4. The Twelfth & After by J.K. Stanford (1944 and later printings, various publishers.)
Not a book about shotguns, per se, but about feathered creatures, in the form of a fable that has served as the conscience of several generations of game shooters. Since it appeared in 1944 in its original form, it has never been out of print and the buyers (and readers) are shooters, not the various genera of anti-gunners. I’ve written about Stanford elsewhere, so I won’t go into detail. Suffice to say, this list could include any of half a dozen Stanfords. He was, and is, that good.
5. High Pheasants in Theory and Practice by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, Bart. (1913, Longmans, Green, and various since.)
Sir Ralph (pronounced “Rafe”) was one of those wondrous Victorian/Edwardians of private means and immeasurable curiosity who did so much to expand our knowledge of the natural, and sometimes unnatural, world. In this slim but weighty volume, he gives an account of his experiments to determine what kills feathered game—high pheasants, specifically, but it applies to less difficult birds—and what does not. Unsure of choke or pellet size? Sir Ralph has the answers, as valid today as they were then.
6. The competition for the last spot on the list is so intense, and the candidates so numerous, I hesitate to name one. Any Gough Thomas, any Geoffrey Boothroyd, any other Donald Dallas or Michael McIntosh or J.K. Stanford—the literature of shotguns and wingshooting is so wide, deep, and engrossing, it is, or should be, the envy of every lesser activity. If you shoot a Boss, you need Dallas’s book, if a Fox, McIntosh’s. A Spanish gun? With all due humility, my own Spanish Best.
For my part, looking at the racks and stacks and shelves bulging with volumes that moved with me this last time, having carried them all in the door and down the stairs, there’s no point trying to reduce the number at this point, is there? That steed has fled the stable.
So I will leave you with this thought: A friend, a notable collector of Ruger No. 1 rifles, was asked how many he had. He replied, “If you know how many you’ve got, you don’t have enough.”
The same, I would suggest, is true of books.
Gray’s shooting editor Terry Wieland’s guns and books can be measured in scads and slews, oodles and scores. Whatever the actual numbers, he always feels he will have enough right after he buys that next one. Just that one last…
