Shooting Times & Country

When the roe don’t show

I’ve never been on a blind date, but I imagine it’s a bit like stalking roe in early April: anticipation, surprises galore and a good chance of returning home, by choice, with nothing to show for it.

During the short, raw days of winter, I often think fondly of the first week of the roebuck season: the verdant flush of new growth on the hawthorn; skylarks in song-flight 100m high; gangs of long-tailed tits flitting among the catkins as the aroma of wild garlic rises from careful footsteps...

Hope and change

The trouble is, as much as I love her, Mother Nature can be a temperamental old mare as she strides on past the March equinox with summer in her

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Shooting Times & Country

Shooting Times & Country3 min read
Royal Rook Rifle
NEW SERIES: In this new Shooting Times series, historian Donald Dallas tells us about the remarkable guns he’s encountered of late By the spring of 1900, King Umberto of Italy was eagerly looking forward to his new acquisition, a best double-barrel .
Shooting Times & Country3 min read
Country Diary
When I moved away from home, some of my friends were worried that I might struggle to make new connections in a new area, and I always responded with blind confidence that I would make new friends through hunting. But, having moved in spring, after t
Shooting Times & Country2 min read
BEAT PROFILE Morphie
In 2012, cracks appeared in the Morphie Dyke. The barrier, which corralled fish into one of the most prolific salmon fishing pools in the world, had long been out of use. Its wooden and iron struts were decaying and its concrete crumbling. The 2012 c

Related Books & Audiobooks