If you shoot but are not a member of any fieldsports organisations, does that make you a freeloader? It’s a contentious question. In January 2017, I wrote: “To me, enjoying your shooting without being a member of any fieldsports organisations is short-sighted and perhaps even selfish. Surely there is an…
Shooting
What happens when you shorten a rifle barrel?
Bruce Potts finds out what happens when you shorten a barrel and fire .270 Winchester rounds
Why sika deer are posing a threat to our native reds
Sika deer and Coco Chanel When I say ‘invasive non-native species’ the first thing to spring to your mind may be mink, the American signal crayfish or Rhododendron ponticum. It probably isn’t Coco Chanel. A keen angler and worthy of more Shooting Times column space than I can offer, Chanel…
What is the best shotgun cartridge and choke combination for pheasant shooting?
The right shotgun cartridge and choke combination for pheasant shooting could transform your days this coming season. There have been some major advances in shotgun cartridge technology in the past couple of years. To protect the environment shooters should use fibre wads. The Eley Hawk VIP Game cartridge comes in 28,…
This is how to take somebody night-time foxing for the first time
To those of us who do it regularly, night-time foxing is no big deal. For many others who have never, or rarely, been before, it can be a really memorable occasion. As a result, one of the things that Paul, my regular shooting partner, and I like to do is…
How to make an antler stick
The stick. The fact that you’re reading this suggests you probably have one — quite possibly several — and for hundreds of years a stout wooden pole has been the quintessential companion of those who venture into rural parts. Delving yet further into our species’ history, the simple stick has…
Why tweed is the original performance clothing
Ten years ago, I was invited by a Scandinavian clothing brand to cover the launch of a new range of shooting clothing. The grand unveiling would take place at a sporting lodge in Sweden, and there would be an opportunity to trial the clothing during a day’s driven wild boar…
How to hunt down a stalking permission
Some poor souls seem to labour in vain to locate even the smallest and least productive area where they might indulge their passion for deer stalking. Others, more fortunate, appear to find their permissions almost by accident. Is this no more than pure luck? In some cases, possibly, but with…
Walk on the wild side
Have you ever discovered that you have become fashionable by accident? Wildfowlers shared this experience a few years ago when metropolitan young men intentionally started sporting beards and looking unkempt. A game shooter’s garb, no longer ancient and malodorous, is now ‘cottagecore’, according to The Guardian’s fashion correspondent Priya Elan,…
15 of the best pheasant shoots in the UK that will be open next season
We’ve searched out a number of the best pheasant shoots around that will welcome shooters from October, with social distancing measures in place. Tregoyd, Powys If you like the challenge of tricky birds on a variety of terrain then this shoot is one you should visit. Situated to the south…
How to use a hide for pigeon shooting
Almost all of us, at some point over the course of a season, will end up shooting from a hide of some sort, be it a duck hide, grouse butt or, if you’re lucky, a dove blind. Each quarry species requires differing skills but the principles of shooting from a…
A beginners’ guide to FITASC clay pigeon shooting
FITASC sporting is a great leveller. If there's any weakness in your clay shooting technique, be it with your gun mounting or swing, this discipline will find it!
20 of the best UK pheasant shoots that will be open this season
Tregoyd, Powys If you like the challenge of tricky birds on a variety of terrain then this shoot is one you should visit. Situated to the south of Hay-on-Wye in stunning countryside. Visiting Guns are tested in every possible way in a mixture of woodland and open drives. And if…
The mighty stags of the English lowlands
Lockdown has been a time for daydreaming. Trapped indoors for days on end and confined to barracks during a beautiful spring, thoughts have now begun to return towards sporting ambitions. A friend in Yorkshire has nurtured a lifelong ambition to cast a fly into the Hampshire chalkstreams. He has been…
Five things to do to get your clayshooting back up to scratch again
After lockdown some of us will have lost our ‘edge’ and will need to improve clayshooting skills again. Almost all of us will be out of practice. Here I will highlight a few of the more common tendencies and unwelcome techniques that are likely to show up and catch us…
Just how good is a simulated game day?
I wanted to know whether a simulated game day can ever be as good as a full-on game shoot, or is it just a glorified form of clayshooting? So I booked an afternoon’s sim shoot at Dovey Valley and then went on a driven shoot the next day to give…
Clayshooting grounds just an hour from London
The good news is that many clay grounds have recently reopened after lockdown and more are opening daily. Below we’ve rounded up clay pigeon shooting grounds near London. We’ve marked the ones that are open again at the time of writing. None take longer than an hour to get to…
Should you invest in a wildfowling guide?
A couple of years ago, on a rather grey October afternoon, I was trudging around Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis with my good friend Will Martin, looking for the local goose guru. After knocking on a few wrong doors, we found him. Despite a bottle of Scotch as a…
What do the different barks of a roe deer mean?
A colleague contacted me last week and told me about a roebuck that had barked at his presence in the wood, only to keep approaching him at a distance of about 30m to take a closer look. On identifying him it ran off, and he then heard the roe deer…
