Sherington Shooting Centre

We have a whole load of cartridges coming today and the trend to go from plastic to fibre is definitely increasing. After several people mentioned the difference in velocity, we spoke to the manufacturers and they gave us the difference as a percentage. Reply/comment with what you think that percentage is, and the first person to answer correctly can have a round of Skeet free of charge this Saturday.

Happy New Year! Yeah ok, we know its not the 1st January but it's only now that the sun is out, we can shoot in a tee shirt and it's nice to be outside just for the sake of being outside. The shooting ground is looking good in its spring clothing and the busiest time of the year starts now. To make the most of this good weather we will be opening certain parts of the shooting ground for the Saturday open practice earlier than usual on some weekends. Tomorrow Sportrap will be open from 11am - 4pm and Sporting will start at its usual time of 1pm. If you would like regular updates of what's happening on Saturday open practice shoots, please send an email to be added to the list.

We were thinking the other day that we didn't have a lot of left handed guns in at the moment. A phone call later and Edgar Brothers kindly sent 2 left handed Zolis for customers to view. They are a very nice Z Sport with a very special one off price and the superb Zoli Bella which is designed mainly for ladies. The Bella has their Between The Hands balancing system and an adjustable comb, making it easily tunable for fit and prefered balance. Available in right or left handed versions with choice of barrel lengths and flush or extended chokes.

Definitely getting there.

Well it’s rough at the moment but strong and will be really tough when the new cross bolt (that has to be in keeping with the others someone put in decades ago) is in place. As we have said so many times, the one thing that makes this sort of repair so difficult and possibly the reason it split in the first place, is oil saturation. Please do not put gun oil or lubricant on your woodwork. It destroys the stock and can lead to “problems “ like this one. Now to make it look good again!

“Yes Sir, we can, but it may be a little while.”
Well that’s a challenge! We will come back to that in a couple of weeks.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL. We would like to thank all our customers for their support over the last 12 months, and look forward to seeing you all soon. We are back to it in the workshop today and open practice will be up and running this Saturday afternoon.
Over the last couple of weeks, a friend of ours has been doing some research on a gun we acquired. You will see from the photos, its a completely ribless over and under that uses the sliding top latch method of locking. To a...nyone who has seen a Krieghoff, the locking method may look familiar but this predates that. Yes, Remington did use this method but this gun seems to predate Remington too.
Having had it to bits we can see It's very well made and comes from a French company called Vulcain. Made as a game gun with 28" 1/4 & 1/2 barrels and weighs 6lbs 2oz.
You may also spot there is no hinge pin. The barrels slot in straight down from the top and rotate on a pivoted cradle in the action. really clever stuff.
If any one has one or knows about them, we would love to hear from you. It wants a little work which will happen as soon as time permits and we will then see what it can do.
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The man himself (Paolo Zoli) when he called in this week. And one of the finest guns on the market.

ABT/DTL coming soon!! That will be Skeet, Sporting, Sportrap,ABT & DTL.

Proof its worth thinking about.
With more people shopping online we get increasing numbers of calls asking if a potential purchase may be worth thinking about. To help you evaluate a gun you can't see, we have put a few notes together.
When barrels are made they are/would have been stamped with the internal size of the barrels. This could be in mm / thousandths of an inch / or an antiquated fractional measurement.
...Continue Reading

After much thought, we have decided to "go fibre wad" from 1st November. Some people are "commenting" on this and it seems mis-information abounds even in clay shooting circles.
To dispel some myths, here are some facts:;
"Fibre wads are £15 per 1000 more expensive"" If you are paying £15 extra for fibre wads, choose a different cartridge. We have found the average difference is £5 per 1000 (12pence per box).
... "All fibre wads produce more recoil" Simply incorrect.
"Using fibre wads will mean the clay needs much more lead and I will have to re-adjust" We spoke to one of the leading cartridge manufacturers about this and they did say cartridges with fibre wads can be up to 15fps slower. This equates to about 1% extra lead. If a long bird needs 10 feet lead with plastic, an extra 1% would mean it needs an extra 1 ¼ inches! A bird that needs 2 feet lead with plastic would need an extra ¼ of an inch. No matter how good a shot someone is, they cannot tell the difference between 24 inches and 24 ¼ inches.
"Fibre wads won't break clays further than 40 yards away. You need tight chokes if using fibre wads". And my personal favourite, "My gun is over-bored. If I used fibre wads the shot would dribble out of the barrels and fall on the floor." We shot some crossing tower birds with fibre wads to test these theories. First we shot 24 gram 7 ½ shot fibres through ¼ choke at 58 yards. The result was decent kills every time. We then tried 28 gram 7 ½ shot fibres through ¼ choke at 70 yards. A tougher shot but breaks were fantastic. Finally we tried an over-bored gun, 28gram 7 ½ shot fibres, still with ¼ choke at 76 yards. This was a tough shot and it's true to say there were more losses than kills, but when the clay broke, it broke very well. You don't need ¾ and full choke with 28gram 7 shot in a plastic cup to break long birds. You do need to point the gun in the right place and pull the trigger at the right time.
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We had a little fun on Saturday with a hammer gun only Sporting squad. From top to bottom there is a Holland, Lang, Field, Grant and Wild. The combined age of the guns is about 600 years!! All shooting modern cartridges at tough targets. It's good to try something different occasionally.

Well that's another one finished. It's nice when we bring something back from the brink and this is a good example.
This Lang under-lever hammer gun –no, not Joseph but his son Edward – came in a long time ago. It had been sleeved but still with 2 ½" chambers, the stock was very short and was in generally poor, but shootable condition.
Having a soft spot for hammer guns or anything a bit different, we decided to take a risk and bought it. Soon afterwards we took it to the sh...ooting ground to try it and made notes of its problems. They included pitting on the outside of the barrels, the short stock, horrendous trigger pulls, loose action, a split in the top rib, the chequering being full of stock oil and general corrosion . Underneath all these problems we were sure there was a nice gun so work started.
Firstly the action was tightened and the barrels were re-chambered to 2 ¾", struck and submitted for proof. They passed without any problems so the top rib was replaced with another period rib and the barrels were blued.
The stock was extended and the back of the extension chequered. The extension piece is quite heavy so it was hollowed out before fitting to keep the balance of the gun right. From here the stock and forend were also re-chequered which was by far the longest job of the restoration.
The gun went back together again so we could try it with snap caps and measure the trigger pulls. These were found to be around 9lbs! With the locks out again the internals could be cleaned and trigger pulls adjusted to a much nicer 4-5 lbs. Now in nice useable condition, screws and hammers were blued.
We now have a 120+ year old English under-lever hammer gun capable of shooting any standard clay or game load cartridges.
If you are at the shooting ground this Saturday, you may just see it in action.
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At last the pistol box is finished. To describe it more accurately it's a walnut pistol case with tulip wood inlay, brass corners inside and out, with a brass lock and "secret" key compartment, finished with more than 25 coats of French polish and many coats of wax.
It holds a 9mm pinfire revolver, turnscrew, pull through cleaning brush and 6 dummy pinfire rounds in their own oak and mahogany compartment. The ends of 4 rounds show 2,0,1,7, being the year of completion. All are set in maroon baize with ribbon pull-outs with horse hide tabs. The pistol pull-tab bears the customer's initials. The inside lid label shows both the maker's and customer's name and address, though the customer's details have been obscured in these photographs.

There has been a bit of a pause in posts recently as we have been concentrating on a particular job. Restoring a pin-fire revolver was easy enough but then the customer asked for a bespoke case to put it in. It's taking a long time but we are getting there. More photos in a few weeks of the finished job. The last photo here is what will be a dummy round.

Went with a group of people at different levels from beginner up to expert. Everyone's needs brilliantly catered for (even the non-shooters amongst us). Set in the most perfect North Bucks countryside. Fantastic bacon butties!

We went clay pigeon shooting today for a hen do. Ian, Dave & Clare made sure we had a great day out. They were brilliant instructors, patient kind and helpful and we all managed to shoot at least a few clays! Thank you for a brilliant day, we won't forget it.

Thanks to Dave and Claire for a lovely morning shooting! As a group of beginners your guidance was greatly appreciated, and we all had a great time! My Grandad thoroughly enjoyed his birthday treat and we all look forward to our next time shooting! Great facilities and people :)

Just had my 4th lesson. Had great fun today shooting at a real variety of targets, got on better than I thought I would. Great instructor and a wonderful place to be taught how to shoot clays!! Bring on the driven pheasants. I would highly recommend.

Ian (jnr) was a fantastic instructor, patient and demonstrating an obvious passion for shooting. Despite our group having little to no experience with shotguns, we managed to improve drastically after only 50 shots, whilst having an amazing time. Money very spent.

I had so much fun on my first lesson with Jim. He's patient, encouraging, explains everything beautifully and is a wonderful person. I can't describe how excited I was when I hit my first clay....can't wait till my next lesson. Fantastic.

I had an excellent lesson with Jim. He was really encouraging and had the patience of a saint! A really great hour, and a place I would certainly recommend to anyone looking to try clay pigeon shooting for the first time! Thank you.

Had a great time shooting, very well organised and the grounds are brilliant. I Would recommend for all levels of ability

Had a great lesson shooting with Jim yesterday! Very friendly and patient really feel like I learnt a lot, would highly recommend.

Had a fantastic morning shooting with Ian the instructor today what a great guy , thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot wait to go back.

Had a brilliant day. Took my boyfriend for his birthday as a Suprise. We both had a fab time , it was a beautiful day and the air was lovely. Was a fun and exciting new experience, and I would defiantly do it again. I would recommend this place to everyone. Not only was it fun but the gentleman made our afternoon relaxed and funny. With humour of me beating my boyfriend :D

Great day out. There was five in are group anx we all enjoyed it and the loser of the group still enjoyed themselves

First time shooter, awesome day wth Jim!

Fantastic experience. We went with a group of friends of all abilities and had a brilliant day. It was my first time clay shooting and I had such a laugh. Jim coached us all and made it really good fun. I would highly recommend. Many thanks Ralda & Ike

Excellent clay shooting venue and top instruction in the lessons from Jim if you're a beginner. Good location and great fun. Give it a go!