Experienced deer stalker David Barrington Barnes recaps his shooting background and passion for conservation
When you have a country upbringing, as I did, you very soon learn that conservation comes before shooting. Examples of predator damage provided lessons in this. A hen pheasant was sitting on a dozen eggs in the garden. The nest was attacked and destroyed by a hedgehog. My bantam brood was attacked by an owl. The mother bantam was decapitated as she attempted to defend the chicks. Rabbits got into the garden and grazed on the growing vegetables.
As a lifelong countryman, my father took appropriate action to defend his livestock and growing crops. There was not criticism of him for doing so. Indeed, in and shortly after the war, his efforts were regarded with approval. He was doing his bit for the country. His use of shotguns for predator control and sport was entirely natural to him and he encouraged the early interest I had in his shooting.
I can remember an afternoon when I was five. I was permitted to join the guns and, in the last drive, saw flames coming out of the guns barrels as they were fired. A year or two later I shot a rabbit in the garden with a Greener Garden Gun. Large flocks of starlings flew over the garden during the winter months and I practised with a 4.10. My lessons continued into my teens and eventually my father bought me a beautiful double barrel Webley & Scott 700 12 gauge shotgun.
So, from the very beginning of my shooting career, I have always enjoyed shooting. It’s only my priorities that have occasionally changed. English partridges provide one example. As there are now either none or very few on most farms, I do not like to shoot them. There is not harvestable surplus. Some migratory birds, woodcock particularly, I do hunt and enjoy hunting but with
