16ga.com ~ View topic

IFL16's - each gun will take away at least a brace of pheasants, and after that it's pretty much take what you like. If there's more demand than what's available it's just down to two falls, two submissions or a knockout.

Only joking. I'm not sure what the going rate is. Prepared game served at pubs or restaurants does tend to be a little pricey, the seasonal game especially, but i think it just reflects the profit that they choose to charge for having something different on the menu.

Bearing in mind the rule of thumb for most goods and services we pay in £'s waht you pay in $'s, the day cost me £200. The advantage was that it was only 30 minutes down the road (I live in a small market town about 10 miles inland of the South Coast). Dorset as a county is expensive for shooting, becuase it's about 2 hours from London and therefore about as far as is reasonable to commute to a shoot and get home again after the day in reasonable time. The prices drop of a little as to head further west through Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, but then you have to add on the price of accomodation. The beaters are paid a small amount, probably only enough to cover fuel to the shoot, lunch and a couple of pints, but most do it for the loveof the sport. Additionally, most shoots will run a beaters day towards the end of the season, so the beaters do get to shoot for free, with the regular guns doing the beating instead.

Scolari

the 16 gauge used to be more popular over here than the 20, not sure why it declined so much. The 12 gauge is by far the most popular now for all type of shooting, even the 'fowlers will use a 12 with a magnum load rather than a larger bore like they used to.

The majority of 'affordable' guns, even those with English names such as MacNab or Lincoln will be made abroad and shipped over. The Lincoln range for example are produced in the Brescia region of Italy, to David Nickerson's specifications (the importer) and marketed with an English sounding name (they're based in Lincolnshire). The advatnage of this is the gunsmith is more able to determine precisely what the British market wants, and in fact Lincoln are one of the very few cheap guns available in 16ga. AYA are popular becuase they are well made, and almost a copy of 'Best' English guns at a much more affordable price.

You could pick up a Purdey hammer gun for £7000 in excellent condition, possibly still with it's motor case. Or you could order a new pai for £140,000.

Beretta are probably the most popular make over here, even more so now due to the ever-increasing number of people using an over-and-under for game. I do see the advantage in only using one gun for clays and game, and enjoying the consist fit and handling, but my sense of tradition is sstronger than my desire to shoot calys more competitively. And the 16ga will kick you about less than a 12ga side-by-side as a rule of thumb, hence why I got into it in the first place.

Plus it's fun to see the look on a guy's face when you beat his 12ga O/U with you 16ga side-by-side

Joined: 28 Mar 2006 Posts: 247 Location: Wickenburg, AZ

Thank you for the interesting post. I will probably never have the opportunity to participate in such a shoot. If you can post pictures I'm sure most would agree we would like to see them.
Here's a pic on a "walkup" quail hunt I was on recently.

There's plenty in the shooting press over here but it's not quite the same as first hand...

I'm next shooting on December 29th, on a shoot called the Sedborough Farm Shoot, near a small town called Bideford, in North Devon. Interestingly, the last two years I've been they've had either a Woodcock drive, or a Snipe drive, which is quite rare over here, as the birds are wild indigenous species rather than reared like the pheasants.

I'll try and get some piccies then. In the meantime, if you're interested, the Shoot Captain has a website for the shoot, http://www.birdshooting.co.uk (his name's Chris Bird, ironically, hence the URL) Rolling Eyes