Poor Shot

I had the same email offer this evening but £24.99 per month is taking the ****. The shame is I actually have a gundog in training and could probably make use of the app. If it was a sensible cost, say £9.99 a month I would consider it and cut down on sessions with the gundog trainer instead. Though I do feel that having someone in person watching over me and correcting my mistakes and observing my interactions with the dog is many times more effective than a few videos and online consultations.

Yeah, I did visit their website following my comment. Practically unlimited, year round pigeon shooting over many thousands of acres for only a £200 membership fee. So what is the catch? Is it the sort of club where the regulars have the best spots sown up every weekend for the next 10 years or have priority based on seniority or something where newcomers are left to fight over the fields that haven't seen a pigeon for years? I did also try to find a similar club or organisation operating in South Wales/ South West but drew a blank.

That looks too good to be true. Are there any similar clubs the operate in the south west?

Previously I would have said that finding a cartridge with shot that contains a good level of antimony would have been the only requirement but now I'm not so sure. I legged and breasted a few pheasants from this weekend and some of the shot I found whilst doing so seemed to have been halved. Most likely due to contact with the barrel walls on firing as it was shiny and not oxidised. It seemed strange that although a half spherical piece of shot should of zinged off into the distance well outside of the pattern a lot ended up in the bird along with the perfectly round pieces. I very much doubt that the shot would have sheared on contact with the bird as bone and flesh is relatively soft.

I had issues on my escort with the barrel not seating 100% back into the action on reassembly. It caused all sorts of issues with cartridges not cycling but to the naked eye it looked correctly assembled. Found I have to reassemble the gun with the butt on the floor and put some weight on the barrels to force them back into the action while tightening the screw cap.

Why risk losing the supply of cases, wads, shot, primers powder for perhaps 50 million cartridges a year to the manufacturers in exchange for the supply of perhaps 30 million fully assembled cartridges via the RFD network? The diehards would still buy Eley, hull etc even if they changed the source of their components. Maybe the margins are better with components over assembled cartridges? Don't quote me on the figures by the way, I've no idea how many cartridges are sold by the big four in the UK each year.

The first manufacturer to snap and start offering cartridges at a super competitive price will sweep most of the market overnight. I've often wondered why a company like cheddite, who manufacturer cases, wads etc for other cartridge makers, doesn't use that as an advantage and offer cartridges at a lower cost than everyone else? Unless Cheddite are afraid that undercutting the market would lose them the custom of the other cartridge makers for the components?

Thanks Humperdingle and Tightchoke, I will give the beartooth sleeve a go.. Thanks also Wymberley, London Best and Tonka. I do plan on overhauling the stock over the summer as a bit of a project and it would hurt me on the inside to have to glue a lump of rubber to a wooden stock. If I wasn't completely hopeless with a bandsaw I would give a DIY adjustable comb conversion A go.

It wouldn't really work out for Decathalon in the UK due to their small presence but I only used them as an example of this working on the continent. What I really thinking about was being able to pop into your local Go Outdoors or Sports Direct style store and pick up a slab of GO or other branded cartridges for significantly less money than that of an RFD. I'm not sure on the exact requirements but I can imagine that selling only cartridges, consumables, airguns etc would require much less investment than becoming a full scale RFD with firearms sales etc. I appreciate that there are 'Country Stores' that already exist and do this (Mole Valley etc) but very rarely do they stock anything other than a small selection of Eley, Hull or Lyalvale cartridges at the same high prices as your average RFD. I really do believe that there is a comparatively large hole in the UK market for a manufacturer to step in selling dirt cheap cartridges in bulk either as an independent or via other routes. Judging by how fast the cheaper in house cartridges sell out from the likes of sportsmans gun center. IME for every one shooter that buys into the "The more I pay, the better results I can expect' way of thinking there will be 5+ that will pick up a couple thousand of the cheapest 28g on the list and be perfectly happy with them.

The phrase was first coined by the bloke behind Tesco's I believe? Woolworths not being the best example of that business model with them being out of business and all that.. It works well enough for big stores like Decathlon on the continent so I don't see why it wouldn't work in the UK? Empire cartridges looked promising but they are near 20% more expensive than buying from Just Cartridges which is an expensive method of buying cartridges as is.

At what price point does the average shooter simply cut down on the amount they shoot rather than justifying £220 a thousand for the cheapest cartridges they can find? The UK is crying out for a manufacturer to start pumping out cartridges on a 'stack em high, sell em cheap' basis rather than the current trend of low volume with a perceived high quality basis (see Black Gold DS, Parcours type cartridges). The situation isn't helped by every shooting related media outlet (Magazines, YouTube channels etc) carping on about paying £400+ a thousand for a fibre cartridge being worth it and the only solution to add that last few percent onto your scores. It's paid advertising, I get it but it's not helping.

Good Morning PW. I want to do the unthinkable and raise the comb height on my AYA Yeoman SxS. As much as I appreciate the traditional lines of a SxS gun I just like to see a lot of rib (technically over the rib) on my shotguns. If I have even a slight bit of the action in my sight picture I start to experience eye dominance issues where the left eye takes over. This is less than ideal as you can imagine. I've experimented with some temporary comb raising measures as per the frankengun picture below. This seems to work well enough for me having shot a 41 of 50 at the local clay ground last weekend. Though it did generate a lot of odd looks and a bit of ribbing from other shooters. As I bought this sub £100 gun for rough shooting, pest control etc.. I don't want to go through the expense of having it professionally bent but I am looking at something a little more permanent and more traditional looking than the masking tape and rubber cheek pad I currently have. I've been looking at the Beartooth comb raising kit which is not too far off what I have now but a bit more adjustable and neater looking but if there is anything a bit more traditional looking or more suited to SxS shotguns then I'm all ears. Many Thanks!

I bought a 1000 of them in 26g plastic 8's last time I bought cartridges. Every one of them went bang and hit everything I pointed the gun at but I had about 3 in 1000 that seemed to skip over the ejector after firing jamming the gun. Needed to disassemble the gun and push a rod through the barrel to get them out. A bit inconvenient having to walk back to the car to sort the issue out each time. I've tried a few different budget cartridges and only the litespeeds had that issue.

Yeah, it would be funny were it not so tragic. There seems to be a lot of noise from the traditional labour types claiming a swing in allegiance from Welsh Labour to Plaid Cymru. There are literally thousands of elderly people living in the South Wales valleys, Swansea etc who have some not so fond memories of what evil Maggie and the Tory party did to the miners and how the lord and saviour labour party saved Wales so we'll need to wait and see if that turns out to be anything more than just noise. You get the politicians you vote for and rightly so this is what we seem to have voted for.

He's a top bloke Mel. Some very nice work on the wallet as well, I bet he's over the moon with it.

I can't see him lasting another election cycle with what he's done to Wales in the last few years. He's crippled the country with his overbearing COVID restrictions, refusal to address the M4 problem which makes anywhere west of Magor about as attractive to businesses and industry as a cactus tampon and wasted millions on consultations and white elephant projects that could be better spent opening up Wales to the wider world. Oh, and it's It's all Westminster's fault. It's like living in a badly scripted sitcom. Plaid Cymru are waiting for the next election cycle to put this **** show to sword and then we'll be in for another 20 years of bad politics and Tory/ English/ BREXIT/ Non Independence blaming.

The goose had the last laugh as I carried it, my kit bag and gun over a mile back to the car. I image three of them would have been the best part of 40kg. I initially thought that my waders had sprung a leak when I took them off but it was just a bath of sweat in there! I did manage to get some sleep. I've fished for years and I still get the excited stomach ache the night before every trip. Wildfowling is a new adventure for me and the excitement starts to build days before hand. And when it's done chuck the goose in the bin and eat the brick? 😂 Many thanks. That was a part of the reason why I chose to go where I did. It doesn't always work out, the popular spots are popular for a reason I suppose. I'll be sure to post something about the next trip out in a week or so. That did cross my mind at first so I took the photo on the way back to the car. Though the area where I took the photo looks promising also.

Many thanks for the congratulations and the compliments on the write up. I'm no writer so it took nearly an hour to piece together that 500 or so words. I've never had the pleasure of eating goose but I've had duck quite a few times. We've a recipe in mind involving apple sauce and a cider infused gravy.

Good Afternoon. I'd thought I'd share the result of my first solo wildfowling trip with the PW wildfowling crowd as I'm quite happy with how it went obviously. So, this last year and a half has been my return to field sports and shooting after leaving to pursue females and alcohol in my teens. I'm near thirty now.. Until recently I've not really had the facility (money and time mostly) to get back into shooting but a birthday treat of a clay pigeon day and change of circumstances got the fire burning again, 12 months waiting for an SGC etc brings us to this season. I joined a local wildfowling club as an associate member for this season, I've always fancied trying wildfowling so I gave it shot. After a few guided group trips with senior club members we were given the ok to go it alone and see how we felt about it, we could always request further guided trips should we not be confident etc. As far as marshes go it's a really safe marsh and you'd probably have to be some kind of idiot to even end up with wet feet never mind being in serious danger. (Not that I ever take this for granted, I'm a keen sea angler and I know being cut off by a rapidly rising tide is no joke). A few weeks back I took the afternoon off work and set out to reccy a few new spots that we hadn't yet been introduced to on our guided trips and I really took a fancy to a spot about a mile walk from the nearest car parking spot. I quite fancied this place as it was a) a long way from the car park meaning I wouldn't be disturbing any seasoned regulars (who I'm told often congregate at a small bay close to the main road) as I carefully navigate the maze of gullies and pot holes with a fully lit head torch to get to the tide line, b) has a large muddy pool which fills up on a higher tide and c) is sheltered by a large boulder embankment on one side so I can hide away from the ducks and the elements without having to construct a hide or kneel in a muddy gutter. This morning I was (rudely) awoken by a 4:45 alarm (as was everyone else), forced down some breakfast and a coffee before loading the gear into the car and setting off. I arrived at the marsh at 6:00 to find no other cars in the car park. I unloaded the car and made a start on the mile walk to my chosen spot. I'm really surprised at just how wet the inside of the PVC waders become from sweat alone. I'm not an unfit person and even I was quite damp by the time I'd reached my destination. High tide was set to be at 8:05 at 11.4m which should coincide with dawn perfectly. As I arrived I could hear a lot of birds moving about but it was still pitch black dark so I no chance of getting a shot off. I'm especially weary about taking shots in the dark as my duck silhouette identification is still quite weak and last thing I want to take a shot at something and later regret it when it turns out not to be a quarry species. I set up on the far side of the pool with the tide line on my right and pool on my left hoping to catch any ducks flying down the tide line and to intercept any coming from inland onto the pool. There is a series of gullies which allow water to flow into the pool as the tide rises. I sat down into one of the shallower gullies, loaded the gun and eagerly awaited the arrival of the ducks. Time ticked away and slowly but surely I was pushed up the marsh by the rising tide with no sign of a duck. The Met office had forecasted an SE wind which should have been keeping the tide at bay it actually appeared to be blowing into my face/ north perhaps moving the tide in quicker and higher than I had anticipated. A pair of mallard flew overhead and to the left but unfortunately even George Digweed himself would of struggled to bring them out of orbit. Far beyond a range I was comfortable with. Eventually the tide had pushed me right up the opposite side of the pool against the boulder embankment and dawn had come and gone. It wouldn't have been a shame if my first solo trip had ended in a blank. As long as I'm not sat in the office then I'm just happy to be out. It approached 8:30 and I was starting to think about packing up and heading for home, hands had become cold and the rock I was sat on increasingly uncomfortable. In the distance I could hear some honking of geese, I had heard this on past trips and I know the geese like to congregate on some pasture just behind the safety of the sea wall. The distant honking very quickly become nearing honking so I positioned myself facing the embankment and waited. Just as curiosity got the better of me and I stood up to get an idea of where the geese were a flock (skein?) of about 15 birds came over the embankment about 25 yards to my right. I raised the gun, picked out a bird and pulled the trigger. The 35g 3 steels did the job just fine, I got the goose on the front edge and stone dead by the time it hit the water. I shoot a semi auto so I don't quite know why I didn't follow on with shots 2 and 3 for a further two birds. I just paused in sheer disbelief that I had just nabbed my first goose on my first solo trip and just watched it down to the water. Maybe next time I'll follow up and bag some more.. Unfortunately the springer pup we picked up at the beginning of the year isn't ready for action on the marsh just yet so she stayed at home tucked up in bed. This meant I had to wade out a few meters into the pool to collect the prize. I'd set out that morning knowing that I had to pick my shots should they present themselves to not end up with shot but un-retrievable birds. I put the bird away into my foldable game sack (less than £10 from Decathalon and very useful!). I perched myself back on my rock and took 10 minutes to calm down and think about what just happened, also took the chance to text a picture to my old man who has been joking about my lack of success since the start of the season. Following that I packed up and headed for home but not before a further picture to remember the trip by. I set about preparing the bird for the freezer which took an age. Game preparation isn't my strongest point and two hours later I was left with a scruffy yet presentable bird ready for a family dinner over the Christmas period. I was left with this... Via this... Very lucky that the girlfriend is working today. A few things to take away from todays trip? A few decoys would have been useful, especially in the pool I was sat next to this morning. There were a lot ducks moving about high up and very far out of range and perhaps a decoy setup would have encouraged them to come in and investigate before heading out to sea or elsewhere on the marsh. Don't take wind direction from the met office app and take the time to become familiar with height of tide vs the landscape. Ensure that the spaniel pup is ready for next season, its no fun wading waste deep into water to retrieve a shot bird. It's about time she started to earn her keep.

I'm still yet to catch a pouting on the South Wales coast/ Bristol channel (probably says more about me as an angler than the distribution of the fish) but when I used to visit family in Kent you couldn't move for the things. I have one childhood memory of using an old crab line and some stinky mackerel we fished out of a bin on Deal pier and catching over 100 small pouting in a few hours. In the Bristol channel at least it seems that the schoolie bass has become the new dogfish. I took a trip out on Aberavon back last winter and couldn't keep a line in the water for more than a few minutes with out picking up a double head of tiny bass. It was a relief to finally land a dogfish. Black bream are now also fairly common here when they didn't used to be along with trigger fish. I haven't landed a soiled nappy or a wedge of used toilet paper in quite a while thankfully.

Good video. A day like that makes the cold, the wet and the mud worth it.

I did hear similar on the radio a few days back. A report commissioned by such and such regulator found that the vast majority of products offered in the BF sale had been on sale at some point in the weeks leading up to BF at the same or lower cost that was offered as a part of the BF sale. In the UK at least it's just a method of reminding people that they are approaching or have just had their last payday before Christmas and that they should immediately spent every last penny to avoid potential disappointment. When was the last time your purchased a product at RRP? It seems to be the done thing in today's retail environment to have an artificially inflated RRP so that the actual sale price looks attractive. It goads you into thinking you're about to get a good deal when in reality the price your paying is roughly the Intended list price for that product. The latest Uttings email blast for example lists plenty of items at what seems like extraordinarily low prices (compared with the listed RRP) but most items can be found elsewhere at the same or better price. The only reasonable chance you have of getting a good deal is end of season (buying a thick wildfowling coat in March for example)but even those sales are becoming increasingly scam like as retailers are becoming more willing to hold on to stock that isn't subject to yearly product line changes/ updates.

When It did work yesterday this is exactly what it felt like. Just call, point, shoot and hit the target. I couldn't indicate how much lead or anything but it just worked. Having said that I scored a few 1's on stands with going away birds so I certainly wasn't pleased with the results. As someone who grew up playing video games, I do like that.. How does it work with parallax etc? I'd assume that you need a perfectly straight mount and well fitting gun? I imagine you'd have some strange looks walking around a game shoot with one mounted to a traditional English side by side?

Thanks to all that posted. I think I'll book an hour with a coach on Thursday and get his take on it. See if I can eliminate stance, mount technique etc. If required I'll then enquire with a gun fitter, I've heard Nigel Teague recommended for gun fit and stock alterations. Though he is retired so an appointment may be hard to come by. Can anyone recommend someone within a few hours drive of South Wales?

Good evening, I am in need of some guidance on eye dominance, it's currently ruining my shooting. Background - I've been shooting for about a year in total and to date I've been a part of the left eye closed club. It's served me well to date averaging mid 60 - mid 70 /100 on a clay shoot. Hitting most live targets that I aim at. I've been dabbling of late on shooting with both eyes open, mostly on the advice of some of the better shooters at the club. The problem I seem to be having is that I appear to be neither right or left eye dominant but a mixture of both at any given time or day. Using the finger and dvd test methods will see two of three tests lead to the left eye being dominant but If I reposition and focus on a different target the apparent dominance will switch to two out of three tests to the right eye. I'm right handed. I shot 49/100 yesterday with the right eye appearing to be the dominant eye but struggled with anything going away or incoming targets. When I mount the gun and look down the rib I appear to have two barrels in the sight picture suggesting that I possibly have cross dominance? With this I cannot even remotely tell where I'm aiming. I've no method of applying lead or even lining up an incoming or going away target. First thought? Sack off this both eyes open thing and stick to closing my left eye at the last second. Alternatively? Use some form of eye dominance correction tape on the inside of the left lens of a pair of shooting glasses. I can imagine that wearing a pair of pillas on the marsh or pigeon shooting will look a little odd. This will not permanently fix the issue and I'll be tied to shooting with correction tape. Other than that I'm lost. Shot an abismal 12/50 today today with most shots appearing to go far left of the target. Ideal for right to left crossing targets but not much else. Many thanks for any help with this issue.