Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2022 i Sporting Shooter

THE FIOCCHI-WEATHERBY HUNTER'S GALLERY PHOTO COMPETITION has been running for a few years now and as a result, 12 entrants per year have been the lucky winners of a Weatherby Vanguard rifle in a choice of standard chamberings. These Weatherby rifles are refined, attractive and guaranteed accurate, fulfilling the needs of the regular stalker-hunter admirably. All you have to do to enter is send your best hunting photo (trophy species or feral) to me here at my contact email address, but be sure to include a Fiocchi ammo box in a prominent place in the photo when you take it. Good luck and thankyou to the team at TSA Outdoors, Australia's Weatherby and Fiocchi importers. The HUNTER'S DIARY SHORT STORY COMPETITION is generously sponsored by our friends at Extravision Australia,…

Q My mate bought a Remington Model 700 Sendero back in 2003 and only used it once as he couldn’t stand the recoil. He sold it to me along with 40 rounds of Remington factory ammunition loaded with a 140gn Nosler Partition at a given 3400 fps and 60 once-fired cases. The cheap Chinese scope that he attached was useless so I mounted a Zeiss 3.5-10x44 scope and sighted the gun in. Now I want to start reloading. What are the best powders? I have AR2217. Can you suggest a load with the 140gn Nosler Accubond bullet that will handle deer, and a load with Barnes 150gn TSX BT for African plains game? Trevor Madden A I’ve never reviewed a rifle in this calibre or for the hot new Nosler…

Charlie was getting good scores at the local range with his Lithgow .22LR, so I knew he could shoot. Living on a small farm also allowed him to practice with his dads Tikka .308, which he would use on the bigger animals. CHARLIE’S dad, Jeremy, gained access to a new deer property just before the fallow rut, so we were half way there. The first visit saw Charlie getting information overload when I showed him rubs, scrapes, scat and tracks and explained the hows and whys of everything. With no bucks sighted, we retreated to our vehicles, where Charlie soon learnt about 4WD recovery. You see, both our vehicles had sunk where we parked them earlier in the dark. Fast forward to the following weekend and finding a more stable…

IN my previous write-up of the Bergara Premier, I explained the relationship between CVA (Connecticut Valley Arms), BPI Outdoors and Bergara. Most shooters will be familiar with the company's line of muzzle loaders, but CVA has followed Bergara's lead and in 2019 extended its field of operations within the American firearms industry to include bolt-action rifles. The CVA Cascade was designed to be easy to manufacture in order to rate it in the affordable class, but CVA also wanted to include as many features as possible that would attract hunters while keeping the price within reach of the average hunter. In my estimation, they've done an admirable job of meeting those requirements. The Cascade is based on a cylindrical short-action receiver which resembles that of the Bergara, outwardly at least…

Zeiss Victory V8 The new generation of ZEISS V8 riflescopes are optimised for all hunting situations and set a completely new standard in this premium class. Outstanding optical quality, an extra-large eye box for fast target acquisition and the ultrafine illuminated dot makes them unsurpassed companions in any hunting situation. Next, the Ultra FL Concept contains several Schott fluoride glass elements for true colour fidelity, brightness and clarity. The famous ASV ballistic drop compensating turrets, easily customised to you load, makes taking a long shot easy. Featuring a centre tube diameter of 30mm (34mm on 4.8-35x60) and an intuitive multi-functional button, the ZEISS V8 riflescope range is of compact and ergonomic design. With additional new reticles, they also offer even greater flexibility in the field and can be adapted to…

TODAY, ammunition is loaded all over the world and in some instances to the highest level of technical perfection. The .22 rimfire started out as one of the most primitive of cartridges. Introduced in 1887, and loaded with a 40gn bullet and five grains of black powder, the .22 Long Rifle was the first entirely successful form of fixed metallic cartridge. However, another cartridge appeared in the 30 year interval between the introduction of the Short and the Long Rifle cartridges. The .22 Long came along in 1871 and featured a 29gn bullet propelled by a similar charge of five grains of black powder. The loading companies have spent millions of dollars on its development - to make it shoot accurately and consistently, to keep it from leading the barrel,…

COMPETITION BROUGHT TO YOU BY GARMIN WINNER Winner. It’s always enjoyable introducing youngsters to the sport of hunting and what better way than chasing hogs in the High Country. Sean Donato and Jack Benson with a nice mid sized sow following a spot and stalk hunt. Running Remington Hog Hammer Ammo now the Lithgow 308 puts them on the deck like they were hit by lightning, according to John Starr. Kaitlyn Starr (yep – John’s daughter) is usually behind the camera for John’s exploits. She got in front of it for a change of pace, while waiting for a chance to get her minor’s firearms permit and then dad will have to get behind the camera a bit more for sure WIN a GARMIN eTrex 10 EVERY MONTH! ENTRIES: Please email your…

Gun safety for all hunters If these four fundamental rules are drummed into young hunters at the start and on a continued basis while being mentored, future gun accidents will be eliminated. The four firearms safety rules are as follows: 1. Treat all guns as being loaded. 2. Never let the muzzle point towards anything you are not willing to destroy. 3. Keep your finger off the trigger until you are on target and ready to fire. 4. Be sure of your target and what lies beyond it.…

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Here at home with the fallow deer now in velvet and fawns about to drop, there’s no better time than the present to get those trail cameras out to see what’s about for the coming deer season and the same goes for the foxes with young pups starting to appear. I have several cameras that I have used over the years, but none as simple to use as the new Ridgeline Trail Camera. For those who didn’t know, Ridgeline Clothing has expanded into a whole new range of outdoor associated products, one of which includes the new Ridgeline Digital Trail Camera, with more products to be released soon. Firstly, the camera is capable of taking 24 mega pixel images and 4K video resolution, with the option of selecting photo size…

OVER the years I have reviewed several different automatic powder dispensers - Lyman, RCBS and the Hornady Lock-N-Load Auto Charge and all could be relied upon to dispensed accurate powder charges automatically. The Hornady unit in particular had a hopper which held a goodly amount of powder and charges were extremely accurate to within +/-0.1 grains. It featured a manual or automatic dispense option with three speed settings to accommodate different powder types. I thought it would be hard to surpass it, but the new Hornady Auto Charge Pro is made better than its predecessor by the addition of a number of improvements. This handsome unit is bright red which is the signature colour of all Hornady products. Like the other automatic powder dispensers on the market, it is essentially…

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. Variation In Powder Burning Rate Q I dug out some old canisters of Du Pont IMR4320 powder I’ve had in storage for years. It was the best powder for use in the .17 Remington and original .22-250 Ruger, so I thought I’d use it up in my new Browning .22-250 with the 55gn Hornady V-Max. My old load was 34gn with the 55gn Hornady soft-point for about 3540fps, but that same charge in my new rifle gave barely 3340fps. Is it possible that the powder has lost some of its punch due to its age? Or is it caused by the…

MANY of you may be aware that I make a living as a teacher. I’m proud to be an educator in the same way I’m proud to be a hunter. It can require a significant amount of energy – both physical and mental – to assist newcomers to any pastime or lifestyle, but if it’s done properly and all measures are taken to inspire passion it can pay off big time in the long run. My wife, Kirra, has been developing her passion and skills in hunting over the last few years. She is a fast learner but it’s easy to forget that the best way to truly develop skills is to keep working on them consistently. Sometimes I need her to remind me to leave some skinning and butchering…

WE were on our annual pig hunting trip out in Western NSW and it was quite evident that the area had been hit hard by the recent drought, It was our last day and we were all drained due to average daily temperatures in the low 40s. We had covered a lot of kilometres with only a few average-sized pigs to show for our efforts. Eventually, on our way back to the huts to freshen up and start packing, I said to the crew let’s do one more stretch of cover. With mixed feedback about another hunt, I wasted no time. I parked the car in the shade and set off across the open terrain to the cover. As I pushed through the low cover, out of nowhere this brute…

“Women in the industry isn’t a new phenomenon, so why is there such a gap?” NEVERTHELESS, it was great to end 2021 on such a high. The last few months were spent in Queensland enjoying some of my work perks and finally meeting my clients up there. It was exciting to meet two nice gentlemen customers in a Queensland store; they recognised me from my column and I was uplifted to hear their words of encouragement for me. Sadly, I have found pleasant interactions like these infrequent among the hunting population, with many males I meet falling within the group often referred to as “The Men's Club”. I have found these people to be sexist, rude and think the sun shines from their utterances. They can easily be recognized as…