My daughter and son in law live in Brightwell—cum-Sotwell.
Over in this side od the pond, American Skeet has 28 ga and .410 Bore as part if the competition. This keeps 28 ga. as a viable commercial gauge. I’m not sure what keeps 16 ga. active.
When we lived in the UK in the early 1960’s, my dad had Purdey make a custom case for a match set of side by side Charles Daley side by sude shotguns, one 12 ga, the other in 16 ga. The guns had been my paternal grandfather’s.
For competition shotguns, things have evolved over time. At least in the US, the pump shotgun was the gun to shoot skeet in the 1930’s-1940’s. Over time, the over/umder and auto shotgun took over.
For hunting, there are different requiremets that mske the different action styles till relevent.
Good morning.
They live in South Oxfordshire, which is a prettty part of the country. As said, there are a couple of good clay grounds out that way.
Oddly enough I was talking to a mate of mine the other day, and he's just bought a 16 gauge O/U. As I haven't shot for over 10 years I'm a bit out of it. Apparently 16 gauge is becoming popular again over here.
When I started shooting the standard load for clays was 32g, then in the 90's 28g took over. Now a lot of folks shoot with 24g cartridges. So I guess a 16 gauge gives people the option of firing a heavier load than a 20 whilst still being light.
I've often though it would be a good thing to have competitions using smaller gauges like 28 or .410, but it doesn't seem to happen over here.
In the majority of the US you're brought up with guns, and recreational shooting is for everyone, but shooting was a very elite thing to do in the UK, and there was a lot of snobbery involved.
The O/U was what virtually every shooter over here was using for clays when I took up shooting in the early 80's. Even autos were frowned upon, and pump guns were very unpopular.
There was this view that autos and pumps were 'dangerous' because it's more difficult to tell when they're empty. Well keep it pointed upwards and have an empty cartridge sticking out of the breech sideways.
Our firearms laws have been getting progressively tighter and there are fewer shooters, so the clay clubs are more welcoming to those like myself that shoot something different.
I've very nearly copped it twice at clay grounds both times from the 'not so dangerous' O/U. Once when a chap came into the club house and took his gun out of the slip and started practising his mounting whilst pointing in my direction without checking his gun first. I yelled at him and there was a cartridge in the bottom barrel. He got thrown out!
The other time was when a chap had a misfire he turned straight round and it went off and blew a hole in the ground about a yard in front of me. I had to resist the temptation to bend his gun round his neck!
It's people that are dangerous, and not the guns themselves of whatever type.
Cheers.
Stewart.