A bad workman blames his tools

Further to Giles Catchpole’s article in Shooting Times (A shot at the title, 21 September), I can only assume he has never fired a .410. Over 50 years ago my father entrusted me with a Belgian single barrel .410; it was a semi hammergun and went with me daily on the rounds of our small farm.

Rabbits were the mainstay of our sport and this gun was very effective between 25 to 30 yards with Eley Fourlong No 5s. We were avid ferreters shooting rabbits between two long chicken sheds, a great sport. Soon I moved on to a Webley & Scott bolt action .410 — luxury indeed. Cartridges were scarce and being single-barreled guns you could not afford to miss; my friends and I became very accurate with these little guns.

Interestingly, the local garage where we obtained our ammunition only stocked 12-bore or .410 cartridges, so we didn’t have much choice. I now own a

Yildiz over-and-under .410 which is good for lamping rabbits and close-range pigeon decoying — long live the .410. However, I am worried about obtaining non-toxic ammunition in the future as there is nothing available at present.

Gaynor Springett,

East Sussex

I carried a sack of pigeons off the field to Chaff, leaning on his crutches as he waited by his truck, he was silhouetted by the setting sun. For a moment I had the flash recall of my hero and pigeon-shooting legend and friend Archie Coats, who himself was on crutches later in life. It suddenly came to me that the

two men had the same initials, AC. It appealed to Chaff’s pride that thereafter I could refer to him as AC in all my articles.

He will be missed by his extended family but particularly by Danette, his boyhood sweetheart with whom he spent the last 40 years. She and his dog of the moment were his love. I shall miss him and all the days’ pigeon shooting we shared. There was always a constant banter crackling over the airways form our radios. “Still time to kill a hundred pigeons” was his classic saying towards the end of a less than successful day.

Will Garfit, by email

I thank Alasdair Mitchell for his response (Letters, 19 October) to my letter in the 5 October issue. I did not dismiss the Texas mourning dove study. This clearly showed a small steel shot is effective on a bird a little heavier than our mistle thrush. I believe a consensus of opinion would concur with Alasdair Mitchell’s view that standard steel can kill pheasants cleanly up to about 30 yards. This seems to me to be a considerable handicap compared to a conventional lead 12-bore game cartridge, which should take this expectation out to 45 yards.

This severe reduction in lethal performance from standard steel must result in disappointment and more wounded birds. Stephen Judd,

East Sussex

‘‘The wildlife of today is not ours to dispose of as we please. We have it in trust. We must account for it to those who come after.’’ King George VI