Safety On ranges, carry your rifle barrel up – if a round is fired towards the ground, there is a danger of ricochet. Always check after firing that your chamber is clear, and remove the bolt once you have finished firing your rounds. Many ranges insist on breech flags to show…
Rifles
Re-barrelling an old rifle
Q: I have an old Sako Forester rifle that I really like in .308 Winchester, but the barrel is now past its best. I was thinking of having it re-barrelled to the 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge when I vary my firearms certificate. Is it a good round? A: The 6.5 Creedmoor…
Five rifle scopes for under £600
Every month there seems to be a new addition to the long line of optics available to the rifle shooter. Be it vermin, foxes, or deer, every aspect, style, model and technological gizmo for rifle scopes has made its way into gunshops to entice shooters. I love scopes — well, anything optical really, but…
How to clean your rifle
A rifle is a precision instrument and such things really do need to be kept clean if you expect them to work properly. But – and it’s a big BUT – I have seen as many rifles damaged by over- cleaning as ruined by lack of it. As always, there is a…
What sort of deer stalking rifle should I buy?
Our expert at Sporting Gun advises: A: Well, your budget is decent. That’s good news because a suitable rifle with quality optics is usually about £1,500 for each piece of kit to ensure you get a sound combination. So with this budget you’ve got some money left over to spend…
Ten of the best .17HMR moderators
Silence is golden where pest control is concerned, so after testing full-bore and .22 rimfire moderators Bruce Potts turns his attention to the increasingly popular .17HMR calibre
The Jackal Woodsman air rifle
Bruce Potts reflects on the Jackal Woodsman, an accurate and powerful air rifle from one of the most innovative gunmakers in Britain
Second-hand Webley Patriot
All you need to know about a secondhand Webley Patriot, including how this high-powered air rifle with impressive pellet strike shaped shooting
The gun you shouldn’t have sold
Most of us, I’m sure, will have experienced that sinking feeling at some time or other — the one when we realise that we should never have sold that gun. A rifle or shotgun is rarely just a tool — it becomes a treasured possession. But, for whatever reason, be it monetary necessity or the lure of a…
Three top secondhand Sporters
Here’s Mike’s selection of secondhand Sporters that offer great value for money. Baikal O/U Located 600 miles east of Moscow, Izhevsk’s main factory produces pistols and rifles, several variations on the AK assault rifle theme, air guns – and the Baikal shotgun. The Baikal dates to the Cold War, and was once humorously said to be…
Rifle Skills: Tighter shot groupings
If you’ve been following the series and trying the techniques we’ve described, you should by now have some shots in your targets. We’ve gone through setting up your rifle for success, zeroing and finding the right ammunition, and the various ways in which you can improve your shooting skills. So…
Our Happy Winners
Congratulations to the lucky winners of our competitions from Shooting Times, Sporting Gun, Shooting Gazette and Shooting UK. Next time it could be you!
Rifle skills: Get in position
In this rifle skills video we’ll be looking at the various positions you can shoot from. Remember you should not immediately expect 1in groups at 100m from these positions; ascertain what you can and can’t expect from each of them, and then you can decide when each is acceptable for…
Rabbit shooting with classic rifles
An early morning start, with a light breeze, is an idyllic start to any day’s stalk. But on this occasion it was not an eligible roebuck that I had in mind; it was a humble rabbit. I love rabbit shooting. It was the way I learned to shoot on my uncle’s…
Which is the best stalking rifle on the market?
Stalking rifle: Sako, Ruger, Anderson Wheeler, Browning, Hollands, Westley Richards, Sauer, Remmington, Rigby, Blaser and more are all here. What is your favourite stalking rifle manufacturer?
Rifle skills: Seven elements to a good firing position
We will cover the seven elements to a good firing position for the prone position, but they should also be part of your approach for good rifle shooting when taking a shot from sitting, kneeling or standing — we’ll look at the variations within each of the elements in those…
Which is the best.17 HMR bolt-action rifle?
This review pits the Sako Quad Synthetic, CZ Synthetic Silhouette, Browing T-Bolt Synthetic and Anschutz 1517 Thumbhole against each other to find the best .17 HRM bolt-action rifle
Rifle technique: bore-sighting and zeroing
Bore-sighting To capitalise on your rifle technique, you’ll want the rifle to be as steady as possible, so this is best done from the prone position or from a bench. Use rests or rice bags to adjust the rifle’s position so that there is as little movement as possible —…
Rising Bite double rifles pass London Proof House tests
Rising Bite double rifles are now being manufactured in .470 and .500 nitro calibres. Retailing at £95,000, the rifles take between two and three years to build and the first Rising Bite double rifle is due to be finished in time for Safari Club 2016, the annual hunting convention in…
Which .22 centrefire is best?
The question of which is the best .22 centrefire often comes up often, but one can only really reply with another question: best for what? The main considerations are whether you want to be able to shoot small deer as well as foxes and other similar-sized animals or whether the…