The Old Swede: August 4, 2025
The Guns and The Ground: “Where craftsmanship meets countryside.”
Feature Gunmaker
James Purdey & Sons — 57/58 South Audley Street
Since 1882, James Purdey & Sons has called 57/58 South Audley Street in London’s Mayfair home—a sanctuary of British gunmaking where every element, from oil-finished walnut to gold-inlaid triggers, is crafted with reverence. Yet, behind the storefront’s Georgian façade lies one of shooting’s most storied spaces: The Long Room.
Here, beneath the watchful portraits of kings and explorers, clients are welcomed like old friends. The Queen herself—Elizabeth II—visited the Long Room in 1957, where she was presented with a Purdey shotgun, continuing a royal patronage that dates back to Queen Victoria. Within these wood-paneled walls, guns are not sold—they are commissioned, measured, and marked with family history.
Purdey’s Rose & Scroll engraving, their house signature, is as refined as it is restrained. The design first appeared in the late 19th century and is still hand-cut by the firm’s master engravers. Each scroll winds like heather over metal, delicate but deliberate—a reflection of the brand itself.
Whether it is a classic side by side self-opener or an over-and-under, every Purdey is still made in Hammersmith, fitted for perfection, and carried on shoots from grouse moors in North Yorkshire to pristine plantations of the south.
Visit James Purdey & Sons
Shooting School
The Royal Berkshire Shooting School
Set in a picturesque Berkshire valley, just an hour from London, the Royal Berkshire Shooting School is where both sporting novices and seasoned Guns prepare for the season’s first drives. Established in 1991 and now under Purdey ownership, it remains Britain’s most celebrated academy for game shooting.
The grounds offer over 100 clay traps set among woodlands, banks, and open fields—each layout designed to mimic real field conditions. The High Tower simulates towering Devon pheasant, while the Grouse Moor tests footwork and instinct with heart-stopping flushes over low butts.
Royal Berkshire’s team of expert instructors tailor sessions to individual shooting style and quarry preference, offering not only technique but confidence. Their signature Pre-Season Driven Days and Ladies Days bring a social elegance to training, capped off with champagne or a quiet fireside lunch.
Now joined with Purdey’s ethos of heritage and refinement, the Royal Berkshire is more than a school—it’s a launchpad into the best days afield.
Learn more →
Estate Visit
The Purdey Sporting Agency
The Purdey Sporting Agency curates field experiences that embody the same precision and heritage found in their guns. From Scottish grouse moors to Spanish partridge estates, the Agency designs each shoot day around excellence in bird presentation, hospitality, and conservation.
Run by a team of seasoned sportsmen, the Agency offers exclusive access to premier estates such as Duncombe Park, Drumlanrig, and La Cuesta, working only with hosts who share Purdey’s commitment to sustainability and sportsmanship. Each day is fully serviced with loaders, gundogs, and shoot managers trained to uphold tradition and grace.
What makes the Agency distinct is its seamless coordination with the Purdey showroom. Guns can be selected, fitted, and delivered to the peg. Travel, accommodations, and licensing are handled in-house. Whether it’s a father-son debut or a gathering of old hands, the experience is personal.
It’s not about shooting more birds. It’s about shooting the right ones, in the right place, the right way.
Explore the Purdey Sporting Agency
Gun Dog & Fieldcraft
Marking Your Birds and Picking Up
Good marking begins with focus. Follow every shot to the ground before turning to the next bird. Note landmarks—fence posts, thistles, a notch in the hill. Keep a mental or whispered record. Some top Shots even sketch quick notes between drives in game books.
This isn’t just etiquette—it’s conservation. Especially on a grouse moor, where terrain is undulating and heather hides the fallen well, proper marking ensures no wounded bird goes unrecovered. For those using a dog, having a precise reference point can turn a 10-minute cast into a 30-second retrieve.
And always communicate. A quiet word to your loader or your neighbor about a marked bird might make the difference between loss and respect. The shoot day begins with a shot—but it ends, honorably, with what is picked up.
Recommended Reading:
Gundogs and Shooting by Ian Openshaw
Training Spaniels for the Field by Joe Irving
Shoot Lunch
Driven Grouse with Frank Boddy on the North Yorkshire Moors
There are shoot lunches—and then there are those with Frank Boddy, owner and host of legendary shoots in North Yorkshire. After blustery morning drives over the moor, Guns are welcomed back to a stone croft-turned-dining hall, where the real comraderie begins.
First, a restorative bowl of warm soup with barley and thyme. Then a warm starter of of baked oysters , a potential main course could be sliced filet of beef or even roasted red grouse, caught on the moor, served with bread sauce, heather honey-roasted parsnips, and bramble jus. A sharp watercress and hazelnut salad balances the plate.
Dessert are elegant but simple: Local cheese and perhaps Eton mess with elderflower and a dram of sloe gin. For wine, a nice Château Musar 2010 might be served, a complex Lebanese red with spice, structure, and the wildness to match the moor.
The lunch is less about indulgence and more about gratitude to the birds, the dogs, the land, and those who keep it.
Recommended Reading:
The Shoot Lunch by J.C. Jeremy Hobson
Quote from the GunPlow Library
“The shooting field is a place of manners before marksmanship, where one’s true calibre is measured not by how many birds fall, but how they are taken, and what is said when they’re missed. The man who shoots well may be admired; but the man who behaves well is always invited back.”
— Eric Parker, Shooting by Moor, Field & Shore (1910)
GunPlow Classic Library Coming Soon
