An amazing young Shot

Here is a cracking picture of my son, Ronnie Blackwell, just before his 7th birthday, after shooting over some drilled wheat. He shot his first pigeon last week and this weekend he topped it, ending a superb afternoon with a bag

Standard steel can certainly kill at that range.

Alasdair Mitchell, by email of 20 to his name, shot with a .410 and a 28-bore. I’m still amazed by some of the shots he took and it’s a day his proud dad will never forget.

William Blackwell, by email contradicted everything put out by BASC and the gun trade. As a result, I bought a copy and now reload all my own ammunition to American recipes using American powders.

I can assure you that light loads outperform heavier loads as the lighter loads are not affected in the same way as heavier, slower loads and, I hasten to add, all my loads fall below 1,500ft/sec and I don’t need a magnum semi-automatic proofed for steel shot to put them through, preferring to load into 2¾in cases and use 7/8oz loads of No 6s for woodpigeon, No 5s for duck and 28g No 4s for geese through a Browning 325 choked ¼ and 1/2which is not proofed for steel.

Perhaps the gun trade should have pushed for an increase in speed. Then there would be no need for standard shot and magnum shot loads and Guns would be able to stick with shot sizes they prefer instead of having to move up two shot sizes as suggested by BASC. As the deadline draws closer to the voluntary transition from lead loads to non-toxic, Guns should