As sure as day follows night, hare coursing and the poaching of gamebirds and deer become more prevalent after harvest. The seasonal increase in poaching and rural crime generally isn’t…
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How to keep your pheasants close to home
Very often, it is the little things that make a difference and will keep your pheasants closer. This is never more accurate than when said in relation to the management…
Liam Bell on the latest raptor killing reporting
The silly season appears to have come early this year. Whether this is a direct result of journalists and press officers suffering from cabin fever because of the COVID-19 lockdown…
How to control foxes when they’ve become lamp shy
Lamping may be one of the most efficient ways to kill foxes but if you miss then, you'll have created a much fightier foe. Liam Bell outlines other options for…
What will be the long-term effect of COVID-19 on shooting?
What will be the longterm effect of COVID-19 on shooting?
How to use traps for pest control
How to use traps for predators
What is the closest to a footpath or public road you can legally use a shotgun?
Where a field is bordered by a public footpath, what is the minimum distance at which one can safely and legally shoot a shotgun?
How to hatch and rear your own pheasants
Many DIY shoots are looking at ways of reducing costs, and one way of achieving that is rearing pheasants yourself. There are plenty of benefits. You know where your birds…
No guarantees with this most wily foe the fox
It will come as no surprise that foxes are the UK’s biggest predator of both ground-nesting birds and released game. Because we don’t have large apex predators to assist with…
Eco Charger Eliminator 2 quad bike on test
As someone who has admired Elon Musk’s Tesla cars from afar, I was delighted and a little excited to be offered the use of the new fully electric Eco Charger…
How to make sure your game arrives on the plate in perfect condition
Keeping game in perfect condition Game as a meat is no different from any other product — if you want to increase its value and demand for it, it needs…
Maximising shoot returns
It is all very well saying that shooting is about the day and the size of the bag is almost an irrelevance. I agree that the number of birds in…
How to be an eco-friendly shooter
Eco-friendly shooting There is always something shoots can do to improve things and help reduce any negative effects we might be having on the environment, however small. In and…
Questions to ask when booking a driven day somewhere new
New shoot: The key things to cover with a prospective new shoot.
How to deal with redundancy when a shoot closes
If there is anything more upsetting and unsettling than impending redundancy, I have yet to hear of it. And for gamekeepers who have been given notice of a shoot closure…
Is there a minimum recommended calibre for a foxing rifle?
Fox control: Why do all the rifle experts have such a low opinion of the .22 rimfire for fox control? I have taken numerous foxes at ranges of 100 yards…
How to organise beaters’ day
As January approaches, thoughts of keepers, beaters and pickers-up are turning to the end-of- season cock’s or beaters’ days. Originally called keeper’s days — because they were gifted to the…
How do you safely shoot ground game?
At this time of year the same old topic of conversation crops up at shoots far and wide - namely the shooting of ground game and/or low birds.
This is how to put out the pegs
When I worked in Wales, not far away there was a rather elderly and eccentric estate owner, who employed a full-time keeper and shot six days. One of his more…
Keeping everyone happy on keeper’s day
As the season draws to a close, talk among the beaters and pickers-up is of the end-of-season keeper’s days. For many gamekeepers, it is the only day of the year they get to shoot pheasants.…