The GunsOnPegs Podcast

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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?'.

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.

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.

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.

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. ----more---- 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.

Christmas is over, the weather is grim and we're all back at work, so we thought we would re-share a classic episode from the archives - one of the funniest and definitely one of our all-time favourite episodes - to bring a smile to everyone's faces. Featuring husband-and-wife duo Charlie and Clare Brownlow, the anarchic recording never fails to make us chuckle when we recall it, so hopefully it will liven up your week as well.In a chaotic episode, Chris and George are joined by artist Clare Brownlow and her sporting agent husband Charlie. They offer one listener some marital advice, an American correspondent gets guidance on matters sartorial, and Chris and George get parenting tips. The team also discuss Clare's unique artistic technique and style, how 'directional splatter' got her into trouble, The Game Train ("The Hogwarts Express for people in Tweed) and much much more.

Steve Colmer was a grouse moor headkeeper for twenty years before retiring from full time keeping in 2020. He is widely regarded as one of the best grouse keepers of his generation.In this fascinating, touching, inspiring episode he joins Chris and George to share his passion for moorland management, some tales from his time on the moors, and his desire to share the wealth of knowledge that he amassed over two decades. If the tale of A1 Jockey doesn't make you laugh and cry, you're probably dead inside.(oh, and there's some of the usual silliness too).

Louisa Clutterbuck is our special guest for this episode. She helps us to tackle an email from a listener who disagrees with some of the discourse of the last few episodes on the topic of the sustainability of shooting, and another on the rights and wrongs of double gunning.We also discuss Louisa's hard work with British Game Assurance and Eat Wild. We debate how to get more game onto restaurant menus and supermarket shelves, as well as the challenges, threats and opportunities that face the game meat market in the UK. We also look to the future and how a change in approach might help to make game more of an everyday option for UK consumers.