Former master of the Wilton and D-Day veteran Paul Butler has died at the age of 97. Paul, who was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, later moved with his wife Christine to the New Forest and first started hunting on his chestnut mare Blondie. He had many epic points with the New Forest Foxhounds under the stewardship […]
I once invited the late Willy Poole, that great countryman and writer, for a day’s pheasant shooting. He declined. He claimed his eyesight was no longer what it was, with the result that he had been wounding too many birds of late. Our conversation took place when we were following the local foxhounds on our quad bikes. I think deer stalking is humane. A 1999 study found that just 2% of red deer escape after being shot. The advent of shooting sticks, range finders, telescopic sights and tracking dogs may all have a role to play. By contrast, Victorian stalking books are littered with accounts of chasing wounded deer across the hills. How times have changed. For the better, in that regard. A rifle fires a single projectile with great precision. Unlike a rifle, a shotgun is a scatter-gun. A humane kill with a shotgun entails launching a suitably dense cloud of shot, with the requisite velocity and energy, to intercept a fast-moving target. It is no surprise that the wounding rate for s