a year. They need
to go out get some shells down the gun, get shooting so that when you are out on the field
you have actually got a bit of experience how to shoot a pheasant or a partridge.
Will Ford, James Lewis and Sam Clark, keen shooting enthusiasts are taking part in the
Schools Challenge, while James and Will hope to have some luck in the Game Compact Sporting
as well.
While David has been trying to promote shooting to the younger generation, the Oxford Gun
Company still introduces shooting to all ages.
I had a friend who is a member here of the club who brought me down for having a go.
Then I got introduced to the instructors and they took me on another day's course and I
have been loving it.
It's been another day out for Home Counties shooters, keen to have sparkly news guns for
this game season.
Now from Oxfordshire to the rest of the world. It is Hunting YouTube.
This is Hunting YouTube, which aims to show the best hunting, shooting and fishing videos
that YouTube has to offer.
An old favourite for starters. HuntersVermin has produced Air Rifle Hunting, Rabbit Hunt
33, where he is out again, this time with his new Napier Game Bag. He's good with kit
is HuntersVermin - and with a quarter of a million views a month, I hope the gun trade
is helping him out.
Staying in the UK vermin department, KernowVerminControl has put up Tail-less squirrel. As he says:
"I did feel a bit sorry for it but at the end of the day it is a squirrel, it does the
same damage as any other squirrel that has a tail would do, so he gets the same treatment"
wise words.
Let's go to the USA for 2012 Long Bow Hunt Deer Kill #2 by LeatherwoodOutdoors. Brits
don't know much about nowhunting as we're not allowed to do it but this film gives an
insight.
Now the nations get muddled. OnlineFishingTV is a UK angling channel but its latest film
is New Zealand Style Rig, which is an unusual way of tying on a dropper fly and has the
serious flyfisher saying ‘Well that will never work'.
More on fish and How To Fillet A Mackerel And Cook It In Real Time by TheScottReaProject
shows how to go from whole fresh fish to plate in just six minutes, all while you listen
to that lovely Stranglers track - Waltz In Black - ah brings back memories.
Now let's hop over the English Channel to France where VideosChassePeche is after wail
boar in Chasse sanglier - Camsports Coach. As well as the hunting he is trying to flog
a some lunettes caméra HD which I could have translated for you if I hadn't been sitting
in French thinking about the Stranglers.
Now, creatures' corner. It was while researching badgers this week that I came across Badger
Bin Fight by SlugVod who seems to be planning a regular series called Whitey's Wonderful
World of Wildlife but used up all his luck in just one film.
Meanwhile, viral animal vid of the week goes to the lucky tourist who filmed LeopardKill,
which combines big cat gymnastics with a healthy love of impala steak. It is being watched
at a rate of about a million views a day.
You can click on any of these films to watch them. If you have a YouTube film you would
like us to pop in to the weekly top eight, send it in via YouTube, or email me the link
charlie@fieldsportschannel.tv
Well if you like shooting, you will love the Shooting Show.
Sporting Rifle magazine's Mark Nicholson is out with lamp and rifle after foxes. The Shooting
Show also catches up with Richard Cooke, acting chair of the Lowland Deer Network Scotland,
and news this week covers anti scaremongering on lead, the latest BASC trophy heads and
shooting on nature reserves.
Well this has been Fieldsports Britain. If you are watching this on YouTube please don't
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