Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2016 i Sporting Shooter

My dear Dad Derek (RIP) could shoot pretty much anything put in his hands. HE told the tale of being on a mortar line at Holsworthy Artillery Range on a Young Officers’ Course late in the war. He passed, but was not promoted, staying a Gun Sergeant until being demobbed in late 1945. The instructor on the line wanted someone to demonstrate laying the 3-inch mortar for a fire mission and my dad, then 22 with the appearance of a 16 year-old, volunteered. The instructor was unaware that Sergeant O’Dean was well used to laying Vickers machineguns for indirect fire* pre-war in the militia and they used the same sights as the mortars. Incidentally, he considered the Vickers to be the finest weapon he had ever fired – and he…

LETTER OF THE MONTH Rare .284 Browning QI just bought an exceptionally fine rifle from a deceased doctor’s estate. It is a early F.N Mauser in the fancy Olympian grade. The rifle is engraved with game scenes on the receiver sides and most unusually is chambered for the .284 Winchester cartridge. It is fitted with a 3-9x Redfield scope in Buehler mounts. I’ve asked several gun shops and gunsmiths about this rifle and none of them have any knowledge of an F.N in this calibre. One even suggested it may have been a custom job. What can you tell me about this particular F.N Mauser? I managed to obtain 100 unprimed cases in .284 Winchester. Can you suggest two or three good loads for this outfit for ferals and deer? –…

SURE, a few lucky souls have cracked 50 inches, but for most of us mere hunting mortals, 40 inches is the number. Just over one metre of goat horns is no easy feat these days, what with most farmers not allowing hunters to shoot their now highly prized and very profitable possessions. Feral goats or rangeland goats as they are being called, are bringing big dollars to farmers and you can't blame them for not wanting any shot. I'm certainly not against the farmers making any money from them, all I'll say is cracking the 40 inch mark from now on will be all the more hard to achieve in the current goat climate. Maybe, in years to come, 35 inches will be the new 40 – who knows? But…

TESTING the new Winchester XPR and reloading .300 Win. Mag. ammo for use in it got me thinking about how far the bullet's base intrudes into the powder space that short-necked case. The rifle's detachable box magazine was a limiting factor in overall cartridge length which could not be increased beyond 3.220 inch, the standard length to which factory cartridges are loaded. This meant of course, that bullets had to be seated deeper than many reloaders would prefer which may not suit their purposes. Many handloaders consider short necks to be a fault with many modern cartridge designs, including the .264 Win. Mag., .284 WCF, 7mm Rem. Mag. as well as the Winchester Short Magnums, since they may prefer to seat a bullet out farther (shallower), for one reason or…

CCI A17 17HMR 17gr Poly Tip Ammo Shooters can now get magnum rimfire performance in a semi-automatic rifle, thanks to new CCI A17 Varmint Tip ammunition. CCI engineers literally built this 17HMR load around the A17 rifle from Savage Arms. The round is optimized for feeding and function in the all-new semi-automatic rifle, and produces muzzle velocities 100 fps faster than other 17HMR loads with the same bullet weight. On the flip side, the new CCI A17 ammunition can most certainly be fired through bolt-action 17 HMR firearms. CCI Ammunition Category Director Rick Stoeckel said: “It was born to optimize the A17 semi-automatic rifle. But shooters who own and use bolt guns will also love the faster, flatter performance as well, and hunters will appreciate the load’s varmint-tipped bullet which…

ONCE the beginner has learned the basic rules and follows them he can be just as successful as the veteran of many decades of deer hunting. If you are not having any luck, follow this advice: “Hunt downhill in the morning when air in the valleys is rising as the sun warms it.” 1 Don't go tearing through deer country striding across open clearings or skylined along a ridgetop, or noisily pushing your way through brush. Instead practise what is called stillhunting, walk slowly and softly, and stop often to look all around you. Inquisitive deer have been known to circle around, following the hunter to try to identify him. Many a pussyfooting hunter has got close to his quarry within the first hour or so after dawn, bagged it…

PRE-WALK care is prudent in the days and weeks leading up to more challenging hunts and is as simple as trimming the toenails leading up to taking daily walks or jogs in your chosen footwear and socks. A seminal work over many decades for the walker was Paddy Pallin's Bushwalking and Camping in which he advised right up to the 1970s that, “to prevent blisters, dissolve an ounce of tannic acid powder (some chemists have it) in two quarts (litres roughly) of water. Soak feet six times for 15 minutes before any extended trip.” I can't vouch for that one, but I wish I'd had that experience when a footsoldier who could not remove his socks for a week and peeled the top layer of skin off with his socks…

I’VE been trying to shoot a game of skeet each week at my hunting club in Port Macquarie. It’s a difficult shotgun sport for a bloke used to down-the-line clays, especially when it’s not always possible to make the shoot regularly. Like anything, practice makes perfect. I shot in a comp the other day and scored a miserable seven out of 25. I was ashamed of myself, having once scored 20 out of 25 after an hour-long tuition session with a Winchester rep at an outdoor writers convention in Queensland back in the day. In my pathetic defence, I shoot a field gun, either a Browning U&O or a Beretta side-by-side. The Belgium gun of 1954 is choked full and modified, the Italian of 1956, full and fuller. Yet the…

RED BANDANA CALLS US COWARDS This month we welcomed Michael Gibson to the Sporting Shooter team replacing Martin Auldist as web editor. All Shooters are Cowards – Sun Herald Peter FitzSimons. Shooter's comments must have got under journalist and author Peter FitzSimons red bandana. His recent rant calls out ”all shooters as crayon using cowards”. Marcus shares an open reply to the bigotry after spending a weekend shooting alongside some of our proudest Australian servicemen. http://www.sportingshootermag.com. au/latest/all-shooters-are-cowards-sun-herald-peter-fitzsimons THIS MONTH’S POPULAR STORIES 1. All Shooters are Cowards – Sun Herald Peter FitzSimons 2. Facebook starts closing Australian firearm pages 3. How to Vote - Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party 4. Borsak scores a “GOTCHA” on Greens 5. ANZAC Range haters don’t stop 6. Channel 7 Scaremongering – Sydney Shot Show 2016…

“ The XPR is chambered for - the .270, .30- 06, .300 Win. Mag. and .338 Win. Mag. .” THE Winchester XPR is the latest entry in the line of budgetary guns that are beginning to proliferate and like all the others, it will no doubt be well received. The average hunter/rifleman has little use for fine guns. ALL he wants is a working gun, a tool rather than something to brag about. Price is a major factor, beauty takes second place to practicality and how well it performs in the field. The serious hunter who goes afield with rifle and backpack prefers matte-black metalwork and a synthetic stock that will withstand extremes of weather and rough going. He won’t experience any difficulty in choosing from the eclectic group of…

THE MaxBox sold like hot cakes and now they have revisited the concept with upgrades that make it and the DoorPro even more functional. MaXbox II It's a light weight at 330g, cube-shaped gun rest with magnets included in four faces of the block. Designed for many applications it is now better built and includes a carry strap. The memory foam body allows insertion of a few live cartridges for easy access. The magnets are also stronger. Typical Uses For the MaXbox II: 1. Accurate vehicle-based shooting to eradicate vermin and predatory animals. The MaXbox II gives the shooter an accurate edge. 2. Bench Shooting: Being light weight its not hard to move around, and negates the need for a second rear support. Being made of a soft material the…