There are plenty of stalkers who poo-poo the notion of using a high seat: “That’s not stalking,” they say, “you’re not using any fieldcraft.” They do have a point. However, high seats can be one of the most useful tools in culling deer. They give you the chance to observe what is on a patch of ground,…
Deer stalking
Why land reform risks wiping out Scotland’s deer
Scotland’s Parliament has the devolved power to deal with land reform and land ownership, with the path to reform inevitable. But are the current proposals — which include the ending of tax relief for sporting estates and forced sales if owners block economic development — the best way forward for…
Which is the best stalking rifle on the market?
Stalking rifle: Sako, Ruger, Anderson Wheeler, Browning, Hollands, Westley Richards, Sauer, Remmington, Rigby, Blaser and more are all here. What is your favourite stalking rifle manufacturer?
The world’s smallest shoot?
Back in the 1970s I made a couple of life-changing decisions. I resigned from a secure job in banking to become a full-time writer, sold my house in suburbia and moved with my wife and four children to live in a remote area of the Shropshire-Welsh border hills. Friends told…
Four principles for better rifle skills
There are four marksmanship principles you need to hold firmly in mind if you want to improve your rifle skills: Aim, hold, sight and shot. These can be seen as the fundamentals of accurate shooting — and they must be utilised every time. They are easy to practise at home…
Working hill pony wins gamekeeper prize of £2,200 rangefinding binoculars
Tyree of Dalnacardoch from the Dalnacardoch Estate in Perthshire has scooped this year’s award for Working Hill Ponies at the GWCT Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace and won the Estate’s stalker and gamekeeper, Duncan Fernie, a valuable pair of Leica binoculars, ideal for Highland hill stalking. Rangefinding binoculars perfect…
Five Things You Mustn’t Miss At the CLA Game Fair
Come and see us Don’t leave the Game Fair without saying hello to us (stand T1505). We would love to meet you. Pick up a terrific offer of three months’ subscription to Shooting Times for £19.50 with a direct debit. Each new subscriber will receive a bottle of Naked Grouse whisky…
Scottish deer – a political animal
Earlier this year, Aileen Macleod, Scotland’s minister for environment, climate change and land reform, published a review of the Scottish National Party Government’s policy on deer and deer management — Scotland’s Wild Deer: a national approach. I feel an affinity towards the document because on the front cover it shows a…
Scottish Land Reform Bill could soar the price of shooting and stalking
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…
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