Gundog insurance: Is buying gundog insurance for your lab or spaniel a necessary evil or a costly mistake?
Shooting Gazette
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,…
Pigeon shooting influenced by Syd Barrett?
There are two difficulties for me in writing this story. Firstly, while readers love tales of everything going wrong, this happens to be an unashamed success. Secondly, while it is immodest to write about one’s own…
How the grouse debate was won
More than two years of hard campaigning by those who wanted to see driven grouse shooting banned has ended in complete failure. Securing parliamentary time for their issue was more than the anti-shooting campaigners dared hope for…
Beretta 690 Field I reviewed by Shooting Gazette
It is a natural human instinct to have favourites even when we are told we really shouldn’t. Though you might happily wear a smile and tell your difficult teenage daughter that of course she’s your favourite child…
Letter from a fed-up beater
The driven shoot day is a team effort and by no means the least important team consists of the beaters. These men, women, boys and girls turn out in all weathers mostly not…
Should gundogs live in the kitchen or a kennel?
Across the dog-owning fraternity there is one debate that always brings out a strong difference of opinion. Where should the dog(s) live? In the house or in a kennel? And there is usually no fence to…
Gundogs and scent
Scent is truly an act of God. We have no direct access to it, still less any ability to influence it: and yet nothing is more critical to the way our dogs work and the…
Perazzi Ribless Game
You might be forgiven for heaving a sigh at the sight of yet another Italian over-under on these review pages. But it is rather difficult to ignore the fact our European cousins are responsible for much…
January 2017
Happy New Year! January might be the last full month of the driven shooting season but that doesn’t mean things are winding down in the field just yet. Consider the…
Struggling on long crossers – what should I do?
Shooting instructor Adam Calvert replies: A: The walking gun brief can be one of my favourite roles but equally it is a tricky one, and the addition of long crossers can be an extra challenge.…
A selection of books for shooting families this Christmas
BARKING MAD Two Centuries of Great Dog Stories By Tom Quinn In the shooting world we pride ourselves on the way we enable gundogs to utilise all their natural instincts to help…
Do mobile phones have a place in the field?
Crucial phones By Ben Samuelson It was only a couple of generations ago when our late king wouldn’t have seen much use for a mobile phone on a day’s shooting. He took…