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My first shots with my new gun were at driven grouse in Scotland. Missed with the first barrel and swung through, killing with the second.

In one butt Kiri and I shared the gun (a W.Thorn) and killed 11 grouse for 12 shots!

I doubt the moors saw many 1874 hammer guns with under-levers and non-rebounding locks this season! All good fun!

Good gun, good shooting!

With kind regards,
Jani

I'll skip the part involving envy and jealousy and just say how marvelous the day must have been, especially with that old soldier Major Thorn!

While on the subject of hammerguns I have to ask if that beautiful Reilly hammergun you were shooting stateside awhile back became part of the Diggory Hadoke Collection?

That is now in the collection of a friend in Texas. I wold like to have kept it but I say that too often to remain solvent and have to let them go. That being said, the guns I choose to keep and use tend to be 1870s bar-lock guns with Jones under-levers. They just seem to suit me.

Where did you get the label for the "aiming fluid?"

Ah, the Aiming Fluid was a special commission from a couple of American chaps who came over to shoot with us. Bringing American Whisky to Scotland - the cheek of it!

Pictures of aforementioned Reilly - I miss her lots after three lovely seasons use in the UK, but like Dig, I can't unfortunately keep every gun! Now being used in a good home in the US.

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbt...7072#Post157072

Dig, I've never shot driven grouse, but I have shot driven pheasant/partridge mixed in Scotland a few times. Always with a modern ejector gun. Talking 250-300 bird days. How much of a disadvantage (if at all) do you find with an underlever hammergun, in terms of shots you might have fired but were unable to do so, on something like a typical 300 bird driven day?

CBL1 - Man, those pictures still make my heart flutter. The thread registered immediately in my memory even after all this time. I know what it's like to have to sell a cherished gun, I just hope you were able to eventually make up for it.

I recall not knowing much about E M Reilly back then. I did see on this forum a chap over your way with a beautiful Reilly 8 bore Dig found for him.

In the past year and a half I've purchased two E M Reilly .500 BPE's. They're quite nice as well, I must say!

Well Dig found me a E.Paton double 8 bore hammergun which I am pleased to say gets plenty of use on the marshes of England and is very much a cherished gun

Sounds wonderful!

Well, I get around the slower loading/firing cycle by not caring about it.

I load in my own time, shoot the birds that please me and have a good time. Actually, I'm pretty quick with the old under-lever - though the non-rebound locks are an added handicap.

I have shot 300 bird days with an under-lever hammer gun. I don't remember them being any less fun than the ones I shot with a Purdey sidelock ejector.

Well . . . back during WWII, some US Marines were unhappy to change from the old bolt-action Springfield to the M-1 Garand. To each his own, I guess.

Dig, for the Yanks that don't understand a "300 bird day", probably good to let them know that that's a day in which a line of shooters ("guns") bags 300 birds, collectively. Probably over the course of about 5 separate drives.

Thanks - good idea.

I had some American friends here last year for driven bird shooting. It snowed so hard you couldn't see them!

I now have some more visiting between next week and mid December - guess what the forecast is !!

I'll be shooting in Scotland in early Dec, Dig. If I had to choose, I'd take snow over rain.

Dig, maybe you could ask your American friends to bring their flourescent orange jackets this trip. It would help in being able to see them in the snow...Geo

I generally find the Americans are easy to spot because they are dressed head to to in brand new matching tweeds!

Think I just got put in my place; and rightfully so...Geo

Dig

Was just talking about you the other day when a pheasant got bumped by the dog and came at us just like a driven bird. I dropped it on the second shot with my lovely Bayard Original Diana 16 which I got from you last year. Love it as it compliments my slightly older 28 ga. Original Diana. No 300 bird days around here, however....

Being a "lower rent" American, I usually wear my LL Bean Goretex-lined hunting coat; sometimes breeks, sometimes Goretex hunting pants, also from Bean. But the Bean stuff is green rather than orange, so I more or less fit in. And I do have a grouse helmet.

Real Americans hunt wild animals not pen raised released ones.

No reason for you to feel inferior to the Brits when you are over there, Larry, no matter what you wear. The Brits, including Dig know darn good and well they would all be speaking German had it not been for 'Colonist' intervention during WW II.

The birds (pheasants and partridge) you see on driven shoots are very different from those you encounter on your typical preserve, or in places where the states release birds. They've been out and about since they were quite young, and especially by this time of the year are pretty elusive. And the driven grouse of which Dig speaks . . . those are all wild birds.

You'll take that back then Joe?