This rifle is one of those items in which classic charm marries with modern-day custom design. The Mannlicher-Schoenauer bolt action is indicative of a bygone era when German Imperial gunsmithing skills were afforded mythical status due to unrivalled levels of quality and demand. It is such that many a custom rifle maker seeks out such actions for inclusion into a prime old-world…

Sir Edward’s intent was to develop a more environmentally friendly cartridge with better performance. By using a natural fibre wad and copper coating the shot he achieved his aim, literally. The copper coating of the Hellfire game cartridge makes the pellets travel faster due to less friction and air resistance which results in better patterning…

Fans of the film Zulu will be familiar with the Martini-Henry rifle used by British troops at that period. The Martini-Henry got its name from the combination of the Martini action mated to Alexander Henry’s system of rifling. A blackpowder rifle adopted for military use in 1871, it lived on in conversions to 20-bore and .410, as a smoothbore Greener prison gun,…

The Strasser rifle’s first incarnation was the RS 05, designed by Horst Blaser in 2004 with an Austrian engineer Herbert Strasser. The original rifle was a quick-change barrel system and straight-pull design; today it has gone from strength to strength and the Strasser is one of the best and safest straight-pull rifles on the market. Not everyone wanted a quick-change barrel facility so the RS…

Fausti is a name probably not that familiar to many shooters but I would predict that is about to change. The company was formed in 1948 by the Honourable Stefano Fausti and is now run by his three daughters. I do not know if that is unusual in Italy but in Britain over the years a number of women have featured in the…

George Newnham is listed as setting up in the gun trade in 1866 and by 1905 the name, as on this gun, had changed to Newnham Limited, though still at 29 Commercial Road, Landport, Portsmouth. The company survived until around the start of World War II, with another change of name to Newnham & Co circa 1924. There is little doubt that…

I first got my hands on this delightful custom Beretta in the April 2015 issue of Shooting Gazette. On first look the differences are purely aesthetic: the Classic we tested last year had fully scroll-engraved side plates, but this month’s gun is engraved with game scene vignettes. And despite almost identical specifications between the two guns, one small difference ticked on the options list has had a marked…

I have always had a soft spot for the Thompson/Center single-shot firearms because I cut my teeth on long-range handgun shooting with its long-barrelled pistol variant. The Contender G2 Carbine’s origins lie in a single-shot pistol for silhouette shooting derived from the Mexican Senderos in the 1960s. In 1965, Warren Center, its inventor, teamed up with a toolmaker called K. W. Thompson from…

Certain names in the world of shooting carry a great weight, and Browning’s Custom Shop is no exception. Among the most popular names in the shooting world, Browning’s heritage and links with the Fabrique National d’Herstal in Belgium have long made their hand-made firearms sought after. However, as with all hand-made guns, they are often out of reach for the majority of sportsmen and women. The new…

There are plenty of centrefire rifles available to British shooters in the sub-£1,000 range but those wanting a more prestigious yet value-for-money rifle have the Sako 85 model as their option. The Tikka T3 range caters for most needs but the Sako 85 Carbonlight extends the choice and boosts the class of the Sako/Tikka group portfolio….

The Anson & Deeley (A&D) boxlock was a revolution in design that changed forever the world of the side-by-side shotgun. Simple and sturdy with a minimum of parts, it is still in production today by different makers, more than 140 years after the original patent was filed. The subject of this article is a special example because it was the very first Anson…