Wildfowler in the making

Charlie Wearden describes how her shooting has come on during her first couple of years, with the mentoring of Sportinggun contributor Tom Sykes

As regular readers will know, Tom Sykes (my other half) has been training me to be a competent and adaptable shot. Since the last update on my progress, a lot of exciting things have happened…

Shotgun ticket

I was getting a taste for shooting and after the first few months I decided it was the sport for me and applied for my shotgun ticket. Unfortunately, as most people are aware, this process can take what feels like a lifetime. The absence of my ticket restricted my potential shooting up until November last year. Once it finally arrived, I had the opportunity to expand my shooting portfolio, especially for wildfowling, as most clubs require any guest to hold a current shotgun certificate.

Join the club

Tom and his brother, Jack, have been active wildfowlers since being introduced to the sport by their grandfather and father at a young age. Tom allowed me to experience the joys of wildfowling by escorting me last season onto the marshes on several occasions as a non-shooting guest. I fell in love with this magical and wild pursuit, and this was reinforced when I shot my first pink-foot in Norfolk. We were visiting friends Robin and Helen Owen, which Tom wrote about in his Norfolk Pinks article last season.

At Christmas, to my delight, Tom had purchased a couple of day tickets to take me out in January. Day one on the marsh resulted in me bagging my first wigeon in less than perfect weather conditions on the foreshore. I have been hooked on the sport ever since and applied to become an associate member of our local wildfowling club ready for the start of this season.

First shotgun

Since I started shooting, I have mainly been using Tom’s Beretta AL391. This is the field model, meaning its lightweight design was perfect for my smaller frame. Despite enjoying and shooting well with this gun, it had its limitations as it only had a 3in

“I fell in love with this magical pursuit”