Do you, like me, gauge your 'normal' life via a watch or clock, with British Standard Time applied? A wild creature won't. It will follow the angle of the sun, the rise of the moon, the direction of the breeze, the temperature of the day or night. It will note the budding and the fall of the leaf, the height of the crop and the ripeness of the fruit. It will sense the breeding cycle of its mate, the primeval need to mate and consequently the feeding and protection of its young. It will rely on its knowledge of the prominence of its prey and the existence of its own predators. It will live and breathe with a cautious eye, at all times, fixed on simply surviving each day. To be a 'hunter' you need to learn all these things that make wild creatures tick. When I put aside the clock to ignore time pressures, when I pick up the camera to record a wild creature, when I sit in deep cover watching quarry with a gun, when I shoot a wild creature, a pest species ... I put aside my 'normal' life. I am in a different life, with different nominal values and different priorities. It is a life I often prefer over my 'normal' life ... for it is deep, pure, precarious, colourful, exhilarating, unpredictable, non-committal and forgiving. When I'm out there with a gun, there is no-one to criticise me, but me. The only expectations are mine. Throughout this book I will frequently use an archaic and endearing term ... Mother Nature. For I can think of no other term to describe the Tao, the intangible spirit that wraps itself around both man and beast in the wild. Mother Nature influences birth and death, season and weather, dominance and subservience ... all in equal measure. What she gives, she also takes away in fair balance. She? I use the feminine deliberately, for only a female could be so devastatingly beautiful and bountiful; yet ... at times ... so viciously cruel.This book isn't just for the air rifle hunter. It is for anyone who roams the countryside attending to vermin in the interest of crop protection and conservation. It is for the boy with the catapult (for that's where I started) and for the mature adult stepping onto the hunting trail late in life. It doesn't matter what tool you carry ... the fieldcraft needed is the same. But if I convince you, by the time you reach the end of this book, that the air rifle is a wonderful tool and capable of many tasks ... then it's been well worth writing. Come take a walk with me around the woods and fields of Britain. I will show you what, where and how to hunt with that most versatile of tools ... the air rifle.
Ian Barnett is a freelance country sports writer and photographer based in Norfolk, UK. Ian has hunted with air guns and lurchers for forty years and writes regularly for Airgun Shooter and The Countryman's Weekly about hunting and field-craft. In the past he has written for Sporting Rifle, Shooting Times and The Smallholder. He is also a keen wildlife and landscape photographer. Many of Ian's wildlife images can be seen on his Wildscribbler photo website: http: //www.wildscribbler.co.uk As well as many hundreds of magazine articles, Ian has several published books to his credit including: The Airgun Hunter's Year (Merlin Unwin) The Hunter's Way (Self published) The Hunter's Hound (Self published) Jaguar! (a hunting novel) (Self published) Grey Squirrel Control With An Air Rifle (Self published) Hobby Writing, How To Make Your Play, Pay (Self published) Through The Wild Eye (Self published) Ian also writes a regular countryside blog on his website, which also details how to purchase his books: http: //www.wildscribbler.com
