Papercase

I've been following the work of the shooting times editor Patrick Galbraith , he's been getting in a lot of the papers with guest articles and they've all been very good. The man seems to be bang on message with a modern outlook. Article below, "It’s a position that might not go down rapturously with the British fieldsports community at large but I must admit I’m starting to feel a bit sorry for the RSPB. On Saturday, while I was out shooting snipe over a frosty bog in Dumfries and Galloway, Kevin Cox, the Chair of the Charity’s Council, announced that the charity is set to review its policy on game bird shooting. For the past 130 years, the Society has remained neutral when it comes to the sport, but that all looks set to change. If their soul searching was to be scientific, gamekeepers, shooting estates, and hundreds of thousands of people like me would have nothing to worry about. Almost everybody in the know accepts that the birds the RSPB purports to cherish, like black grouse, curlew and lapwing, depend on land management practices that shooting estates carry out. Frighteningly, however, it has promised its new stance will be informed "by the views of members". So why do I feel sorry for them? Over the years I have met quite a number of RSPB top brass who behind closed doors, are open-minded thinking people. Last year in Kent, I had a conversation with the former Chair of the Charity’s Council, Professor Ian Newton, about what a terrific sport goose shooting is. I was later told that Newton was no stranger to fieldsports in his younger years. Some months prior to that, I went for a cup of tea with Mark Thomson, the Head of Investigations at the RSPB. He said to me that regrettably, when he engages with shooting, it is because somebody has done something wrong, often relating to raptor persecution and that he doesn't see the sides of shooting I do. I inferred he’d accepted shooting can be a good thing and later took to social media to express my delight that we had found common ground. Within minutes, members began threatening to cancel their membership and within the hour, he had emailed asking me to pull the post. One of their comms bods, who was copied in, generously accepted it was a sentiment they’d expressed in the past. In fact, come to think of it, I have never met an RSPB employee who has truly been anti-shooting and I can think of various conservation projects where the charity is working with the shooting community to protect endangered species. Some weeks ago, on a soggy autumnal day, I caught the tube to Piccadilly Circus and wandered down to Trafalgar Square to join the Extinction Rebellion. In my pocket, I had a picture of a nightingale, a lapwing and a curlew. The sense of passion was terrific and a kind protestor even gave me an apple. Over the course of the afternoon, I asked 101 crusties if they could identify the picture of the nightingale. Just one of them got it right and nine suggested, with stark confidence, that it was a Robin redbreast. I, of course, have no way of knowing if any of them were part of the million-strong RSPB membership but many of them told me they are very keen on birds. I was only brave enough to mention shooting once but the response made it clear it wasn’t a topic that was going to endear me to the throng. It might not be immediately obvious to the man in the pub or the crusty on the wet pavement that shooting is vital for conservation but it’s not all that complicated. The sad truth, however, is that the RSPB are simply too weak to encourage their membership to see the light – after all, think how many direct debits are at stake. Perhaps I’m just being sensitive but there’s something pitiful about all those luminaries in RSPB towers who truly know better but are having their bums held over the stove by cat owners from Watford who’ve overdosed on Springwatch. "

Strange how only the people saying good things about the new defender are those that get paid by Landrover to do so OR need to keep land rover on side such as the magazines etc .

I'm inclined to disagree with the post TD5 defender comment - I've driven a few nice TD5's but mostly Puma or Duratorq 2007 to 2014 models and I must say the later models blinded it in terms of interior comfort, road noise, heaters/fans and general road manners. The gearbox was also noteably better. The engine may not have been quite as simple as the TD5 but considering it was in effect a transit engine, had more low down torques than you could shake a stick at and had a sixth gear so it would cruise at 70mph without revving it's nuts off. My old work had some at 150,000 miles that had a rough life towing 3.5 ton trailers and drilling rigs up and down the country occasionally sinking the odd one or two they held up very well. The replacement Hilux models they began to replace the fleet with shortly after were throwing transfer cases and gearboxes left right an centre after three months of use.

What I can't understand is when companies like mercedes and fiat have moved into the pickup market and Nissan and Toyota invest heavily in the line of pickups - Land Rover have gone and made yet another Chelsea tractor when they already have six on the market. They could have hammered the other makers at there own game and kept the rugged workhorse let's face it the sales of all the other models have been based on for the last 30 years. They should have let the name rest in peace.

Jesus! I knew blackpowder was some nasty stuff but that's something else

If it was that black Lloyd we'd have bigger issues! The garage is work in progress, I've built my shelving but need to get my bench done, maybe this can be leverage?

I couldn't pull them off if I tried. Hence I'm as nature intended

Not because I have a nice stable full of old hammer guns with an expensive diet of papercase cartridges. I treat myself to a box or three each season, it's a nostalgia I never knew being one of those horrid millenials and what not.

So we recently moved in to a new build house. I was cleaning my pump action in the bathroom this eve, when for some reason I decided to push the bronze brush through with the top of the barrel in the air instead of pointing down. The white wall now has a mix of Napier cleaner and Eley Mammoth residue... What a mingmong! Cue grovelling in three, two, one...

One of the many deer that have wondered past mine (video screenshot) - I really need to get my Section 1 and DS1 cert ...

Underwater not very long... In the dry I've left it for over two weeks with 8x 2600mah NiMh batteries and they've got plenty of life left - even after a few hundred actuation

I have the SXP and initially found it short - however I've found although my mount is different with the stock sitting lower down my cheek I shoot well with it, it cycles like a dream and I've been beating a few guns with O/U's on a round of sporting clays with it. Love the thing now !!

@Benthejockey - thanks I actually managed it in the end and got it for the same price, hopefully I won't leave this one somewhere it can flood this time!

Link mate? Flooded mine and need a replacement

Keeping spitting the dummy out of the pram, throw enough shizer 'till it sticks seems to be the current focus. There hand is no stronger than last time - apart from they've had some more media coverage.. As Matt Cross said "I doubt they think they can knock out shooting with one legal punch, instead they intend to wear down our willingness and ability to fight." "...Calmness is essential. When their next thing comes along, look at the detail of the challenge, not the grandstanding headlines. Both of their challenges have been far more limited than they appeared and far easier to deal with. The first was seen off with a paperwork exercise by DEFRA, the second will probably go the same way. Undoubtedly annoying and disruptive, but hardly a cause for panic. Shooting has powerful, well-organised lobby groups. The organisations are essential. Small groups can make large organisations look foolish and slow to react, that comes from the way different sizes of organisations work. But they are powerful groups with serious resources. Should any of these challenges ever come to court, those resources will tell. I have no doubt that a significant part of the Wild Justice plan is to sheer off chunks of the membership of those organisations in order to reduce their resources and political clout. It is like a speedboat and a frigate. The speedboat can dart in and cause chaos, before the frigate is even heading in the right direction. But when it comes to the crunch the frigate will win. Unless half her crew has jumped overboard in terror convinced that their captain is useless and that their ship will be sunk."