Each year at our shoot, we have a day, usually in June, when we gather to shoot a few clays and have a BBQ. Last year, to add some interest,…
Shooting Gazette
Browning 725 Hunter UK Premium II reviewed by Shooting Gazette
Apparently, for any product to truly be a success in this day and age it seems it must be offered in a bewildering array of models and specifications. Take technology…
May 2017
This month we’re paying a visit to the Crichel shoot in Dorset for a day’s sport with some inspirational people from Help For Heroes’ shooting programme. The day, which seventh-generation…
Should shotgun training be compulsory?
Compulsory shotgun training by Ben Samuelson Many of my happiest childhood memories are of the times I was taken shooting by my father – I didn’t even pick up a…
How Guns can earn a gamekeeper’s respect
Another season is over and I have no complaints at all. The abundance of wild food sent shivers down many a gamekeeper’s spine in early autumn; food intake was low,…
10 of the most challenging drives in the British Isles
Beeches, Brixton Deverill, Wiltshire This shoot is one for the connoisseurs and Kim Beddall has any number of fine drives across three beats. Shooting Gazette correspondent John Walker said: “While…
Rizzini RG EL 28 bore reviewed by Shooting Gazette
There is always plenty of noise around finding the right bore size for your sporting shotgun, with a seemingly inexorable trend towards smaller and smaller guns for those who wish…
Will Garfit on cartridges for pigeon shooting
A recent question from a reader asked what cartridges I used for pigeon shooting. The answer is simple: Gamebore Velocity, 28gram loaded with No.7½ shot. But the explanation for my…
Stately British castles offering shoot days
Game shooting: From Arundel, Belvoir and Highclere to Caerhays, Alnwick and Mulgrave, the UK has some of the finest castles in the world, many of which offer game shooting.
The top 10 shooting excuses
1.The sun was in my eyes… This is a classic, especially among partridge shooters in, as it might be, October when the sun tends to hang low in the sky…
April 2017
In this special gundog issue we pay tribute our four-legged shooting friends. There are more than 20 pages of features, interviews, advice and reports saluting the invaluable contribution our canine…
Insurance for gundogs – is it a price worth paying?
Gundog insurance: Is buying gundog insurance for your lab or spaniel a necessary evil or a costly mistake?
What’s best? A family heirloom or a new shotgun?
Ben Samuelson chooses a family heirloom shotgun For the last 20 years I have shot with my late father’s 12 bore and, while I wish he was still using it, I wouldn’t…
March 2017
Everyone involved in shooting knows gamekeepers are the backbone of the sport, going above and beyond the call of duty to help show guns the best possible birds day after…
Tax and the DIY shoot
Many shoots on farms and estates, with just a modest number of shoot days taken by family and friends, will be run as DIY shoots and private affairs and very much outside the scope of…
Can I do anything to speed up getting my shotgun certificate?
Q: In light of the huge delays in processing shotgun certificate renewals in some counties (Lincolnshire for example) what is your advice to help speed up the process of receiving my shotgun certificate? I call and…
8 key things you need to know before you take a gun abroad
A: Firstly congratulations. It’s on my bucket list. I very much like the idea of enjoying a little early sunshine, shooting and eating a little jamon Ibérico washed down with some manzanilla. Let us know how you…
AYA No.2 28 bore
Spanish gunmaker Aguirre y Aranzabal (AYA) admits that “a true work of art does not simply appear out of thin air”. The more cynical amongst you might chuckle at this seemingly tacit admission that much of the…
Should I change chokes on high bird days?
A: In more recent years it has become fairly standard practice for over-unders to be multi-choked, thereby opening up a dilemma for many shooters about what choke to use. I think this decision is best made by…
What makes a game bird fly well on shoot days?
What makes our game birds fly well one day only to perform poorly the next? No one wants low birds that present little challenge and result in an inedible carcass along with a feeling of ‘really,…