Advice

Millet

The best cover crops for the part-time keeper

Cover crops can do many things to enhance a shoot: Provide options for early-season drives when the woods might have too much leaf on the trees to push pheasants out Link areas of land where there are no natural transfer points such as hedges or ditches Give more options in…

The Leica CRF 2000B

Laser range finders

Q: Could you recommend 
a laser range finder to help me accurately judge distances? 
I shoot over large fields and hills, so knowing the correct range would be useful. A: Laser range finders are very handy for showing the range to your target, allowing you to adjust your aim or…

Checking right gun fit

Is the fit right on my gun?

I've bought a Beretta for clay shooting as a spare, but I'm not sure the gun fit is right as I don’t shoot as well with it as I do my old workhorse.

Shotgun choke

25 important things to know about choke

If you swap chokes around you can use the same shotgun for a variety of different disciplines. Most of us don’t shoot well enough to get any real benefit from choke. Screw-in chokes arrived in the late 1970s with the Winchester 101 series of guns. Good technique and practice are…

Where should I keep my gun cabinet keys safely?

On Sunday August 10 1997 a police officer called at the house of Mr Mark Farrer. He wanted to inspect his firearms security. Mr Farrer was not at home. His mother, then in her 80s, who did not hold a certificate, fetched the officer the key and allowed him access to the gun cabinet. The Chief Constable then declined…

Any Sharp knife sharpener

How to sharpen a knife and keep it that way

Q: Can you recommend a knife sharpener please? I cannot 
find a decent one for my rabbiting and stalking knives. A: I get asked this a lot and it is an 
area I still struggle with — that 
of getting a keen edge to a blade and, better still, keeping…

open window

Storing guns: advice from the police

“Many people don’t realise that the law does not actually require you have a purpose-made firearms cabinet,” said Dave Mathias, Explosive Liaison Officer with the Devon and Cornwall Police. “It just says that all reasonable measures must be taken to ensure their safe keeping. We do have to take a…

Gun fit instruction

A lesson on gun fit

The season was drawing to an end when I received a call from Shooting Times Editor Patrick Galbraith. 
Patrick mentioned that he wasn’t entirely happy with his shooting 
over the season; he had been frustrated at his inconsistency on many days. He thought it was time 
to try to sort…