A new year requires a new calendar. Struggling to pencil in your dates? Look no further than the robbiesrally naked charity calendar 2019, and take a stand by turning your back on brain cancer
Join robbiesrally and turn your back on brain cancer.
Country dwellers are proper sorts who know how to raise funds. Look no further than the brand new robbiesrally naked charity calendar 2019. While rowers are known to stick their oars in, veterinary students old hands at shedding their overalls and the hunting community long relied upon to go bareback (and front), the girls behind the new Robbie’s Reveal calendar have a personal reason for taking a stand.
Join them and turn your back on brain cancer, by buying a calendar at THIS link.
ROBBIESRALLY NAKED CHARITY CALENDAR 2019
The calendar is raising funds for robbiesrally, a charity for children with brain tumours, founded by Robbie Keville and his family before he died in 2016. It was Robbie’s sister, Lara, who had the bright idea of putting together a calendar for the cause. And fortunately her friends didn’t need any persuading. The result? A calendar filled with a bevvy of bottoms and sporting sorts, all in aid of a super cause.
robbiesrally naked charity calendar 2019 is a real example of family and friends pulling together. You would expect no less from countryside dwellers. The calendar was photographed by the Keville’s close family friend, Tessa Smith. Tessa’s son, Alex, had a brain tumour and died in January 2018. A passionate musician, he collapsed with an aggressive brain tumour in December 2015. After two major operations, he stunned his doctors, friends and family by returning to work and playing in clubs around the world – inspiring many in his example to live life to the full, despite his illness.
The robbiesrally naked charity calendar 2019 is dedicated to Alex and to Robbie.
ROBBIESRALLY
Robbie Keville wanted to become a doctor after losing his mother Kate to cancer when he was 6 years old. It is an ambition his friends and family are sure he would have achieved, but Robbie contracted cancer himself just two years later: a brain tumour. After his initial surgery and treatment, he founded robbiesrally with his family. Robbie was at the first event before he died in 2016, aged 10, and saw for himself how the charity was helping others with brain tumours.
robbiesrally raises funds for children with brain tumours in the south of England. The charity exclusively funds the new paediatric outpatient rehabilitation service, Robbie’s Rehab, at Southampton Hospital. It is the only specialist outpatient rehab unit for children with brain tumours in the south of England which is free at the point of delivery. The service has transformed the quality and extent of recovery for many children.
For more information about robbiesrally and to donate, visit their website. Or buy your calendar today at this link.
As the season presses on, make the best of your brace and get it from shot to pot with The Field's top 10 best pheasant recipes
The best pheasant recipes start with the best ingredients.
The 1 October has been and gone and as the freezer starts to fill, it is time to expand your game repertoire and put new suppers on the table. The Field’s top 10 best pheasant recipes will see you straight through the season, and beyond. Whether you are a keen game chef, or just learning, pheasant is simple to cook. Simply think of it as a more flavoursome, and sustainable, chicken. And substitute it into your favourite suppers accordingly. Whether you are cooking for a full house, shoot party, smalls or even the uninitiated take inspiration from The Field’s top 10 best pheasant recipes. Which will you cook first?
Follow The Field on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date with all of our latest recipes. And join the conversation – Fielders are constantly sharing cooking tips and pictures of their latest supper innovations. And we want to see yours. Share your game recipes and suppers with us, tag The Field in your pictures or use #TheFieldMagazine.
Like what you see? The Field has new recipes every month, from the best ways to use your brace to seasonal suppers guaranteed to impress throughout the Twelve Days. SUBSCRIBE to The Field to get 51% OFF for TODAY ONLY. Click HERE to discover more and subscribe today.
PHEASANT RECIPES
Follow the season and you can’t go far wrong with your brace. Old birds have a tendency to dryness, and need long, slow cooking. But at the start of the season you can roast the bird whole. Plump straight for the perfect roast pheasant with white wine and charlotte potatoes. Not too heavy, perfect for this time of year and guaranteed to please a full house.
For some proper cold weather comfort food, perfect for a post-sporting day kitchen supper, our pheasant, madeira and kale pie will warm the cockles. Or our pheasant carbonara is hearty and quick. And it makes use of the birds that were retrieved less than perfectly.
If you are looking for ways to deal with a pheasant glut, be adventurous. The chorizo, pheasant and prawn paella is straightforward and scrumptious. And it demonstrates how pheasant is an an excellent chicken substitute.
And if you have smalls to feed, pheasant Kiev makes for a popular supper. By easily avoiding dryness, it is our most small-friendly dish. Or the pheasant fajitas make a fun family supper to share round. When the months get sombre, think sombrero.
And finally, one thing to not forget. You can make the best pheasant stock from the carcasses. Simply follow the best pheasant stock and soup and leave it bubbling in the bottom of the Aga.
PHEASANT COOKING TIPS
Pheasant’s tendency to dryness can scupper even the experienced game cook. You can’t go far wrong with the Field’s top 10 best pheasant recipes, but there is always scope for a secret top tip. Read the best way to cook pheasant breasts for Mike Robinson’s sound advice.
This Diana of the Chase cum racing stylist has a ‘have a go’ attitude to fieldsports, though is happiest ‘on the wonk’ over drains and hedges
Sarah Kate Byrne's passion for sidesaddle was launched by an old saddle rescued from a crumbling country pile.
Sarah Kate Byrne has hunted since she was four, and started riding sidesaddle at just twelve years old. Today she brings vintage flair and flamboyance to her role as a racing stylist, and her ‘have a go’ attitude has seen her enjoy fieldsports across the world.
For more sporting Dianas, seriously sporting ladies offering advice and encouragement, journalist and campaigner Dr Nina Krüger has a PhD in molecular biology. And Polly Portwin is encouraging others to speak up for the sports they love as Campaign Manager at the Countryside Alliance.
SARAH KATE BYRNE
A year ago I shot my first stag on a glorious estate in Sutherland, after a long crawl up a burn from where we’d left the boat on the loch shore. That moment confirmed my opinion that all sporting opportunities are precious and should be embraced and experienced. My mantra has always been to “have a go” and although I may never be a passionate stalker, I know I can place the bullet and cut the mustard. This is an important aspect of my sporting life and from a young age I developed a can-do attitude, especially where horses were concerned. I had the fortune to be raised in rural Ireland in a house full of animals, where horses came and went but not until they’d been under a sidesaddle.
My parents were forever accumulating old saddles and tack as they toured Ireland’s crumbling piles for their work, reclaiming and conserving historic houses. It was a sidesaddle from one such house that launched my passion for this style of riding.
I started hunting astride a Shetland pony in Carlow country when I was four. When the old sidesaddle turned up eight years later, I started to hunt ‘on the wonk’. Those days with our surrounding packs – the Carlow, Kildare, Wicklow and Shillelagh – were often hairy, always wet and my sister, Aoife, and I were the only children ever out sideways. The sense of adventure and exhilaration it gave me was palpable. I still feel it now, returning home annually for days aside with the Blazers, Limericks and Duhallow, to name a few. Having hunted sidesaddle with a dozen or more packs in England since moving over here in 2006, I have seen a real revolution in the way women approach their hunting. The sidesaddle movement has had a real shot in the arm from those true thrusters, such as Lucy Holland and Fran Moulaert, who don’t just look elegant but really go for it. I wouldn’t call it a sisterhood but it’s no longer a novelty and that’s a good thing.
Her ‘have a go’ attitude sees her getting stuck in to fieldsports across the world.
Having missed the inaugural Dianas of the Chase sidesaddle steeplechase due to a ski crash on the giant slalom run in Verbier, I was determined to enter at the next available opportunity. Riding Karen Bamford’s trusty if a little sturdy Alfie, and despite a heavy peck at the last, we came home an honourable sixth, thus silencing one lady who asked me why I had chosen a cart horse as my mount. I always admit that my prowess in the saddle is entirely down to the bravery of the steed I am lucky enough to have under me.
My boyfriend is an obsessive shot and fisherman and I’m happy to get stuck in, too. My introduction to shooting was unplanned. Starting the day as peg fluff, I found a gun being thrust at me by a bored Special Forces officer who nonchalantly gave me some instructions while puffing away on a cigarette. Some years later, I found myself on a peg in Spain on a whopping double-gun partridge day. I’ve fished the Ballinahinch in the West of Ireland and the Deveron under the guidance of a charming gillie who recited poetry to me from the bank. However, these things don’t match the thrill of flying a black hedge or a deep drain on a forward-going hunter. I really enjoy the opportunities for visiting and the social side that fieldsports offer. On that trip to Spain, Martha Sitwell and I were the guests of a charming Spanish duque who took us pig-sticking and put us up on horses for a monteria, where we drove the pigs and deer towards the rifles. What a thrill to be able to do all this sideways in a country where hunting is taken so seriously and is so enshrined in ceremony.
My intention is to continue to give everything a go and seek new sporting opportunities. There’s talk of a trip to Africa and as the house is festooned with big-game trophies, I might as well try to add a few. The thought of stalking a buffalo with a double rifle appeals and as a natural thrill-seeker I’m sure it would deliver just as much adrenaline as the wildest day over walls in Ireland.
My work as a racing stylist gives me every opportunity to be around racecourses and racing people, which is in my blood. I’m an aesthete and I try to dress ITV Racing’s host, Francesca Cumani, in as much vintage clothing as I can. This goes hand-in-hand with my approach to the sporting wardrobe. It’s not a fancy-dress party but there’s always room for a little theatre and one should strive to look a little quirky. It’s all part of the fun. The joy of vintage clothes is that they are properly made and one-of-a-kind pieces that you won’t see on the lady next to you at paddock or covert-side. After all, we only do these things for fun so there’s nothing to be shy of when displaying a touch of flamboyance.
TOP TIP:We’re here for a good time, not a long time, and my advice is to embrace every opportunity while adopting my grandmother’s mantra: “Spend it and God will send it.”
Great British Game Week is back for its fifth year from 19-25 November, so follow The Field's favourite game recipes for a week of wild suppers
Serve seven wild suppers for Great British Game Week.
Great British Game Week is back. Now in its fifth year, BASC’s Taste of Game and the Countryside Alliance’s Game to Eat are joining forces once again, and this time with a new partner, the British Game Alliance. The aim is to encourage more people than ever to try game, and suppliers and restaurants will be showing their goods with fantastic offers and events all week. So do your bit for Great British game and serve wild suppers all week. The Field’s 7 recipes for Great British Game Week include snacks for smalls, hearty kitchen suppers and something positively palatial for the weekend…
Great British Game Week aims to encourage as many people as possible to enjoy game, and celebrate all things wild. So join the cause and serve game this week. Partridge is a good starting point for newcomers. Or show how pheasant makes a great replacement for chicken. Enjoy a week of wild suppers with The Field’s seven favourite game recipes.
A raised game pie is wonderfully old-fashioned and fantastically impressive. And it isn’t as daunting to make as it seems.…
Start the week with a simple, but scrumptious, game supper. Dry game is unappetising and will likely put newcomers off, but pheasant Kiev solves all problems of dryness. And it shows how pheasant can make a great substitute for chicken. Our chorizo, pheasant and prawn paella and pheasant fajitas also replaces chicken with game – and all are great suppers to serve the smalls.
For another recipe to keep the smalls happy, partridge goujons are a super snack to share. Partridge is an excellent start point for newcomers to game, and lends itself to delicious spices and flavours to have them coming back for more. People are more likely to try something familiar. What is more inviting than a goujon?
Come the middle of the week it’s time to keep spirits high. Our spicy game tagine served with cous cous and pomegranate is excellent for warding off the sniffles. It also makes great use of a mixed bag – any game will work. Invite guests that have never tried game before so they can sample a bit of everything.
Venison is lean, healthy and sustainable. And it lends itself to the exotic flavours and spice guaranteed to impress. So brighten up supper with our five spice venison with kale, ginger and spring onion – lively for the tastebuds and a winning combination.
It’s roast for a Friday night treat, but delve into the depths of your freezer for this one. An old grouse can make a delicious supper, but make sure you pot roast it. The long, slow cook will give you a succulent supper to share. Try our pot roast grouse with brandy, tarragon and wild mushrooms to show that old and young birds are equally delicious.
For the weekend, make something a little different to share on the shoot day. Pheasant samosas again show how well game works with spice, and are excellent for elevenses. A week of wild suppers calls for a little innovation, and this is a great way to use your game creatively.
And finally, for Sunday lunch serve up something positively palatial and ensure everyone gets a generous wedge. Genevieve Taylor’s raised game pie is another fantastic way to get newcomers to sample a variety of game. Serve steaming from the oven or as part of a cold buffet with a sharp cranberry sauce for Sunday lunch.
Some of our leading female shots offer their opinion on what guns women are using in the field. When it comes to ladies shooting, what do we want?
Anne-Marie Heelis in action.
According to my shotgun certificate, the Menzies arsenal currently includes: 1 x Beretta Silver Pigeon 12-bore over-and-under; 2 x Churchill 20-bore side-by-sides; 2 x Arietta 20-bore side-by-sides. And, since you ask, officer, there is indeed a very good reason why I need each and every one of my five shotguns. The Churchills are for grouse and partridge shooting early in the season (and for showing off); the Ariettas are for driven pheasant as the season progresses and rough shooting over my dogs; the 12-bore is for clay shooting and lending to guests of a results-oriented persuasion. So far so incredibly spoilt.
What I dread is the next government crackdown that will force me to choose to keep just one of my double-barrelled friends. Would it be the Churchills for their beauty, vintage, craftsmanship and speedy swing? Or the Ariettas for the ease of lugging one up yet another Monroe? Or the 12-bore, because anyone can use it? Should the dreaded day ever come, you can be sure that one thing will not be considered among my selection criteria, and that is the fact that I am a girl. Yet ever since women began to get seriously involved in shooting in the 1980s, it has been assumed (by men) that gender would be the first element considered when buying a gun. And, worse still, that taking that into account would mean always selecting a 20-bore.
LADIES SHOOTING
Heads up, chaps: the continuing stream of medals brought home by our girls from shooting competitions all over the world have all been won using 12-bores. Following her recent ISSF World Cup Gold medal in Siggiewi, Malta, Amber Hill (who is a petite 5ft 2in) commented: “I finally got my hands on the ISSF World Cup Gold Medal… It was definitely one of the trickiest comps I have ever shot.” She was generous in her praise of her (pink) cartridge suppliers, Eley, and, most of all, she hearted Beretta, makers of her 12-bore skeet gun.
Sporting clay champion Hannah Gibson in game mode.
Other top female competition shots include FITASC champion Cheryl Hall and Sporting clay champion Hannah Gibson. Like all other clay shooting competition specialists across the disciplines, male or female, they shoot 12-bores. Anything else would simply be uncompetitive – not a look that appeals to our girls. Perhaps the most competitive of them all is Nicola Heron, multiple champion and national director of the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association. Yet, when asked about shotgun selection for women, she doesn’t consider the choice of 12-bore or not to be the most important decision.
“Any woman can shoot any type of gun providing it fits them perfectly,” stresses Heron. “The most important consideration is whether you are shooting for fun or for competition. For example, if you want to shoot any Trap disciplines seriously you won’t progress far using a Sporting gun. Likewise, a long-barrelled Trap gun would not really be suitable for an Olympic skeet shooter. And, in reality, as your skills improve, your choice of what you want to shoot may change. So, girls, look forward to changing guns or adding to the stable.”
There are more uses for a shotgun than shooting competition clays, or shooting fun clays, or driven pheasant. You might not even be shooting pheasants at all but rabbits over a spaniel, grouse over a pointer or basically anything that moves and is legal. You can have big fun with a big gun in clay disciplines where the target is easy to access, predictable and pre-mounting is an option. But when the quarry could pop up as you fight your way through a bramble thicket and mounting at all is a bit sketchy, manoeuvrability is paramount. So women have learnt to be flexible in the choice of gun and to prize fitness for purpose over any amount of big numbers and technical specifications.
MODERN FEMALE GUN
Sporting publicist Selena Barr is typical of the modern female gun: “I tend to change gauges depending on what I am doing. I am only 5ft 3in so I like to surprise people by shooting with a 12-bore. The 12-bore is ideal for clays, especially now that manufacturers are bringing out models specifically designed for women. But for walked-up I do prefer a lighter gun, especially on grouse where the terrain can be very rough. The smaller size of the 20-bore is easier to carry around – some of the longer barrelled 12-bores can be quite cumbersome in the heather.”
Lucinda Southern is a keen gameshot as well as the founder of Gundog Girls. She stresses the need for the smaller, less noisy bores when dog training, “especially when you come to shooting over the dogs, I would use a 20-bore. But really it’s a matter of preference and dependent on the quarry. If the gun fits, so to speak. And a 12-bore is my choice for the peg.”
Emma Perrott’s experience is a working example of fitting the gun to the shooting requirements rather than to a preconceived idea of 12-bore or 20-bore being “better”. Her main activities are deer control and rough shooting in upland Britain, and her expertise is behind new wild food restaurants in Stratford-on-Avon and Bath.
Emma Perrott on the moor.
As a hardy stalker, Perrott isn’t impressed by size. Instead, her shotgun shooting is with a 20-bore. “It was my first ever gun of my own. I use it for various game shooting and also clays. It fits me really well and I get on with it so it’s never occurred to me to change it. I am only 5ft 1in so it’s far more in proportion for me to handle than my dad’s 12-bore Silver Pigeon that he used to teach me with.”
PROFESSIONAL
Professional shooting instructor Charlotte Morrison agrees: “I get a lot of women coming to me who have had bad experiences at the start, having a couple of lessons from their husbands, shooting his 12-bore, and not only is it big and heavy but it doesn’t fit. So I switch them down to a 20-bore to get their confidence. Once you have got going with your shooting it is really a matter of personal preference – right from .410 through 28-bore to 20 or 12. But if you are shooting only clays, and especially competition clays, a 12-bore has a much wider shot pattern leading to more broken clays. The tighter pattern of the 20-bore lends itself to desirable cleaner kills when game shooting.” Natalie Cannon took up shooting mainly as an extension of her work with spaniels, and this has certainly been her experience. “I am quite green to shooting but I really like my little 20. I have shot with it all season and had the pleasure of driven birds, walked-up and duck – and even killed a brace of geese. I have lately started to use a 12 sometimes, and I can see the advantage, but I think if I had to choose it would be the 20.”
Gunmaker Elaine Stewart, of Longthorne Guns, points out that modern 12-bores don’t have to be heavy. “We have a model that we have engineered down to just 6lb 4oz. We are using a solid block of steel to make our barrels and so we have been able to reduce recoil and muzzle flip in the guns that we build. But, to be honest, we get very, very few women coming in for a bespoke gun. Where the men are comfortable spending £20,000 to £30,000 on a gun, women don’t spoil themselves. If you think of it there is a knock-on effect because it means there aren’t the women’s guns out there for a girl to inherit in the way that a man might inherit his father’s gun.”
CUSTOM-BUILT GUN
Anne-Marie Heelis is contributing a new woman’s gun to the legacy of female stock by having her own gun custom-built for her by Boxall & Edmiston. Given that Heelis hasn’t had to make compromises over gun selection, it is illuminating to hear her values in making her choice. She explains: “I have girl friends who shoot 12-bores and male friends who shoot 20-bores. My previous gun was from the 1920s. Then I got a Beretta 20-bore and thought I will never need to buy another gun, it will last forever. It wasn’t perfect, though. With shooting experience I formed a very clear idea of exactly what I wanted in a gun, and nothing off-the-peg had all the features I wanted. Then, at a gun show, I saw a bespoke 20-bore and it was so beautiful and also ticked all the technical boxes. I loved it, it was a work of art. I thought about it for a year, trying to justify it to myself. Both my parents died quite young and it has taught me to live in the present. So I have given it to myself as a 45th birthday present and hope to enjoy it for 30 years at least.
Anne-Marie Heelis in action.
“For me, it is just as much about how it looks, because you are handling a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. So although I wanted an over-and-under, I did still want all the craftsmanship you would expect with a traditional side-by-side – that is colour case hardening and lockplate engraving and gold filigree, and when I saw they had produced that with a round action combined with modern functionality, that is the marriage of form and function I wanted. On my previous 20-bore I was getting barrel flip, and Peter Boxall has solved this. And he has engineered a solution to the problem you get reloading so many over-and-unders that the bottom barrel isn’t always opening fully for quick reloading. I can also fire heavier loads through it without noticing any difference in recoil or the way the gun behaves. I like to be individual and I get great satisfaction from knowing that my gun is equally individual.”
Heelis has pinpointed what is probably the only real difference in the sexes when it comes to gun choice. Women are not geeky about guns. Size in itself does not impress them. Arts & Crafts designer William Morris said: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful,” and we feel the same about what we have in our gun cabinets. Gender equality is all about the right to choose. Many men choose to shoot with a 20-bore or a .410. Many women shoot with a 12-bore. It’s not a question of the relative merits of the gauge, it’s all about how you identify. Personally, I identify as 20-bore, perhaps a little 12 curious.
We have a cracking deal on Field subscriptions to start the countdown to Christmas. Subscribe to The Field with 51% OFF, our lowest ever price for the big Black Friday weekend. Don't miss The Field subscription sale
Don't miss our lowest EVER prices on subscriptions for the big Black Friday weekend sale.
Has your Field subscription expired? Are you looking for the perfect shooting season companion? Or are you already thinking about Christmas presents for your fellow fieldsports fanatics? The Field subscription sale is here to celebrate the season and start the countdown to Christmas. Field subscriptions are 51% OFF for the big Black Friday weekend with prices starting at just £12.99. Pick yours up today in The Field subscription sale BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGE BELOW:
Don’t miss our lowest ever price on subscriptions for Black Friday weekend.
You don’t need to wait for the new issue to drop on your doormat each month for your Field fix. Make sure you are following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The only way to stay right up to date with everything going on in the field. We have shooting tips, delicious game recipes, pictures straight from the hunting field and more dogs than you could shake a stick at. Everything rural types need to see them through the season from their favourite magazine, The Field.
THE FIELD SUBSCRIPTION SALE
Searching for gift inspiration or writing a wish list of your own? Treat yourself or a loved one today. Prices start at JUST £12.99 when you subscribe to The Field, our lowest EVER price for Black Friday weekend. So hurry, offer ends Sunday at midnight. And there’s only a limited number of subscriptions available each day at this price.
Just in time to celebrate the season and start the countdown to Christmas, Field subscriptions are 51% OFF for Black Friday weekend. Hurry, don’t miss this cracking deal. The offer is only available until Sunday. And there’s only a limited number of subscriptions on offer each day. So pick yours up today at THIS link.
So treat yourself in The Field subscription sale. We recommend spending your post-sporting evenings making a dish from the top 10 best pheasant recipes and settling down with our latest issue. The perfect post-shoot evening.
From goujons for the smalls to an impressive pie fit a festive spread, as well as the best way to prepare, roast and stuff your bird, The Field's 10 best partridge recipes offer plenty of inspiration
Partridge is a versatile bird and can be added to a variety of different dishes.
From family suppers to festive spreads, the 10 best partridge recipes will see you through the season and beyond. Goujons are guaranteed to be popular with the smalls, warming salads make excellent supper party starters or plump for the perfect roast come the weekend, you need never consider your partridge a bore on the plate.
And what better time to experiment with your game suppers than Great British Game Week? Read our Great British Game Week recipes for seven days of wild suppers. Or, if you prefer the partridge’s larger cousin the pheasant, head straight to the top 10 best pheasant recipes.
Are you always on the search for a new way to use your brace? The Field has the best game suppers, with new recipes in every issue. Never miss one, SUBSCRIBE today and get 51% OFF, our lowest ever price for Black Friday weekend. Click HERE to discover more and subscribe today.
10 BEST PARTRIDGE RECIPES
Partridge has much to recommend it. It makes an excellent starting point for newcomers to game. It is cheap, readily available from late September onwards and can provide the most brilliant sport. However, it can be accused of being a little bland.
Such thrilling flavours may entice newcomers to game. But nothing will put them off faster than a dry bird. Pot roasting will solve all of those problems, leaving the partridge tender and moist. Try pot roast partridge with figs, honey and balsamic. And while serving the entire bird has its splendor, as the season presses on the leg meat can become tough. Confit partridge legs with celeriac purée is the solution.
Partridge is also excellent in salad, and this warm partridge salad with crispy Parma ham is a wonderful starter for a supper party. Plus the secret splash of vodka will keep spirits high. Or put a gamey twist on a classic – partridge breast caesar-style salad will impress if you get the crunch on your croutons just right.
The Naked, Strewth charity calendar is free with our January issue. The best of the current crop of naked charity calendars, handpicked for you by our dedicated team
Don't miss your FREE Naked Strewth 2019 calendar with the January issue of The Field.
The Naked Strewth charity calendar encompasses bosoms and bottoms from field to far afield. Each month a plethora of the sporting and scantily clad send in the best of their barely clad efforts to Field Towers. It has become an something of an institution. Much like the British fascination with the weather, there is an equal fascination among the country dweller to disrobe at the drop of a hat. It must have something to do with the rural bonkbuster and all it entails. Follow me? Yes please, Master.
Bottoms are bared without a blush and décolletages exposed, and Air Ambulances throughout the Shires are kept flying for another year. The Field’s Naked Strewth charity calendar 2019 pays homage to the pick of this year’s naked charity calendar crop. You can find your copy FREE with every January 2019 issue of The Field.
For the very best 2019 naked charity calendars, don’t miss an issue of The Field. And SUBSCRIBE TODAY to receive the January issue, with the FREE Naked Strewth calendar 2019. Get 35% OFF plus an Amazon gift card in our Cyber Week sale. Click HERE to discover more and subscribe today.
NAKED STREWTH CHARITY CALENDAR 2019
The 2019 FREE Naked, Strewth charity calendar contains the very best of the naked charity calendars that have revealed themselves in The Field during the previous year. So you can expect frisky fillies, well-prepared guns, foxy hunters and oar-some rowers. The Field has also donated to all the charities concerned, and encourages you to do the same.
Charities and organisations comprise:
The Royal Holloway University Riding Club saddling up in support of the RDA.
Robbie’s Reveal turning their back on brain cancer for robbiesrally.
Winners of the 2018 Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation have been announced, with the Gold Award won by the Howesyke Shoot, Yorkshire, for their work in woodland and heather restoration
David Gower OBE presents Rob and Helen Brown with the Gold Award.
The winners of the 2018 Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation have been announced. In a ceremony held in London gun and rifle maker James Purdey & Sons’ famous Long Room, it was announced that Howesyke Shoot in Yorkshire had won the 2018 Purdey Gold Award.
Held annually since 1999 and now in their twentieth year, the Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation seek to promote a wider appreciation of the game and habitat conservation carried out by shoots throughout the United Kingdom every year. The Awards give recognition to shoots completing outstanding work, and reward the best.
And that is exactly what was celebrated on Thursday evening. In a ceremony held in the gunmaker’s famous Long Room, the Duke of Wellington, Chairman of the Award’s judging panel, announced the 2018 winners with David Gower OBE, broadcaster and former international cricketer, presenting the awards.
This year, the Gold Award was won by the Howesyke Shoot in Yorkshire for their work in woodland and heather restoration, as well as a successful black grouse reestablishment scheme. The Silver Award was presented to Burnham Thorpe Shoot, Norfolk, for their success in creating and blending a grey partridge project with a traditional syndicate shoot. And the Bronze Award was given to Whitburgh Farms, Midlothian for making changes to create an extensive wildlife habitat and thereby leading the way for other farmers to replicate on a smaller scale.
WINNER OF THE 2018 PURDEY GOLD AWARD
Rob and Helen Brown were presented with the annual Purdey Awards Trophy, the Gold Award and a cheque for £5,000, in recognition of their fantastic work on the Howesyke Shoot in Yorkshire. Since starting the project in 2009, Mr and Mrs Brown have transformed a hitherto intensively managed hill farm into a truly wonderful shoot offering a stunning variety of partridge, pheasant and grouse.
The Howesyke Shoot in Yorkshire took the 2018 Purdey Gold Award.
The judges were universal in their praise for the overall conservation programme, saying that it perfectly demonstrates just how much energy, enthusiasm and knowledge can create “a perfect small sporting estate in the uplands of England”. It is a project that has enjoyed the advice and engagement from a variety of NGOs. And it includes the planting of over 100,000 broadleaf trees, a successful black grouse reestablishment scheme, over 900 acres of peat restoration, the creation of five new wetland habitats and the repair and rebuild of 1.3km of dry stone walls.
The Purdey Awards judges were impressed with what has been a lifetime’s project for Mr and Mrs Brown. Every aspect of the shoot is carefully planned, including the growing demand and distribution for shot game.
SILVER AND BRONZE AWARD WINNERS
Nick Zoll and the Burnham Thorpe Syndicate won that 2018 Purdey Silver Award and £3,000. Nick Zoll and his team have created a syndicate shoot that generated and now sustains a viable grey partridge population. The work undertaken includes planting and managing all winter bird food strips on behalf of all tenant farmers. The shoot has also planted an additional 22 acres of brood-rearing and overwintering cover, ensuring there is always a significant amount of cover at any one time. This, along with careful positioning of cover crops and grass margins, has maximised the nesting and brood-rearing habitat for partridges and wild pheasants.
Nick Zoll and the Burnham Thorpe Syndicate won the Silver Award.
In third place, winning the 2018 Purdey Bronze Awards and £2,000, is Alastair Salvesen and Whitburgh Farms for its excellent grey partridge recovery project. Running since 2010, the changes made to the shoot include 7% of previously cultivated land being taken out of production and used to create an extensive wildlife habitat. The overall objective of the project is to demonstrate its feasibility in being replicated by other farmers on a smaller scale, an ambitious and entirely admirable goal.
PURDEY SPECIAL AWARD AND SPECIAL COMMENDATIONS
The judges chose to create a special award to recognise the work of Richard Gould, who has created an impressive lowland game shoot at Ixworth Thorpe, Suffolk. Described by the judges as a “one man dynamo” with a well-run shoot that delivers both first class shooting and first class conservation, the panel were unanimous that Richard Gould deserved recognition as an exceptional keeper. Richard received the Purdey Special Award and a cheque for £1,000.
A special commendation has been made to David J Owen of the Camddwr Shooting Society, in recognition of his determination and enthusiasm in building a remarkable shoot, which plays a crucial role in the community.
David Pooler of the Rhug Estate has also been awarded a special commendation in recognition of his commitment as Head Keeper working alongside an organic farming enterprise.
Anne Woodcock's passion for fly-fishing is infectious, an enthusiasm she is able to pass on through her roles with FishPal and Ladies Fishing UK
Anne Woodcock discovered her passion for fly-fishing on a fishing taster day with Northumbrian Water.
It all started with a fishing taster day with Northumbrian Water. Now, Anne Woodcock runs Ladies Fishing UK, inspiring more women to fish with her infectious enthusiasm.
For more sporting Dianas, seriously sporting ladies offering advice and encouragement, Sarah Kate Byrne is a Diana of the Chase with a ‘have a go’ attitude to fieldsports. And Dr Nina Krüger has a PhD in molecular biology.
ANNE WOODCOCK
In my twenties I used to go scuba diving on wrecks in Cornwall and while waiting for the tide we would drop a line for pollack and cod. I became interested in fly-fishing in 2006 after a visit to the River Spey, watching anglers gracefully cast a double-handed rod. It looked so relaxing. I come from a family that enjoys country sports but no one went fishing. But a chance came with the arrival of a water bill from my local water company, Northumbrian Water. It was promoting its fishing taster days. I promptly booked myself onto every taster day; they told me no one had ever done that before.
Sitting in Northumbrian Water’s car park and mustering up the confidence to get out was the best thing I have ever done. I felt so much better when I was on the water, physically and mentally. I had found a passion that improved every aspect of my life.
Anne Woodcock has fished for game, coarse and saltwater fish.
Over the years, I’ve fished for game, coarse and saltwater fish. My biggest carp weighed in at 46lb and a notable spring salmon weighed 20lb. But salmon are my passion. I have been inspired by the women who hold fishing records: Georgina Ballantine and her 64lb salmon caught on the Tay in October 1922 changed the record books; Clementina ‘Tiny’ Morison, whose Deveron fish on the fly weighed in at 61lb in 1922; Doreen Davey’s 59½lb spring salmon from the Wye in March 1923; the Ward sisters, too, with Lettice Ward’s 50lb Tay fish in 1928.
People have often asked: “Why do women tend to catch bigger fish?” Men have capitalised on the theory that pheromones are the reason. It is still a subject of fishing banter with fellow rods – male and female. The main reason women catch more fish is because they listen to their gillie and don’t put out an extra 50yd once his or her back is turned. Male readers will be pleased to note that we have not been as successful with trout records.
In 2009, I created Ladies Fishing UK, a not-for-profit organisation that runs fishing days for women, in an attempt to get more women involved in the fishing world and encourage them to take part. It is such a passion of mine that I wanted to share it with as many others as possible. We have put on fishing for salmon and trout, from beginners to more advanced days, fly tying, fish filleting and conservation work, too. Many of our events are charity ladies’ days, and they have always been over subscribed. Women want to fish and over the past nine years we have introduced hundreds of females and young people to the wonderful sport of fishing.
I enjoy working with angling groups, fisheries and fellow women, sharing best practice on ladies’ events and helping them set up their own ladies’ days to raise money for good causes. The more ladies fishing the merrier.
For the past two years on Saturday mornings I’ve been promoting fishing and women on a show called Gone Fishing, with Sam Harris MBE, on CVFM Radio. I am also thrilled to play a part in the latest phase of This Girl Can’s campaign to encourage more women to go fishing and re-engage with the sport.
Anne created Ladies Fishing UK in 2009 to get more women involved in the fishing world.
I’ve been employed as the marketing director of FishPal since 2010, to promote brand recognition of it as the ‘go to’ fishing company. Through my job at FishPal I have been able to create the Junior Malloch award, which encourages more young anglers into fishing and also educates them on the benefits of catch and release. I must have one of the most rewarding jobs in the fishing industry, the opportunity to speak with customers and suggest places to fish. Many say that they would never have had access to a fishery if it was not for FishPal.
For details about ladies’ events in 2019, including free Saturday tuition sessions on casting and fly tying at Orvis Kelso, go to: www.ladiesfishing.co.uk
TOP TIP: Wear a life vest. If you are unfortunate enough to fall in and get washed down the river, wearing a lifevest may just save your life. Your chest waders don’t fill up with air and keep you afloat! All your waders do if you are wearing a properly fastened wading belt is reduce the speed your waders fill up with water. Please don’t be macho and ignorant when you are wading a river and wear a lifevest.
The hooks we use when salmon fishing tend not to have the barb removed. Please wear your glasses and a hat, which not only protect you from the sun’s rays and the glare off the water but will save your eyes and head from hooks during a stray cast.
Suitably sporting missives are essential for spreading festive cheer. Choose from The Field's pick of the best country Christmas cards for 2018, and support some cracking causes
'Carols in the Kennels' by renowned cartoonist Loon is one of the GWCT's Christmas card designs for 2018.
Spread suitably sporting festive cheer this Christmas with cards that have proper country credentials and support a cracking cause. Take your pick from The Field’s choice of the best country Christmas cards for 2018.
Every rural type wants a subscription to The Field, the original and best sporting journal. If you are playing Father Christmas for a fellow fieldsports fanatic, look no further than our big subscription sale. Click HERE to discover more and subscribe today.
THE BEST COUNTRY CHRISTMAS CARDS
Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
2017 was a second successive record-breaking year for the GWCT’s Christmas cards, with over 4,000 packs sold, so order early if you want a selection this year. The five designs available this year have been painted exclusively for the charity by leading wildlife artists, including Owen Williams, Rodger McPhail, Jason Lowe, Ashley Boon and cartoonist Loon. All proceeds will go towards supporting the Trust’s vital work. Price: prices start at £5.50 for a pack for 10 To buy: call 01425 652381 or visit www.gwct.org.uk.
‘Snowbound Grouse’ by Jason Lowe is one of five GWCT Christmas card designs available this year.
The Quorn Hunt Supporters Association
For 2018, the Quorn Hunt Supporter’s Association has selected a painting by a renowned local artist for their festive design. The painting by Fred Haycock shows the Quorn hounds on Burrough Hill. The cards are sure to be a hit with festive hunters. Price: £5 for a pack of 10 cards, plus £1.50 for p&p To buy: contact quornhuntsa@gmail.com
The Quorn hounds star on this year’s QHSA Christmas card.
Countryside Alliance
The Countryside Alliance Christmas cards are always a popular choice, so hurry if want one of their festive designs for 2018. There is a huge selection available from well-known rural and sporting artists and all designs can be personalised. The Countryside Alliance 2018 calendar is also available now. Price: prices start at £4.99 To buy: call 0370 270 9011 and visit www.countryside-alliance.org
‘Footpath Over Braydeston Hills, Norfolk’ by Pamela Dickerson is one of the Countryside Alliance’s festive designs for 2018.
Hunt Staff Benefit Society
The Hunt Staff Benefit Society have two sporting Christmas card designs available this year, with images kindly donated by Daniel Crane and Jo Stockdale. All proceeds form an important part of the year’s fundraising efforts, to help boost the pensions of retired Hunt Staff and add value to the future pensions for current Hunt Staff. Price: prices start at £6.50 for a pack of 10 cards To buy: email Lucy Stevens on hsbs2@mfha.co.uk or telephone 01285 653001 for an order form
‘Hark… Glad Tidings’ by Daniel Crane is one of the Hunt Staff Benefit Society’s festive designs for 2018.
Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution
Every year sales of the Christmas cards help support the crucial work of the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, farming’s oldest and largest welfare charity. RABI financially supports farming people of all ages in hardships. There are seven design available this year in packs of 10. Price: £4.50 for a pack of 10 cards To buy: visit rabi.org.uk for an order form or phone 01268 888217
Bringing in the Sheep is one of RABI’s seven designs available for 2018.
The Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust have a wonderful selection of Christmas cards available this year, including fun bumper packs with a selection of designs. All cards are printed on FSC certified card. Sales of the cards help support our leading woodland conservation charity, who work to increase native woodland cover, restore ancient woods and protect all of our existing woodland. Price: prices start at £3.99 for a pack of 8 To buy: visit www.woodlandtrustshop.com
The Woodland Trust have a huge variety of Christmas cards, including ‘Winter Tree’.
The Air Ambulance Service
There are few charities closer to the hearts of sporting sorts than the Air Ambulance Service. There are 12 Christmas cards available this year. Profits will go towards their vital, life-saving work, reacting quickly and efficiently to emergencies. Cards come in packs of 10, and there is availability to buy a pack of 10 featuring two different designs. Price: prices start at £2.95 for a pack of 10 To buy: visit their ebay store
There are twelve designs available this year supporting The Air Ambulance Service.
Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund
The Mark Davies Injured Riders Fund have four festive designs available this year. Two of the designs were painted by Jane Davies, one of the Fund’s co-founders who sadly passed away this year. This year they are not using plastic wrapping on their cards and you can opt for a personalised greeting. Proceeds will go towards the fund’s working supporting people injured in horse-related accidents, campaigning on safety and raising awareness of issues affecting equestrians of all levels. Price: £6.50 for a pack of 10 cards To buy: visit mdirf.co.uk
‘Preparing for Christmas’ is one of MDIRF’s festive designs for 2018.
The Injured Jockeys Fund
The Injured Jockeys Fund Christmas cards are now, incredibly, in their 54th year of production. This year’s design, ‘Silent Footfall’ has been specially painted for the Fund by renowned equine artist, Daniel Crane. The cards are printed on FSC accredited sustainable forest card, and it is possible to personalise them. All proceeds will go towards the fund’s important work providing support to jockeys past or present who are injured, unable to ride or generally in need. Price: £7.50 for a pack of 10 cards To buy: visit ijf.org.uk
‘Silent Footfall’ was specially painted for the Injured Jockeys Fund by renowned equine artist Daniel Crane.
World Horse Welfare
This festive, tartan design is one of several Christmas cards available from World Horse Welfare this year. Cards come in packs of 10, and proceeds will go towards the charity’s work supporting horses in need in the UK and around the world. Price: £3.95 for a pack of 10 cards To buy: visit worldhorsewelfare.org
Bright and beautiful Belwade tartan for World Horse Welfare.
Tempted to spend the school fees on a side-by-side? You will be after reading our list of the 10 most expensive guns in the world
The Purdey side-by-side. The most iconic shotgun of all?
Buying one of the most expensive guns in the world won’t, sadly, make you a better shot. But it will certainly make a day in the field far more exciting. Every shooting person’s cabinet houses a favourite gun, an old faithful. Perhaps it wiped everyone’s eye at the Boxing Day shoot. Perhaps it claimed the first right and left, took the first woodcock, or accompanied you to that very grouse butt. Or perhaps it has been in your family for generations and is now a creaking relic, but much-loved nonetheless.
But an affinity with such a special gun does not detract from the fact that the most expensive guns in the world are irresistible. A proper sporting type cannot help but ogle – and put these straight to the top of a wishlist. The 10 most expensive guns are as much works of art as they are weapons. And they have equally impressive price tags to match.
The 10 most expensive guns in the world showcase the very best guns and gunmakers working today. But what tops your list? British or European? Established or modern? Read on to decide.
For more on the very best guns in the business, read the world’s 20 best shotguns – a definitive guide to the guns that every shooting person should be dreaming of.
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Facts correct as of when this article was published in 2015.
The Fabbri 20-bore over-and-under is a Continental classic
This is not only one of the most expensive guns, it is probably the most sophisticated. At the Fabbri factory (read about the editor’s visit to the Fabbri: Italian gunmakers factory) the bench artisans work in silence as if in a religious establishment. The guns, blending old and new, are technically supreme. Every detail is thought through and many are unusual. The demi-lump barrels made from stainless steel, for example, don’t have conventional joining ribs; a micron-machined H-section sits between the tubes, which are brought into perfect re-lationship for point of impact by this component. When everything is exactly right the assembly with sighting rib is fused together by laser, creating one piece of metal. It is then DLC (diamond-like carbon)-coated, this high-temperature vacuum process vastly increasing resistance to wear as well as blacking the steel. The barrels, also tested to extreme proof pressure, become virtually indestructible. About 20 Fabbris are made each year. They are imported by Tony Kennedy, who observes, “There is nothing better and never has been, so much goes into it, you have to see how it is made to understand.”
Price: from £138,000 for an all-stainless gun and £150,000 for one with a titanium action (which reduces overall weight by about a pound if required). There is a 25% supplement for a pair.
Hofer, based in Ferlach, Austria, is a great showman and maker of some of the world’s most exclusive, innovative and most expensive guns. “Every-body says you can’t create a new gun. But that is not true,” he says. “Every third gun we create is a new gun.” About six guns leave his atelier each year. All are ornate and mechanically original. He may work on a single piece for many years (on one he lavished 21,400 hours). I recently handled a double-barrelled .17 rifle weighing 2lb, engraved with beetles.
Peter Hofer is a great showman, as can be seen from this sidelock shotgun
Hofer has developed a side-by-side 12-bore sidelock that includes an almost hidden .17 tube between the two smoothbore barrels. His more conventional side-by-side, made to whatever specification is desired and taking about 1,600 man hours, has a back action and single trigger. A Boss-system over-and-under is also offered, taking 2,000 hours, as well as more German-style guns. Hofer makes large and small gauges, but seems to have a particular passion for the miniature.
Price: He does not like to discuss price but Bloomberg Businessweek reports the range as $200,000 to $500,000. What Hofer calls his “Mega guns” may cost more than £1 million.
Delivery: by negotiation, depending on specification.
Boss, established in 1812, patented its over-and-under – one of the most influential of all – in 1909. And the modern version is on of the most expensive guns in the world today. Breech-loading over-and-unders had been made in Germany from about 1870 but Boss streamlined and lowered the action, dispensing with a cross-pin beneath the barrels. Instead, rotating trunnions at the knuckle mate with teardrop wedges machined into the barrel lumps. The Boss has two locking systems. There are draws projecting one on each side of the action walls meeting corresponding female radii in the middle of bifurcated barrel lumps. To the rear of the chambers two semicircular projections protrude and engage slots on either side of the bottom of the action face. A bolt emerging from the face locks these down. Says the firm’s Jason Craddock, “The draw system reduces strain at the knuckle and keeps the barrels on the face; the rear bolt and bites fasten the gun. There is tension at the trunnions but the draws reduce this significantly.”
Both systems are much imitated and the rear bolting has inspired many makers to create simplified versions as well outright copies. Most Bosses include a turret-system, mechanical single trigger and the ejector mechanism is powered by coil springs.
Price: from £105,540, including VAT (single trigger, £114,540). Double-trigger side-by-sides start at £81,540 (single trigger, £90,540). No more than 18 guns are made annually.
The Damas steel looks like traditional Damascus but is tremendously strong
Purdey, established 1814, acquired the right to make the Woodward over-and-under (patented in 1913) from James Woodward after the Second World War, having offered a more complex, deeper, six-bite design previously. The gun is distinguished by a brilliant hinging system involving stud pins near the knuckle and bifurcated lumps (much copied by dozens of makers) and a unique tongue-and-groove lock mid action. Superlatively strong, this is rarely copied because it is difficult to make. The Woodward-type over-and-under has a low action profile and great elegance of form. The ejection mechanism, improved by Ernest Lawrence, is boxed and powered by leaf springs.
Today, this over-and-under may also be ordered in Damas steel, which looks like traditional Damascus but is a tremendously strong, super-material created by bringing together two powdered steels in a nitrogen vacuum.
I have shot both conventional and Damas guns and found the latter in 30in 12-bore form one of the best I’ve ever used on game.
Price: for Purdey over-and-unders in 12-, 16- or 20-bore start at £108,720. In 28-bore and .410 they rise to £115,320. A Damas version is one of the most expensive guns in the world, and would cost you at least £130,320.
Holland & Holland, established in 1835, first made an over-and-under in 1914. An improved version was introduced in 1950. Different again was the new Royal over-and-under brought out in 1992 (prototyped in 20-bore form two years earlier). The new gun benefited – as did the less expensive, sideplated, detachable-trigger “Sporting” over-and-under launched at about the same time – from the CNC machining revolution then happening within the London gun trade and at Holland & Holland in particular.
The Holland and Holland Royal over-and-under
The gun is a back-action sidelock with a notably shallow and elegantly bolstered slim body. Unlike in a Purdey, Woodward or Boss, there are no additional central bites. It locks by means of square bolts locating just above the centre of the lower barrel. The gun is offered with double triggers or a non-selective, inertia-operated single trigger. I have shot the gun in most forms but the 30in 20-bore is one of the sweetest (natural pointing, low recoil, effortless) I have had the pleasure to use. It takes more than 900 hours to build.
Price: with a single trigger of £98,400, including VAT, in 12-, 16- and 20-bore; 28-bore and .410 cost £104,400. The firm produces 75 to 80 guns a year.
“What we do is capitalise on everything Greener did in their heyday,” notes David Dryhurst of WW Greener (who works with fellow directors Graham Greener and master gunmaker Richard Tandy). Each is a specific project and comes with an extra pair of Damascus barrels. Two models are offered. The Facile Princeps with classic Greener top extension is an exhibition grade boxlock, pos-sibly the finest of all fixed-lock boxlocks and allowing for a rounded bar to the front because of the central cocking system (10 have been built). Recent production also includes sidelocks, some with side lever. These are built without the top extension, save in 10-bore, with a five-pin, three-teardrop bridle lock as conceived by Harry Greener in 1914 – “different but highly efficient”.Greener uses a Boss ejector system (other than in a few Facile Princeps made with ‘“Unique” jointed tumbler ejectors) and Boss-style locks. Other features include arcaded Greener fences, a Greener fore-end with im-proved Deeley latch and a horn fore-end tip and heel plate. Invariably the guns have a Greener rounded half-pistol, knobbed grip and fleur-de-lis chequering on fore-end and stock. The recent Viking gun is one of a number of special commissions lately built.
Price: A modern Greener sidelock would not cost less than £120,000, including VAT.
The Purdey-Beesley side-by-side hammerless self-opener is perhaps the most iconic shotgun of all. Based on a design conceived by the gunmaker Frederick Beesley and patented in 1880, it revolutionised the British sporting gun (as did the simpler but no less influential Anson & Deeley hammerless boxlock brought out by Westley Richards in the 1870s). It was set apart by the beautiful form of its sidelocks and the ingenuity of their mechanism. They used one leg of a V-spring to power the internal hammers and the other to power the self-opening feature, which was useful to speed up shooting on the large-bag days then becoming fashionable. Ejectors were added in the 1880s and, apart from developments in this area, the gun made today is virtually unchanged from that conceived by Beesley (who licensed the manufacturing right to Purdey initially and later sold it the design).
The Purdey side-by-side. The most iconic shotgun of all?
The traditional steel gun with classic Purdey rose and scroll come in 12-, 16- or 20-bore, 28-bores and .410s. Purdey also offers a hammer ejector in 12-, 16- or 20-bore. The 12-bore I shot performed fantastically well (perhaps the best side-by-side I have shot, equalling the superb hammerless Holland Royal).
Price: for a traditional steel gun with classic Purdey rose and scroll in 12-, 16- or 20-bore are £94,080, inclusive of VAT; 28-bores and .410s cost £99,120. The 12 bore hammer ejector costs £99,120 and may be ordered with Damas steel barrels for an extra £14,400, making a total of £113,520 (thus qualifying as Britain’s most expensive house-engraved side-by-side).
William & Son was founded in 1999 by William Asprey after he had managed the Gun Room at Asprey’s in Bond Street. William & Son’s gunmaking team is led by Paul West, an ex-Holland & Holland man. The guns have a distinctive style, typically svelte with deep-scroll house engraving (although available with whatever the customer wants). They represent excellent value, too, when one considers their quality. Side-by-sides are built on a slimmed Holland-style action in all bore sizes. The over-and-unders are built on a modification of the Boss system but with Woodward-style hinging studs and bifurcated lumps. Ejection uses conventional cams and V-springs rather than the coil springs of the Boss. However, the gun locks up in a similar fashion to the Boss (or guns that imitate it) with draws mid action and projections either side of the bottom chamber that slot into recesses in the action face. The over-and-under is available in 12- and 20-bore only. The firm makes only a dozen guns a year.
Price: Side-by-sides cost from a little more than £60,000, including VAT, the over-and-under, when equipped with a single-trigger, costs from around £75,000.
Delivery: about 12 months (less time than most premier-league makers).
Holland’s Royal model was first mentioned in 1883 and illustrated in this magazine in 1895. With its leg-of-mutton locks it looked significantly different to the modern gun. A second series, incorporating Holland-Robertson patents, was developed in the 1890s. This had what we would now regard as conventional lock plates and an improved ejector mechanism based on what would now be called the Southgate system. An assisted opening mechanism was added in 1922 in-volving a tube and spring beneath the barrels. The gun is one of the favourites of the gun trade because of it brilliant design and the ease with which it can be maintained. I think it shoots especially well, too.
The only changes in the past few decades have been to the wood (now Turkish) and to the wall thickness of the barrels (slightly increased). It takes about 800 hours to complete a modern Royal side-by-side.
Prices: from £85,800, including VAT, for a 12-, 16- or 20-bore with double trigger; in 28-bore and .410 it costs £90,000, including VAT.
Delivery: approximately two years (some shelf guns available).
The Westley Richards side-by-side; in 4 bore it costs from £71,400
Westley Richards not only perfected the basic boxlock but in 1897 introduced a version with detachable locks known as the “droplock” because the locks may be removed from under the action via a hinged bottom plate. This is one of the most intriguing of all British designs (the Dickson Round Action might run it a close second). Each lock contains only seven components. Workmanship is outstanding, with jewelled surfaces and impeccable presentation. The gun is available in .410 to 4-bore. The 12-bore versions I shot impressed, but so does the behemoth 4-bore, partly because of its sheer scale.
All guns have the Westley top lever and “Model C” doll’s-head extension. The firm is well known for its single selective trigger (double triggers are an option), which operates on an inertio-mechanical principle and has 26 individually made parts.
Prices: from £46,200, including VAT, with full scroll; the single trigger will add £4,620. A 4-bore, however, would cost £71,400, including VAT. Extra locks for all gauges cost £3,900. Exhibit-ion wood would add £2,400 per gun and tip and toe plates £2,050 each.
Delivery: about 30 months.
MOST EXPENSIVE GUNS: LIST CRITERIA
Mike Yardley explains the criteria behind the creation of this list of the 10 most expensive guns in the world.
Creating a list of truly great guns – guns made by methods old and new and without any compromise – is not without complications. Much thought and research went into this one. Initially, the idea had been to consider the 10 best guns in the world, but the criteria for selection would have been subjective. So, it was decided to use price as the main criterion but even this is not as simple as it might seem. Extra finish, special engraving or embellishment with precious metals, enamel or gemstones can vastly in-crease the cost of a gun and may set a false benchmark with regard to fundamental quality. Any sporting gun may be “blinged up”.
A further problem is that some of the makers represented here are so exclusive that they have no standard price. So, one creates the list by considering guns representative of their oeuvre. Whatever way you cut it, a little subjectivity creeps in.
I have had the good fortune to shoot eight of the guns listed. I cannot vouchsafe the shooting qualities of all of them or indeed confirm their long-term reliability save where I have used them on several occasions or they are owned by friends. All impress or even astound in their craftsmanship and finish.
Some names not featured here are omitted because production is much diminished and their elderly makers are not taking new orders. I have also left out two great Continental names because I have insufficient experience of their guns. One modern English company, Ray Ward, might well have featured were this list compiled a year hence. Also, I have recently been impressed by the father-and-son team Max Ern in Germany. Its gunmaking is exquisite but its guns do not come into the “rich list” category though far from lacking in fundamental quality.
Banned by many professional gundog trainers and viewed as bribes, David Tomlinson breaks the taboo surrounding edible rewards
Edible rewards will certainly gain a dog's attention and may prove to be a useful device early in training.
Though edible rewards are banned by many professional trainers, or viewed as bribes by others, some advocate the use of gundog training with treats. David Tomlinson decides whether reward-based training is useful, or best avoided.
We all know that the best way to a dog’s heart, and its head, is through its stomach but the use of edible rewards is curiously taboo in the world of gundog training. It may stem from the days of the dog breakers, the forerunners of today’s professional trainers, who would never have considered reward-based training. Ask a top trainer today what sort of edible rewards he or she gives his or her dogs and you are likely to get the sort of look usually reserved for people who let their dog sit on the sofa.
I have numerous gundog training books, dealing with spaniels, retrievers and HPRs, but few mention, let along discuss, rewards. However, Peter Moxon, in his classic Gundogs: Training and Field Trials (first published in 1952 and still in print today) devotes three long paragraphs to the subject, though apologises for being unnecessarily long-winded. He admits that the moderate use of rewards with certain pupils for certain items can be beneficial in the early stages of training, but adds that if you “overdo the business there will be regrets”. Eventually, he suggests, the dog will regard you as no more than a portable food bin.
Oh well, I now know why my dogs look at me like they do, for along with numerous amateur trainers, I usually have a biscuit or two in my pocket. I worked out long ago that an edible reward was one of the ways of keeping my dog attentive and interested in me. Not that it always works. My first springer loved food but in the heat of the chase she would spit out a biscuit if there was a pheasant around.
Perhaps it’s a sexist issue, for I have found that female handlers are far more likely to use edible rewards than men. In her book In the Bag!, Margaret Allen reveals that she believes treats do have a place in training, though arguing that they should be small and not take a lot of chewing before they are swallowed. That makes sense. If you are rewarding a dog during training you want to keep its mind on the job, not for it to sit down and have a lengthy munch. Allen also advises that treats should be used sporadically and randomly, and not every time a dog is asked to do something, nor every time it does it correctly. I agree, as you don’t want to go out with a whole bag of biscuits in your pocket.
Lez Graham, author of the highly successful Pet Gundog training series, is another female trainer who advocates food rewards, encouraging their use as a motivator when trying new exercises. Her technique for training a dog to sit, using food, works every time. Take the treat between your index finger and thumb with the rest of your fingers straight but not splayed. Hold the treat just above the dog’s head and, in and up and over movement, slowly take the food towards the dog’s hindquarters. As the dog puts his
backside down, say “sit”, then praise and give the treat.
WHICH TREAT TO USE
Quite what form the edible reward should take depends on the dog and how much reward you want to give it. Many dogs will be motivated by small biscuits or even the same kibble they get in their supper, but others will regard such morsels as not worth working for, so an upgrade might be needed. Small pieces of hard cheese will please most dogs, and the smellier the better. However, for the most obstinate animals, or those that are not much interested in food, there’s nothing to beat hot chicken or gammon. Such a premium reward should be held in reserve for dogs that show a defiant attitude to recall, as this is one way to cure them. And for instant response, make sure that the dog is hungry.
Almost all trainers agree that edible rewards shouldn’t be used when training the retrieve, as you are in danger of the returning dog spitting out the dummy, or bird, in its eagerness to get to the food. This will lead to disaster when the dog starts retrieving runners, only to let them go within sight of your hands. The retrieve should be, and for most dogs usually is, sufficient reward in itself.
There are, of course, other ways to reward dogs than with food, and for many lots of praise is sufficient. You might use edible treats (known as bribes in the Tomlinson household) in the early stages of training, but you should be able to work away from them as the dog progresses and discovers that the ultimate reward is keeping its master or mistress happy. Handlers of police search dogs usually reward their dogs with tennis balls, but what works in a drug dealer’s den is not really suitable for the shooting field.
Even the best trained of dogs will appreciate a biscuit or two during a day’s work, and I don’t think you should ever be ashamed to indulge your dog in this way. My one recommendation, however, is to always remember to remove all biscuits from your pockets when going to a meet of foxhounds, as otherwise you might prove more popular than you had anticipated.
Follow The Field's definitive guide to shotgun choke and learn what it is, what it does, how it affects your shooting and which you should be using
Make sure you have the best barrels and the correct shotgun choke
You may risk obsession when it comes to shotgun choke, but it’s well worth it when it can make all the difference to your shooting. Follow The Field’s definitive guide and learn what it is, which should be used for which gun and which quarry, how to measure, how to know when to stop tinkering, and much more…
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WHAT IS SHOTGUN CHOKE?
Shotgun choke is the constriction at the muzzle end of the gun that tightens the pattern of pellets. In an average cartridge there are approximately 300 pellets, so how wide the shot pattern or how restricted is a matter than will make all the difference to your shooting.
There is no need to become neurotic about shotgun choke, even though some people do. What is most important is that regular misses in the field are rarely down to choke. The cause is far more likely to be the direction the barrels are pointing.
Choke is one of those things, like gunfit, that should be visited occasionally and put out of mind once an informed decision has been reached concerning what best suits your needs.
With that on record, let us move forward.
DOES YOUR SHOTGUN CHOKE WORK FOR YOU?
You should take your gun to a pattern plate (or improvise one with paper or card sheets and a suitable frame and safe back-drop) and shoot it at different ranges – 20yd, 30yd and 40yd – using the cartridge you prefer. You hope to see an even pattern without too many clusters, gaps or excessive central concentration.
If there are holes a bird could fly through – a 5in circle test is sometimes applied – or if the pattern is obviously too tight, your shotgun and its chokes may be working against you.
Once you have tested with your usual ammunition, experiment with different cartridges. You might, for example, try to observe the terminal effects of switching between fibre and plastic wads (the former often throw more open patterns) or increasing pellet payload (which may be an alternative to increasing choke). If your gun has multi-chokes, try different tubes.
The tools of the trade for measuring shotgun choke
REVERSE CHOKE
Sportsmen develop strange prejudices concerning shotgun choke. My approach, and I happily admit to passing through the stage of confusion, is practical. I have discovered what works for me in different situations and now stick with it. For general game-shooting, I like a bit of choke in the first barrel but not too much – it is the first few thou that makes the most obvious difference. A slightly choked barrel is much more efficient than a true cylinder and inspires confidence, too.
Many 12- and 20-bore game guns are over-choked for their task. Tight patterns may be a means to cleaner kills at longer range but they are an impediment at shorter distances because they demand more accuracy.
There seems to be something in many sportsman’s psychology that erroneously suggests more choke good, less choke bad. If you are going out on the average driven day or walking-up, you do not need much choke in a 12-bore. The first few thou does make a real difference; thereafter the law of diminishing returns takes effect. Those who can see shot will confirm this. You can often observe what looks like a tennis ball-sized cluster of shot moving past the bird at short range. I have seen this many times and thought: “It’s much tighter than I expected, one might as well be using a rifle.”
Some years ago, I put together what came to be called my “duffer’s gun” based on an old, plain-Jane Beretta Essential over-and-under. The initial idea was to create a workhorse without regard to aesthetics that would be as forgiving to shoot as possible on normal days. It was based on an over-and-under because, though I love side-by sides, over-and-unders are usually easier to control and easier to point. The Beretta action is supremely reliable, moreover, and the Essential, though a budget gun, had livelier barrels than the average because it dispensed with side ribs.
The gun was a multi-choked model and this allowed for much experiment with shotgun chokes at the pattern plates and, later, in hides and on the shooting field. After some months of experiment, I determined that I had the most consistent first-shot success with something called a Seminole spreader choke. This device is made in the USA. It might be described as a reverse choke: it has a section that extends from the muzzles and trumpets out to a greater size than the bore.
The form of this section is conical. The concept of reverse constriction is not new. In the muzzle-loading era, before the general adoption of choke boring, many guns were “relieved” at the muzzles because it was found that they shot better than a true cylinder. My experience would seem to confirm this; the Seminole choke still works on clay birds 50yd out, yet it is very forgiving close in.
The second shotgun choke that worked really well in the field – in that it was effective and forgiving in use – was a standard Beretta Improved Cylinder Mobilchoke tube. This is a conventional shotgun choke with about five thou of constriction. With the duffer’s gun, I once accounted for 18 average pheasants for 17 shots. They were not testing, but it really was quite difficult to miss with it. I have since lent it to friends in distress and they have always shot it better than other, more traditional weapons. I have had similar unnatural success with another open-choked Beretta over-and-under using mid-velocity, heavy payload cartridges (11⁄4oz, No 6).
The gun and the cartridges were lent to me in Italy. It was extremely effective on easy birds but the experience was notable because the 36g cartridges had a lot of shot in them but did not recoil excessively (the lower velocity, heavy-payload cartridge was explored by the wildfowler Dr Charles Heath years ago).
OPEN CHOKES?
Does this mean that everyone should open up their chokes? No, not unless one is shooting at close- to mid-range birds routinely. Shotgun choke can certainly be useful when shooting at longer range its effects break down at extreme range and if birds are especially tough – such as wild guineafowl in Africa. A bit more choke than is really required may also in-crease confidence – no small factor in shooting – and give one the sense if not the actual ability to pick one’s birds better. If your confidence slips because of concerns about choke, or anything else, your focus may come off the bird and your movements may be hesitant (resulting in misses behind).
WHAT CHOKE FOR HIGH BIRDS?
Nigel Teague, a man who has experimented more with shotgun choke than perhaps anyone else in Britain today, advocates 7⁄8ths of choke – about 35 thou – in both barrels for the really tall stuff. This concurs with my high-bird experience where I have found three-quarters and three-quarters works well in a 12, better than full and full. With many modern cartridges optimum pattern performance requires less than full constriction; excessive choke can blow a pattern.
Many foreign guns, especially small bores, may be ridiculously over-choked. This stated, I think 20s and, especially, 28s perform a bit better with a little more shotgun choke than I would advocate for a 12. My 30in Beretta EELL 28-bore, for example, shoots particularly well with two three-quarter chokes fitted (about 20 thou constriction in a 28).
Although, one can try to state general principles concerning choke, I find that some guns just seem to shoot well with a particular constriction and there is no real science – none that is available at least – to support why this should be.
Shotgun ballistics are much more complex than one might think because there are so many variables: atmospheric conditions; shot size; shot density; shot coating; wad, primer, powder and case type; barrel diameter (a nominal 12 might be anything from .710 to .740 in internal diameter) and internal geometric form; barrel steel and wall thickness; and, not least, the length and form of the choke constrictions themselves. Some chokes are short, others long. Some are simple conic constrictions, others have a cone that leads into a parallel section, yet others have complex forms, including features such as radiused walls, relieved sections or expansion chambers.
While we are getting technical, let me note that tight shotgun choke increase pressures, and hence velocity. A point of choke is worth about 1ft per second on velocity.
As barrel length has a small effect on velocity too – about 5fps per inch in a 12-bore – this may become more significant when extremes of choke and barrel length are combined. For example, it is interesting to note that a 32in full-choke gun might have a velocity as much as 100fps faster than a 25in open-bored one, all other things being equal.
Most intriguingly, constriction of the muzzles also has the effect of reducing the stringing of shot once it is significantly forward of the muzzles (just forward of the muzzles there may some elongation of the shot column, but the terminal effect of choke is to reduce the length of the shot string and thus improve its efficiency). This may seem counter intuitive but it was neatly demonstrated by Mr Griffiths of the Schultz Powder Company more than a hundred years ago by means of shooting choked and unchoked guns at a spinning disc. The results were published in The Field, like much else concerning choke and shotgun ballistics in the Golden Age.
CHOOSE YOUR SHOTGUN CHOKE AND FORGET IT
Cutting to the chase and avoiding the danger of getting too complicated, my all-round choice in a 12-bore game-gun would usually be improved and half or improved and three-quarters (a useful choking if combined with the instant selection of a double trigger). I would not argue with those, such as my friend and former Olympian Kevin Gill, who advocate quarter and half for all-round shooting. (Kevin shifts to half and three-quarters for higher birds.) My rationale is that I like to engage average birds instinctively but it is also good to have the option of a more precise approach at range.
CHOKE FOR HIGH BIRDS
Two tight but not extreme shotgun chokes are in order (teamed with a high-performance cartridge; the choke may never be separated from the cartridge used with it).
CHOKE FOR PIGEON
Quarter and quarter or half and half usually works well. For smaller bores my preference is a bit more choke than commonly advised. I have to say, though, that I have not a clue what is in my 32in Guerini 20s, the guns I use most for game. I put the chokes in some while back after playing at the plates and have not looked at them since. They work.
MEASURING SHOTGUN CHOKE
A shotgun multichoke
Commonly, one refers to the choke in a barrel as being true cylinder, improved, quarter, half, three-quarter or full. Gunmakers talk about “points” of choke. They measure shotgun choke relative to the bore diameter (which may vary considerably within any designated bore size rather than at the muzzle alone).
One point equates to a constriction of one thousandth of an inch. Below is what one would expect in a 12-bore gun.
True Cylinder 0-1 points
Improved cylinder 3-6
Quarter (American Improved) 8-12
Half (American Modified) 17-23
Three-quarters (Improved Modified) 25-30
Full 35-40
Super full 40+
These descriptions should not be appraised in isolation of their observed effects, though. Properly considered, choke concerns the number of pellets any given barrel/constriction throws into a 30in circle at40yd. The quality of shot, the type of wad and other factors such as precise bore diameter and the form of choke – short or long, simple conic or conic cone plus parallel section (the favourite of British gunmakers) may all be significant.
Percentage of pellets inside
30in circle at 40yd
True Cylinder 30-40
Improved 50
Quarter 55
Half 60
Three-quarters 65
Full 70-75
Super full 76+
Shotgun choke can be definitively determined only at the pattern plates and in relation to a specific cartridge. Measurement of constriction alone can be misleading. In days past, a gunmaker would always ask his client what cartridges he intended to use and then regulate the chokes according to the desired percentage. If the client opted for the gunsmith’s own brand, he would have to continue to use the gunmaker’s cartridges to ensure consistency of performance.
Horsham Museum and Art Gallery is offering a timely reminder of Geoffrey Sparrow, a local son and a man of the countryside, as Janet Menzies explains
Dancing sun and shadow in Freemans Gorse, by Geoffrey Sparrow.
Geoffrey Sparrow served in the trenches, worked as a country doctor and was a true Corinthian sportsman. He painted ceaselessly throughout it all, offering hunting and country scenes from an insider’s perspective. Now Horsham Museum and Art Gallery are offering a timely reminder of his work, as Janet Menzies discovers.
For more sporting artists, the art of the Soper family provided the backdrop of our childhoods. And Owen Williams is inspired by watching wildlife at a time that belongs to nature rather than humans.
GEOFFREY SPARROW
When the final battle to save hunting was being lost, one of the greatest problems for hunters was that we were fighting for a concept so vanishingly spiritual that it couldn’t be articulated. If only the hunting artist, Geoffrey Sparrow, had still been alive it would have been easier. But he died in 1969, and Horsham Museum and Art Gallery is marking 50 years since then with a major retrospective exhibition of his work and life.
The Little Man at Rowland Ward’s.
Sparrow, born in 1887, was a true Corinthian sportsman. He was a country doctor in Horsham before the arrival of the M25. In the First World War he was decorated with the Military Cross. He served again in the Second World War, aged 53, and again received the Military Cross. Like most hunting folk, Sparrow rarely took himself seriously. Having studied at Cambridge University and St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, he explained: “Something had to be chosen… I was offered the law, medicine or the Church: didn’t like an uncle who was a solicitor, so that was out; our parson was rather stout and greasy and preached long and dull sermons, and away with that, so there remained medicine.”
He sketched and painted unceasingly throughout his life, even during the First World War, and his diaries and account of the war, On Four Fronts with the Royal Naval Division, are littered with drawings and cartoons. His full-scale works concentrate on hunting and country scenes painted from an insider’s perspective – lively, fluid and, above all, authentic. Jeremy Knight, Horsham Museum & Heritage Officer, thinks Sparrow’s genuine engagement with Horsham life is an important reason for exhibiting him. “Sparrow came here in 1919 and he was widely influential and well-respected in the town. Horsham’s museum and art gallery was founded 125 years ago with a mission to collect local material that reflected the area’s culture, heritage and traditions. Sparrow’s work genuinely captures what life was like in the town in his time.”
Now hastes the whipper into the other side of the covert.
Commenting on the enthusiastic community support for the exhibition, Knight explains: “The group of people who are anti-foxhunting find any such imagery like Sparrow’s to be abhorrent but everybody else sees his paintings for what they are, and the community has a lot of nostalgia and warmth for them. We are receiving so many contributions for the exhibition – coming from as far as Spain and as near as the attic of one of our volunteers. Sparrow retired from medical practice in 1948 and there are still many local stories of him. He would ride up to a home visit, hitch up his horse, perform a delivery or take a blood pressure, then mount up and ride off again.
A RURAL COMMUNITY
ECH Dorney Common 1957.
“Horsham in the 1920s and ’30s was a market town that still saw itself as a rural community. The Crawley and Horsham Hunt used to meet in the town centre and the hunt still has foot followers locally known as the Geoffrey Sparrow Club. Although Sparrow’s paintings are related to hunting, really they are scenes of everyday people going about their lives in Horsham. He picked out the human idiosyncrasies of everyday life. His work has great warmth and humour. He would do a sketch for a child of a hedgehog doing the cleaning, or he would portray the cricket greenkeeper.”
Knight points out that Sparrow is really in the tradition of great caricaturists such as Rowlandson and Hogarth: “Like Hogarth, Sparrow’s work would often feature a dog, which was always doing something it shouldn’t be doing. Sparrow was light-hearted though – very accepting of human life and, in a way, almost praising it.”
Crawley & Horsham Carfax Meet ’48.
Sparrow went through many life experiences, from the trenches to the surgery, and his work reflects that, with a multi-layered, inclusive approach to what he saw around him. As the Horsham exhibition shows, hunting was deeply woven into the texture of everyday rural life, not just a bit of elitist fun. Now hunting is lost from the scene Sparrow painted. Insidiously, many more elements of that canvas are blanking out: the wider spectrum of community; the openness of countryside; the sense of tolerance for all; the joy of eccentricity. Sparrow’s life and work sums up the hunting ethos of social responsibility being a vital part of a sporting life well lived. In his autobiography, Foxes and Physic, Sparrow wrote: “I became thoroughly soaked in the tradition of fox hunting and have always held old Jorrocks’ opinion that all time not spent in hunting is wasted.” Luckily for us he “wasted” a good deal of his time being heroic; looking after other people; painting wonderful pictures; and generally enhancing life.
To find out about Horsham Museum and Art Gallery’s collection of pictures by Dr Geoffrey Sparrow, and its forthcoming exhibition, call 01403 254959 or go to: www.horshammuseum.org
Add game to your festive spread, with Philippa Davis' fillet of venison with sloe gin, anchovy sauce and warm roasted sprout, chestnut and pancetta salad
Spirit and spice works perfectly with venison for a festive main.
Use Christmas as an opportunity to serve your guests game. Philippa Davis’ fillet of venison with sloe gin, anchovy sauce and warm roasted sprout, chestnut and pancetta salad is the perfect mix of spirit and spice, and makes an impressive main for a festive spread.
Help Britain's homeless and hungry this Christmas by supporting the Country Food Trust Winter Appeal. The charity are aiming to provide 75,000 game meals to those in need this Christmas - and they need your help
Help The Country Food Trust raise £100,000 to feed 75,000 people in need this Christmas, donate today.
This Christmas, the Country Food Trust Winter Appeal has launched – and they need your support. With over 8.6 million people in Britain struggling to afford food, the Country Food Trust wants to ensure noone will go hungry this Christmas. The Winter Appeal will provide 75,000 meals to those in need in the run-up to Christmas. Show your support and donate today.
To find out more about the Winter Appeal and the charity’s super work, visit their website.
THE COUNTRY FOOD TRUST
In 2016, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimated that 14 million people in the UK are living in poverty, meaning they must choose between the basic necessities such as food, clothing and heating. The Country Food Trust launched to tackle one element: food.
The Country Food Trust is tackling food poverty with game casseroles and curries.
The Country Food Trust believes that everyone, regardless of his or her economic circumstances, should have access to a balanced and nutritious diet. Their aim is to feed one million people in food poverty in their first five years.
They currently have two products, The Country Casserole, a nutritious and warming pheasant casserole and The Country Curry, a mildly spicy pheasant curry. These meals are donated to those that need them the most. They are donated directly to those in need, to charities who feed people in need, or to other charities that distribute food amongst charities nationwide.
The Country Food Trust has provided over 175,000 game based ready meals to those that need it most. This week alone, the charity donated 1500 kilos of pheasant and partridge meat to charities in Glasgow, Hull and Liverpool. This will provide an additional 15,000 meals in those cities.
THE WINTER APPEAL
This Christmas, the Country Food Trust have launched their Winter Appeal. The aim is provide an additional 75,000 meals to those in need in the run-up to Christmas. Meals will also continue to be provided after Christmas, when temperatures are low, nights long and the charities feeding those in need receive less assistance.
Donate to The Country Food Trust today and support the Winter Appeal this Christmas.
To achieve this, £100,000 needs to be raised. The Country Food Trust needs YOUR help. They are asking everyone who shoots or supports the sport of shooting to donate this Christmas and make a difference, in the hope that this will ensure those most in need will receive nutritious and sustaining meals in the run up to Christmas and beyond.
DONATE TODAY
It couldn’t be quicker or easier to donate to The Country Food Trust Winter Appeal today. Just £20 will feed 14 people in need.
Visit The Country Food Trust’s VirginMoneyGiving page and donate today by clicking HERE.
Text FEED10 to 70085 to give £10. (This text will cost you £10, plus your standard network charge).
Send a cheque to: The Country Food Trust, 4 Conduit Street, London W1S 2XE
There's much to think about when it comes to the festive feast, but none more so than the centrepiece. The shop shelves are laden with the birds, so The Field has done the work for you - choose from our selection of the best Christmas turkeys
Riverford have a huge selection of free range turkeys, that all reach maturity at their own pace on small, Westcountry farms.
The shop shelves may be laden with them, but picking out the best Christmas turkey will make your festive feast one to remember. Choose from The Field’s pick of the best Christmas turkeys. And have it delivered straight to your front door for the 25th.
The turkey may be the centrepiece, but no festive feast is complete without a pud to set alight. Follow our best Christmas pudding and brandy butter recipes to really impress your guests. There’s just one rule: no microwaves.
THE BEST CHRISTMAS TURKEYS
Whole organic bronze turkey, Daylesford
There is no question that Daylesford’s turkeys have been raised to the highest standards.
Daylesford choose the raise Bronze turkeys because of their inquisitive nature and inclination to roam and explore. The turkeys are reared outdoors with a wide grassy range to forage upon. This natural diet gives makes the white and brown meat second to none, with a distinctive full flavour and moist texture. Excellent served with all the trimmings if you have a full house on the 25th. Price: £102 for 6kg Buy: online at www.daylesford.com or call 0800 083 1233. Delivery dates are 20, 21 and 22 December 2018.
Turkey breast with chestnut, plumped fruit and Christmas spice, Farmison & Co
Farmison & Co’s strictly free range, stuffed turkey breast is prepared by their in-house, Michelin Star chef.
Farmison & Co are on a mission: to encourage the nation to eat better meat. And they certainly have a super selection for Christmas, including the turkey breast with chestnut, plumped fruit and Christmas spice – which was awarded “Best Prepared Turkey” by iNews. The turkeys are supplied by Loose Birds – preferred supplier to some of the country’s favourite chefs – from their free range haven in Harome, on the edge of the North York moors. Developed by their in-house, Michelin Star chef, this centrepiece will easily serve 8 – and is an option easy on the wallet. Price: £45 Buy: online at www.farmison.com. Delivery between 4th and 22nd December 2018.
Boned and Stuffed Free Range Bronze Turkey, Piper’s Farm
The boned and stuffed turkey from Piper’s Farm is easier to carve, and super for serving a crowd.
Piper’s Farm mean it when they say their turkeys are properly free range. Their Bronze turkeys are a traditional, slow-growing breed, and they spend their summer outside ranging freely while being fed a natural diet of cereals, grass, nettles fodder beet and cider apples. They are allowed to grow slowly to reach natural maturity. They are then dry plucked and hung for two weeks to develop their wonderful texture and depth of flavour. The boned and stuffed turkey is ideal if you are feeding a crowd on the 25th. It has the same drama as a whole oven-ready bird, but is easier to carve and fit in the oven to feed many guests. Price: prices start at £116 for 4kg Buy: online at www.pipersfarm.com
Medium turkey, Riverford
The Riverford turkeys are slow-grown, organic and free range.
Riverford raise the much-celebrated bronze turkeys, a slow-growing, traditional breed, on three family farms near their base in Devon. Slow-grown, organic and free range, their medium turkey will generously feed 9-10 people, and comes with the giblets for the best, proper gravy. Price: Prices start at £21.45 for a joint, £96.55 for medium turkey Buy: buy online at www.riverford.co.uk. Order now for deliveries from 20 December 2018.
Cranberry burst turkey parcel, Waitrose
This turkey parcel is ideal for a smaller gathering, with the perfect combination of sweet, savoury and smoky.
Waitrose have an enormous range turkey crowns, stuffed turkeys and whole birds, but their cranberry burst turkey parcel is an excellent choice for a smaller Christmas gathering. It would make the perfect centrepiece to a Christmas table, stuffed with fruity pork sausagemeat, draped in bacon and with a surprise, oozy cranberry centre – the perfect combination of sweet, savoury and smoky. Price: £45
Buy: online at www.waitrose.com
Whole free range bronze turkey, Copas Turkeys
Copas Turkeys are a truly family business and have been running for over 60 years.
Copas Traditional Turkeys are a truly family business, loved by some of Britain’s best butchers, farm shops, delis and food halls as well as a loyal following of home delivery and farm gate customers. They continue to use the same values and artisan methods, believing that the best turkey has a long life and room to roam. They also continue to use age old production processes, including hand plucking and game hanging. Their whole Bronze turkey comes in a box with giblets, herbs, a handy receipt leaflet and pop-up timer. Price: for a whole turkey, prices start at £60 Buy: online at www.copasturkeys.co.uk
Barrel configuration is no longer a choice between perceived tradition and modernity, says Jonathan Young. The Field's Editor opens the age-old debate and gives his verdict on over and under or side by side?
Barrels stacked in your favour?
Over and under or side by side will be forever open for debate. While tradition has favoured side by sides, an over and under will not recieve the snide comments on a shoot as it once did thirty years ago. In fact, many guns find they shoot better with stacked barrels. So which is your preference: over and under or side by side? The Field’s Editor, Jonathan Young, opens the debate and gives his verdict.
The Field has been expert in sporting matters since 1853. For more shooting, gundogs, hunting, fishing, country life, food, fine wine and great fun, take advantage of our great subscription offer. Subscribe today with 35% OFF and a gift card with purchase. Click HERE to discover more and subscribe today.
Only a bad workman blames his tools, so finding the right gun is just part of the equation. Read our tips on forward allowance. 9 techniques for shooting well to master the hardest, but most important, shooting technique.
OVER AND UNDER OR SIDE BY SIDE?
Thirty years ago, those pitching up with an over and under could expect a mixed reaction, usually adverse. “Essex drainpipe”, “bank-job special” and “claybuster’s fence-post” were among the politer descriptions. Proper shooting types deployed a gentleman’s gun, which was a side-by-side, preferably inherited, old and English.
This explains the conversation I had after back-gunning an extremely experienced 60-days-a-season man who’d just despatched every single bird with unusual ruthlessness. “Well, I wasn’t going to let any through to someone using one of those,” he said, with a dismissive glance at my over and under.
I kept my counsel until we gathered round for elevenses, when I loudly congratulated him on his insistence on using a split-cane rod when salmon fishing. He looked blank. “But you’re a die-hard traditionalist, wedded to the ways of your grandfather. Surely you’re not telling me that you wield a nasty, modern rod made of space-age carbon fibre?” I teased. He got the point and was deeply unamused.
Sticking with “tradition”: shooting grouse with a pair of side-by-sides.
When it comes to over and under or side by side, actually, I love side by sides and always regret selling my first double, a snaky Army & Navy hammergun with exquisite wood and honorable scars. But having lost my side by side virginity to over and unders in the mid Eighties I couldn’t now renounce them because I simply shoot better with them. And so do many others. An extraordinary number of my friends, after 30 years in the field, are now swapping to vertical barrels having seen a distinct improvement in their performance. Though some, of course, have no room for improvement, being prodigiously talented whatever the format of the gun.
Two seasons ago I watched one such artist drop four wild grey partridges with four shots with a pair of 1880s sidelocks and have often witnessed a local line of experts, armed with English 12s spitting an ounce of 7s, barely miss a string of genuine 45yd pheasants – the type of bird that has so many of the over and under boys hurling 36g of 4s – and kill them as dead as Canute. But these are exceptional shots whose skills have been honed by a shooting lifetime of 50 to 100 days a season. And while most of them use traditional, 61⁄2lb game-guns, an increasing number of top shots are ordering side-by-sides more akin to the old live-pigeon guns – 7lb, 30in barrels, semi-pistol grip, 23⁄4in chambers, raised rib – with the modern refinements of Teague chokes and recoil systems, the sort of guns described by one shooting coach as “the closest you can get to a modern over and under without it actually being one”.
OVER AND UNDER OR SIDE BY SIDE: THE ADVANTAGES OF STACKED BARRELS
So when it comes to over and under or side by side, why would one want a side by side that resembles an over and under? And why is every serious clay-shooting competition, including the Olympic disciplines, won by those using stacked barrels? Is it because it has inherent technical advantages that cannot be matched by a side by side?
A panel of shooting experts was asked to comment on the following qualities commonly associated with over and unders.
They have a single sighting plane – but why does that work when so often we’re not conscious of seeing the barrels when we shoot?
They are heavier – so more akin to the old 30in-barrelled side-by-sides shot by Ripon and Walsingham and live-pigeon competition guns – and so provide more inertia for the swing and better absorption of recoil.
They have big foreends, single triggers and pistol grips, so hand placement is more accurate and consistent.
They tend to have 23⁄4in or 3in chambers, allowing them to cope with a wide range of loads including steel.
The recoil is felt differently, so the first barrel recoil is low in the shoulder, producing less barrel flip than a side-by-side and thus allowing a far more accurate second shot.
Mark Marshall of EJ Churchill using an over and under.
Mark Marshall, head coach at EJ Churchill, says of the question over and under or side by side, “All these points are valid. Gun fit is definitely more important with the side-by-side: 1⁄4in too short and you get bruised on your middle finger, 1⁄4in too long and you get a bruise on your arm. Cast is also more important on a side-by-side as it’s harder to see if you are centre or not. As for ‘pointability’, if I gave someone a ruler to point at something accurately I guarantee they will subconsciously turn it on edge. After all, we point a shotgun, we don’t aim it, and I think this is a major reason for the over and under’s success.
“So for me the reason most shoot better with an over and under comes down to pointability and comfort,” says Marshall, “And the fact they have probably shot in the past with badly fitted side by sides. However, there is nothing wrong with a well-fitted, 30in-barrelled side by side as long as you don’t need to fire loads heavier than 30g.”
OVER AND UNDER OR SIDE BY SIDE: THE PROFESSIONAL OPINION
Steve Rawsthorne of the Holland & Holland Shooting Grounds says of the debate on over and under or side by side, “There is no doubt that the vast majority of shooters shoot better with an over and under than a side by side. If it weren’t so, all competitive shooters would be using side by sides, rather than having a separate ‘handicap’ class for them. When I started shooting in 1967, it was with a side by side as that was all that was around. I remember the first over and unders I saw in 1970, a couple of Miroku skeet guns with 26in barrels, and they were the subject of much curiosity. Over and unders were dismissed then as ‘cad’s guns’ because they were used by those who shot clays throughout the year – in other words, they practised rather than just shooting half a dozen times a year and, as the saying goes, ‘The more I practise the luckier I get.’
Earl de Grey (Lord Ripon) with a hammergun.
“The modern over and under is a tool designed for the job,” continues Rawsthorne. “Ideally, firing the lower barrel first, it delivers the recoil lower into the shoulder than a side by side and in a straight line, producing less ‘felt’ (perceived) recoil so that one is on to the second shot more quickly and smoothly. The extra weight of an over and under translates into less perceived recoil, too. The pistol grip, usually with a single selective trigger, means that the rear hand is at a more natural angle compared to the hand position created by the straight-hand stock of the classic British side by sides, which cocks the wrist of the rear hand at an unnatural angle. The fore-end of an over and under gives the leading hand – which should be controlling the gun throughout the mount and shot – something to grip, as opposed to a side by side where one is holding the barrels. (Too often one sees a shooter with his fingers over the barrels of a side by side, causing him to lift the head to see over them, so shots will go high on a quartering, crossing or going-away bird. And having the head off the stock will cause more recoil-induced pain and often flinching, which is difficult, time consuming and thus expensive to cure.)
“The single sighting plane of the over and under leads the eye more naturally towards the target, rather than the double expanse of barrels and rib of a side by side,” says Rawsthorne. “And while one should not be looking at the barrels during the shot, one needs to be aware of them in the peripheral vision while the central focus is on the target; the barrels of an over and under obscure less of the target and surrounding area.
“So many shooters today are using a geriatric side by side which does not fit them, smacks them around with heavy loads (32g-plus) for high birds, which they were never designed to be used with, and are often not proofed for. Those same shooters, spending far less on a game of golf, will buy the latest carbon fibre clubs but will not buy a decent gun.”
OVER AND UNDER OR SIDE BY SIDE: LOOKING AT THE BARRELS, NOT THE BIRD
Ian Coley is an ex-gamekeeper, coached the 2012 Olympic shooting team and runs one of the UK’s leading gunshops and shooting grounds. “Over the past 30 years the side by side market has been decreasing. A lot of this is down to the new, modern over and unders being so much easier to shoot and, most importantly, more pleasant to shoot in terms of recoil. The typical side by side tends to be lighter, which was fine when the main cartridges used were Eley Impax 28g 6s. These are smooth and soft cartridges to shoot and were more than suitable for shoots 25 to 30 years ago. But many shoots today provide high, challenging birds and a standard 21⁄2in 28g No 6 cartridge won’t have the killing consistency at longer range provided by the modern, high-performance 23⁄4in cartridge such as Hull’s High Pheasant Extreme, Gamebore’s Black Gold and RC Sipe. Very few side by sides would be chambered and suitable for these modern-day cartridges and if they are proofed and have adequate chamber sizes for these, the recoil is too much to bear over a day of firing 250-plus cartridges,” he says.
Peter Wilson uses a Perazzi to gold-medal effect at the 2012 Olympics.
“With over and unders, you have a full pistol grip and the majority now are multi-choked. This all helps towards the handling and performance of the gun,” continues Coley. “A full pistol grip will ensure your hand is in the suitable position and at the right angle. Whereas, with a straight-hand stock, if you mounted the gun 10 times, six of them would have your hand in a slightly different place. A few gun manufacturers are now bringing out side by sides with full pistol grips, beavertail fore-ends, single triggers and multi-chokes. These are as close as you can get to over and unders while remaining a side by side. I did have a pair of these for a bit of fun game-shooting and had great success with them; however, I never performed quite as well with them as I do with my over and unders. The control and balance was never quite the same. With shooting in general, it all comes down to marginal gains and using the right and most effective tool for the job. Shooting and shotguns have changed so much over the past few years and the mechanics and performance of shotguns is now at an all-time high.”
Edward Watson of Dr Watson Shooting adds another factor in the over and under’s favour: the relationship between eyes and barrel conformation. “Shooting is very much a ‘hand to eye’ co-ordination sport,” he says. “Your eyes watch the bird and this feeds information to your brain, which cleverly works out distance, speed and line. The focus on the bird helps this and the harder you focus the better you shoot. If, however, your eyes are prevented in any way from total focus on the target you will miss. With an over and under you have a much better view of the bird when the gun is mounted due to the gun’s single sighting plane. Our eyes are lazy and will always try and look at the closest thing, ie the barrels. And the more the barrels intrude into our vision, even our peripheral vision, the more our eyes will want to look at them and not the bird. And if you look at the barrels and not at the bird you’ll usually miss. That’s why shooting an over and under is 30% easier than with a side by side.” It seems that in the case of over and under or side by side, the over and under wins.
OVER AND UNDER OR SIDE BY SIDE: TRADITION AND INVESTMENT
Yet despite the apparent technical advantages of the over and under, we all know people who shoot brilliantly with side by sides. Adam Calvert, a freelance instructor, notes that they are quicker to load. And Nigel Muir, an instructor at the Royal Berkshire Shooting School for 15 years, says that,“The main ‘problem’ with them arises when the perceived Holy Grail is ‘high birds’ where choke and cartridge choice are important. This has led to a trend for mighty guns and mighty cartridges. But have we gone too far in pursuit of this? Bar a few specialists, the pursuit of very high birds leads to demoralised shooters, injured birds and people forgetting why they are there in the first place.
“Many of my clients, who are good shots in their own right, are going back to side-by-sides for their wonderful handling tradition, pleasing lines, joy of ownership, lack of weight and in many cases sound investment,” says Muir. “Perfectly challenging birds can be cleanly killed with a side-by-side all over the country by normal mortals with normal budgets. They understand the side-by-side’s limitations, but would rather go with enjoyment and tradition than follow fashion.”
Shooting live pigeon at the 1900 Olympic Games.
And nothing wrong with that, except perhaps the need to understand “tradition”. When The Field was founded in 1853, gunmaking was in the transition from muzzle-loader to breechloader and the Victorians embraced technological change, from flint, percussion cap, needle fire, central fire and hammer to hammerless ejector in the space of some 30 years. Not much hankering after “tradition” then, although the barrels remained side by side.
Why should this be, given the apparent superiority of the visual picture afforded by the over and under? Why weren’t Ripon and Walsingham, both experimenters, commissioning over and unders from James Purdey & Son? Chris Price, the respected owner of Helston Gunsmiths, notes, “There were over and unders in the percussion-cap period but it was difficult to make them so that the hammers had sufficient throw and weight to detonate the cap. This was easily achieved with the side by side and the format was quickly adopted, the external hammers perfectly suited to allow all manufacturers to build good, working side by side guns.
“With the advent of internal boxlock and sidelock actions, the breadth of the side by side format still allowed the internal hammers to have sufficient throw and weight to hit the firing pin with sufficient force to detonate the cartridge’s integral percussion cap. But it was not so easy to achieve this with the narrower over and under action. There were problems in getting all the mechanisms required in such a narrow space, and you ended up with small hammers, lacking sufficient throw to produce the necessary power, and angled firing pins leading to weak strikes. So we stuck to making what we knew – the side by side. Then the rest of the world got into gear in the mid Fifties with great over and under designs, using better V- and coil-spring powered hammers, and eventually these guns dominated the market.”
OVER AND UNDER OR SIDE BY SIDE: THE SPORTMAN’S INFLUENCE
Former technical director of Holland & Holland Russell Wilkin notes that “both the side by side and over and under configurations date back to 16th century wheel locks. Sheer bulk and weight would have been the major consideration as costs must have been off the scale compared other types of portable ‘guns’.
c1590, 100-bore Saxon over and under wheel-lock pistol sold by Bonhams in 2005.
“The sportsman – until very recent times – was very influential on the design of guns and often prompted the makers to come up with improvements to form and function,” continues Wilkin. “I think it was not until the
cartridge firing design finally put paid to muzzle-loaders that slim barrel/action designs began to compete on aesthetic considerations as well as low-fuss mechanicals. Perhaps it was at this stage when the gunmakers divided their efforts between ease of manufacture (low cost) and performance and good looks. Without any doubt when it came to the most significant option – the choice between the side-by-side and the over-and-under – the superimposed design had enormous cost implications. The gunmakers of the late 1800s were very clever and always used the best technology available but even they found combined modest cost and freedom of design unachievable. However, technology began to provide solutions and when sufficient investment was made available in the latest machine tools, combined with a purpose design, the reducing costs of manufacturing an over-and-under design made a direct comparison valid.”
OVER AND UNDER OR SIDE BY SIDE: IN CONCLUSION
Having discussed options of over and under or side by side with hundreds of clients, Wilkin concludes “Those of us that have used side by sides and over and unders, when forced to choose one option, will find the choice difficult. Subjectivity will play a large part, I suspect, far more so than mechanicals.”
That subjectivity varies, naturally, with individuals but perhaps we should be chary of labelling one type of gun as “traditional” and the other as a claybuster’s upstart. Both formats have ancient pedigrees but technical problems gave the side by side a dominance that has disappeared. Thousands of extremely competent shots use side by sides to great effect while others might benefit by changing to an over and under. Whichever type of gun we choose, there’s one overriding factor: we owe it to our quarry to use whatever enables us to do our personal best to kill it cleanly in the best traditions of sportsmanship.
Serve a pud guaranteed to please a crowd this Christmas with Philippa Davis' Christmas Eton mess - perfect for the figgy pudding nay-sayers
Christmas Eton mess makes the perfect alternative for figgy pudding nay-sayers.
If you have a crowd to feed on the 25th, you can guarantee there will be a few figgy pudding nay-sayers. Having an alternative to hand is essential to keeping festive spirits high. Philippa Davis’ Christmas Eton mess is simple to make and, crucially, guaranteed to please.
350g cooking apple, peeled and chopped into 1cm pieces
80g demerara sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Cranberries
100g cranberries
20g demerara sugar
1 orange, zest and juice
Eggnog Cream
300ml double cream
1 dsp icing sugar
1 vanilla pod, beans only
150ml thick custard
1 ½ tbsp rum
1 ½ tbsp bourbon
To serve: ½ nutmeg
For the meringue, preheat the oven to 110°C/225°F/Gas Mark ¼.
Line a 20cm square baking sheet with baking paper.
Using an electric whisk on high speed, mix the egg whites with half the sugar. When thick and doubled in volume add half the remaining sugar and whisk for another five minutes then add the rest and whisk for another five.
Stir through the ground ginger, cornflour and lemon juice.
Scoop the meringue onto the baking sheet into a pavlova shape and cook for 1½ hours.
It should be crispy almost all the way through.
Heat the apple, sugar and cinnamon in a pan until the apple goes soft. Leave to cool.
Heat cranberries, sugar, orange zest and juice in a pan until the cranberries have softened and split. Leave to cool.
For the eggnog cream, whisk the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla seeds until thick. Stir in the custard, rum and bourbon.
To assemble, break the meringue into a bowl and lightly fold in the eggnog cream and two-thirds of the apple and cranberry. Spoon into your serving dish and top with the remainder of the apple and cranberry. Grate over the nutmeg.
