Fieldsports Britain - Australian-rules fox shooting + YouTubers who hunt

[music] Welcome to Fieldsports Britain - and this is a boomerang. Coming up: We're at an incredibly professional deerstalking operation in South Ayrshire. We're talking to you, the good folk of YouTube, about putting your hunting and shooting successes on film. There's plenty of Roy Lupton in this week's programme. He's teaching his peregrine, the Dude, how to hit a new height by flying a kite. First: Roy's testing a new foxcall from Australia - the Silva Fox Boom-boom-erang [music] There are plenty of foxes in Australia and that's all thanks to the expats who were unable to live Down Under without the thrill of the chase. The Charlies have been there for about 150 years and are well established, and these days so is the noble art of shooting them. But being on the other side of the world there are cultural and technological differences in controlling foxes. Scanning the Australian shooting press, like Guns & Game and Australian Sporting Shooter it all looks pretty familiar. But it's the way they've recently started calling them, not shooting them, that catches our eye. It appears that the boys Down Under are winning the arms race on this one. A few weeks ago a parcel arrived at the Fieldsports Channel headquarters with a DVD, a note, and a new call called the Silva Fox. They claim amazing results in Australia with this call and asked it we would we like to try it. Peter Kennedy and the inventor Ron Keihne have been enjoying Roy's foxshooting exploits on Fieldsports Channel. They suggest he is the man for the job. I've spent a little bit of time practising with it and I must say to start with I was struggling a little bit to get any sound out of this thing at all but now we've finally, finally mastered it after upsetting all the dogs in the neighbourhood and getting told by the rest of the family to clear out of the house. And very very impressed with what I've seen so far so I can't wait to take it out into the field. It looks very good. The instructional DVD that came with it makes it look a lot easier than it actually is. The first time that I tried it made it really just sounded like a wet raspberry. As I say, we've got it there now. And just to show how hard it is to blow what we've decided to do is actually get David to come and blow it for us. So if you want to come and take my seat, mate, and we'll see how you do with it. We haven't proved you can blow it yet. Right so what you got to do - in the mouth - that's it - get the tongue behind it. Hold it in there. So David's turn to get his chops around the Silva Fox - he steps up to the plate and delivers some...well, some pathetic school boy raspberries. Incredible to think he used to play the clarinet. Anyway over to Roy who looks and sounds all confident, but we know he hit some bum notes with his first efforts. [music] You don't do that. I can't do it now. [music] Playing the Silva Fox is an art, and practice makes perfect. Ron and Pete have produced an instructional DVD to accompany the call. Our first impression is that the call is exceptionally loud. It is all very well blowing ear drums but how does it perform in the field where it really matters. The next day we head off to some ground to see if the British foxes understand Ozzy. OK - so we're just on the top of this bank and I am trying to make sure that we've got a safe backstop if the foxes come. The foxes have been coming out of the side of the wood here and working along the bottom of this bank just by the side of this lake. So we can have our first squeak here but what we have got to be careful of is that our wind is drifting down to the left so we're going to have to keep an eye that nothing crosses our path and then picks up our wind. And I am hoping that nothing comes from the right hand side as well because they could just sneak along the other side of the hedgeline here and just make us through the brambles. I am going to try and squeak reasonably softly on this first one because I don't want to call any foxes over from that side because we want to give that a go over there in a minute. So, I am hoping we can just target these ones. What we can do is give it a go and see. Roy puts us in a nice position with a great view looking down on to a woodland. He then unleashes the Silva Fox. If definitely sounds different - raspier, stronger - within seconds we can hear a magpie and a pheasant getting a bit nervous and out pops a young fox. What a great start. But he dives back into cover, and we wonder if we have missed our chance. Roy keeps the call going and after another minute or so the original fox appears with another in tow. They're probably from the same litter. The call clearly has them focused on us. They certainly aren't coming in as close as the Australians have them, but that may be because they are more savvy over here. Roy takes his chance and drops one, repositions and drops the other. A great first outing for the Silva Fox - so what does Roy think about the latest addition to his collection. Excellent. Well, it just goes to show the old Silva Fox works. I'm really impressed with that. So it was amazing as well - you could hear the foxes coming all the way through the wood, so all the magpies were kicking up. And it must have been a good four or five hundred yards away that the magpies picked them up and they walked all the way through - or worked themselves all the way through and we got two coming out at the same time there. So they were working out to us. Came out initially. But the scent unfortunately just wafting a little bit So they were coming right into us and they started coming right out into the open towards us. But then unfortunately the wind just changed a little bit. And you could see that one just go to turn and run back. So, didnt have the time unfortunately - or didn't have the opportuntity to call them any closer into shotgun range so we had to capitalise on what we had. So, took the first shot. And luckily the second cub was still well within range and got the shot on the second one as well. So, absolutely superb. The call really does bring them in from a hell of a distance. Very very impressed. Ron and Pete are looking for a company to distribute the Silva Fox over here in the UK - but they have sent us 50 for anyone interested in Ozzy rules foxing. Just go to our website, FieldsportsChannel.tv, and click on our Shop page. For more info about the Silva Fox go to www.silvafoxwhistles.com and if there is someone in the trade who fancies looking after these guys and their new invention, please do get in touch with them Now from Down Under to 'over the top'. It's David on the Fieldsports Britain news stump [music] This is Fieldsports Britain News. A huntsman has been praised by police for helping them with a high-speed cross-country car chase. Zetland Huntsman David Jukes put his hunt-owned Land Rover at the disposal of the Police in order to catch some criminals. They were making their getaway across country - but Mr Jukes headed them off and even helped make an arrest by jumping on a man's back. Need to see in the dark? The night vision scope that the foxshooters are talking about is now available with a free external battery pack worth £100 giving 20 hours of use per charge. Our friends at Idleback have the last few of its Pulsar NV550 Digital Night Vision Scopes in stock. This month only, you can buy this exclusively from Idleback with a battery pack priced at just £1,100. Visit www.idlebackriflechair.co.uk/night-vision to check it out. Now here's a romantic tale. When two users of the Anglers Afloat kayak fishing forum, got married, they decided to do it afloat. Guests assembled at Ladram Bay in South Devon for the union of John and Helen Ingham. Last weekend, the Inghams and their friends came back to Ladram for a first anniversary party. It included a kayak fishing competition where the winning team caught nine different species. And finally a tip of the week - if you don't tip over. It's a cheap and cheerful way for stalkers to get their deer airborne to perform a clean gralloch in the field. All you need to do is bolt a car jack to the back of your quad and Bob's your uncle. Might not work for the Emperor of Exmoor though. You are now up to date with Fieldsports Britain news. Stalking the stories, fishing for facts. [music] Thank you, David. Buy a comb. Now I've been to South Ayrshire where Chris Dalton has an enormous amount of land to manage for roe deer. Chris has a problem that deer managers all over the country will recognise. He wants to maintain a healthy herd in forestry where - at least for some forestry managers - the only good deer is a dead deer. The damage these roe deer of South Ayrshire do to forestry here is all around. Yet the animals are a beautiful sight on an October morning. He takes me to a piece of woodland to see what's about. Got driving rain, very cold wind, squally showers. That tends to put the deer under the trees. I mean, that's where we would be. It's try to get into some shelter, which is what the deer would do. So we try to go into some fairly thick woodland. Bit of a mixture of conifer and broadleaf. Unfortunately nothing shootable but I am kind of surprised we saw anything at all quite frankly this morning. One of Chris's aims is to bring new people into deerstalking If they can stalk and work and shoot deer in this environment then they can probably shoot deer in any environment. So a little bit of a double-edged sword but I think it's probably a good idea to give people a realistic idea of deer stalking rather than walking them through a deer park where they think, 'Oh well, this is easy'. Is deerstalking an affordable sport? Chris reckons it's worth every penny For roebuck stalking, round about £200 a day is where it's going to be. We do the complete package. I think it seems to work very well. I know when I started stalking what I wanted was somewhere that's a nice comfortbale base, preferably with facilities, because there's nothing worse in summer when you;re shooting deer than you've got nowhere to store them, so we've got the larder and the chiller. If you want to find out more about stalking with Chris, visit www.ayrstalk.co.uk From traditional stalking to the YouTube generation. We've been out meeting cameramen for whom hunting and shooting is a passion. With no real network coverage of fieldsports on the BBC or ITV, many people, ourselves included, have turned to the internet for entertainment that informs and engages us with like minded people in the UK and across the world. We are not alone and here are just some of the enthusiasts using YouTube. First up it's HuntersVermin. His soft Irish tones talk the viewer through fieldcraft and the joys of airgunning. We catch up with him at the Midland Game Fair and ask him why he started uploading films on to the internet. Are you on a bit of a mission to teach people about your sport? Is that the idea? Teach, entertain, show that not everybody out there hunting is just worried about putting a pellet in something. The tools are there. They are very accurate - very useful - and in the right hands they can put vermin down quickly and cleanly with a single shot, rather than boys shooting at songbirds. We just don't shoot anything that moves. We're out there to try and help farmers' protect their crops, to protect livestock in and around barns and do it sensibly and safely. And you're having fun. Yes - that's the whole thing. Nobody will stick to it. Nodbody will do that, if they're not having fun, if they're enjoying themselves I put it on film I put it on YouTube. And I'nd I;m very surprised how many people actually like it How many people from all over the world: America, Canade Europe, England, Ireland. So many people like it - I just can't believe it. People from around the world saying. ''You're doing a brilliant job.' People congratulating me - 'I've learnt so much from watching the videos on YouTube and that.' I'm overwhelmed with how well people have taken it. Another of our online friends is the Ghostmaker aka Malc Barnard. Malc is always looking to push the boundaries with technology - designing kit and adapting cameras to get the best shots. We grab a chat with him at the Bisley Live shooting show. You're not just Malc Barnard - the bloke with the camera over you shoulder at game fairs - you are Ghostmaker. Yeah - Ghostmaker1970 - that's how it all started off. So what's the point for you of putting your hunting/shooting on YouTube A sense of community, giving a little bit back. I do like try and help other shooters out. When I used to go to the local ranges and stuff, I used to spend most of my time with new shooters trying to help them over the pitfalls that there are and just trying to generally help people out so that's why I started Ghostmaker1970. What kind of stuff do they want to see on your channel? Tutorial videos are quite popular. Product reviews and that sort of thing are quite popular. We're actually doing a night vision series at the moment which has stirred the juices with quite a few of the viewers. I think that sort of thing is quite key to keeping people's interest going. Are you going to replace the Shooting Times do you reckon? Maybe not this year. Ian Summerell and James Marchington are among the Cecil B De Milles who have found an outlet on the world wide web. Ian is one of the voices of the Union of Country Sports Workers. James is a well-known magazine editor who offers practical tips and simply stuff he likes the look of. Organisations such as the Countryside Alliance use YouTube to get their message out to a wide range of viewers, from films with major league TV celebrities to informational videos about rural issues which are shown to politicians at party conferences. Fieldsports Channel runs the Countryside Alliance film unit and makes all these films for the CA. GunsOnPegs.com is another organisation which uses YouTube. The free website for shooters to find shoots runs films about its estates from all over the UK. You can watch these on YouTube or on GunsOnPegs.com's own website. If you are watching this on YouTube, you will see links to all these YouTube sites appearing on the screen. You can click on them to find out more. Here is another passionate bunch of guys, uploading tips and techniques. Based in Southern Ireland, they are well known across the world. We meet them at the Birr Castle Game Fair. So we're getting a lot of contacts from around the world now because of the YouTube channel. It's going very well. What sort of things have you got on it? We've got pigeon shooting and decoying. That's a great treat. We're shooting on oilseed *** during the winter. It's more of a watch-and-learn.We're giving out good ideas, especially on the game crops, game releasing. We've a game release programme going now with open top pheasant pens and the game crop planting and growing. So we're just doing demonstrations showing bringing them down on days out. YouTube is fairly easy to use. I found it easy. I had no knowledge when I started. So I was able to do it. Now, let's go fly a kite. Well that's exactly what Roy Lupton's done to train his peregrine, the Dude. We know Roy enjoys playing with big boys' toys but with his latest bit of kit he really is taking the Mick. We are going to fly a kite - no not a red one but a yellow and blue one - and the reason is we are training his young peregrine, the Dude, to increase his pitch and his strength. Training falcons with kites started in the USA.With their vast open plains some of their birds are now achieving heights of 2,000ft. Roy is looking for about 1,000ft from the Dude eventually and today it'll be more like 500. Many years ago I used to do a lot of kite training. And I found myself going back to playing with balls of string and big toys. And basically what we do is we put the kite up on a line, and we dangle the lure from the line which is on a detachable mechanism so when the bird goes up to it, the lure detaches and it follows back down or the lure comes back down the string with the falcon attached. And basically what we're trying to is just - 1- build fitness in the falcon because it;s quite hard work for him to go up to it and - 2 - we're trying to encourage him that height is a good thing above us. So then what we do, once he realises that he can go up and he's got the strength to make a good height above us, then we start going out and we start trying to find game for him to fly on, so we will get him up and then we will start looking for coveys of partridges to flush underneath him. Pete takes the kite to the top of the hill. We're a bit nervous because the wind is much stronger up there. We could risk losing the kite. Before the kite is released Roy attaches the lure. What we've got here is a clip that fits on to the main line. So that should run back down towards us. It runs quite freely. And we've go a little rig here that attaches on with a pressure release clip. So it just attaches on to the main ring underneath the kite. And what we're hoping will happen is that as the falcon takes the lure it pulls down on here and just the clip off allowing the lure and the falcon to come down the line back towards us. Three, two, one, go. With the kite airborne the Dude is brought out for his exercise. So what we're going to do now is just go back a little bit just so as he can see the kite up there. And you'll notice, hopefully, if he's going to do what he should do, as I take the hood off, he'll just look around a little bit, look up to the kite, realise the lure's there, and hopefully he'll be off and starting to mount on his way up there. So, as long as no pigeon flushes as he's on his way, we should be all right. The Dude makes good progress and reaches the kite in less than a minute. He attacks the lure once, twice, and then gets a good grip and descends with his prize. So how does Roy rate his performance? Yeah - that was OK - he did well on that - he mounted quite nicely, so we'll just ask him to step off of the lure, so he gets the rest of of his grub. And a nice successful training session for the afternoon. So, that tired you out a little bit. Not too bad, though. I thought he was going to be panting a lot more after working himself like that but he did well. Hopefully another week and he'll be up to 1,000ft and then we can startintroducing him to game, so that's when it really gets fun.. With the Dude's training over, it's time for a few quick training flights with Pete's golden eagle, Merlin. The fox lure is dragged behind the 4x4 and Merlin pumps after his quarry. After a couple of successful runs the peregrine, the golden eagle and the kite are all packed away for another day's fun. We're back next week. And in the meantime you can buy that Silva Fox fox call on our website, www.fieldsportschannel.tv until it finds a UK distributor. And while you're on the website, why not click to like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter or pop your email address into our ConstantContact email subscription form, and that way we can tell you all about our programme every week. [music]