Townie

Very much like the F3 game cartridges. And the LiteSpeed clay ones.

I think it's brilliant. Mrs T has to gear herself up to watch as she takes much of the scenes of medical treatment personally.

Embarrassed to admit I'm watching and enjoying very much. Good after a drink or several.

That's interesting. I'll find out if he had any maritime connection.

Sorry to be dim, but having watched too many US prison movies, shackles are what prisoners wear on their ankles. What's a shackle in this context?

I say blade for want of a better word, but it's smooth and rounded. I take it that the spike at the bottom is for removing stones from horses' hooves! Any help appreciated. It belonged to an in-law's father who would have been well into his 80s now.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I'll go and have a think!

I'm unfortunate enough to wear prescription specs and to be ancient, so my eyes aren't as sharp as they were. I've held amber shooting glasses to my eyes and they made a big difference, so I'm thinking about amber or yellow clip ons. Any thoughts?

My completely uninformed take on this: someone was killed and police are required to establish if a criminal act led to this. They arrested him because they know he killed the knifeman, it gives the accused additional rights and they can't yet say that no criminal act took place. Same thing happened to the householder who killed a burglar in self defence in SE London a couple of years ago and charges were dropped (if memory serves). Having said that, if matters are as they appear to be on the face of it, if charges aren't dropped it would be morally wrong.

This is completely true. They're green.

Sorry to resurrect, but a funny thing happened at the gunshop recently. The had only the £12 a box premium stuff in fibre wad in the load I was after, so I asked what they had in the cupboard behind the counter that all good gunshops have. After much ferreting, three boxes of Lyalvale Pigeon Somethings appeared, priced at £2.99! Gunshop chap expressed surprise and didn't know how long they'd been there. Used a box at clays and they were fine. Took a box to a driven day and pheasants were dead in the air. Mixed in my pocket for subsequent drives, couldn't distinguish them from the Lyalvale Ultimate and Fiocchi F3s. Couple of points occurred: When do properly stored cartridges become too old to use? Why do pheasants need more special cartridges than pigeons? BTW, I'm not as tight as I sound, but I do like a bargain.

It's called a geoscope (I think). My grandfather was in a tunnelling company and let slip the odd story that sounded unbelievable. If memory serves, the whole thing was an official secret until 1963, or something of the sort. And there's a good book: War underground by Alexander Barrie. Worth a read if interested.

They are my local gunshop's cheap cartridge. I've used probably 5000 and rate them highly.

Read a terrifying piece in last week's Shooting Times about the wisdom of taking a second gun to driven days in case of malfunction. Does anyone do it? Hadn't considered, but I am a worrier.

I'm half way through it. Different world!

Just this minute been watching Jonny off The Gun Shop playing with one at Holts! Damascus barrel, built 1882.

Yes, you're right. More of a hollow bang, not a crack. Also just thought that I'd tipped the cartridges into a bag and then transferred to pockets as required. Pellets only in the pocket, so crimp failure must have happened there.

Clay shooting today and for the first time in 50 years shooting, had a squib. Little pop and I thought I saw the wad exit the barrel. A misfire drill later, barrel clear and the empty had nothing odd going on. Some unburnt powder about. Packing up, I found my coat pocket had a lot of shot in it, which must have been from the faulty cartridge. Could the lack of shot mean the powder didn't burn properly? And what had happened to the crimp? Fiocchi LiteSpeed plastic wad. Third slab of the 1,000 and nothing wrong with the 189 others used today, so don't propose to take them back.

German army surplus Goretex for me (plain green, not the flecktarn). Got them 15 years ago and they've served me very well.

Enjoyed that. Thank you for posting.

Before starting, I'd like to stress that I am the least macho bloke you could meet. Mid-60s, 5'10", medium build with a bit of padding round the middle. Office job all my life, in appearance like a cross between Walter White off Breaking Bad and Jeremy Corbyn. I've come across in various shooting sites Fiocchi LiteSpeed 26g cartridges described as having a 'savage recoil', someone saying they would only fire anything over 24g through their semi and a couple of references to never putting anything more than 21g through a modern-ish s/s. I know that felt recoil is subjective and I've seen younger shooters shooting (in my opinion!) excessive loads at pheasants, so I won't bang on about millennials. Anyone else come across this? In the days when most people used s/s, my shooting friends and I all used 32g loads with no hesitation.

I think I make 5. I've used many sorts of cartridge and they all perform the same for me. Three Crowns particularly nice to shoot though. But fully understand the confidence point.

I'm working on the assumption that gunshops make more on the premium ones and they're keen to push them. And agree with Fellside about confidence. I like the Fiocchis, but my head tells me they're not that much different to anything else.

This has been done to death, but a bit of a personal view. Small driven day yesterday and I'd popped into the gunshop for 50 cartridges. I've used Fiocchi F3 for a couple of seasons and the chap in the shop suggested Lyalvale Supreme Game Ultimate, that he kindly let me have for a couple of £ off to try. First drive with the Ultimates. Crisp recoil, nice to use, couple of clean kills. Second drive with the Fiocchi. Precisely the same. Subsequent drives with a mix - couldn't tell you which was which. My point is that Just Cartridges sell the Ultimates at £389 a thousand and the Fiocchi at £319. That'll probably work out £2 a box more at the quantity I buy and I can't see that premium cartridges are worth the money. Both 30g no6 in lead by the way. Thoughts please!

I'm not the only closet Guardian reader then!