matgriff

Recently got my SGC and gun (winchester 101 XTR) Been shooting pigeons on and off for a few years with friends.. advice from this forum was to get some lessons on clays, so I've booked in for 2hrs on Tuesday at Mickley Hall shooting school, which is quite close to me. Any tips ? Thanks Mat

Hi, yes my mistake... he told me he got in in the late 1980's... which would be nearly 30 yrs ago not 20..time flies :-) I did read a bit about scarce supply of spares, but to be honest it's like new, so with the moderate use I'll give it I can't imagine it needing any spares for the foreseeable future. Mat

OK guys, thanks for the advice.. I did read up a bit before buying this gun, mostly good reports... but I'm not too precious about this kind of thing, so I think for £400 it'll serve me well as a total novice :-) Mat

Hi I just bought my first shotgun. Been shooting on/off for years, mainly air rifles and odd times with a friend who has a Browning Semi auto. I have two Air arms rifles, a TX 200 HC & an S400 (pcp) A guy I work with had a Winchester 101 XTR lightweight, 27" barrels , came in genuine hard case, including 6 chokes, key, cleaning kit etc... the gun looks almost new, in fact you'd be hard pushed to tell it has ever been used, it's completely unmarked. He said he's had it about 20 years, bought from new and only put around 100 cartridges through it in that time. He let me have it for £400, which I think is pretty good ? I've cleaned it (although it was already spotless) but not used it yet. Any tips or advice on using this particular gun ? Thanks Mat

OK thanks for the advice, that's what I'll start with then :-) Mat

OK thanks... it's the translation between the american choke size and English sizes that I need to look up then :-) Basically I've been shooting off/on since forever, air rifles mainly plus occasional outings decoying pigeons with a mate. So I'd describe myself as a complete novice/beginner..with a shotgun, I have two nice air rifles that I use quite a bit. I now have a place (was a farm) with approx 2 acres, surrounded by woods/fields that I have permission from the farmer to use as I like for shooting. I can shoot on my own land, and will probably start out by bagging a few pigeons as they come in to roost late evening... plus a bit of general decoying in the fields when they cut the wheat and stuff down. So for now the advice is just for general learning/starting out. Thx Mat

Thanks for the info.. regarding the chokes... according to the winchester manual, the chokes are identified by notches machined in the end (so you can see what's fitted) the table gives the "pattern" with lead & steel shot for the different chokes. This ranges from : Full- 1 notch IMP modified- II notches Modified-III notches IMP cylinder- IIII notches Skeet - IV notches Cylinder- no notches Where full seems to be the tightest choke and cylinder the widest How does that generally translate to sizes, and which one to use in which barrel ? Sorry if this seems like a stupid question.. These are with lead shot. Mat

OK, great... thanks for the replies, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I'll pick up a few boxes of 30g #6 and 28g #8 to get me started,

Hi, my first post on this forum. I've just bought my first shotgun, it's a Winchester 101 light in fantastic condition, came at the right price from someone I know, so I'm sure it'll be fine to get me going. What would be the best cartridges to use for general purpose shooting, pigeons mainly on my land ? I'm not going to get hung up on the fine technicalities, as I'm sure it'll take me a while to get to a level where I'll notice the difference between types. I just want something that's reasonably priced and suitable to start with, so looking for advice mainly about using 28g, 30g, 32g etc and shot size, and perhaps the main difference with cartridges for example if I want to go and do some clay shooting. Similar advice on chokes would also be welcome. Thanks Mat