March
S M T W T F S
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Who's Online Now
1 members (trw999), 852 guests, and 5 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Forum Statistics
Forums10
Topics38,374
Posts544,014
Members14,391
Most Online1,258
Mar 29th, 2024
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 5
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 593
Likes: 12
trw999 Online Content OP
Sidelock
**
OP Online Content
Sidelock
**

Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 593
Likes: 12

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,828
Likes: 12
Sidelock
**
Offline
Sidelock
**

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,828
Likes: 12
Nicely done. Looks like fun. Thanks for sharing.

OWD


Good Gun Alerts & more:

www.DogsandDoubles.com
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 764
Likes: 19
Sidelock
*
Offline
Sidelock
*

Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 764
Likes: 19
Tim,

Thanks for the links. This is on my bucket list.

John

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,372
Likes: 103
Sidelock
**
Offline
Sidelock
**

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,372
Likes: 103
Neat stuff.

For those who haven't shot driven birds previously, my advice would be to shoot "standard" driven birds before you try the really high birds. There was an issue of Shooting Sportsman fairly recently, I believe last year, which contained a couple articles by Chris Batha and Vic Venters on shooting high birds, and the guns and loads that are used. (Anyone recall the specific issue? I think my copy may have gone missing in the course of a move.) The experts will tell you that high birds really aren't a sxs game. Or at least not your standard sxs game gun. Most of the shooters who are high bird specialists use heavy, long-barreled OU's (think sporting clays guns) shooting heavier charges of larger shot than are used on a more typical driven bird shoot.

You won't find really high birds just anywhere, for the simple reason that it requires the right environment (tall hills and trees) to put them over the guns at 50 yards elevation or more.

Last edited by L. Brown; 02/13/15 09:21 AM.
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 286
Likes: 6
Sidelock
**
Offline
Sidelock
**

Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 286
Likes: 6
A good tightly chocked pass shooting double like a Fox HE with the lighter frame would work if it was stocked a little high. Also Smith or Win 21. Actually there are/were probably more American guns made like this than English/European.

West Side in Houston has a 100 ft. tower that throws this type of target and they are a real challenge to hit. They are sort of like high speed asprin tablets at 40-50 yds.


W. E. Boyd
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 593
Likes: 12
trw999 Online Content OP
Sidelock
**
OP Online Content
Sidelock
**

Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 593
Likes: 12
Over and unders are just more prolific and available. However, one of the reasons for the popularity of good condition live pigeon/wildfowl/magnum SxS doubles by good makers over the last decade has been demand from those guns shooting high birds with bigger loads who appreciate (or are more used to)SxS doubles.

The UK shooting magazines have now got into an annual ritual of having a 'Top 20 Guns' style feature, with nominated shots being interviewed and their choice of game gun, choke and cartridge listed.

If you want proper high birds, you have to go to proper high bird shoots, like Warter Priory. Most are in Yorkshire, Devon/Exeter and Wales. The 300-500 partridge day at Warter probably cost 2,500-3000 per gun, which is around $3,850-4,620.

I do like my partridge shooting!

Tim

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,372
Likes: 103
Sidelock
**
Offline
Sidelock
**

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,372
Likes: 103
I found that I copied and saved the SSM articles by Batha and Venters. Venters' article makes reference to an article in Fieldsports magazine, which included a survey of "Britain's 15 best driven game shots". 12 of them shot OU's, and one of the 3 sxs shooters stated: "If you want to shoot seriously high pheasants, then use a heavy OU and big loads." If you're shooting only partridge (which would be the case in September), I expect you can get by with both smaller shot and lighter loads, although still probably heavier than the 1 or 1 1/16 oz loads of British 6's used on driven shoots that don't specialize in very high birds.

Venters' article points out that the definition of a "tall" bird has changed in the last century or so: "When Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey published "High Pheasants in Theory and Practice" a year before the First World War, a 30-yard bird was described as "tall", one 40 yards overhead was only occasionally killable, and anything taken much higher was purely a victim of bad luck on the pheasant's part." From what I've seen, that's still a pretty good description of driven shoots that don't specialize in high birds.

In the concluding paragraph of Batha's "Hitting High Pheasants" article, he says: "Still, for us mere mortals, a clean kill on a 40-yard pheasant is an awesome shot to pull off." I'd add "amen!" to that.

Last edited by L. Brown; 02/13/15 12:05 PM.
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 593
Likes: 12
trw999 Online Content OP
Sidelock
**
OP Online Content
Sidelock
**

Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 593
Likes: 12
Yep, I'd agree with that. I am very pleased to pull down a 40-45 yard bird today with my 1920s English SxS.

I would say that these days high birds are in the 45-60 yard zone in general. My understanding is that they are killable at that range, provided one is using the right hardware and ammunition.

I've not been on a really high bird shoot, but have friends who have. Like them, my concern would be with pricking birds. Just doesn't sit right with the way I have been bought up to shoot. I understand that the day after a high bird shoot, the keepers are out again with their dogs to 'hoover up' the birds that were either missed or died later under some cover, often many hundreds of yards behind the gun line.

Tim

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 2,169
Likes: 35
Sidelock
**
Offline
Sidelock
**

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 2,169
Likes: 35
I think I'm with Tim on this.... I spent yesterday shooting long ranges clays in a stiff wind and with trap springs wound pretty tight. Based on the way my targets broke I'd probably be a bit hesitant shooting game at those ranges. A was using pretty stout loads too.


Dodging lions and wasting time.....
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 452
Sidelock
Offline
Sidelock

Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 452
"The experts will tell you that high birds really aren't a sxs game".

Guess they never shot a Parker.

Boats

Page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 5

Link Copied to Clipboard

doublegunshop.com home | Welcome | Sponsors & Advertisers | DoubleGun Rack | Doublegun Book Rack

Order or request info | Other Useful Information

Updated every minute of everyday!


Copyright (c) 1993 - 2024 doublegunshop.com. All rights reserved. doublegunshop.com - Bloomfield, NY 14469. USA These materials are provided by doublegunshop.com as a service to its customers and may be used for informational purposes only. doublegunshop.com assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in these materials. THESE MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT-ABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. doublegunshop.com further does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the information, text, graphics, links or other items contained within these materials. doublegunshop.com shall not be liable for any special, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, including without limitation, lost revenues or lost profits, which may result from the use of these materials. doublegunshop.com may make changes to these materials, or to the products described therein, at any time without notice. doublegunshop.com makes no commitment to update the information contained herein. This is a public un-moderated forum participate at your own risk.

Note: The posting of Copyrighted material on this forum is prohibited without prior written consent of the Copyright holder. For specifics on Copyright Law and restrictions refer to: http://www.copyright.gov/laws/ - doublegunshop.com will not monitor nor will they be held liable for copyright violations presented on the BBS which is an open and un-moderated public forum.

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5
(Release build 20201027)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 7.0.33-0+deb9u11+hw1 Page Time: 0.079s Queries: 35 (0.057s) Memory: 0.8470 MB (Peak: 1.8988 MB) Data Comp: Off Server Time: 2024-03-29 08:10:18 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS