Giving the very high birds your best shot

High bird shooting is a specialist subject. Some devote themselves to nothing else, but is there an optimum barrel length for it?

It might surprise you to learn that the fashion for long barrels is nothing new. Take a look at any of the fowling 4- and 8-bore shotguns from the later part of the 19th century and you will rarely find one with short barrels. To cut through the babble of modern fieldsports marketing, though, we need to determine what we mean by both high birds and by long barrels.

High birds is a relative term. What is high for me may not be high for you. It must be assessed on individual ability and, for that, you must