The modern airgun is a sophisticated tool and the weapon of choice for professional vermin control. Perfect for shooting magpies and rabbits around the garden
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James Murray: The Field interview
James Murray, or Jim as he likes to be known, is a phenomenon. He’s a celebrated actor, a talented artist, a gifted angler and a conservationist and campaigner who is truly making a difference in the murky waters of river management. When he was recently awarded the MBE, along with…
Smoking wild meat: the secrets to success
How smoking wild meat began Science is a little undecided but somewhere around two million years ago our hominid ancestors started to harness fire. It wasn’t until about a million years later that we have relatively conclusive evidence that Homo erectus, with a culinary ambition of a magnitude never before…
Shooting rabbits with an air rifle
Like many fieldsportsmen, my earliest memories of forays in the field take me back to shooting rabbits on warm summer evenings. I count myself fortunate to have had a grandfather who worked as a herdsman on a dairy farm for an owner grateful for help keeping numbers of those grass-gobbling…
The DSC1: vital for anyone serious about stalking
There was a shepherd, a farmer, a welder, a roofer and an ex-huntsman. No, it’s not the beginning of a joke but the attendees who gathered in Clynderwen Community Hall, deep in the wilds of Pembrokeshire, to undertake the Deer Stalking Certificate Level 1 (DSC1). This certificate is increasingly required…
A stalker’s breakfast
The movement of the muntjac buck can first be seen in the half-light. However, we have to wait for the pre-dawn grey to relinquish its grip, finally revealing the verdant green of the valley below, before we can catch sight of him once more. The buck at last emerges from…
Sako 90 Finnlight .308
This test spotlights the latest Sako Finnlight model 90 rifle, imported by GMK of Fareham. Both Sako – once, and rather remarkably, owned by the Finnish Red Cross – and GMK are now part of the expanding Beretta empire. We have tested a Sako 90 before but this gun, a…
The secrets to catching trout
Most seasoned anglers will no doubt have heard the phrase ‘observation, imitation, presentation’ or OIP. This three-step mantra neatly condenses the complexity of fly-fishing (and arguably many other forms of fishing) down to a stark summation of its parts. Fly anglers place a huge amount of emphasis on the ‘imitation’…
Pickleball – one of the UK’s fastest-growing sports
What started across the pond in the 1960s as a game for children to play in their backyards is vying with padel to become one of the UK’s fastest-growing sports. While pickleball’s largest market remains the USA – indeed, it was named the state sport for Washington in 2022 –…
Coarse fish species: barbel, chub and perch
Brilliant barbel The angler is looking for gravel-bottomed glides between four and six feet on the river. You can wade carefully and the gear is simplicity itself, with just between one and three SSG shot on your line. (SSG shot used to be called ‘swan shot’ and are about the…