Shooting Times & Country

Last week, I had one of my best days of the season so far. It was short and sweet and I was totally alone. I’d been watching the forecast for some days, and it seemed that on the Thursday afternoon there was going to be a big wind blowing. The pigeon

Shooting Times has launched an investigation into an alleged ‘cover up’ of a serious safety incident at a gundog trial late last year. Readers contacted Shooting Times to express concern after a member of the gallery was allegedly shot and injured at

Turn drives around to catch birds by surprise. Pheasants don’t make it to January without a decent measure of luck or intelligence. Lucky birds deserve the goodwill of every sportsperson, but the smart ones can often be caught out by the simple trick

Landscape-scale measures to tackle predation are the only hope for the curlew. This is the stark conclusion of a new scientific paper. Scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology, the RSPB and the University of East Anglia studied 80 pairs of c

A Boxing Day special edition of Radio 4’s Today programme guest produced by Sir Ian Botham has won praise for its honest and fair appreciation of grouse shooting. BBC rural affairs journalist Caz Graham joined Richard Bailey from the Peak District Mo

Activists from Animal Rebellion are facing prison after allegedly causing £20,000-worth of damage to the offices of a fish conservation organisation. The seven activists used modified fire extinguishers to spray red paint over the front of the office

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I wanted to write to you about my grandfather, David Scott. He’s been an avid reader of yours since approximately 1974. He has never missed an issue and still has every one he’s ever received in the attic. I think that is near enough 2,500 copies. At

It is increasingly looking like Christmas 2022 was a missed opportunity for game, as supermarkets report demand outstripping supply from 30 November up until New Year’s Eve and online retailers struggling to fill orders. It now seems the slowing of t

With the tide rising over Kirkcudbright Bay at dawn, and a few decoys floating at the burn mouth, I had high hopes of some wigeon seeking shelter on the lee shore where I was lurking. I was not very successful, spotting the only little group that cam

One of the great things about our sport is that rain, nor wind or snow, rarely stops play. Some of my most memorable days have been when the weather has been at its most inclement. I recall a day picking up in January when the wind was so strong that

I smiled the other day at an advent calendar produced by some witty journalist. Instead of a bauble or Christmas tree behind each window, there were details of which public-sector body was going to be on strike that day. The strikes have caused a con

If I am ever in need of any retail therapy I head for Leyburn, a small market town at the foot of the Yorkshire Dales, where in 1985 Gilbert Fenwick established Gilsan Sports. Gilbert was an all-round fieldsportsman, shooting game and clays and he wa

The new year is traditionally one of the busiest times for our head measuring service and, although we haven’t received as many as I had expected, we have certainly seen some crackers. We welcomed 2023 with a bang following not one but two platinum m

On 11 January 1954, meteorologist George Cowling gave the world’s first televised weather forecast. The BBC dedicated five minutes of airtime to the former Bomber Command crew member’s inspired climatic guesswork. Cowling concluded with: “Tomorrow wi

For years, fishing enthusiasts claimed that fish don’t feel pain. This has since been shown to be an over-simplification. The fact that fish can feel some sort of pain doesn’t mean that sport fishing is inhumane, of course, though some antis ferventl