Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i Sporting Shooter

A FEW WORDS FROM THE EDITOR THE face of politics is looking different with the increased support for LAFOs due to their growing political clout. I have been talking regularly with the redoubtable Ron Owen, of Owen Guns in Gympie. He has been tireless in fighting injustice against legal firearms owners in Queensland and more recently he has been upbeat about the way grassroots voluntary organisations and political parties are gaining traction because they are a huge voting block in Queensland and they are mobilising through social media and pressuring governments. In Queensland the fledgling SFFP is working in cooperation with the established and very effective Queensland Shooters Union to wind back regressive, repressive and just plain vindictive regulation of law abiding shooters. Back in NSW, Victoria and WA, many…

Why Do Deer Rub Their Antlers? Deer rub their antlers up and down on trees and bushes once the antlers are fully grown to remove the hair-like membrane known as velvet from the outside. The antlers then dry and harden and are used as weapons in fights with other males to assert dominance during breeding season. Normally, only male deer grow antlers. Females grow them only if they have a rare testosterone imbalance. Every year in spring, deer shed their old antlers and almost immediately begin to grow new ones. Antlers are bone growths that start at the skull base. As antlers grow, they have a high blood content and are susceptible to injuries, such as bruises and cuts. During spring and summer, antlers grow rapidly, but by late summer,…

ALTHOUGH their name may not be well known to the majority of hunters and shooters, C.R Kennedy Co Pty, Ltd, offers one of the most comprehensive lines of hunting optics that I know of, including such brands as Kowa, Minox, Vanguard, Ultradot, Vixen, Pentax and not but not least Athlon who offer affordable riflescopes, binoculars and spotting scopes for the average hunter/rifleman. They sent me two riflescopes for evaluation - an Athlon Neos 3-9x40 and a Athlon Talos BTR 1-4x24. Both are built on heat treated one-piece tubes of aircraft grade alloy for strength and durability fora lifetime’s use. The 1-4x24 tube is 30mm in diameter compared with one-inch for the popular and versatile 3-9x. The 1-4x24 has 4 times zoom which is nothing new. I am perfectly happy using…

AN ASSORTMENT OF HUNTING FACTS & FIGURES THIS period can vary from mid-march to mid-April in different years, the time when the stags are generally at the peak of their mating season which usually lasts from a month to six weeks. On occasions, however, I've heard a stag roar during other months in Queensland. And although stags may not decoy or even reply to a call during the tail end of the rut, they'll often stop when they hear a roar, offering the hunter a standing shot. The best times of the day for the hunter to listen for roaring stags or to try and decoy them within range, is from daylight to mid-morning and again in early evening up to dusk. But when the stags are really into the…

Tasty Hunter’s Buff Jerky INGREDIENTS • Approximately 1kg of buffalo back-strap • 1 spirit measure (40ml) soy sauce • 2/3 measure of Worcestershire sauce • 1 healthy grind of mixed peppercorns • 1 healthy grind of black peppercorns • 1 dried chilli, finely chopped. METHOD • Slice the meat to about three mm thickness (easiest if the muscle is still semi-frozen) • Mix all the marinade ingredients in a medium-sized bowl • Stir the sliced meat into the marinade, ensuring it is all well-coated • Cover with Gladwrap and store in the fridge overnight • Pour off any excess liquid • Lay out the cured pieces one-by-one onto the trays of a kitchen dehydrator • Run the dehydrator at low-medium heat, testing every half hour or so until the…

FROM MICHAEL GIBSON – WEBSITE EDITOR The Spartans Had The Right Idea In 480 BC The battle of Thermopylae stands proud in Greek history. The Persian King Xerxes asked the Spartan's King Leonidas to get his army to lay down its arms, he replied "Molon Labe", which means "Come and take them". The Greeks were wiped out to a man after an epic battle against 150,000 Persians. THE NFA - AUSTRALIA 2017. So now Australian legal firearm owners, supposedly "free", having been metaphorically violated by power-hungry bureaucrats who would not know one end of a lever-action shotgun from another, are being primed to have more restrictions placed on our firearm ownership to ostensibly "make the community safe". This perverted rationale has come out of the Martin Place Siege Enquiry, which…

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. Sighting In His .22-250 QI bought a Howa .22-250, mounted it with a Meopta Meopro 6- 18x50mm scope and bought a Bushnell laser rangefinder to measure the range to each rabbit. There are lots of rabbits on the property where I hunt and I intend to have some good sport reducing their numbers. What distance should I zero my scope for? I am using Hornady factory ammo loaded with the 55gn V-Max at 3680fps. The guy in the gunshop said if I sight in 1" high at 100 yds., the bullet will drop about 5" at 300yds. Do you think…

SUPERLIGHT is a label some shooters sneer at, but in the case of the new Sako 85 Carbonlight, a petite little rifle weighing a scant 2.38 kgs, mountain hunters who tackle steep, rough terrain burdened with a rifle and pack, are simply going to rave over it. Add a low-range variable scope with one-inch tube, a 2-7x or 2.5-8x and you're all set for the steep stuff with an outfit that will weigh less than 3kgs. Sako rifles are famous worldwide for their performance engineering and workmanship, attributes that have ensured their lasting popularity and justified their continuing success in the marketplace. The company has always placed placed a high priority on building good-looking rifles with smooth-cycling actions and functional stocks that have good lines and dimensions. Accordingly, the new…

Tango Sports Lid By ARB For dual cab utility owners looking for an alternative to a traditional canopy, ARB has released a new Tango load system. This system is made up of three main components: The Tango Sports Lid, Tango Mount System and Tango Loadmaster Cargo Organiser. Firstly, the Tango Sports Lid will provide secure storage space and protection from the elements, as well as incorporating a clever new hinge system that allows the fitment of OE sport bars. The lid attaches to a mount rail, so this clever system allows for quick and easy install or removal of the Sports Lid to cater for large loads. The lid also incorporates central locking via the vehicle key fob, as well as an emergency key should the vehicle battery fail. Next…

SORRY if I bang on about the rut all the time, but it really is the best time of the year to be out and about in the bush. No other animal that is readily accessible for Aussie hunters gives you the excitement and anticipation that is the deer rut. For me, it is a very long 12 months between ruts and the highlight of my hunting year. Much talk about different bucks and stags between mates goes on in the off season and we all hope that the big one that we let walk the year before is still out there with an even bigger set of antlers on its head. Scouting takes place prior to the season (quite easy when you live in the country), rostered days off…

TECHNICAL TIPS & INFO IF SOMEONE asked me to pick the most accurate and versatile cartridge suitable for light to medium big game, I’d have no hesitation in nominating the .308 Winchester. While I must confess a personal preference for a longer cartridge – the venerable .30-06 – when accuracy is the most important factor for deer-size game, the .308 is without question the cartridge to select. There are several reasons for the superb accuracy of the .308, but the relative shortness of its case is foremost. Benchrest shooters have favoured short cartridges ever since they discovered their match winning ability. Cartridges such as the .222 Remington, .22 PPC and 6mm PPC al have the short case feature as a common factor. The reason short cases are so accurate has…

NEWS, VIEWS AND INSIGHTS OVER THE YEARS I’ve seen it all. A monster pet rusa stag shot behind a South Coast hotel and later, its head submitted to a club annual trophy competition. When discovered, the pet-killer was ostracised and expelled from several hunting groups. Large tame deer of every variety shot in the night by cowardly thieves lacking the skills to track down a wild animal. I always wanted to own a small deer herd, but decided against it because of the loopy losers who target pet animals. They’re everywhere. My most embarrassing column featured a huge fallow buck supposedly shot in the wild many years ago. Turns out it was South Australian Hall of Fame horse trainer, David Hayes’ pet buck on his Lindsay Park stud! The poacher…

“The sound was loud and unlike anything I’d ever heard emitted by any kind of deer anywhere I’ve hunted.” I T CONCERNS my experience with an unknown species of deer (a stag) I encountered in the Victorian Alps back in 1971. In an area high above the Howqua, that Len Richardson called Eagle’s Peak. On a number of occasions Len and I camped in the Howqua and I drove up a steep mountainside in my old short wheel-base Tojo for a few miles and hunted all along the ridgetops. I also climbed up there on foot at different times on my lonesome. It was one helluva drag, but in those days I was a lot younger and very fit. There was a wallow up there that I used to stake out,…