Search Results: hammerguns

As hammerguns are experiencing a surge of popularity, John Newton looks at how they have developed since their invention 140 years ago by a few innovative gun designers

The dog has eaten my shooting gloves. Not chewed or gnawed, but eaten. Consumed. Except the buckles, which he brought to me with a wholly unjustified pride, rolling them about his teeth. “Look,” he seemed to say, “I’ve saved these for you.” (Read our advice on how to make a dog vomit in an emergency.)…

A recent sale elicited a good question and disinterred an old discussion. The sale concerned a J. Blanch & Son sidelock ejector made in 1903. We know it was made then because the engraver, probably the great Harry Kell, had carved that date, in Roman numerals, on the guard. Toby Barclay, who knows more about…

The late Cyril Adams, who made a fortune selling restored British guns to eager American buyers, recalled walking into Purdey’s one afternoon in search of old guns and being told there was nothing good in. (Read are English guns the best?) He noted a pile in the corner and asked about them. “Oh, those are…

Before Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha arrived in Britain it would have been rare to see an Englishman shooting driven game. Prince Albert is widely credited with popularising driven pheasant, partridge and grouse in the UK, shooting his pair of 14-bore percussion muzzle-loaders while enjoying what was, at the time, a more continental approach…

What I really want – a shooting lesson I was asked recently what I would like for my birthday. I thought about this while the usual suspects whistled through my imagination. Aston Martin DB6 shooting brake, pair of Woodward hammerguns, a week at the grouse and more besides. It was, however, a serious question that…

I have a confession: wandering with the beaters is one of my favourite places to be on a game shoot. I say that even as a member of the gun trade who, when asked to go with the beaters, invariably ends up with a performance review committee of customers past and present scrutinising my every…

If I had a box of bismuth cartridges for every time someone has told me that vintage guns are nice, but for the amount of shooting they do “you need something modern because vintage guns won’t cope with the work”, I’d face the lead-free future with enough shells to see me out. (Read here for…

Fieldsports have long been a passion of British monarchs and their families. But who are the best royal Shots? Shooting-obsessed monarchies the world over have been customers of our best gun and rifle makers, seeking the very finest sporting kit with which to engage their preferred quarry. If we were to construct a historic line…

Is it possible to buy a Purdey or Holland & Holland side-by-side on a budget of between £2,000 to £3,000? If so, would it be reliable for gameshooting all the time and not just for special occasions?