A companion for the foreshore
Out of all of the guns that I have owned, bought and, on many more occasions, aspired to buy, wildfowling guns have become my obsession, although it took me a while to discover them. Growing up in a conventional game-shooting household, I came to the conclusion from a young age that shotguns were shotguns and the gun cabinet would feature the traditional, sleek, sidelock and boxlock game guns. The choice of calibre was determined more by how old and capable we were rather than their use on specific quarry. The same applied to cartridges – standard loads went into whichever gun I was lucky enough to be using and were used on all quarry.
These preconceptions were thoroughly challenged on one of my first day’s driven shooting. The invitation came with the strict instructions to use non-toxic for the duck drive. Wildfowl had yet to feature in my gamebook, and on the day I received with great reverence a box of 20-bore
