Bog Myrtle & Peat

It’s been some time since I’ve had the chance to get out and do some shooting. Working as I have over the past eighteen months, I’ve found that I often have so much to do that shooting is the last thing on my mind. I often have to make the decision between taking a shotgun up to the Chayne and taking tree guards or fence posts instead. Usually, I strive for the greater good and leave the shotgun at home, but thanks to a recent purchase, I may be tempted to go the other way.

When a friend at work mentioned in passing that he was looking to get rid of a shotgun, I couldn’t help tuning my ear in to the conversation. I don’t know very much about shotguns at all, but I do know that I like my guns like I like my shooting: old fashioned, unusual and British. The shotgun described met all those criteria, and I soon found myself the proud owner of a James Kirk boxlock non-ejector which was made shortly before the First World War.

I was immediately thrilled to see that the shotgun had been engraved in Ayr, and the town’s name was emblazoned on both sides of the forestock and on the barrel. It could be that the shotgun was originally made in Belgium and shipped to Ayr, but there is a chance that this shotgun predates that process. Whether it was made in Belgium or not, I loved the local links. Not many people can say  that they shoot with a gun made or engraved less than thirty miles away, and while the barrels need to be re-blued and the safety catch fiddled with, using it for game shooting is precisely what I intend to do.

I can totally sympathise with people who shoot with modern American shotguns. Some of the new models from Beretta and Browning are incredibly smooth and efficient, but I would always rather take an older gun onto the shooting field. Knowing that this shotgun belonged to a keeper on a local estate which used to be well known for its blackcock gives it a real sense of history, and being able to see the hills above Ayr where it was made almost a century ago as I walk my traps on the Chayne every day makes it very special indeed.

Who knows, this shotgun could one day swing through a blackcock again…