What makes the Benelli Raffaello Accademia semi-auto different? The words ‘beautiful’ and ‘semi-automatic’ don’t get used together very often. Most semi-autos are plain. None of them would turn heads on the looks front. For example, the Benelli M2 is the workhorse of many gamekeepers because it offers rugged reliability, but…
Guns for pigeon shooting
Pigeon shooting is a unique challenge that demands real skill and most shooters would like to be better at it.
Having the right guns for pigeon shooting is part of the recipe for success so we regularly review guns suitable for the discipline, from a variety of manufacturers.
Our reviewers put the equipment through its paces out in the field and report back on how each one performs, with different ammunition. Advice is offered on buying new and second-hand guns too. Our reviewers try different models and different bores and test pigeon shooting guns on stubble and spring drillings.
If you’re looking for a gun for pigeon shooting then browse through our articles and reviews here to help you make an informed choice.
You might also like to look at our sections on improving your pigeon shooting and if you’ve a question on pigeon shooting you might well find the answer here.
Pigeon shooting accessories – Geoff Garrod on what you really need
Having a lot of pigeon shooting accessories isn’t for me. It might be what some pigeon shooters want but I’d rather depend on the 40 years of fieldcraft and knowledge that I’ve built up. And if I do have kit, I prefer the simple. Essential pigeon shooting accessories First off,…
Used guns – the Marocchi Evo Black
Why a used Marocchi Evo Black is a good buy The Marocchi Evo Black is a gun intended to appeal to the clay shooting market and available in both trap and sporting formats. The Trap gun is available with 30in barrels and has a beavertail fore-end, and there is also…
Looking at a secondhand Beretta S56E
Beretta shotguns can often come at a price that is not for the faint-hearted. The premium EELL version of the DT11, for example, is a superb piece of engineering with the finest selected woodwork and exquisitely hand-engraved decoration and is aimed at the top end of the competition circuit right…
Our experts test out four different calibres pigeon shooting
I usually go off shooting pigeons with a Perazzi MX12. So when Patrick Galbraith called me with an idea of trying some different guns in different calibres for pigeon shooting I didn’t really jump at the opportunity. My Perazzi MX12 has been custom-fitted for me. If the day goes well…
Is it time to change our mind about pump-action shotguns?
We British are a traditional bunch. Only in recent years have we finally accepted the presence of over-and-under shotguns on driven shoots. If you turned up at a shoot with a semi-auto or pump-action you would probably be asked to leave because it is considered somewhat unsporting to use three…
Hatsan’s FieldHunter pump-action shotgun has proven popular
Hatsan's FieldHunter pump-action shotgun proves a hit: Originally launched in the UK back in 2005, Hatsan Arms entry-level FieldHunter pump-action shotgun has proved a huge hit.
Beretta A400 Upland 12-bore
It seems to be the season to review semi-automatics, with the latest offering — a new A400 Upland 12-bore — coming from Beretta. This one is a little sexed up compared with our last two camouflaged offerings, with a wooden stock and nickel-plated action, complete with some pheasant and partridge…
Browning Crown
Launched at the British Shooting Show in 2018, the Browning Crown (or Royal as the prototype was called) uses the renowned 525 action and is designed specifically as a game gun. It replaces the Grade 6, which was decorated with gold inlaid game birds on the action, which some thought…
Franchi Elegante Field shotgun
There is a point at which you break away from a budget gun as you seek better quality, though what causes you to make that decision can be difficult to quantify. If you have reached that point, the Elegante Field, at £1,095, is a step up in quality at a…
Krieghoff K-20 Parcours
Superb guns for taking on clays Krieghoff is perhaps not a name well-known to many of our readers, with a lineage far more closely related to hunting rifles and shotguns built for competition. Founded as Sempert & Krieghoff, the firm has been building hunting guns at its home on the…
Wanted – a bargain claybuster to replace old Browning B325
This reader’s Browning B325 could date back to 1995 when the model was introduced, and I am guessing it is around 25 years old. These guns keep their value, and a reasonable example is worth at least £500 on the secondhand market. However, this gun’s owner tells me it has definitely seen better days. The woodwork is scratched,…
First gun advice for my son. A 20-bore or a .410? What’s best?
A: Mike says: It depends on the sort of shooting your son is going to be doing. If his first gun is just for a bit of general vermin control around a farm, then the .410 might be okay. However, if he’s going to do clay, game or pigeons over decoys, then I’d go for the 20-bore and…
Chiappa 1887 lever-action 12-bore
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,…
Akkar Triple Crown Mammut
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…
Zoli Game Standard 20-Bore
Zoli is a make of shotgun that crops up from time to time, but is not as well known in the UK as perhaps it ought to be. Having said that, it has sold reasonably well but now, with the might of the importer Edgar Brothers behind it, I predict…
Harper Classic .25 HW90
Steve Harper is one of the old-school airgun makers in Britain. Famed for his innovative Harper classic guns, his fortes were his precision-made air canes and air cartridge firearms and pistols, many bearing his electronic triggers. Based in his Buckinghamshire workshop, Steve now spreads his time between classic one- offs…
Browning Maxus
It seems unlikely we’ll ever see the day they become an acceptable sight on the peg, if Browning continues to create products like this one they may become a far more familiar sight for our other sporting activities. For a gamekeeper, especially those with a firearms licence, they are an extremely flexible…
Marocchi XTR
It is odd how ideas and values influence fashion, or are influenced by fashion. Take the semi-automatic shotgun: not so long ago it was welcome in shooting company as a dog with mange. Even otherwise enthusiastic firearms historians were wont to look askance at the semi-auto or self-loading shotgun. Technically,…