Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Sporting Shooter

I HAVE carried on phone and email conversations with keen shooters and hunters over the years and sometimes you get to meet them on hunts or at gun shows. The disembodied voice of Gary Walton suddenly became very much “bodied” at the Sporting Shooter stand at the recent Melbourne SHOT Expo and I had a nice 15 minutes chatting with him about .303s and Lee Enfields in general. Now readers know that I have a .303 sporter and it has proved very capable in the field. Keen handloaders can wring a broad performance spectrum out of these old girls and I love playing with them. So too does Gary, to the point where he has decked many sambar with “three-ohs”, printed up diehard T-shirts and even gone to the expense…

TECHNICAL ADVICE FROM THE GURU Challenge For A Gunsmith Q I just bought a Lithgow No.2 MK 4 rifle in .22 Long Rifle that I enjoy shooting more than its big brother a No.1 MK III in .303. My questions are: Is it legal to convert a .303 to .22 LR? On "UTUBE" an American company called "RockNLoad" converted a Savage No.4 MK 1 .303 to .22 LR. It shot very well and they called it a No.4 MK II. What paperwork and parts would I need to do have such a conversion done? What would the rifle be called? What would the rifle be licensed as? Where would I find a gunsmith to do the job? I am fully aware that this project would cost a lot and require…

IT WAS that time of the year before the onset of the monsoon that once again found me, my family and my long time hunting partner Paddy Andrews heading into the gulf country for our yearly two week hunting trip This is where the story gets interesting; about half way through the trip we found ourselves out on the station near a large dam that was obscured by the earth works to build it, so Paddy and I decided to walk around a side each; I drew the long side. About 90% around my side I heard the first of Paddy’s shots from his .270 go off with a just as loud an obscenity/expletive straight after it. I'm thinking a mob of pigs has come off the dam, so I…

Ruger’s – Hard Hitting Scrub Guns Ruger have released two new scrub guns offering performance comparable to the venerable .45-70 Govt. The .450 Bushmaster offers big-bore, high-energy performance in a compact and handy rifle. The relatively new .450 Bushmaster “thumper” round is well suited to bolt action, magazine fed platforms, unlike the old .45/70. This means you can run a modern bolt gun with all the accuracy and sighting advantages they provide and still have a decisive big bore solution for close range hunting. Ruger are now chambering the 450 Bushmaster in their popular Gunsite Scout and American Ranch model lines, offering a range of different features to suit most situations. Below are some of their features. NEW American Ranch Rifle-.450 Bushman • 16 Cold Hammer –Forged Barrel •Ruger…

I HAD a few different jobs while I lived in the UK in the mid 2000’s. Warehouse lacky, construction worker, greenkeeper, Wembley Stadium seat installer. After 20,000 seats, I’d had enough, I needed a change. Living in a share house full of backpackers, someone had a classified magazine with jobs in it and one really stood out for. “Grouse beaters wanted in the Highlands,” was basically all it said, plus a phone number. A quick phone call with a promise of 30 pound a day, a beer, lunch and dinner provided too. Only 4 days beating guaranteed per week, but I wasn’t over there for the money anyway. That sounded like me and I was out of the concrete jungle of London and up into the fresh air of Scotland,…

WHEN determining which calibre should be the next entry in their proprietary Buffalo River line of centrefire ammunition, Outdoor Sporting Agencies logical choice was the popular .243 Winchester. And they saw a need for three different bullet weights that would perpetuate that cartridges reputation for being the premier varmint/big game cartridge. Factory ammo as a whole is much improved, more accurate and more varied than it ever was before. So it was important to select a specific bullet to handle each task at hand. Bulletmakers efforts to outdo each other in recent years have resulted in bullets designed to perform specific tasks over a wide range of impact velocities on every kind of game animal from the smallest to the largest. Since OSA is the distributor of Sierra and Hornady…

THE new chamber normally reduces body taper and sharpens the shoulder of a bottleneck case, increasing powder capacity by 5 to 10 percent. When ignition occurs gas pressure generated by the burning powder inside the case causes it to expand and fill the chamber. Thus the case is fireformed to take the shape of the chamber in which it was fired. Often fireforming alone will produce the desired case. But sometimes it will be in conjunction with one or more other operations such as neck expansion, trimming, head alteration and the like. Some wildcats, like the Gibbs line, relocate the shoulder farther forward, shortening the neck and increasing powder capacity considerably more. Fireforming cases for such cartridges is a bit tricky, since some means of headspacing the standard cartridge in…

FROM MICHAEL GIBSON – WEBSITE EDITOR LAST MONTH, the irrepressible Ron Kienhe, AKA The Silva Fox, sent us a video of him standing in plain view under a tree and using his Silva Fox Whistle to bring in one very persistent redcoat. He was so persistent that he jumped right at Ron's face, from whence the squealing emanated. If that isn't the best marketing tool for a fox attractant, then I'll be a monkey's uncle! The facebook post garnered a reach of 54,763 and 443 likes. Yikes! The link to the video is sportingshooter.com.au/video/fox-tries-to-take-silva-fox - whistle-from-hunters-mouth If you want a Silva Fox Whistle email Ron on coolclimategc@bigpond.com or hit his website at www.silvafoxwhistles.com.au Also, look out for our Facebook comp soon where we give away some Silva Fox Whistles.…

THE Steyr Classic SX II Stainless is a more practical version of the original Steyr Mannlicher Classic. First introduced in 1997, it featured a hand-checkered fancy oiled Eurostyle walnut stock with humpback comb, squarish cheekpiece and slender forend with schnabel tip. The Classic II SX bears more resemblance to the Pro Hunter which was introduced the same year, and had an ABS synthetic stock with adjustable butt spacers, a straight comb without cheekpiece, and a palm swell. The Classic II’s stock is pure neoclassic. The comb is straight, dropping 18mm at the nose of the comb before sloping upward to have 12mm drop at heel. There’s no cheekpiece, the grip is closely curved, has an oval cross section and a slight forward radius at the end. There’s a palm swelling…

AN ASSORTMENT OF HUNTING FACTS & FIGURES ALL those who use reloads should wear shooting glasses with hardened impact-resistant lenses for protective purposes whether in the field or on the range. Why? The reason should be obvious; to protect the eyes from a possible blowback due to case failure, more often a head separation. This can occur when handloaders try to wring as many reloads as they possibly can out of their brass. A major cause of case failure comes about through overworking the brass, because with each reloading the brass becomes harder and more brittle. Maximum loads which generate pressures beyond the tensile strength of the brass and chambers which have excessive headspace or undersize cartridges can also cause casehead separations. Glasses not only shield the eyes from gases…

NEWS, VIEWS AND INSIGHTS I’M INTO MY ninth week of healing since falling down a steep, wet ridge in Victoria’s high country recovering a mighty sambar stag. For a week I’ve been walking unaided. In two weeks the splints come off. So I’m coming good and looking forward to new adventures…. I’ve been humbled by the dedication of close friends in the Hastings who have been only too happy to help a mate unable to drive: especially Roger Green and David Swift and Stan Guest and Mal Cameron. Roger rescued Alita and I stranded in Victoria – he flew down to where I rested on a farmhouse and drove us back to Lake Cathie the next day, an epic trip. Swifty has walked Ollie the Beagle and taken me to…

SOME sights you see when hunting raise the hair on the back of your neck and get the heart pumping. A big buck crashing through the undergrowth. A mob of hogs surprised on a dam. The head of the first bunny of the afternoon to pop up over the parapet. They all qualify. But for me, nothing compares with the gut-tightening spectacle of a flash of red fur as a fox bolts across an open field towards a whistle. I’m far from an expert fox-shooter. I’ve come up empty handed on more trips than I care to think about, but I have also had my fair share of successes and in this article, I thought I’d share some of my more memorable moments tangling with redcoats. Off The Mark When…

THE result will always be rewarding no matter what the outcome of the hunt. These hunts give you a long burn. They are the hunts that you will always look back on fondly. Extended backcountry hunts require dedication, preparation and planning. When all three combine you are in for more fulfilling adventures. Two years ago, I headed off on my annual New Zealand wilderness hunt. I walked in blind for a 6-day backpack hunt for deer and chamois. The hunt went far too quickly and I felt that I was just scratching the surface in this particular spot. Whilst walking out I actively planned my return trip. Next time my plan was to double the length of the hunt to see more country, carry more camera gear and spend longer…

SWAROVSKI Optik, an Austrian company, is a relative newcomer to the field of hunting optics. In 1949, Swarovski developed its legendary “Habicht” (ha-beesh) 7x42 binocular. The range was extended to include a 8x30 wide-angle in 1952 and a 10x40 wide-angle came along in 1954. The first Swarovski riflescope, a 4x32 appeared in 1959, but it wasn’t until 1976, that the brand became prominent in the U.S and Australian hunting scene. And there is a very good reason for their success. During the last half of the 20th century, most Germanic scopes were long, heavy and bulky with large objective lenses, first- focal plane reticles (that grew bigger as power was increased), and short eye relief. However, there were some very good reasons for these features; they were designed to suit…