The End of An Eley

I wandered further afield yesterday, to a shop I’ve known existed for some time but hadn’t yet visited. Unfortunately, their range of .410 ammunition was very small, comprising only two brands: the 3″ Fiocchi #6 cartridge which the SmallBoreShotguns team have already tested, and the Eley 2½” “Fourlong” loading containing #5 shot.

Whilst my feeling is and always has been that #6 shot is too big to be employed in a .410 and that #5 borders on the ridiculous, we will nonetheless do our willingly-adopted duty and pattern test the new acquisition, along with the other two cartridges awaiting testing, on Tuesday evening next week, weather permitting.

I believe that, once that testing is complete, we will have covered the whole of Eley’s .410 range. We will then seek to find suppliers for the Lyalvale and Gamebore ranges, which remain largely untested.

Edit: In fact, we’ve since remembered that the supersonic version of the #6 “Extralong” and its #5 counterpart remain untested, so almost the end of an Eley. (How embarrassing – Ed.)

I’m also pleased to announce the arrival of a new – and hopefully interesting – article on the subject of The English Disease.

The contents of the Eley “Fourlong” 12½g / #5 cartridge.