Can you shoot high birds with a side-by-side

Words by George Browne

You will often hear it said that if you want to shoot high birds, you’ll have to leave your side-by-side in the gun cabinet and go armed with a tightly-choked 32” barrelled over-and-under. I’ve always had some doubts about this because presumably, people were shooting at Exmoor and Welsh pheasants long before the O/U became ubiquitous. 

To see if there was any truth in the matter, I spoke to Edward King, MD of Anglo Spanish Imports, the company that imports the most popular side-by-side shotguns in the UK, AYA. Edward is a devotee of the side-by-side, and doesn’t miss a lot, so he seemed well-placed to offer some sage words. 

Hands up if you love side-by-sides!

Can you shoot high birds with a side-by-side shotgun?

“It is an interesting question, and in itself, it throws up an interesting question: what is a high bird?” opines Edward. “What I would say is that the average shot more-or-less knows where his or her limit is. So then we have birds that fall into a few categories.” 

“You’ve got ordinary birds, you’ve got good birds, and then there are those birds where you know there’s going to be an element of luck involved, owing to the combination of distance, your skill and your ammunition. Then there are the ones where you know that your chances of killing them are largely down to God. With those birds, those at that real extreme range, it won’t make a great deal of difference what gun you’re using, because you’re not really in control of what happens.”

There's 'good' birds, and then there's high birds

This being said, Edward freely admits that he’s no high bird expert. “I’m certain that if you consulted the absolute high-bird specialist they will advise you to go with a heavier gun, with longer barrels, and punchier ammunition,” he adds. “Whether an over-and-under is necessary is up for debate. Certainly, I don’t shoot all that much better with an O/U than with a side-by-side. In part that’s because I use a side-by-side most often, and in part, it is because the limit of my abilities is not defined by the gun, but by my own skill.”

This seems to make sense. Although 98% of respondents to this year’s Game Shooting Census claim to be above averagely skilful game shots, the truth of the matter is that for many of us, perhaps even most of us, the chances are we fail to kill higher, more challenging birds, not because our equipment isn’t up to the job, but because our skill and technique isn’t.

Do you need big cartridges for high birds?

Edward is, on the whole fairly robust in his defence of the side-by-side as a piece of kit for shooting high pheasants. However, while it may be possible, is it desirable? The other truism frequently trotted out about high bird shooting is that you need bigger cartridges. Apparently 28g of no.6 shot just won’t hack it. This is sometimes cited as the reason one should switch to vertically stacked barrels. Shooting bigger loads requires a heavier gun, unless you want to end up severely bruised at the end of the day. Edward, perhaps not surprisingly, begs to differ.

“One reason that some people might go for an O/U on very high birds,” he says, “is that they think they need to be shooting 36g of no.4 shot. I’m not entirely sure if that’s so. I was always told that if you put a pellet in the head, it doesn’t matter what the rest of the pattern is doing, and if you don’t hit the bird in the head, you only need about 3-4 pellet strikes with a no.6 shot, so is the increase of 280 pellets to 340 pellets in the load actually helping all that much? It is certainly more beneficial to ensure that the 280 are going in the right place.”

He continued: “You also need to consider that the heavier cartridges are necessarily going to be slower, because there’s less powder-to-lead, because there is only so much space in a shotgun cartridge case. I would personally discourage people from buying big heavy ammunition - ramming as much shot and powder into a cartridge as possible doesn't give you the best pattern anyway, and it will make your fillings fall out.”

Better the devil you know

Then there’s the old acronym so beloved of the US Navy, "KISS". It stands for “Keep it simple, stupid!”. The fact is that if you’ve only ever shot a side-by-side, and you’re heading on a high bird day, switching to an over-and-under for the first time on that day is likely to make things worse, not better, because you’re adding in a whole new variable that’s out of your control.

“Making the change from a 6 ½ lb side-by-side to an 8 ½ pound over-and-under with 32” barrels is likely to cause you more trouble than it is worth,” comments Edward. “That extra weight and length can really throw off your muscle memory.” 

He recounts a tale from a day he was on recently where a friend of his - usually a side-by-side man - had swapped to a comparatively heavy over-and-under for the day in order to be able to use HP steel cartridges. “He missed one bird and commented to me that in his head the bird was already dead, plucked and presented on a polystyrene tray before he realised that he was too far behind it, and by then it was too late for him to catch up with the heavier gun.”

A middle ground

So far, so logical. However, someone who is a long-term side-by-side user and who thinks they might like to do a fair bit of high bird shooting, rather than just the occasional day now and then, might well be thinking that a move to the ‘dark side’ is on the cards. Not so fast, says Edward. 

“Having said that I don’t think you need a heavy gun and heavy cartridges, there is a trend towards heavier guns and longer barrels, even in side-by-sides. There’s plenty of precedent, in the form of so-called ‘live pigeon guns’, and we can learn a lot from these.”

Live pigeon guns were built for live pigeon shooting, the precursor to trap shooting, and are built to take heavy loads through tight chokes. They’re characterised by longer barrels, 30-32” barrels, longer chambers and wide ribs, and often by a pistol grip. In many ways, they are a bit like an over-and-under but with the barrels the other way (the correct way?!) round.

“At the start of the 90s AYA brought out the 722, effectively an AYA no.2 sidelock action with a raised, flat, matted rib which is how people tend to describe the rib on a pigeon gun, with 30” barrels. At the back end there was a pistol grip stock and a single trigger. Very much in the style of a Pigeon gun. Interestingly lots of O/U guns were able to pick it up and not feel like they were on a different planet.”

An AYA 722 with a full pistol grip and raised matt game-rib

These guns are effectively as close as you can get to an over-and-under while still being a side-by-side, and would make an excellent option for regular high-bird shooting. The longer barrels and extra weight allow for confident kills and extended ranges. The additional weight means that they would also make a good option for anyone who wants to continue to use a side-by-side, but also be able to use High Performance steel cartridges while retaining full use of their shoulders.

AYA do make a competition pigeon gun, the no.56, the action of which is used in Sportarm's AYA Dominus, an English-style 'live pigeon gun', inspired by Edward's own, which is built on a AYA no.1 action

“When I go duck shooting,” says Edward, “I take my live pigeon gun, because I’m using HP steel loads of 32g of 3 shot, out of respect for the quarry - I want to know that I’m using enough firepower to kill the bird properly. For me it is kind of the best compromise for flighting duck - the 7 ¾ lb gun and the high performance steel gives me the oomph to kill mallard but also the barrel speed to take on speedy teal.” 

Edward is clear that side-by-side aficionados need not resort to an over-and-under, even if they want to take on the highest birds. AYA make the No. 56 - a long-time favourite of live-pigeon competitors around the world. However, the exact nature of live pigeon shooting vs driven game shooting means you may want to tweak the specs. To find out more about AYA live pigeon guns visit Anglo Spanish Imports or contact Edward.