White Rabbit

The bulk of my books come from Coch Y Bonddu Books down in Wales. Not the cheapest but they have a vast selection. They arrive beautifully wrapped in brown paper. One of lifes little pleasures opening them. Sad I know! WR.

I have well over 200 shooting books which get read on winter nights. I'm a big fan of Noel Sedgewick,BB etc.. They hark back to happier innocent times when our countryside was at its best. I have slowly ditched shooting magazines but still get Shooting Gazette, The Field and Fieldsports bi-monthly. I like the shoot reports and people spotting but I think the Gazette will be getting binned from now on. WR.

Has anyone else received this months copy today? It has obviously shrunk in size but surely its also drastically thinner aswell? Its nearer a pamphlet than a magazine! It used to be packed with reading but now looks a complete rip off at £4.70 a pop. Do any existing readers agree or am I imagining it?! This is aimed at those who still like to sit and read something made of paper once in a while! WR.

In the case of basic 525's I'd definitely buy new or a nearly new "Sporter One". Prices for the older model are falling because the new model is a much better gun. The Sporter one has back bored barrels,longer invector+ chokes and the gun now balances on the pin rather than being nose heavy. It is also fitted with the 725's rubber recoil pad rather than the horrible plastic plate. We had 6 of the old model and changed them for the Sporter One and they're a vast improvement. A much nicer handling gun. We had trouble with the bite being a bit stiff when new but they soon bedded in. WR.

All loaded by Eley. ALL labelled as 30gm 6 shot. Grand Prix 274 Pigeon Select 293 VIP 313 Classic (Cu) 310 Zenith (Cu) 260. What does that tell us? Havent a clue! The Zenith shot count in particular makes no sense to me at all. Also goin off shot count it would appear the budget Pigeon Select is loaded with harder shot than the Grand Prix? Could it just be a product of mass production and slack tolerances? Cartridges are loaded by weight so any slight difference in antimony from batch to batch will throw the pellet count out making comparisons useless. WR.

I'd be heartbroken but I'd get off my backside and graft to get myself back on my feet. Exactly what I've done so far. I wouldnt expect the government to pay me benefits,house me and feed me. Why do so many people think this country owes them a living?

It's now reported that the council buildings that were attacked had their work stopped and had to be evacuated. So basically the work that rent a mob were supposedly campaigning for had to be put on hold. Morons. The deaths of scores of people turned into a political football by left wing idiots and the media.

Makes me sick to my stomach watching them. Lily Allen (worth $20 million), Rita Ora (worth $16 million) and Adele (worth $135 million) and the best they can do is a public appearance. Oh joy! If they cared that much they would put their hands in their pockets and rehome everyone involved. Simon Cowell (Worth $550!!) Is launching a charity single to help us donate our hard earned cash. What a hero! What has happened there is horrendous and they need our help and support not celebs trying to ease their own guilt and raise their own profiles.

I assume no one else read the article as no comments relate to it and I can't find it online to post a link. Mods please close this thread as it will only end in tears which wasnt my intention. Goodnight all. WR.

The aim of my post wasnt to tear into each others beliefs. (It will quickly be closed) Apologies if that is how it came across. It was more to highlight how the real issue is being skirted around by the mainly liberal media and a total unacceptance of what is now happening in this country. Rod Liddle summed it up in his article perfectly. WR.

I know some of you will think the Sun is beneath you and fair play. It's a tabloid paper. They are what they are. Rod Liddle has written a piece on the Manchester bombing and its absolutely how I feel. Nailed on to the the letter. I'm well aware his views on hunting etc are well off but on this he's spot on. Sorry I dont have a link but please read it if you can. The left wing media quickly made Mondays events into a "Manchester" attack rather than an attack on our christian beliefs. You may not be what you'd call a christian but most peoples moral code is basically that. Lighting candles and Tweets from pointless celebs will not beat this disease. WR.

We've had a batch of Velocities in the black Clear Pigeon cases so I assumed they were using up the old stock. The new load mustnt have filtered through yet. WR.

Has anyone tried the new version yet? Considering the uproar the last time they were revamped its been very quiet? Perhaps they havent reached the shops yet? I was expected pages of people saying the old version were better?! WR.

I remember watching a documentary many years ago featuring some of the parents. The mother of Lesley Ann Downey was broken. There's no other way of putting it. Imagine having to identify your little girls tortured and murdered body. Beyond belief. Having to sit there and listen to her being tortured on tape and screaming for her mum. Sometimes our society is too civilised. I don't believe he hated prison that much. It was just an excuse to moan and keep his pathetic little life in the public eye. I was allways lead to believe that coppers in those days were "proper" ones and got the job done? Surely a couple of the handier one's could have been left in a cell with him until he "remembered" where Keith Bennet was buried? It would have saved his mother a lifetime of pain searching for her sons body. WR.

Exactly this. Was the officer in direct threat? Could he have used taser? Did he issue a warning? Was the "man" mentally ill? Etc etc. Sadly he will be put through all this rubbish due to the world we now live in. All I can say is well done for making those shots count and no doubt saving many more lives. Over the next few weeks and months we will hear and see radical preachers of Islam praising this attack and it will be commended on social media. How would somewhere like Russia deal with this? The people would be traced,identified and quietly vanish. Gone. Never heard or seen again. Sometimes we are too liberal and fair for our own good.

Robert Peston has just been on the news praising the wonderful behavior of our magnificent MP's today! Heard a female MP earlier delighted with her own self importance at having closed a tube station. Tobias Ellwood deserves praise for giving CPR to the officer who sadly died. The rest should stick to what they do best. As has been said earlier,get ready for the avalanche of expense claims. Dry cleaning,wreaths,holidays to get over the stress etc.. There were some real hero's today and with the exception of Mr Ellwood they weren't MP's.

I wouldn't begin to question our emergency services and trust their decisions but I do agree with the apparent stupidly and lack of thought by the attacker. I recognize the point of attacking Parliament but its also the most heavily Policed area in the UK I would have thought. It appears the second Police Officer he met was armed thankfully. How would this pan out on a busy day in your local town? School? Armed Police could be miles away. It doesn't bear thinking about. My thoughts go to the families of those bereaved.

I assume you're watching a re-run Hamster or is there a second series? I thought it was fantastic and beautifully shot. You really got the feeling of isolation and although I could be wrong the people involved appear to be the real deal. It was a breath of fresh air compared to the other more popular Alaskan programmes featuring people just about surviving in the wilderness but somehow managing to be 20st+! If they fail to get a deer with their AR15 they go to the shop! Sons of Winter was also worth watching but hasn't made a second series. Audiences obviously prefer the false peril etc of Mountain Men,Alaskan Bush People etc. WR

I seem to remember loading for a gent on an early grouse day who said he was using a test load from Hull. It was called Grouse XII 30gm copper coated 6 shot. It appeared to be loaded in the blue low brass Intercomp case. Shortly after that the purple cased Driven Grouse load seemed to appear everywhere. Are these similar? They tend to use high antimony lead if its going to be copper coated. Antimony is lighter so you may find the shot count is higher. Not allways the case though. WR Edited as I got it the wrong way round!

Never mind Trumps immigration ban. The big news is Sky are keeping Discovery!! A deal has been done. They couldn't afford not to. WR

This is a subject close to my heart as its my livelihood and I'm present on shoot days virtually daily from Aug-feb. It does worry me how trends have gone. Its now possible to have a gun on one day launching 40gm 4's at average pheasants and the next day someone under "high" pheasants trying to shoot them with a .410! I have even seen a team on an average shoot armed with RC50's! That's a 50gm magnum load. Madness. There's many reasons for this. New money,ego's,being seen as an "expert" who deems normal pheasants as beneath them etc..I could go on. I don't blame cartridge manufacturers. They're running a business and cater for demand. If they can put more lead in a cartridge and sex up the product then they will. I will say though there is still a great number of fantastic game shots out there knocking down quality pheasants day in day out with 28/30gm 6's. It gladdens my heart to watch them. The big difference is they tend not to plaster themselves all over the sporting press and social media which I think speaks volumes. WR

I can't say I have ever been on a walked up day where guns have been kept open at all times apart from at the end of fields/crops etc but each to their own. WR

Why? A combination of fashion and status. They're saying to people "look at me,I'm such a good shot 40-50yd birds are no longer a challenge" They shoot huge loads and tight chokes to imply the same. (I do realise some are excellent shots but the majority arent!) Sadly in commercial shooting money talks and these people spend a lot of it so in turn that's the way the industry has gone. It's pretty much the same with ramming huge loads down small bores. "Look at me,I'm an expert!) A genuine 50yd pheasant is a tremendous bird and if that's considered beneath some then they should stick to clays. Its also worth bearing in mind the majority of extreme shoots are showing low guns not high birds. Most the birds shot (at) are gliding. Therefore dropping in height. Its the topography of the ground not the pheasant that's created its height. I see this day in day out from all perspectives so feel qualified to judge. 30gm 6's kill driven pheasants to 40+yds all day long. Go 32gm 5's for a little further and for better penetration when shooting walked up birds. I look forward to the day the industry goes full circle and the emphasis is more on the speed/curl and stamina of pheasants rather than the ridiculous ranges we can shoot them at. I'll leave it there! Apologies to the original OP but I believe his question was answered earlier. WR

So when rough shooting you walk over rough ground possibly with guns either side of you with no safety catch on?! Hmm..Interesting! Safety's are obviously redundant when shooting clays which is why auto safety's aren't fitted to sporters. They're designed for use on game guns. WR