Alfred

I have one and if I only ever keep one 12g for the rest of my life then it will be the Columbus. Its a fantastic shotgun, light and fits me perfectly, the Silver Pigeon feels like a scaffolding plank compared to it. I've had no trouble at all with it despite it being abused in all weathers, its the gun I always take with me and always end up using no matter what the circumstances, although I'm mainly a game shooter and only shoot clays very occasionally. Its been in rain, mud, dropped whilst climbing fences and generally used well, I look after it and strip it to clean it thoroughly every single time it comes out of the cabinet, but its been faultless. I'm sure its about 10yrs old now and from what I remember its one of the first ones bought in by Fawcetts, so I don't know what the newer ones are like. I haven't been in Fawcetts for a few months but I'm sure they've got a brand new one (that is an early serial number but never been used) for about £1300 and its a steal, you'd have to pay more than twice as much to get something better. I actually considered buying it as a spare just in case anything ever happened to the one I've got. Mick Nicholson really liked mine and although he's sponsored by Zoli and (I think) Fawcetts he's a straight talking bloke and would say if it was ****, so if its good enough for him then its certainly good enough for me. Bottom line is try it out, if it fits well and feels good then you'll enjoy owning it.

Lets not forget that the miners wanted to cause maximum disruption, so they held secret meetings where they would plan how to cause the most trouble possible. And the stuff about police brutality is a joke, how many police threw paving slabs off motorway bridges? What annoyed me was that it wasn't about the avarage working man, neither Scargill or the miners cared about that, they were all just out for themselves. The irony is that the miners were played as mugs by Scargill and the people behind the scenes, they didn't realise until it was too late. The comedy is that some of them are still that blind that they blame Mrs Thatcher for it all. I'll say this, the people pulling Scargills strings did such a good propaganda job that even now some people still think the Tory government brought down the mines.

Ahh I see, victim mentality. You have no idea what I have experienced and I'm not about to get into a competition to see who has witnessed the most sectarian violence, so I'll leave you to your opinions, I'm in too good a mood to get into a bitter argument and drag up memories of events from many years ago.

My 10yr old doesn't believe that we didn't have mobile phones or computers when I was his age. I think I might have had a Spectrum 48k by then, or maybe it was a year or so later, but mobile phones were unheard of, my mum just told us to come home when it got dark. My lad goes out now and says "phone me when its time to come in".

There was murder going on here as well, have a read about David Wilkie, a poor taxi driver who was killed by two scum miners that dropped a concrete block on his car. His crime? Driving a miner to work. The NUM blamed the government for encouraging miners to return to work, Kim Howells should be expelled from the country for that comment. When the two murderers were convicted another 700 scumbags walked out of work in sympathy, even though the strike was now over. Unfortunately the two killers had their sentence and conviction reduced and got out after 5yrs, while Mr Wilkies children grew up without a father. Thats miners happy to murder people to protect their pensions and big salaries. They weren't just striking to feed their families, they were happy to murder innocent men to get what they wanted.

I thought he'd smashed them all in during a fit of temper?

I think your statement only goes to prove that she was a very strong and intelligent woman who made the right decisions despite the pressures placed upon her. The miners and the Ulster workers both tried to cripple the country for their own ends, she saw them off and ensured that people got to lie in the bed they had made for themselves.

Did you actually know any miners? My family were mostly miners, we lived right next door to a large colliery. My dad decided not to go down the mines and was a car mechanic working at a local garage, I remember my uncle laughing at him because he was earning four times what my dad was for much less hours, plus he had a benefits and pension package that my old man could only dream of. So with all these miners earning many times what they were worth its no wonder the whole lot disappeared up its own ****. Same as Grangemouth, the company went to the workforce looking for a bit of common sense, I know two people who work there and they're both on upwards of 80k a year. It wasn't sustainable with the pensions and benefits package that they had, so the company approach the workforce looking for a bit of common sense to help everyone so it can stay open - and what did Unite do? Exactly what Scargill did, they couldn't care less about the bigger picture or the normal working man, its all about politics and posturing, so they carry on demanding salaries and benefits that simply weren't sustainable, with the end result that company decide to wind up. Thats exactly what happened with the miners, the government (and more importantly the tax paying public) didn't have the money to keep stuffing it into the NUM's pockets, so they had to call for something sensible to happen. Scargill obviously doesn't have the brains for sensible and crusing on a wave of union power he fooled the miners into thinking that they could hold the whole country to ransom to keep bleeding the tax payers dry. Fortunately Thatcher had bigger balls than Callaghan and kept the country from going bankrupt. I understand it was an unpleasant time but I shudder to think what would have happened without the Winter of Discontent and if Mrs Thatcher hadn't come into power. We'd have had 20yrs of Eastern Block style leadership and by the 1990's we'd all have been on food ration books and in so much debt that this recent economic crisis wouldn't have mattered because we'd be living in a third world country anyway.

At a guess..... He's been a bad boy (I know not why). Moderation is severe on this site. You're about to be told off.

The breeder had weaned mine on Skinners but he would only pick at it and his stools often had blood in them. We took him to the vets and they recommended we try James Welbeloved but there was barely any improvement. Then at the recommendation of a mate we swapped him over to Royal Canin and he immediately improved, put weight on and looked miles better. So we kept him on that until we happened to be in a country store and there was a rep from Applaws in there while we were buying Royal Canin, so we tried him on it. He wolfed his food down and within a month we noticed a huge difference, now four months on he looks brilliant. During the shooting season we supplement it with a share of whatever bag we bring home (duck & pheasant) but the majority of his food is Applaws. It is expensive but you feed him less because it isn't bulked up with rubbish, so it isn't actually that bad. The other very noticable thing is his skin and coat. He was getting dry skin and irritation in his paws, but since the Applaws his skin and coat is brilliant. We were all set to pay for tests to see if he had an allergy or some other obscure condition but since feeding him that its all cleared up. I sound like a rep for them but I can honestly say its made such a difference to him I'm more than happy to recommend it. The lads I shoot with have all been asking what I feed him on because over the last few months he's really filled out and looks great.

Exactly. You want to thank your lucky stars its as good as that Comrade KW. If Scargill and the unions had their way it would be like 1970's Poland. You'd have to queue round the block for your pound of flesh instead of demanding it on here. Solidarity my ar$e.

I'm amazed that the old miners are still blaming Thatcher, even the NUM has disowned Scargill. He's been exposed for what he really is, sponging off the paying members of the NUM, trying to buy a property under Thatchers right to buy scheme....his shame has no bounds. The man is a total fraud and he crippled the British mining industry with his own greed. If they'd been sensible we might still have a mining industry but they all blindly followed Scargill with his mission of greed and look where it got them. On the dole while he laughed all the way to the bank. Thank god Mrs Thatcher held firm. Imagine the state the country would be in if people like Scargill had been allowed to rule.

I've been feeding my Springer on Applaws for the last 4 months and the difference is plain to see. Everyone has commented on how well he's looking, he's really filled out on it. Apparantly its 75% human quality meat, the rep ate a handful himself to back up his claims. The dog likes it and as I said the proof is in the pudding and he's looking great.

From his perspective he was right, and the miners and the NUM got exactly what they deserved because of it. If you allow yourself to be blindly led by a pig with his snout in the trough then you'll get your just deserts. Those poor chaps at Grangemouth almost went the same way, led by the big earners at Unite, sitting back with gravy pouring down their chins while the working man loses everything.

Legal but personally I wouldn't do it. I'd wait until it was out and about later and then shoot it. No trauma for the fox that way. Digging something out that way doesn't seem very sporting at all.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I don't have faith in any party at all. Maybe a huge UKIP vote will shake up enough people and make them realise how unhappy we all are. The socialists are rotten to the core, people like Scargil are vermin and thankfully his kind have finally been exposed for what they are. Labour appear to be a hollow party propped up by champagne swilling fat cats and greedy union bosses with gravy pouring down their chins. Anyone that votes for them is clearly stupid. But like I said I don't have any faith in anyone else either at the moment.

Easier to shoot a duck on a pond with a head shot from an air rifle than it is to shoot them on the wing with a 12g shotgun. I haven't shot a duck with an air rifle for 20yrs, but I don't remember it being particularly difficult. I don't really do 'sporting' for the sake of it, I shoot stuff to eat, if I want 'sporting' I go clay shooting. If I'm on a driven shoot and the birds are silly high or too far in front I don't even raise my gun, I'd rather not bother than wing one and have it run away injured, there are enough runners as it is without taking shots unlikely to drop them instantly.

Refused a license for a previous firearms offence and being a known football hooligan. No surprises there. I know quite a few people with previous offences, someone I know has previous for theft and receiving stolen goods (albiet over 15yrs ago) and they have licenses. Any previous for firearms or violence will probably result in a refused application.

I'm terribly sorry Mick, I thought you were advising him not to, like this.... But at last we agree, he is fine to clean his gun in his garden as long as his neighbours aren't mental cases. Good of you to clarify.

Are you a religious sort Mick? That comes across as a bit of a sermon - thouest shall not clean thy gun in the presence of simple town folk, for they knowest not what it doth do, be it on thy own heads if thou follows thy law, great fire and brimstone shall smite thee if thouest does not heed my words.... I suppose I'll have to settle for being a sheep. Whilst you appear to be a weasel, creeping round in case you upset any of the nasty townies. To the OP - clean your gun in your garden if you want mate, the only thing I'd be worried about is the wrong people seeing it and word getting around and someone coming to pinch them, but unless you live in a rough area its unlikely the wrong people will see you doing it. Obviously common sense should prevail, don't point it at your neighbours windows, wave it around like a lunatic, drink a bottle of scotch while you do it or anything silly like that. Its worth mentioning that if you don't get on with them then its not a good idea, they might report you for trying to intimidate them and a complaint like that really can cause you problems. The bottom line is that unless your neighbours are idiots or a bit strange, or you have a running feud then you'll be fine.

My lad is 10yrs old and actually a bit small for his age, he used my 12g game gun with 21g Comp X's in recently and did struggle with the length but if it had fitted him properly then it would be perfect for him. Its not the guage thats the issue, its the gun fit.

I clean mine in the garden if its nice, I sit on the patio with a nice cup of tea and clean it, sometimes if I'm feeling really risky I put the wireless on. Once - and this is gods honest truth - I even did it with my shirt sleeves rolled up. I imagine the neighbours were aghast. You must have some really strange people as neighbours if you have to scuttle about in secret in fear of one of them reporting you. Either that or they think you're a little bit strange, which to be honest wouldn't surprise me based on what I see you post here, you clearly have some sort of guilt complex.

If that can happen then its a sad state of affairs. I was doing some gardening earlier and was cleaning my spade off in the garden, I remember reading over the years about a few people being bludgeoned to death with spades. I hope my neighbours don't report me, it could spell the end of my gardening :(

I doubt very much my neighbours would be alarmed if I cleaned my shotguns in the garden, one of them is a policeman. I haven't actually announced I have them but they must know I have guns as i put them in and out of the Land Rover when I go shooting, they must have seen me once or twice. What would concern me is if I didn't know them well and were they the sort of people who would gossip about it in the wrong places so I ended up with someone breaking in to steal them. The rest of the questions have been answered. Storing it barrels down after oiling it is good advice, so it doesn't run into the stock and trigger mechanism if you do put a bit too much on.

Saw this yesterday, one of the lads hit a big cock pheasant hard with both barrels, big cloud of feathers but it flew on. We looked for it for ages but no joy. With all these threads about cartridge quality it makes you wonder if it had been incorrectly loaded with tiny shot instead of No.5's and just bounced off with a flurry of feathers. After losing the odd runner on a driven shoot I always send my dog straight on to fetch dropped birds immediately, in fact I don't even watch the dog, he sits behind until the birds start dropping and then he does his job, fetches them as they fall and drops them back on the peg, then waits for the next one. Someone once made a comment about the dog just running in and doing what he wants, but he does exactly what I want from a dog, I shoot and he fetches. If I need to he'll recall instantly on the whistle, but he knows his job and I just let him do it while I concentrate on the sky.