Maximum range

I regard 50 yards as the maximum range at which an accurately aimed shot should kill what I'm looking at, so why are there videos showing decoyers firing at pigeons at more than 80 yards?

Once my mother allowed me to have a shotgun in my early teens, I spent most of my time mooching round our farm trying to get within range of whatever quarry took my fancy. It could have been an unsuspecting rabbit at dusk, or a teal feeding on the tide’s edge of the saltings that marked the boundary of our farm.

I had no qualms about shooting any of my targets as they fed, but I learned very early on that I needed to get within 40 yards to be reasonably sure of a clean kill, even with full chokes and Alphamax 5s.

Maximum range

I accepted that 40 yards was my maximum range, and endeavoured to improve my fieldcraft so that it was unnecessary to attempt shots any further away. With the improvement in the ballistics of modern cartridges, and 50 years of constant practice, I now regard 50 yards as the maximum range at which an accurately aimed shot should kill what I am firing at. So, why are there videos out there showing decoyers firing at pigeons at 80-plus yards?

New industry

Insisting that they can REGULARLY kill birds at these ranges, a whole new industry has sprung up – boasting of putting pheasants over the Guns at such a range that even a good team can only average one bird for 10 shots. Are we suggesting that these teams kill that one bird cleanly, and completely miss the other nine? The whole ethics of killing birds with a shotgun revolves around ensuring, as far as is feasible, a fairly aimed shot resulting in a clean kill – that cannot happen with any certainty much beyond 50 yards. Sure, we have all seen birds killed at extreme ranges by stopping a stray pellet with their head, but is that really the way