Fieldsports Britain - White wild boar and university clay championships

[Music] Welcome to Fieldsports Britain. Coming up. Move over Jeremy Paxman. It's the University Challenge and this time the students have got guns. There's a bit of a boar theme this week. Roy Lupton and Sporting Rifle expert Tim Pilbeam are looking for the best rifle for a running target. First, they are blonde, they are French and they are over in England digging up our countryside. We are out to shoot a British wild boar. It's Team Wild TV. [Roar of stag] British wild boar hunting is only available to a privileged few. Simon Barr is one of them. He lives in Sussex and has boar on his ground. And if you need proof, check out the turf wars all over this pasture.... and if you need more proof, here are the trailcam shots from the wood nextdoor. Can you see the boar print in there quite clearly? Yeah that's a pretty fresh track right there. That's very fresh. If you look you can see a mud print here that's very, very fresh and this is absolutely why we are here this evening to try and stop them from doing this. Crikey. The field is kind of covered in patches like this. It is yeah, it is. This has been going on for some time and the farmer is about to put lambs out here. And we need to make sure they've got some grass left to feed on, so we're heading out tonight to see if I can get my first British wild boar. Shooting them here sparks plenty of controversy - firstly, should you control them? Then if so, how do you do it - night vision or under moonlight? Then there's the issue of a season. Some shooters impose their own, others are less choosy. Simon has had plenty of practise debating the issues, and getting to know the Sussex pigs. On this particular area I think we have probably got about 2 groups, one of 4 to 5 animals and another one of about 6 animals, there's a couple of large boar as well moving around, but they tend to be more transient. So what's the main tactic really when it comes to controlling the numbers do you take the older ones or do you prefer to take the smaller ones. We would always try and manage the younger animals out of the population first, um, for me it's about balancing the damage, the impact of the animal with my needs as a sportsman and the needs of the landowners locally. Are these the same sort of wild boar that you would find elsewhere in Europe. They have been genetically tested by DEFRA as French wild boar. What is quite unusual about the population here is that we have high frequency of leucism and leucism is a pigmentation deficiency so they look almost albino. I've seen it in boar in France, but may be one in a hundred perhaps less than that. In Sussex we've got perhaps a frequency of one in three and I know the particular group we will be looking at this evening have 5 leucistic boar which is very unusual, so the Sussex boar have quite a quirk about them. This shy, intelligent beast deserves respect, but many, including the British Government hold it's welfare at arms length. Bewilderingly they've pretty much got the same rights as grey squirrel! Boar aren't classified as a game species. They are half way between an invasive non native and vermin so they have pretty much got the same rights as a grey squirrel and for something which body mass wise goes to larger than a red stag. I think DEFRA needs to look at that and start giving them some proper protection. Time is marching on and if there's any chance of shooting a boar tonight we need to get kitted up. So Simon can I run through quickly the kit we are going to be using tonight then. Yes, sure this is a Blaser R8 Professional with synthetic stock in 308 calibre, excellent, very, very accurate, very reliable, it's got the Blaser straight pull action which is a German very well designed piece of kit. I'm using a trident moderator which has been designed in the UK and manufactured in the UK. I've heard a lot about these, a modular system. Very, very good it's got an integrated muzzle break as well, reduces the recoil massively, very good piece of kit, very light weight and then for the optics I am using a Pulsar Digisight n550 they are not new on to the market they have been available for a couple of years. It took night vision from about £2,500 for the image intensifiers down to a £1000 or there abouts entry level point, so really revolutionised the night vision market and I'm a big fan. We make our way to the hide. We have a nice view of the lower field and the feed station. Simon has been putting wheat down to concentrate the boar damage and put the boar in a safe shooting position. So Simon it looks like there is quite a lot of activity round here. Huge amount of activity. Everything I put down yesterday, I can see some birds have been here. All the food I put down yesterday has gone which is a good sign, those rocks we tend to kick those over the food they have been moved around from where they were last night. So very good sign that we have got a group feeding on here, so let's hope they come early. So this is extremely exciting clearly Simon knows an awful lot about what he is talking about and we can see there is plenty of activity here, so of all the things I have wanted to shoot in the UK wild boar is right there at the top of the list. So I'm going to sit back in the hide for probably 3 or 4 hours and hopefully see something.Yes very exciting. With an hour left before the sun goes down we get into the temporary hide and talk through the game plan. We're using Lapua Mega 150grain 308, absolutely superb round for boar shooting, not overly fast, there's not massive amount of meat damage, but there's enough of a punch there with a 30 calibre bullet to do the job so that's fantastic. So whereabouts are we shooting? We won't be engaging them until they get to the feed station and there's not a safe back stop until about 80 yards away the way the ground rolls away from this hide so we will be shooting them when they get to the feed station only. OK cool. Simon is hopeful we'll get something especially having photographed two groups of pigs just a few days ago. With a bit of a wait on our hands we talk through another hot potato - to night sight or not to night sight? I actually personally believe I have a responsibility as a hunter to despatch the animal as humanely and as efficiently as I can do and guessing where to put the bullet with a day scope at night is slightly irresponsible. So the hunt is exactly the same, the sport is exactly the same and anybody that tells me that it's not as romantic I think is being reckless and they should be using night vision. The other thing is if you are shooting under moonlight it limits you to about 4 days a month, with night vision if you've got a management objective like we have got tonight you can come out whenever you want to and you can deal with the problem if it arises. So I think it has massive applications. If you want to do something romantic then go and shoot a stag in Scotland. My wife wouldn't consider this very romantic. You're in for a good night Ian. We hear pigs but don't see them and it looks like I'm going to have to hand over the baton to Simon. No success last night so very hopeful that with different weather conditions today they might come. Day 3 in the pig cover hide. We've tried 4 nights out, the weather has changed this evening. Hunting these animals is not easy and it takes another three outings before Simon strikes leucistic gold. There are 5 boar in the field they have just come out from the woodland. Four days of waiting has paid off they are all about the same size and this is the group that I have seen before. These are all leucistic it's impossible to tell whether they are male or female. They're are not old enough to see any difference, there's no tusks visible and no pizzle visible. They are roughly the same size. There's one that looks a little bit bigger, absolutely amazing to see them though. Incredible creatures. They have already started to damage the field since they have come out. I don't have a safe shot when they're next to the woodland edge, I'm going to have to wait for them to come into the middle of the field. They are very bunched together I don't think I am going to be able to shoot them where they are. Ok one of them seems to be splitting away from the rest of them. I can't tell if it's male or female, they all look the same size. I am going to have to take the one which presents with the safest shot and is away from the other animals. It's slightly quartering I am going to have to go through the shoulder. The boar is hit - it runs. Simon searches with the pulsar and picks it up about 80 yards to the left. The heart and lung shot has done it's job. He's taken a young female. Simon would have preferred a male but they were all of a similar size and he needed to make a dent in this particular group. She's in good condition and grallochs her before heading for the chiller - also ensuring to take a sample of diaphragm to be sent for analysis for a nasty parasitic nematode called triconella. At the chiller we have a chance to take a proper look at this amazing truly wild wild boar. If it were a farmyard pig, a domestic pig and had a curly tale you would see spotting on the fur on the bristles, the head shape is different, the top of the ears curl over and this is as wild as they get, yup beautiful animal, I quite like them in this colour, they are quite unique looking. Now I've given it a bit of a clean off you can see the colour, obviously they are covered in mud a lot of the time where they have been wallowing, but this has been cleaned off a little bit and you can really see it's blond, it's a blond pig. It's taken a lot of work but Simon and the farmer are very happy. Of course I like shooting them for sport it's good fun, I like the meat massively, but you know when you hear farmers saying I just want everything off the ground I want to wipe them out, it's upsetting really, but it's the same really there's always a conflict with wild life and agriculture, but it's just managing that and being responsible and doing it in such a way that everything has a good balance and has a chance to live and also has a chance to grow because that's obviously the issue with farmers. British wild boar are back in the UK and the more we are sensible about managing them the more chance that it won't just be the privileged few who get to a dose of boar fever. [Roar of stag] If you are interested in wild board then why not look at our other films on the subject, we've been out in the snow after British wild boar and we've been as far as Croatia looking at different wild boar management techniques. Now from pigs to pure ham. It's David on the Fieldsports Channel news stump. [Music] This is Fieldsports Britain News. Staying with boar and are they becoming bolder as they extend their range. This photograph was taken by Sporting Shooter Sales Manager James Westbrook as he travelled through the lanes of Buckinghamshire. These road hogs don't appear to have a care in the world as they wander past. Do you want to see a Master of Foxhounds truly under pressure? The third annual Ascot Countryside Race Day will take place on 1st April 2012 at the legendary Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire. The Race Day will kick off in fine style with the Masters' Race for Repeal, featuring nine Masters in a race for the glory of their hunt. You can view the competing Masters and sponsor them on the Countryside Alliance website www.countryside-alliance.org.uk The RSPCA has forced the residents of Lake Windermere in Cumbria to call off a cull of 200 Canada Geese that have been plaguing the lake. RSPCA chief executive Gavin Grant threatened legal action against shooters, said they had to find alternative measures, and added that a cull would be a "bloody stain" on Windermere. Next up and shooting hits pop art. Australian pop artist Linton Meagher [pronounced Mar] has a produced a series of paintings celebrating British gameshooting using cartridge cases and shot. 'Pheasant walking' is acrylic-painted shotgun pellets on perspex. The artist says it "is hard to look past the death implied by all the empty cartridges". 'That's Grouse: The British Show' is on at the Contemporary Modern Australian art gallery in London from 22nd to 29th May. Visit www.comodaa.com And finally a picture story that's doing the rounds on the internet. An angler in the Alaskan wilderness left bait and food in his airplane. This attracted a local bear, who did this to the plane in his efforts to find the food. Undaunted, the pilot used his radio and had another pilot bring him two new tyres, sheet plastic and loads of duct tape. He patched the plane together, and flew it home. The bear necessities there. You are now up to date with Fieldsports Britain News. Stalking the stories, fishing for facts. [Music] Thank you David, a man at ease with his environment there. Now you're probably enthusiastic about going to bringing home your own wild bacon. Well, Roy Lupton and Tim Pilbeam have been trying out a few shooters. Some thought it would never happen - Brokered by fieldsportschannel a meeting between sporting journalists from both sides of the tracks. Tim Pilbeam, a licensed Rifle reviewer from sporting rifle and Roy Lupton, Fieldsports channel stalwart and foxing expert for sporting shooter magazine. There are two reasons for this momentous day - to practice shooting at a running boar and for Tim and Roy to choose THE rifle they'd take with them on their fantasy hunting trip. There's quiet a collection of hardware which is safely stowed in the almighty foxing and rabbiting machine we've already had the pleasure of playing with before. Well thank you very much for inviting me down today I've been looking forward to this for a long time so we are going to go out and have a bit of a play. Yeah I think Roy what we'll do today is practice shooting running boar, but we'll start with a 2/2 Centerfire which is quite a bit slower than a normal rifle, Centerfire rifle, then what I am trying to do today is we'll work from a 22 all the way through to the big boys toys. I have got quite a bit of interesting kit in there. [Laughter] Super, I hear you've been having a bit of a practice before I got here. I sneaked half a day down at the range. It's not fair. Some of them are quite powerful rifles and they need to be zeroed in to make sure they are actually 100 percent zeroed in at 100 yards to make sure we are perfectly safe in what we are trying to do today. So you actually think and we are going to hit something at a hundred yards? I hope so. So do I, we have only done this with air rifles so far so this is a bit of an up and coming. So what kit have we got today do you reckon? Well I think we have got about £30,000 worth of rifle here today. That's enough to play with. Yes, £20,000 worth of rifle and £10,000 worth of optics. We're real kids have all the gear and no idea. [Laughter] So excellent. It could be quite an interesting day. Superb, I'm looking forward to it We rumble down to Tim's practise area and prepare for a afternoons fun in the sun. Ian is set the task of dressing the boar. We are lucky in that we have two remote controlled cars. Tim's is a 2 wheel drive 60 quid purchase from ebay but the battery is a tad temperamental - whereas Roy has 200 pounds worth of 4x4 off roader that's running the guantlet in front of very powerful rifles. It's almost tempting fate. Making their way to the shooting zone they're looking the part. Tim gives the pigs a touch up and talks Roy through the shooting etiquette of this simulated game day. So Roy we're shooting the wild boar between two fence panels for safety reasons only, behind the boar we have got a 10 foot safety bund so we're in full safety. So I am happy with everything we are trying to do today and with regards to our boar here we go. So what are we doing here we've got two markers either side so when the boar is coming back in.. That's right so we go backwards and forwards. So obviously we've got some old shots here so we're going to re-spray and so we should be able to pick it up. After every batch of shots we'll actually put some paint down so we can see exactly where the bullets have gone. I've marked it here, often with wild boar, 50 odd yards away, 100 yards away we're giving it a bit of a lead, we're aiming at either at the neck, at the nose or in front of the nose and that's what we are trying to establish today how much lead we are going to shoot Depending on the calibre. Yes depending on the calibre. The .22 bullet runs at about 900 feet per second and the Centerfire runs up to 3000 feet per second so there's quite a large variety and velocity of bullets therefore that is very important for lead. And what distance have we got here to between? I think we have got about 30 yards maximum. So it's going to be quick shooting. Quite quick shooting. That's right and we'll see what happens today. [Laughter] First up it's the .22 - just to get the eye in... not bad - but let's move our up through the calibres. Roy's re-barrelled Tikka .22-250 is not ideal with the high magnification optic ontop but the pig is being hit soundly by Roy and Tim. Unfortunately Tim's car is needs a bit of a charge and it hasn't been used yet. Stepping up to the .243 and Tim is using a relative newcomer into the UK bullet market... Geko from RUAG is up to 25 % cheaper and bought in batches of 50. So what round are we going up to now? This is .243 105 grain bullet and goes out at about 3000 feet per second. So it's still quite a chunky round but we'll see how it performs on our piggy. For this round he's using a new Savage, on the market for about 500 pounds. On top is a red dot sight that many continental shooters use for boar. Here's the German princeling we featured before shooting quite a lot of animals in one go with a Sauer rifle and Aimpoint red dot sight. The combination works well and the shots are in the right place with very little lead at 50-60 yards. It's so good you can see, with both rifles or the scope you are very limited to your field of view, but with the red dot it's completely open you just watch it going across there, it's absolutely brilliant. Where were you aiming on that one, what lead were you giving? Aiming roughly round here, wasn't giving much lead at all. So yes, I am pretty happy with that. Ian's keen to have a go with the red dot and with his first shot of the day heeeeee .....shoots the car... oh deary me.... no tittering in the back please. !!!! That's not funny. Oh well with some of the finest mechanical minds on hand the 4 wheeldrive becomes 2 wheel drive and it lives again. Good job as we're now moving on to the larger boar legal calibres, again Tim loads the geco ammo into his very nice mauser with zeiss scope. A good combo to cover all eventualities. This is a Mauser in grade 6 walnut absolutely beautiful, £6,000 worth and also we've got a beautiful Varipoint Zeiss 2.5 by 10 to 50 illuminated reticle, absolutely beautiful pretty all round scope many will use it on running boar, but A good thing about that is if you were sitting in a high seat as well you have got a tool for both jobs. Yes, that's right, it's a good all round stalking and wild boar scope. Not bad. Practise makes perfect and again Tim and Roy are definitely getting the hang of this. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Excellent, one on the top as well. Yes, I was aiming what about you Roy I was aiming about there. Yes, about there. It's now the turn of another Mauser but in 8x68 s - This is the bit I've been waiting for. Followed by Roy's new Chapuis double rifle.. Now... for frankensteins monster where a shotgun is not quite a shotgun and a rifle not quite a rifle. So it takes two shotgun shells and 7 millimetre bullet underneath it and today we're using single solid slugs only available on a farm certificate. Very often these are used in America and also for running boar and quite a few other antelope they are quite commonly used so we'll see how it goes today. Tim's first few efforts make a fair sized hole in the backside of the boar. With a slight change of lead the boar is getting the solid slug where it's needed. After Roy's go it's starting to look like Swiss cheese. All that's left is the balloon. With just two more guns to go left it's a rifle barrelled shotgun - very popular in the States. OK, moving on to something very unusual now we've got a Harrington & Richardson shotgun it's ultra slug hunter deluxe, it's quite unusual in fact it has got a very heavy barrel it's also got a rifle barrel, most shotguns obviously have a smooth barrel, this is rifled and the reason for that is if you are using solid shells the accuracy is meant to be improved apparently this is meant to be accurate up to 150 yards. Even Ian is allowed a go after his earlier faux pas.. Wow he got a bloody balloon. With the pig now looking like it's been on a raucous hen night in Nottingham Tim brings out something with a bit of cowboy about it - it looks great fun and is popping those balloons with no problems The signs are Tim and Roy have had a good time today, but what would they take with them if they were about to jet off on a driven boar hunt. .357 Underlever rifle was superb. It brings a fairground into shooting, it was superb. What a better place to do it. We've got a thoroughly safe backstop there and we could just play for hours, but unfortunately the day has come to an end. It's such fun it's got such huge knock down ability, it is very, very accurate, pretty effective on wild boar, but it is such a laugh. An extraordinary day with some extraordinary shots and hardware. From rifle range to shooting ground. Last week it was the Schools Challenge at the Oxford Gun Company. This week students are forgoing a day of pot noodles day time tv and the student union bar in favour of the University's Challenge. We're at the Oxford Gun Company, where the University Championship hosted by Oxford Brookes has attracted entries from universities as far afield as York, Aberystwyth and Plymouth. Contenders for the prizes are the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, Harper-Adams and Warwickshire College. Now, when we went pheasant shooting with the lads and lass from Cirencester, they were quite punchy about their chances. Let's remind ourselves what they thought of their shooting ability Best! So how are they feeling today? Good just a few easy ones, but apart from that it's gone really well, so it's good. It's not going too badly, I shot reasonably well, so I'm reasonably pleased. It's good practice, it's nice having another competition as well on the circuit with the universities and it makes bit of a nice change, bit of a day out for them. The main competition is a 50-bird sporting, with two side events: the Browning RabbitMania and the Pool Shoot, and there are prizes available for all. Other attractions include driving vehicles over the steep earth bunds with both Cotswold ATV and Stratstone Landrover Cheltenham. One of the sponsors is the Clay Pigeon Shooting Association, keen to bring young people into the sport Well youngsters, if you'll excuse the cliché but they are the future of the sport, but we are delighted to be involved with the Schools challenge and the University challenge simply to show our support at that end of the sport and to help to give people who are starting the sport at a young age a reference point really that we are the governing body that's there and when they continue their shooting beyond school and university they will be entering competitions and be members of the association of course. Of course, students being students also get up to antics. Please can whoever took it return the NFU flag! Nice to see the NFU is so well loved. At the end of the day it's the prize giving. Winner of the men's prize is Stuart Hart from Harper Adams. Ladies winner is Rosie Freeth from the Royal Agricultural College. And the team prize goes to … Harper Adams. What a great end to a fantastic first event. We have had 100 odd students here, we have had some fantastic scores, great weather and hopefully it will be back in the calendar for next year and for the next event which is the Schools Challenge on the 6th May and the Bredon Festival of Shooting, do come along and join us. If you would like to take part in either the University Challenge or the Schools Challenge events, which take place throughout the year, go to www.theschoolschallenge.co.uk Well we are back next week when we will be bringing you the opening of the seasons for both reservoirs and roe buck. Now if you are watching this on Youtube please don't hesitate to hit the subscribe button somewhere in the sky above my head or visit our website www.fieldsportschannel.tv scroll down to the bottom you'll see a box pop your email address into that box and we will be able to tell you about our weekly programme that's out on Wednesdays from 7pm UK time or click to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, same place. This has been Fieldsports Britain. [Music]