Sporting Rifle September 2020

As I write this leader it is the height of the roe rut in my part of Yorkshire. The pandemic restrictions meant I couldn’t stalk in the precious months spring months of April and May – the time of year when I harvest two-thirds of the buck from the estate. This of course put a lot of pressure on me to catch up on numbers during the rut. Thankfully the rut has started well, the bucks have responded well to the call and the keepers intelligence service better still. If you have a stalking lease it is imperative that the stalker gets on with the farm manager and the keepers. Fortunately, the three keepers and the farm manager on the estate I rent for stalking are all top blokes, and I…

Last month we reported that the Game Fair would not take place in 2020, due to government guidance. However new dates have now been set for 2021, with the ‘Festival of the Countryside’ set to return to Ragley Hall on 23-25 July. As show organisers had no guarantees that a phased reopening would happen in time for the revised dates in September, the decision was made to reschedule the event and make Warwickshire the home of the Game Fair for the next five years. The director of Ragley Hall Estate, Charles Granlund, commented: “We support and understand the difficult decision that the team have had to make, but are excited to welcome The Game Fair family back to Ragley in 2021 and to become The Game Fair’s new home for the next…

The Countryside Alliance has unveiled details of a new Government approved ‘Underkeeper Apprenticeship’ that it has developed with input from 20 lowland and upland shoots in a major step forward for the shooting community. The apprenticeship has been published by the Institute of Apprenticeships, the Government body for administering vocational training schemes, and funding has been formally agreed. Shoots will now be able to employ apprentices safe in the knowledge that they will be trained with the right skills to start their career. Funding of up to £7,000 for each apprentice has been allocated. Adrian Blackmore, Director of Shooting, for the Countryside Alliance said: “The Government is committed to reforming how apprenticeships are delivered, with employers now specifying the standards that would make an apprentice valuable to them. Working with estates across…

The Countryside Alliance, has launched its latest e-lobby campaign which calls on MPs to urge the Secretary of State for DEFRA, George Eustice, to ‘take back control of wildlife licensing’ from Natural England. Thousands have already signed the online lobbying email, which cites the ‘widely publicised crisis’ and ‘chaotic system’ over which Natural England currently presides. A recent parliamentary question revealed that Natural England has received approximately 160 applications to control Corvid species on, or close to, European protected sites since January. To date, 26 of these applications have been granted, 8 rejected, with 126 still to be determined or which have been withdrawn. The Alliance consider this is an unacceptable response rate. Sam Carlisle, a spokesman for the Countryside Alliance said: “We welcome the Defra Secretary of State’s recent commitment to ensuring…

The annual Home Office statistics on firearms and shotguns have been published for 2019/20, highlighting steady participation in shooting sports in the UK. There were 159,483 firearm certificates on issue as at 31 March 2020, a decrease of 262 compared with the previous year – which was the highest number of firearm certificates on issue since comparable records began in 2009. The annual report also showed that an average of 3.8 firearms were held on a firearms certificate, and that the average number of firearms held on a certificate has shown a steady increase in the past decade. Of over 600,000 licensed firearms, the majority (58 per cent) were rifles used for target shooting or pest control. Bill Harriman, BASC’s director of firearms, said: “Shooting sports continues to draw in new crowds.…

Sightmark launched the Wraith digital riflescope to European markets at the 2019 British Shooting Show, and the night vision unit soon became a hit. Since then Sightmark have been working on expanding the popular Wraith range and are now preparing to launch the improved 4K model. Featuring state-of-the-art technology and better image quality, the Wraith is expected to arrive in October. Sporting Rifle’s Mark Ripley has been given exclusive access to the Sightmark Wraith 4K – look out for the full review coming soon!…