Alan Maughan

He's got wee Jimmy Crankie all fired up now!

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/morningside-gun-shop-wildly-inappropriate-so-close-to-primary-school-says-msp-1-4818909 If you want to see his letter then check out his Facebook page, he seems to be getting quite a spanking. https://www.facebook.com/DanielJohnsonMSP/ Even the poll he started is 74% for the shop. I would encourage everyone to have there say in a respectful way.

I love my 3 shot semi for pigeon shooting, I couldn't imagine using any other gun. Easier to load and handle in the hide and the extra shot has came in very handy many times. Ive had a fair few trebles over the years since I got it and they are special, well done. Ive resisted the urge to go for a section 1 as I dont imagine I would ever shoot a full house with one If only it picked up its own empties...

Has anyone got a Tikka 590,595 or T3 that is tired or shot out that they want to sell, any caliber? I would also consider a similar condition Sako 75 or 85 or possibly a Rem 700. WHY?

The 595 weighs a few ounces more than the T3 but its good weight, a nice flat and square action with a much better recoil lug arrangement which takes to bedding very well. Each rifle is as accurate as the other providing the barrels are in good order, both share the same trigger unit and can both be rebelled into very accurate rifles. More accessories readily available for the T3 but overall I still prefer the 590/595's and both rifles from the factory can be very accurate to. 222 isn't exactly a long range or rapid fire caliber so I often feel the heavy varmint barrel spoils a great hunting rifle while not offering anything in terms of extra accuracy.

Anything else out there?

Its rated to 600yds in the spec but I would say 300yds is a more reliable distance, it will got to 400 and beyond on bigger more reflective targets. It wont work at night. In terms of accuracy its bang on and in sync with my Zeiss PFR to within a yard.

Guys, Im looking for a donor rifle, so it has to at least have an action, bolt and trigger and be any of the makes I have listed above. I dont need spurious gun parts thanks

PM sent. Not for me but thanks for the offer

You dont really give much info MK, as such your getting all sorts of answers with the best one so far being - it doesn't really matter, any centre fire caliber will do just as well as another out to 200yds. 200yds isn't really far you see and even a crow sized target at that distance isn't exactly small. All this talk of how flat a caliber is again doesn't really come into it if 200yds is your max distance, anything centerfire that was zero'd 1" high at 100yds would pretty much give you a point blank range from 25-200yds. Do you care what it is? are you wanting a cheap truck gun or something of great beauty, do you want to reload or buy as cheap a factory ammo as possible? My thoughts would be for a 222 or 223, you dont need anything bigger for crow and fox at 200yds and all calibers are flat (in a relative sense) and drift pretty much the same in the wind over this relatively short distance. Yes, some will drift a bit less than others but no so as you would miss in a 10mph wind. A .222 that shot PPU ammo well makes for an easy and versatile rifle that could cost you a few hundred quid, if you want something elaborate then I could sell you a 20 Tac for a grand - I think we need more info

Im looking to build a few rifles so would be interested in buying some donors, ideally Im looking for Tikka 590/595 or T3 but would also consider Rem 700 or Sako 75/85, either shot out rifles or complete actions with trigger mag and floor plate etc. Cosmetic condition unimportant so long as the action is sound. Anything out there gathering dust? Cash waiting.

I have a Leupold RX1 which is good, complete with case, I would let it go for £100.

What name did you settle on?

Does anyone own or have any experiences of this quad, good, bad or ugly?

I like human names, this little lass is Maggie. I was mulling over a few names one morning when Rod Stewart came on the radio singing Maggie May and that was it, she just looked like a Maggie

I would like to put a set of off road/winter tyres on my Discovery 2 and wondered what you guys might recommend? Its my day to day transport for knocking around, some motorway driving but not much, mainly A & B rounds around the town and country. I do however go into the fields quite a bit, obviously I avoid it at really wet times bit I would like a tyre that would give me more confidence than the pure road tyres I currently use. I would say for the next 6 months I will use it 70/30 on/off road. I did wonder about going for pure 'off roaders' and just living with the disadvantages 'on road' but can't decide which way to go, I dont want to spend £500 to find I get stuck first time out using town/country brands that are more town than country if you know what I mean?

The whole point of the knurling is so you can tighten them by hand.

My thoughts exactly. The death of your father is a very final moment, you will never be able to repair what happened and that can lead to frustration and anger on your part. Its then very easy to channel this frustration and anger towards a particular target, you dads benefactor in this case. My advice to you would be to move one and ask yourself what will you actually get from even going to the funeral other than more frustration and anger. Good luck in whatever you choose to do, its never a nice thing to have to deal with, Ive been there and got the t-shirt.

I took this one a couple of years ago now, I dont know who looks the most surprised

Start shopping somewhere else! Its impossible for baffles to move on a DM80, they are machined from a single piece of material.

Thats fine, just buy the .223 that you want and leave the 22-250 slot unused for a few months until you decide which other caliber you might like, then do a free one for one variation. I assume you already have a .22lr, if not then use the 22-250 slot to get one, everyone needs a .22lr Glad to see things worked out in the end. Out of interest, can you tell us how the meeting went, what you said to get the better clearance and how the FLO reasoned it all out?

N133 is my first choice for bullets in the 40-55 range. It is a great powder and used by many competition shooters. A very clean powder to use, my barrels always come up clean with very few patches. Far too much is made of powder choice though in my opinion, use one that has historically been good in a .223 like N133 or some of the others mentioned here like H4895 and dont look back. You accuracy will come from seating depth, optimum powder charge and neck tension. Dont waste forever chasing a magic powder, there are plenty of good powders for that caliber, choose a one that your local stockist carries all the time, that way you will have continuity of supply.

Ask for him to clear the land to 223 then, if he says no then ask him why exactly it can't be and what are the specific safety concerns he has for .223 over .222?. Explain to him that ballistically there is no difference between the two calibers if you stick to typical varmint bullets. The accepted velocity difference of around 100fps in favour of the 223 doesn't really matter because if you had a 20" barreled 223 it would probably be slower than a 24" barreled .222, even powder choice could make the .222 run faster than the .223 and with more energy. The FEO is either clueless or lazy but either way you should not accept this, there simply isn't any logical reason for it. FO's can often be accommodating when confronted by someone who actually knows what they are talking about, of course that relies on the fact that you do?

Take the bolt out.

I wouldn't give my cocker pup a retrieve until recall is fast and 100% - some pups recall 100% at less than 5 months. Relationship is everything IMHO, as has been said you should be the centre of your pups world and everything good in his life comes from you. Have you trained a cocker pup before? if not then seek some help from someone with a good reputation, cockers can be wilful and its easy to go wrong. The conflict of advice between him being too young and old enough for training is common and every dog is different. I kept a cocker bitch from a littler 18 months ago now, at 5 months she was retrieving balls and dummies and even pigeons very nicely, her brother has only started retrieving well in the last month. Its a marathon not a sprint, too many people expect too much too soon, some dogs can do it but many can't - the secret to telling one dog from another. If you just worked on basic training (sit, stay, recall, heel on and off the lead) for 9 months you would do no harm at all so long as you dont let the dog hunt for himself. Throw in a few (two or three) retrieves once a week and if he doesn't bring them back then stop them for a couple of weeks - less can often be more and its easy to overtrain a cocker and make it so bored it look to make its own amusement and this is where the real problems start. 10-15 minutes of training is far too much for me, at his age it would be 2-3 minutes if he were mine.