The Best of British

Shooting Times was born in a time of some major step changes in the shooting industry. For one thing, there was no ‘shooting industry’ as we know it today. Buying a peg on a prestigious shooting estate was simply impossible. You either had the connections necessary to get invited on a driven shoot, you had the necessary land, house and staff to run your own shoot, or you stuck to wildfowling.

However, there was certainly a gun trade and in 1882 it was in rude health. This was midway through the heyday of innovation that characterised the British trade for 60 years, and the avid sportsman was very keen to stay abreast of the latest improvements in firearms and ammunition.

Mousetrap

In 1882 hammerguns were still mainstream. The first hammerless gun, Murcott’s) — patented the first really effective hammerless gun, which we now know as a boxlock. By the late 1870s, boxlocks were beginning to make waves.