Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2023 i Sporting Shooter

DO not hang around gun shops if you’re not in the market to buy something because eventually you’ll see something you can’t resist. This is a fact, I know, and it’s a case of doing as I say, not as I do. Because I’m hopeless. I’ve decided I need a custom, classically styled rifle. Shorty’s, the local gun shop here in Mudgee, has had an unusual number of custom sporting rifles come through over the past little while and because I’ve been hanging around like a spare dork at a wedding, I’ve spent too much time in the company of these unique firearms. Many are SMLE-based customs built decades ago when .303-25s were the go, but not all. I still kick myself for not jumping on the Eddystone-built M17 in…

PIG shooters want a fast repeater for hunting in brush and high grass where shots are close and targets are plentiful. In recent years, this has led to the importation of a number of slick-functioning lever-action and straight-pull field guns. Now an even faster reciprocating action has hit the market — the Celikarms Buckmaster PB 12. The Buckmaster is entirely different, a unique design utilising an in-line gas/inertia system which cycles in a similar way to many conventional self-loading designs and, in doing so, it all but eliminates muzzle rise during firing. Yet it is not self-loading and cannot be converted to work that way. The gun is packed with a number of unique features that make it evolutionary, fast functioning and pleasant to shoot. Its forearm contains not only…

In my writings over the past few years, I’ve outlined that hunting has a lot to do with health. Besides bringing home free-range meat for friends and family, the effort required to get it is often great exercise. I try to live my life in a way that allows me to hunt as much as possible so I can exercise without having to sacrifice hunting time, but I still like to go to the gym and watch my diet carefully as I believe it allows me to hunt harder and longer. Recently, I had a health scare that put me in hospital for a little while and I had a lot of time to reflect on these thoughts. No matter how healthy you are and how careful you are, there…

STAG down. That was my short but excited text to family back in Far North Queensland as I reflected on a blur of actions on a cold, overcast day atop a ridge in the magnificent Victorian High Country. But this is the climax of what is a much longer story. To appreciate the thrill of this moment, I need to go back four years in time. The journey started when I accepted a job offer from a professional colleague. We discovered a combined appreciation of all things outdoors. In particular, he was a passionate hunter with an obsession for sambar deer. Living in FNQ, I only ever had the chance to read and dream about hunting sambar. With a contact in place and drooling over photos of heavily antlered stags,…

My countless trips to the Victorian High Country for sambar have mainly resulted in nothing more than a continued learning curve for me. Sure, I’d taken the odd one for meat and a couple of mediocre stags after many years of hunting them but the going was tough. Where I hunt them, the hills are steep and the bush extremely thick, so the deer see or hear me before I see them. BEING honked at is a bitter-sweet experience that livens your senses very quickly. That said, I’ve learned to slow down, look, listen and be patient, which can pay dividends. My friend David phoned me in late July to let me know they’d received a good dump of snow, which had brought the sambar down low. There were a…

Hog deer is the species that holds most trophy hunters back from completing the grand slam of Australia’s six deer species. There are few hunting opportunities for them. MY friends’ dad had hunted them and, as a kid, I always admired the hog deer trophies on his wall. He was the one who inspired me to enter the Blond Bay Hog Deer Advisory Group ballot, but to this day I have never been drawn. Luckily for me, I have had a few other opportunities to hunt them and seen some magnificent stags in my time, both with the rifle and camera. Hog deer (Axis porcinus) are native to several Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Burma. Numbers are dramatically declining due to habitat loss and human pressure. They…

Spoil yourself or a loved one this Christmas with a subscription to Sporting Shooter and never miss the latest hunting news, tips and reviews. WHY SUBSCRIBE? • ONLY $64 for 12 issues (print + digital) • SAVE 40% off the subscription price! • FREE delivery to your door • NEVER miss an issue! ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? Simply extend your subscription to take advantage of this offer. TO SUBSCRIBE OR RENEW visit www.greatmagazines.com.au/christmas or CALL 1800 807 760 & QUOTE ADV/XM22 Conditions: These offers are open to new and current subscribers with an Australian postal address. Offers expire 31st January, 2023. The publishing frequency of the magazines vary so you may wait up to 12 weeks for delivery of your first magazine. Customer enquiries to subscriptions@yaffa.com.au.…

WIN a GARMIN eTrex 10 EVERY MONTH! 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 produce a range of bow sights with built in range finder enabling better shot placement. A Garmin eTrex 10 GPS Navigator will be sent to the best entry every month.…

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. LETTER OF THE MONTH Variation in primers Q I am puzzled by all the different kinds of primers available and have a few queries for you. Do I need to use magnum primers in my .270 Winchester? Would using a benchrest primer improve accuracy? Jerry Wood A All primers can be counted on to deliver reliable and consistent ignition for ordinary shooting and handloading, but the different grades of primers are intended for different needs. Standard primers are suitable for the majority of rifle handloading needs. They work best with fast- and medium-burning powders. Magnum primers are designed for heavy…

YOU could call this the Goldilocks of rifle scopes. For size, magnification and optical quality, it sits in the middle and seems just right for a long-range hunting scope, all at a price that’s not too hot with quality that won’t leave you cold. The Thrive series of rifle scopes form the middle range of ZeroTech’s optics — with the HD models stepping a little higher in glass quality — and this model’s 4-16x44 spec puts it about in the centre for size and magnification. It makes it a prime candidate if you’re looking for a scope to suit a rifle that will stretch out to targets hundreds of metres away yet can still feasibly be carried around in the field, at least over short to medium distances. At 650…

IT’S fairly safe to say that most shooters enjoy hunting, would like to go hunting, or have friends that go hunting. Hunting is an activity that is as old as humankind, but it’s constantly under threat in Australia from several angles. The obvious threat comes from the usual suspects in the form of strongly anti-hunting politicians and animal rights activists. We’re never going to win them over and there’s no point trying — as the saying goes, it’d be like mud-wrestling with a pig; you both end up covered in muck and the pig enjoys it. Another major threat is perhaps the most insidious — the enemy within our ranks, particularly in-fighting between shooting organisations and hunters with different philosophies. The best example of this is how to treat the…

THE .35 family ranges from pipsqueaks to powerhouses capable of reliably stopping the largest and most dangerous of the world’s big game. The majority flourished for only a brief time before becoming obsolete. Three notable exceptions were the the .35 Remington, the .35 Whelen and .358 Winchester, but they’re barely surviving, suffering from lack of interest and having few adherents. The .35 saga began in 1903 with the introduction of the .35 Winchester, developed for the Model 1895 lever-action rifle. Both the cartridge and rifle lasted only until 1936. The .35 WSL (Winchester Self Loading) was introduced in 1905 for the Winchester Model ’05 semi-auto rifle. The round was badly underpowered, driving a 180gn bullet at around 1440fps. By 1920 it had been replaced with a more powerful round, the…

I could hardly believe it had been over 12 months since my last hunt at Mary River Station. How time flies! This time I was after a blackbuck antelope, scrub bulls and a cull buffalo. Kevin told me that he didn’t have any big trophy blackbuck left as the dingoes had taken a heavy toll on them, and there were only a few bucks left that were worth shooting. That was fine as an average-sized buck would do me, I assured him. ARRIVING late on a Friday evening after a three-day drive, I found Kevin already had a new ramp made for me to be able to get into the house in my wheelchair. It wasn’t long until I was perched up at the bar with a scotch on ice…

Spika gaiter range Spika has released the Strike Gaiter, designed and tested specifically to protect against the strike of Australian snakes. Built from heavy-duty PU bonded canvas, this contoured armour will cover your entire lower leg and attach to your boots, leaving nothing exposed. These snake-resistant gaiters are also fully adjustable, featuring a four-way closure system, with wires included. Tested by wildlife expert Michael Alexander from Black Snake Productions, Spika Strike Gaiters offer peace of mind when out bush. They retail for $149.95. In addition to the Strike Gaiters, Spika offers a general-purpose gaiter in Biarri camo. This all-round leg protection, constructed from a brushed polyester outer with a DWR coating, helps repel water and offers silent use when tramping through the scrub or long grass. It’s also backed by…

COMMERCIAL cases of whatever type — rimless, rimmed, belted, semi-rimmed, centrefire or rimfire — are generally made of brass, with few exceptions. There are low-pressure rimfire cases made of copper. Shotgun cases nowadays are plastic; few are made of paper and brass anymore. The Germans made many military cases of steel during both the first and second World Wars, and the Americans made many in .30-06 and .45 ACP. Today, there is some Russian ammunition with cases made of steel. Cartridge brass is actually an alloy, composed of about 70 percent copper and 30 percent zinc. Some common American brands may include a trace of silver, and alloy proportions may vary for a few tenths of a percent. Cases for premium ammunition may have a plating of nickel, but they…

I am lucky enough to live in the country and am in the enviable position of having several hunting grounds right on my doorstep. I spend a lot of hours in the field. It wasn’t always like this. The COVID lockdowns and working from home were a godsend for my hunting, and in these months with longer days I have been lucky enough to slip in many after-work hunts, as well as my regular morning and/or evening weekend outings. THE A vast majority of those hours are, of course, not spent taking photos of the game I’ve shot, but in stalking, reading sign, learning habits and, for a lot of it, just sitting still and being a part of the bush. The accumulated hours I’ve spent hunting would be incalculable,…

PECAR is a name to reckon with. Back in the 1950s when I started hunting and writing, only a few high-quality scopes were being imported from Europe and the most popular carried the brand name Pecar-Berlin. As well as fixed-powers, the Pecar-Berlin line included a pair of variables — there was a 3-7x40mm and a 4-10x50mm. Both had 26mm diameter steel tubes with reticles in the first focal plane. At that time they were the only scopes in the world with a unique interchangeable reticle system. As a testament to their rugged reliability: I had a 4-10x Pecar on a Brno ZG47 in .270 Winchester that I used for several seasons, roo shooting professionally. This scope stayed on the Brno through the lifetime of eight barrels and the firing of…

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I like to think I’ve kept enough rifles in my safe over the years to cover most bases. The problem is, the more you hunt and the more you desire different rifles for specific applications, the more you see gaps that need filling. FOR me, the 9.3x62 cartridge makes sense for a mountain rifle in a sambar context, but my FN 98 is far too big for walking up and down mountains for days. At the other end, my only stainless/synthetic rifle was in .308 and I felt like something with a bit more power behind it was a better fit for my hunting needs. For these reasons, I lusted after a .300 Winchester Magnum. This story isn’t one of flicking through websites and catalogues and weighing up the pros…

The rifle I used on the blackbuck was a Weatherby Mk V Ultralight chambered in the wicked little .240 Wby Mag, with a Swarovski Z3 3-10x42 scope. My handloads consisted of 54 grains of AR2213sc behind a 100gn Nosler Partition. I had a few different firearms that I wanted to try on scrub bulls and cull buffalos. One is a Ruger No 1 in .460 Smith & Wesson wearing a Leupold VX-II 2-7x33. I was using a load of 48 grains of Hodgon LiL’ Gun pushing 275gn Barnes XPB projectiles at 2620fps and turning out 4120ft-lb of muzzle energy. Caution: do not try to duplicate this load in a standard .460 S&W and definitely not in a pistol! My Ruger has a very long throat that allows me to seat…

I can’t begin to tell you just how valuable my ARB fridge is to me when out bush. Whether camping, meat shooting or trophy hunting, it’s always ensured perishables stay fresh, cool or frozen even in the hottest weather conditions. In fact, my old ARB fridge has lived on the back of the Hilux for more than 12 years now and is used on a weekly basis when travelling between the city and the bush, not to mention all my hunting trips. ARB expanded its range of portable fridge/freezers from the original Classic model that was blue/grey in colour to an upgraded version, the Classic SII, which incorporates the use of a phone app and several other useful changes. After that, ARB released its Elements range of portable fridge/freezers with…

WINGECARRIBEE Hunters and Anglers Club is my local hunting club. It’s exciting to have seen its growth since it was founded. Club activities and our diverse membership have both grown dramatically. Now I get to watch it grow more from my new role as the club president. It’s thrilling to follow in my dad’s footsteps. I am only the second president the club has ever had. As I’ve said in many articles before, hunting clubs are a place to gather with likeminded people, to learn new skills and to further one’s knowledge of hunting different species of game. I always look forward to the third Thursday of every month to be able to attend our monthly meetings. Our new committee will strive to maintain this excitement. Matt, Geoff, Chris, Paul,…