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Welcome to Fieldsports Britain, coming to you this week from Scotland. This is the estuary
of the river Nith in Dumfrieshire.
Coming up:
We are out with Solway stalker Colin Lockerbie just here. We are finding out why everybody
comes to Fife. It is the pigeons and roebuck of course. Fox shooting blunders. How can
you improve your lamping technique.
First it is our popular new series Test Splat Special.
For this week's Test Splat Special we are mainly shooting a piece of frost-bitten pork.
We don't like wasting food, but this test should give us an idea about the performance
of a .243 100-grain soft point bullet from 120ish yards on a decent chunk of meat.
So what are the possibilities for porcine aviation today? How far will a pig fly? Will
it be:
a) 3 metres
b) 7 meters
c) far and wide
The first shot is taken using 240 frames per second and if you look closely you can see
the bullet coming in from the right of frame.
It splits the pork, but leaves it in situ, so a chance of another go. Again the bullet
is visible on the image recorded at 480 frames per second.
Finally, a third shot and we are aiming for the bone to provide some resistance. This
image is taken at 1,000 frames per second - and the pig has wings.
So let's get the tape out aaaaaaand we are going to have to get a bigger tape measure
- the pork has been sent well over 15 metres away from the target position - so anyone
who chose (c) far and wide earns the approbation of the masses.
Please don't have nightmares - nothing proved nothing gained - just for fun - next week
a kettle and firebird with an air rifle.
We have got other test splats like this egg that is just appearing in the sky beside me.
Click on it and you can see more of them.
Now, on to the serious stuff. We are out with Zeiss professional stalker Colin Lockerbie
It is early in the morning in the village of New Abbey, just south of Dumfries. Solway
stalker Colin Lockerbie has a client, Gary, who wants a roebuck.
Roebucks today Charlie. Have a look over the wee cliff there. It has been cut recently
and is going to be replanted later this year, so see how we can do there. I have spotted
a couple of roebucks there recently so hopefully they will be about.
Colin offers deer and wild boar stalking across 20,000 acres of southern Scotland. He is one
of the most respected stalkers in Scotland and a Zeiss Professional Hunter to boot.
We check out clear-felled plantations and we go for a walk along the beach. The estuary
of the River Nith is big, flat and its creeks provide food for deer in the early morning.
As we walk along, we put one up. Were we making too much noise? Was the animal lucky? It sure
was.
Just heard the movement in the bank there and saw it run off about 5 or 10 seconds later,
it was a doe which ran off onto the foreshore.
We enter a small bluebell wood and there is a buck. But there is no way Gary is going
to risk firing a round through this kind of thick cover
I tried to put the cross hair just onto its neck, but just could not take the shot. If
it went through that bush it would just deflect off and more chance of doing him great damage
rather than dropping him clean.
As the day warms up, so do the arguments about whether or not we were making too much noise.
Colin's boots have been making a squelching, squeaking sound. My cheap Dunlops have been
badly clumpy and Gary's boots look far too shabby to be silent.
Well one of the issues about this morning’s stalk is the squeak in our boots and we have
been complaining to each other about that. So we thought we would do a little test. I
will take the Fieldsports Channel microphone here and I will attach it to each of our boots
and you can tell which one you think is the squeakiest.
In the end, I am disqualified for tiptoeing, Colin bows out because his boots are wet on
the inside, so Gary is declared Mr Cat-Like Tread 2012. He admits that part of the reason
his boots are so supple and silent is that they are made of kangaroo skin.
Now, Colin is not just a deerstalker. He has a small, but growing population of wild or
feral boar in his area.
This is where wild boar have been rooting about here. That was in October last year.
In October? That is almost 8 months ago.
Yes.
And it is still torn up.
Yes, difficult land for the farmer to repair. So it will probably have to stay like that.
You do wild boar shooting here don’t you?
Yes.
But you also feed them?
Yes I feed them to highseats yes.
So you are trying to contain them in one area? So how does that work?
Yes, just try to keep the farmers happy really. We draw them to an area just over here. Maybe
have a highseat set up over there. We have not actually shot any on this area here, so
I would expect to see them back again probably same time next year after they have eaten
acorns again.
So they eat acorns then come and root up fields.
Come and root up the fields for a bit of meat in their diet as well after they have eaten
a lot of acorns.
Typical drunk Scots men then .
Yes!
One in three of Colin's boar outings succeeded last year. Boar shot ranged from 30kg to these
monsters of 140kg.
Just put the seat up here a couple of weeks ago. The pigs found the food pretty quickly.
They were here feeding every night and I put food out just 2 nights, every second night
just now.
When are you going to shoot them?
I won’t shoot here now until October. There is a big sow feeding here with youngsters
now, so I will leave them alone for the summer.
There is not much about Solway fish and game that Colin doesn't know or cannot provide.
The Nith nearly scored Britain's biggest rod-caught salmon when a monster weighing around 100lb
fought and beat a bishop in the 19th century. It was later caught in nets with the bishop's
fly still in its mouth. Colin cannot boast a fish that big in his lifetime but he is
a master of the old Viking practice of haafnetting.
How do you know you have got a fish?
When the water is racing through the net here, you hold the net with your thumb, the net
is quite tight here and you just feel a tug on your finger. Then you lift and the fish
will be back in the net here.
How do you get it out of that?
Again it is very simple. You catch the net and throw it over into the net so that it
is double netted then hanging over here and you carry a priest in your bag just to kill
the fish, throw it back over and lift it out. It is fairly easy once you have done one or
two.
Is this what you call commercial netting?
No, it is more or less just a hobby now. There is not the number of fish there used to be
a few years back. So it is really just a hobby.
You are not going to take me in there because they are not running at the moment.
They are not running, it is too cold in the water, they stay there very long just now.
There are other ways to catching fish round here. Colin takes us to see Peter Hutchison,
who has bigger nets on the Solway
These are salmon stake nets. They call them fixed engine fishery nets. They are an old
style of fishing along the Solway coast here for salmon. They have been on the go here
in the Solway for well over 200 years. There are not many left now, a lot of the fisheries
have gone. We still enjoy using them here.
You catch all sorts as well as salmon?
We get a range of fish that go from tope, tope is typically the largest fish right down
through to shard which are of the herring family. They are currently taken into research
projects, Solway wide at the moment. So we give them to the Galloway Fishery Trust. Salmon
and sea trout, that is the main issue for us. We get some lovely turbot now and again
and a few other things. The variety is always fun.
Now, the day is growing cool once again, and Colin and Gary still have an appointment with
a buck. Colin takes us to a new plantation which has been suffering roe damage recently.
All thoughts of the long walks and missed opportunities from earlier in the day fly
away because there is Gary's animal.
They want these animals culled on this particular plantation, young plantation. There was not
much option on shot placement, the only option I really had there was a neck shot which is
normally the cleanest shot, animal drops clean.
And it did.
And it did.
You have got an enormous variety of ground here, you have got hill, you have got shoreline,
you have got all sorts haven’t you.
Yes, a good mixture of everything which helps depending on the weather. If the weather is
not suitable to be out on the hill, you can usually find something in the mature trees
or in the young stuff.
A plantation like the one, you can’t see it, but behind these trees here, is that what
you call a bag filler. Is this where you come?
Yes, pretty much a banker. You know there will always be something about in a place
like this.
And indeed there was.
Yes.
Colin charges £70 per roebuck outing, plus shot fee and trophy fee. You can take days
off him and he runs an eight-strong syndicate for deer, boar, grouse on the hill, and Solway
duck and geese. Email solwaystalker@aol.co.uk
We love our deer at Fieldsports Channel. Look, there is one in the sky right now. If you
click on it you can see more of our deer stalking films.
Now it is David on the Fieldsports Channel News Stump.
[Music]
This is Fieldsports Britain news.
We start with Channel 4 programme Foxes Live came out this week on British television.
Channel 4 filmed urban foxes, showed how cuddly they are and tracked them with GPS collars,
up and down the country. This of course makes locating and possibly shooting Patch Grace
Chico, Ringtail, Basil Deisel or Rathbone very easy. One of the shooting forums has
already suggested this, then putting the collars on eBay. We rang Channel 4's production company
saying this would certainly spice things up a bit - they asked us not to shoot the foxes
until after they have collected the GPS data, which will be after 13th May 2012.
They are giving guns to kids in Gloucestershire again this weekend. The Schools Challenge
and Festival of Shooting at Bredon School are both on this weekend at Bredon School
near Tewkesbury. There are plenty of shooting sports for you to enjoy and a prize pot worth
£6,000 in the open clay competition on Monday. Visit www.theschoolschallenge.co.uk
Rugby player, Scott Armstrong, has shot a gold medal buck, provisionally measured at
70 points. That's a few more points than he has scored for Northampton Saints in the last
couple of seasons, where he plays winger. He was out with new stalking guide Muntjacstalker.
Visit www.muntjacstalker.com
Now for a piece of road rage in South Africa. This contestant for Team Jeep South Africa
was riding hard when he was hit by a red hartebeest. Let's just watch that again. Ouch. He ends
up with a very stiff neck.
And finally we've been sent some exclusive footage of *** fighting - first made illegal
in England and Wales in 1835, this fierce battle was filmed at a barn in Surrey. Thankfully
neither of the *** sparrows was killed and were later seen courting and making nests
within minutes of the fight being broken up. No one was arrested.
You are now up to date with Fieldsports Britain News. Stalking the stories. Fishing for facts.
[Music]
Thank you David. Still sticking out like a sore thumb.
Now we all know that there is no camouflage like realtree camouflage and this week Teamwild
TV is wrapping their trucks in the very best patterns that realtree has to offer. Click
on the angry buck which has appeared in the sky up there and you can watch that film.
We are staying in Scotland and finding out why it is such a popular destination for shooters
in April.
Scotland is where the world wants to be in April and May. The combination of great roebuck
stalking and superb pigeon mean shooters will travel thousands of miles, put up with the
often amusing food and brave the uncertain weather for a chance at these two prized quarry.
Alan what does it take to put together a three-day trip like this for a party, of how many, 6
of them?
Six yes, start by doing a lot of reconnaissance work before they arrive, look where the deer
are. Obviously these guys are here for 3 days, 6 stalks. So we spent like 3 days looking
for the deer.
And the pigeon shooting here, do they have this kind of thing in France, they must do?
Very little, very little, they only have a two week window for the migration of pigeons.
Then after that they have nothing.
Really, so they are basically stuck, they have got to come here.
They have got to come here yes.
Or Hungary, which is 25 times more expensive.
Correct.
So you are in a good place here.
We are in a good place and we try to provide very good shooting for them.
We are in Perthshire with a party of French from the giant retail Decathlon. They have
asked some French journalists to try out Scottish pigeons, stalking and Decathlon kit.
You may have seen Decathlon shops outside Reading, Birmingham, Belfast, Glasgow and
other places, and you may have dismissed it for being full of overpriced golf clubs. Not
a bit of it. Decathlon has its own hunting clothing and accessories brand called Solognac
and, if anything, its kit is underpriced. Forget about the width, however, and feel
the quality. Solognac needs to be good if it's going to face pigeon shooting in weather
like this.
Solognac is Decathlons own brand hunting brand.
And Decathlon is a sports shop.
Decathlon is, it is a very well kept secret over here in the UK, but Decathlon is the
world’s biggest sports retailer.
And there are several of them here in the UK.
There are 12 or 13 of them over here in the UK. All over from London to Edinburgh, to
Glasgow, to Belfast.
And they are big aren’t they.
They are big, they are anywhere from 3,000 sq metres to 6,000 sq metres in the UK and
on the continent go up to 10,000 sq metres.
So that is like a Tesco basically.
Yes, it is the Tesco of sport, we might use that.
And you sell hunting gear which is kind of unusual for a sports shop.
It is unusual for an English sports shop, but it is very normal for a continental sports
shop and it is very normal particularly for a French sports shop which is where we come
from originally.
And you don’t have Decathlon written on your hat but Solognac, how does that work?
That is absolutely right. Each of Decathlon’s brands are separated out and given their own
identity and their own name. Solognac actually comes from a combination of Lesse.....the
biggest hunting region in France and the Bordeaux area where every single village seems to end
in ac so ‘ac’ which now has the highest population of hunters.
We are here in Scotland. In terms of Europe what does Scotland mean. What is it to European
hunters?
Scotland means deer stalking, it means hunting, it means everything we know about Scotland,
everything we think about Scotland the Europeans share that view.
So the French consider Scotland a really good place to come to shoot pigeons.
The French consider Scotland a fantastic place to come. We were here testing equipment, there
was only one name in Europe to come and test this sort of stuff and that was Scotland.
Everybody wanted to be here.
The weather might be foul but the pigeon shooting is excellent and tests the guns to their limits.
Birds that normally go past at around 55 miles an hour are breaking the national speed limit
in this wind.
We are also here to stalk roedeer. All of us get either highseats or accompaniment.
I go out with a local stalker, Sean. He shows me lots of animals. We see around 20 in the
morning. But either they are does or in the wrong place or retreating. Finally, we find
a cull buck in the right place and I start my stalk in. It is all going so well. The
buck is just over the brow. It hasn't seen me, nor the camera. But then disaster strikes
and it's off . So no roebuck for me but the French have a good time.
We are in Perthshire with sporting agent Cervus UK. Visit www.cervus-uk.co.uk. And for more
about the kit from Solognac, go to www.solognac-hunting.com
Now lamping foxes is fraught with danger and not just for the fox. Here is how to improve
your technique.
One of the reasons people love fox shooting is it can be so challenging.There are so many
factors to be taken into consideration, especially at night. Your decision-making process has
to be fast and safe.
Today we are going to conduct a little experiment to see how shooters can improve their fox
shooting technique. We have Tom the novice who has very little rifle experience... and
has never shot a fox. And we have Roy who has accounted for quite a few.
Tim Pilbeam, rifle reviewer for Sporting Rifle magazine, is in charge. He's come up with
a cunning plan to challenge the young apprentice and tax the old hand.
So tonight it is all about the a, b, c’s of fox shooting. We will be shooting different
foxes, different ranges in different situations. So it is safety, range, decision making and
dealing with the light.
So what do you think the range will be on that one.
So especially for Roy I will be asking many questions, how far is it Roy? How safe is
it Roy? And also with Tom I will be guiding him to make sure that he does shoot the fox
in a very, very safe and correct method.
This is a typical target we are shooting at tonight. A bit of plywood painted black and
we have got a very typically sized fox here, 4" x 10" is the normal kill zone of a fox.
So this is what we will be practicing tonight. I have got a couple of bicycle reflectors
there for its eyes and for a bit of fun tonight we are going to see if we can get these guys
to start shooting these exploding targets and that will be quite exciting to see at
night time.
Tim drives us around the course in daylight to get the lay of the land and to talk us
through a few of the targets.
This is a typical foxing situation. We have got 2 foxes here. One in the alley way and
one next to the telegraph pole. The one in the alley way is about 120 yards away, the
one near the telegraph pole is about 170 yards away. Both reasonably straight forward shots,
but we need to get a decent position to shoot them. Do we use a tree? Do we actually put
the bipod on the bonnet here or do we lay down in the grass and use the bipod in a prone
position?
For the last targets of the evening he is giving the guys something a bit more tricky.
The ones we have got in front of me at the moment they are about 220 yards away, but
the problem is that they are head on, they are front on these foxes, quite narrow. The
kill zone of a fox sitting down in front of you is about 6" wide. So they have got to
make sure they get that shot ***. I would say that they are 220 yards away so they should
be aiming right at the kill zone.
And it doesn't stop there. Tim is really going to try and simulate the unpredictability of
the quarry and possibly the erratic technique of the lampman.
What I will be doing is flashing the spotlight around, sometimes I will be taking it off
the fox, sometimes I will be putting on the fox and just before they shoot I will be taking
it off the fox and that is what happens in fox shooting. Also sometimes if you flash
light around you, your eyes get blinded. So the light is very, very important. Also I
will sometimes be putting light on the fox and then say 1, 2, 3 and then take it off.
Very often the foxes do not stand for that long, they stand for 5 or 10 seconds and they
move on again. So it is very important to get the cross hairs on the fox, make a decision
and shoot it.
Some targets will appear as we climb over the brow of a hill and others will offer some
more choice to get into a stable position: bonnet, post or prone for this one.
While we have been scooting around this simulated foxing course on Tim's farm and practice range,
Roy has been giving Tom some tuition.
He spots something which, if caught early, can be easily remedied.
Right when you are shooting you are expecting the shot. So when you shot there, you went
like that. So you are actually twitching slightly. When you are watching your eye your eye blinked.
You should stay in contact with your target at all times so when you squeeze, concentrate
on looking straight through and concentrate on the target. When the round goes off, when
the shot goes off you should then still see the target and you should still see the shot
hit. Ok, so what you did then, you blinked and twitched slightly.
Tim also gives Tom some tips and finds out just how much experience he has.
So Tom tell me about the first deer you shot.
The first deer was in Scotland. We went up to an estate about 45 miles north of Inverness,
a red hind which was shot at a distance of about 150 yards with a 38/6.
Ok brilliant. Now tell me about your rifle.
It is a 708 Remington rifle with a quite heavy barrel on it and quite a heavy moderator as
well.
So this is an all round rifle. You can shoot deer with it, you can shoot foxes with it,
a very capable rifle. A 708 which is a very good all round calibre.
Yes, the idea was that it fits everything you can shoot, everything from foxes up to
deer and anything I want to shoot from here really.
Before we lose the light and the fun begins, Roy and Tom have a few more shots. Both are
now happy with their set up, but there's still plenty to go through: from having one up the
spout,
And I think in the vehicle, bolt’s open basically, yes, simple as that really.
To the magnification you're happy with, to spotting these cunning foxes.
Right we're off, and they just can't help themselves. Roy starts blowing and foxes - three
real ones that is - come hunting. Tom is told to get into position. Already there are errors
and we lose two of the interested foxes.
With our remaining fox at 250 yards Tim takes over, shooting from the buggy frame. The shot
sounds good.
That is very interesting because Roy the boy got his wonderful squeaker out and we immediately
pulled in one to our north here, one down the bottom and one just down here as well.
So we had 3 contenders. Now first of all we stopped, we stopped in the wrong place unfortunately
which was my fault and we couldn’t actually get on to them at all. So we moved the buggy
over here and Roy kept on squeaking and we actually found a real one which is quite exciting.
About 250 yards Roy?
Yes, 250.
What was interesting as well, earlier on, we had a couple of eyes over the back here
which looked very similar to the eyes of the fox, but with one slight problem the eyes
were on top of the hedge. So I do not think it was actually a fox which shows how careful
you must be. You must know your land. I knew exactly that was on top of the hedge, so there
was no way I could shoot that. You have to be very careful at night.
You have had a good start guys. Well done, bullet goes straight through the shoulder
and out the other side. Nice looking animal, quite a small fox. Best fox is a dead fox
as far as I am concerned.
So points to remember here are: don't step in front of the lamp. Don't choose an unstable
rest. Tom picked a duff post to lean on. And, of course, don't make too much noise, which
everyone is guilty of.
So that was an absolutely perfect example of what not to do when you are out foxing.
We had people fumbling about all over the place, lights going all over the place and
as a consequence it cost us the foxes. We had one fox coming right into us and just
because we weren’t sure and there was a bit of fumbling and a bit of noise the fox
came in made us and was off again.
Right, back to the simulated animals. These are the ones over the brow. Tom shoots off
the frame. Roy goes for the bipod on the bonnet. Both the guys have hit the kill zone but one
of Tom's shots has pulled to the right.
Next up are the pair of foxes near the post. Tim gives them 10 seconds to shoot. There
are firebirds on these targets. Roy the spoilsport nabs both his and Tom's. Naughty.
There is 3 shots here which tells me one person has been shooting the wrong target, Lupton?
The shots are still good even if greedy Lupton has taken both foxes. So what does Tom think
so far?
First time I have shot at a target in the dark, so the whole thing was a new experience
really.
So how did you find the light because the light was moving a wee bit.
That didn’t bother me too much. I was just trying to get my cross hairs in the middle
of the 2 cats eyes looking at me, fox eyes in this case. The light wasn’t too distracting
at all really.
I think a lot of people think foxing is easy, but there is an awful lot to consider.
I thought it was a lot harder. I always thought the idea of lamping easy, you see the fox
under the lamp, but it is completely different, you don’t, you see the 2 little spots looking
at you.
The next two targets are the one in the track and its neighbour. Range is an issue here
and the shooting sticks also cause problems.
Last but one are the targets we first looked at in daylight. Tom has a real problem here
but Roy is in his comfort zone and the little tinker even shoots one of Tim's reflectors.
Have you shot one of my eyes?
Last up are the head on foxes. Tom is again struggling - it's getting late and we're all
tired - Tim takes over and sees the last Firebird go ***.
So what do the chaps think of the evening?
So what is your advice to anyone who wants to go fox shooting for the first time?
At night, get a warm jacket, be calm and have confidence I think.
Practice, practice, practice.
Plenty of practice.
Is it how you thought it would be?
Better actually, I must admit. First of all I thought you would see the big fox coming
and it would nice and easy a bit like your deer stalking, but it is completely different.
You don’t see the animal, you do have to have confidence in where you are shooting
and you will hit the target.
Tim has been keeping a score of how the guys have performed - Roy has shot well but has
been a bit fruity with not keeping to his own target.
We have got Roy here who tends to shoot anything in front of him. He shot 2 eyes out of my
foxes, he shot somebody else’s target, so Roy is very, very greedy. So we have got the
youngster as well who has shot very, very well. So tonight I think the winner is going
to be the youngster Tom, so well done Tom. You shot very well.
Thank you very much.
It is not a competition!
Films about fox shooting is one of our specialities. There is a fox now. If you click on it you
can watch some of them.
Next, it is our weekly Youtube round-up.
Icelandic viewer nesvargur1 has sent us his handheld minkhunting video from the land of
Vikings, volcanoes and now vermin. It's in a funny foreign language but it has top action
shots of dogs hunting Ivana Trump's favourite pest.
Talking of vermin, viewers have complained that we were unwarrantably rude about HuntersVermin's
video for Airgun TV in last week's episode. We love HuntersVermin and, to prove it, here
is his excellent latest, Air Rifle Hunting, Farm Yard Vermin Control.
The people behind Sporting Rifle magazine, Blaze Publishing, have brought out their own
video magazine show, The Shooting Show. It has items about going shooting, it has an
annoying presenter, and a slightly weird newsreader... Now why didn't we think of that?
OnlineFishingTV has brought out latest Fly Fishing News film. It's a video bulletin of
the latest goings on in the world of fly fishing, in the UK and overseas.
LionsgateFilms has put up some clips and this behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the
new flyfishing epic Salmon Fishing in
the Yemen. Far too much romance, not enough fishing.
YorkshireRoeStalking has a dramatic new film called 'Misfire nearly costs us a buck' - clue
is in the title but you have to feel for the shooter when both you and the deer hear the
rifle go click. Luckily, he reloads quietly enough not to spook the animal.
Gregloginway has produced a short series called 'How to boil out deer head'. This is from
part three, which is about bleaching a non medal trophy head. It's not going to win an
award for cinematography but handy if you want to know how. Oops, there we go being
rude again.
And finally, viewer Philip140, a Brit who lives in Canada, has sent us a film about
how to make your own shoot-and-see targets with nothing but some white laminated paper
and black spray paint.
You can click on any of these films to watch them. If you have a YouTube film you would
like us to pop in to the weekly top eight, send it in via YouTube, or email me the link
charlie@fieldsportschannel.tv
Well we are back next week and if you are watching this on Youtube don’t hesitate
to hit the subscribe button which is somewhere on the edge of the screen, they keep moving
it around, or we are of course a Youtube show. You can go to www.youtube.com/shows/fieldsportsbritain
and subscribe there. Or go to our website www.fieldsportschannel.tv scroll down to the
bottom, there is a box there you pop your email address in and we spam you with news
of our programme every week, similarly on Facebook and on Twitter, same place.
This has been Fieldsports Britain, out here, on the hill, in the sun, suffering, trying
not to look smug for you.