Show Notes
George and Chris are joined again by Terry Jones, former Director General of the NFU, to ask what the shooting world can learn from farming when it comes to politics, public perception and long-term survival.
Terry reflects on a decade at the NFU that spanned Brexit, Covid, Ukraine, avian flu, inheritance tax and a revolving door of prime ministers and Defra secretaries. He explains how farmers managed to shift the dial on inheritance tax, why constituency-level lobbying matters, and why prevention is almost always better than cure when dealing with government.
The conversation turns to lead, game meat, public trust and the opportunity for shooting to build unusual alliances around food, conservation and rural wellbeing. Terry also discusses his work with RABI’s Farmer’s Aid initiative, before finishing with a beautifully nostalgic Desert Island Shooting made up of lost and forgotten drives.
More from The GunsOnPegs Podcast
George and Chris return to Kitchen W8 in Kensington for the second part of their conversation with Michelin-starred chef Mark Kempson, this time to discover what makes wild ingredients so special and appealing for chefs, why more professional chefs aren't cooking game, and whether our traditional approach to cooking game birds is due for a rethink.
George and Chris visit Kitchen W8 in Kensington to record with Executive Chef Mark Kempson, winner of Game Chef of the Year in 2024 and 2025. Oh, and the restaurant has a Michelin star too.
Diggory Hadoke returns for a dive into vintage guns: how an air rifle, an eccentric primary school teacher and a childhood spent taking old farm guns apart led to a life as a gun dealer, writer, archivist and vintage gun expert. We ask what makes a gun “vintage” rather than simply old, and whether the best sporting guns were effectively perfected before the Second World War. The conversation then turns to steel, bismuth, proof marks and whether vintage guns are still worth owning in the non-toxic era.
Diggory Hadoke joins George and Chris to answer three listener dilemmas about the unwritten rules of shooting: what does it mean if you're invited to “have a go” on a family shoot, and is there a correct way to issue an invitation? What do you do when a dream loading trip clashes with your significant other's significant birthday? And do we have a duty to speak up if we see something on a shoot day that feels wrong?
D'Arcy Wyvill's family have owned the Constable Burton estate for centuries, so he's better placed than many to offer a view on why the shooting community (and the countryside in general) value tradition and heritage so very much, and what makes a shoot a place rather than an event.