Thanks to the arrival of snow to my area today, I've had the opportunity to stay indoors and finish the last few chapters of Mat Manning's new book, and now as promised, feel qualified to write an appraisal of it.
This hardback book differs from almost every other airgun hunting tome I have read, in that it approaches the subject not by offering tips and advice of tackling each of the individual quarry species in their own specific chapters, but by instead focusing on what shooting opportunities each of this Country's four seasons can provide to the airgun hunter.
I find this format quite refreshing, as the advice for hunting rabbits or woodpigeons for example, is re-visted for each season, rather than a whole years worth of advice being crammed into just one chapter on that particular quarry.
This makes for a more diverse and interesting read IMHO, because if you rarely get to hunt a certain species, it no longer means a whole chunk of the book is personally irrelevant to you.
As for the content of the book, I found it highly entertaining and absorbing, and whether you are new to airgun hunting, or you're a seasoned and successful hunter already, the book offers rock solid help and advice that you either may not already know, or go to remind you of techniques that you may have simply forgotten about, but that are the basis and staple of being an accomplished airgun hunter nonetheless. Both of those situations were applicable with regard to my own knowledge and experience, so I definitely gained positives from reading this book.
There are plenty of colour photo's thought, which add to the enjoyment by giving a visual window into the hunting scenarios Mat gets into throughout the year, rather than being left to imagine them for yourself.
At the end of each of the four chapters dedicated to Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, are a selection of delicious sounding recipes appropriate for the fruits of your hunting trips of that season. Rest assured that in due time, a few of those recipes will somehow find their way into the Planet Airgun Cookbook section!!
Mat then provides advice on current airgun law, insurance, kill zones, and that old airgun chestnut, calibre!
Finally, the book closes with an excellent few pages about preparing your shot meat for the table.
So, did I enjoy this book.......Yes.
So, would I recommend this book for the quality of it's given advice?.....Yes.
Lastly, would I recommend this book as simply being a very entertaining, and different, airgun associated read?.....Yes.
If your looking for a book to help sharpen your hunting skills, and hopefully get bigger bags, then you would do very well not to overlook this excellent book.
