Prince Harry flogs handmade hunting rifles worth £50,000 after giving up hunting to please Meghan

PRINCE Harry has flogged his handmade hunting rifles after giving up bloodsports to please wife Meghan.

A fellow hunter bought the pair of prized Purdey firearms, thought to be worth at least £50,000, in a private deal.

Harry learnt to shoot as a child and once killed a one-ton buffalo.

But Meghan is opposed to hunting and pals hinted the Duke of Sussex would give up to appease her.

Harry, 35, was also absent from the recent shoots at Balmoral and Sandringham. He sold his two British-made guns five months ago — before he and Meghan, 38, quit the UK for a new life in North America.

A friend of the anonymous buyer said: “He bought them because he wanted them, not because they belonged to Harry, but he was quite chuffed when he found out. They are beautiful examples and he’s very pleased with them but he’s not the sort of person who wants to boast about the royal connection.”

Last week conservationist Dr Jane Goodall said she expected Harry to turn his back on bloodsports.

The 86-year-old told the Radio Times she accepted Harry and his brother William were champions of the natural world.

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She added: “Except they hunt and shoot. But I think Harry will stop because Meghan doesn’t like hunting.” Harry is patron of Rhino Conservation Botswana and president of African Parks, a South African group. Harry shot dead the water buffalo in ­Argentina in 2004 during his gap year — and he and William hunted wild boar in Spain in 2014.

And in 2017, while engaged to Meghan, Harry and his friends killed 15 wild boar in Germany.

Earlier this year Harry, Meghan and son Archie, one on Wednesday, spent time on Canada’s Vancouver Island where hunters stalk elk, black bears and cougars. A spokesman for Harry did not want to comment.

Birthday pic due of Archie

HARRY and Meghan are expected to mark son Archie’s first birthday today by releasing a new photograph of him.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are raising their child as a “private citizen” in LA and the last official snap was released on New Year’s Eve.

But a spokesman said of his birthday: “You can expect to see him.”

• By James Beal

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