Innehållsförteckning för May 2019 från Shooting Gazette

Sit down next to me It was interesting to read Adam Calvert’s column in the January issue on shooting whilst sitting. In my early 80s, several years ago, a standing instability condition brought me to shooting seated. I first saw this done in a British shooting video a number of years ago; it has now become my lot and solution. Although I can shoot sporting clays standing by leaning against the cage at the various course stations, when I’m with you for driven shooting, it’s best and far better for me to use my shooting stick. Though Adam offers what I’m sure are very valid suggestions about coping with the physical restrictions inherent in seated shooting, I have managed to be able to continue to pivot to either side -…

I opened my Shooting Gazette and at once read Monty Clark’s letter in the March issue. Frankly, it annoyed me greatly, so much so that it took me a while to read the editor’s excellent reply. If you take a look at various activities, the people who follow them seem to be of a particular type and they tend to walk the relevant walk, talk the relevant talk and wear the relevant outfit. This is not confined to shooting, stalking and hunting. Shooting is open to anyone and everyone able to obtain a shotgun certificate, obtain a suitable gun and pay the relevant price to belong to a syndicate or take a day. With the exception of the shotgun certificate, the same applies to taking up golf, tennis, fishing etc.…

Dear Uncle Giles, I’d like to host a “parents and kids” day for my son’s school friends at our shoot at the end of next season – should I leave it down to my son to choose who comes? APD, by email Uncle Giles writes There seems to me to be very little purpose in hosting a day for your son’s friends and then telling him whom to invite. Given that the boy is – presumably – of an age where he can reasonably be expected to host the sort of day you describe, he will already have in mind those friends he might consider inviting. And you – presumably – as a caring and responsible parent should also know who is likely to be on the list. Otherwise you…

TRAVEL Barbon Manor is just outside the village of Barbon in Cumbria. It is easy to find but don’t trust satnav, follow the shoot’s instructions. Guns can use their own vehicles — a 4x4 is preferred. It’s five hours from London, 90 minutes from Manchester and under three hours from Birmingham. Four airports are within 60 miles: Blackpool, Leeds-Bradford, Durham Valley and Manchester. STAY The estate recommends establishments in nearby Kirkby Lonsdale. The Barbon Inn also has rooms which are a bit tired but clean. Good food, beer and roaring fire. Or stay at The Inn at Whitewell in the Forest of Bowland. Only 30 miles away, it is renowned for making Guns, and their dogs, welcome. You can even have a peat fire in your room. Great food, fires…

The term skeleton action is not used in England, bar-in-wood being the preferred description. It is a uniquely Scottish expression and refers to the design of some guns, both hammer and hammerless, made by James MacNaughton and to a lesser extent John Dickson. The bar-in-wood design is frequently encountered particularly on hammer guns by James Purdey. They were a continuation of muzzle-loading practice as in a bar-in-wood gun the woodwork continued right up to the fore-end with the action enclosed by wood (The bar was in the wood). A very beautiful design was achieved and bar-in-wood hammer guns are the most elegant of all. In a hammer gun there is little mechanism contained within the action but whenever hammerless guns appeared most of the mechanism was enclosed within the action.…

It might be 2019 but still the divisions between Guns and beaters are a topic of discussion in the pages of this magazine and others like it across the country. Jeremy Hobson offers the view that we should perhaps see the person with the gun and with the flag rather than each other’s “status” on shoot days. A thought-provoking read. We can all be better shots and this hasn’t been lost on Shooting Gazette editor Martin Puddifer who went back to school – Lady’s Wood near Bristol, to be exact – for the first of three lessons with instructor Chris Hanks. Chris will be assessing Martin’s technique and then improving it in the hope of creating a more confident and competent game shot.…

What loads when shooting sporting clays? I recently read that the average clay flies faster than the average pheasant which in turn flies faster than the average partridge. If that is correct, would it not make sense for those of us who shoot clays as practice for shooting game to use faster cartridges for clays than we use for game in order to learn the correct sight picture? When shooting clays, it is tempting to use lighter loads with slower speeds in order to minimise recoil and expense but perhaps that embeds in our brains a picture of lead that may be excessive for faster game cartridges shot at slower pheasants and even slower partridges. I would be interested to learn what your readers think about this. John Hatfield, by…

I was once invited on a simulated game day by a regiment of the line that had recently returned from Afghanistan. After belabouring clays, we returned to the shoot room where some weaponry regularly deployed in theatres of war was displayed, not least some short, single-barrelled, multi-shot, automatic 12 bores. Clearly not even for clay busting, these were described in masterly understatement as short-range ‘house clearers’. My shooting has never encouraged me to use anything other than a shotgun with two barrels, nor to pursue anything other than in its natural habitat. I have watched others on clay grounds using semiautomatic shotguns, but their attraction eludes me. Neither, until recently, had I encountered ‘practical’ or ‘tactical’ shooting, which appear to consist mainly of people with tattoos and body furniture polishing…

Listening to the customer: Many salespeople and shopkeepers make the classic mistake of talking at customers, giving them the advice they feel they need without ever really listening to their specific requirements. I have learned to spend more time listening to customers’ requirements and only showing them products matching their brief. The E.J. Churchill gunroom not only offers its world-famous range of shotguns but also guns from major manufacturers, so it is important that I keep my recommendations specific to customers’ needs. This becomes even more critical when we deliver gun-fitting sessions. Remembering heritage: E.J. Churchill is steeped in history and I was surprised how much the provenance of shotguns and rifles means to the new generation of shooters. It is lovely to be able to give the history of…

TRAVEL The shoot lies near the village of Gelston near Castle Douglas on the A75, which will take you west towards Stranraer or east towards Dumfries. The southbound M6 is a short distance thereafter, with links to the north west and north east of England. The A74 (M) is reachable from Dumfries via the A701 meaning Glasgow and even Edinburgh, via the M8, are not a million miles away. STAY Stuart Cravens recommends two venues for shooting parties. The first, The Selkirk Arms is Kirkcudbright, was our billet. The 16-room hotel offers comfortable surroundings, hearty local food and ale which goes down like velvet (selkirkarmshotel. co.uk). The second, a little farther towards Dumfries, is the Galloway Arms, Crocketford, a 10-bedroom hotel oozing local character (gallowayarmshotel. co.uk). CATERING Elevenses are homemade…

Spring is gathering pace. After a strangely mild winter, the days have finally drawn out and stirred the world back into life again. There’s a chance to regroup and look forward to the new season. We had a mixed bag for wild game last year. Our grouse did passably well despite disasters elsewhere, and many of our grey partridges have held on to suggest that while 2018 was not a bumper year, it held steady. We saw some good broods of wild pheasants on our hill ground, but it’s never easy to see how these birds fare when the releases begin in the autumn and the natives vanish into the tide of newcomers. I’d like to think pheasants hatched in the wild are more likely to breed and succeed in…

During an episode of Friends , character Joey Tribbiani, an out-of-work actor, gets a job as a tour guide at the museum where his friend, Dr Ross Geller, works as a highly respected palaeontologist. During their lunch break in the staff canteen, Joey offers Ross a seat next to him. Ross awkwardly declines, opting instead to sit with other palaeontologists. A fellow tour guide tells an obviously confused Joey that Ross, “won’t sit with you” because everyone only eats with those of a similar status, later adding: “That’s just the way it is…” Sound familiar? “Isn’t it in the best interests of those in the sport to realise that to the outside we’re all on the same side?” A few days after I commissioned Jeremy Hobson for his thought-provoking article…

What are the characteristics of heavy and light guns? A well made 28in barrelled traditional side-by-side game gun should weigh in the region of 6½lbs to 6¾lbs, a decent 30in barrelled over-under game gun about ½lb to 1lb heavier. So are side-by-sides always lighter? At first glance it would appear so but one has to compare like with like. The traditional side-by-side with its straight hand stock and splinter fore-end and 2½in chambers built for 1oz loads is not the same beast as a pistol gripped, schnable fore-ended, 3in chambered over-under built to take fast, heavy magnum cartridges and steel loads. The extra wood alone adds significant weight and the barrels will not only be probably longer but certainly thicker. Take a look at side-by-sides built for live pigeon shooting,…

Tom Payne, who writes on pigeon shooting in Shooting Times, organised an afternoon of roost shooting for fellow sporting writers on a pretty Oxfordshire estate near Henley. He kindly invited me to join him to represent Shooting Gazette, also Peter Theobald of Sporting Gun, Jonathan Young of The Field, Andy Crow and a few others. “It had been a quality shoot of very testing birds, with shooting as it should be, when one is thrilled to kill rather than annoyed at missing.” Alex, the keeper, had organised a gathering of friends to cover an area of extensive woodland on the 1,000-acre estate. Sixteen guns met at the dairy farm hospitality room where we were served soup and rolls by Alex’s partner, Emma, with special cheese made on the estate which…

On July 12, 1879, James MacNaughton took out patent no. 2848, an all encompassing patent the most important part of which concerned his trigger plate round action. But one of the other parts of the patent showed a falling block design. In 1865 Alexander Henry of Edinburgh had taken out a patent for a falling block rifle that soon became the envy of gunmakers, Henry selling many hundreds of examples. Many other gunmakers attempted to emulate Henry’s success and brought out their own versions of the falling block. James MacNaughton was no exception and as part of his 1879 patent he invented his own falling block. A lever under the trigger guard was pushed forwards. A link attached to it lowered the breech block and at the same time the…

We started on the 40ft tower as the usual benchmark where it soon became apparent that the handling was something very special. It was incredibly precise but the gun could be pushed on to shoot with gun speed with complete precision. The other noticeable trait was the complete absence of felt recoil which I put down to the balance of the gun, rather than my own lack of sensitivity, though others might disagree. Onto the 80ft tower where the gun continued to impress with its handling. The Teague chokes were delivering some impressive patterns as the clays were evaporated. I varied the style of shooting between measured lead and gun speed, shooting the clay early in its flight — the handling remained precise and entirely predictable. I was impressed to…

THE PEAT TWEED SHOOTING GILET BY MAUDE & FOX £320 maudeandfox.com First impressions count and the rather lovely ‘peat’ tweed from Yorkshire certainly caught our eye. When putting this gilet on you notice how heavy it is almost immediately; it feels like a huge bear hug when wrapped in the tweed and two layers of fleece underneath. As the brand itself says, the wind would certainly be kept out, thanks to the long flap at the back. There’s also plenty of room for your cartridges in either of the pockets. We really wanted to love this gilet, given the quality of the brand's other goods, but from a functional point of view it lacks the features of other top quality shooting gilets. Our sample was true to size but still…

QI am part-way through training my dog but I am going on holiday soon and plan to leave him with friends. Should I brief them to ensure his training continues or ask them not to train him at all while I am away? A Well, you know your friends but we all know that dog training is a dedicated process and time consuming, and unless they have the will and the knowledge you might get a short answer to that one. More importantly, you and your dog have a relationship and you will be training your way with an understanding of what works in piecing the jigsaw together. You will be quite surprised how much you will have learnt along the journey. It would be quite unrealistic for others to…

Club: The Arfon Working Gundog Club Event: AV retriever test Venue: Brynsiencyn, Anglesey Judges: John Yarwood, Gary McCarthy and Robin Lloyd Sponsors: CSJ Specialist Canine Feeds and Gary McCarthy of Gundog Gear We held our test at Bodrida Farm by kind permission of Mr and Mrs Peter Rogers. We would like to thank all who helped to make the day a success: our hosts, judges, competitors, dummy throwers and sponsors. Results Novice  1 Arthur Telfair with lab.d. Gallowayrose Dan 2 Fiona Joinson with lab.b. Ginflight Juniper 3 Keith Welsh with lab.d. Bob Amertrine 4 Carole Hopper with lab.d. Clayneal Chicago of Ronorabrook CoM Jackie A Owen with lab.b. Kentredecim Shooting Star of Marianbach Open  1 William Dewhurst with lab.d. Kelmagra Billy 2 Arthur Telfair with lab.d. Gallowayrose Dan 3 Elaine…

Holistic vet, Dr Vince MacNally, has developed two pet remedies to help detoxify cats and dogs. Pets are exposed to an eye-watering number of chemicals capable of damaging internal organs and harming health, including: pesticide residues and chemical additives in food; herbicides on pavements, in parks and on fields; poisons in products used in and around the home; nerve toxins and similar compounds used in tick, flea and worming products and hormones, antibiotics and other drugs employed in meat production. “The harmful effect of environmental chemicals is magnified in dogs and cats because of their relatively small size, and the fact they swallow substances that collect on paws, fur and skin during self-grooming” said Dr MacNally. “A great strain is placed on the body’s ability to break down and eliminate…

THE AUTHOR of the Letter of the Month will receive a pair of Wexford boots from Dubarry of Ireland (RRP £325). The knee-length side-zip boots – designed for both men and women – are handcrafted from waterproof Dry Fast-Dry Soft™ breathable leathers. The high quality of the boot is reinforced throughout with an insulated GORE-TEX® lining that wicks moisture away from the foot, ensuring the wearer remains dry and comfortable all day. Dubarry’s new hard-wearing durable outsole gives maximum grip whatever the ground conditions.…

How does it feel to run John Dickson & Son? It is a privilege to now be managing the operations of John Dickson & Son. I wear another “hat” in that I am also its owner. With that comes a great responsibility to ensure, as we approach our bicentenary next year, the business is in the right shape and heading in the right direction to survive another 200 years. What are your plans for the brand? Brand is key but there are no plans to expand our business beyond our capabilities and at a cost of compromising the quality. However, alongside our current production of Dickson round-action and MacNaughton skeleton guns, we have a new Daniel Fraser stalking rifle and a new 28-bore side-lever Dickson round-action gun. We are also…

The day would be held in mid-January at Alton Pancras – a Dorset shoot where I’ve shot regularly for 30 years. The birds – chiefly partridges and pheasants – are most cunning and definitely at their strongest then. They trickle them out in ones and twos, granting the whole team good sport. First up on the team is my daughter Victoria Phillips. From watching me pluck birds on the draining board at an early age to now regularly hopping down from London to shoot with me, I’m inspired by her youthful ability. More often than not she is in the front line, leaving me behind twiddling my thumbs. I’m delighted that she has inherited my passion for the sport. Second on board is my regular shooting buddy and exceptionally good…

PICTURE OF THE MONTH Members of the Firebirds ladies roving shooting syndicate and their friends during a driven day at Dalemain, Cumbria. From left: Helen Ashton, Tracy Parker, Sue Duckworth, Liz Grove, Janet Braisted, Prof Ann Mortimer, Debbie Bivens, Marieke Haigh and Ann Shepherd. Philip Marsh sent us “a picture of myself and my son Oliver, five, on his first day out on my syndicate in East Devon. He enjoyed the day so much he has already asked for clay shooting lessons for his sixth birthday and wants a new lab that he can train for picking-up." Kevin Parish writes: “The team taking lunch overlooking the Mediterranean in February. The team took two back-to-back days in the hills outside Palma. Guns included John Kelley, myself, Richard Ince, Chris Ingram, Dave…

Engineering: 10/10 The work that has gone into the resurrection of this historic design is truly exceptional. The fact that many of the original rising bite shotguns are still in use is an indication of the strength of the design. Looks and finishing: 10/10 As you would expect in a best gun such as this the gun is finished to the highest standards in every respect and the looks are astonishing but with a subtle blend of understatement. The true resurrection of an historic design in every aspect. Incredible. Handling: 10/10 Incredibly impressive in this department, the crunch test, if the opportunity arose for me to shoot the Rigby on pheasant or partridge day, I would ditch my 32in overunders and grab the Rigby with both hands. Reliability and customer…

Woodlands hold a particular kind of importance to shoots in that they provide habitat for birds and are therefore vital to both releasing and driving them. Often drives have remained unchanged for years, with the prospect of altering the flight of birds or losing a drive altogether, meaning woodland management can take second fiddle, a position of indifference made easier by low income yields from timber. But things are changing - fast. UK forestry plc is in rude health, with hungry sawmills and processors keen for product, and as a result softwood timber prices are rising; nearly 30% in 2017 and around 50% in 2018. However, both global and UK timber supply should be considered relatively finite, as replenishing global timber resources is unlikely to be able to keep pace…

Q When shooting high, curling pheasants, where should a Gun focus their weight from the moment they pick up the bird to after pulling the trigger? A The subject of where you should place your weight while taking a shot is one which has been discussed over a period of many years and it would be safe to say the only thing which has been agreed by most is that no one technique fits all. There are generally agreed to be two basic methods. The Stanbury method: this involves keeping your weight on the front foot whether the bird be left, right or overhead and pivoting your weight around your front foot. Stanbury was a tall, lean gentleman and as a result this style suited his build. The Churchill method:…

Hunting and point to points could be used as a model for picking-up and field trials. These two fieldsports, hunting and shooting, owe their traditional values to the dedicated country people who partake in them. Point to points are a form of competition over fences for hunters and amateur riders. In order to qualify a horse to enter a point to point the owner must obtain a signed certificate to declare that the owner is a master, member, subscriber or farmer for the current season with a named hunt. They also have to tick a box to indicate that the horse “has been hunted” and all riders must obtain a Riders Qualification Certificate (RQC). The RQC is proof that riders are qualified to ride in point to points. New riders…

With over 40 years of supporting both sporting and working dogs in the field, Chudleys is launching new packaging across its range of dog food products. Chudleys offers an array of dog feed in a number of ranges including lifestage, heritage and sporting. Each formulation is suitable for a number of dietary options and requirements. The bags clearly state not only the ingredients that go into each diet, but also advice on feeding and a feeding guide. This gives clear and concise instructions in a number of languages including, German, French, Italian and Danish. For more information about Chudleys, its product range and prices visit chudleys.com…

My 30-month-old cocker’s first season picking-up really could not have gone better and next season I would like to try him as a peg dog on a modest shoot. To this end I have found a woodland shoot nearby which offers small driven days of 50 or 75 birds. “Cecil did a bit of grooming before nodding off.” Achieving steadiness of the solid rock variety is therefore my aim for the summer months. My breeder/trainer friend — he of the bread and seagulls — had some other ingenious wheezes in his training locker. He kept homing pigeons. He would set out a number of wire netting witches' hats in thick cover and under each hat he would pop a pigeon. The young dogs hunted the cover, found the pigeon but…

How to win For your chance to win either a Pintail Explorer smock (right, top) or a Seasons jacket (right), email high-resolution pictures to: katemaxim@outlook.com. Please put ‘Gundog Picture of the Month’ in the subject line. The winner will be chosen by the Shooting Gazette judging panel. Good luck! The prize will only be posted to winners with a fixed UK postal address.…