Buying a first shotgun – how to get the best for you

• In general, game guns are made somewhat lighter than clay guns, as they are designed to be carried all day, sometimes over longish distances. However, clay guns are often heavier to accommodate more concentrated activity, on a shooting ground over shorter periods of time, to minimise the effects of recoil.
• The lighter game gun may have implications for the choice of shot load in the cartridge for individuals, who are more aware of recoil.
• The safety catch on a game gun is normally set to move automatically to safe when the shotgun is opened for reloading; the catch thus needs to be reset to fire the next cartridge.
• On a clay gun, the safety catch remains in the fire position until put safe manually; the reason for this is that, in competition, failure to fire due to an incorrectly set catch is deemed to be “operator error”, which results in the target being declared a miss.
• On many brands of gun, it is possible to adjust the mechanism internally to give either type of safety catch operation; a gunsmith can do this for you quite easily.
• The only safe gun is an open and empty gun. On most guns, safety catch is a misnomer, as all the catch does is prevent the trigger from being pulled; it does not prevent the internal firing hammers from falling on the firing pins if the gun is dropped or jarred.

Which gun for you?

Side-by-side or over-and-under? I’ll go for an over-and-under every time.

Most people find them easier to use, principally because there is a much narrower sighting plane down the single top barrel. And most of them just have a single trigger to cope with.

There is no doubt that there are many competent shots who use side-by-sides, but for the newcomer’s first gun? Over-and-unders first, last and always. Oh, and get a multi-choke version to make sure of versatility across the different branches of shooting.

What else?

Pay attention to your physical size and strength when buying a first shotgun, and therefore possibly, your age. How much weight can you manoeuvre comfortably? It’s not a silly question because it actually helps determine the right choice, be it a .410 gun for a 10 year old, to a 28-bore for early to mid- teenagers, and some slightly built ladies.

The 28-bore with something like a 13in stock (or even shorter) is a very useful shotgun. In terms of cartridge shot load and range, it has true shotgun capability for youngsters – a junior can learn everything they need to know about shooting moving targets consistently, at a variety of ranges, with a 28-bore. And as they grow, the stock extender pad and cartridge load can be adjusted in size.

From there we can move, for stronger and larger individuals, to 20-bore and 12-bore guns that are capable of any challenge in the right hands.

Remember that the length of the barrel of a gun is an important weight factor and therefore an important handling characteristic. A 12-bore with short barrels can handle like a 20-bore with long barrels in terms of manoeuverability.

What make of gun?

Any of the European large producers can provide something that will do the job. If the gun is from a well-known maker it will be easier to resell, if you want to move to a different gun later.

But do try a range of makes, as they all have slightly differing fit and handling characteristics.