Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2026 i Sporting Shooter

YES, we really are giving away a scoped Weatherby 307 every month! Three thousand, four hundred and ninety-nine dollars worth! It’s an incredible offer and we really have TSA Outdoors to thank for it, as they’re putting it up, including the ZeroTech optics and Warne mounts. We have always received a lot of entries for the Hunter’s Gallery competition and I know that upping the game like this is only going to invite more entries. Having said that, you’ve also got a better than average chance of winning; it’s not like the lottery! So give it a shot, and if at first you don’t succeed, keep trying, as many previous winners have done before they had success. But I will say that you’ll improve your odds The 307 Range XP…

OVER the past few months I’ve had the pleasure of seriously putting one of Weatherby’s latest offerings, the Alpine CT, through its paces. From the rugged floodplains of the Northern Territory to the harsh Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan, this rifle has not only impressed, but gained a little spot in my heart, being a part of memories which will not be forgotten. Did someone say carbonfibre? It is finding its way more and more into sporting rifles every day. Weatherby answered the call with the Alpine CT, one of a range of models built on the company’s new bolt-action rifle platform, the Model 307. The Alpine CT derives its name from the paint scheme on the stock. “The Alpine CT does not suffer from heat soak like its steel-barrelled…

MY Tikka T3 is the most faithful and long-serving rifle I’ve ever owned. I’ve had it for 21 years, have lost count of how many rounds it has fired (thousands) and have used and abused it like the workhorse it is. It keeps on keeping on. It’d earned a 21st birthday present, I reckon, and so I bought it a Glacier Rifle Company carbon-fibre Elite CR stock. Glacier Rifle Company (GRC) is a family-owned New Zealand enterprise that makes complete rifles as well as other components. The business has been up and running through three generations over 63 years. Firearms aren’t all they do; they manufacture components for aerospace and defence industries. In other words, typical, clever Kiwis. GRC, partly through its in-house design team led by Sam Kapoor, Sika Works,…

DESPITE what the anti-gunners believe, there are other countries in the world besides America and Australia which allow civilians to own firearms. One of the frustrating things about firearms advocacy in Australia is that pretty much the entire conversation from the anti-gun side involves either their feelings, or saying “if we make any changes that gun owners like, we’ll end up like the US with the school shootings and random murders and other gun crimes”. These people utterly fail to recognise — or may even deliberately choose to ignore — the fact that there are a lot of other countries which allow civilian ownership of firearms for hunting, target shooting, recreational shooting and even self-defence, and almost none of those countries has the issues the US does. We’ve been saying…

WHEN I was a young man, there was an unwritten rule in shooting circles that foxes were not to be shot before Anzac Day. Even as late as the mid- to late-1980s, fox skins were worth very good money. For many shooters, they were a profitable resource to be harvested only in winter when the value of their pelts was at its highest. Anyone ‘wasting’ them by shooting them in their less lustrous summer coats was definitely frowned upon while the interests of stockowners and native wildlife alike were put on hold so that shooters could line their pockets in winter. I must confess that in my own mind the quintessential fox hunt still takes place in the dead of winter, with frost on the ground and your breath misting…

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PEOPLE familiar with my column will know that I’m constantly bouncing between very different forms of hunting — trying to hunt animals with traditional bows inside 20 metres, and shooting high numbers of animals with rifles to keep farmers happy. I usually find myself focusing on one area for a couple of months before moving on to something different, but with some of my rifle tests lately and wanting to build confidence with my trad bows, I’ve been doing both at the same time. I’m no stranger to shooting bulk animals with rifles. In my early days I was doing it with a .308, which was my first rifle. It was a Weatherby Fibreguard with a 24-inch barrel, and I hauled it all over the place, both over my shoulder on…

Nick Harvey passed away in February 2024 after almost 50 years as our Technical Editor. He left us with scores of unpublished answers to readers’ queries. To honour his memory, we will continue his column until we have run them all. LETTER OF THE MONTH High ballistic coefficient is not critical Q I’ve been loading the old Q Hornady 175gn roundnose bullet, whose BC is .285, in my 7mm Rem Mag, and my mate loads the Sierra 175gn MatchKing, which has the higher BC of .608. He rubbishes my choice of bullet, saying that it will drop two or three times as much as his spitzer over 300 metres. But I have had no problems killing deer with it over normal game ranges. So what’s all the fuss about? What’s…

LITHGOW Arms is continuing to expand its line of rifles built on the LA102 action, and the latest gives a nod to some of our earliest and most important military history; that of the Light Horse. The Waler is aptly named after the breed of horse that our soldiers rode in World War I, in legendary battles such as Beersheba. Most of us aren’t hunting on horseback, but this rifle is designed to be at home with modern cavalry, like quads, side-by-sides and utes. The name Waler conjures ideas about a product designed to be used hard in harsh environments. While that is the case, it’s no more or less rugged and reliable than other Lithgow LA102 models, featuring the same action, trigger, synthetic stock, hammer-forged barrel and overall build quality.…

MY almost four-year-old grandson is now a deer hunter. When Ma dropped around to his place the other day, he proudly showed her his rifle (a long-armed wood clamp) and then adopted the prone position and waited to ambush the cat, inspired by Rob Baldinger’s new Australian book, I am a Deer Hunter. Some of Eamon’s first words were, “Pa goes bang!” He knew I shot but didn’t show much interest until he became a deer hunter. It began the first time I read this book to him. He took it home that evening and his mum says he’s been into it ever since. The beautiful illustrations probably grabbed him initially but the engaging bush poem of the hunt — full of action, emotion, description and reality — locked him into…

WINNER Enter now for your chance to WIN! FIND YOUR NEAREST DEALER Australian distributor for Weatherby, ZeroTech and Warne. PLEASE NOTE: this competition is not a game of chance. To achieve entry, photos must be submitted to the satisfaction of the Sporting Shooter editorial team. All entrants must be over 18 years of age and need to be suitably licensed as per individual state firearm regulations and requirements. The firearms will be issued to winners through licensed firearm dealers upon sighting a permit to purchase. Firearm industry staff, paid shooting publication contributors and staff are not eligible to enter this competition. For full terms and conditions please visit sportingshooter.com.au/wfphotocomp WIN WE’RE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT EVERY ISSUE FOR THE REST OF 2026 WILL PUT YOU IN THE DRAW TO WIN…

AS shooters aim further and further downrange at paper and game, ballistic coefficients and sectional densities have become more topical, but that hasn’t made them better understood. We’ll start by looking at sectional density, or SD. Here’s a little gem from the 1929 Textbook Of Small Arms, referring to Isaac Newton’s titanic brain: “Newton made the first quantitative experiments on air resistance by dropping balls, in 1710, from Wrens’ [google Christopher Wren — amazing bloke] unfinished dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, and noting the time of falling of balls of different sectional densities. He concluded that the natural or square of quadratic law was true, so that 1 percent addition to the velocity gave 2 percent addition to the resistance. He continues about more particles of air being hit by projectiles…

THESE days many hunters are taking longer shots at game thanks to today’s advanced scope market and the wider availability of dependably accurate rifles. A combination of higher magnification, finer reticles and ballistic turrets help take care of those longer than normal shots. To do so, however, you need to know your range. I rarely take a shot without checking the distance to my target to help ensure a clean, ethical kill. Most of us carry binoculars and a separate rangefinder, as an all-in-one unit doesn’t always suit our budgets. Vortex recently introduced the Ranger HD 3000 binoculars that integrate high-definition optics with rangefinding capability, and they come at a lower price point than most. They’re considered a mid- to high-range optic and rangefinder, but the price is very affordable…

I’VE had a bit of a fascination with knives, particularly unusual or quality pieces. I’m fortunate to have in my collection a couple of quality knives, and a knife with a 130-year history. The Opinel was first made by Joseph Opinel in France way back in 1890. My Opinel No 8 was made in the past 60 years, after the blade locking feature, known as the Virobloc system, was incorporated into the knives in 1955 by Marcel Opinel. The blade, with it’s yatagan shape, is inspired by the design of the traditional Turkish sabre. When you’re watching a foreign movie and see two old men sitting at a table, perhaps cutting pieces from an apple, chances are they are using an Opinel! One of my most treasured knives is one I…

AT a mate’s farm for the weekend, I wanted to do a few hours of hunting and harvest a bit of meat while I was at it. Liam and Hannah look after 1200 acres of the family grazing property west of the Divide and are flat out just keeping up with the work, let alone thinning the pests there. Liam told me there’d been an influx of feral goats since everything dried out again. “Don’t shoot them,” he said. “We’re going to build some traps and sell them.” Apparently the price of goats has come back. Goat tastes great — better than lamb and beef in my opinion. I asked if I could get one for its meat. “Just one goat,” Liam said slowly with a grin. By his tone…

MY 14-YEAR-OLD son and I went on a hunt chasing deer in Nundle State Forest. I was thinking I might get him his first deer. On the first day at 0600 we had bumped a doe crossing the trail. I believe we were all in shock to see each other! FURTHER down the trail, bordering the fringe, a tasty-looking boar grunted around and stepped out just 15 metres away. I let the Lithgow .308 go to work — probably the closest shot on anything I’ve ever taken. After gutting and checking the vitals we left it for a car recovery later, since it was only 0630 and I was still chasing a deer for the boy. We proceeded to a nice, sunny, northeast facing slope since it had been raining…

Vortex Razor HD Gen III 4-24x44 FFP riflescope The new Vortex Razor HD Gen III 4-24x44 riflescope has a 6:1 erector ratio, offering low magnification with a wide field of view at 4x through to very high magnification for long range up at 24x. Compact in size at only 32cm long, yet very rugged in design, it minimises weight to just over 900 grams without sacrificing performance. Fitted with apochromatic index-matched lenses, it also features XR Plus lens coatings on all air-to-glass surfaces providing maximum light transmission and clarity. Constructed of aircraft grade aluminium, this riflescope has a 34mm main tube with a 44mm objective lens. The Razor HD Gen III has an EBR-7D reticle mounted in the first focal plane. It allows for accurate holdovers and range estimation at…

ENTRIES: Please email your high resolution. jpg or. png pig hunting image as an attachment to the email addressed to mickmatheson@yaffa.com.au – all images must be at least 1MB in size. For entry to be valid the following contact details must be included: First name, surname, full mail address, contact phone number and email address. A short explanatory sentence with the email is also needed. Garmin’s outdoor range features unparalleled innovation in hiking, camping and hunting tech in handheld or wearable configurations. Options span from navigation, communication, safety and tracking devices. Garmin also produces a range of bow sights with built-in rangefinder enabling better shot placement. A Garmin eTrex 22x GPS Navigator will be sent to the best entry every month, thanks to the enthusiastic support of Garmin. eTrex 22x…