There are two main reasons for ageing grouse on a shoot day.

Firstly, it’s a way of monitoring your stock. When I was a keeper, we’d assess the young-to-old ratio shot each day to give us an indication of when to stop shooting – the aim being to reduce a large proportion of your old stock while retaining a larger proportion of young birds for the following breeding season.

Secondly, game dealers tend to pay a higher price for young grouse early in the season, as hotels and restaurants request the younger birds.

At the start of the season, ageing grouse is a relatively straightforward procedure: if you fan out a wing to expose the primary feathers (the large feathers at the end of the wing), and the third primary feather is shorter than the others, this indicates a young bird.

Later in the season, this method is no longer viable, as this feather will be fully formed, so I would use other methods. One is the ‘toenail/claw’ test. The claw of a young grouse will be smooth, whereas an old bird will have a ridge on its claw from where the old nail has been cast before the start of the shooting season. To check this, run your thumbnail down the top of the claw.

The other method is to look at the primary wing feathers. In an old grouse these will have smoother and more rounded tips, compared to the more pointed and slightly frayed tips of a young grouse. You can also check if the first two primary feathers are far shorter in length than the others. This means they are growing back after the moult, indicating an old bird (young grouse retain these feathers, so they will be fully formed).

No. This has either been dreamt up by the local police, the gunsmith or both, and is not a legal requirement. If you do send it, there is a good chance that the shotgun would be removed from your certificate permanently. You have a receipt for the shotgun which allows you to account for its whereabouts if asked. Leave it at that, save yourself the grief and don’t contribute to any more needless bureaucracy.

Yes, there is a new quality assurance scheme, called the British Quality Wild Venison (BQWV) standard. The standard has been drawn together by a group of organisations including the Forestry Commission, BASC, BDS, NGO and the National Game Dealers Association. It basically consists of two standards – one for processors (the Approved Game Handling Establishments (AGHEs), and one for producers (i.e. deer stalkers and managers).

If you are a deer stalker you should look at joining as a producer. To be eligible to join the scheme you will have to have completed DSC2, be registered with your local authority as a food business, use non-toxic ammunition, and have all the required paperwork in order – cull records, HACCP, COSHH, etc. It sounds like a lot, but the standards are not onerous and are what we should all be aiming to achieve when supplying venison into the food chain.

The main aim of the new standard is to open the market to larger retailers who are looking for a reliable chain of custody from field to fork. It is hoped that this will then put wild venison in front of a larger proportion of the British public and therefore drive more demand.

For further details, visit the British Quality Venison website.