Shooting UK: My first shotgun

Hi bingers,

Welcome to the forum. I hope you get some useful advice on here.

There's a huge range of shotguns available as I'm sure you are aware, but if you are just starting out it is worth buying something fairly cheap and probably second-hand (your budget's spot on), for two reasons. First, if you're new to the sport, then you do want to keep the expenditure down before you've decided exactly where your passion lies (ie, game shooting, wildfowling, pigeon shooting, sporting clays, down the line etc). Secondly, the cheaper the gun, the less expensive the mistake!

The best solution, I would suggest, is to go to your local clay ground/gunshop and try a couple of guns for size, as really the most appropriate gun to buy is the one that fits best, in good condition, from a well-known and trusted maker. Any gunshop worth its salt will take the time to fit a novice properly and give you the chance to try it out on their ground — that's how happy customers are won.

Essentially there are a number of "default" choices when buying a first gun. Typically people tend to go for an over-and-under 12-bore (or perhaps a 20-bore if you are smaller/younger). Names that tend to crop up again and again are Browning, Beretta, Lanber, Lincoln, Macnab and Webley & Scott. There are good basic models in each of their ranges such as the Lincoln Premier or perhaps the Browning B425 which would fall into your budget. Have a look at www.guntrader.co.uk to get an idea of the sort of prices you should be paying. Likewise have a look at the shotgun reviews on the Shooting Times site.

There are a lot of reasonably priced guns out there, so don't accept the first thing you see — and certainly don't accept the first thing a gun dealer puts in your hand (unless of course you shoot like a dream with it and it fits like a glove... in which case, snap it up!)

I hope that helps — I daresay others will have suggestions for specific models that they've had experience with.

Over to the other forum members...

Yours, Alastair.

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Alastair Balmain, Deputy editor, Shooting Times