Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2017 i Sporting Shooter

Letters containing questions for answering by Nick Harvey must be accompanied by a stamped self-addressed envelope. Mail your letters to: The Technical Editor, 3 Reef Street, Hill End, NSW 2850. “In my estimation the .25 WSSM was the pick of the bunch.” Improving The .222 Remington Magnum Q I recently obtained a like-new Remington Model 700 rifle in .222 Remington Magnum with Lyman 10x scope. This rifle groups three shots under one inch at 100 yards with a handload consisting of the Hornady 55gn V-Max and 25.5gn of AR2206H. The velocity is 3250fps which is nothing to cheer about. Is it possible to have my Model 700 rechambered for an improved version of the .222 Magnum? If so, where can I get reloading dies? How much velocity will I gain?…

Game management in Victoria has a big head start on the rest of Australia – hunter groups like the ADA, Field&Game and others have established great working relationships with their governments since the 1960s. Their recent “Game Hunting in Victoria manual for their game licence holders is a comprehensive resource for anyone who wants to hunt in that state, but it also has great transferable information for those who just want to get a start hunting anywhere. It covers Responsible, Ethical Hunting practice, Introduction to Firearms, Basic shooting Skills, Bowhunting, Basic Hunting Skills, Hunting Safety, Survival Skills and more. Copiously illustrated, it is a very useful resource for all Australian hunters and you will be sent one when you purchase a Victorian Game Hunting Licence, or if you want to…

“Camp is left clean like you found it.” I do a lot of hunting, it’s mainly all locally based stuff these days from 10-50 kms from home – out in the morning, home for lunch some times, out again for an arvo hunt, then back home in my own bed each night. I like it, I really do, it was half the reason I moved to the country in he first place, but I much prefer a hunting trip away, the further away from home the better, as it all seems like much more of an adventure when it is. The planning, organising gear etc, all adds to the excitement of a big trip before hours spent behind the wheel chatting about the hunts to come and about hunts done…

“The Kodiak felt secure, without any of the flightiness I recalled.” YAMAHA is replacing the best-selling ATV in its range with this one. The new Kodiak 450 renders the mid-capacity Grizzly obsolete. Yamaha’s pitch for the Kodiak is aimed at farmers. They’re pushing the toughness and practicality, which the Kodiak has by the bucketful, but what’s more impressive is the way this one’s ride and handling make it a pretty fine four-wheeler for hunting. The last time I rode a Grizzly 450 I was largely unimpressed, and decided the bigger Grizzly 700 was the way to go. Now I’ve pledged my allegiance to the 450cc class again because the Kodiak is such a good thing. The 450 class is the home of the best-selling model because it’s a sweet spot…

‘I’m innocent, but still proven guilty.’” THIS STORY has reached 53,000readers and garnered 922 Facebook Likes. Thankfully common sense has prevailed after a farmer who confronted a would-be home intruder armed with a knife has been told he will not face charges. Police have told David Dunstan he had been cleared of criminal wrong doing after the father-of-three was confronted by a man armed with a knife and a long piece of timber at the back door of his family home. Mr Dunstan grabbed an unloaded firearm from a safe, but did not point it at the man. Police seized his three guns later that day for contravention of the firearms act. Mr Dunstan’s wife, Andrea, also had restrictions placed on her gun licence on Tuesday, banning her from having…

IT HAPPENED over about a 15 second time period. Glenn and two clients were walking along scanning from side to side looking for standing buffalos. Suddenly there is an animal about 10 metres away a mature buffalo standing dead ahead. It lowered its head and snorted. The clients looked at Glenn and knew they were in a dangerous situation. Glenn indicated to slowly retreat whilst he raised his rifle (Brno .458 Lott). The three of us walked backwards about 10 paces and without the animal moving we felt the danger had eased slightly. Client B fell over a termite mound, the buffalo charged moving its head from side to side and Glenn stood between the buffalo and client and fired a shot hitting the buffalo in the jaw. Client A…

SNOW Fox Imports line of R-Series of riflescopes includes this ruggedly constructed 1-6x28 variable-power which is suited for dual applications. It contains features favoured by tactical as well as hunters of dangerous game, but you probably won't need more power than 6x for big game hunting. Unlike the R-Series 6-36x56 scope I reviewed previously, the 1-6x is shorter and more compact with a length of 270mm against 396mm. Instead of having oversize target-style adjustments the 1- 6x features low profile turrets with caps and accurate repeatable 1/4 inch clicks with 80 MA of adjustment. It shares a 35mm main tube, with straight objective and the objective lens is deeply recessed to avoid glare. Because of multi-coating, the low-range variable has a bright image and provides a much clearer view when…

.243-INCH calibre cartridges are called "dual purpose". The .243 Win. and 6mm Rem. are often recommended for deer for a youth starting out or female shooters, because of their mild behaviour in a light sporter. While the "sixes" are medium-sized, they are deadly flat-shooting long-range performers on varmints and predators. Their relatively mild report and recoil allow easier shot placement for the less experienced hunter so he is more effective at taking game at long distances. The high-performance .240 Weatherby is just a bit more of a good thing. I've bagged a number of deer from fallow to red with the .240 Wby Mag. using the 100gn Lapua bullet. All were quick, one-shot kills from 100 to 300 yards. On one hunt near Charters Tower I shot a chital stag…

Shark has developed a brand new helmet tailored for ATV and SSV riders and it’s quite unlike anything we’ve seen before. Part of this comes down to the fact that Australians are the ones who pushed Shark to design it. Yamaha Australia has a subsidiary company, Ficeda, that imports Shark helmets for our market. Through that relationship they were able to go to Shark — which is based in Europe — to create a helmet that answered the complaints made by people who resisted donning a hard hat. Specifically, they called for good ventilation, the ability to hear clearly, sun protection, light weight, a way of quickly putting it on and taking it off, and road-going certification. Shark has pretty much nailed it. Huge vent holes, which can be closed…

“One of my bird shooting mates had his car wrecked half a click from my home.” WITH my daughter Jane at the wheel, her two kids Abe and Jake, The Redhead and I were zipping along up a rise towards the Long Point Vineyard & Art Gallery where my wife was holding her latest colourful art exhibition. As we neared the crest, 10ks from home, I said: “There are usually up to 60 ‘roos in the paddock just past the hobby farm on our left. They’re probably asleep now, but just be careful.” No sooner had I uttered the words than a rusa spiker – neck outstretched, body straight as a ruler – seemingly flew past the grille, just missing us. When we all recovered from the shock, Jane dead-panned:…

THE tendency in years past was to make big-game rifles too heavy, fit them with barrels that were too long and too fat, and stocks that had too much wood in them. There were a number of reasons for this. For one thing, back in those days, it was easier to make an accurate heavy rifle than an accurate light rifle. For another thing, a good deal of gun designing and writing about rifles was being done by persons who had comparatively little big-game hunting experience. Primarily, they did their shooting at targets, over a benchrest or at varmints, consequently, ideas that belonged in other fields were adopted for the building of rifles used solely on big game. Back in the 1950s when I started hunting, the average scope sighted…

Salami Man At a recent show I met up with a fellow hunter I hadn’t seen for quite a few years and was amazed at what he had to offer. His name is Shaun Ward who worked for some time at Benson Archery in Granville, NSW and later decided he’d prefer to live closer to the bush and perhaps work for himself. Shaun now lives in Bowenfels, N.S.W. (near Lithgow) and is enjoying every minute of it hunting, fishing and turning much of the spoils of the hunt into edible delicacies for himself. In fact, in addition, he cures wild boar and other meats for like-minded consumers on a commercial basis. Known as the Salami Man, he travels to local and district markets bringing his unique, home style brand of…

“Priming compounds containing salts was corrosive.” AS a young fullbore shooter, using Omark Model 44 7.62 rifles, I never knew anything about other cleaning rods than the yellow Parker Hale models everybody used. We'd religeously swab our bores out with Sweet's Solvent at days' end, leave it for 10 minutes and dry the old girl out ready for an application of Sweets Oil. Now many relative newcomers to the sport are into “American” rods and chemicals, but why? On the rod front, supply to NRAA clubs by Parker Hale distributors had been patchy for several years and it was probably just easier to go down the 'Merican route which used rods, brushes and jags that were the reverse of the old faithful British stalwarts. Spear-tip jags became all the go…

SINCE my son left school and started working it has been a constant battle to organise a hunting trip, being on different rosters definitely didn’t help the situation. Finally a day happened, but the next question is where do we go? We agreed on a new state forest that I had been eyeing for a while. Being only a single day trip I wasn’t wasting any time. I sat down to go over the maps, marking areas of interest where game could be located. Next step was to check weather apps for prevailing winds. We arrived just before sunrise, with time to gear up and start heading towards the areas I had marked on the GPS. Approaching some thick scrub we realised we were in the right spot, the area…

MODERN rifle powders come in some kind of canister, normally a plastic container and make rifles go "bang". The modern compound that we call gunpowder is not really a powder but rather a progressively burning smokeless propellant. Smokeless powder is not an explosive (though some of its ingredients are), because it burns instead of detonating instantly and violently. Black powder, on the other hand, is an explosive; it must be treated with a great deal more care than smokeless, and unless you shoot a muzzle-loader, there's no reason to keep black powder on hand. Regardless of type, a smokeless propellant may be defined as a solid fuel that will burn when exposed to heat and that can be rapidly converted into gas. The varieties of smokeless powders are almost endless.…