Over the years Beretta has produced a great many models under the Silver Pigeon moniker. The Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon 1 Game Scene is one of the more recent, specifically…
Charles Smith-Jones
Beretta 486 Parallelo shotgun reviewed: a ‘little cracker of a gun’
At first glance, this month’s shotgun – the Beretta 486 Parallelo – may appear to be one for the diehard traditionalists – but look a little harder and you may…
Blaser F16 – an all-round winner
There is no doubt that Blaser caters for a higher end of the market and there was considerable excitement when its new shotgun, the Blaser F16, was launched in this…
Browning X-Bolt rifle review
Browning X-Bolt rifle: Browning’s X-Bolt deer stalking rifle is practical and affordable.
Shotgun storage advice from a firearms officer
When you’re the owner of a gun you need to be vigilant about firearms security. So we asked an expert for his shotgun storage advice, gathered from years of experience.…
Used guns – the Marocchi Evo Black
Why a used Marocchi Evo Black is a good buy The Marocchi Evo Black is a gun intended to appeal to the clay shooting market and available in both trap…
Sabatti boxlock – a lot of gun for your money
The Sabatti family has been at the heart of the Italian gunmaking industry for almost 400 years. It has been involved in the design of flintlocks, fine damascus barrels and…
Quarry guide – quail
We don’t shoot quail in the UK and the only reason that this elusive little bird appears in this quarry guide series is that it is classified as a gamebird,…
Ready for action – Zastava sporting rifle M85
Background to the Zastava sporting rifle Serbian manufacturer Zastava Arms traces its origins back to the casting of four cannons in a small Kragujevac foundry in 1853, the same town…
The Winchester 101 – one of the classics
The Winchester 101 entered a production run which started in 1963 and went on for over 20 years. It was initially just produced in a game version (which was marketed…
All about the jay. Garrulus glandarius
The Eurasian jay – the jay – is a common bird with a wide distribution within Europe and Asia. It can also be found as far south as parts of…
The Sako Finnfire – worth every penny
Sako decided in the 1990s that it was time to replace the Finnscout, a popular .22 rimfire that dated back to 1972. The new rifle was deliberately fashioned as a…
The CZ 511 – an absolute bargain
The CZ 511 is essentially the same gun as the older Brno 581 which had previously been in production since the 1950s, the newer name simply reflecting the rebranding of…
Looking at a secondhand Beretta S56E
Beretta shotguns can often come at a price that is not for the faint-hearted. The premium EELL version of the DT11, for example, is a superb piece of engineering with…
Anschutz 1415/16
To many, the name of Anschutz is synonymous with a range of top-quality rifles, air rifles and air pistols used by competition shooters. The manufacturer’s products continue to be the…
The common snipe – or, as the Finnish call it, the ‘sky ram’
Facts about the common snipe Distribution: Most worldwide populations of snipe are highly migratory, breeding in Iceland and across much of Europe, Russia and northern Asia. Overwinters in Africa and…
Wiehrauch HW66 rimfire rifle
Any airgunner will recognise the name of Wiehrauch, a German company with a deserved reputation for producing a wide range of well-made and accurate air rifles and pistols. Catering for…
The Nikko 5000 series
The Nikko Firearms Company is a subsidiary of the Kodensha Company, once a major manufacturer within the Japanese firearms industry. It operated out of the Tochigi prefecture about a hundred…
Choosing the right stalking rifle
Perhaps you have already done a bit of stalking, possibly as a guest using the estate rifle, and now you have been truly bitten by the deer bug. It’s time…
How to hunt down a stalking permission
Some poor souls seem to labour in vain to locate even the smallest and least productive area where they might indulge their passion for deer stalking. Others, more fortunate, appear…