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…
Charles Smith-Jones
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…
How to make biltong
One of the few advantages of the lockdown has been that many outstanding projects have finally been completed. One of these was to build a permanent drying box to make…
The parts of a shotgun cartridge explained
The different parts of a shotgun cartridge explained
Taking a look at a used Steyr Mannlicher Pro Hunter
Should you buy a second-hand Steyr Mannlicher Pro Hunter? The gun was hailed as a major move away from the traditional Steyr Mannlicher market when it first appeared in the…
Keeping your guns secure and safe – some police advice
When you’re the owner of a gun you need to be vigilant about firearms security. Which means being safe out in the field, when you’re transporting the gun and when…
The Breda Xanthos – cheap but holds its own against more expensive rivals
The Breda Xanthos is not expensive but bears comparison with its more pricey competitors