getthegat

Sorry no this gun is now sold. Sorry for late reply.

Last time I used blackberry's, wild apple and what I think was possibly a suger beet globe, to make a stew.

Do you normally shoot a semi auto or over under? Looking down a SxS is very different, so much wider, but if money will stretch, then certainly a coach and some alterations to the gun will have you hitting targets again.

Sounds like my dog, she tends to snuffle most of the feathers off before deciding to bring the bird to me with what must be an unpleasant mouthful of feathers that I have to help remove. I did pigeon breast tonight, wrapped in bacon and fried in butter and rapeseed oil, with fresh rosemary, buttered kale, dauphinoise potatoes, carrots roasted in orange juice and a homemade sweet onion chutney. Juvenile birds,so cooked rare. Blinding 😁 Everyone enjoyed.

Dumb question of the day; what does sugar beet look like? I have a field of globes near me, they are light green in colour, about the size of a parsnip, tastes like a sweet beetroot and has similar ring pattern when cut open. Tops are a little like spinach. Hoping it may attract birds when the frost and snow hits us. I guess it's a cover crop and if it is sugar beet, there are no drop points anywhere near for the crop to be taken to.

Blinding red letter day. Well shot. Some big old cartridges those 36grm 5.5s and to start with just a magnet.... light kit going, but darn heavy going home. Hope you had a local game dealer to take that lot.

Thanks for that. It's another challenge for sure and accuracy is just that bit more important. There's nothing better than a good clean long shot kill and it's just that little bit more special with a different size gun. I'm not allowing the word "little" to be attached to my 20 and today proved that at no point did I feel under gunned.

As I've mentioned in other threads, I've recently acquired a Franchi Raptor 20 bore and this morning was my first proper outing with it. There have been a few crows on one field, quite aways from any houses and seeing as it was before 6.00 when I started setting up, I figured on being thoughtful of my neighbors. It didn't work out with only one pige down in 45 minutes, which Soph did an excellent blind retrieval of, from a thick bushy, brambly ditch. We moved at 7.00 ISH across the road to the cultivated bean field which is now quite sparse of pigeons compared to last week. We did ok with mostly fairly average shots, the odd decent one and a good long crow. Of course with a new gun, there were one or two terrible misses. At one point, a bird flew across the field about 200 yards from me, it went like a missile, coming down from around 100 feet to just above ground level and a big flock of woodies flew up from the field in front of it, scattering in all directions. It was black and I didn't recognize it, but boy was it fast, an amazing site. I wish I could have seen if it got a pigeon for its efforts. Nearly all the birds we shot were juveniles and at one time within less than 15 seconds, 3 came in one after the other, all to fall to the #6 30grm Gamebore shells. Soph is still snuffling the feathers off the birds instead of clean retrievals, but we had a nice couple of hours with 19 and the crow for just over 30 shots. Now into my 60s I'm finding I like looking down a single barrel and prefer a lighter gun. Not sure of the exact weight, but I think the Raptor 20 is about 6lbs. I de-breasted the birds and found 3 different foods in the birds crops, non of which were beans.

Second that. Had the chance to be beside someone who shot a Mossy Hushpower I use to own. You can't appreciate how quiet they are shooting it yourself. I had the Raptor set on light load. Guess some clever bod on here would be able to tell me why they wouldn't cycle. On a positive note, getting 20 kills for just over 30 shots on my first proper outing with the newly acquired gun.....I'm happy 😁

Good luck man. I know what a gun can mean, my lovely Uncle left me his 1965 Franchi 48AL, means so much to me.

Phew! Not a rifle man myself, but wow, looks super cool

Totally understand. I run a small classic car business and the social media freaks the life out of me, like you say, so easy to hear just one side of a story. So in that case, many thanks for the excellent service and friendly helpful staff at Eastern Sporting here in Essex and Sporting Targets in Bedfordshire. What I liked was that to them it did not matter that I was not spending big bucks with them. Very professional. Great friendly service.

Good intel as always. Prepping the shot woodies after this mornings outing, I found rape in one crop, some small black and green round berries in another and barley in a third. I was shooting over cultivated beans!

First ever non cycling shell this morning, Hushpower 30 grm #5 in my newly acquired Franchi Raptor 20 bore. Some might say why were you putting subs though a non moderated gun anyway; well just because I wanted to see what they were like noise wise and they need using. Anyway, every shot resulted in a minor jam up. Once back on to Gamebore #6 30grms, all was well and 19 woodies and one crow proved the combo.

29! That's good. More than enough to carry home and great you share and trade with them.