Sporting Shooter

who is serving whom?

A few years back, I recall that the NSW Firearms Registry (FAR) and the police in general were not capable or motivated to protect LAFOs' personal information and it blew up in their collective faces. At that point, you would think they would have ensured that future dealings with LAFOs were secure. Think again.The NSW Police Firearms registry is in what my dear old Dad used to describe as “a bugger's muddle”. They have changed their licensing and firearm permit system to a point where it makes LAFOs the possible target of identity theft through the most insecure method of mail delivery. I was so incensed by this situation that I wrote to the NSW Premier and Minister for Stadiums and Failed Transport Infrastructure, Gladys Berijiklian. Read below:Dear Premier,I am…

chamois creek

Well, first up I will confirm that the title of this story is not the exact name of the creek I’m about to tell you about. As I’m not quite prepared to give away the exact location of my favourite chamois spot, as I’m sure anyone who has found a hard-won public land honey hole would understand. It is a creek, however. Though not a big one. It’s just a trickle of icy water tumbling down from the mountains, under a single lane bridge on New Zealand’s State Highway 6.1 One of the great public huts in chamois country.2 Steve takes a nap up high.3 My young buck was utilised fully for skin, meat and a trophy.“Steve had decided to take up alpine hunting at the ripe old age of…

fast facts

CHAMOIS IN NZ (Fom the New Zealand Department of Conservation)Chamois are naturally distributed in the Pyrenees, the mountains of south and central Europe, Turkey, and the Caucasus in Asia. This particular species is called Rupicapra. They live at moderately high altitudes and are adapted to living in precipitous, rugged, rocky terrain.Alpine chamois arrived in New Zealand in 1907 as a gift from the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph I. The first surviving releases were made in the Aoraki/Mount Cook region and these animals gradually spread over much of the South Island.In New Zealand, chamois hunting is unrestricted and even encouraged by the Department of Conservation to limit the animal's impact on New Zealand's native alpine flora.APPEARANCE. Size: Males are 650-900 mm (shoulder height) and weigh 25-45 kg. Females are smaller at…

letter of the 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.Nick dropped this bull in its tracks with a 300gn solid traveling at 2660fps from a Ruger Alaskan in .375 Ruger..375 Ruger Or .375 H&H?Q I am tossing up which calibre rifle to buy for a buffalo-scrub bull hunt in the N.T in May 2019. I told the gunshop that I was working on a budget and the guy suggested I get a Ruger Hawkeye in .375 Ruger rather than the more expensive Kimber Caprivi or a Winchester Model 70 Safari Express in .375 H&H. He also said that rifles for the .375 Ruger have a standard length action and are…

the incredible savage 110 predator

IN the six decades since it was introduced, the Savage 110 has been continuously modified and upgraded to reach an unusual degree of practicality and effectiveness in the new Model 110 Predator. The rifle incorporates pretty much the same action Savage has used ever since the rifle was introduced back in 1958. A rather unique design, it has a bolt with a pinned-on, self-centering bolt head and horizontal gas baffles which resemble a second set of locking lugs. A pre-chambered, shoulderless button-rifled barrel is locked into place against a bracket-type recoil lug with a large threaded locknut.Numerous changes have taken place and additional features have been added which make it easier for the shooter to obtain all the accuracy the rifle is capable of. Over many years spent testing rifles,…

buff on a budget

1 The awesome spreading horns of this bull made the whole DIY trip worthwhile.2 The author’s first water buffalo bull. - a fine representative head of 97 SCI points (calculated by adding the length and girth of each horn).LURCHING slowly across the wide floodplain in the Toyota Hilux, a big lump of buffalo bull appeared out of nowhere, trotting along to our left. He was a couple of hundred metres from us, and heading roughly parallel to our line of travel toward the fringing forest a bit less than a kilometre away. My brother Neale was at the wheel and gave chase - such as we could without wrecking the vehicle. The surface of the floodplain was heavily pockmarked from ponderous buffalo feet and wallowing during the wet season. The…