Shooting Times & Country Magazine

The gun that every one of us needs

After enjoying a productive day on the woodies above the maize, Mark Ripley considers the merits of using a semi-automatic shotgun

With a smooth, fast swing I pulled ahead of the first bird and fired. It folded and fell to the ground but before it landed, I was on to the pigeon veering to the right in a panic. Again, with a puff of feathers, the tail end of a slightly enthusiast­ic shot string collided with the head and neck of the bird, sending it plummeting into the maize.

Almost popping a vertebrae in the process, I managed a snapshot at the third bird just as it was clearing the tops of the trees which, rather to my surprise and probably out of luck than good shooting, spiralled down into the field behind. This was one of those rare occasions in which I actually made use of all three shots to score a triple, something I’ve only achieved a handful of times.

Having that third shot is only one of several advantages of the semiauto; in fact, the extra cartridge doesn’t always do you many favours. Knowing you’re swinging a gun loaded with a holy trinity can in fact make you concentrat­e less; in the back of your mind you’re thinking, “Well if I miss with this one, I still have two more chances.”

As it happens, often you don’t get the time for more than two shots on a single bird, especially on a typically fast-moving pigeon. And, as any rough shooter will tell you, your first shot is usually your best chance. Once that shot is away, everything in the air tends to scatter as quickly as your shot pattern.

Ambush point

Tucking myself down a little further behind the nettles, I watched another woodie pitching in towards the spinney of trees where I waited. These trees are popular late afternoon as the birds fly into roost and to digest cropfulls of winter wheat. The wheat, in this case, was difficult to shoot due to its proximity to a road and nearby houses, meaning this particular tree gave me an ambush point.

With the maize rapidly growing, I was doing my best to avoid dropping birds among it for fear of not finding

them, so I waited, biding my time to shoot until it was setting its wings to land above me, clear of the crop.

At a little over 30 yards, I missed what should have been an easy shot, instantly bringing me down from the elation of my inspiring triple only a few moments before. Topping the magazine up with another cartridge from my belt, with little movement, was another plus point of the semiauto, and one that I always appreciate from the confines of a hide, where breaking a gun open tends to involve some awkward manoeuvrin­g and usually snagging the bead in the net.

On this occasion I hadn’t bothered to build a hide, purely because there was already ample cover at the foot of the trees, without having to lug an abundance of nets and poles across several fields. Only a half-hour in and I knew I had six birds on the ground. Considerin­g it had taken me a few shots to get my eye in after not using the shotgun for a while, I was quite pleased. Especially with the way these birds were whipping in on the wind; it’s amazing how fast a pigeon can turn 90 degrees with a mere tip of the wing at the first sign of danger.

A clatter of wings to my left signalled the arrival of another woodie, landing unseen into the cover of the canopy. Try as I might I couldn’t pick it out, and as long as it didn’t spot me first, I thought I might just get a chance of a shot of it departing the next time I fired. I didn’t have to wait long as a high crosser passed overhead, and after a moment of deliberati­ng I chose to take a shot already knowing the opportunit­y had been missed, along with the departure of the roosting pigeon.

A second bird followed a similar path crossing high overhead,

“I managed a snapshot at the third bird just as it was clearing the tops of the trees”

and this time I decided a little sooner I would have a go. The woodie flew on, seeming to take little notice of my pathetic attempt until, to my surprise, it began to falter mid-flight before setting its wings to glide way out across the neighbouri­ng field and crashing into a distant patch of hawthorn. Perhaps my shot hadn’t been as pathetic as I’d first thought?

The afternoon continued with a rollercoas­ter of emotions from some good shooting mixed with some surprising­ly bad and increasing­ly more sporadic shots quickly spoiling my initially good cartridge to kill ratio.

Accurate shooting

One does tend to fire more cartridges when using a semi-auto than one might by being a little more reserved with a double or even single barrel, depending perhaps more on firepower than accurate shooting.

I found myself quickly rattling through a box of Clear Pigeon 6s — the cheapest available at my local gunshop — but fortunatel­y my trusty old Beretta AL391 will cycle pretty much anything it’s given without fault, giving credit to its build quality, despite my lack of any form of routine maintenanc­e or cleaning.

With the pigeons moving quickly on the wind, the lightweigh­t and fast-handling Beretta proved a good choice for me, even if I would gain some nettle rash collecting up the spent cases. At least at the end of the day, a fair fewer ounces of gun over the arm while walking back laden with pigeons would be rather welcome.

Although the semi-auto is rather frowned upon on a driven day, if accepted at all, I’m a strong believer that it certainly has a place in any

rough shooter, wildfowler or claybuster’s gun cabinet, being generally cheaper and lighter than most other shotguns. They also tend to have a little less recoil. I also rather like the single-barrel profile, which easily draws the eye on to the target along the rib, making for quicker target acquisitio­n. This particular gun I picked up second-hand for £400.

Although it has a fair amount of wear on the surface, the gun shoots and functions like a dream, making it worth every penny for me.

In the distance another pigeon rapidly approached, seeming to take an age to draw near as I crouched low, before suddenly it was on me and rapidly departing out over the

maize. A rapid mount, pull through and instinctiv­e trigger pull at what I perceived subconscio­usly to be the correct lead, I surprised myself by connecting hard with it, sending it spinning like a bullet on a downward spiral into the maize. In hindsight

I’d wished I’d let it pass unsaluted as this would take a lot of searching among the tall maize stalks at the end of the session.

“The single-barrel profile draws the eye on to the target”

Rookie error

Another pair quickly raced over the trees and, after initially mounting on the first bird, I made the rookie error of changing at the last moment in favour of the second, closer bird. Needless to say, two shots in vain quickly followed without dislodging so much as a feather. Twenty minutes of barrel twitching followed, as insects buzzed over the tips of the maize stalks due to my senses now finely tuned and in overdrive ready to intercept fast-arriving pigeons. A

single woodie banked around the clump of trees with wings set ready to select a suitable perch. With a smooth, controlled mount, I took my time pulling though the bird just as it prepared to land, sending it crashing to the ground through overhangin­g branches, already dead but wings still clattering their last.

With the evening drawing in and the pigeons getting increasing­ly wary,

I decided to call it a day. Clearing the gun, I set about collecting up the fallen birds, with more than enough for a couple of pies.

It goes without saying that there is no perfect combinatio­n of guns in your cabinet, but by my reckoning many of us would do well to trade in that old side-by-side and replace it with a handy low-maintenanc­e three-shot semi.