A bespoke pair built for grouse and greys

No one is indifferent to a bargain – not even those fortunate few who shoot driven grouse regularly. With new London guns costing around £225,000 a pair, even the rich are looking elsewhere. Though no fat cat, one reader of The Field recently found himself in a curious position for an avid game shot – he had some money in the kitty. What he came up with would make anyone purr. “The guns I chose from Grulla/William Evans are the Pall Mall easy-opening sidelocks built as round actions.” Many of Britain’s finest makers, acknowledging the inevitable, now offer less expensive alternatives to British best guns sourced in Italy or Spain. Some of the finest side-by-sides made come from Grulla in the Basque region of Spain and are offered through William Evans of St James’s.

Since 1883, William Evans has enjoyed the stature of supplying soldiers and second sons with shotguns. When the original William Evans put out his first gun after time spent with both James Purdey and Holland & Holland, he did so in Buckingham Palace1893: “I had a day’s shooting yesterday and rather astonished the natives with the power of the 12-bore. I am delighted with it.”