Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2025 i Sporting Shooter

NICK Harvey, who formed the backbone of Sporting Shooter for almost 50 years, set his standards high, which set the bar equally high for those who now have to follow him. As someone who has read Nick’s work since the 1990s, Mitch Basile probably knew this but, I’m delighted to say, he readily accepted my invitation to become one of our gunwriters. Mitch is arguably the most qualified of all us of here, which is no mean feat. For starters, he’s a crack shot, having qualified and trained as a marksman in the Australian infantry, going on to a sniper/recon role. He holds a degree in biology, which was driven in part by his love of hunting and the outdoors. He even started shooting that much earlier than almost anyone,…

SOME rifles you pick up and just know they're going to work. The Springfield 2020 Boundary is one of those rifles. No tactical clutter, nothing overbuilt, no gimmicks for social media. This is a purpose-built hunting rifle. It’s lighter than most, feels good in the hand and is accurate enough to back every decision you make behind the trigger. I’ve carried more rifles than most. I’ve hunted deer through the Victorian High Country, shot buffalo in the back country of the NT and worked behind service rifles in conditions that’d rattle most gear. So when I got my hands on the Boundary, I wasn’t looking for bells and whistles. I was looking for reliability, smooth feeding and a rifle with no confusion about its role. What I found was a rifle…

THIS sling has two distinct features that stand out on top of the usual quality and detail that Niggeloh puts into its products. The first is a built-in handle to slip your fore-hand into when aiming, and the second is its ability to retract like a seatbelt so it shortens itself when you unsling your rifle. There’s a good reason to have a retractable sling. Slings get in the way and snag on things when they’re not on your shoulder. That’s why a lot of hunters remove slings before starting a stalk. The Niggeloh sling resolves most of the concerns by pulling itself tight when it’s not being used, dramatically reducing the chances of it becoming a nuisance. The retractor is housed inside the bottom end of the sling’s padded…

ONE of the unfortunate realities of being a law-abiding firearms user in Australia is that, politically speaking, we tend to be on the back foot. Part of this is because, historically, shooters were more or less left alone in Australia for well over 150 years. There wasn’t any need to proactively engage with politicians because no one was planning to change the laws or do much of anything when it came to firearms regulations — which suited nearly everyone quite nicely. All that changed in 1996 and ever since, we’ve been in an environment where shooters are constantly under attack by politicians and the media, who increasingly know less and less about firearms and find themselves ever more swayed by public opinion — from a public that also doesn’t know anything…

WHEN we think rimfire, the vast majority of Australian shooters will think .22. And for good reason. The .22 LR (short for long rifle) would have to be the most popular calibre in the world. In Australia it is a rite of passage for hunters and shooters to complete an apprenticeship plinking targets and hunting rabbits with a .22 before progressing to more serious firearm pursuits. When it comes to rimfires, though, there are other options. One of those is the .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, or .17 HMR. I must admit to being late to the party when it comes this mighty little calibre. I’d never really given it much thought until my middle son, Cal, brought home a brand new CZ 457 American bolt-action rifle in .17 HMR, the first…

THE US military’s long serving cartridge is by no means dead 122 years after its adoption. Starting life as the .30-03 for use in the 1903 Springfield service rifle, it originally propelled a 220gn roundnose FMJ bullet at 700m/s (2300fps). Contemporary European military cartridge developments forced a rethink, resulting in a standard loading of a 150gn flat-based spitzer doing 823m/s (2700fps) from the original case, whose neck had been shortened by 1.78mm (0.07”). Its military contemporaries in World War 1 included the German 7.9x57JS (8x57 Mauser) propelling a 154gn spitzer at a sizzling 878m/s (2880fps) and the .303 British, sending a 174gn Spitzer at 744m/s (2440fps). One early deficiency of this round, which became noticeable in WWI, was its poor performance in a belt-fed machine gun. It ran out of steam…

.338-06 comparison Q It looks to me as if the .338-06 would make a cracking deer rifle chambered in a good bolt-action rifle like the Winchester Model 70, Mark X Mauser or Ruger M77. Besides rebarrelling, would there be much work involved in converting a .270 or .30-06 to .338-06? How does it compare with the .338 Win Mag? James Casley A The .338-06 might well be described as a modern .35 Whelen. Both are generally thought of as being a close- to medium-range cartridge. But when the .338-06 is loaded with a 200gn bullet to about 840m/s (2750fps), or the 210-grainer at 825m/s (2700), its trajectory is surprisingly flat out to about 250 metres. For heavier game, the 250gn bullet gets out of the muzzle at 760m/s (2500fps) and…

​THE new Savage Revel gets its name from ‘lever’ being spelled backwards, but there is nothing backwards about this fun and accurate rifle. This DLX model is a different style from we have come to expect from Savage but the designers have put together something that suits the market well. Combining the enjoyment of a rimfire lever-action with some modern styling is a recipe that should make this rifle a popular choice. It’s available in the three common rimfire chamberings — .17 HMR, .22 LR and .22 WMR. The .22 LR version holds 12 rounds in the tubular magazine and the magnums hold nine. All are great fun for small game but the best choice for cheap plinking fun is obviously the .22 LR. The action functions much like any other…

THE Garmin Alpha XL offers on- and off-road vehicle navigation, dog training capability and dog tracking, all from inside your vehicle. Featuring a high-resolution 10” touch screen, this GPS navigator can track up to 20 dogs as far as 15km away and will pair directly to compatible dog tracking collars. It can eliminate the need for a handheld unit if hunting from a vehicle, but is also a great complement to handheld trackers if you hunt on foot. You can use the Alpha XL out of the vehicle and up to 3m away via Bluetooth for up to two hours. The Alpha XL would be of interest to hound hunters in Victoria and pig doggers throughout Australia. I was sent a pair of Garmin T20 collars with the Alpha XL…

SCSA Taipan Evo Southern Cross Small Arms (SCSA) has a strong reputation for delivering tough, reliable, modern, Australian-made firearms for Aussie shooters. The new Taipan Evo is a lightweight, refined, high performance evolution of the popular, dual-action Taipan X that took Aussie-made firearms to another level. With the launch of the new Taipan Evo, SCSA has advanced the design, improved the balance, reduced weight and refined its ergonomics to elevate field performance. Key features include a textured glass-filled nylon polymer thumb-hole buttstock, a spare-magazine carrier built into the lower buttstock, an intuitive bolt catch and a flared magwell. It retains its excellent spring-assisted pump-action and straight-pull bolt system that enables smooth, fast cycling. Finished in durable Cerakote in the choice of grey, black or burnt bronze, the Evo is built…

THE deceptive simplicity of the Minox RS-4 2.5-10x50 is part of its attraction and reflects the fact that it has been designed for hunting and stalking, with great low-light optics and wider fields of view. No long-range precision, no tactical tech, no target fixation. Just good hunting. The deception in the simplicity is that it also delivers practical hunting features like parallax correction placed handily in the left turret and reticle illumination to give you a genuine benefit in poor light or against a very dark animal. It also comes through in the low-profile turrets and lack of other protrusions. At first, it had me fooled because it sort of slipped in unnoticed, arriving on the top of a Mauser 25 straight-pull rifle that grabbed all my attention. You know how…

JACK had a camp on the banks of the Lachlan River and lived there with a bunch of dogs. Word from the locals in the Booligal pub was if we bribed him with a bottle of Scotch and a dozen long necks, he would get my brother and I onto the pigs for sure. Well, following directions given by a couple of inebriated locals wasn’t easy, but we found old Jack and his camp. His best dog was called Blue, predominantly bull terrier with a good dash of blue heeler thrown in. After some discussion and a few long necks, Jack agreed to get us onto the pigs. We all piled into a little tinny, dogs and all, not forgetting three more long necks, and with throttle in one hand…

WE met the owner at the homestead gate. Despite an eight-hour drive, it was easy to return a smile and exchange pleasantries. The owner is usually non-committal about the game numbers. The usual response is, “Yeah, I saw a couple a week ago.” This time, however, his reply was music to this hunter’s ears. “Just go down to the swampy area near the river,” he said. “They’re everywhere.” I remember being on this block a decade ago when pigs were in plague proportions. I remember it because I had all but run out of ammo! After setting up camp, I grabbed my .308 and Angela took up her .243, then we drove to the furthest section of the swamp so we could hunt into the wind. The pig sign was…

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IT’S essential that hunting partners communicate effectively in the field to ensure the hunting is effective, safe and enjoyable. I’ve found that the measure of a great hunting partner has as much to do with their level of dedication as it does with how easy they are to get along with. I consider myself a laid-back person and may find it difficult to hunt with someone who leans towards being intense, particularly when an animal may have presented a shot but I wasn’t aggressive enough to capitalise on the opportunity. Many of my hunting mates are as laid back as me, so we tend to be very easy-going and just enjoy our time out bush without placing too much pressure on ourselves. During the 2025 fallow rut, my mate Bailey was…