Fieldsports Britain - We're after fallow deer and urban foxes + airgunning pigeons

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Welcome to Fieldsports Britain.
Coming up:
We're after deer with a cat, we're in a barn with Team Wild TV looking for feral pigeons.
First we have got a problem with urban foxes. It's late afternoon in a garden in south London
and there is a little experiment being carried out. The hypothesis under test is are urban
foxes bold enough to take a baby sized object out of its pram and the sound of a baby crying
is so similar to a fox's natural prey it makes the dummy prey even more attractive. The gentleman
who filmed these events is a professional pest controller and Fieldsports Channel viewer.
He has seen the urban fox evolve into an opportunist and just wants to see how conditioned they
have become. Yes, the piglet will smell although it was frozen, however, the buggy is covered
in human scent and the babygrow is brand new. The crying of the baby is a fascinating addition
to this experiment. Here is a rabbit distress call used by fox shooters all over the world
to call in their quarry. Doesn't sound that different to a baby does it? Robert Bucknell
a foxing expert interviewed for our foxing DVD says how closely these sounds resemble
each other.
We might have loads of foxes which aren't any trouble, but there are always one or two
who will push the boundaries back. Hear something wailing like a hare in distress and it goes
and has a look and finds a nice piece of protein there and have a nibble on it and therein
lies the problem. There is always people getting bitten and that sort of thing, it's pretty
rare, but now it has become more news worthy and we see it in the papers a little more.
We are releasing this film not to demonise foxes just to show that they are not pets.
And organisations like the BBC should know better. Here is their last months edition
of Wild Life magazine and their step by step guide to attracting foxes into your garden.
Please don't have nightmares but make sure your pet rabbits and guinea pigs are locked
up every night.
Urban foxes making news there, also making news its David on the Fieldsports Channel
News Stump.
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A new study suggests that dogs have been man's best friend for at least 30,000 years. A pair
of dog skulls uncovered in digs in Siberia and Belgium have been aged at 33,000 years
old. It shows dogs were domesticated long before any other animal, including sheep,
cows or goats. The skulls had shorter snouts and wider jaws than wild animals, such as
wolves. It suggests dogs were used for companionship and protection.
Two men have been injured in shooting accidents during game shoots in North Yorkshire, prompting
police to issue a gun safety warning. One was struck in the face by pellets during a
pheasant shoot in Strensall, near York. A day later, another was hit in the leg on farmland
near Selby. Both men suffered only minor injuries. Police said accidents were rare but warned
shooters to keep safety in mind. North Yorkshire Police said it had seized the guns involved
while officers investigated the exact circumstances of the incidents
. And finally in the week a bluefin tuna sold
at auction in Japan for nearly half a million pounds, prompting fear that this fish is becoming
rarer, a US angler has caught what might be a world record yellowfin tuna, the blue fin's
smaller cousin. It's a 90x62 inch yellowfin estimated at 432.4 pounds. The current 405-pound
IGFA World Record was 85.5x61 inches.
You are now up to date with Fieldsports Britain news. Stalking the stories fishing for facts.
[Music]
Thank you David. Weather looks better there than here.
Now Roy Lupton is out stalking fallow does he's calling in foxes in daylight and he even
has a problem with a dog walker.
In fieldsports channel towers Roy is known as "the postman",.. he always delivers - this
morning he hasn't got a little red van but a six wheel beast which has been defying physics
in the highlands of scotland as he hunts blue hares with his eagles.
He's on his round on his ground in Sussex. He has a little flash around for some foxes
but the first stop is going to be fallow does.
I've not done any doe culling for quite a while so I've been away in Scotland flying
the birds so really have got to get cracked on with the doe cull because it is getting
on in the season so hopefully we can catch up with a few this morning. We have got Dom
with us this morning so we've got a second gun, so what we are going to do is try and
position Dom in some of the places as we stalk through if any deer break through then Dom
will have a chance for a shot or two as they come through from the spinneys, so fingers
crossed we will give it a go.
Although he's on parkland - the fences are no more and the herds here are transient.
He'd like to take about five out of the local population.
The only problem we have got this morning is where we are going into is very difficult
to get into by foot you've got to go across a stream so the distraction to the deer if
we do get one is always a problem, so that's why we have brought the argo this morning,
so if we do get a few then we will have the means of getting them out.
Dom is here as well - which could be interesting - If Roy is "the postman" Dom is postman pat.
You are going to be filming with Roy so which one of us is the jinx? It will be an interesting
scientific experiment to find out whether you are the reason or I am the reason we never
get anything. My money is on you.
Roy has a good idea where the deer will be and positions Dom to cover the exit point
if we spook them.
As hoped the deer are in a spinney across the bridge but they don't hang about. We crawl
across the broken bridge - Roy lighting the way with his cheeks.
The plan has worked in reverse and Dom has pushed 2 does our way - Roy shoots and for
a change the young doe runs...
The group we initially spotted takes flight.
Time to do some fieldwork and follow the blood trail. We find the doe under a fallen branch..
You normally find a good constant trail so where we are here we've got a fantastic out
shot a lot of blood where she stood for a while and then she has run. On fallow you
can lose the blood quite easily as they move around the muscle can cover up the exit wound
and then you can lose the blood as it pulls into their chest cavity, but as I said she
is not going to be far.
We find the doe under a fallen branch.
She's just laying down there so you can see that if we hadn't followed the blood we would
have really struggled to find her so especially the way she has laid if they have laid and
their white under belly is showing towards you the same as when you are rabbit shooting
at night they are easy to find, but if they are laid the other way from you like she is
there just tucked in it's incredibly difficult to see them sometimes.
There we go, absolutely nothing wrong with the shot there it was obviously just when
her adrenaline was up where she had been spooked by Dom and came onto the bank there. She just
had enough to stand there and then tottered away down here not more than 50 yards, but
when you've got the cover like the bracken and fallen trees it can be very difficult
to find them, they can be right under your nose but you still can't see them. Again it's
always a good idea if you have got one to bring a dog with you even with perfect shots
because it can take you a long time to find the carcasses in conditions like this if you
haven't got a back up.
Dom joins us - and looks a bit sheepish..
Humble pie anyone?
I don't want to talk about it.
Dom takes the strain and get to grips with the young doe.
Roy is keen for another so we head off to a different part of the estate. We spot deer
immediately but they're not on our ground - another 50 yards and for a change the deer
come to us...
The camera remains standing but Roy and Dom hit the deck - 3 animals are just yards away
in what appears to be a great shooting position but all the boys can see are rear ends.
We follow up slowly - and still they remain tricky to nail down... then they evaporate
and we soon find out why - a dog walker in woodland with no footpaths - Roy is firm but
fair.
Hello, hi there please could you refrain from walking your dog through here, it is not a
foot path and it's very dangerous as there is a lot stalking activity goes on in here.
Sorry, I didn't know.
This isn't a footpath here at all, so it's incredibly dangerous to walk through these
parts of the woods, because there is a lot of shooting going on.
Roy is firm but fair.
The other thing is could you keep the dogs on leads because we have had a lot deer killed
by dogs.
She can't catch the deer.
What they do is run them against fences and then kill them against the fences even stressing
them because they are pregnant now, so if they get chased about a lot it damages them.
Although she said her dog wouldn't kill deer that dog was perfectly capable of chasing
the deer and running them up against the fences and causing damage. Obviously as the season
progresses, the does are pregnant at the moment, another month or two and they are going to
be very heavily pregnant and if they start to get chased around like that it's going
to cause a lot of damage to the future generations of deer what we've got in here, so yeah, you
feel you are banging your head against a brick wall sometimes, so you have just got to try
and put your point across and hope that eventually it sinks in.
With our stalk spoiled and it's such a glorious morning Roy feels it's just right for a squeek.
He lets rip with the silva fox - 8 minutes later and bang we have a very close observer.
Dom takes his chance.
I heard you whispering the other side of the tree which was blocking my view and then when
he ran in he stopped obviously Roy trying to get him to stop on the call and yes, a
lot closer than I was expecting.
That fox just appeared to my right hand side here, he came up behind us and made us, I
didn't want to move until we got the camera on it and I was hoping he'd move off and we
would get a chance to squeeze the trigger and Dom did a super job as the fox just crossed
our line down the bottom here, I was trying to stop him but he was just moseying through,
he had slowed down a bit, but as this one appeared and the shot went off there was another
fox coming up from the bottom, just making its way through the thick bramble there so
obviously with that report going off it's unlikely he would have come anyway. That was
a fantastic call he really came in close on that one. So it looks good.
Time to recover that deer with the Argo - to increase the stakes it's going to be a water
born extraction.
I've got to do me bungs up to get back across the river.
Why don't we use the bridge Roy?
Shut up!
[Laughter]
That's one for the Christmas ...
A successful and eventful morning - and even though there are bridges everywhere Roy and
Dom seem to enjoy making the most of it.
If you'd like to find out more about the argocat go to www.argocat.com
From deer to doves where Nottinghamshire farmers have a problem with feral pigeons pinching
all their feed they call in Team Wild TV.
[Roar of stag]
Whether stalking antelope on the African plains, foxes in the fields of southern England, or
this - feral pigeons in a farmer's barn in Staffordshire - you have to approach your
quarry carefully and with plenty of forethought.
You can tell this is the perfect environment for feral pigeons, there's a grain store with
plenty of feed in here the rafters provide great places to roost you can see by the floor
there is plenty of scat, these guys live in here full time. We're just going to make our
way round the barn just nice and steady using all these bags and machinery as cover using
these Zeiss range finding binos, because it is a big shed and we do need to make sure
we are checking our ranges. The rifle is zero'd to 15 yards and 35 yards it probably shoots
at about an inch high at 20 but any further than that at 40 or 50 it's a couple of inches
difference and we don't want to be causing any damage to the asbestos or the wooden framework
here. So we are going to make our way around and see what we can find.
See those two up there on the rafter, on the beam, I'm going to take the one on the left,
you take the one on the right ,on three.
Is that one, two, three or is that one, two, three [shoot]?
Three, one, two, three
Got it.
Ok are you ready?
Yup
One, two, three
This is a livestock feed protection exercise. Once we have planned our approach, the shooting
can start.
There's two more up there, reload. I'll take the left, you take the right.
It's about 25 yards.
I've been lucky so far, these guys, these pigeons haven't been shot for a while. The
good thing is that these air rifles these days are very quiet, mine has got a silencer
on with a carbine barrel and Keith has just got a Schreider. So we've just taken a few
shots we missed a couple, they don't seem overly concerned they're flying out, just
flying round a couple of times and coming back, so if we just hold fire for a little
bit we should get more shots.
So pretty good day so far. That's eight in the bag, so what we are going to do now, I
think we've pretty much shot this out, so why don't we head back to Fonty's place and
see if we can get some more in the sheds.
See if we can get some more in there.
Let's do it.
You need the farmer on your side. And you need the farmer to know that you're on his
side.
The reason we've called you in is because the pigeons are destroying the crops, causing
messes in the barns which slows up growth stages, but you boys have come in to control
the numbers so we are not going to have this damage in the future.
What sort of mess to they cause in the barns?
In the sheds muck all over the machinery which burns the paint and that sort of thing, it
also keeps them out of the crop stores, food stores, they'll get through every available
gap and they will cause defecating within the food stores which you don't want.
Back at the shooting, and the ferals are still providing plenty of challenges.
Another pigeon just flew into the barn over here and Keith hasn't had a brilliant day's
shooting, he's not up to his usual high standard so there's been a bit of an argument over
who's going to take the shot because I like to make sure the bird goes into the bag, but
Killer is pretty confident he can get it, so it's down to you now Killer.
Watch and learn.
Actually there are two birds in here so what we are going to do is on three we are going
to see how Bonny trots.
Mr H one, Mr Killer zero.
I reckon that was Ian's shooting. Come on pick it up, pick it up. Bring it on, good
dog.
So look at the mastery man over beast.
Come on you, here. Here bring it on, bring it on, good dog. Good dog, good dog.
Killer's going in.
Are you having a few problems?
Yeah, I'm going to have to go in.
Be brave mate!
[Music]
As you can see Keith is a highly trained dog handler. He is still trying to get that bird
from that soft mouthed spaniel over there. This is not unusual if you have seen Keith
operating in the field, it's pretty much par for the course. We can faintly hear the Benny
Hill's theme track playing in the background, it's not going to get any better, we might
get the bird back in one piece, we have known that before.
That will be my glove then.
Enthusiastic little fellows as you can see a perfect heart shot just above the chest
in the crop area and when you are shooting pigeons inside it's always best to go for
something which has got a good size target area. Obviously the best shot is a head or
a neck shot by the time you've got through the feathers the neck is small, the head bobbing
around all the time you might not get a clean shot and you might hit the building. Luckily
for me this dropped straight away, died straight away and I have got all these helpful retrievers
to help me pick my birds. So come on guys.
So we've had a great day and, because we knocked down 12, Mark's really happy, the air range
has performed really perfectly. We'll go back in a couple of weeks to make sure we stay
on top of them.
[Roar of stag]
Well we are back next week and if you are watching this on Youtube don't hesitate to
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