Never Knowingly Mis-sold

It’s always entertaining visiting RFDs when the object is to find new and interesting cartridges for testing. Dusty boxes are pulled out from under counters; shelves neither noticed or touched by human hands in a decade are suddenly the center of attention. Even in spite of what must be a golden opportunity to offload old odds and ends that have been languishing awkwardly in stock rooms for what seems like forever, the staff can never quite conceal their surprise that someone has walked into the shop asking specifically for the things that they thought nobody in their right mind would ever use…

The other source of entertainment is that, since one is not buying necessarily untouched goods, there’s always a chance that one will discover something interesting and unexpected.

I ventured forth this morning, with the intention of making good on the telephone call I’d exchanged with the RFD yesterday. He’d informed me that, yes, they did have some 9mm Flobert ammunition in stock and that it was loaded with #10 shot. I went over to buy a box and to have a look at their range of .410 cartridges and managed to come home with three boxes of cartridges – containing four different brands!

For .410, I managed to get a box each of the Fiocchi “GFL36” 11g/#6 (Italian) and Lyalvale “Supreme Game” 14g/#6 cartridges. For the garden gun, a box of what I thought were Fiocchi “Flobert” 7g/#10 but which turned out to be, fairly obviously, a mix of RWS “Flobert” 7g/#10 and Fiocchi “Flobert” 7g/#7½ (Italian), given the stamps on the heads and cards. So, not what I expected, but nonetheless a new shot size to test in the garden gun. Here they are:

Three new, previously-untested loadings for pattern testing by the SmallBoreShotguns team: the .410 Fiocchi “GFL36” 11g/#6 (Italian) loading on the left; the 9mm Fiocchi “Flobert” 7g/#7½ (Italian) loading (with a handful of RWS “Flobert” 7g/#10 in the box for good measure!); the Lyalvale Express “Supreme Game” in 14g/#6 flavour on the right.

I may be able to get out this afternoon for a few minutes to test some of them, but failing that, Monday evening looks like a good moment for another pattern testing trip.