I once invited the late Willy Poole, that great countryman and writer, for a day’s pheasant shooting. He declined. He claimed his eyesight was no longer what it was, with…
Alasdair Mitchell
Thermal imagers: why they’re not unsporting
I’ve gone over to the dark side. By which I mean I have bought a thermal imager. Which is, technically, the bright side. But you know what I mean. And…
Underperforming in firearms licensing: why should we continue to fund failure?
For some people, working from home has become shirking from home. I have highlighted aspects of this before (working from home). What we are seeing is too many senior public…
Why spending money on ammunition is worth every penny
Spending money on ammunition An American ammunition maker used to deploy a slogan that referred to bullets as “the most important, least expensive” part of your hunting equipment. This has…
BASC Young Shots shine on a day to remember
A BASC Young Shots day The partridges came whirring over at all heights and from several directions, looking like a swarm of bees against the blue sky. There were so…
Make memories while you still can
I heard the first pink-footed geese of the new season a few nights ago, bang on schedule. It is remarkable how regular they are each year on their 600-mile journey…
Why I started reading Shooting Times
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be, as somebody once said. Yet it is sometimes pleasant to wallow in the past. Shooting Times was founded in 1882. It has been…
No increase in wounding with steel
A reader was intrigued by my brief mention of a massive US study comparing the performance of lead and steel shotgun ammunition on live mourning doves. He was surprised that…
How game meat can help with the cost of living crisis
I turned down the volume of my car radio the other day. I had to because a man called Martin Lewis was shrieking about energy prices. I don’t doubt that…
Public access is not a right
You know where you are with Auntie Beeb. She always marches to the same drumbeat: left, left, left. Take a Radio Four programme called Positive Thinking. A recent episode was…
Fighting to protect shooting
I have been making hay — literally. To walk over a fragrant, newly cut hay meadow at dawn during a heatwave is a joy. We shooters face challenges, but let’s…
Black mamba: If you see one, run
Wanting to call in my labrador, I reached for my whistle and blew. The sound that emerged was ‘phut’. I blew harder. Same result. I removed the whistle from my…
Two Guns shooting at the same quarry can lead to ill feeling
Some years ago, an old army friend invited me up to the Highlands for some walked-up grouse shooting. I wasn’t very good at it. The problem was that whenever some…
Why are birds with rising numbers on the amber list of conservation concern?
Did you know that the pink-footed goose falls within the ‘amber’ category in the traffic light listing of the UK Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC) report? This is despite the…
Loading is better left to the experts
I used to be a home-loader, but I am better now, thank you. Don’t get me wrong; I have every respect for those who espouse the fine craft of producing…
Why we shouldn’t complain about the weather
A bad worker blames his tools. A bad fisher or shooter blames the weather. It is said that the British speak about the weather so often because we have so…
When your wife bins your carefully stored deer antlers
My grinding yet penurious efforts as a Shooting Times contributor are being sabotaged. Time after time. I base my reasoning on the old Army saying: “Once is a matter of…
Ethical hunting: what does it actually mean?
The Americans have a phrase for ethical hunting: fair chase. This exudes all the right connotations, though defining fair chase hunting gets problematic as soon as you delve into the…
Reintroducing large predators to the UK: the truths that need discussion
People who favour reintroducing large predators tend to be idealistic. There’s nothing wrong with idealism. The problems come when it collides with reality. In the context of predator reintroduction, this…
Afternoon naps by the water and my thoughts on them
At this time of year I travel to Hampshire for a spot of trout fishing, which invariably involves afternoon naps by the water. You might think sleeping is a criminal…