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Welcome to Fieldsports Britain
Coming up:
Roy Lupton’s got a fabulous new way of practicing his driven game skills that anybody can try
at home.
I’m out bating the antis and of course I am not enjoying it in the slightest.
I don’t regret anything I said. His behaviour is primitive and backwards and belongs in
the Neolithic period.
First, hero of the Game Keeper Diary DVD Series Geoff Garrod has got a bonanza day with the
pigeons.
With a busy season over gamekeeper and vice chairman of the NGO Geoff Garrod can start
thinking about the 1001 other things he has to do on the estate he has been part of for
nearly 30 years.
Today it's a rare chance for him to get on top of the pigeons, with a little extra help
from his 13-year-old son Justin, who hardly slept a wink last night with excitement. It's
his first ever real pigeon shooting outing.
Well done, well done.
I was up all night I couldn’t sleep, I was that excited.
What is so exciting for you, why do you like it so much?
When you are shooting and using the dog and picking them up, it’s really fun, I really
enjoy it.
Geoff has been keeping a watchful eye on the birds and has selected what he believes to
be THE place to intercept them.
The main line the pigeons are going to be following is, they are going to be coming
over the motorway from the woods at the back there, also we have got woods at the back
here where pigeons will be flying from there as well. So all in all I am hoping we should
be on a good day. What we are going to do up here, although we have got maize one side
of the hedge where the wind is we are actually going to be decoying on this field here which
was early spring drilling. Looking at the flight of pigeons up there now you can see
it looks like we should be alright.
Like many fathers across the country, Geoff relishes the chance of taking out sons and
daughters, teaching them the skills and techniques that will mean success and safety in the field
for the rest of their days.
Every opportunity he can come out with me, he is clambering at the bit, he is jumping
at the bit to do it. Right from an early start always wear ear defenders, it’s crucial,
absolutely crucial.
The number of birds on the move on today's brisk breeze is encouraging. Geoff talks us
through his hide and decoy set-up.
I always believe in building hides it is really important that you have a good background
because if the sun was to come out, with no background in your hide, you will be silhouetted
quite sharply and it is amazing how much pigeons will see that. You think you are well covered
behind the net, but they will see the movement because you have nothing behind you. So I
always feel it is very important to have a good background in the hide.
Justin wants his Dad to explain a few things too.
Where are we going to put the decoys?
The wind direction today....
What pattern are we going to set up for the pigeons?
Well I reckon today.....
Why don’t we use those mechanical whirley things?
Well to be honest with you, some call it being tight, but I call it using field craft. If
you have got your field craft right, you have eyed up your pigeons right you have watched
them, you have seen the flight line, you have got your hide in the right place and you have
got a good hide, to be honest with you, you sometimes don’t need them. There might be
occasions in the year when they might be a benefit, but I am a traditional person and
this is most of my decoy equipment, just these canes.
Time to see if it's all going to come together. Geoff gets off to a good start – just the
way he likes it.
Always like to kill the first one of the day.
Although the hide is a decent size the guns take it in turns.
Because he is very young and very inexperienced in the hide, I want to be watching what he
is doing, I can’t do that I can’t be loading up while he is, and also that’s when you
could be crossing bows. So while he is still young and inexperienced in the hide, he shoots,
I shoot, he can watch me and I can watch him. Hopefully we will learn a bit off each other.
Garrods senior and junior are making some great shots but Geoff keeps a keen eye on
his son's shot placement and how he is reading these super fast birds.
Go on shoot, well done, good shot.
Justin is doing well and his efforts on the clay ground are paying off.
With plenty of birds on the deck, Geoff and Justin do a clean up. Again Geoff can teach
his son about the pattern as it builds.
What I will do is I will put some on here hopefully that might attract any passing ones
they’ll see those ones and swing over the hedge to go in with them and hopefully see
these main ones.
There’s some movement there with the windy day we have got.
Right come on mate.
After a good start, there's a bit of frustation. Birds that clearly have Geoff's name on them
go back the way they came in the same good health in which they arrived.
I think the general term is .....
You switched
I know, I did, yes I did.
Getting lessons off my 13 year old son here, that’s when you know you are passed it.
Maybe he should let rip with all the cartridges in his gun – he has got four after all.
The gun that I am using is a Beretta 303 model, fairly oldish model, but a very reliable one.
I have had this particular one now for about 5 years, but the difference with this is the
for shoot. The gunsmith rang me up and told me about it. I have got it on my fire arms
certificate so it is there for the destruction of ground game, vermin, so that is what I
use. I find them very reliable guns actually.
Do you tend to use 4 shots?
Sometimes, sometimes I get 4, quite a few times I don’t get 4, don’t get 3 either.
On the right days they can be very, very handy if the pigeons are coming in really well,
you can make a bag up very quickly with them, but on other days what you tend to do is use
a lot of cartridges with not a lot of return.
Under Justin's feet is a neat collection of cartridges – one pile is for the birds he's
shot – the other is for birds he's missed. Geoff has encouraged him to do this so he
knows his shot ratio and how many birds he's accounting for – and today the father and
son team are doing just fine.
Well we have just got a bit of a rain storm coming through now, luckily we have a decent
back with a little bit of canopy to shelter us a bit, but just having a bit of a count
up here and we have got a few decoys out on the maize there which is bringing in a few
from that way. Just had a bit of a count and I reckon we are approaching 50 now. It has
actually been a little bit harder than I thought it would be. The pigeons have been quite scatty
with the wind. Justin has shot a few, I have shot a few, I have missed a few. We are getting
to 50 so I am quite happy with it. Bit of fun as well.
Geoff encourages his son to keep a diary of all his shooting days. At the end of play
today, Justin needs to note down that they shoot 78 birds. He has 66 shots for 31 confirmed
kills with Dad the rest.
Talking of diaries this leads us neatly on to the Gamekeepers Diaries which are a series
of DVDs featuring Geoff covering all aspects of fieldsports. For more information please
visit www.gamekeepersdiary.com Now from flocking pigeons to David on the
Fieldsports Channel News Stump.
[music]
This is Fieldsports Britain News.
We start with what we believe to be Britain’s biggest ever Muntjac.
The Larder weight is 33lb making the animal around 43lb in life, and almost as big as
the roe deer next to it. Mark Broadhurst of Hampshire shot the enormous buck at 140 yards
with a Blaser Success. It was the end of a stalking evening that started badly when he
found someone had stolen his portable highseat.
It has been a week for big fish too. A lucky angler has broken the record for landing the
biggest cod caught in the English Channel - on his first ever fishing trip. Chris Proctor,
31, thought at first his hook had caught on the ship wreck his boat was floating above
such was the colossal size of the catch. It took him 30 minutes to land and it put up
such a fight that his stomach was covered in bruises from where the base of his rod
jammed into him.
Carl Zeiss has won a 'Golden Keiler' award for its new Duralyt range of riflescopes.
The German sports optics company outpaced well-known competitors in the New Riflescope
category at the Jagd & Hunt shooting show in Germany with its illuminated Duralyt 3-12x50.
Here is Armin Dobat of Zeiss collecting the prize.
Fishing rivers look set to suffer from this year's drought, especially in the South-East
of England. The Environment Agency says fish are already suffering in the worst drought affecting England in
more than 100 years. Now, water companies have obtained permission to top up reservoirs
from local rivers.
And finally, this week marks the seventh anniversary of the ban on hunting with hounds coming into
force in England and Wales. The ban has helped increase the number of people who go hunting
and, to celebrate, the Countryside Alliance has launched a “Hunting under the Act”
photo competition. For more details, visit www.countryside-alliance.org.uk
You are now up to date with Fieldsports Britain News. Stalking the stories, fishing for facts.
[Music]
Thank you David I like what you have done with your hair.
Now, Roy Lupton has pinched an idea from one of our other contributors Tim Pilbeam, he
has found an excellent way to practice driven wild boar in his back garden.
[Music]
We often refer to big boys and their toys. Well, for this particular item we are actually
in a big boys' toy shop. A model shop. And we are hoping they have the technology to
build a bouncy boar.
A bit of a strange request, we’re looking to shoot a target and I need to make a moving
target. It’s a new gun I am trying out it is a double rifle and what I need to do is
try and simulate a pig running past, so I need something that is going to be able to
go across rough terrain, quite fast and carry a bit of weight because I have got to put
a target on top of it.
Ok are you thinking of fuel driven or electric?
Chris behind the counter barely flinches when Roy and Ian tell him they want to shoot at
a Tonka toy on steroids.
Well I would probably recommend something like this, it’s one tenth scale 4 wheel
drive, nice and bouncy off road, I’ll take the top off so you can see underneath, 4 wheel
drive with individual suspension all round so it will handle bumps and that will do about
30 – 25 miles an hour.
So we know this monster truck is fast, powerful and can take on rough terrain. But can it
carry a pig?
What about weightwise will it carry a bit of weight do you think?
Yes, it will pull, to give you an idea, about 6 bags of sugar behind it.
Oh really?
If it was on top you would probably get a bit more out of it than that.
Six bags of sugar. Hmm. Hardly hogzilla - but then we've yet to see the A Team class engineering
skills of this double act.
[Music]
That’s a bit of a bum really.
So what on earth is this remote-controlled car business all about.
Rifle is finally here, we have got a nice new shiny scope which has arrived from Zeiss
and we’ve got the ammunition, so all the components we need to go and have some fun
with some driven piggies. Before I do that though like with any form of shooting, you
want to make sure you are proficient and make sure you are accurate rather than wasting
a lot of money and making a lot of noise with this. We thought the easiest way to do it
was get an air rifle and just practice with the air rifle because although the projectory
and the velocity are going to be completely different from using the rifle, it is still
the same base set of skills you are going to be using. So hopefully we will have a bit
of fun and see if we can hit anything.
Practicing driven boar like this is with an air rifle, is a lot safer than the other idea
we heard of – shooting at a barrel towed behind a tractor. Please do not do this!
Before we get a chance to mount any type of target, the boys want to give the granite
muncher a spin just to get a feel of the handling and judge whether it'll do the business. It
certainly ploughs through plenty of horse business as it skids across the paddock. Within
no time it has the whiff of a pair of soiled jodhpurs.
Right, into the pits to *** this ride. It's going to be a steep learning curve. There
are plenty of suggestions, and thankfully we aren't looking for pig perfection.
[music]
Then we can have like piggy head – let’s see if it works.
The prototype is not a thing of beauty but can it defy the laws of physics which are
currently pointing and laughing at this top heavy monstrosity?
Nature abhores a vaccum. It also abhores this tragic attempt at simulated boar. Never mind
– it needs to lose the bulk and stiffen up for high speed shooting.
Doesn’t work does it? I think it’s a little bit heavy for the car. We were trying to make
a life size piggy, but I think we will have to go to stage 2. We will see what we can
come up with this time.
This looks more promising – but Ian's daughter's might not appreciate their father's lateral
thinking.
Boar mk III takes shape, and it could be a eureka moment. There's certainly plenty of
confidence and backslapping in the pits – even with the comedy udders it looks as if we are
ready for action.
That drives like it would normally drive pretty much. A lot better than cardboard boxes.
Is that your motivation in your hand.
That is my motivation in my hand. We’ve got pictures of piggy, so once we’ve shot
the faked teats then we can put piggy on there and away we go. We got the gloves we couldn’t
find any balloons or anything else to use. We have got the balloons to start off with
improvisation and then we are going to put pictures of piggies on there when we have
got the accuracy down to a T. So we will see how we get on.
As Roy's air-rifle is on the blink he's called in Jim to bring in a spare. We must apologise
as there now follows a blatant plea to any air rifle manufacturer by Mr Roy Lupton.
If any air-rifle manufacturers are out there and they would like to provide me with a nice,
new, shiny rifle it would be lovely because my one is broken, so I’ve had to phone a
mate and ask him to bring this one down, so that we can have a play with it so what have
we got then?
It is a Brocock Concept Super Six it’s a Six shot 2/2 rifle.
Excellent.
And it should do the job for your piggies.
Little carbine – that’s nice isn’t it.
Blagger. On with the programme and release the uddered boar.
You were nowhere near that boy, you were about 6 foot behind that.
Was I - never?
It was.
How can you say that I was 6 foot behind and I didn’t even have a pellet.
I saw a pellet go up.
There is no way I was 6 foot behind no, not having it, no way.
[laughter]
Yes! - thank you! – see it helps when you have a pellet in it.
You are still getting a ????
Sorry?
Nothing.
It’s amazing how much....hang on, hang on I’ll wait for it to come round.
You missed a boar.
It was a little boar anyway like you.
[laughter]
You are not playing fair, hold on, I’m not ready yet, hang on give us a chance – yes!
Now you have got the knack.
I was giving a 2 or 3 foot lead on that, it always helps when you are trying out and just
learning how to do something. If your mates drive it at a constant speed rather than mucking
about and run it all over the place. Ian was taking great pleasure there and accelerating
when he knew I was just about to take the shot. I suppose it is only fair as pigs won’t
run at a constant speed.
Everyone quickly realises this has the potential of becoming an Olympic event. Unfortunately
Ian just can’t quite get into the groove.
Oh no, you missed with the big balloon. Right come on then, ready?
Yes.
Oh he missed again.
[laughter]
I got that didn’t I?
It’s still up.
I gave that varying leads as well.
Did you? You are just useless.
Did you load that magazine?
All who have a go nail the boar, and yet Ian struggles. Of course everyone is sympathetic...
[laughter]
We soon get bored with blowing up the gloves and move onto shots of swine. This is equally
popular and who needs a spotting scope to see where your shot ends up, in this discipline
you just drive the target to within arms reach.
So what about the double rifle? Sorry to say we were having such good fun with the air
rifle and our new hi speed boar we ran out of time. But time well spent, as Roy is doing
all he can to ensure he doesn't make a pigs ear of things!
For more on air-rifles tune in to Team Wild TV because they have a new film this week
about shooting feral pigeons, just click on the angry buck.
[roar from stag]
From wild boar to a real bore, the antis. Let’s go over to me.
As I set up the recording equipment, here is the background to the story. Mark Gilchrist
shot a white fox – eucistic not albino so an unusual animal but not a rare one. It is
a fox, after all, not a separate species.
The comments started coming in within minutes of our film going on to YouTube, and they
were complimentary. SharpshooterHVM said “get it mounted!!! by a pro taxidermist not an
amateur, that's a trophy of a lifetime”.
But then the antis get hold of the film – and these are not just any antis, these are the
headbanging saboteur variety. 1stpatteb suggests to Mark that someone "might put a bullet through
your skull.”.
katandalfie, says that Mark “deserves nothing more than pain and misery for the rest of
his worthless days”. Meanwhile, kmburss says: “the crosshairs are put on this blokes
forehead.”
After a few goes, I get through to one of the offending antis.
Hello, is that John Purchase.
Yes.
Oh hello, my name is Charlie Jacoby. I am calling from people you probably don’t like
very much, Fieldsports Channel and we do hunting, fishing, shooting television on line. We have
got a YouTube Channel and I am just following something up from November. There was quite
a lot of anger about one of our lot called Mark Gilchrist who was shooting a....
The guy that killed 2 foxes, 2 white foxes which are apparently very rare, the news article.
Yes, that’s right, that’s the one.
Yes I was a little bit peed off at the time.
Now I’m just following up... I suppose cyber bullying is probably a strong way to put it,
but there were a lot of angry comments made and personal threats against Mark and one
of them came from you. What do you think about that?
Well, it’s nothing compared to murdering animals is it? Compared to that it’s nothing
at all is it?
Well we think it is, we think that threatening people is bad and shooting foxes is perfectly
normal.
There were no threats going on at all.
I think you put his mobile number.....
I merely pointed out that his behaviour was quite primitive and backwards and not fitting
in with the modern world.
I see,ok.
I made no threats what so ever.
You did recommend that people ring him up and tell him what they think of him, after
you put his mobile....
People should tell him what they think, because his behaviour is unacceptable.
You did suggest that people should make a lot of bookings at his restaurant and then
not turn up, that is one of the things you said. Is that acceptable or not quite?
I can’t remember that comment, but if I did, so what.
Ok so do you think we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
Well I think so, but I don’t change any of my opinions of you and I don’t regret
anything I said. I think his behaviour is primitive and backward and belongs in the
Neolithic period.
But your behaviour is not what we call cyber bullying?
People have a right to express their opinion.
Right well I think we can leave it at that. We are following this up on this week’s
programme, so we are ringing round a couple of people who had these views and recording
their response to the charge that this might be cyber bullying, I think you have put your
side of it very clearly, so I think we can leave it at that.
I think that he clearly doesn’t love us very much.
Cyber bullying is unacceptable and leaving death threats on YouTube is plain stupid.
Here is Sherry Adhami from the bullying watchdog BeatBullying.org
To harass and abuse someone and make death threats on line or indeed off line is unacceptable.
Whilst you might not agree with fox hunting, to use a digital platform to harass someone
else is, in our view, absolutely an inappropriate thing to do.
Well that’s antis for you. Please don’t have nightmares.
We are back next week. If you are watching this on YouTube please don’t hesitate to
hit the subscribe button even if you are not entirely in line with pro hunting thinking
or go to our website fieldsportschannel.tv and scroll down to the bottom and put your
email address into our constant contact box and we can tell you what we nasty hunters
are going to be up to next, or click to like us on Face Book or follow us on Twitter, same
thing.
This has been Fieldsports Britain.
[music]