Ordinary deerstalkers and gameshooters could be the first to suffer following the publication of the Scottish Land Reform Bill last week. The bill, which aims to widen the ownership of land throughout the country, includes proposals to end the exemption on business rates for shooting estates, which landowners have not…
Deer stalking
Magna Carta – how did it shape our fieldsports heritage?
As you stand patiently in a patch of woodland in any county of England waiting for a deer, with an equally patient tracking dog by your side, it might be worth considering where the freedom to do so came from in the first place. Back in the days after William…
Improving deer management
The British Deer Society (BDS) is renowned for its promotion of deer welfare and best practice management as well as for courses such as the Deer Stalking Certificate (DSC) 1 and 2, deer management and humane despatch. But did you know that part of its remit is to fund scientific…
Roebucks: is April too early to cull?
For the roebuck — whether mature or a youngster — the rut used to be when he was most likely to become a statistic of a successful stalk. Today, the period of danger has spread. It seems that April Fool’s Day — or the weeks following it — is when…
Have you booked your Shooting UK Event?
Shooting UK has now launched three exciting new events for the readers of Sporting Gun, Shooting Times, Shooting Gazette and The Field – and of course, visitors to the Shooting UK website. Whether you want to find out what jobs a gamekeeper has to do throughout the year, how you have a…
Holkham Hall Norfolk’s lady gamekeeper Catherine Leach
What springs to mind when you think of Holkham Hall in Norfolk? The fabulous beach featured in Shakespeare in Love? Perhaps the tremendous 25,000-acre estate that covers miles of shoreline and some of the most beautiful parts of Norfolk? What about the Victoria Inn, where you can sit and listen…
Scottish Roe Review 2014
Annual roe reviews offer a chance for a catch-up — a catch-up on what was recently harvested and, increasingly, a catch-up and a reflection on what has been harvested in years and sometimes decades past, then often left to moulder in man caves and cardboard boxes up and down the…
English and Welsh roe heads review 2014
Last November, new guidelines for the European species within the CIC’s Red Book — the “bible” of international trophy measuring — were published for internal use. The changes, in principle, will provide greater consistency of measuring throughout a species’ range and provide the trophy judges with clearer technical information. These…
RSPB deer cull under fire from animal rights campaigners
Animal rights activists have tried to stop an RSPB deer cull deer at the charity’s Leighton Moss nature reserve in Lancashire. Campaigners objected to plans to cull eight to 10 red deer before the end of March to protect reeds that provide vital habitat for birds including marsh harriers and…
Is the stalking community unprofessional in its approach to culling?
Kate Gatacre talks to a forester and a deer stalker about the conflict of deer versus crops to discuss if the shooting community is unprofessional in it's approach to culling
Survey confirms deer culling best practice
A new British Deer Society survey provides key pointers for deer culling best practice to help you achieve cleaner kills when stalking
Perhaps it’s time to get a moderator…
Want to shoot more accurately, bag more quarry and disturb the environment less? Perhaps it's time to get a moderator, suggests Charles Smith-Jones
Highland stalking vs lowland stalking
Iain Watson and Chris Rogers debate whether highland stalking or lowland stalking makes for finer sport
No reason not to use open sights on deer
Have you considered using open sights on deer? George Wallace says there's no reason not to and recommends you try "ghost rings"
Bullet placement when deer stalking
Stalking trends come and go. From calibres to optics, all have their time. Fashion also influences the shots we take, and currently the head or high neck shot seems to be in vogue. Of all the decisions a stalker makes, bullet placement is surely one of the most critical. Not…
How to spot the signs of the roe rut
The roe rut is different from that of other deer species. Here’s how to spot the signs
Ladies who stalk
It is a well- established fact that women are better than men at catching heavy and large numbers of salmon. It all began with Diana the Huntress. In Roman mythology Diana was associated with wild beasts, woodland, and the power to talk to and control animals. Though her name was eventually…
How to spot TB in deer
The first recorded instance of tuberculosis having been transferred from a cat to a human was reported recently. I wonder if this surprised any of us whose work involves animals. I have to say, it didn’t surprise me. TB, or to be exact, bovine TB, is what is classed as…
Stalking roebucks in the bluebells
At the start of the 20th-century, roe were almost extinct in southern England. Since then, their numbers have soared thanks to an increase in woodland planting and strategic reintroduction. In fact, roe are now the most widely distributed deer species in the UK, according to the most recent population survey…
A tick-ing time bomb
Turnstone writes: Two days ago I set about skinning and dressing a roebuck, a two-year-old, shot the previous evening. I have a suitable beam in a general tool-shed from which I can suspend and work on carcases and the animal was duly suspended. The little deer was still in the remains…