ON OTHER PAGES + NEWS STUMP + MARK GILCHRIST + VEG FROM A HEDGE + HUNTING YOUTUBE

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Which is best for bunnies: pointy, flat or rounded?Rabbit shooting is a sport for all. It’s inex-pensive, it’s an animal in abundance, done right it is a delicious meat, and it can be a

challenging quarry, especially with an air rifle.

For the best results and the best animal welfare it’s good to know what’s the most effective way of putting them on the ground. Well, with a new Webley air rifle to try out and three different pellet types to play with, Roy Lupton wants to find out which is the best to use in the field.

We have the round head - the Accupell.The flat head - the Vermin-pell. And old favourites the pointed Jets, all in .22.

To make this as realistic (almost dare we say scientific) Roy chest shot some rabbits last night keeping the heads for us to operate on, with the rest of the meat heading for some hungry ferrets.

Look at a skinned rabbit head next to a full rabbit head and you can see how small a kill shot or target area you have got with a rab-bit with an air rifle. The fur and the ears make the target area look larger than it is. You have got a tiny target to aim in on so accuracy is always key with air rifle shooting,” says Roy.

First off we’re going to see how accurate the pellets are. Tucked out of the way of the wind, and the rest of the Lupton household, Roy sets up a target and positions himself 25 yards away.

The roundheaded Accupells are grouping, but in two distinct

Hunting pellets test

Fieldsports Britain, episode 157. Visit www.fieldsportschannel.tv

Airgun pellets under the spotlight

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AirgunWorldMay2012-Raider10.pdf 1 30/11/2012 10:03

areas. Roy realises what has happened and there is a lesson to be learned. “We have taken three shots with the old pellets and then just opened a new tin expecting it to be the same and amazingly we are two centimetres above the same point of impact we had with the old pellets. Between changing the two tins of pellets, the point of impact had changed. So when you start a new tin of pel-lets, re-zero and make sure they are shooting at the same point.”

Next up are the Verminpells. Their shape suggests they should be harder hitting but are they less accurate? Last up it’s the Jets. These are the least accurate. There is poor grouping and they ap-pear to make more noise.

With the accuracy test completed, it is time quickly to talk through the rifle. We have been sent a Webley Raider by We-bley’s UK distributor Highland Outdoors. For a relatively inex-pensive entry level air rifle, it does the job well. It comes with a ten-shot magazine. “More importantly it is very, very accurate,” says Roy. “Most air rifles these days do come out of the box ready to shoot, but so far very impressed.”

The plan now is to zero the rifle for each pellet type then shoot through the rabbit skull. The first pellet on test is the Accupell. When Roy is happy, we secure the target and he shoots. He hits the mark and this accurate pellet passes straight through.

“It’s the perfect kill shot,” says Roy, “but I am quite surprised at the lack of damage. It has drilled a very neat hole through the skull and not a huge amount of damage there at all. I am used to seeing the damage that centrefire rifles cause. So when you can actually examine the damage an air rifle causes it shows you how little effect it has. Again it really does highlight the need for accuracy. If I had shot the rabbit anywhere around the jaw it wouldn’t have been a kill shot”

Moving on to the Verminpell and Roy has to eat his words. The Verminpell is grouping beautifully. And that’s not all. Looking at the rabbit head, Roy concludes it is a very destructive pellet design. “Looking at it just from the exterior it doesn’t look like we have got a huge amount more damage than we had from the Accupells until you actually feel and touch the head. You can feel all the skull is broken away just behind the entry wound and at the back you can see here that it is all completely crushed. It has completely disintegrated in its entirety inside and it has actually broken the neck as well. That has caused a lot more damage.”

Lastly, the Jets. Roy is not even confident of hitting the mark with this pellet. The first shot is low-ish and the second is good enough to compare to the others. “They were flying up all over the place,” he says afterwards. “They are not an accurate enough pellet for me to be happy to use in the hunting field. You can see the entry wound is low and the pellet has gone in to the jaw. So if you were in a hunting scenario that is not necessarily a direct kill shot. It might be alright for plinking the targets, but not one I would use for taking out and doing anything serious with.

All three do the job but the Verminpell is the one that catches Roy’s eye. So with Roy confident of the rifle and pellet we’re off to see if we can bag a couple of bunnies.

Rabbit one is further than Roy wants but hey - he knows where this rifle is shooting and at 39 yards he is bang on. Rabbit two is not presenting a head shot but Roy is confident of a heart shot.

This is also a 39-yard shot. The animal goes nowhere and the Webley rifle and Verminpell flatheaded pellet combo prove their effective-ness. Rabbit three is much closer but the end result is no different.

“Now I know it might have seemed a little bit gruesome taking the skin off the rabbit heads, but to get a true representation of what goes on it was an experiment and I think we got some good results off it” says Roy. It really did hightlight the difference between shoot-ing with the ordinary pellet where it almost drilled a hole through the target. Then you go on to something like the Verminpell and you get a fantastic exit wound.

It’s been a interesting test - that not only shows how small the target area is but also that air rifle pellets are not all made equal. <

Hunting pellets test, cont...Fieldsports Britain, episode 157. Visit www.fieldsportschannel.tv

Rabbit head and skinned rabbit head, with a tin of the top pellets

www.highlandoutdoors.co.uk

HIGHLANDOUTDOORS

webley is supplied exclusively to the trade through highland outdoors

For Trade enquiries contact Highland OutdoorsPh: 0845 099 0252 Fax: 01857 341 111

sales@highlandoutdoors.co.uk

Available from all good gunshops - Now!Raider 10 XS series in Standard 12ft/lbs & FACTM

Is the Raider 10 thebest value Multi-Shot PCP

in Europe?

TM

- the answer is still yes!

• INTEGRAL QGS SILENCER

• RIFLED GERMAN P & P STEEL TUBE

• POSITIVE INDEXING 10 SHOT

TM

MAGAZINE

• AMBIDEXTROUS STOCK

• FULLY ADJUSTABLE 2-STAGE TRIGGER

Amazing Price!

stock now available

contact your local

shop to order

Magazine systemVentilaed recoil pad

Precision checkering

The Raider 10 is Webley’s most tried and trusted multi-shot PCP, having soldin its thousands over the last 6 years. Rugged and reliable, during development

it was cycled over 5,000 times-without a single miss-feed!

All Webley Rifles availableas combo package with AGS Scopes

AGS Combo PackagesAvailable

we recommend the use of Webley vci 3-4-1 cleaning products

BARREL MADE FROM

Follow us on Facebookfor Exclusive Offers and announcementswww.facebook.com/HighlandOutdoors

Free Free AMTA Lock With Every Gun AMTA Lock With Every Gun

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AirgunWorldMay2012-Raider10.pdf 1 30/11/2012 10:03

News Stump All the stuff David reads out on the programmeChopper – like it or lump it The Ministry of Defence faces a £25,000 claim from a gamekeeper who says Apache helicopters are frighten-ing his pheasants and partridges. Richard Hearn wants compensation from the MoD for disturbance, stress and threatening his livelihood. He says that every time the helicopters hover over his Essex woodland, the birds scatter and he has had to halt shoots due to the lack of birds.

Brian May, deer cullerPop guitarist Brian May has been accused of hypocrisy for allowing deer culling on his estate in Dorset. Mr May who runs an animal sanctuary on his grounds lead a high profile campaign this year to try and stop the proposed badger cull. The rock guitar legend responded to the culling claims saying that the pro culling fraternity were trying to discredit him and he had stopped the practice a couple of years ago.

Purdey awardsThe 2012 Purdey Awards for Game and Conservation held in London saw the North of England win the top prizes. The Gold Award (pictured) went to Weardale Estate, Co Durham, for owner Michael Stone’s work in heather moorland restoration. The Silver Award went to Pollybell Organic Farm near Doncaster in South York-shire, which also recently won Tesco’s Organic Grower of the Year. The Bronze Award went to the Westmor-land Wildfowlers Association, based near Carnforth, Lancashire, for its success in encouraging and training younger members, as well as for promoting and practis-ing exemplary shooting and conservation policies.

Bear burningThe human-animal conflict came to a head this week in Srinagar, northern India, this week. Angry villagers try to torch a bear alive in south Kashmir. It follows an in-cident in north Kashmire where a bear killed a 55-year-old man. Villagers later claimed they were trying to scare the bear away.

Rhino arrestsSouth African police have arrested two more suspects in connection with the poaching of eight rhinos from a game farm. This brings to eight the number of people arrested, including a game ranger. Last weekend seven rhinos were found dead at the Klipkopspruit farm at the weekend another one was found on Monday.

Grumpy antis Finally, the award for most craven campaign goes to ani-mal rights loony organisation Animal Aid. During the festive season it is highlighting the ‘horror’ that is rein-deer being transported up and down the country for us to poke and prod in Santa’s grottos.

Fieldsports Britain, episode 157. Visit www.fieldsportschannel.tv

News Stump is brought to you by

Mark Gilchrist has only shot two muntjac before. He is out with his friend Amir, who is an expert stalker, and he has high hopes for today.“If I get one today it could be my third muntjac. So it is quite a big thing for me,” he says. “We are up in Essex where a friend of mine has got too many muntjac on the farm and they want them culled. So hopefully Amir and I are going to go out and get some muntjac.”

It does not look hopeful. Amir starts by having to lend Mark a knife and a pair of binoculars. The knife is enormous.

“What is this for?” asks Mark. “Are these legal?”

“Yeah,” says Amir.

“What do you mean yeah? It is not legal.”

“It is,” insists Amir. I have ‘good reason’ to cary it – reasonable excuse.”

“What is the reason for having a Rambo knife?”

Amir remains polite. “In case you need to bleed it from the ster-num.”

It does not exactly shut Mark up but he points out that, as we’ve all got up early, we’d better get on with it. It is wet underfoot and there is a constant drizzle which does not fill us with a great deal of optimism for deer to be on the move.

Mark is already feeling the Fieldsports Channel pressure. As much as we love him, the deer never want to play ball when we’re stalking with the Gilchrist. We sometimes wonder if his game pies are actually full of quorn and hummus. As we are here in search of deer, apparently muntjac (although we haven’t seen any) - what is this chef ’s favourite venison?

“I have heard every one say that everyone is the best,” says Mark. “Of all the six species, everyone has said that the best one by far is the particular one they shoot. Actually if you know how to cook all of them they are all very good to eat.”

That makes sense but the prospect of getting hold of some veni-son today is not looking good. We eventually rendezvous with Amir who hasn’t seen anything either. “We are going to go and stalk the thicker wood, mainly a fir wood, which I think is where the deer might be,” says Mark. “And you always find on a cold

drizzly day, always, well often they are in thicker woods so we will go and give that a go.”

Our last block of woodland is again a deer-free zone. They might be creating havoc here but not to-day in the rain..So what has Mark got to say for himself ?

“All in all it wasn’t a great success I

am afraid ,” he says. “It just goes to show, a reminder to your viewers why I am not on the Fieldsports Channel very often anymore when you have got people like Crow, Digweed, Roy Lupton, the favourites that deliver every time. You have moved on, haven’t you? Oh well at the end of the day it is a great privilege to be allowed to walk on somebody’s land whether with a gun whether you shoot anything or not. We are here and I had a lovely morning and I am allowed to come back. So that is all that matters.”

One of these days it’ll come good and we’ll be able to show Mark being as accurate with the rifle as he is with the shotgun. He does have a chiller full ready for the festive season, so if you fancy a game pie drop the man a line theheadchef@gameforeverything.co.uk <

Mark Gilchrist can’t find a muntjacBut the game chef does know which deer is tastiest

Fieldsports Britain, episode 157. Visit www.fieldsportschannel.tv

Mark in the morning

Amir (left) and Mark. Click the play button to watch the film

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The excitement of finally seeing the desired object.

The certainty of taking secure aim even in the deepest twilight.

This is the moment we work for.

My mates are coming around this evening and I have to prepare a delicious meal for them. There are no super markets here, but why would I need one?

To get a meal for these mates that are coming around we need to col-lect some stuff and what we have got here is pennywort or naval wort be-cause it looks a little bit like a naval, but that has a taste of a bit of lettuce

with a hint of celery and just slightly of raw runner beans. It is good stuff and you can eat it raw or sling it on a salad. You can even cook it up as well.

We are not going to take all of it. We are going to leave that so that it can regenerate. We don’t want to just denude the place.

Now these ones are the haws from the hawthorn. They are great. They have a seed in the middle. You eat them a little bit like a cherry. Nib-ble around them and you have got slightly like the bruised part of an

apple with just a hint of avocado. Get rid of the stones, but the rest of them delicious. I love them. They go very, very well espe-cially if you let them just dry out. We will put them in maybe with the bread that we are going to make later on.

One to avoid are the brightly coloured berries of black briony. It is poisonous.

Wood sorrel is one of my favourites. A lot of people think it looks like clover, but it ain’t. It is sharp – really tangy. It has got a lovely taste of Granny Smith green apple skin. One word of warning is that it has oxalic acid in it, so you

shouldn’t have too much, but for flavour, we can pick a whole load of this.

Another good one is burdock. It gets its name from the burs on the sticky buds and dock which is the shape of the leaf. It is a biannual plant, which means it survives for two years. The one we want is a first-year plant. It has

got nice big leaves and underneath it is something that looks like a parsnip.

You can dig it out by using a digging stick: an ordinary stick with a chisel point on one end which I use to lever the soil away from one side only so that the whole plant falls into the hole that I am making. Chop off the leaves and and that is equivalent I guess to a parsnip. <

The Survival School DVD volume 1 is available from Koolbox.co.uk. For more about Jonny’s bushcraft courses, visit www.survivalschool.co.uk

Forage for veg from a hedgeOur bushcraft hero Jonny Crockett on greens

Fieldsports Britain, episode 157. Visit www.fieldsportschannel.tv

c&s ad layout.qxd 3/1/2010 10:37 AM Page 1

A viewer called Sam submits his new film Pigeon Shooting with the Browning Citori, which has some good pigeon shots, a useful comparison between the Browning 525 and 725, and even some carnivorous, car-eating horses.

Heading west and we are in Ireland for Vermin Control - Shooting Crows & Pigeons. Showing once again the rise and rise of the headcam, TheIrishHunting gives us highlights from his day decoying.

Staying with pest control, it’s off to the USA where New Air Rifle Squirrel Kill: BIG SQUIRREL HUNTER by Nevis Walker shows what can be done with a Beeman Dual Caliber Grizzly X2 Air Rifle, Model 1073, with interchangeable .177 and .22 barrels, lovingly purchased from Wally World (Walmart).

Our old friend and excellent British freelance cameraman Nicky Brown has also been to the USA where he tries flyfishing for cutthroat and brown trout in freezing Wyoming. This is the first of two films he makes with Reel Deal Anglers in the Jackson Hole area.

Now Nicky describes his fishing as awesome and extreme, which are strong words to use when you are up against a man who hooks a black marlin from a kayak. It is Panama in 2011. Craig Miller decides to hit the water for half an hour after tuna in his Ocean Kayak Prowler 13. What hits his line is an estimated 400lb billfish that tests the limits of his catch-and-release-from-kayak technique.

More tales of derring-do and this one is from Botswana where a leopard attacks a great white hunter. It’s dramatic, but what is perplexing to me is what happened to

the better-quality footage from the Sony Z1 camera that is plainly in view from this headcam footage. Was it broken? Was he pretending to film? I hope the client was more forgiving to the cameraman than he was to the leopard.

Back to Europe and Carl Zeiss Sports Optics, which sponsors this programme, has a YouTube channel which you can go to get under the skin of the world’s best binoculars and riflescopes. In this film, our old friend and boffin Herman Theisinger explains in English that is as faultless as his glass how the Zeiss Victory HT binoculars work and what is revolutionary about their design.

Now to Poland, where Filip Sioch offers a video taken on his Go Pro Hero 2 scope mounted camera of a driven wild boar day. He is rightly proud of his fast double kill, both headshots and a pig speeding across arable land. You will notice that one thing scope-mounted cameras do is highlight muzzle awareness.

You can click on any of these films to watch them. If you have a YouTube film you would like us to pop in to the weekly top eight, email the link to charlie@fieldsportchannel.tv

Hunting YouTube Best hunting, shooting and fishing on YouTube

Fieldsports Britain, episode 157. Visit www.fieldsportschannel.tv

Fieldsports Channel brings you the free weekly programme Fieldsports Britain. See us on our website, on YouTube, find us on Facebook and on Twitter. To advertise, contact James Westbrook on +447718126762 or visit www.fieldsportschannel.tv/category/advertise