My book

Although we managed to have copies of my new book, Hunting with Air Rifles – The Complete Guide, ready in time for the Midland Game Fair, it has now been officially released and is available through most major bookstores and selected shooting magazines (see the book clubs in Airgun Shooter and Sporting Rifle).

It’s a 180-page hardback, detailing all aspects of hunting with air rifles - from simple springers to the latest pre-charged guns.
Chapters cover airguns and how they work; choosing the right gun for the job; different sighting systems and how to set them up and use them properly; ammunition and calibre selection; shooting stances and techniques; clothing and accessories; the law; acquiring shooting permission; quarry habits; hunting tactics and field craft through the changing seasons; hide building; FAC-rated airguns; game preparation and a wide range of easy-to-follow recipes for rabbit and pigeon.

My intention was to produce an in-depth guide to help enthusiastic airgun shooters make the most of their time in the field (and turn the result into a tasty meal) but there’s also lots in there to help more experienced shots to raise their game. Whether culling rats and feral pigeons around the farmyard, decoying pigeons over corn stubbles, shooting squirrels in the woods or hunting rabbits for the pot, it’s all covered.

The book is the distillation of what I have learned, through success and failure, during almost 25 years of hunting with air rifles.
All of the photos are by myself and my good friend Kev Hawker, who those of you who read the airgun magazines will probably recognise. Jeffrey Olstead at the BASC was kind enough to write a foreward, illustrator Jon Brammer at Creative Fold did a great job with images to introduce each chapter (as you can see) and I’m really pleased with what the design team at Northumbria Press achieved with the layout.