Introducing the June Issue

Welcome to The Vintage Gun Journal, your free-to-view monthly magazine for all things British gun and rifle.

Can you believe we are nearing half-way through 2021! It still seems as if the winter only went away last week.However, the sun is now out, the late mayfly are gracing the stream and the brown trout beginning to show themselves.

Summer is the season for simulated driven shoots. It is all too common for us to neglect to pick up a gun from February to September and then wonder why we have 'gone off'.

There is a real need for 'trigger time' to keep muscle memory and reactions in tune, so when the real thing arives, we are on our best form.

I'll be exercising a few of my old guns on simulated days - both pheasant and partridge - in Oxfordshire and Herefordshire and grouse in Macclesfield, which will be featured in Shooting Times later this year.

I used to shoot a lot of pigeons in the summer and I enjoy pigeon shooting more than most quarry but perhaps I'm getting soft in my old age. I know they are a pest and need numbers controlled but I hate the thought of leaving starving squabs in nests during the breeding season.

The squirrels are getting no such respite. As they raid my bird tables, they get the 'good news' every moring at 1,500 fps! This should ensure my bird boxes with tits, wrens and robins inside remain largely unmolested while they raise their young.

We continue to find interesting guns and have a few restoratons underway. We will keep the stories coming and hope readers find our content enjoyable.

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