There's a house on a nasty bend in the road just out of the village here that was owned by Mr Greener,last of the gun family. He died sometime late seventies / early eighties it's changed hands several times but it's still known as "Greeeners corner". He taught my dad to shoot by trying to shoot bats at dusk in his garden. He told him "if you can hit a Bat you're fit to go from home"
Well, the shotgun I inherited from my grandfather is a 13 bore! And that information came from the gunmaker who skimmed the barrels. And it was always "bore", not "gauge" which is Americanese. I suppose I should add that the "bore" is, I think, the number of spherical lead balls to make a pound that will exactly fit the barrel (except the .410) -- but I am sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
410 is a 36 bore I think
Fit the barrel at the end of the forcing cones, which at that point will usually be .729" diameter or thereabouts for a 12 bore.
you got a sawn off starling gun?
I inherited a 16, a fantastic and beautiful gun and at 5lb 12oz beautifully light and on the traditional 15/16 oz load is a joy to use. Modern powders are much more punchy and it's difficult to find a load to suit such a light gun now. Sad to say for this reason I default to my more modern 12 more often than not now.16 bore is technically the best ballistically i’m told
i would get one if the cartridges were not so horribly expensive
20 is for boys, women and old men !
I started with my grandads 20 bore o/u. Could shoot game like a demon with that. Then I came old enough too have my own. Dad said get a 12, cartridges are cheaper and it’s more versatile. So he bought me a Lanber o/u. Heavy gun but light recoil. Could sort of shoot alright with it. Then my back went wrong and I couldn’t stand a day on a peg holding the Lanber. So sold that too a mate and bought a nice little Sarasqueta SBS double trigger ejector. Really light, carry it all day. And the best thing is I can shoot with it! 23 birds for 57 shots on Monday. Back shooting like I should be!
Bloody hell. Is there no end to your talents?
It's£48 round here.
I just can’t see the attraction of driven duck. Cheap numbers shooting, but the ethics are questionable imo. At least with other game there is more of a sporting element.
It’s the only way I can get pheasant at a price I can afford unfortunately. The only consolation is that there are a lot of wild duck on that shoot so you get some real sporting shots early on. But no, I just don’t get excited about standard driven duck at all, as you say the ethics of it don’t quite sit right for me. . Probably doesn’t help that I’m not madly keen on eating duck. I’ll shoot enough too keep us fed with it occasionally. Pheasant and partridge we eat for England so I will happily shoot at them all day long.
