IT training shooting times and country TruePDF 20 march 2019

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N E W S : W O R K I N G G U N D O G T R I U M P H S AT C R U F T S

1882

20 MARCH 2019

How to give
a gundog the
best start

CLE ANER KILLS

Are small loads
the solution?
DEER MANAGEMENT

The overlooked
joy of stalking
roe does

GAME COOKERY

PERFECT ROAST
PARTRIDGE

ES SENTIAL KNOWLEDGE

PIGEON SHOOTING
AND THE LAW



DOG OF THE WEEK
In association with Orvis
For all things dog, Shooting Times recommends Orvis.co.uk
Outdoor outfitters, instructors and apparel makers since 1856.

Sika
After a tiring day out carp fishing, Hungarian wirehaired vizsla Sika enjoys sitting down to watch
Countryfile. At the age of five, he feels that he is in his prime and looks forward to the next partridge season.
Owned by Nick Heath. Photographed by Farlap Fieldsports Photography


20.03.19
Issue 6,132

£24.99

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Times today and never
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Britain’s original and
best fieldsports and
countryside magazine

In the frame
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Patrick Galbraith, Editor

shootingtimessubs.co.uk/23AV

SAVE

0330 333 1113 Quote code: 23AV

UP TO

Lines open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 6pm (UK time)

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*Pay just £24.99 by direct debit payable every 3 months, with the price
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14

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18

Ensuring a clean kill
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22

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24

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28

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32

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36

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40

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Follow Patrick on Twitter
@paddycgalbraith

Contents
NEWS & OPINION

36

AIRGUNNING

06 NEWS

40 COOKERY

10

PRODUCTS

REGULARS

12

LETTERS

22

STALKING

FEATURES

31

GAMEKEEPER

14

GUNDOGS

39

COUNTRY DIARY

18

BALLISTICS

44 GUNDOGS

24

OPTICS

46

VINTAGE TIMES

28

PIGEON
SHOOTING

48

SPORTING
ANSWERS

32

DISABLED
SPORT

53

CROSSWORD

58

SHARPSHOOTER

* I>EEJ?D=J?C;I9EKDJHOC7=7P?D;

NEWS

High numbers of both red
stags and roe deer are
being shot out of season

37,000 Scottish deer culled
The Forestry Commission Scotland culled more than 37,000 deer by
out-of-season and night shooting, using a standing “general licence”

A

freedom of
information request
has revealed heavy
and increasing
out-of-season culling and
night shooting by Forestry
Commission Scotland (FCS).
The recently released
figures show that in 2017-2018
Forestry Commission staff and
contractors shot 37,115 deer;
16,746 of them out of season and
14,556 at night. All-night
shooting and out-of-season
licences are only allowed

A standing “general licence”’
issued annually allows the yearround shooting of male deer and
the shooting of females outside
the period 1 April to 31 August
in enclosed woodland.
Additional licences held by the
FCS allow out-of-season shooting
in unenclosed woodland and night
shooting of deer using vehiclemounted spotlights.
The trend towards greater
use of out-of-season culling has
particularly affected red deer.
In the period 2010 to 2016, out-

of stags culled by the Forestry
Commission Scotland were shot
out of season in 2017-2018.
The widespread use of
thermal-imaging devices has
increased the effectiveness of
night shooting. Consequently,
authorisation of night shooting
has increased dramatically.
Numbers of red deer shot at
night have tripled from 1,573 in

2010-2011 to 4,513 in 2017-2018.
Numbers of roe deer shot at
night have increased even more

significantly — from 2,829 in
2010-2011 to 7,425 in 2017-2018.
The increase in the night shooting
of roe does has also been marked,
with more than 50 per cent of
all females now shot at night, up
from 27 per cent in 2010-2011.
Matt Cross

ALAMY / BEAT MEDIA

“Seventy-five per cent of red
stags culled were shot out of
season in 2017 to 2018”
when “no other means of control
which might reasonably be
adopted in the circumstances
would be adequate”.
Out-of-season and night
shooting of deer in Scotland
are illegal in most situations.

of-season culls made up less
than 50 per cent of red deer
culling. This rose to 55 per cent
in 2016-2017 and to 68 per cent
in 2017-2018. The trend has
been especially strong with male
red deer; almost 75 per cent

, I>EEJ?D=J?C;I9EKDJHOC7=7P?D;

The use of thermal imaging has made night shooting of deer much easier


Email your stories /

Shooting boost to economy
A new report, commissioned
by the Scottish Government
and authored by the James
Hutton Institute in Aberdeen,
highlights the vital role that
grouse moors play in the
economic success of the
Scottish uplands.
The authors of
Socioeconomic and
biodiversity impacts of driven
grouse moors in Scotland
point out that all the country’s
grouse moors are sited on
areas of extremely poor
agricultural ground.
It would be unsuitable
for alternative use such as
sheep farming, forestry and
windfarms without hefty
taxpayer subsidies.
In contrast, there is

no government subsidy
for grouse shooting in
Scotland. Nonethless, grouse
shooting creates 2,500
full-time equivalent jobs and
a total gross value added
contribution of £23million
to the Scottish economy.

What would you rather shoot?
22% Red hind
27% Muntjac buck
42% Roebuck
9% Roe doe
follow us @shootingtimes

Respondents: 189

To do this week
Alex Hogg points out that shooting doesn’t drain the public purse

Alex Hogg, chairman of
the Scottish Gamekeepers
Organisation, said: “Some
groups seeking to ban
grouse shooting have been
promoting the idea that
grouse moors can be used
for other activities like
horticulture and housing.

“Some of these moors
are Sites of Special Scientific
Interest, with fragile habitats,
and they have not considered

the level of public subsidy
it takes to keep other rural
activities afloat.
“Not everyone loves
grouse shooting and we
accept that, but there needs
to be an acknowledgment,
as the report states, that
many benefits are derived
from an activity which is not
going cap in hand all the time
to the public purse or relying
on charity,” he added.

Gundog winners at Crufts
An Irish water spaniel,
German wirehaired pointer,
golden retriever and Spanish
water dog were the top four
in the gundog class at Crufts
this year.
Judith Curruthers, owner
of winner Lester, the Irish
water spaniel, confirmed that

Weekend Twitter poll

she intends to train him to
retrieve in the shooting field.
She added that he
hadn’t done much before
because he was “a bit of a
whiner as a puppy”.
Sharon Pinkerton of
Bareve, the owner of Esmee,
the German wirehaired

Sharon Pinkerton’s Esmee, a German wirehaired pointer, at Crufts

pointer that won second
prize, said proudly that
Esmee: “has picked-up
on driven shoots and seems
to really enjoy it”.
However, due to time
constraints, she added that
they haven’t had time for
formal field trials.
Far from being a
pampered pooch, Esmee
reportedly celebrated her
victory “with a good run
around the fields” and
then nodded off.
Golden retrievers made

up the highest number of
entries in the gundog breed
category, with 537.
Gundogs also did well
in the UK vulnerable breed’s
group. A curlycoated retriever
took the reserve honours,
with other the finalists
including a Clumber spaniel,
a Sussex spaniel and
a Gordon Setter.

Visit the annual

A T T E N D Deer Stalking

Fair, held at the Border Union
Showground in Kelso, from 23-24
March. If you’re feeling lucky, buy a raffle
ticket in aid of research into motor
neurone disease and you could win
a Brock & Norris custom-built rifle.
Other highlights include Scottish
Natural Heritage presenting its Best
Practice Wild Deer Initiative, which
provides guidance on the law, public
safety, food safety and deer welfare.
There will also be butchery and cooking
demonstrations from top chefs. Visit
www.deerstalkingfair.co.uk.

The

S U R V E Y Gamekeepers’
WelfareTrusthasorganiseda
confidentialonlinesurveytojudge
howbesttohelpthosein need. It only
takes10minutesto
completeandall
gamekeepers,
stalkersand
gilliesshouldlet
theirthoughts
beknown.To
takethesurvey
visit.po.st/
GWTsurvey.

I>EEJ?D=J?C;I9EKDJHOC7=7P?D; -


NEWS
EVENTS DIARY

To record the woodcock’s
whereabouts the GWCT has
experimented with GPS loggers

23-24 MARCH
DEERSTALKING FAIR
Border Union

Showground, Kelso
www.deerstalkingfair.
co.uk
26 APRIL
RED SQUIRREL
CONFERENCE
University of
Exeter, Devon
www.redsquirrel
conference.co.uk

28 APRIL
GAMEKEEPERS’
WELFARE TRUST
CHARITY CLAY SHOOT
Selkirk, Scottish Borders
braidwood@
bisleyshooting.co.uk
4 M AY
NGO TEAM FLUSH
Six Mile Bottom Shoot,
Suffolk
www.national
gamekeepers.org.uk

Woodcock data
gives new insight
An extensive tagging programme has provided
researchers with vital insight into this mysterious bird
Newly released research from the

GWCT has given further insight into
thefascinatingandmysteriouslives
of the UK’s wintering woodcock.
Scientists from the GWCT
have been fitting tiny satellite
tags, weighing less than 10g,
to woodcock to study their
migrations. The tags use a solarpowered battery that transmits

their breeding sites from late
September to late October.
Tagginghasalsoprovidedsome
interestinginformationontheareas
that woodcock use. It was found
that birds on the same wintering
sitecomefromamixtureofdifferent
breeding grounds and that they
return to the same breeding and
wintering sites year on year.

“One bird has flown nearly
24,000 miles in its lifetime”

ALAMY

2 5 M AY
COUNTRYSIDECHARITY
CLAY SHOOT
West Wycombe,
Buckinghamshire

hayley.williams@basc.
org.uk

for 10 hours in every 58. Orbiting
satellites then triangulate the
position of the tag and pass the
data on to researchers.
The tags record the routes the
birds are using, where they breed
and where they rest during their
migrations. The data has shown
that the birds are typically leaving
their wintering sites in mid-March
to early April and departing

. I>EEJ?D=J?C;I9EKDJHOC7=7P?D;

Some of the most striking
findings relate to the distances
that woodcock migrate and
the time it takes them to do
so. Migrations from northern
Norway were found to take three
weeks, whereas birds flying to
the UK from central Russia took
eight weeks. Three tagged birds
travelled around 4,000 miles
annually to breeding sites in

Siberia. Incredibly, one male bird

is estimated to have flown nearly
24,000 miles in its lifetime.
As well as ringing birds and
fitting satellite tags, the GWCT
has been experimenting with the
use of GPS loggers which record
the birds’ whereabouts with great
accuracy, but which have to be
physically recovered from the
bird. Seven birds carrying these
trackers have been caught and the
data recovered.
Two of the birds, Fuchsia and
Blue, wintered in the Russian
Republic of Karelia near the border
with Finland. However, they
displayed remarkably different
ways of returning to the UK. While
Fuchsia chose to stick to the north
European coast followed by a short
hop across the English Channel,
Blue flew across the North Sea
from Denmark to the Norfolk coast
then on to Cornwall.
Matt Cross


Email your stories /

Diets of fish-eating

birds examined
Aspartofongoingresearch
intothedeclineoftheAtlantic
salmon,astudyintothe
dietarymake-upoffisheatingbirdsisstartingon
fourrivers;theTweed,the
Nith,theSpeyandtheDee.
Theinvestigationisbeing
carriedoutbyMarineScotland
andlicensedbyScottish
NaturalHeritage.Itinvolves
takingasmallnumberof
goosanderandcormorant
fordietaryanalysis.
FayHieatt,theclerk
commissionerofthe
RiverTweedCommission
told ShootingTimes:
“Inthepastfiveyears
wehaveseenasignificant
riseincormorantsand
wanttodiscoverwhat
thecomponents of their
dietare.
“Thelasttimeasurvey
wasdonewediscoveredthat
theirmaindietwaseels—
however,therearenowhardly
any eels in this river.”

NEWS IN BRIEF

BGA gets financial
support from BASC

The study will show if the birds’ diet is leading to fewer salmon

Sheaddedthatthe
Commissionisnotallowed
tocullthebirdsunderScottish
law.However,itdoeshave
apiscivorousbirdlicencebut
thisisrestrictedtoscaring
toprotectsmolts.
WealsospoketoJonathan
Mackereth,agillieonthe
LowerFloorsbeat,and
askedhimhisviewsonacull.
Hesaid:“Itwouldbemuch
simpler but obviously would

needtobepassedby the
powersthatbe.”
FishingontheriverTweed
generatesabout£24million
for thelocaleconomy
andsupportsaround
500jobs.Officialfigures
presentedtotheriverTweed
commissionersshowedthe

totalsalmoncatchin2018
was6,129—morethan
15,000catchesdown
on five years ago.

GPs can object to firearms
GPswhoobjecttothe
possessionoffirearmshave
beenadvisedthattheycan
declinetoprovideamedical
reportinresponsetoa
patient’sfirearms licence
application.
Theadvicewasgiven
byJoGalvin,medicolegal
consultantteamleader
atMedicalProtection,in
responsetoaqueryon the
GPonlinewebsite.
Ifdoctorshavea
conscientiousobjectionto
gunownership,theyshould
replytothepoliceletter within
21daysstatingthis.
Inaddition,conscientious
objectorsareinstructedthat
theydonothavetoarrange
foranotherGPtosupply
thereport.However,they
areencouragedtofinda

colleague willing to assist

inthefirearmscertificate
applicationwherethe
applicantneedsafirearmfor
work,suchasinthecaseof
gamekeepers and farmers.

A GP’s stance on firearms could
delay any firearm application

Patientsshouldalso
bemadeawareoftheGP
practicestance on firearms
inadvance.
JackKnott,campaigns
managerattheCountryside
Alliance,commented:“Not
everyGPisopenfornew
applicantsandnoteveryGP
isclosetowhereyouliveand
work—itisnoteasytochange
GPsurgerieseither.
“Thisisanotherdelayin
thecertificateapplication
processwhichshooters
shouldbeawareof.Wehave
alsoheardofGPpractices
bandingtogetherwhoare
conscientiousobjectors.

TheHomeOfficeGuideon
FirearmsLicensingsaysthat
theshootingcommunity
shouldnotbedisadvantaged
bythisprocess–butdelaying
applications does this.”

TheBritishGameAlliance(BGA)has
gainedmonetarysupportfromBASC,
whichhasalsogivenaccesstoexpert
stafftohelpsecurethefutureofshooting.
ABGAspokesmantold Shooting
Times thatitsmainincomein2018had
beenfrom£130,000ofsubscriptions,
donationsof£290,000andavoluntary
gunlevywhichraised£66,000.
BASCcouncilmemberPeter
Watson,whohasjoinedtheBGAboard,
commented:“BASCandtheBritish
GameAllianceareworkingtogether
toensurethatassuredgamemeat
entersthefoodchainandthattheBGA
Assurancescheme,whichreferences
the CodeofGoodShooting Practice,
is adhered to.”

Pheasant shooting
legal challenge lost
BASC, the Countryside Alliance
(CA) and National Gamekeepers’

Organisation (NGO) have lost their
legal challenge to overturn Natural
Resources Wales’s ban on pheasant
shooting on the Welsh Government
Woodland Estate.
The Honourable Mr Justice Andrew
Baker refused permission for a judicial
review of the decision and ruled the
application out of time.
A spokesman for the bodies
involved commented: “The three
organisations would like to thank the
shooting community within Wales and
further afield for their support. We may
not have got
the result we
wanted but the
legal challenge
was the right
thing to do,
and we will
all continue
to fight for
the rights of
shooters and
evidencebased public
policy.”

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM
@SHOOTINGTIMESUK

I>EEJ?D=J?C;I9EKDJHOC7=7P?D; /


PRODUCTS

Visit us online / shootinguk.co.uk

From the gun shop
Our weekly round-up of the best and latest must-have kit on the shelf
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LETTERS

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ALAMY

Wereservetherighttoeditletters.Nolettershouldexceed250
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This week’s cover image was
captured by Nick Ridley

Beavers cause havoc across the pond
Further to Richard Hardy’s
article about beaver
introductions (The anarchist
in our rivers, 6 March), BBC2
showed a programme called
Natural World — Beavers
Behaving Badly. It recounts
the havoc created by beavers
around the town of Jackson
Hole in Wyoming, US. The
Wyoming Game & Fish
Department has had to employ
a full-time ranger to trap
and relocate beavers whose
activities cause flooding, which

threatens local properties.
Where will the rewilders find
the funds and new locations
to do this in the UK? Usually
rewilding enthusiasts argue

that the reintroduction
of extinct animals trumps
all modern way of life
considerations, so affected
people should accept the
losses, move or society should
pick up the bill. I would like to
see how they sell this in today’s
political and economic climate.
Despite the good work done
by the Wyoming ranger, many
troublesome beavers are being
illegally shot around the town.
This could be another potential
flashpoint with the antis.
I would recommend that
Richard continues his research
and sharpens his factual
arguments against the
rewilding of beavers on his

beloved Wessex chalkstreams.
I once read some serious
research into the impact

of beavers on local wildlife
in Wyoming. It reported that
initially their ponds significantly
improved water-based wildlife
but, over time, silting and
barriers created by the beavers’
dams caused a major decline
of fish that need to migrate
to upstream spawning redds.
Beavers instinctively
react to all water that bypass
their dams so that fish
ladders were soon blocked.
The Wyoming Game & Fish
Department had no solution
to this problem.
C. Norris, by email

IN ASSOCIATION WITH AIGLE
The winner of Letter of the Week will receive a pair of Aigle’s
Parcours 2 Vario wellington boots. Keeping your feet
comfortable, these boots will be the perfect
addition to your country attire. For more
information, visit www.aigle.com.

MINK AND THEIR
SAFE DESPATCH
I am extremely concerned that
you published an image showing
someone despatching a mink

at some distance from the cage
with a shotgun (A raft of change,
27 February). As a keeper with
50 years’ experience, including
trapping a large number of mink in
that time, I feel that a .22 at pointblank range would be safer, more
efficient and cause less damage
to the trap or cage than the
method depicted in your image.
G. Gall, Perthshire

Mike Swan responds:
Photographs can be deceptive. At
10 paces, using an ordinary game
load of No.6 lead shot, a mink is
reliably killed every time with no
damage to the heavy weldmesh of
the trap. For the many people who
do not have a firearms certificate
but do own a shotgun, this gives
a simple solution. In many ways
a .22 rimfire is overkill and the
bullet is bound to pass through

'( I>EEJ?D=J?C;I9EKDJHOC7=7P?D;

the mink, possibly damaging
the trap on exit. This is why the
GWCT-preferred method uses
a powerful air pistol at pointblank range, with the aid of trap

combs to restrain the mink for
a reliable cranium shot. You
need .177 calibre, with pointed
steel Prometheus pellets to get
adequate penetration. All this
is described in full detail in the
GWCT’s mink raft leaflet, visit
po.st/minkraft.

GENERAL AND
SPECIALIST

They are not dependent
on any one food source but can
change and adapt their diet to suit
whatever is available. We have
all seen buzzards following the
plough for worms and grubs, as
well as killing and eating released
pheasant poults, while the
corvids will happily rake through
our rubbish for scraps of food.
All this extra food we make
available to these predators
allows more of them to survive
lean times and produce more
offspring, while specialist
predators cannot adapt the same
way to changing conditions so

As a 70-year-old who has had
a lifelong interest in nature,
shooting and fishing, wherever
I go I subconsciously observe
habitat and behavioural changes
of the wildlife I encounter. Over
the past half a century I have
witnessed a great increase in the
numbers of general predators
such as foxes, badgers, buzzards,
crows and magpies, which all
seem to benefit one way or
another from human activity.

The goosander’s normal diet is
generally small fish and the odd eel


Email your letters /
PONDERING
ON PONDS
Richard Negus gives
much food for thought
in his article about what
is sporting in regard to
flightponds (Sporting
or greedy?, 6 March).
Being both a coastal
wildfowler and an occasional
flightpond shooter, I can

see the joys of both forms
of shooting. But I share his
concern about exploitation
of wild duck on ponds just
inside the sea wall.
This is particularly the
case when you consider
the rigmarole that many
wildfowling clubs have
to go through to negotiate
their modest use of coastal
Sites of Special Scientific
Interests with Natural
England/Natural Resources
Wales, while watching the
nearby flightpond shooters

populations drop. However,
I have been observing a specialist
predator adapting to changing
conditions and this has allowed
its population to increase
dramatically. The goosander is
a predator of small fish including
salmon and sea trout smolts.
My wife and I regularly walk
the banks of the river Teith at
the Callander Meadows in the
Trossachs. Many people come
here to eat their fish suppers or

bring bread to feed the mallards,
swans and gulls. It is there that
I have observed the unusual
behaviour of the goosanders.
Usually they would remain
out in midriver away from
the majority of ducks, diving
occasionally and catching the
odd small fish or eel. But last
year I noticed that some were
swimming among the ducks
when they were all trying to
grab the bread and scraps
being thrown to them. At first
I thought that the goosanders

taking what they want
without regulation.
As an aside, I have to
question how many “muddy
fish” tasting shovelers
Richard has eaten? Like him,
I rarely shoot one but when I
offered a brace in a taste test
with mallard to some dinner
part guests, no one could
tell which was which.
M. Swan, Shooting
Times contributor

were feeding on minnows
and other small fish attracted
by the crumbs in the water.
However, I noticed that
a goosander was actually
squabbling with the ducks and
grabbing pieces of bread.
Last week we had a run out
to Callander and ended up at
the riverside with a fish supper,
along with lots of other visitors,
many of whom were feeding
bread and chips to the ducks and
birds. There were three pairs of
goosanders among the throngs
of ducks and they were catching
scraps and eating them. One
handsome male goosander was
jumping up on to the bank and
taking chips thrown to him.
I have noticed a great increase
in the numbers of goosanders on
this half-mile stretch of the river
in recent years and, last spring,
I counted 13 pairs on it, at a time
when hard-pressed populations
of salmon and sea trout smolts
would be migrating through it

on their way to the sea.

My theory is that the
goosander has become
a generalist, subsisting on
an unusual chip and bread diet
during lean times on the river,
ensuring the survival of a greater
breeding population.
The increased predation
by these additional birds may
be another factor that is having
a detrimental affect on the
survival of salmon smolts
heading for the Forth estuary.
Perhaps those people who
are investigating the depletion
of our salmon and sea trout
stocks may wish to consider
this factor as one reason. When
I got home, I checked my bird
books and every one said that
the diet of the goosander was
fish. I think these should now be
rewritten to say “fish and chips”.
R. B. Smith, by email

NEXT WEEK IN

OPEN DEBATE
Does choke matter, and
how much is too much?

WATER TRIUMPH
Turning a wet hole into a
sporting wonder: restoring
a flightpond.

FERRETS AND RHD2
First I would like to express my
delight reading more stories
regarding falconry. May this
continue — I know it is mainly
a shooting magazine but by
and large we all share the
same interests.
My main concern is the
spread of rabbit haemorrhagic
disease 2, a horrible manmade illness now affecting our
beloved brown and blue hares.
Devastating in the least, it’s bad
enough with the decline of my
main quarry, the rabbit. Let’s
hope something can be done
soon to help stop its spread.
On reading the article (Can
we save the hare?, 27 February)
I wonder if this disease could be
passed on to ferrets. Many of us
feed our ferrets with rabbit, and
even our hawks. Perhaps Dr Bell
could tell us if this is possible.

G. Rose, by email

OUT WITH A BANG
How pigeon fans can make
the most of the last of
roost shooting.

FULL TO BURSTING
Drey poking in grey
squirrel-infested
woods in Kent.

Dr Diana Bell responds:
To my knowledge there is no
current evidence that RHDV2
can infect species other than
rabbits and hares.

‘‘The wildlife of today is not ours to dispose of as we please.
We have it in trust. We must account for it to those who
come after.’’ King George VI

... AND MUCH MORE!

I>EEJ?D=J?C;I9EKDJHOC7=7P?D; ')


Dog breeding

From conception

to the day the first
puppies are sold
is around 18 weeks

The best start in life
The first litter of puppies from a prized gundog is a steep learning
curve; Jeremy Hunt charts the process from the mating onwards

O

N. RIDLEY / S. FARNSWORTH

ver the coming months,
many gundog bitches will
cast off the lissom figures
they acquired during
the shooting season. They will take
on a more matronly demeanour
of pregnancy as they are given the
important job of producing a litter
of spring or summer puppies. But
how prepared are first-time owners
for what lies ahead?
From conception to the day the
first puppies are sold is around 18
weeks — a time when high standards
of management and care of the bitch
and her whelps are essential. Yet all too
often it’s the inexperience of novice
owners that triggers problems which

could so easily have been avoided.

Tip-top condition
To help achieve a pregnancy in the
first place a bitch needs to be in good
physical condition. If the shooting
season has taken its toll, increase her
daily feed ration but also make sure

she is receiving a high-quality diet of
around 26 per cent protein; not only
more food but also better-quality food.
Make note the first day of the heat
and get in touch with your vet as soon
as you see the first blood spots. You
must take a blood test to assess the
bitch’s progesterone level. At Fenway
Labradors, we usually take the first
blood test around day eight. The test
will pinpoint the ovulation date and
enable you to plan the mating.

this happens they will not conceive.
The progesterone test, while an extra
cost, can mean the difference between
a litter and no litter. We always give a
wheat-germ supplement from the first
day of the heat and continue with it for
about three weeks.
Make sure your bitch has had a

wee prior to the mating but do not let
her do so again until about two hours
afterwards for obvious reasons. We
keep our bitches calm and quiet for

“A lot of bitches will appear to want
to mate — and may even be mated — despite
the fact that they have not ovulated”
Don’t simply assume that a bitch
which is standing for another bitch
or turning her tail is an indication that
the time is right to mate. A lot of bitches
will appear to want to mate and may
even be mated by a dog despite the
fact that they have not ovulated. When

'* I>EEJ?D=J?C;I9EKDJHOC7=7P?D;

at least two weeks after a mating —
so no stressful situations or vigorous
exercise or jumping. I believe it just
gives everything time to settle.
Feeding should continue as normal
until the sixth week of the pregnancy
but always provide a high-quality diet.


Image © Richard Faulks

Keep a close

eye on the
amount the
puppies eat

version_2_2018/9

During week six, we start to increase
the feed so that the bitch is soon getting
about twice her normal daily ration,
probably fed in three feeds. If complete
diets are proving too “bulky”, consider
introducing some raw feed. The aim
at this stage is for quality nutrition
that will ensure a good milk supply,
a healthy bitch and strong whelps.
Avoid any situations that may
stress the bitch, particularly during
late pregnancy. I know of occasions
when in-whelp bitches exercised in
public places have had a contretemps
with another dog and the seemingly
assured pregnancy has been
“absorbed” because of the trauma.

Successful whelping
Stay with the bitch during the
whelping. She will want to scratch
and make a bed so try tearing up
newspapers into strips ahead of the
big day. Bitches love it and you can

replenish it during the whelping.
First-time owners are always
surprised at how messy a whelping
can be. Once over, clean out the bed
and replace with fleece bedding for
the bitch and puppies. This will need
changing regularly as liquids will
“wick” through the fabric.

Whelping help
Ensure the bitch has plenty of torn-up newspaper
to make a bed.

At BASC we look after a
membership of over 155,000 –
more than any other organisation
in the UK.
As a member you will automatically
receive:
• Liability, personal accident and legal
expenses insurance to protect you*
• Shooting opportunities for members
• Exclusive offers from trade members and
partners to save you money

And as a member you can also access
tailored additional** insurance covers for:

Clean the bed thoroughly after whelping and
provide fleece bedding; you should change it often.

• Working dogs
• Guns and shooting equipment
• Shoot cancellation

Give the bitch goat’s milk with honey to keep
her hydrated during the whelping and for a few
days after.

And there is more...

But do provide water too.

To see the exclusive BASC member offers go
to basc.org.uk/membersoffers

Pig rails on the whelping pen will help to prevent the
puppies from being squashed.

To join BASC, visit basc.org.uk/join-basc or
call 01244 573 030 during office hours.

Ensure all her teats are being emptied.
Encourage your bitch to eat by providing goodquality, high-protein food.

*Exclusions apply, see the BASC website for full details.
**Additional fees apply.
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation is authorised and regulated
by the Financial Conduct Authority ref 311937
The insurance aspect of your membership is a non-advised sale and includes

Insurance Premium Tax. BASC arranges insurance and the Insurer(s) provide it.


Dog breeding
can cause diarrhoea in young puppies.
IjWhj m[Wd_d] fkff_[i Wj WhekdZ j^h[[
weeks. If you use one of the top puppyweaning foods the palatability is so
good that they will take it soaked and
mushed from the outset.

Sensible puppy feeding

Keep a close eye on the weight of the puppies as this will help in knowing how much to feed them

During the whelping a bitch loses
W bWh][ Wcekdj e\ b_gk_Z$ I^[ m_bb Wbie
be stressed and probably panting if
she is under a heat lamp. Take steps to
avoid dehydration because the sooner
the bitch can start producing copious
amounts of milk the better.

Goat’s milk mixture
Many people underestimate how
dehydrated a bitch becomes during
W m^[bf_d]$ ;nf[Yj_d] j^[c je Zh_da
enough water is a waste of time, so
throughout the whelping we give
goat’s milk with some honey dissolved
with a little warm water. Because

bitches need this intake of liquid to be
maintained for the days immediately
afterwards, we never rely on her to
take in water voluntarily — though
it is always on offer.

The main priority is to get a bitch
eating well as soon as you can after
the whelping. However, most bitches
feel lacklustre and often refuse their
normal food. We feed boiled chicken
and chicken stock to bitches for three
or four days after whelping. It’s a great
source of protein and the liquid stock
fuels milk production.
We gradually switch over to
a complete feed for the rest of the
lactation. We ensure it is one of the
top-quality feeds available for bitches
nursing a litter, with protein content
of around 30 per cent. Cost should not
be an issue, so feed the best you can.
If your puppies are in a kennel
outside you will need a heat lamp. The
height of the lamp above the litter is
critical — its job is to keep the puppies
warm, not to “bake” the bitch in the

Feeding puppies from three weeks
to the time they leave at about eight

weeks is often handled badly by
novices. By three weeks a litter should
be getting four meals a day. Watch the
puppies eat and keep a close eye on
their weight for guidance on steadily
increasing their intake.
Feed too much and you get tummy
upsets; feed too little and puppies
Zed¿j ]hem$ =[j _j ifej ed WdZ oek m_bb
have super, healthy puppies. In many
cases, puppies do not get fed enough,
nor fed often enough, in the last three
weeks before they leave. From six to
seven weeks they will be increasingly
less reliant on the bitch. Wean
carefully and keep a close eye on
the bitch’s teats and milk supply.
The first three weeks of rearing
a litter should have the bitch as the
prime focus and she’ll need up to four
feeds a day. Don’t skimp here — she
needs all the help she can get.
When the puppies start to eat solid
food your work really starts, but the
more time you devote to rearing a
litter the easier it will be. There will
be less risk of problems and the health
of the bitch and her puppies will be
a testament to all your efforts.

“Feed too much and you get tummy upsets;
feed too little and puppies don’t grow”
;dikh[ j^[ m^[bf_d] Xen _i bWh][
enough for the bitch to stretch out
and fit a pig rail to avoid puppies being
squashed against the sides. Most
bitches tend to prefer to lie on one
particular side — a preference that can
lead to some teats not being emptied
fully, especially if it’s a small litter.
To check all the teats are emptied
evenly, remember which way your
bitch’s head was facing when you let
her out to relieve herself. If you do that
you can ensure that when she returns
her head is facing the other way to
make the other side of the teats more
available to the puppies.

process. You may have to adjust the
height of the lamp above the whelping
box, especially if you feel the bitch
and puppies are becoming too warm.
It’s equally important to position
the lamp so that it gives direct heat
to one end of the whelping box rather
than in the centre. It means the
puppies and the bitch can gain some
respite by moving away from it if they
feel it is too warm.

Make sure puppies are wormed at
two-and-a-half to three weeks, then at
five weeks and again at seven weeks.
Ask your vet about using a product
that will also eliminate giardia, which

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The more time you put in to raising a litter, the
easier it is to produce happy, healthy puppies


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Shotgun ballistics

Making a killing
We owe it to our quarry always to attempt a quick death but how
much difference does shot size make? Mike Swan investigates

M.SWAN / H.HUNT / P. QUAGLIANA / A. HOOK / D. GOULD

A

couple of days ago I shot a
female mallard that was so
clearly falling that I took
my second shot at another
bird,” I wrote in a letter to Shooting
Times in 1986. “After this the first bird
levelled out, climbed and flew on
for a couple of hundred yards before
planing down on to a tidal creek.
“After settling, the bird rolled
over and died. When plucked it had
14 pellet entries; 11 in the body and

three through the muscles of the left
wing. Three pellets had passed right
through, including one through the
heart, but there were no pellets in the
head or neck.”
The point of this tale, as I wrote all
those years ago, is that you can put

pellets into supposedly vital organs
but you need to hit the brain or neck
to cause instant collapse. You could
say that I nearly missed that bird
behind, but it is also fair to point
out that No.7 pellets — lead in those
days — went right through. They were
perfectly adequate to kill that mallard
outright if I had hit the sharp end.
We are all notoriously bad at range
estimation, but I’ll say that mallard
was about 30 yards away.

Pellet post-mortem
Incidentally, this story shows that
the supposedly fatal “shock” effect
of several pellets in the body is
nonsense. Like my father
before me, I am a

“There is a fashion for heavy
20-bores to fire what are 12-bore

loads at high pheasants”

'. I>EEJ?D=J?C;I9EKDJHOC7=7P?D;

wildfowler and roughshooter. For the
past 50 years, I have taken my birds
home and dressed them for the table.
This has given me an opportunity
to post-mortem and relate how a bird
died to where the pellets went. I’ll
bed]h[c[cX[hW9WdWZW]eei[j^Wj
dropped with a broken wing but was
alive with its head up on the mud when
the rest of the skein passed out of sight.
Its body had multiple shot holes — again
with some right through — but I still had
to break its neck when I retrieved it.
Then there was a recent right-andleft at mallard; look at the picture
(above right) and speculate which died


in the air: the one with a couple of
pellets in the neck, or that with eight
or nine shots to the body? The answer
should be obvious by now.

Keep watching
Have you ever “missed” a bird, only
for it to collapse after flying on for 200
yards or so? You should always watch

after you shoot, especially if you
see a feather or two come floating
down. Remember that shotgun
shooting is not an exact business;
you are throwing a random scatter
of shot at a moving target. When you
also realise that the head and neck
of a pheasant is not much bigger than
a clay pigeon viewed side on, you will
realise how easy it is to hit the body
but not the real target.
I’ve looked at a lot of those
“droppers”, from pigeons that
land in a distant tree then
collapse, to ducks that tumble
out of the sky after 20 seconds,
and pheasants that land and die.
In pretty much all cases, they
have at least one pellet through
the heart, and probably some lung
damage too.

The fatal
“shock” effect
of several
pellets is
nonsense

Many so-called
“droppers” have

at least one
pellet through
the heart

Always keep
an eye out for
collapsed birds
after you shoot


Shotgun ballistics
Part of the reason for this article
is Tom Payne’s account of testing
.410s (Can you kill cleanly with smallbore guns?, 28 November 2018), and
the correspondence that followed.
However good you think you are with a
.410, it stands to reason that the heaviest
obtainable load, at about 19g, cannot
compete with 30g through a 12-bore.
I’m glad that Tom came down against
using .410s for serious gameshooting.

Changes in the market
Having recently taken on a 20-bore for
rough shooting, I am also bemused by
what has happened to the cartridge
market since I used one as a teenager.
There is a fashion for heavy 20-bores
to fire what are basically 12-bore loads
at high pheasants. My whole reason for

the 20 is to carry a lighter gun and less
weight of cartridges when pottering
about the woods. I need to be
mindful of slightly lesser capabilities,
of course, but most of my rough
shooting is not long-range work.
Let’s be clear, lots of people are
kidding themselves about their
supposed prowess with small bores.
If you push 18g or 19g through a .410
you might just as well use a 28-bore.
Similarly, 30g or 32g through a 20-bore
would be better in a 12. If you argue

SHOT SIZE FOR LEAD SUBSTITUTES
The past 25 years have brought a whole
raft of new questions, for wildfowlers in
particular but also for those shooting
over wetland Sites of Special Scientific
Interest, and anyone shooting over wet
places in Scotland. I am still amazed
at how little understanding some have
when it comes to lead substitutes.
Steel is significantly less dense
than lead, so you need bigger pellets
to get the same pellet weight. The
conventional wisdom is to go up
two sizes.
I think Tom would have been more
satisfied with his .410 performance with

smaller shot than No.5s. I like relatively
small shot. Those No.7s passing through
that mallard at 30 yards tell me that
penetration is perfectly adequate at
that range. If you want to maximise
the range at which you can reliably kill

“A clean kill is even more important
on the shore, where a wounded duck
can dive and make its escape in a trice”
that the smaller bore is lighter, you will
be punishing yourself unnecessarily —
there is a maxim that says to keep recoil
under control, you need 6lb of gun
for every ounce of shot. It is also true
that a gun is likely to pattern best when
firing nothing longer than a square
load; where the length of the shot
charge is no more than its diameter.
That amounts to 36g for a 12-bore, 23g
for a 20, and about 12g for a .410.

game with a magnum .410, I’d suggest
a 19g trap load of No.7½s or No.8s.
Lately I’ve been very happy with
the performance of 21g loads of No.7½
through my 20-bore. This will be
giving me a pellet count not far short
of 28g of No.7s, which was for many
years my favourite all-round load for

everything from decoying foreshore
ducks to pigeons, woodcock and
“normal” driven pheasants.

A gun is likely to pattern
best when firing nothing
longer than a square load

(& I>EEJ?D=J?C;I9EKDJHOC7=7P?D;

Bismuth is similar density to lead
so stick with the same shot size. These
days,frustratingly,No.5s seem to be the
smallestavailable.Ihaveasmallstockof
6s that I consider better for wigeon and
teal, not to mention the odd snipe.
TungstenMatrixissimilardensitytolead
so the same size rule applies, but again
I cannot trace smaller shot than No.5s.
HEVI-Shot is marginally denser
than lead but be cautious about the
hype; stick to the same size and do not
expect miracles.
When I started wildfowling, my
father issued me with game loads
of No.6s but I soon graduated to
^_i \Wlekh[Z beWZ » ;b[o >ocWn _d
No.6 but 36g rather than 30g. His
explanation was not extended range
but rather a denser pattern, so that

teal were more likely to be killed
cleanly. This is always important
but never more so than on the shore,
where a wounded duck on water can
dive and make its escape.
I tested his advice and tried No.5s
for extra knockdown but it did not
take me long to realise that there were
more divers and fewer dead birds.
The key things for me are having
a dense enough pattern to reliably
hit the head or neck, sufficient
pellet energy to break the spine,
then pointing your gun at the front.
7i W :ehi[j \Whc[h iW_Z je c[ m^[d
I knocked a tail feather out of a
pheasant: “Never mind the a***,
boy, shoot it in the head and the
a*** will die.”