Sporting Gun is the leading monthly magazine for clay, game and rough shooters. With editorial offices in the Lincolnshire countryside, it can justifiably claim to be at the heart of the shooting community. Monthly features range from gundog training to pigeon shooting, game shooting to wildfowling – along with sound, practical, advice on equipment and techniques to help the beginner, intermediate or experienced shot get more enjoyment from their sport. Sporting Gun is a must for anyone who invests time in and money on their shooting.

Dream team

What has been keeping you going over this difficult year?

RSPB plan disproportionate, say shooting groups

Muirburn ban lifted by Scottish Government

GWCT’s key principles point the way for shooting’s future

Humber wildfowlers challenge Natural England

Ned & Ted

EVENTS

NEWS IN BRIEF

Just the job • Anna Baker Cresswell decided she wanted to help military personnel recover from their injuries and find work in the countryside once they left the Forces, so she set up a charity to do this, she tells Philip Reynolds

Dancing to their tune • Robin Scott says the shooting organisations do not have licence to tell people what to do on their own land

Stoney Creek has got you in its sights • To mark Stoney Creek’s presence in the UK and Europe as a serious player in the hunting, shooting, rural and outdoor clothing market, it is giving away more than £2,500 of clothing to one lucky Sporting Gun reader in a competition that will be run over three issues of our magazine, starting this month.

Shadowlands • Tom Sykes explains why the sun isn’t always a bad thing for a good day on the marshes

Make mine a single • The editor returns to his roots with a single-barrel shotgun on a walked-up day with friends

The best kind of traffic jam • Peter Theobald reveals how he and his shooting partner reaped the bounty of being stuck in a queue

High seats and low behaviour • Jon Snowdon and his team find evidence of tampering with their kit as they prepare for the autumn cull

Tasks in hand

Hearty venison stew • A winter warmer

That’s your Lotte

A talon for the job • Ed Cook looks at the different kinds of birds of prey that can be used to catch rabbits

Jay Garrulus glandarius • Without this busy corvid, many European forests would not have oak trees, says Charles Smith-Jones

JAY

Master at arms • Geoff Garrod gives a whistle-stop tour of getting the basics right when training your dog for the field

Quid pro quo • Patrick Hook doesn’t charge for foxing but he will accept an appropriate gift

Patricks’s top tips

Constriction prescription • Paul Quagliana runs through choke options for your guns and talks to Graham Brown of the Purbeck Shooting School about the factors that may influence their use

Shooting manners • Tony Bracci provides a refresher on what is expected

The numbers game • Fran Ardley discusses how to go about training a young dog to be disciplined in company and be efficient in performing its tasks

SENDING OFF

OFF THE LEAD

UP THE ANTE

YOUR TURN

Adventures of Nick & Ted • Nick Ridley is flushed with pride when Ted excels himself on a retrieve as the season bursts into action

Under starter’s orders • Nick Ridley meets the young owner of a new shoot

The problem: Lameness from joint and ligament damage • “My working lurcher is on/off lame on her right foreleg and there appears to be swelling around the wrist. Any suggestions?” TOM HORTON, HERTFORDSHIRE

Letters • Send us your pictures, letters and pigeon hauls

Letter of the month prize

Sporting...