Dear Mary…
Q. Like 37,000 other people, I signed up to go to jail on the declaration day and received a little Hunting Declaration badge to wear on my lapel and a yellow car sticker against the unjust ban. What other gestures can I make to indicate support for this noble cause ?
M.H., Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire
A. Why not load the ‘Gone Away’ hunting call on to your mobile? You must have polyphonic ringtones and be Wap-enabled, but you can find out if your mobile is compatible by looking up the website www.countryside-calls.co.uk., where you can also hear an ‘audio sample’. You can purchase online for £3, with 50p going to the Countryside Alliance. Or you can telephone 09065 388986 code 58041. Equally, you can text your request as ‘Goneaway’ (one word) to 82246, and the cost will appear on your normal monthly bill. One codicil: do not play this clarion call too close to hunting-mad ponies or they will try to leave their stables and look for hounds.
Q. Would you please give some advice on what to do with spent cartridges on a shoot? On some corporate shoots it is quite clear that the empties will be picked up, but when shooting with friends at smaller shoots it is sometimes made clear before the off that spent cartridges should be picked up. Occasionally, a bag is given to each of the guns in order to make the collection more simple. However, generally nothing is said and some do and some don’t pick up. Those that do leave them in the back of the shoot transport, which is as untidy as leaving the cartridges at one’s peg.
C.H-T., London SW17
A. It is a courtesy, even on a corporate shoot, to gather up the spent cartridges and put them in a pile near your peg.
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