In the thick of it

I was pleased with this nicely timed shot which I took at a recent World Pheasant Association charity shoot at the excellent Oxfordshire Shooting School. This was the flush, with 80 or so clays thrown over four guns in what feels like no time at all. Things get very heated, not least the barrels! It's one of the few occasions when a side-by-side is an advantage, but you do need a good glove on your left hand.

This shooter is doing the sensible thing, holding the breech high to throw the empties over his shoulder without hitting the loader in the face, and presenting the empty chambers ready for loading while keeping his eyes on the targets. The loader has one shell in each hand, which I've found is the quickest way, rather than trying to get too clever and manoeuvre two cartridges into the breech with one hand.

When my turn came I was keeping up a good rate of fire when suddenly my gun wouldn't close. In the heat of the moment I grabbed someone else's Beretta o/u and kept going. It turned out that a screw on the barrel lump had started to undo itself, and the head was hitting the floor of the action before the gun was shut. Not what you need in the middle of a flush!

More photos from the day here.

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World Pheasant Association - a great conservation success

Much of what appears on this blog is shooting videos of one sort or another, but of course I write several columns each month in various publications, one of which is Sporting Shooter - the mag I edited for several years.

A recent issue featured this article on the World Pheasant Association, a terrific organisation that does a great deal of conservation work around the world to help the galliformes, or game birds, that are related to our familiar pheasants, partridges and grouse.

I do what I can to help the organisation, as they do a lot of good conservation work with very limited funds, and rarely get the recognition or support they deserve. Their Pipar Project in Nepal is a wonderful example of practical, pragmatic conservation that works with the local population rather than against them.

The WPA celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Check out their website and see if you're tempted to make a modest donation, or even join as a member - for a mere 30 quid a year it's a great way to support a conservation organisation that is pro-shooting rather than ravingly anti!

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WPA / SCAET 'Black Grouse' clay shoot

 The 'WPA Clay Conservationists' Richard Bath, 

Benedict Lawson, Patrick Laurie and James Marchington

Here's me and my team, the 'WPA Clay Conservationists' at the Black Grouse charity clay shoot at Leuchars yesterday. It was a great day - despite persistent rain - and to our enormous surprise we took the team prize.

The shoot raises vital funds for the World Pheasant Association and the Scottish Countryside Alliance Educational Trust.

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Black grouse and wind farms - my article in Shooting Times

I was thrilled to see my article in the Game Fair issue of Shooting Times - it's a piece on the latest research being carried out by the World Pheasant Association to determine the effect of wind farms on black grouse.

Basically the proliferation of wind turbines across the bird's habitat could be a good thing (perhaps because it provides a refuge from raptors) or it could be a bad thing (if, for instance, the turbine noise interferes with the wonderful sound the males make when lekking).

The WPA has been funding research to find out more, and I was particularly intrigued by the work of Newcastle University PhD student Mieke Zwart, who is featured in the article. What they couldn't include in the article was this, the sound of blackcock lekking, which was recorded by Mieke - a wonderful, evocative sound.


Here's an image of the waveform of that sound:

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Conserving endangered pheasants - my article on the WPA in The Field

I'm thrilled to see my article in this month's issue of The Field on the splendid work done by the World Pheasant Association to conserve endangered species of pheasants in Nepal. It really is a great, positive story of real-world, practical conservation work, done by an unsung group comprised mainly of fieldsports enthusiasts. And The Field have done it proud, giving it four pages with some of the splendid photos taken by the WPA over the years.

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