In an attempt to catch up with everything, I will have to come back later for a proper blog post about shooting wild boar in Croatia. Over the course of three days of driven boar shooting, I managed to knock over three boar; a young sow, a very big sow and a great big boar. Continue reading

I hadn’t planned on writing a post about this until it was all over, so that I could just nonchalantly drop it into the blog as if it were something that I do all the time and it was hardly noteworthy. However, I am so excited about it that I can’t resist mentioning that in Continue reading

My entire life is dominated by shooting, and the sport pays all of my bills. All I ever wanted was to earn my money from country sports, and now that I do, I think I’ve got quite a good insider view on what makes the “industry” tick at the moment. On the whole, I love Continue reading

I think gaiters must be an acquired taste. I always used to wonder what on earth gaiters were actually for, and proudly went without them until one day in my early twenties when I secretly experimented and became a total convert. I then wore canvas gaiters everytime I was going to spend a day out Continue reading

Just worth mentioning that I shot my first wigeon of the year last night on a flightpond down by the Solway. The same pond has been great over the past six weeks for mallard and teal, and it seems as if some sort of switch has flicked during the past few days which suddenly means Continue reading

It was a fine evening for a stalk over the ground which was burnt this spring, and now that so much fresh green undergrowth is coming through, the deer seem to be the first to bounce back. There are quite a few lying up by day in the remaining stands of heather, and I headed Continue reading

After a second fine night on the flight pond by the Solway during which I missed three or four fine mallard and had my hair parted by a low flying lapwing, I feel like the world of wildfowling is knocking on the door and trying to get in. And who am I to ignore the Continue reading

Keeping an eye on the bruised barley up at the flight pond, it’s obvious that I’ve had visitors. There are little passages through the weeds, and the floating feed has been pushed around and noticeably diminished when I go up each morning. There was a pair of mallard ducks on the pond yesterday morning, and Continue reading

Having decided that there were enough grouse on the hill to have a mini walked up day, the process was duly carried out last weekend. There was a spitting rain as we headed up through the snipe field, but with the wind into our faces, it soon emerged that there was a problem. The birds Continue reading

Now that the game crop has been in for five weeks, the field is looking a great deal greener. Incessant rain has turned the seeds into respectable young plants, and they have now reached that pleasing stage at which they ripple when the wind blows. I’ve been worried about the amount of grass which has Continue reading