Will Hewland
Well-known member
I received a great invitation from Andy Simmons (Simbo, of this forum) to come and try out the HPX Perazzi shotguns as produced by John Jefferies. I met with Andy and his brother Dave, who hosted me all day, very kindly indeed. They are HPX converts both, not to mention decent shots.
The very short explanation of the HPX concept is that the stocks and barrels are special, with a high comb and a rising barrel rib (different versions for different requirements). The high view point at the comb means that the rib rises to meet the eye-line, if that makes sense. In short, the shooter sees a large amount of rising rib, which in a normal gun would appear to be a recipe for shooting well above the line of sight. The point of this is to effectively drop the action and first part of the rib below the shooters sight-line and offer better peripheral vision. I suggested to John that his concept was all about “clearing the clutter”, which he liked and agreed with.
Rather than me try and explain the concept and company in greater detail, please see http://www.perazzihpxshotguns.com/why-choose-perazzi-hpx/
So, on May 30th, I attended a day that started at the HPX shooting ground in Alfriston, East Sussex a rolling section of land that HPX uses to prove its products. It is very scenic; a dramatic wave of hills and a valley, making Westfield look like a car-park. The traps are mostly based on hill-tops, offering some very high and wide targets. John prefers standard clays as they fly further than midis; but mostly they looked like midis, such was the scale. He also had some teal and closer crossing birds for the more simple evaluations.
Firstly, I was approximately fitted with a 33” barrelled HPX DSR; a two stage rising rib gun and the model most intended for competition clays. Sure enough, I could see at a LOT of rib, but instantly killed all the medium range loopers, then most of the long range loopers and teal that I was shown. I was doing nothing differently, so the gun was certainly shooting where I was looking. I did find the triggers a bit light, but beautifully set up, with all play eliminated. It took me a couple of shots to fin-tune my trigger finger. Then we moved on to some big driven and crossing targets. Thankfully the crossers showed their face, which was handy as the longest ones late in the day were at least 70 yards out. We shot 24g 6 shot game cartridges, which were needed on the longest stuff.
I found the guns easy to use and we smashed some simply huge targets. Big delays between firing and watching the clays break at times. The word awesome is now diluted ever since Americans began using it to describe everything that is mediocre or above, but it was a good literal adjective for some of the targets we shot.
John Jefferies has a big name in the gun-fitting world and I was pleased to understand and agree with all he said, as he swapped stocks and judged fit. For his customers, he is very detailed and will only oil a stock after it has been shot and readjusted as necessary.
Lunchtime! Andy supplied a great blokes-picnic of steak and ale pie, sausages, side dishes and modestly alcoholic local stout, which we consumed watching the amazing country around us in the sunshine. Lovely.
We finished at Alfriston at around 2pm, by shooting some huge driven targets and more massively wide loopers. I was now shooting one of the game guns, which was slightly longer and more comfortable to me after John had set me up a semi try-stock on it. Another 33” barrel set I think. The game rib is a constant slope rather than two stage, but the effect was very similar to me. I loved this gun, as it balanced like my own, weighed about 8.7lbs and I just couldn’t miss the high driven and clouted most of the big loopers. I smashed the first few, then my brain kept questioning the sheer amount of lead needed and I slowed a touch and missed a few behind. I saw a good 20 feet, plus a decent consideration of arc in the line of course.
So, here were these lovely guns and amazing scenery and targets. For sure, no special technique was needed to drive these guns, it all felt natural, but I was wondering how this translated to the real world of competition clays. Close stuff, rabbits etc. So, I borrowed this last gun and we left John and moved off to Northall shooting ground a bit further north; which had a pretty severe Sportrap layout on. All pretty long targets actually, so my test on the short stuff didn’t actually happen, but I would be surprised if they would have thrown up a difficulty. I totally misread a high R-L crosser, which wasn’t hard, but needed much more lead than I thought, so I missed it 4 or 5 times! My score was consequently poor, but the other kills had been good on the layout, featuring loopers, a trap target and crossers various. This was a lovely gun.
For comparison, I got my own standard MX12 out for a second round of the Sportrap. Well, firstly when I shouldered it, I was suddenly conscious of the action in my view. I hadn’t noticed it before, but I could notice it now. I missed the first three targets out, simply because my trigger felt so heavy and I could not pull it smoothly. In fairness, I am a big believer with gun-familiarity (good or bad) being critical. Swapping back to my own gun was odd and not nice, but I did reacclimatise soon after.
So.. does everybody need an HPX Perazzi? Well, it certainly works as intended and I think that for certain people if offers a target acquisition capability that can be capitalised upon. Like so many elements and features of different guns, it will hugely suit some people. I would go so far as to say that I would be surprised if somebody found it “wrong” for them. If I was pressed to come up with a counter argument for the HPX principle I might say that it is perhaps solving a problem I personally haven’t got? It certainly did nothing negative for me and did make my own gun seem slightly odd upon my return to it. If I had no gun and had to go out and get one? Probably an HPX!
John Jefferies knows his stuff and for anybody who is intrigued by the idea, I recommend trying it..
Photos to follow shortly..
The very short explanation of the HPX concept is that the stocks and barrels are special, with a high comb and a rising barrel rib (different versions for different requirements). The high view point at the comb means that the rib rises to meet the eye-line, if that makes sense. In short, the shooter sees a large amount of rising rib, which in a normal gun would appear to be a recipe for shooting well above the line of sight. The point of this is to effectively drop the action and first part of the rib below the shooters sight-line and offer better peripheral vision. I suggested to John that his concept was all about “clearing the clutter”, which he liked and agreed with.
Rather than me try and explain the concept and company in greater detail, please see http://www.perazzihpxshotguns.com/why-choose-perazzi-hpx/
So, on May 30th, I attended a day that started at the HPX shooting ground in Alfriston, East Sussex a rolling section of land that HPX uses to prove its products. It is very scenic; a dramatic wave of hills and a valley, making Westfield look like a car-park. The traps are mostly based on hill-tops, offering some very high and wide targets. John prefers standard clays as they fly further than midis; but mostly they looked like midis, such was the scale. He also had some teal and closer crossing birds for the more simple evaluations.
Firstly, I was approximately fitted with a 33” barrelled HPX DSR; a two stage rising rib gun and the model most intended for competition clays. Sure enough, I could see at a LOT of rib, but instantly killed all the medium range loopers, then most of the long range loopers and teal that I was shown. I was doing nothing differently, so the gun was certainly shooting where I was looking. I did find the triggers a bit light, but beautifully set up, with all play eliminated. It took me a couple of shots to fin-tune my trigger finger. Then we moved on to some big driven and crossing targets. Thankfully the crossers showed their face, which was handy as the longest ones late in the day were at least 70 yards out. We shot 24g 6 shot game cartridges, which were needed on the longest stuff.
I found the guns easy to use and we smashed some simply huge targets. Big delays between firing and watching the clays break at times. The word awesome is now diluted ever since Americans began using it to describe everything that is mediocre or above, but it was a good literal adjective for some of the targets we shot.
John Jefferies has a big name in the gun-fitting world and I was pleased to understand and agree with all he said, as he swapped stocks and judged fit. For his customers, he is very detailed and will only oil a stock after it has been shot and readjusted as necessary.
Lunchtime! Andy supplied a great blokes-picnic of steak and ale pie, sausages, side dishes and modestly alcoholic local stout, which we consumed watching the amazing country around us in the sunshine. Lovely.
We finished at Alfriston at around 2pm, by shooting some huge driven targets and more massively wide loopers. I was now shooting one of the game guns, which was slightly longer and more comfortable to me after John had set me up a semi try-stock on it. Another 33” barrel set I think. The game rib is a constant slope rather than two stage, but the effect was very similar to me. I loved this gun, as it balanced like my own, weighed about 8.7lbs and I just couldn’t miss the high driven and clouted most of the big loopers. I smashed the first few, then my brain kept questioning the sheer amount of lead needed and I slowed a touch and missed a few behind. I saw a good 20 feet, plus a decent consideration of arc in the line of course.
So, here were these lovely guns and amazing scenery and targets. For sure, no special technique was needed to drive these guns, it all felt natural, but I was wondering how this translated to the real world of competition clays. Close stuff, rabbits etc. So, I borrowed this last gun and we left John and moved off to Northall shooting ground a bit further north; which had a pretty severe Sportrap layout on. All pretty long targets actually, so my test on the short stuff didn’t actually happen, but I would be surprised if they would have thrown up a difficulty. I totally misread a high R-L crosser, which wasn’t hard, but needed much more lead than I thought, so I missed it 4 or 5 times! My score was consequently poor, but the other kills had been good on the layout, featuring loopers, a trap target and crossers various. This was a lovely gun.
For comparison, I got my own standard MX12 out for a second round of the Sportrap. Well, firstly when I shouldered it, I was suddenly conscious of the action in my view. I hadn’t noticed it before, but I could notice it now. I missed the first three targets out, simply because my trigger felt so heavy and I could not pull it smoothly. In fairness, I am a big believer with gun-familiarity (good or bad) being critical. Swapping back to my own gun was odd and not nice, but I did reacclimatise soon after.
So.. does everybody need an HPX Perazzi? Well, it certainly works as intended and I think that for certain people if offers a target acquisition capability that can be capitalised upon. Like so many elements and features of different guns, it will hugely suit some people. I would go so far as to say that I would be surprised if somebody found it “wrong” for them. If I was pressed to come up with a counter argument for the HPX principle I might say that it is perhaps solving a problem I personally haven’t got? It certainly did nothing negative for me and did make my own gun seem slightly odd upon my return to it. If I had no gun and had to go out and get one? Probably an HPX!
John Jefferies knows his stuff and for anybody who is intrigued by the idea, I recommend trying it..
Photos to follow shortly..
