50 tales from shooting experiences in England and Scotland

Wildfowling is the most romantic, exciting and challenging of all the field sports. All wildfowlers have a little poetry in their souls. The majority of fowlers are thoroughgoing individualists. A typical wildfowler is a true hunter, bred and born - a lone wolf pitting his wits and knowledge against the wiles of some of the wariest and fastest birds on earth. Taking all this into account it is no surprise that wildfowling has fascinated a great many well known writers as well as inspiring many lesser known and even amateur writers to write with brilliance and passion about their sport. In this book I have attempted to select a number of gems and rarities of fowling literature from famous writers as well as including notes, articles and snippets from less well known, but nevertheless, enthusiastic scribes. This anthology will, I hope, help preserve some of the more obscure wildfowling tales for gunners of the future. Several of the post war wildfowling stories include those of writers who contributed to now defunct sporting periodicals of that era. Their stories I consider masterpieces of the genre and have been included for the benefit of future generations. In some cases it has been impossible to communicate with them or their relatives, who may contact the publishers if they so wish.

I have spent a lifetime wildfowling and involved in shooting and fieldsports. Wildfowling has been in my family for over a hundred years, it’s in my blood. I have a passion for punt gunning and have also spent the last year breeding award winning gun dogs, particularly Chesapeake Bay Retrievers. I decided to write this book as quite often I would find myself relaying some of my wildfowling, punt gunning, shooting and dog breeding stories and advice to friends and people I have met. It dawned on me that I had a wealth of experience and stories that I would like to share with others. I have put together this book to give you an insight into the world of wildfowling, fieldsports, punt gunning and dog breeding that I have gained over the years. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have enjoyed putting it all down on paper. I’ve included some interesting and humorous stories as well from over the years.