As many experienced shots will know, quite a number of manufacturers engrave the name Rizzini on the actions of their guns thanks to the fairly astonishing abilities of a modern Italian gunmaking dynasty. There is E. Rizzini, once best known for making entry-level guns but now a part of Fausti, a high-end manufacturer. More in the line of…

The 1950s, when I was growing up, were probably the heyday of cheap Western films and many lads then dreamt of what it must have been like to be “home on the range”. The  rearms of choice for those fairly awful productions were, with dull repetitiveness, the single-action Colt revolver and Winchester lever-action rifle. The shotgun, if it appeared, was usually a nondescript double-barrelled hammer…

The John Blanch shotgun is that ultra-rare item, a shotgun that has lain unused for most of its existence; what is called, in the trade, a “sleeper”. In more general terms “barely shop-soiled” would be an accurate description of condition. What is a sleeper? Why is it that often a fine gun is put away and not used? Much of the…

The CZ 455 rimfire action has an ethos of one-size fits all with the new CZ action being able to accommodate a .22LR, .22WMR or .17 HMR barrel via its quick-change barrel system. So a quiet rabbit gun in .22LR with a sound moderator fitted can become a close-range fox or crow rifle with the .17HMR or even the older .22WMR. The trigger…

ATA Arms is a Turkish manufacturer and, while new to the UK, the company has been in existence for some 60 years. The distributor is Ireland-based Wildhunter and a chain of retail outlets has been set up in the UK so that availability should not be a problem. The present range of imported ATA shotguns includes over-and-unders and semi-automatics with models suitable for both field…

When I heard about the Akkar Triple Crown Mammut (a triple-barrelled shotgun) I couldn’t help but smirk! All I could think of was Sergeant Harper from the Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell and how this sounded like the sort of gun he would be interested in. Triple-barrelled guns are unusual in the UK, but not that…

There are so many new custom rifles available to the deerstalker these days that being faced with the different choice and styles available can be a bit bewildering. That is perhaps one of the reasons why the classic sporting rifles of yesteryear are now becoming popular among shooters. Typically English sporting rifles Names like Westley Richards,…

What can be said that has not been said a thousand times before with the Tikka T3? This Scandinavian sporting rifle has proved a firm favourite in Britain and is the go-to rifle for stalking due to its reasonable price and good build quality. I have owned Tikkas for more than 35 years and the Tikka…

Our current trend for increasingly pocket- bursting mobile telephones aside, the advancement of technology in recent years has also been an on-going march towards miniaturisation. From silicon chips being manufactured in nanometre thicknesses approaching single figures, to the humble vacuum cleaner taking up ever-decreasing space under the stairs, small is cool. This trend has also made…

The Midland Gun Company was formed in 1889, making it in some ways a relative newcomer to the Birmingham gun scene. It grew to become quite a large business and manufactured a broad range of worthy, if sometimes rather substantial, shotguns as well as carrying out subcontract work for the trade and supplying parts. A little…

There is always something attractive about small-bore guns that is difficult to define. Whether it is the small bore size that accentuates the slimness, the lightweight, dainty action size, ultra-fast handling or, more likely, a combination of all these factors, there is no doubt they are much admired. Also, in the past few years as…