Episodes
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As we head into a brand new shooting season George and Digby delve into the results of the 2024 Game Shooting and Shoot Owner Census to answer the biggest questions in shooting: How much does a pheasant cost this year, and how does it compare to last year? What is the average bag size that guns shoot, and has that number changed over time? And, perhaps most importantly, what is the most popular fine for shooting the white pheasant?
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Does shooting etiquette, clothing and tradition matter?Giles Catchpole is a fieldsports journalist and humourist whose work has graced the pages of numerous magazines over the years. His Shooting Types books - collaborations with renowned sporting cartoonist Bryn Parry - are found in downstairs loos in the right sort of houses up and down the land, owing to his His unique combination of sharp-eyed observation and a witty style. Writing as 'Uncle Giles' in Shooting Gazette, he was a guide on matters sartorial and ethical for many a shooting man and woman for years.
All of this makes Giles the ideal chap to join Chris and George for a chat about some of the finer points that the conventions, codes and customs of the shooting world throw up, and answer the question that will ring down the ages: why does any of it matter?'
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Missing episodes?
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Live from the Game Fair 2024! A special edition, in which Chris and George sift through the deluge of nominations for Shooting Heroes that they received, and highlight a handful who deserve particular recognition, either for outstanding efforts or because they represent a wider group of people who make a difference in the countryside day-in-day-out. At the end of the episode they choose a shortllst of two and ask the audience to help select a final winner for the day's shooting and the day's fishing on the test so kindly donated by our listener, James.To round things off the pair share a Desert Island Shooting with a difference.
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What does the new Labour Government mean for shooting and the countryside? The day after the King's Speech Tim Bonner, head honcho at the Countryside Alliance, joined us at GunsOnPegs HQ to give his take on this question and many others surrounding the change of government. Tim looks into his crystal ball and highlights a few potential storm clouds on the horizon, but also a few rays of hope as well.Tim gives us an overview on how organisations like the Alliance try to influence policy makers through relationship building and gives his assessment of the new Ministers who will drive decision-making in the new government. Tim also offers up some tips how the shooting community as a whole can ensure that shooting has a long future in the UK
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What does it take to bring Grey Partridges back from the brink of local extinction? Our guest for this episode, Charlie Mellor, is Head Gamekeeper at the Norfolk Estate in Sussex, where he manages the Peppering Project, the Duke of Norfolk's widely lauded effort to do just that. Charlie was born to be a keeper, and is now responsible for one of the most important shooting projects in the country, demonstrating that well-managed shooting estates can have enormous biodiversity benefits, not just for game birds but for entire ecosystems. He shares his deep knowledge of managing the landscape for grey partridges with Chris and George, as well as diving a little deeper into the significance of the Peppering Project to the other species which make their homes on the estate, the local community and the wider shooting community.
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Hugo Campbell Hill, AKA @thegameglutton joins us to talk about how life has led him to sharing his game cookery recipes and tips on Instagram, and his personal crusade to get more people - both inside and outside shooting - enjoying cooking and eating game. Hugo's breezy style and easy-to-follow recipes have seen him build a small yet loyal following since he started his project in February 2024, and we discover what his vision is for the future of his project. We also discuss the joys of mincing, smoking, and brining.
Hugo also weighs in on the divisive debate of paper/plastic cups vs. mugs on a shoot day, and watches on as George (back from his holiday) drops Chris in the cacky over his questionable tipping practises.There's a final call for submissions for the Shooting Heroes prizes (a peg on a shoot day, and a day on the Test), ahead of the special edition episode to be recorded live at The Game Fair. Send your submissions to [email protected]
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With George on holiday, GunsOnPegs MD Digby Taylor steps into the breach to take on hosting duties alongside Chris. Their guest is Duncan Clark, owner of Braxted Park, the Essex shoot famed for its powerful Kansas Thunder pheasants and testing partridge.
Duncan, a former trustee of the Country Food Trust, helps Chris and Diggers to tackle listener correspondence on the topics of part-trained gundogs and ties on shoot days, before sharing his thoughts on the importance of family, community and frivolity on shoot days. He also touches on the role that estates like Braxted can have in their local community, and paints his picture of what the future of shooting might look like at Braxted and beyond.
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Richard Negus - writer, hedgelayer, conservationist - joins Chris and George, for a chat about the important and oft-overlooked role that hedgerow management plays in conservation and shooting. The episode's theme is the concept of outreach, and as well as discussing Richard's own (not always hiccough-free) work in introducing primary school kids and young farmers to the intricacies of hedgelaying, we also help a listener to resolve the problem of dog walkers disturbing their pheasants and suggest a range of potential solutions.We also read out perhaps the best piece of correspondence we've ever received, from a listener with an unbelievable offer... you *really* don't want to miss this episode!
Pre-order Richard's book:
https://unbound.com/books/words-from-the-hedge
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Tom Opre, the director of the film The Last Keeper, joins Chris and George to share an outsider's perspective on the thorny topic of land use, ownership and management in Scotland. The theme is that of his new film, which recently premiered. Tom explains his journey of discovery as he tries to understand the perspectives of both traditional land managers - like gamekeepers, crofters and stalkers - and the rewilding organisations and businesses buying up huge tracts of Scotland. Is there any hope of agreement, or at least detante, between the two sides?
Tom also helps Chris and George to answer some listener questions, along with a unique and imaginative Desert Island Shooting, and one listener shares a smutty Drive Name.Find out more about The Last Keeper
Find a screening
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Jamie Horner, recipient of at Purdey Awards Special Commendation, shoot manager extra-ordinaire, game feed specialist and all-round good egg joins George and Chris to talk all about Iford Downs, the East Sussex shoot that will host the 3rd Order of the Garters shoot day. Jamie shares his enthusiasm for using the shoot to create a habitat that benefits not only his redleg partridges, but up to 84 different wild bird species including some vanishingly rare ones, as well as his passion for creating strong working relationships with conservation organisations... including the RSPB. Jamie also helps us to solve a couple of shoot day dilemmas and shares perhaps the greatest drive name of all time.Send your Whose Bird Is It Anyway submissions, Unpopular Opinions, Forgotten Drives and Memorable Drive Names to [email protected]
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As we enter barbecue season, Cai Ap Bryn, AKA Game and Flames, joins Chris and George. We learn how Cai, a Welshman born and bred, found himself stalking deer in the Sussex countryside and cooking game over flame for a living. Having recently been crowned 'Best Influencer' in the 2024 Eat Game Awards, and included in the Shooting Conservation Power 100 list of the most influential and important people in the shooting world, Cai is better placed than most to inspire us to cook wild meat on live fire. He shares his eloquently expresses his passion for cooking, tells us his favourite barbecue techniques, and shares a top pigeon recipe for you to try at home this summer. He also helps us to absolve a listener of his past sins in 'Whose Bird It It Anyway?'.
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New legislation in Scotland (The Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act means that Estates that wish to shoot grouse will require a license. Ross Ewing, Director of Mooland at Scottish Land and Estates joins Chris and George to explain what this all means for grouse shooting in Scotland. Seen by many as a catastrophe, is the new legislation as bad as all that, and are there any positives to be taken from the process, which saw pro-grouse shooting bodies secure several important amendments to the proposals. What can the shooting community in other parts of the UK learn from the Scottish experience?Also in this episode: George shares his own Unpopular Opinion and gets stitched up by Chris, we resolve a challenging shooting/marital quandry, hear about a Forgotten Drive from the USA and discuss the logistics of shooting clays on an aircraft carrier's flight deck.
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Do you ever get nervous when you're on the peg, waiting for that first pheasant to break cover? Do you tense up, or worry about what other people might think of your shooting, or have a 'bogey bird'? Do you shoot badly when others are watching? How do you get back on form when the wheels have come off mid-drive?
Oliver Spensley-Corfield is a professional sports psychologist who has worked with a wide variety of professional teams and individuals. He also happens to be an enthusiastic game shot who manages a small Oxfordshire syndicate.
Ollie joins Chris and George to talk about the mental side of game shooting, and how having your head in the right place can help us all to become the best game shots we can be. He also helps to absolve a listener of his chicken-related sins, and solve a taxidermy dilemma.
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We have another classic episode from the archives for you! This episode was originally recorded in October 2022 and features the one and only George Digweed, arguably the greatest shot ever. One of the reasons that we have decided to put this episode out again is because later this week Chris and I are recording an episode all about the psychology of game shooting, and how getting your head game right could help improve your shooting. As we all know, I need all the help I can get on that score, so I for one am really excited for it.
This episode with George is a really interesting chat and his passion for game shooting shines through - but we also get a fascinating insight into his mental approach to both game and clay shooting. if you haven’t heard this episode before, I hope you enjoy it, and if you heard it the first time around, I hope you enjoy listening back to it again.
----more----Chris and George are joined by shooting royalty, the G.O.A.T, George Digweed MBE. Despite being a World Champion clay shot multiple times over, game shooting is where it all began for George, and game shooting is still where his heart lies. George offers up his views on practicing for days in the field, greediness on the peg, defending shooting in a public sphere, and how he has maintained his hunger to compete at the top level for more than five decades.
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In this episode of The GunsOnPegs Podcast Chris and George are joined by Alex Smith, an independent gunsmith based in Winchester.
Alex is an expert in old English Shotguns, a dyed-in-the-wool side-by-side fan and a former Helice (ZZ) champion. He answers all the questions you've ever wanted to ask a gunsmith but were too afraid to ask, questions like 'Is it OK to cut down the stock on an inherited Holland & Holland?', 'Will my old shotgun take steel?' and 'Whoops, I tried to 'improve' my stock, can you fix it please?'.
Alex also helps us to resolve The Mystery of the Missing Millionaire in Whose Bird is it Anyway?, deal with another unpopular gundog opinion and investigate Hagrid's Hairy Hole.
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In this episode we get a unique perspective on the UK shooting world. Liz and Sean Delaney own and operate Delaney and Sons, a US-based sporting agency running shooting trips to the UK, Spain and Morocco for their American clients. The pair have an immediately evident passion for shooting in the UK, and take obvious pleasure in sharing that with their guests.
Liz and Sean share the things that enchant and baffle American game shots about our shooting culture, how they help visitors to these shores to navigate the intricacies and peculiarities of our traditions and customs, and we examine how land ownership and hunting laws result in a different attitude towards hunting on the other side of the Atlantic.
The pair help us to solve one listener's tipping dilemma and the question of how to approach the peg draw; do you have a method? We also share the first submission about drives with unique names in 'Timbuck-Two, Timbuck-Three'.Cover photo: Sarah Farnsworth
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Here's a quick teaser for the latest episode of Beyond the Hedge.
Savour the Shot: Woodcock Hunting, Cooking, and Conservation
In this episode Patrick Galbraith goes out in search of the mysterious woodcock, a beloved bird of hunters, chefs and nature lovers the world over.
Patrick's journey begins in Suffolk with farmer, conservationist and writer Sam Carlisle, and Sam's Hungarian Vizsla, Merlin. The trio head into the woods in an attempt to bag a couple of birds for their lunch.
Later, Tim Maddams, the former River Cottage chef, offers his woodcock-cooking tips, and Sam shows Patrick his favourite way of preparing these remarkable and delicious birds.
Finally, Patrick catches up with Owen Williams, a painter and woodcock conservationist. Owen discusses the complexities of woodcock management and helps Patrick to understand why the question of whether shooting woodcock is sustainable is more complicated than it might appear.
How to listen to Beyond the Hedge
Beyond the Hedge is available on all major podcast apps and platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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In this episode of the GunsOnPegs Podcast hosts George Browne and Chris Horne are joined by special guest Jamie Blackett, a former soldier in the Coldstream Guards, renowned author, columnist, farmer, political activist, and Scribehounder. We delve into Jamie's passion for nature, his pursuit to preserve British countryside values through his books, and his son's award-winning rum-making venture.
As the end of the shooting season approaches, in Whose Bird is it Anyway and Unpopular Opinions we tackle the topics of tipping the keeper on a beater's day and wearing tweed breeks for beating. We also unearth some more forgotten drives and launch a brand new feature.
Later on, Jamie shares the history of his family's estate - Arbigland - and the many changes that the shoot has been through over the years that have led to its current form: a privately run, family shoot managed with more than one eye on conservation. We also discuss the challenges to rural sports in Scotland and the impact of unfavourable legislation on communities in Scotland.
Providing insight into rural narratives as they play out in legislatures, the press and online, Jamie challenges political and media opposition to shooting and rural traditions and makes a compelling case for the need to refute misleading news, and to tackle sensationalism on social media.
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We're thrilled to share with you something that we have been working on for a few months now - a brand new podcast from Scribehound: Beyond the Hedge.
Subscribe to Beyond the Hedge wherever you get your podcasts. Apple PodcastsSpotify
The documentary-style podcast is hosted by Scribehounder, writer and former Shooting Times editor Patrick Galbraith, who will be going in search of the places, people, traditions and tales that make rural Britain extraordinary.
Join Patrick as he heads out along the backroads to meet publicans, writers, hedgelayers, butchers, poets and keepers of everything from pigs to grey partridges to bees.
He explores these often-complex and sometimes-thorny themes with the help of real experts – practitioners with their hands in the soil and academics who’ve spent their lives thinking about things like the cultural history of fishing. Beyond the Hedge gets to the heart of rural Britain, as it was, is now and will be in the future.
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In this maiden episode of Beyond the Hedge, Patrick explores how writers depict the countryside. Who are the very best writers on the countryside today and what’s the difference between “rural writing”, “nature writing” and “sporting writing”? Why do so many so-called “nature writers” dislike the term?
To help him to understand the subject, Patrick enlists the help of some old-hands. First he heads to Hampshire to speak to Jonathan Young, who edited both Shooting Times and The Field, Britain’s oldest sporting titles. Jonathan shares his thoughts on how sporting magazines have changed over the years and he reveals the three essential pieces of equipment that the Editor of Shooting Times, in its golden period, used to give to every new member of staff and he also shares his thoughts on what sort of day in the field makes for a great magazine feature.
Patrick then meets up with John Mitchinson, the founder of the publishing house, Unbound. John, who is himself a pig-keeper, has an encyclopedic knowledge of great books on rural Britain. He also has a very clear sense of what the difference is between ‘countryside writing’ and ‘nature writing’. Do people, Patrick asks John, actually want to read about the countryside as it really is?
Finally, Guy Adams, a features writer at the Daily Mail, explains how the internet has impacted economics of newspaper and magazine publishing and he reflects on the effect that this has had on countryside writing. They also discuss the importance of proper writing on the countryside and how new forms of publishing could revitalise the scene by offering writers the chance to be paid properly again for their work.
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Master gundog trainer and breeder Ricky Moloney has been involved in fieldsports since an early age and has built a reputation as one of the nation's leading practitioners of the art of running a picking up team... though where Ricky is concerned it is more science than art. In this fascinating episode Ricky shares what he calls "The Procedure" - his foolproof way to pick every bird that should be picked, and none of those that should not.Ricky also shares the heartwarming story of how he came into fieldsports as a British-Pakistani, adopted at a young age by an English family in Lancashire, and how the shooting community welcomed him with open arms.We also solve more listener correspondence, including a challenging thank you present and a man who's missed his lunch and is not happy about it.
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