What’s good for the goose

Ten years ago, just before the shooting season began, my father was given a bag of cartridges by an old friend. The bag contained an assortment of random squibs that this pal had fallen out of love with over the past decade. No two cartridges were the same; there was a range of manufacturers, shot sizes and weights. The only common denominator was that the pellets were made from lead.

That season turned out to be Dad’s best in terms of shooting ability. He regularly averaged one in two, even on woodcock (he claims), despite the rogue collection of cartridges being fired. As a result, I have never paid much attention to the technical details of my ammunition; it rather proved the point, lead works.

“There had been local reports of plentiful duck”