KING GEORGES GUNS.

Shannon News, 6 August 1929, Page 2

KING GEORGES GUNS.

King George may not be able to do any shooting this year, but he has ordered new game guns which should do a good season 's work next year. It is announced that he proposes to use a 20-bore sporting gun. The ordinary standard /gu n is a, 12-bore, which throws a pattern in a 30in. circle at forty yards. This is the gun usually employed in shooting partridge, grouse, and pheasant. The usual weight of this weapon is 6*lb to 71b. The 20bore gun is, of course, of much smaller calibre than the ordinary sporting gun, and only lately it has come into vogue in England. It weighs approximately 'slb to s*lb. Its pattern at forty yards is about a 24in. circle. This makes it a much more difficult proposition as a sporting gun; the shooter has got to be far more accurate in his shooting. Mr Donald Mackintosh, the worldfamous pigeon shot, told a Melbourne journalist that he had >sJaot at the shooting school at Hendon with King

George when his Majesty was Prince of Wales. The King was then taking lessons in shooting, and he \s now recognised as one of the leading English field shots; in fact, he is reported to be one of the five best shots in the world. Mr Mackintosh says that the King uses a hammerless gun nowadays, but, having been taught to use a gun with hammers, his hammerless gun, which has the usual automatic ejectors, is fitted with two dummy hammers. "It is all a matter of habit," says MiMackintosh, "but I have actually handled the King's guns, and know that this is so." King George's father, the late King Edward, was also very fond of shooting, and was a constant competitor at the shooting matches at Hurlingham. King George, however, prefers field shooting. The close season in England for partridges is from February Ist to September Ist; for pheasants, from February 1 to October 1; for black game, from December 10_to August 12; and for grouse, from Detember lo'to August 12 This close season also applies to Scotland.