stevew

I have the Cens digital and passive ones, they are very good but expensive, the passive ones aren't expensive considering they're custom made and very comfortable. Yorkshire Shooting Services are the agent local to you, nice fella called Nigel Hirst, he's based at Pateley Bridge.

I think Rufforth (nr York )is open on a Monday if you ring him and Warren Gill is (nr Masham) you have to book in there.

RichG, Did you manage to get sorted with a .410?, I was in a similar position, booked on a .410 game day near York for 3rd October, couldn't borrow one so bought a new Webley & Scott. It's full size, multi-choke and shoots very nicely, I'm in Hull, PM if still required.

Gun available for small, friendly pheasant shoot near Beverley, East Yorkshire. 8 driven days, 1 walk and stand day end of season, will consider half guns, expected bag average 75 birds/day. PM for details/dates.

I'm 43 and had similar thoughts after 2 close mates had prostate ops last year, although 1 is mid 50's the other is 70. I had a blood test and urine test done at the docs, after the results came back he didn't even bother with an exam. Completely clear of PSA's which indicate prostate cancer and a healthy cholesterol of 4.1, I'd never had my blood tested like that before but give blood regular which would also highlight any health problems. So go to docs and have a blood test it's a bit more dignified and gives a good indicator to your general health, unless you have any obvious symptoms to make you want an exam, blood in urine, more frequent peeing (why I went - told to cut down on coffee and booze - it worked) or latent homosexuality! Was suprised at cholesterol reading, ate rubbish and drank more guiness than an irishman, tests and a chat with my gp gave me peace of mind.

I've been shooting a 28 on game for the last 8-9 years, great little guns. Had a Lincoln no.2 first, very light and pointable, ideal for walked up shooting although I mainly shoot driven game. I got it because my 12 bore Browning sporter is heavy to carry in the field all day (30" 525), didn't want a 20 bore due to possible safety issues (mixed in with 12 bore) and do all my game shooting with it, plus clays and pigeons when I feel like it, although the 525 is my clay gun and I have an Extrema 2 FAC for my main pest control gun. In January I traded the Lincoln in for a new Browning 525 hunter light in 28 bore, fits like my 12 bore 525 but obviously lighter, better quality than the Lincoln but 3 times the price. It's always a talking point on a shoot day, mainly making fun of my kids/girls gun but I can hit as much (or as little!) with the 28 as I can with either 12 bore so I'm happy with it. They seem to pattern tight, clays are balls of dust and game is either dead in the air or missed completely (usually) Bit of a problem if you run out of carts on a drive, no-one else will have any, but then I always carry a cartridge bag. I don't think carts are expensive enough to reload, I have some Gamebore (I think) pure gold 25 gram in 5's and 6's, they were about £63 a case, I pay £68 for Supreme Game, same shot sizes but 32 gram for my 12 bore, not a lot in it unless you already have loading gear. Best cartridges I've used were Winchester 28 gram 6's, but at £17.50 for a box of 25 I only used 1 box! I've had Bornaghi 28g 6's, clay and game (eley) 23g 6's, some Italian clay loads 23g 7.5's, plus many others I can't remember but I don't think I've ever had any I would avoid. Good choice, better for youngsters than a .410 in my opinion.

All joking aside, for future reference you can feed pheasants and partridge on it, I get tons of it and use it on my shoot in the feeders. Doesn't do them any harm, if anything some of last years were the heaviest I've shot. Cost me a fortune in minature chopsticks and sweet and sour sauce to go with it though......

Steve, There's Ashley Foster at Catwick,between Hornsea and Beverley, he's not far from you, I get my poults from him - always good birds. Also there's Jeff/Max Render at Flinton nr. Aldbrough, never had any from them but they've a good reputation. There was also a game farm at Bewholme near Hornsea. PM me if you want detail. Cheers Steve

That's more or less like ours, had no problems at all on the release pens. Also you can cut it with a knife so it's quicker to trim up than steel.

We did it last year on our main release pen, we took all the old top wire off, went round with 6' plastic netting, then over that with 25mm galv mesh 2' up / 1' out. As scully said if you have a clear run it's easy to use. We did our small release pen with 4' plastic mesh and cable tied it to the existing bottom mesh but I think the 6' with mesh over the top was better. A determined fox will chew through it as 60 of our french partridge found out the hard way, but there was no steel mesh on and no electric as there is on the release pens. Won't rust and it's a lot lighter, I'd use it again. Steve

stainless 10/22 with Hogue stock, extended mag release, bolt recoil buffer, power custom trigger, stainless parker hale mod, cheap blaser boresighter 3-9 x 50 scope

We've had a return of 53% in total of 1200 birds bought (1000 pheasant, 200 french partridge)in our first season on our small driven shoot, although we did lose 69 partridge in a pen to a fox early on. We seemed to hold birds quite well all through the season, last driven day yielded a 77 bag, which bodes well if next season is colder. Also despite two neighbours, who don't release but shoot, having feeders right up to our boundaries for "wild birds". Overall very pleased with the results and with improvements, extra drives and a small pond in the pipeline for the coming season I'm counting the days until we start shooting again!

I get my partridge pen top netting from Collins Nets based in Dorset, good prices, efficient delivery. Also had feeders, plastic side netting and other things all decent quality.

I bought a Lincoln no.2 28 bore about 5/6 years ago mainly because we used to walk a long way on my old syndicate and my browning 525 30" sporter got a bit heavy by the end of the day. I traded in a mossberg .410 which I used for checking round traps and rat shooting around farm buildings, the 28 bore is far more versatile and the cartridges are a couple of quid a box cheaper. I use it for 75% of my game shooting, (don't tend to take it if I might need non-toxic carts - they're expensive) no worse accuracy than my 12 bores and has a tight pattern, most things are dead or missed completely (more often!) I keep being tempted by the odd 28 bore silver pigeon which are quite common but it's in good condition, fits well and is holding it's value so don't see the point at the moment of changing. Certainly recommend a 28 over a .410 as others have said.

I was in Paphos in May this year, went to the Paphos shooting ground, it's just off the motorway towards Limassol about 15 minutes from Paphos itself. You can hire guns there, I think it was 10 euros, we used a nice Beretta 682 sporter. There's 2 sporting layouts, 2 skeet and a DTL layout, which work on a token system. A token gives you 28 clays for about 5/6 euros and cartridges are about the same. They do refreshments, we spent the whole day there, I can't remember the opening days/times but it was good and the Cypriot national skeet team turned up to practice.