Sporting Shooter

positivity and opportunity

WE often see the word “unprecedented” used by media to track new events, positive and negative. Now shooters, hunters and fishers have a genuine “unprecedented” opportunity to get away from cities, shops and general congestion to ply their most worthwhile recreations, with their family or on their own. My rifle club, which shoots outdoors on a weekly basis in a windswept coastal location, is operating in one of the best places to avoid contracting most bugs passed by human contact. (Now most ranges have closed for the foreseeable future, infortunately.) Those who play body contact and/or indoor sports do not have the luxury us outdoorspeople enjoy, so we are blessed. Meantime, the firearms and optics industry march inexorably forward with advanced and sometimes just plain different products. Showcased at the US SHOT…

hog deer addiction

THE without smallest deer species in our country was one I thought I would never lay my hands on. Growing up, a friend’s father had a few respectable Hog deer stags on his wall that always had my attention, but it seemed hunting them was impossible access or drawing the ballot at Blonde bay. I’ve entered Blonde Bay ballot for 12 years with out any luck of drawing. It was then a good friend Michael Vigliante mentioned about a private property he knew of, and the owner who ballots out his private access each year. So, the following year I decided to have a go at entering that ballot with much better odds than the Blonde Bay scenario. When I had the phone call in early February I was in shock and…

best .22 magnum cartridge for larger game

Q I read your articles where you told of using your CZ .22 Magnum successfully for goats, pigs and fallow deer. Which cartridge do you favour for this purpose? I have an old Winchester 9422M that I use with 40gn solid loads, but while it kills well on goats it is not great on pigs and I’ve not yet tried it on fallow deer although there are a lot hereabouts. Donald Duffy A To date I’ve taken countless goats, a dozen pigs and five fallow deer with my CZ .22 Magnum. Over the years I tried several .22 WMR loads with varied effects and found the 40gn solids were best, at least until I got hold of a box of Federal Game-Shok 50gn jacketed hollow-points. Admittedly, it is slower than the 40 grainers,…

ask the gun editor

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. Information On .375 Weatherby Q I am in the process of rebuilding my firearms battery. I remember you once bought a Winchester Model 70 in .375 H&H which you had rechambered to .375 Weatherby Magnum. You also mentioned that your rifle could fire the .375 H&H Magnum and .375 Ackley in the same chamber. What is the difference in the dimensions and performance between these three cartridges, and who could you recommend to rechamber to the .375 Ackley or .375 Weatherby? – Paul Gregory A The .375 Ackley and .375 Weatherby are both full-length, improved cartridges fire-formed to have sharper shoulders and less body…

in whose footsteps do you tread?

I love allowing my thoughts to wander when I’m out bush by myself. Sometimes I set out with the goal of pursuing an animal but I find myself meandering around, getting lost in my head. It never happens intentionally, but it’s usually a sign that I’ve been thinking too much in my regular life and need to let myself switch off. One of my favourite places to go in my head in these times is “how many hunters have walked here before me?” A hunter moves through the bush like no other person. They are in tune with their surroundings, they analyse every detail, and they participate as opposed to just spectating. Every time I climb a rock or hill and assess the landscape before me, hoping to see the animals…

ruger american hunter 6.5 creedmoor

TWO burgeoning trends among shooters in Australia - long-range target shooting and long-range hunting - were instigated by developments of our American counterparts and call for extreme precision at extreme ranges. Bulletmakers have designed long aerodynamic bullets that retain their velocity to hold up better and lie closer to the wind over the long haul; ammomakers have designed more efficient cartridges; and riflemakers are producing rifles that shoot them more accurately. Up until five years ago the market for such rifles was dominated by custom gunmakers who guaranteed extraordinary accuracy, but at prices that put them beyond the reach of the average rifleman. Some of the major manufacturers made abortive attempts to provide long-range rifles capable of precision, at least in the hunting field - but most of them were merely cobbled-up…