Dave at kelton

Absolutely right. Grew up a mile away and favourite meal when I go back to see me mum, just add chips mushy peas and gravy!

The trouble is Editors control content and if facts don’t grab headlines they don’t get in the publication. It’s called Rabble Rousing!

Spoke to C&G this week and not expecting a delivery from Alliant until middle of next year. I have gone on back order for Steel and Blue Dot. Expensive or not the wildfowling guns have to be fed and commercial ammunition is not available.

Yes my wife uses domestos on them.

Why don’t you take my approach to life? Everyone is an **** **** until they prove otherwise. That way I am only ever pleasantly surprised when someone proves they are not! Contributors to the forum excluded of course😂. What is an acronym?

Yes and if you make them in black with a little lace around it’s sexy. Sorry nothing is sexy about peeing yourself whether when laughing or otherwise.!

It’s handlers who can’t leave the whistle hanging around their neck! Only time I do this is to encourage a young dog perhaps over an obstacle such as a burn, or if there are other distractions such as unpicked birds to run past/ignore.

Get a large Ham from the Cash and Carry and Roast it. Serve with whatever else is easy, new potatoes, sweetcorn etc

Macwets no but whatever gloves you eventually go for I recommend a Hot Hands heat pad in the back. Helps stimulate the circulation.

That is a seriously nice gun! Hope you find someone who will appreciate it and use it!

Agreed and interesting to have read Bill Harrimans article on using steel in an old percussion gun, in this months BASC magazine. No protection and no damage to Damascus or twist steel barrels! Not sure I will follow suit in my percussion guns but there we go. Admittedly will be slower loads with less pressure than nitro but…..

Well done great post. It is a pain when another dog runs in like that but that’s also part of the lesson for a young dog and yours came out with flying colours! I had a young dog out on our shoot last week. A couple of retrieves on pheasant and a woodcock. That satisfaction outweighed shooting more pheasants than I have ever had there.

You can see where this is going. Just like mobile phones, manufacturers reinventing the wheel just to be able to sell new ones by declaring the last model as out of date. You must have HP Steel Proof to be safe so come and buy our latest……blah blah blah. Trading on fear. Well, having shot standard steel in an old thin walled SxS English sidelock, in a modern but not steel proof OU, and HP steel in standard proofed semi auto with tight choke, I won’t be upgrading! None of the aforesaid have suffered any adverse side effects and nor have I.

Yep Wildfowlers are happily using full, aftermarket, chokes with big shot. A number of my pals use T shot. All are still alive and kicking with a full hand of fingers and no split barrels or chokes. I have also said this before. Our North American brothers have been using big shot at faster speed and higher pressure in precisely the same modern guns as us (best English aside). No issues and a simpler life. What’s our problem? Well it’s CIP rules that classify anything bigger than 4 as high pressure and limit velocity. if you want to get hung up with all of this steel stuff that’s up to you but many of us are just getting on with it to no ill effect to ourselves or our guns as Scully says. The only point I would make on choke is that you need a lot less choke with steel and in general I do not go above half, even in my wildfowling guns, based on pattern.

Agree all of this but I now use brass cases.

Will do when I get the chance

You are correct nor am I and that is the problem. The cardboard cupwads I buy from Claygame are paired with an inverted cup wad as obturator which I make myself so I can produce an entirely degradable nontoxic load. The only plastic used is the cartridge case.

Connor, you are correct on the fibre shot cups but they are not suitable in small bores as they are too bulky requiring a thick wall to protect the barrels. We desperately need manufacturers to come up with an eco wad that they are prepared to make available to the home loading market. Our problem is also that as we have to move up a couple of shot sizes in steel all of our loads are bulkier than the equivalent lead load. Pressure in this area from BASC and the other shooting organisations would be greatly appreciated!

You are wrong on this as Claygame are having these made in various gauges, 12 and larger in various sizes to accommodate different steel shot loads. I discuss these with them annually and have just had some more delivered.

Yes you can shoot BP through a nitro gun and I have many times. One tip is when you have finished fire a couple of nitro fibre wad shells through to clean out most of the BP fowling. To clean out your barrels scrub with a 50:50 mix of concentrated windscreen washer fluid and water then dry off. This removes nearly all the BP residue. Once dry clean as usual and oil. I use this all the time in my percussion guns.

I answered it. Took about five minutes. My main point was that any sort of restriction before suitable, effective, and equivalent cost alternatives were available was premature. This was particularly pertinent to small bores I.e. smaller than 12 bore. Yes I would encourage everyone to complete!!!

This. Pin fire and percussion guns are cheap as chips. Probably cheaper than deactivated and don’t need a license.

Peter Dyson, or Brownells.

At last…somebody with a sense of humour!😂

There are also a number of non toxic loading forums that are a good source of loading data and materials. You have to remember that, from a pure liability point of view, people are loathe to share data. That is why you need to use manufacturers or suppliers data like Claygame. I once obtained data from a well known writer for Shooting Times. The loads didn’t feel right so I sent a batch to the proof house. I was suitably admonished and politely told not to be so silly in future. The pressures developed in their words were “suitable only as a proof load” and should under no circumstances be used! They may well feel let down but don’t need to keep telling us at every available opportunity. Surely the point has been made and constant repetition doesn’t make it any stronger; it is just boring!