Fieldsports Britain - Shooting foxes, rabbits and how Italians run estates

[Music]
Welcome to Fieldsports Britain. Coming up Roy Lupton is out for an evening's stalk and
having a close encounter of a furry kind. I am swanning off to Tuscany to find out what
a good looking estate looks like to an Italian.
First, Andy Crow and his son Little Crow, are arguing over what's best for a night time's
entertainment; is it lamping rabbits or looking for girl friends?
Over the past few months the harvest and the drillings have kept farm manager Andy busy.
It has also meant that the rabbits have had a bit of a free reign on the crow man's fields
and tonight is the first chance he has had at getting on top of them.
Haven't had any time at all because it has been such a dodgy year. Harvest has been stop
start, stop start, same for everyone. As soon as we get a bit of corn off we have to get
the straw in and also get the rape in for next year. It has been stop start and I haven't
done any rabbiting at all. But tonight has been the first night I have been out.
Andy's rabbiting set up is all about efficiency. He loves it, but time is money and he hates
wasting an opportunity. Little Crow works the lamp, Andy drives. Then the red lamp finds
the target and soon after Crow Man's .....17 HMR does the same.
What about bunny numbers?
Well we have been out tonight and haven't seen that many. I was expecting to get 60
or 70 within about an hour. I don't know what we've got, about 40 now I suppose. It is a
bit breezy tonight and I haven't shot very well either. So I don't know if it has been
a combination of me being a bit tired and a bit of wind. Making excuses but, a bad workman
always blames his tools.
Tonight Crow is also having a go with a Nightmaster .800. He is not using it in anger, but having
seen the torch in action with Roy, he wants to test it for those occasions when Little
Crow has other things on his mind and Andy has to fly solo.
I have been given this little lamp to try out which I am quite impressed with. It is
only a dinky little thing, but it has 2 batteries in there. They do a single battery one as
well. It is a really powerful torch. I am really impressed with it. I am going to fiddle
about with it for a bit longer. It could do with a pressure switch really ideally to have
it on the scope. Dom was saying they do one for it so then I could have it on the scope.
When Little Crow doesn't want to come out because he is all loved up I can go out on
my own. It should be quite handy.
The rabbits are not as prolific as they have been in previous years, but there are enough
to keep the barrel warm.
After an hour and half there are about 40 in the back of the Polaris. Dom and Andy's
junior and senior are making short work of them. Again rabbiting can be a team effort.
And it is amazing how quickly you can take a reasonable number of bunnies out of the
equation.
Dom is getting his hands dirty which is quite nice. Our boy is pretty keen tonight which
is quite nice. I think that is only because he wants to get home to bed.
Next time we will have to see how Andy copes with his Nightmaster on his lonesome, when
his wing man is missing enjoying a different kind of action.
Andy Crow there with his rabbits. Now for another startled bunny, it is David on the
Fieldsports Channel News Stump.
[Music]
This is Fieldsports Britain News.
The number of women wanting to become game keepers is on the increase. For the first
time in its history Walford and North Shropshire College have 3 women undertaking work based
diplomas in game keeping and wildlife management. Sophie Morrisy, Chloe Davis and Eve Smart
are all working towards different qualifications.
There haven't been enough game fairs this summer according to the Oxford Gun Company.
It is running its own gun show at its clay ground outside Oxford this Saturday the 29th
September. You will find Browning, Miroku, Winchester, Beretta, Racine and AYA all under
one roof and you can try before you buy.
We can report that there have been some really good catches of salmon all along the west
coast of Scotland over the last fortnight, but for really big fish we need to head to
Hawaii. 28 year old Molly Palmer was fishing in a tournament when she hooked this huge
marlin. She had to get help from the rest of the crew to play it. So it doesn't count
towards her catch for the day and nor does it count as a record at 1,022lbs it beat the
current record for 130lb breaking strain line by nearly 400lbs.
Now taxidermy can be a hit and miss affair with some trophy hunters feeling more stuffed
and mounted than the animal. While the badly stuffed animal's Facebook page is enjoying
a lot of attention thanks to some horrifying efforts. This fluffy boar is a real pig's
ear and these moleskin moccasins are a Christmas must. The site boasts plenty of other terrifying
trophies.
And finally the story which keeps on giving and for that we salute you Mr Brian May. This
week on 5 News he blames farmers for spreading Bovine TB, not badgers.
You have said that badgers are responsible for this - they are not. Farming is responsible
for this. They created a problem by spreading a disease into the wild life community who
are now accused of spreading it back into cows. That is the centre of the problem.
Thank you Brian and well done for supporting a ban on shooting when so many fellow rock
stars have taken up the sport.
You are now up to date with Fieldsports Britain News. Stalking the stories. Fishing for facts.
[Music]
Thank you David. Now let's go out with Roy Lupton.
Roy is usually a man on a mission, but today there is extra fire burning in those eyes.
The reason, he has only got a few days sport left before he goes under the knife for operation
number 25 on his hips. It could mean he is out of action for some time. So let's not
waste any more time and head off after fallow.
Well we have got a bit of a cold snap in the air this morning. It is about half past five
and all we are doing today really is getting on the ground and having a survey of the fallow
bucks which hopefully will be coming in. So the ground we are stalking this morning doesn't
really hold any mature bucks until the start of the rut. But they start to filter in at
the end of September, beginning of October. That is smack on where we are and hopefully
we will see a few boys running around and we might be able to catch up with a pricker
or two, but this morning's main exercise is to see if there are any bucks running around.
What sort of quality they are and give us some sort of indication of what we are going
to be taking out this year.
Roy has a few hotspots on this ground and is after a young spiker. The bottom of the
valley is a common haunt and we get our first glimpse. But do we bump these animals in order
to get to where we really want to be.
Just giving her a couple of barks to let her know, so that she know that we are here. Obviously
that might disturb the other deer, but I just want to give it 10, 15 minutes. Looking through
this corridor we have got a lovely vista out through the opening in the woods here. This
time of year is normally very good for deer just coming out of the wood and feeding on
the edge here. So hopefully it is worth another 15 minutes or so and see if anything comes
out to play with us. If not we will move on.
As it gets lighter we spot a number of fallow, but there are no males in the group.
The wind is behind us and the next minute it is in our face. It is so difficult to stalk
up on deer like this. Especially with fallow when you have got so many of them you have
got a lot of eyes, a lot of ears, a lot of noses watching what you are doing.
With Roy feeling we have had our chance on this side of the ground he has a bash at a
bit of fox calling. We did say he has a lot to get out of his system before the op. For
a change Roy positions David with a camera behind a tree and not over his shoulder as
usual. He is hoping that if a fox comes in it will be so focussed on the source of the
call it won't spot the camera and we will get some different film shots. The plan works
brilliantly apart from the breakdown in communication.
That was absolutely unbelievable. I didn't want to shoot because I wasn't sure that David
had the camera on it. I was trying to gesture to him, David was trying to gesture to me
because from the way I was looking at the camera in David's hands it didn't look like
it was on the fox at all and then with our hand gestures and jumping up and down and
trying to communicate between eachother the fox hightailed it and exited stage left. So
unfortunate on that occasion, but definitely worth a go, because you could see the fox
came in, just coming up, that was a really slow one, just creeping in and just sat down
trying to work out what was going on. A beautiful, beautiful shot, but due to miscommunication
another one for another day. Right let's go on and see what we can do.
Oh well if you don't at first succeed, blah, blah, blah. On the other side of the estate
we see signs that mean yet again stupid dog walkers are unwittingly coursing deer. It
is astonishing how many ignorant Fenton owners there are out there. You would have thought
something might have sunk in by now.
That is a dog. There is a dog screaming, chasing.
We continue our morning. We spot deer moving through the wood. Roy opts to leave them to
cool down. He thinks they could be the spooked lot from before. We crawl into another of
Roy's hot spots, but nothing. We try a bit more fox calling, but nothing. We head after
the deer, but Roy thinks our morning may be over. So time for one last squeak and we get
a fantastic response.
David waits for Roy to take the shot, Roy is waiting for the fox to give him a clear
shot. Roy doesn't want to move and neither does David and as the fox goes behind the
tree, oh bugger.
Did I get it. You are joking.
Just at the start of the squeak the fox bolted out of the brambles and it was working absolutely
superbly, but as he came tripping down here, we knew we had him on camera, but he was in
front of me, but unfortunately I couldn't take the shot because of a tree then I was
trying to work him round a little bit more for a shot. What he wanted to do was get into
a position where he could come in to the wind and find out where I was, because where I
was hidden behind the branches, behind the bows of the trees here, he couldn't make out
what was going on. He couldn't pin point the sound with the wind as well. So he was working
his way round and as soon as he got up wind he would have been off. So I didn't have long
and unfortunately took the shot just as he went out of camera view. Unfortunately that
is the way it can go.
We might have missed the shot, but Roy didn't and we will endeavour to get some more foxy
footage as soon as Roy is on the mend.
Well the operation was a complete success I am glad to say. And with any luck next week
we will be bringing you deer stalking from a wheel chair with Roy Lupton.
Now I went off to Italy. No, not just to sample the wine and the cheese. I was looking at
estates over there for you.
Well I am on an estate in Tuscany and the woods behind me are packed with wild boar
and roe deer. Let's find out more.
I was born on the property of Castella del Nero in 1964 and I have been taking care of
the land since 1990 as manager of the agricultural aspects and the terrain of Castella del Nero
which are capture lands not open to hunting.
Stefano looks after a 1000 acre olive shaped estate near Florence. It has got a great hotel
at one end of it and 5 derelict farm houses down the central spine. If you fancy one of
them the estate is flogging them suitably done up for 5 million pounds each. You have
to be rich as Tony Blair to come to Tuscany. The estate also has lots and lots of deer.
The deer are killed when the numbers get too high, because they bother both the pheasants
and the hare when they are too numerous. When that happens the deer are not hunted, but
are selectively eliminated.
Like country people the world over Senior Panti suffers from governments who pass laws
the mainly urban politicians do not understand. And Panti is no anti. Happily in among the
political bunga bunga there are boar that need to be managed. I found evidence of them
in the grubbed up earth and there are pheasants here too.
There are pheasants and hares on the land, which are captured every year in January and
are then placed in the areas where hunting is permitted. Approximately 80 - 100 pheasants
are captured every time.
If you were the kind of person who has lots of money and you like to keep your guns by
your swimming pools, this could be the estate for you. They definitely do things differently
here and if you want to buy a house here visit www.beauchamp.co.uk
From Italy to the world, it is Hunting YouTube.
This is Hunting YouTube which aims to show the best hunting, shooting, fishing videos
that Youtube has to offer.
Viewer Neil Hawkins suggests hunting rabbits by dogrunnerlive 1 and what a good film it
is, set to the music 'kill the wabbits' by Metalica it is about a lad stalking rabbits
down under with .223, .22 and shotgun.
We stay in the land of Aus for Quail Shooting Australia 2012 by Hunterfishernz. It is a
bit of a bumpy film, but the spirit is good and it is interesting to think of Australia
as an upland bird shooting destination.
Now we are off to the United States where the Prairie chicken season has opened. That
sounds like a cheaper version of Kentucky Fried Chicken. But these birds are a kind
of grouse and British grouse shooters may recognise this kind of shooting or hunting
as it is called over there. While a grouse invitation in the UK may come from a duke
or better still a hedge fund manager the north American hunting channel is out with gobble
and grunt outfitters - heck yes.
On to fishing and Guy Baxendale offers a trio of Thames Barbel from a recent night's fishing
on the lower Thames including 2 doubles. All fish fell to a monster crab whacker from Spa
Bates. Good to see the YouTube channel is getting sponsorship.
The hilariously names channel Old Man's Ball Bag is best known for its films about catties
or sling shots. He is also a keen carpologist. In this film he visits ...... a lake in Wales,
apologies for the pronounciation, and finds he has the place to himself. Happy days.
Back to shooting and Countrypursuits TV has done a deal with www.bestfoxcall.co.uk his
viewers get a 15% discount on all orders. You need to see the film Fox Control ......best
fox call ...52 grain Amax to find out the promo code.
We head to Hungary to look for UK based Teamwild Hunting calls pork perpetrators extreme airgun
hunting wild boar with a Daystate Wolverine .303. It is guaranteed to be controversy of
the week. It aims to show whether or not the new Daystate Wolverine .303 airgun is an effective
gun for big pigs.
And Yorkshire roe stalking has been abroad to grouse hunt in Lapland is a well made piece
about walking up birds.
You can click on any of these films to watch them. If you have a Youtube film you would
like us to pop into the weekly top eight, then send it in by Youtube or email me the
link at Charlie@fieldsportschannel.tv
Well if you like shooting you will love the Shooting Show. Byron Pace follows the stories
and successes of a day's driven shooting on the hill. The grouse are as challenging as
ever, but it is not all about the guns. The Shooting Show follows the beating line and
gets the beaters take on proceedings. Head keeper Andy Malcolm gives his low down on
what has been a tough year for grouse.
Meanwhile Peter Carr gets his hands on a Polaris all terrain vehicle which has all wheel drive
rear suspension and tipper. He assesses its worth for stalkers as well as game keepers.
Game keepers always love tippers.
We are back next week. And if you are watching this on Youtube, please hit the subscribe
button which I think is now pretty well permanently located up there. Or go to our shows page
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