I had a fabulous time filming the sika stalking with Pete and Jason for this week's episode of The Shooting Show. What a treat to be out on the hills as the sun rose, listening to the deer making that strange whistle-roar. Filming something like this is a real challenge, not least crawling in with the stalker and rifle, filming it, and keeping the camera out of the bog all at the same time! Still, it'd be no fun if it was easy, would it?
“Deranged” – PETA • “Super-posh” – The Mirror • "His own worst enemy" – D Barnes Esq • "Barbaric" – Liverpool City Council
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Pete Wilson's trick shooting on Schools Challenge TV
I had a great day filming this week's episode - I'm sure someone will moan about Pete Wilson and his dad having a lark, but I can honestly say they were 100% safe throughout, just having fun shooting.
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
Friday, 20 September 2013
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.
Calling in a fox in broad daylight
Here's my latest piece on The Shooting Show - Gary Green out in a high seat, using his electronic caller. It was a baking hot summer's day and a fox didn't seem very likely, to me anyway. But persistence paid off and a pheasant's alarm call caught our attention...
Tuesday, 20 August 2013
A new fox call to try - the Nasher
I received this in the post today - the 'Nasher' fox call - from Eddie Nash who runs the Lamping Foxes group on Facebook. So first things first, thanks Eddie for sending it through for me to try.
It's had some good reviews from experienced foxshooters, so I'm looking forward to trying it out. Initial thoughts... well, it's a simple and clever design, looking basically like a short length of copper pipe squashed into a pillow shape, with the ends crimped shut and a hole drilled straight through both sides in the centre.
Looking at it, you might think it would make a similar sound to the WAM call - a favourite of mine for close calling, although it doesn't have the Tenterfield-style Bestfoxcall's power to reach out to foxes several fields away. Horses for courses, I use both, as well as the plastic reed-type when the mood takes me.
Without any foxes handy to test it on, I thought I'd try out a new app I've put on my mobile - I've been wondering what it might be good for. It's called FrequenSee (geddit?) and displays a graph of, yes you guessed, the frequency profile of whatever sounds are being picked up by the phone's mic. Ignore the silly ads at the top left of each screenshot; it's a free app and that's the price you pay.
First up, the WAM. Notice the first and biggest spike a little above 2kHz. Then the higher frequency spikes around 5kHz, 8kHz and a smaller one at 10kHz. The shorter spikes higher up may be harmonics of the lower ones, or perhaps they are more to do with the rushing of wind out of the side of my mouth etc. I suspect they aren't loud enough to travel far anyway. Someone more musical than myself (which is not setting the bar very high) may be able to tell me what musical notes these represent.
So, on to the Nasher. Subjectively, I felt the sound was similar in tone to the WAM, but louder and more raspy. I was interested to see that the spikes are almost identical in frequency, although the shapes are different. The line is higher in the gaps between the spikes and, although you can't see it in the screen-grab, the line was far more animated, wiggling up and down like a crazed snake. To my ears, that corresponded with a more raspy, 'dirty' sound, as opposed to the pure whistle-like tone of the WAM.
Which may well be a good thing. Experience has shown that foxes are attracted to the raspy tone of the Bestfoxcall - as one foxshooter told me, the more spit you can push throught it as you blow, the better. So I have high hopes for the Nasher, and I'm looking forward to trying it out on the Skye foxes when I head up there shortly. One thing I must work on is holding the Nasher in my mouth; doing the phone app tests, I struggled to hold it with my lips and leave both hands free to grab the screenshot. That wasn't a problem, but it will be a problem if I don't have both hands free for shooting when I use it for real.
Incidentally, check out the little fox mask logo stamped into the crimp at top left - a nice touch.
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Schools Challenge at the Game Fair, take 2
There was so much to see and do at the CLA Game Fair we couldn't possibly fit it all in one show. This is the second featuring the fair; there will be more from the CLA in the next show in two weeks time.
Note the rather natty Schools Challenge TV microphone wielded by Izzy in her interview with Andrew Crawford. It's a trusty and well-worn dynamic AKG D230 which served me well when I was producing audio podcasts, spruced up with a red foam cover and a white mic cube. I printed the show's name on a sheet of sticky labels, cut them out neatly with a steel ruler and my Swiss Army Knife, stuck them on as straight as I could and, hey presto, custom SCTV mic!
Note the rather natty Schools Challenge TV microphone wielded by Izzy in her interview with Andrew Crawford. It's a trusty and well-worn dynamic AKG D230 which served me well when I was producing audio podcasts, spruced up with a red foam cover and a white mic cube. I printed the show's name on a sheet of sticky labels, cut them out neatly with a steel ruler and my Swiss Army Knife, stuck them on as straight as I could and, hey presto, custom SCTV mic!
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