Zechk

You don't - the passive modules are the exact same size as the electronic ones and interchangeable with the standard £100 plug. Essentially all of the plugs are the same - you just pick what insert you want (passive or electronic) and that's where the money is or isn't.

Best £100 I have spent on anything to do with shooting. I had mine done in the most lurid neon orange ever so I could spot them if I dropped them in the field. Super comfortable, effortless to look after and the best bit is you can use the passives when it's lashing it down without worrying that your 500 quids worth of electronic modules are going to get wet. I use them for everything, clays, game, foreshore, even for mixing cement under a car port the other day when the noise of the mixer in a confined space was making my vision blur. Just get them. Also for those in the London area the lovely lady at Aid2Hearing did my impressions and sent them off to Cens. Can't recommend her enough either. Edit: Oh and mine took 3 weeks!

At the risk of being in the minority, I have recently picked up a 28" Maxus Composite (The black plastic looking thing with a 3.5" chamber) for wildfowling and pigeon shooting and it's a fantastic gun. It's cycled everything I've thrown at it (although as it states in the manual you have to use 70mm or greater carts). The recoil is very soft, even with 42g mammoth steels in BB for geese and it's incredibly light and easy to point. It also came with a nice factory extended half choke which lengthens the barrels if you are after rangy duck with steel. It doesn't have a twist cap on the end of the fore-end, so breaking it down is even easier than most other autos. Even taking the trigger group out is a case of pushing out a couple of pins with a pen lid or whatever else you have to hand and since the internals are quite simple it's very easy to clean. Mine came with a duratouch finish which just shrugs off mud if you wipe it down with a cloth without scratching. You can also adjust the length of pull and cast/drop etc by changing shims and adding/removing spacers, but that's pretty standard stuff. The magazine cut-off switch is also a nice feature as it means you can eject your duck load and chuck a single mammoth in it if a goose happens to wander over without having to unload all three cartridges. Nicest thing about it however is the wonderful speedload system you only get with a Browning auto - rather than having to load the first cartridge into the ejection port and press the bolt release, you just shove it into the magazine and as long as the bolt is locked back the gun cycles it into the chamber mechanically and is instantly ready to fire. Makes quick reloading in the hide/on the foreshore an absolute doddle and it's put a couple of birds in the bag I would have missed otherwise so far.

Hi all, I've recently moved to Harpenden and am looking to find a game dealer who will take Woodies. I'm happy to change to steel shot if required and have a freezer which can accommodate plenty of birds. I was wondering about calling the chaps who advertise on here for frozen steel shot woodies, but if anyone knows of any other options (collect or drop off - I don't mind a bit of driving within reason) that would be ideal. Cheers in advance for any help

Canvey.

I've just ordered a load of these - Thanks Fenboy, I owe you one for the recommendation! Click and collect also means no postage which is another option if you have one near you.

Possibly mate, I'm living in Harpenden. Although I'm forced to drive all the way to Essex to do any actual shooting that isn't at clays (my Wildfowling club also has some rights for pigeon on a few farms). Getting any shooting in Bucks or Herts seems impossible. Where abouts are you based? (Edit: Put Berkshire but meant Bucks!)

Nice, that's even cheaper. Have you used them at all? For that price I'd be amazed if they float right way up

Congratulations on the duck! Lovely write up as usual.

Hi all, I picked up a Seeland catalogue the other day when I was in Rugged and Tough and noticed they were selling full bodied floating plastic duck decoys which were much cheaper than the 15 quid most places seem to be selling them for. I'm no expert in floating decoys as you can tell. I wondered if anyone had any experience with them at all? Seems a bit good to be true if normally they are so expensive. I wondered if the difference might be that they don't have a weighted keel, but I can't find the information online. The others I've been looking at are these: http://www.uttings.co.uk/p106166-sportplast-mallard-decoy/#.Vfh76BFVhBc which again I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on.

I'd agree also. I use the same.

Crisps are also guaranteed to bring a flock of pigeons into your decoys, just like anything that occupies both of your hands and causes you considerable upset when you drop it on the floor and tread on it trying desperately to grab your gun.

What nobody has mentioned is that they are useful if you are very new to shooting and want to practice mounting and firing etc in your living room. I got back into shooting after a long break recently and found it useful to swing my new gun around and get used to the trigger. Particularly since mine is a fully mechanical action, so it doesn't rely on the recoil force of the first shot to select the second barrel. I found that I was keeping my finger on the trigger too long at the clay ground and not selecting the second barrel properly. A bit of snap cap practice (listening for the second 'snap') cured this in no time and led to less embarrassment on the stands Also, using spent cartridges isn't something most people suggest although I'm no expert. A real snap cap has a spring behind the 'primer' so that it pushes back against the firing pin like an actual cartridge going bang. A spent cartridge has no spring, so using one is basically the same as dry firing. Final protip: Watch out if you are ejecting brass snap caps on a wooden floor. I ended up with a nice dent in both :(

Will Garfit's book is all you ever need IMO. The Kindle edition is perfectly ok as well - I often take it with me to look things up. Oh and yes, join BASC - definitely worth it.

Is that the battery that came in the package with the magnet Pinewood do, or did you buy it separately JDog? I'm thinking about the charger and battery included deal.

I use bamboo canes from a garden centre in exactly the same way as mentioned earlier. When it costs three quid for a large bundle why not - doesn't matter if the odd one splits. They bounce and flutter a bit in a breeze if you use thin canes and you can always sharpen the end to make it easier to mount the skull on it. Edit: Plus if you leave one in a field by mistake, it doesn't annoy you or the farmer much unlike wire cradles etc.

I wouldn't worry, I was out on Saturday and managed a grand total of three birds. It was so bloody windy where I was shooting that they were flying like missiles and constantly weaving around as they got hit by gusts. Incredible sport but if you are a relative novice like me very very tricky to hit I also didn't manage to get anything to decoy properly all day and mostly had to shoot them off the flight line I was under. They all vanished about 14:00 and I didn't see another pigeon for about 3 hours! Just the way it goes sometimes I guess.

Agreed on what the others have said. A couple of things nobody has mentioned that I find useful - - A waterproof plastic box with a carry handle for my cartridges, because who doesn't like getting a box of carts out of a slab only to find the rain has soaked the bottom of the box of 25 making it soggy and brittle. Nothing says success like showering floor of your hide in cartridges you have to painstakingly wipe the mud off! - A waterproof gun slip - not so much to keep the gun dry, if it's looked after a bit of rain wont hurt, but putting it in a soggy slip might if you leave it in there any length of time. Plus it's great for fowling. - A really decent flask - an anticipated cup of coffee turning out to be cold is rubbish. - A fine mesh net (a catch keeping net from a fishing shop for example) to keep flies from your birds in the summer. - A packet of wet wipes, because blood can take the blueing off your barrels and grit is never good for shotguns, so I like to clean my hands after setting up fresh shot birds on cradles etc. - And most importantly, don't forget your ear protection! I use moulded passive plugs from Cens. By far and away the best bit of shooting kit I've ever picked up, plus no electric gubbins to worry about getting wet. Get them made in a bright colour (mine are a fetching neon orange) so that if you drop one you will be able to find it again! Aid2hearing did the moulds for me, lovely lady and very professional.

I honestly didn't know that was the case, my apologies, I had assumed that since my gun is under a year old all modern guns were the same! You learn something new and all that.

Also remember that when shooting steel you shouldn't be using anything tighter than a half choke. It even says it on the side of my choke tubes. It's an easy thing to forget if you have been out whacking pigeons with lead or something.

42" I think the 10 looks like the best fit if you take layers into account, but I'm just a little concerned they will be massive. I suppose if they were big I could always sell them and import a second pair in the size 9.

Hi All, So I'm 6 foot, 84kg and have a 32 inch waist. I've also got size 9 feet. I was wondering if anyone who has ordered the dry plus waders from the states can give any advice on the boot sizing? Here is a link: http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=731363 Their size 10 (which I understand to be a UK 9) waders have a 44-47 inch chest! I'm going to get lost somewhere inside all that material so I was hoping the size 9 might work. Anybody able to say how a size 9 or 10 compares to the UK equivalent? Cheers

Excellent read, thanks anser2. Errm, I mean, romantic nonsense! Down with this sort of thing!

Ha ha, I can't please everyone. And yes Silver, that would sadly be more accurate. I did shoot more pigeons though, and those are clearly the romantic man's game bird or something... Also, upon telling the missus someone on the internet had called me romantic she roared with laughter and responded with something along the lines of 'well I can tell they haven't met you then'.

I went out for the first time the other day. We were in fields rather than the foreshore after some geese which fly a particular line. The morning was a slate gray mixture of fog and rolling sea-fret drizzle. Sat in a ditch at 5am I was struck by the way the day comes calling. The colours don't arrive at once, but each gently starts to claw their way through the night. I think the deep green of a few blades of grass came through first, then the golden glow of stubbles still not cultivated in. This is what the geese were after. The way the sounds of night blend into day was amazing as well. Gentle velvet at night turning to louder brightness by day. I didn't do more than bag about 15 mosquitoes at first, but then the sound of geese! I and my shooting partner sprang quietly from our chairs, dropping ear defenders into place. He took up some slightly amateurish attempts at honking on his shiny new goose call. But alas, they drifted through dawn out of sight and shot. I suggested he avoid attempting a full time career as a goose impersonator. We went back to sitting and I contemplated some reeds for a while. At least it wasn't cold. Then gliding from the mist like ghosts they came. Canada's, at least ten of them, slow and huge and real. So utterly unlike the pigeons I spend much time out after. They were, sadly, on the very edge of shot. How we prayed they would turn, and they did slightly, but they were still a reasonably long way out. We waited until it was obvious they would come no closer and shot, but missed at about 45 yards. The geese for their part simply dipped their wings and swooped back the way they came. No flapping and flailing like pigeons, just a few alarmed honks. Later that day we nailed a few pigeons but we hardly saw an adult all day and very few seemed to be about. Then it was off to the flighting ponds after some duck that night. Again the night came creeping, sinking inky fingers into the water and wrapping me and my friend up in the cool evening air. The sun settled for warming Oz and scampered off over the horizon. Four mallard circled and landed in a small splash just over from the pond we were waiting at. Typical. So off we went to push them up, but sadly I was limping due to an idiotic accident earlier in the weekend involving a kitchen knife, my foot, and a whole lot of cursing. I couldn't keep up with my partner and was out of range when he startled them. He managed to miss. Silent as statues we stood in the long grasses and reeds around the pond, hoping for more, and literally 20 seconds after the previous shots a wigeon shot in like a missile over my friend's shoulder. He'd only just finished sliding the cartridges home and closing the action, but like lighting he shot without even realising he had. The shot took the bird in mid air and every single pellet hit it in the back. The pattern hadn't even had time to spread out fully, so close was the bird when my friend pulled the trigger. How he even hit when it was in mid air and travelling like a rocket we had no idea. It looked to us like he'd hit it as it landed about 25 yards away in the middle of the pond. I waited, ready, as he went to wait by the water line for the duck to blow close enough to retrieve, standing so my back was to him and I couldn't swing in his direction, but sadly that was it for the flight and I'll have to wait for another time to bag my first duck. All in all, a pretty magical day. That first sight of geese, so low and slow in the early morning light, will live with me forever.