Shall I chance my luck and say that summer is finally upon us? With warmer days looming and the desire to be out shooting increases, I found myself looking for a suitable shooting vest that will hold my cartridges and yet allow me to wear just a polo shirt or t-shirt underneath to stop me overheating on the more challenging of sporting stands.
Now, I have put off buying a skeet vest before now, choosing to shoot from a jacket or straight out of the pocket. I’ve always considered myself not good enough to wear one… Sounds silly but that’s the truth. However after watching countless numbers of shooters with patches emblazoned all over the front and back and yet hitting hardly a thing I thought that perhaps the time had come, and not to worry about other people thinking I look the part but failing to hit anything!
Wearing the Beretta Silver Pigeon Vest has left me wishing I had put my previous concerns behind me and just used one before! The two large pockets can easily hold 50 cartridges in each, but to be honest due to the weight I try to avoid this and find storing my scorecard, pen, glasses etc in there much more of a benefit.
The vest is very comfortable and as you would expect it does not inhibit movement when shooting. The addition of the Beretta gel pad is something that I thought would be a bit of a gimmick but I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised at how effective it was. The pad, to which I affectionately call “the chicken fillet”, tucks into a pocket on the inside of the vest where the butt of the gun would sit. I had my shotgun altered for length and had about an inch and a half added onto the stock without a shock absorbing device. Now, I don’t suffer from the effects of recoil but with the addition of the chicken fillet it really adds a level of stability and comfort to my gun mount, making it feel more solid and precise.
Also worth noting is an internal zipped pocket , and probably for my tears of lost clays, is a loop on the left hand side that allows you to fasten via a pop button, a shooting towel.
All in all I find the Beretta vest a welcome addition to my equipment and would recommend anyone who hasn’t tried one before to give it a go.
The Silver Pigeon vest is available in two colours, green with yellow detailing or red,white and blue. It is available for all good shooting suppliers and will cost around £60.
