Gave My ( Best ) Gun Some Fresh Air Today .

[marsh man]

With having fairly short pockets I have never been in the position to buy a new gun from a gun shop , in fact the only one I ever bought was a single Webley and Scott from Darlows of Norwich when I 14 , over the following 61 years all my guns have been second hand off the sellers or from a auction house , this is not to say it had held me back as over the years I have had non stop good to very good shooting and wore a few guns out , in the 70s I used to do a bit of building work after tea and at weekends to earn a bit more , I had a few bob to play with when a chap asked me if I was interested in buying a English side lock as he was getting married , anyhow he came round mine and we done a deal at £300 , I took the gun to Richardson's and he reccomended I sent it to Birmingham to be re proffed which I did and it came back with the new prof marks , it stayed in the cabinet for ages and I took it on the odd game shoot now and again but never really gave it a lot of work .

Today was lovely Summers day and having very little to do this afternoon I thought I would have a couple of hours on the Wheat stubble while the bales were still on , as I hadn't took any out of the freezer I would have to go back to pure basics by just starting off with the rubber decoys and I thought it was a good day to give my ( best ) gun a few hours our , everything seem easy when it come to shooting over a grain stubble , no problem driving to your chosen bale , shoot in any wind direction , decoys stand out and as far as decoying go this is about as easy you will get it .

I had no intention shooting more than I wanted as my freezer is half full and we will be out for two more afternoons this week and as you well know I will not dump the Pigeons I shoot , our harvest is now finished so we don't have to worry about protecting the crops.

With the four surrounding field stubble's I knew the sport would be fairly slow and so it was , once I got the first Pigeon I put it on one of my floaters and it made a difference , very soon number two was on another floater , and I brought my flocked decoys in as they looked as if they were shining a bit in the very bright sunshine and just left a dozen Flexicoy decoys out , the sun was straight in face and making it hard seeing any in coming birds against a dark background , still I was only going to give it a couple of hours so it wasn't worth moving , when I got the tenth one I called it a day about 4.45 pm , oh , I hadn't mentioned the gun , well the gun shot well , it did seem a bit strange at first with the difference in the trigger pull , once I pulled the trigger a little harder it was fine , I won't tell you how many shots I fired but I only missed one  , as I said earlier , it is the easiest of Pigeon decoying you are likely to get , Once again THANK YOU for reading it and I have included a couple of photos of the gun .

[Lsto]

That's a lovely looking gun and a nice write up. Well done 

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, Lsto said:

That's a lovely looking gun and a nice write up. Well done 

THANKS Lsto

[oowee]

That's a beauty. Do you find it easy to switch to double triggers? I was given a double trigger shotgun of some sort in Africa 3 years ago i just could not get my head around it.

For me I am waiting for it to cool a little before I am back out. 

[Old farrier]

Nice looking gun you have there I hope you wear it out 😊

always seems to make me smile killing a bird albeit a pest with a nice gun 

enjoy your posts keep them coming 😊👍

for the record I don’t have any trouble changing from a single to a double trigger gun even shot a double gun gun with odd guns one single trigger one double but that’s a story for another day 🤭

[marsh man]

1 hour ago, oowee said:

That's a beauty. Do you find it easy to switch to double triggers? I was given a double trigger shotgun of some sort in Africa 3 years ago i just could not get my head around it.

For me I am waiting for it to cool a little before I am back out. 

THANKS oowee for your reply , Apart from having a Beretta Silver Pigeon 5 shot pump action shotgun for a short while I have never owned a single trigger side by side , the Beretta pump action I had was a nice gun but I could never get used to the pump action to get the next shot off , not only that , a couple of times when I used it the action was a bit to near my nose and it made it bleed a couple of times so it had to and it was one gun I wasn't sorry to see the back of .

I put six guns I had at the time on the new side by side section on the forum and one kind member sent me some details when the above gun was made and what surprised was it was older than two English hammer guns I have got and one is Black powder , the gun is now around 100 years old and it is in perfect condition , at one time it was worth a few bob but now I wouldn't get much more than I paid for it , not that I am going to sell it as I am to old to buy another one .

The only thing that was a bit off putting was the trigger pull , my everyday gun is a B S A ej side by side and you get used to how much you need to pull the trigger when you about to fire the gun , when I used mine the other day the first Pigeon came in and I mounted the gun , got on to it , pulled the trigger and nothing happened , the Pigeon started to flare and I pulled a bit harder and the Pigeon did drop , after that I put the trigger pull at the back of my mind and the next one was shot without giving the pull a thought .

I will have another go with it as it deserved to be used now and again rather than lock it up like a long term prison sentence 

Edited August 11, 2022 by marsh man

[marsh man]

10 minutes ago, Old farrier said:

Nice looking gun you have there I hope you wear it out 😊

always seems to make me smile killing a bird albeit a pest with a nice gun 

enjoy your posts keep them coming 😊👍

for the record I don’t have any trouble changing from a single to a double trigger gun even shot a double gun gun with odd guns one single trigger one double but that’s a story for another day 🤭

Evening O F , hope you are keeping well , I well remember seeing one of your guns , was it a Riley ? , what a work of art , I was drolling at the mouth for a while and it cost me a few bob for the tissue's.

To be honest O F , I am happier with using my everyday gun as I don't need to keep looking where I am leaning it in the hide , or watch my dog don't knock it over when he come back with a bird in it's mouth and so on , it's exactly the same with cars , I have had my Honda CRV for five years and it don't owe me nothing , it go wherever I want it to and it certainly isn't worried about hard work , where one day in the not to distant future I will have to use the grand kids inheritance money and treat myself to another one , like all my other other cars they are treated with respect at first , then the novelty start wearing off and the new cars holiday and pampering is over , from then on it have to start earning it's keep .

All the best   MM

[6.5x55SE]

Good evening John good to see/hear you are getting out and enjoying yourself long may it continue 👍

A good few years ago a friend in the gun trade had a Aya no2 sidelock ejector 3" Magnum. Lovely gun but good money he said to me sort me a moonflight on Pinks I'll bring the gun IF you shoot a R&L with the first two shots I'll let you have it for a song. Game on. Man of his word i achieved the bet and believe this or not some years later i went to px the No2 for a 20ga EELL we have a similar deal again lady luck shone on me as i got the 20ga for a song. Hope to meet up with you this coming season 

[marsh man]

Hi  Brad    Good to hear from you and look forward meeting up with you when you come down this way , the Greys are bunching up nicely , yesterday morning a flock came and dropped in on the Burgh Castle numbers , a flock of a couple of hundred is not uncommon , but double that at this time of the year is very uncommon and they are going out during the day on the Wheat stubble which is also early .

As for the A Y A no 2 , what a lovely gun to shoot geese with and lady luck was certainly on your side , one of our tenant farmers have got a A Y A no 2 that his father bought him for his 21st birthday and he is now 74 and that gun have never fired a shot in anger and still in the case it came in , he won't sell it and he is single and live with his sister and neither of them have got any kids or family , where it will end up when his time come will be anyones guess , I keep popping in his , no not to see his sister but for a cup of tea and drop the odd book off that I pick up , so maybe lady luck might shine on me  

The closest I got was when I took two Arab princes out duck shooting one night , these two blokes cam from London and a driver from Holland and Holland brought them down to the hall in a Range Rover , they should had arrived by 3pm but somewhere down the line they got held up and never arrived till four , I took them down to one of our flight ponds and knew we were far to late as because it rarely shot the duck tend to come in early , as it was by the time we got down there we must have put up well over 100 duck , it was nearly dark and a few did come back but they would have had a good flight if they had been a hour earlier , anyhow , we went back to the hall and had a cup of tea and cake , these were the ones I once wrote about who wanted to take a goose back to where they were staying , as luck would have it I had five Pinks hanging up in my garage , while they were finishing off there tea I whipped back home and gave them four , they were well pleased and had there photo taken holding them up with the hall in the back ground , the driver asked me how much they owed me and I told them we are not allowed to sell them but I would be happy with £20 for my fuel , he got his wallet out and gave me £40 so I was happy with the deal , as we were saying our good byes the driver gave me a H and H small bag and said that is from Prince xxxxxxx , didn't have a clue who he said but inside the bag was a silk tie with cartridges on with a card saying , Thanks from Holland and Holland , if you come round mine when you come down we will have a cuppa and I will show me my little present 

All The Best    John

[Penelope]

13 hours ago, oowee said:

That's a beauty. Do you find it easy to switch to double triggers? I was given a double trigger shotgun of some sort in Africa 3 years ago i just could not get my head around it.

For me I am waiting for it to cool a little before I am back out. 

It becomes second nature, particularly, if that is all you have used. Very easy to swap between barrels, too.

Lovely gun John, who's it made by?

[Krico woodcock]

Lovely gun marsh man, and you gave it a good airing.  Still nothing to beat a good sxs for instinctive shooting. . Always enjoy your write ups from days out and stories from past ventures 👍

[kevin55]

It says I think B Norman, so a Suffolk gun

As a left-hander I took some getting used to double triggers, which are invariably canted for a right hander

Having recently acquired a single trigger (stupidly) I find I go to the trigger guard for the 2nd shot

I've never knowingly selected the left barrel first, as always shoot right then left

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by kevin55

[marsh man]

44 minutes ago, kevin55 said:

It says I think B Norman, so a Norfolk gun

As a left-hander I took some getting used to double triggers, which are invariably canted for a right hander

Having recently acquired a single trigger (stupidly) I find I go to the trigger guard for the 2nd shot

I've never knowingly selected the left barrel first, as always shoot right then left

 

Hi Kevin ... You are very nearly right but the gun was made in , or made for B Norman which is in Framlingham in Suffolk , as it is right on the border I will let you off 

I can well imagine what it is like getting used to double trigger after being used to a single one and visa versa .

I can remember lending that gun to a lady on one of shoot days a few years back as she have had several lessons but didn't have a gun , I stood with her just to make sure she was safe and gave her a few pointers on what birds to take , the fist two drives were fairly quiet and she only fired a few single shots , the next drive she was on a good peg and in the thick of the shooting , whatever she fired at she only fired one shot and after the drive finished I asked her why she didn't follow up with a the second shot on some of the birds that would have still been well in range , she said , I didn't like to tell you as you were kind enough to lend me your gun that the second shot didn't go off when I pulled the trigger , I said well as far as I know there was nothing wrong with it , I pick two empties up and stuck them in the breech and pulled it trigger with no faults , she then said , John I am really sorry I didn't know or notice your gun had two triggers and all the lessons I had the gun only had one , we both had a laugh and she was still kind enough to give me some fold up money for lending her my gun and for making her feel at ease on her first game shoot . A t b    MM

[6.5x55SE]

Afternoon John can you do a Winter Weather Dance before myself and Conor head your way. Thank you very much for the invite rest assured we will be definitely  about your surrounding area ☺️👍

[marsh man]

2 hours ago, 6.5x55SE said:

Afternoon John can you do a Winter Weather Dance before myself and Conor head your way. Thank you very much for the invite rest assured we will be definitely  about your surrounding area ☺️👍

Hi Brad ... Tell yer what , I am sitting in my front room with the sun coming through the window and it is sweltering , I believed we have now been declared a drought area and you wouldn't need a degree to work that out .

I went and looked for some Pigeons today and most of what I saw were in the trees or on the rape stubble , this was very unusual as the rape have been cut a while now and would normally be greened up  but due to the lack of rain the rape see is still as good as the day it was cut . strange times indeed 

 

[the hitman]

MM -nice write up, glad you got a few with your special gun, which looks stunning by the way.

Nice pictures- glad the dog had a run out.

Rape stubbles are being cut then ploughed straight away locally which is very frustrating, as pigeons  are not showing any interest in cereal stubbles    near me so far.

Yesterday I had to resort to plan B and have an afternoon of drinking Punk IPA at Newcastle quayside in 30 degrees sunshine.

 

[marsh man]

43 minutes ago, the hitman said:

MM -nice write up, glad you got a few with your special gun, which looks stunning by the way.

Nice pictures- glad the dog had a run out.

Rape stubbles are being cut then ploughed straight away locally which is very frustrating, as pigeons  are not showing any interest in cereal stubbles    near me so far.

Yesterday I had to resort to plan B and have an afternoon of drinking Punk IPA at Newcastle quayside in 30 degrees sunshine.

 

THANKS hitman for your kind words , all our harvest is now finished and they are having a job to find somewhere to store the corn , we have now finished a good two weeks early than the previous early date , the combine have been going nearly non stop since it started about a month ago so you can imagine how many fields the Pigeons can chose from .

I got a phone call this morning from the farm foreman who is also the part time keeper , the call was back to front from the calls I normally get , instead of telling me where he saw some Pigeons he asked me where I would reccomend him to go tomorrow afternoon with his lad , due to working long hours just about every day he haven't had any time to go shooting or look around anywhere to go when the time allow , I said leave it with me and I will spend the afternoon on lookout , rather than bore you with all the different fields I looked around I will tell you what I found .

The stubble fields looked far to hot to hold Pigeons as the ground was shimmering , having said that I put out several that were sheltering in the trees , then I moved on to the rape stubble fields , we have got five or six fields of rape stubble and they all had Pigeons on them , why feeding on the rape and not on the corn I couldn't tell you , maybe it was slightly cooler on the rape stubble with the high stalks left , three of the fields were decieving as the pigeons had dropped in from the nearby woods with hardly any on the move , two or three shots and you would clear them away in the the very still hot weather , one field stood out , it had a tree in the middle and a lot of pigeons were working on the ground , the telegraph wire was full of pigeons and as many were going on as the ones going off , this was my first choice as they can get under the tree for the shade and they should decoy well as they haven't been touched at all , so hopefully they will get a nice lot of shooting .

I am not to keen letting my dog pick up on rape in case he get a piece of stalk in his eyes or it scratch his belly so my port of call tomorrow will be back on the Pea stubble now the rest of the field have been combined and is easy to drive over and like the rape stubble field have got a tree in the middle , not a big bag wanted but I will get a bit of shooting and should keep fairly cool at the same time , to keep cool I have got some milk cartons full up with juice in the freezer , I take one out and let the sun slowly thaw it out , it is then like having a cube of ice in your drink all the time you are there , lovely , maybe I can do the same wit h a 99 ice cream.

All the best and have a good weekend   MM