The Sporting Shooter’s Handbook

An introduction to the sport

Producing a book that sets out to be an introduction to sporting shooting is a brave undertaking, writesprofsimondenny. There is a huge amount of ground to cover if a book is genuinely to be an introduction, and everybody who shoots will pick it up and look to find something to take issue with.

Fortunately, Graham Downing is wellqualified to produce such an introduction. Thesportingshooter’shandbook benefits from his extensive experience, both as a sporting shooter and as a writer on country sports. When reading it, I tried to remember what I was like 40 years ago: the owner of a second-hand shotgun who had shot a few clays and wanted to shoot something to eat, but did not know where to start. Would the handbook be useful to my 20-year-old self today?

The answer is an unequivocal “yes”. In less than 250 readable pages, Downing has produced a comprehensive guide to all aspects of using a shotgun for killing game. He also took most of the photographs used to illustrate the book, showing he has an excellent eye for shots with a camera, as well as a gun. The book’s introduction is particularly good in highlighting the economic, ecological, communal and personal benefits that come from sporting shooting, while also discussing the ethics of whether it is right to kill another creature for recreation.

The conclusion reached on the latter point is sound and defensible to all, I suspect, apart from the most rabid ‘anti’. I also liked the chapters on Gundogs and the Support Team (but why is the National Organisation of Beaters and Pickers Up not listed in the Appendix?) and the important point made that you can enjoy participating in sporting shooting without using a gun.

The handbook is rather optimistic about getting permission to shoot. Statements such as, “imagine you have become friendly with a local farmer… and he has invited you” are easier made than experienced. Therefore, I would have expected that it would say something about how to find shooting via agents or websites. The book would also have benefited from a paragraph or two on the indicative costs of sporting shooting.

These quibbles aside, I would certainly buy this book for anybody, young or older, who wanted to take up the sport.

Downing undertook a significant task in writing this book and he has delivered.

“Downing undertook a significant task and he has delivered”