READY TO HUNT?

In my estimation, air rifle hunting is one of the toughest field sports around. It has a bit of everything that is challenging: fickle ballistics with a short effective range, wary quarry with a tuppence-sized kill zone and the need for tip top fieldcraft skills. It’s perhaps odd then that airgun hunting is often an introductory discipline. On the other hand, perhaps it’s fortunate that the gateway to both small and big game hunting is guarded with such rigour.

Because I didn’t have a mentor showing me the ropes when I started out, my early exploits were marred by failure. I was more like a greyhound ineffectually chasing the rabbits around in circles than a human hunter. With hindsight, I suspect that my