16ga.com ~ View topic - To Gamekeeper and any other Englishmen here . . .

Member Joined: 31 Oct 2005 Posts: 446 Location: Wisconsin

"I've always read that the 16 gauge has always been popular in Eruope. Is that true? "
From my experience with Darne's, at least for the French and that make, it seems to be true. I find a number of 16 gauge Darnes in the US with sling swivels installed, indicating a 'Continental' gun either purchased overseas or 'liberated' for sale here. Since I abhor slings on a shotgun, I have passed up all of them and ordered a bespoke 16 gauge Bruchet/Darne which they had no trouble making. There does seem to be a number of 16 gauge German doubles for sale but I don't have hard data.
Anyway, I still like the 16 gauge and have another bespoke gun on order.-Dick

16gaugeguy,

Now I'm with you! We used a similar device on the trout stream to get rid of Pike etc. the trout that came up stunned were OK and put back in.

One Pike that got away made the mistake of coming to the surface by a bridge I was crossing, my single barrel Winchester 20GA stopped him dead!

budrichard,
I have noticed that most of the Darne's I have seen for sale over here have been in 16GA. Which makes sense as the Darne is I believe a lighter gun than a conventional double.

Yeah. They taste just as good as a rod caught one too... maybe better. Cool

You might also be interested to know that Vermont has a legal shotgun season for taking fish. Really. I was told it got started many years ago when the then governor's brother bought into a big sporting goods shop with a large gun department in Burlington. The shop was not doing so well until the governor got the law passed and it became legal to shoot fish for the first few weeks just after ice out. Have you ever seen the end of a shotgun barrel after it's been poked into water and fired? Well, I hear tell that shop owner cleaned up on new gun sales for a few years until folks figured out not to stick their barrels into the water. The business finally went bust, but the tradition has lived on. Kippers anyone?

I bet there was a lot of sawn off shotguns in Vermont after they had been poked and fired under water!!!! Shocked

Knowing how folks are in the Green mountain State, I'll bet quite a few of those guns got trimmed back and resold as a "Vermont Special" grouse gun especially designed for extra thick cover. Laughing

Gamekeeper

Just to go back to something you mentioned earlier, I was at my local gun club, which I'm thinking of joining to pursue an FAC to supplement the shotgun certificate..

There was a chap there shooting what he explained was a .357 revolver, with an extra long barrel and a sort of forearm brace connected to the bottom of the grip, to increase the overall length of the gun so it no longer qualified as a handgun. Made a hell of a noise in the indoor 25m range too Shocked

, compared to the .22 rimfire gallery rifles in use

There was also a youngster not yet out of school shooting .22 rimfire target pistol. I didn't get to speak to him but the friend I was with spoke to his father about it. It had all sorts of stabilisers on but didn't seem long enough to escape being classed as a handgun. I'll try and find out more next time I go

Anyway, nice to see another 16ga shooter over here, first one I've 'met' since going down the 16ga route myself. I'm not far from you by the way, just a few miles north of Poole in Dorset

Here's a link to a place in the UK selling legal 'handguns' like the one I saw down at the club

And to get back on to subject, everything Gamekeeper said in his first post is spot on, not a lot more to add really, although as to whether driven game is something only for 'the rich' or not is subjective really

I paid £160 (plus VAT and tips) for a day's driven shooting the season before last, which once a year for such a memorable experience I didn't think was too bad. You can pay that much for a day's clays at particular shooting grounds, although a friend of mine in the New Forest has just joined a shooting syndicate. He gets 7 days during the season (actually, he shares a peg and they shoot 14 days I think), plus his wife gets a day as she joins the beaters, plus pigeon shooting throughout the summer, for £650. Believe me that's good value for money over here, I'd jump at the chance if I saw a similar opportunity

He doesn't shoot 16ga though Rolling Eyes

SmokeyBuck,
I know Wimborne, I was at the market there three weeks ago. and my son plays cricket there. Very Happy

Good luck with your FAC. Long barreled revolvers are easy to get but I'd rather have a carbine. I had a Rossi .357 Carbine but the Nanny State police would not grant it for vermin control so I swopped it for a CZ.22 Hornet

I live on a shooting estate but the driven shooting is too expensive for me!
I prefer vermin shooting anyway, had enough of driven days when I was a keeper. Wink

Thanks for the good wishes, I'll let you know how it goes, but at the moment it's 6 months probationary membership to get through Sad

MY father-in-law used to be an underkeeper on the Critchel estate west of Cranborne, and he would agree with you on the vermin versus driven

Unfortunately I can't comment, as I haven't had the chance of going for vermin yet. Around here it's all estates and NT land, so it's all about who you know. However, I might have struck gold with a conversation in the local last night, for some pigeon shooting over near Morden, so fingers crossed.. Wink

SmokeyBuck,
Good luck with the pigeon shooting, once you get your foot in the door the opportunities for shooting should increase!

Do you ever go to TAL Arms in Bournemouth? They have some very nice rifles there! Wink

TAL is one of quite a few in the area, although they do tend to focus a lot on air rifles, particularly the pre-charged type, I guess because of their expertise with compressed air from being a dive shop too, which I'm sure you're aware.

When the glorious day comes I think it'll be a trip to Sportsman Gun Centre just north of Dorchester for me, they have a huge stock (and a quick round on the clays can be had too Wink

)

What does surprise me though, compared to both shotguns and air rifles is the low cost of, for example, .22 rimfire rifles. They can't be that much cheaper to manufacture, but I guess there's a smaller market Confused

So when shooting vermin, I assume you use 16ga? I tend to use number 6 shot for pheasant, mostly because the local gunshop stocks Gamebore Traditional Game in that size (at £60 for 250 Shocked

). Would that be suitable for pigeon and/or rabbit or would it be worth trying to find a larger shot size?

SmokeyBuck,
I use Lyalvale 28gm 6's Gamebore 28gm 6's and Nobel Sport 30gm 6's.
I will buy 5's 4's or 7's if I see them but 6's do well on pigeon & rabbit.
If you ever come across BB's let me know, I have used all mine. Sad

For our American friends our 5's are American 6's our 4's are American 5's and our 7's are American 7 1/2's there is no equivalent shot size for our 6's.

You are right about .22 rimfires being inexpensive compared to shotguns, if you look for older BSA rifles you can get them at real bargin prices.

Let us know what you buy from the Sportsman Gun Centre, I've never been to that one! Wink