Some years ago, in gentler times, I ended up with a gun being pointed at me and my hands instinctively raised above my head. I was at Heathrow catching a flight to who knows where. Neither the man pointing the gun nor his colleagues who searched me were anything less than completely terrifying.

My crime was to have grabbed my Barbour jacket that had been lying forgotten on a peg at home since the previous winter. What I had failed to do was to check the pockets when I was finally allowed to lower my hands, I discovered they contained a dozen shotgun cartridges from the previous season’s shooting. It wasn’t a good moment.

More recently, I was about to enter an event attended by a member of the Royal family, but, luckily, I stuck my fingers into the pockets, to discover some more cartridges lurking in the bottom. I chose to miss the event. Please don’t make the mistakes of my past always check your pockets at the end of a day’s shooting and make sure you store the contents away safely. Good luck for the new season and safe shooting.