Tonka54

Yep no problem at all , had a quick look around me and could see no Croatians licking their lips so I slipped it quietly back into the cut and it swam away happy.

Believe it or not, This double figure beauty of a common carp came from a venue in the centre of Loughborough. Not the big "Charnwood water", not Nanpantan reservoir but the canalised section of the river soar, yes the local canal is home to some big fish including Barbel. It's a waiting game for the bigger specimens though, because this section is heavily match fished for "bits" on the pole the bigger fish tend to be a bit wary, so it's a hard fish as they say. this one was eventually tempted by a bit of "Mothers Pride" bread crust, fished pop-up style two inches off bottom over a small bed of mashed bread. It lead me a merry dance up and down the cut and around the moored narrow boats for about 20 mins before finally coming to the net.

Thereby telling would be burglars to don their full face balaclava's and feel free to break into the property safe in the knowledge that they won't be recognised. That is unless it's the Irish crew from down the road, in which case you will know it was them because they will have sawn the wrong end off their shotguns.😁

Try Here : https://www.airgunspares.com/shotguns-rifles/accessories/shooting-accessories.html If no joy ask on this Facebook group that specialise in Miroku/Browning. (2) browning and miroku shotguns | Groups | Facebook Hope you get sorted bud.

Hard to tell from this photo as you cannot see the loading breach, but with a barrel length of 18.25 inches my best guess is air rifle.

Could have been worse, mine comes from Dundee/Scotland. Her way of solving a domestic argument is with a kiss, A Glasgow kiss that is.

LOL Loughborough is generally not to bad apart from a couple of housing estates and the town centre at night, Unfortunately I live just over the road from one of these estates and from time to time we do get a bit of street crime, but for some reason the local scallies don't tend to **** on their own doorstep. The estate I live opposite has ironically been named the "poets estate" , but in my opinion "little Beirut" would have been more appropriate.

You most definitely do not need anybody's permission to put CCTV cameras on your own property. the proviso is that they only cover your property, the cameras should not overlook anybody else's property or indeed the public highway or street. Having said that, there has been several occasions when the police have knocked my door and asked if by any chance, my cameras had picked up a street incident, so I don't think they are that strict about the rules if nobody complains.

Ditto

Yep it looks to me like it's proofed for steel, can't make out a "Fleur de lis" but there is definably a CIP S which is London and Birmingham proof stamping for standard and superior, but NOT for "HP" high performance. (see attached)

Yes this is the problem with quite a few of the "Shotgun classified sites", It was just as bad on Pigeon Watch when they used "Gun watch" as the preferred trading site. I posted about this problem a good while back. As you can see from the amount of replies, nobody seemed to give a **** then and I very much suspect nothing would have changed had we not ditched Gun Watch. Now that we have a sub forum of our own for the purpose of trading guns and accessories, we have the capability to edit posts when an item is sold or withdrawn to reflect this. However, for this to work, it will require the seller of the item to take an unselfish attitude and actually be bothered to update the post accordingly. But human nature, being what it is, I would not hold your breath.

Looking at the signature on the authors original post, Although it's not clearly legible I think you can at least discern 6 separate characters in the surname. Also, as @stockybasher says, the content of the painting is a bit out of the normal genre for Roy Mason. For these reasons, I think the best guess so far would be Roy Manson. In one of my previous posts, I attached a photo of one of Manson's paintings and the signature on it closely resembles the one on the author's post, plus it is a landscape containing a building, so would be the more in keeping with the subject matter. Another poster, @billytheghillie suggests it may have been Roy Orbison who painted it, but I don't think that's "workin for the man"

Try Guntrader, UK gunroom and sellguns.co.uk

No, I think that the Martel bit belongs to Roy Martel Mason, but there is an artist called Roy Manson. Could be one and the same, who knows.

Could this be a possibility ? looks fairly close on the signature.

OK thanks for the clarification LB. Sorry missed that bit completely

Well I for one am a little bit confused by this bit. I have always been lead to believe that standard steel was ok to put through guns that meet the minimum nitro proof of 930 bar, but for superior/HP steel the gun has to be fleur de lys proofed or in the region of 1320 bar to stand a good chance of being reproofed. The idea of putting steel shot in a plastic / fibre cup primarily is to protect the barrels, as you say, the shot is contained within this cup until well after it has left the gun, so providing the choking is correct steel shot should not cause any damage. However, I don't think this is the criteria to use to determine whether it is safe or not to use steel shot. I think it's the pressure rating that determines this, otherwise, what is the point of the bar ratings.

As a beginner I would say that a clay ground or an rfd with access to one is ALL you should consider. As Scully so rightly says, until your gun mount is established your initial gun fit will be a temporary one, but if your buying a gun "off the peg" it needs to be a fairly close fit right from the get go. The best way to check a close fit is to see if the gun shoots where you are looking. To shoot it you will need a clay ground.

As per the previous posts but with a few caveats. Some of the Turkish guns are very good now, the pro's are that for your kind of budget you could get a decent very young or even a new Turkish gun. It will also most probably be multi choked and good to go with HP steel proofing. The con's are, they don't really hold their value and the cheap end of the Turkish market i.e. Kofs tend to be a bit lightweight and therefore have quite a recoil and are harder to control. As also previously said, you have the option to purchase a better quality older gun that's in very good to excellent condition for the budget you mention. Lanber is a well respected make and is still a viable purchase as there are plenty of spare parts available and will be for years to come. The same goes for Browning, Beretta or Miroku. The pro's with these are you get a gun with a proven build quality that will serve you for years if serviced and looked after. The con's are, for your budget they will be second hand, have small amounts of cosmetic damage and in most cases, will only be able to cope with standard steel shot. The way I see it is this, If you only intend using the gun for clays, you could purchase either, Turkish (newish) or quality used, the proviso with used being fixed choke's suitable for standard steel or multi choke The (must) proviso for all considered guns is that they are a good fit, or can be altered to fit easily. ( you could be lucky and pick up the bargain of the century, but it won't be any good if it does not fit you.

@Spr1985 Thank you so much for this info, Before I retired, I worked for the Clay Pidgeon Co Ltd delivering clays to gun clubs and the like nationally. I often delivered to Kibworth and have bumped into Ben Husthwhaite a few times there, Seeing and listening to odd snippets of conversation between him and his regular students, who all looked to be really accomplished shooters, I never dreamed of approaching Ben thinking he would not really relish taking on a beginner. I will give kibworth a ring after Christmas and see if I can book something up. Cheers

Yes sir, best way to go I think, I purchased both my current guns from Orston S/S, As I was a complete beginner I had no idea so I thought it best to buy from an rfd, at least if any defects in the guns became apparent they were covered by a little bit of warrantee. Another plus point was the fact that they checked for a close fit in the gun shop, and then at my lessons the tutor set the adjustable comb. My gun mount is about 80% at present, I am putting this down to a good initial mount before calling the pair but occasionally losing the mount slightly between clays. So yes, If anybody can suggest a good gun fitter in the East Midland area that would be great, then at least I should be able to take gun fit out of the equation.😀

Yes there is, But then again that's mostly old carp as well, Only your paying extra for it.

Spotted these on Facebook, Apparently Ian Coley is having a bit of a clear out, so if you need some dip your bread sharpish.

Thank you for the helpful feedback guys, some sound advice and pretty much along the lines of how I was thinking. I tried a few guns at Orston when waiting for my lessons and the MK 38 was one of them. I am of average build but the middle age spread and the solar panel on top does not seem to affect my gun fit. I had pretty much made my mind up to go for shotgun from the "Holy trinity" and ended up choosing a Browning B725 S1 sporter adjustable for my first gun, that left just enough in the budget for a rough/rain gun which is a SKB 500 sporter, but it was a tough call between the 725 and the MK 38, both were just a tad low in the comb but otherwise fit very well, what swung it at the time was the adjustable stock on the 725. I absolutely love the 725, now that I have shot with it a few times, on the other hand I loved the MK38 as well, so, often wondering If I made the right choice, and now that I have finally Retired, the wife and treasurer has graciously announced that I may have a little something from my lump sum and an MK 38 will fit the bill thankyou.

Early in the new year (2022) I would like to purchase a good quality used but older model Miroku MK 38 sporter, grade 3 to 5 and ideally with an adjustable comb. The reason I am looking for an older used model is that I have been lead to believe that the overall quality of workmanship, finish and engraving is better than that of the newer models. I realise that the newer models will be multi choke and proofed for HP steel shot, so my head is saying "future proof", but my heart is saying go for the quality. The thing is, I am a clay shooter so do not really need a gun to be HP steel shot proof, Nitro proof to 930 bar or greater will meet the requirement for standard steel shot which would be more than adequate for clay with the correct choking (at present). And there in lies the rub, at present. So would it be better to go with my head or my heart?.