The Field Oct. 20, 1888 A Shoot On The Moor by Thomas de Grey Walsingham
On August 30, when I killed 1,070 grouse to my own gun in the day, I shot with four breechloaders. No. 1, a gun made in 1866 by Purdey, subsequently converted from pin-fire to central principle, to which new barrels were made last year. Nos. 2 and 3, a pair of central fire breechloaders, made also by Purdey, about 1870, for which I have likewise had new barrels. No. 4, a new gun made by Purdey this year to match the two mentioned above, but with Whitworth steel instead of Damascus barrels. The guns are all 12 bore, with cylinder 30 in. barrels, not choked. My cartridges...contained 3 1/8 drs. Hall's Field B powder to 1 1/8 ozs. No 5 Derby shot...
by Sir Joseph Nickerson, published in the UK in 1989 by Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd
"If only birds are included and a comparison is made between Lord Ripon's last twenty-four seasons and my last twenty-four..... then my total turns out to be slightly greater. Documentary records show that from 1899 to 1922 Lord Ripon shot 187, 763 head of birds, an annual average of 7,823. From 1966 to 1988 I accounted for 188,172, an annual average of 7,841. For the last three seasons I used nothing but 28 bores and for the fourteen previous seasons before those, only 20 bores (all made by Purdeys), while the Marquis always used 12 bores, as far as I know.
The Purdey 20 bores weigh six pounds and, though they can discharge an ounce of shot with no problem, thirteen sixteenths of an ounce is quite adequate. The retractable trigger fires the top barrel. On one gun I have this barrel
very heavily choked for grouse so that I can get a chance at the first bird a fair way in front and have a bit more spread of shot for the second barrel when I take the nearer bird.
The more accurate the shot (his way of saying shooter) the more he can use choke to advantage. Most people are better off with very little choke, but a choked spare pair of barrels is very useful for specialized use on shoots with extra-high birds".
His ideas of choking agree with mine. Yesterday I was using a 20 with the first barrel choked LM and the second IC. I took two sets of doubles out of 14 birds by taking the first bird farther out with the LM barrel and the second bird closer in with the IC.
SRH
