Shooting mags "worse than porn"

Has your local newsagent decided that shooting magazines should be X-rated? Gary Redman's local branch of WHSmith appears to have done just that. He shops at the Harpur Centre in Bedford, and reports that he hunted high and low for his favourite shooting mags. He writes:

"After 10 minutes or so I gave up and decided to ask a shop assistant. I was somewhat confused, as I have bought your magazines there previously.

I was then shown to the rear of the store, some distance from all the other magazines shelves, to find that all shooting magazines are now kept behind a customer services counter where they cannot be directly accessed by browsers. You have to go behind the counter, i.e. into the staff / serving area, to get to them.

The desk is located in a narrow part of the building not regularly used by large numbers of shoppers. Suffice to say, if I were a new reader to shooting magazines, I would have assumed they weren't stocked by the store. Without making the effort to ask I would have gone away empty handed.

So, it would appear that shooting magazines of all types are now considered less acceptable than pornographic publications, which after all have only been moved to the top shelf! I find this completely outrageous. Are WHS suggesting members of the public shouldn't browse your publications in case they are encouraged to run amok with a gun? What next? Perhaps they will soon be asking you to cover them in plain wrapping so that the covers can't cause offence!"

Does your local newsagent display shooting magazines proudly alongside fishing, photography and the rest? Or are they hidden away from the public gaze? I'd be really interested to hear what the situation is like around the country - and if you can get a photo (perhaps with your mobile phone) of any displays, so much the better. They probably can't arrest you for it!

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Hunters welcome!

Seen over the A361 near Tiverton...

No, not really - it's a small town in the US, where "hunter" isn't automatically a dirty word (yet). Thanks to David Taylor, the Countryside Alliance's new Shooting Campaigns Manager, who took it when he was in the States over the New Year.

Read his views on the different attitudes to gun legislation here and there, in next month's issue of Sporting Shooter.

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How to catch a mouse - without a trap

"There's a mouse in the house, what can I do?" It was my daughter Emma, visiting her boyfriend Steve in North London.

I could lend her a trap next time she came home - I've got several types to choose from. But she wanted it gone pronto.

OK says I, have you got a vase, or a water jug, and a piece of wood? Er, yes...

Well, put some peanut butter in the bottom of the jug, put it near where you've seen the mouse, and lean a piece of wood against it for the mouse to use as a ramp.

"That'll never work, will it?" says Emma. Two days later...

It's nice to be proved right now and again! Incidentally, this is why you should never throw away old bottles and such in the countryside. Mice and voles go in and can't get out.

And if you're wondering, Steve released the mouse "back into the wild", as they say in all the best wildlife programmes.

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Antis chucking in the towel

Fancy that! In the last couple of days, I've learned that two of shooting's most vociferous adversaries are moving on.

Douglas Batchelor, chief exec of the League Against Cruel Sports, has announced he is retiring this summer.

And Mark Avery, conservation director of the RSPB, let slip in a recent blog post that he will leave the bird-botherers in April. Just in time to apply for Batchelor's job perhaps? No, I don't think Avery is bonkers enough for them.

So does this mean shooting will get an easy ride, free from polemical rants about how we're all bloodthirsty psychopaths with a penchant for throwing toxic substances around the environment and persecuting anything with a hooky-beak?

I'm guessing not.

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Where are all the pigeons?

A group of farmers on a farming forum have been discussing their pigeon problems - or lack of them. It's hardly scientific, but I thought I'd make some blobs on a map of the UK to mark the places they're reporting pigeons. The map above is the result. I don't think it tells us much, but it did vaguely remind me of the classic U-shaped decoy pattern, with the landing zone centred around Northamptonshire!

With all the clever web tools available nowadays, it ought to be possible to create a live pigeon map, updated with reports from the field, to show which way the birds are heading. Maybe Google Maps has an answer? Suggestions and technical help gratefully received...

Talking of techy webby stuff, if you ever need to look up a gunshop, try the excellent dealer locator at Highland Outdoors.

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Foxes scrapping in the street

My younger daughter, Vicky, came across these two foxes having a scrap in the middle of the road in suburban Surbiton. She says they took no notice of the car, and at times she could have reached out and touched them.

Foxes in this area seem to be getting bolder all the time - there's one that hangs round the carpark at Waitrose in Esher, which expects you to walk round it, rather than get out of your way!

Various friends have told me they stopped feeding foxes in their gardens after the newspaper reports of fox attacks on children last year - but they felt sorry for them in the recent hard weather and have started putting food out again.

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Bracken's first pheasant

 

We took Bracken, the 15 month old lab, to her first proper driven pheasant shoot today - and she behaved impeccably! She sat patiently but attentively at the peg (on her rather girly pink and white rope lead) and didn't pull or whine.

When we got the chance, we sent her for her first pheasant retrieve - this nice cock, which fell in plain view an easy distance away. And she went straight out and brought it back!

OK it wasn't the most demanding task, but that wasn't the point. We wanted her first introduction to driven game to be a calm and positive affair. There will be plenty of time for more adventurous work later.

As it happens, this was also my first pheasant this season too. I know readers like to think I'm constantly swanning around getting shooting invitations left right and centre. The truth is, it doesn't happen like that, and I rarely have the time to spare anyway. Still, it was great to get out and enjoy a modest driven day, courtesy of my mum who gave up her gun for the day. Thanks mum!

For the record, the total bag was 56 pheasants, a pigeon and a rabbit, between 8 guns. I shot just over my share, at 8 pheasants and the pigeon. The weather was dull and chilly, while the company was quite the opposite. It's a small, friendly shoot near Horsham in Sussex - just the sort of shoot I like best.