Fieldsports Britain - Vinnie Jones's Russian Macnab + ferreting + deerstalking

[Music]
Welcome to Fieldsports Britain. Coming up Roy Lupton has got a limp. A limp what you
may ask. But still he is out after roe deer. We have got politics for you. The future of
lead shot in the UK. In News Stump, we have a big fox weighing 34lb from Russia. This
photograph was sent in by viewer Vinnie Jones.
But first children, dogs, rabbits, we must be out ferreting.
We've filmed the South Somerset Ferreters before. Well, they're back - and this time
they reckon they've got the ultimate warren. It's a hill not far from the South Devon coast
and it's a honeycomb of buries.
The South Somerset Ferreters are a group of families who get together on a Saturday not
to go shopping, not to go to a theme park. They go ferreting.
Between them, they have everything that ferreters need, including two lurchers, a little Lakeland/whippet
cross and their not-so-secret weapon, Louis, a remarkably sprightly 10-year-old Jack Russell.
Also on hand to help is the Fieldsports Channel cocker spaniel Muffin and her year-old daughter
Mina.
Yes, I don't think it really gets any better than where we are today, anywhere in the country
really.
First job is to put the nets out - both long nets and purse nets
We know what we are up against today, because we did it last year. Yes like I said we have
got the whole perimeter again. Blocked off the long nets and we have still got a lot
of purse nets to set. Roughly about 200 nets. Yes it takes time, but if you don't put the
time in, you don't get the rewards.
It's not just a case of bunging a net over a hole and banging it in.
So you have got different sized nets here?
Yes, I have got four footers, five footers and six footers, all for different holes.
Does it depend on the size of the hole.
Yes.
Then there are the elastic bands
Every purse net we use, we put an elastic band around. So when we pick them up if we
have any elastic bands left we know we are missing a net from somewhere.
It takes a couple of hours to put out this many nets.
About 600 yards of long net we have got to set up around as well, five dogs, about 15
ferrets which we put down all in one go. So hopefully fingers crossed, not a lot will
get away.
Next up the stars of the show. The ferrets. We take time off for a bite to eat. Then - nets,
dogs, children - everyone gets in position. There's even time to disentangle Mina from
a long net.
The first rabbits don't take long to bolt. Men, women and children are stationed round
the long nets, ready to dive on anything that wriggles.
After a quarter of an hour of no activity, we reckon we have had the best of this bury.
Now we have to retrieve the ferrets.
When ferrets lie up and have to be dug out, they uncannily choose the thickest part of
the brambles. You need to sweep the brambles with Ferret Finders.
Just goes to show that without these finders you would lose ferrets. He went right the
way across the other side. So good we have got them all back now. Plus a rabbit for a
bonus.
Years of experience tells them that this last ferret is deep underground. The fastest way
to cut through the bramble roots is to send in Louis - still keen as a puppy. Once Louis
has done his work, Jaf calls for another piece of kit. It's a ferreting endoscope.
At last we find the final ferret. It was nowhere near the brambles but in the next field, curled
up with a rabbit.
The next step is the main event. We're ferreting the open hillside. Jaf is relieved to find
the bury here is not connected to the holes under the brambles next to it.
We get more rabbit action from this side of the hill - and we're in a perfect place to
watch it.
There is even an opportunity to train a young dog to stay away from ferrets.
The last ferret of the day has chosen the only clump of gorse to lie up beneath. It's
another digging exercise, with Louis on hand to offer help.
If you want to find out more, search for South Somerset Ferreters on Facebook. And if you
want to see our last film with them, click on the link on the screen. Or why not make
your Louis very happy and start your own ferreting group.
Well it is time for the South Somerset Ferreters to break for lunch and it is time for you
to watch David on the Fieldsports News Stump.
[Music]
This is Fieldsports Britain News.
We recently produced a programme called the Ferrari Macnab. Now exprofessional footballer
and Hollywood A-lister Vinnie Jones has sent us a new one: the Macnabski. On a filming
trip to Russia, Vinnie took time off to shoot a fox and a raccoon and caught a salmon in
one day, then went on to rope an 800-pound bull. After he tried hard with a fly, the
salmon fell to a spinner. The fox weighed in at a remarkable 34 pounds without the snow.
They make them big in Russia - but the British record is 36 pounds. It was a 212-yard shot
with a Tikka T3 in .308.
Two shooters from north Yorkshire raced to the rescue when a light aircraft crashed in
front of them. DTL shooter Jack Thompson, who won the BASC World .410 Championships
in September and his mate Sam Graham were about to start pigeon shooting when they witnessed
the crash. They dashed across the field in their four-by-four, crossed a dyke and climbed
a bank, to find the two pilots dazed but unharmed. It is thought the Piper Arrow aircraft had
suffered engine failure. Jack and Sam helped to ferry emergency services personnel and
firefighting equipment to and from the scene before abandoning their shooting plans.
The best retrievers and handlers in Britain and Ireland are heading for the Cawdor Estate
in Northern Scotland next week. Some 55 dogs are expected at the 2012 Retriever Championship
will be held from 26th to 28th November 2012. International Gundog League sponsor Skinners,
which also sponsors this news bulletin, is delighted to have been associated with the
IGL for nearly 30 years. For more info, go to www.InternationalGundogLeagueRetrieverSociety.org.uk
Now do you fancy high pheasant shooting for a quarter of the price of Devon or Northumberland?
That dot in the sky is a pheasant. We are now panning down to the shooter. Sporting
agent Lasarotta which specialises in sport in Croatia and Serbia is offering two back-to-back
300-bird days in December at £13 per bird plus flights. Visit www.lasarotta.co.uk
Cartridge company Gamebore is backing two new clay competitions in 2013. Based on the
popular White Gold Cup, one new competition is called the White Gold Challenge. Gamebore
also plans to run a championship called the Gamebore Gold Cup, a 150-bird Sporting course
at the Westfield Shooting Ground in Gloucestershire. Visit Gamebore.com for more.
A retired policeman from Germany spent three hours to try and land a 540-pound halibut,
a new world record. The fish was so big that at one point Reinhard Wuhrmann's rod snapped
in two. The 62-year-old with two others, fishing off Norway, others were only able to haul
it onto their boat after tying a rope around it when it came alongside. The previous record
for an Atlantic halibut was held by fellow German Gunther Hansel who caught a 483lb specimen
off Iceland last year.
And finally another story about shooters saving the day. This time we are in South Dakota,
USA. A party of pheasant shooters discovered two deer with antlers locked together. One
deer had already died and the eagles were feeding on it as the other one struggled to
get free. The shooters estimated that these deer had been in this situation for at least
a couple of days.
You are now up to date with Fieldsports Britain News. Stalking the stories. Fishing for facts.
Now from Hollywood stars to the Fieldsports Channel A list. It is Roy Lupton.
Now it may appear to regular viewers that Roy hasn't been quite so eager to pull the
trigger of late. A few opportunities during the roe and fallow rut have presented themselves,
but Roy has fought temptation in the name of deer management. All good things come to
those who wait.
A bit of will power means a deer that looks good one year can mean medal quality the next.
Well that's all very well and good in theory but then someone comes along and screws it
all up. And more often than not these days it's poachers. Roy has got a few of those
making their presence felt on his ground in Hampshire.
Now unfortunately we have got a big problem which is emerging throughout most of the country,
and that is commercial poaching. Unfortunately this old boy here has been a victim of it,
but the biggest problem we are facing is it is not just one or two individual animals
which are being taken. We are now looking at poaching on a commercial scale. So it is
not your romantic view of a poacher going out and getting one for the pot, it is organised
groups of individuals going out with illegal fire arms shooting deer, or taking deer with
dogs and that is having a massive effect on the population and a massive effect on the
deer management. Up until now a lot of the police forces have been treating this with
a little bit of apathy. My hope is that by working together with stalkers, estates and
the local wildlife liaison officers that we can put an end to commercial poaching. And
hopefully put an end to seeing sights like this and finding poor old beasts left in the
middle of the field.
With that off his chest Roy turns his attention to the evenings stalking. He is here for roe
does which are really only evident at last light.
We have got about an hour and a half before it is dark completely, so we are going to
have a quick scurf around to see what we can come up with. There are couple of does that
I don't really want to take out. We have got a doe just down, which has been working the
piece of ground to the left hand side and she had triplets this year so it would be
nice to leave her on . So we are either going to look for a yearling doe or maybe somebody
who has been less productive.
With his recovery from his hip op going well he's now down to just one crutch plus shooting
sticks - which we think gives him a look of Gandalf.
Our first port of call is a wood which always delivers. Nowt. It is weird how some places
just feel right for deer but for some reason it's a desert - certainly in our case.
Never mind. It's a beautiful evening - perfect for a stroll in the British countryside. With
the pheasant and partridge shooting season in full swing the deer are a little more cautious
which makes this stalking more of an educated guess than normal.
We are just going to have a quick run around, try and find the hot spots and try and get
into position when the does start feeding out from some of the cover crops and some
of the woods. It is always a gamble. You have just got to pick a spot and hope.
We keep watching, we keep stalking, but there is nothing about. This is a Roy stalking outing.
Apparently failure is not an option.
I can see the sun is starting to dip behind the trees and we have got a rather eager cameraman
to highlight the start of the doe stalking season and so far we haven't seen a deer.
So this is the panic stage. And from the panic stage you hope you can up with some concoction
to get on to a deer, but if they are not out, there is not much you can do.
We lose the light and the chance of a deer. Roy does spot one with the superior glass
on top of his rifle but we lose her in the cover crop.
Of course there's a host of reasons why we blanked - but Roy can't help feeling it's
down to poaching pressure...
We have been beaten by the light, but the odd thing is though, normally on this estate
on an evening's stalking you will easily see 20 may be 30 deer just on the little route
we followed and this evening we have had perfect conditions for it. It has been a nice relatively
warm evening, the wind wasn't too hard or too cold. You just couldn't want for better
conditions and yet we didn't see a single beast and I think unfortunately we are seeing
the results of a lot of poaching going on, not just on this estate, but in the surrounding
areas. We will come out in a couple of evening's time and see if we can find a roe for the
freezer, but at the moment it is certainly not looking good.
Not to be beaten Gandalf keeps to his word and without any help from a camera man nor
stalking buddy heads off to try and shoot and film some roe. This time he's on the other
side of the estate which hasn't been targeted by poachers.
Roy chances upon a roe doe lying up on a ride about 90 yards away. It was just a flick of
the ear that gave her away, otherwise she would have gone unseen.
We have got a doe and a kid just couched up along the ride. Now what I want to do is just
wait and hopefully one of them will stand up and hopefully give us an opportunity of
a shot. The only problem is that can very often happen if you are waiting for a deer
to stand they can stand up and turn off carry on away from you and disappear. That is the
chance we will have to take.
Roy's patience pays off and eventually the doe stands up. He shoots and she drops in
the cover crop. She isn't alone. Roy repositions and takes the kid as well. It's probably not
dependent but Roy feels it's the best thing to do with winter on its way.
We have caught up with where the doe is she was just on about 90 yards from where she
was shot she has probably gone 2 or 3 yards just into the thick, heavy cover there. No
problems finding her and obviously the kid just dropped on the spot further down the
cut out in the game cover strip here. Nice successful evening now it is to drag them
out and sort out the gralliching and we can go home and have a nice cup of tea.
So a good result and a grand effort by Roy who managed to shoot two deer, capture it
on film having stalked into them while carrying a video camera plus tripod, a set of shooting
sticks, a crutch, a pair of binos and a rifle. Maybe he does have magical powers after all.
Last week a conference in London examined lead shot. Does it have a future. We went
along.
Dying dolphins, poisoned eagles, foolish foxes and the grey partridge in crisis - it was
not the most upbeat symposium ever held. The most controversial presentation came from
Bjorn Beckmann of an academic body called the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. His talk
on sea eagles and the threat from lead poisoning claims that lead from bullets and from shot
is the single biggest killer of sea eagles in Germany.
So out of these eagle's carcasses that have been studied, 34 were found to have had lead
particles in the stomach and out of those 80% were lead core bullet fragments and six
lead shot. Unlike, I think, the common perception at least in the case of sea eagles, the lead
core bullet fragments are the major problem not lead shot. It is also a problem, but this
is the bigger one.
Members of the symposium audience pointed out the recent article in Shooting Times magazine
that defends lead shot. However, a representative of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust poured scorn
on Shooting Times.
In other presentations, Nick Sotherton of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust talked
about the grey partridge, the iconic bird that is the symbol of the GWCT
I have been asked to try and produce some good news. I am not sure I can. Species of
British breeding farmland bird that has undergone unprecedented declines over the last 30 to
40 years. And you can see 90% decline through that time period. It is a biodiversity action
plan species, it is red listed under the birds of conservation concern. You name it every
alarm bell is ringing.
Jim Barrington, speaking on behalf of the day's host, the Veterinary Association for
Wildlife Management, slammed the disneyfication of our wild animals. With this slide, he showed
how animal brains cannot project forward like humans can.
That area of the brain which collects and assesses and looks after information is simply
not there. There is no way in which animals of say the fox level or the deer level can
project ahead and so this is quite important as far as its mental abilities are concerned
and of course when people say, you wouldn't like it would you? Well of course not because
we are humans. We are not animals at that level.
Jim is former head of the League Against Cruel Sports but resigned when he realised how hunting
benefits the fox. He is now a consultant to the Countryside Alliance.
Excitement came from London Zoo, which is studying whale strandings. Rob Deaville presented
a film showing bottlenose dolphins off the British coast beating up porpoises.
This is shot in the Morray Firth and you can see a porpoise being hit out of the water
by three bottlenose dolphins and again in slow motion here. Quite a size disparity between
these two species. The bottlenose we have in the UK are huge compared to Flippa on the
TV show.
If you are watching this on YouTube and you want to watch the whole of the symposium,
seven-and-a-half hours long, click on the link on the screen.
Next it is our Bushcraft hero Jonny Crockett.
There is nothing quite as cheery as a fire. It is essential for cooking. Here is how to
build one properly and get it going without matches. We will need tinder to get the fire
going. Two good resources for this are dry goose grass and dry bracken.
So I have got some goose grass here to make the heart of my tinder bundle. Now I just
want something to bulk it out a bit. I have got some nice dead bracken here and this bracken
will sit round the back of it. Got a bit more here. I don't need a huge amount, but this
will just provide that extra flame just to get the tinder going. You need to be a bit
careful when pulling on bracken, it can cut.
For the larger kindling we need dead wood and that needs to be collected. Fallen branches
are the best source for this. They can often be found caught up in holly bushes.
So this nice fine wood that is what is going to catch first and so we put this on a separate
pile. You can afford to be a little bit obsessive, compulsive about this if you want. The more
organised the better your preparation, the better chance you have of getting your fire
lit.
With the fire wood gathered it is time for the magic to commence. Here is how to use
a flint and steel to light your fire. What I am going to do is just flick down and make
sparks and those sparks are coming off the soft metal here. I have got a nice hard piece
of flint and when I strike down, you see all the sparks are going up. So if I put a bit
of amadoo, if I put that on the top and then strike down, the shards, the hot bits of steel
will come up and fall down on the top - aha first time.
You can see now how that works. We can put that inside our tinder bundle ...........and
that goes down onto our raft and then our two bundles of sticks, one goes on the top.
Now once this has started to burn then we can go onto the bigger stuff which is the
proper full on fuel wood and that is what we are going to be cooking on later on.
Well Jonny's DVD about survival will be available very soon. Keep watching this programme. Now
onto the wilder world. It's Hunting YouTube.
This is Hunting YouTube, which aims to show the best hunting, shooting and fishing videos
that YouTube has to offer.
Hunting FPS has not being doing much on YouTube recently which is a great shame - but he did
manage a couple of trips recently when the sun was out, and here is the footage. As you
can see from Slow Motion Airgun Rabbit Hunting #18, the bunnies have been causing a bit of
damage and the farmer is keen for their numbers to be reduced.
Now the clay season is not at its height in the UK at the moment on account of the wintry
weather but here's a good idea. AntiguaClays is the YouTube channel for a shooting resort
in the Caribbean, which claims to be the only one of its kind. Even if you can't afford
the air fare, here's a film to lighten up your day.
The Lagotto Romagnolo is one of the new breed of gundogs that follows in the pawprints of
such Italian masterpieces as the spinone and bracco. The famous gundog photographer has
a YouTube site. NickRidley9261's film shows a group of UK based Lagottos demonstrating
their traditional work as gundogs. From the Romagna sub-region of Italy. The name means
"lake dog from Armagnac".
Now on to fish. Monster lake trout, world record laker is a rediscovered film, thought
to be lost, dating from as long ago as 1996, when Bob Mehsikomer caught and released a
possible 60-pounder on Lake Athabasca in Saskatchewan.
Moving Down Under, Fishing Exmouth with bream gear and MadEye lures is Aussie Breamer's
latest technique for one of Australia's favourite sea fish. This film took a week to make.
With Christmas coming, the DVD makers are using YouTube for their trailers - and it
looks like wild boar is top of the list. Here is trailer to the hunting DVD Baiting Wild
Boar, made in Sweden and with lots of shooting action.
From Russia, Sladkova is a trailer for a DVD about hunting for wild boar, roe deer, red
deer and game birds. More bucks, more boar, more bangs.
And from Spain, Reivax Films presents Great Hungarian Hunts. Once again, it is driven
wild boar that are face the cazadores. There three films and four countries. All of these
films lead you to websites where you can purchase DVDs.
And don't forget the fabulous DVD's on offer on the Fieldsports Channel website www.fieldsportschannel.tv
need I say more.
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 we are back next week. If you are watching this on YouTube don't hesitate to hit the
subscribe button somewhere up in the sky above me, or you can go to our shows page www.youtube.com/show/fieldsportsbritain
and watch just this show and not all our other stuff, you can subscribe there. Or go to our
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is out 7pm UK time. This has been Fieldsports Britain.