London Best

I think the first rule is never sell a gun you can shoot with, because you WILL regret it.

Both my fourtens are English SBS doubles and both have 65mm chambers and very little choke. Both right barrels are imp cyl and one left is nearly half choke. My maximum load is half ounce (14grm). I use small shot to keep the pattern dense, never larger than English 7’s for stuff as big as pheasants, smaller if I have it for smaller birds. Even 9’s are effective on pigeon and crows to at least 30 yards because of the pattern. I shot 78 crows one morning with 14grm 9’s. Forget trying to shoot at 12 bore ranges with a .410. Forget big shot and stop worrying about choke. Just enjoy the little guns for what they are.

IMHO, best advice is: forget about chokes and just shoot.

Exactly! You ask the farmer, because more than likely he holds the shooting rights. But not always.

+1

NO! You have permission from the holder of the shooting rights. Two totally different things!

I have a .375H&H which used to be conditioned for deer and fox. Now it just says AOLQ. To be fair I have never shot anything with it in this country.

The (ex) Labour M.P. for Derby North, Chris Williamson, used to be a hunt saboteur. I remember him at one hunt at Elvaston Castle some time around 1969/1972. He was throwing marbles under horse’s hooves trying to unseat riders. Nice man.!

I think they will do custom jobs. Might be worth asking.

Sounds not too bad, with the ammo and dies. Good luck.

I THINK that’s the model that replaced mine, sometime early sixties. Mine groups factory Winchester stuff between an inch and a bit more. I used 45 grn Sierra handloads for twenty five years, grouping under a inch, but 35grn V max over Lil’gun powder is an eye opener and gives 3000fps. Value-wise I don’t really know. I paid £190 for mine in 1995 but that has nowt to do with the present price of fish. I would see how much a new CZ costs today an pay 50-60% of that.

Have you tried ‘Hatchbags’?

See if you can get to shoot it perhaps? If it’s any good, one shot and you’re hooked!! What make?

It really depends WHY the gun shop said it was worthless. Maybe he wants it for nowt? Maybe the barrel is scrap? Maybe something else wrong? Or perhaps he may think it will be hard to sell on. My local gun shop, a friend of mine, says all SBS shotguns are worthless. He wouldn’t give you ten Bob for a Purdey. One thing for sure.........that rfd has never used a Hornet!

.22 Hornets are a little bit like double fourtens. Folk that have them may not use them very much but they will never part with them. mine is a BRNO ZKW465 from 1958, groups on a drawing pin at 100 yds and is deadly on foxes up to 200yds. Not for sale. lots of people these days buy larger, more modern calibres for fox. I can’t comment on ammo prices as I have never ever bought any Hornet ammo, but I reckon I load them for about the same price as a regular shotgun cartridge.

@ Marsh Man: wot e sed. i have seen quite a few people buy a gun only to sell it after a few years because they have failed to find somewhere to shoot.

Get to know the estate keepers, manager, owner. Try to become a beater for them. Just get your face known.

The thing I found when spending two years knocking on every farm door I passed was that those farmers who said “yes” to open permission said “yes” to everyone who asked. Consequently, other shooters were wandering about every time I turned up anywhere and there was nothing to shoot on any of the ground. PS ‘This was in the 1960’s, can’t imagine things have got any better now.

That’s fine if it is your own property you are making a mess on. Your average UK farmer or landowner is going to take a very dim view of that. You would not be shooting anything there again.

I didn’t mean to refer to you personally jacko, it was a generalisation. Stick at it, we all (mostly) had to go through the same as you. I found knocking on doors asking for open permission to shoot was a complete waste of time. Had far more success if I could say, “I understand you own the field on the corner, with whatever crop. I see it’s being hammered by pigeons. Would you give me permission to shoot on there, just for this afternoon, blah, blah?” You get the idea. Good luck. ,

@bluesj, good post. Your permissions show exactly what I was trying to tell Jacko. You have been around farming all your life and are now lucky to have two ‘open’ permissions. Nobody said it would be easy. Been there, done that. Beginners expect far too much.

What I meant was that people, especially farmers, are naturally suspicious of strangers and take a long while before they trust someone. If you’re very fortunate you may do it in twenty years. lol

I found it helps if you can get to know the local farmers before asking them for permission to shoot. Buy your eggs from them, potatoes, the odd lamb if they kill their own. If you do it regularly you become a familiar face, conversations start, you may even be looked on as a friend. After about thirty years the permissions start opening up.

There is a row of council houses in the next village. Every one has a driveway but nearly all the residents leave their vehicles on the road, causing a considerable hazard as there is a bend just after one end of the row of houses. One of my pet hates. Vehicles parked on the streets are a d****d nuisance and it should be illegal. EVERYWHERE!

I have heard that in parts of Japan if you don’t have off street parking you are not allowed a car.