The outlaw Charles Ross

CONFESSION: I sometimes over analyse things, a trait I suspect I share with many writers. I’ve recently been fretting about a newly bought WJ Jeffrey box-lock, which is ‘only’ chambered for 2½in cartridges. My chum, Dan – who knows more about shooting than he does trout fishing (sorry, Dan) – insists that lighter loads are more efficient than heavier ones and, given an opportunity, will wax lyrical about ballistics tables and speeds per second. I, however, instinctively want larger and heavier loads on the age-old military (armoured) principle of the more lead in the air the better the chance of, first, hitting something and then, having hit it, killing it. So it is only now, forced to use lighter cartridges in my ‘old’ (1930s) new Jeffrey that I am having to concede he may be right. Point it straight and 2½in, 28g No 6s seem to be doing the business just as well as those 2¾in, 30g No 5s, even on