Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2020 i Sporting Shooter

MANY older shooters are heard to say, “Young people are our future”, but some actually do something about it. One isolation evening as I was enjoying silence, I took a call from Glenn McLean; he's a lovely bloke and I hung up an hour later enthusiastic about a package he was sending me. Glenn is a father from rural Victoria and a boilermaker by occupation. He has written a charming and useful triplet of books, “Something New”, “Dad, Can I Come Too?” and “A Week Away”. They are very useful in introducing and educating young children in responsibility and safety around firearms and should be in every Australian rural primary school library. My son Morgan is an early childhood teacher (as well as being a hunter), so I asked him…

THESE books by Victorian shooter and author Glenn McLean are a most worthwhile addition to the family library. As Glenn states inside his front covers, they are written for kids living in the country and those who are “country at heart”. Nevertheless, I see their value on anyone’s bookshelf who enjoys a charming story about a boy named Angus and his family. They contain central positive messages about personal responsibility and growth embedded in a rhyming narrative that offers literacy learning opportunities for children. The books are based around hunting, target practice and safe gun handling but also depict very positive family and community relationships as well. Glen’s illustrations are fun, engaging and skilfully rendered in watercolour. Children will particularly enjoy finding the fox on every page in the first…

THESE guns are not regarded simply as being instruments of death, but as a work of art of the gunmaker. The Merkel B3 adheres to the concept that old- generation gunsmiths were craftsmen in the strictest sense. All the old school Suhl gunmakers with the sole exception of Merkel fled to West Germany when the communists came to power in East Germany. The company continued making firearms in the GDR between 1949 and 1990 when the "Iron Curtain" as torn asunder. But instead of being hindered by the regime Merkel actually flourished and kept the old traditions alive. They give credit to the GDR for allowing them to continue working for 40 years, free from economic forces and virtually no technological pressure. This resulted in the unique combination of high-tech…

EARLY on a hot summer's morning in the rolling hills of the Stanthorpe region, my mate Mark and I carefully surveyed the land. Through our binos we could see a small mob of pigs feeding out in the open on a distant hill top. Without hesitation we were off on foot; we had to close a distance of 800 metres or so. With rifles in hand, we close the gap quickly, wind direction changing constantly, we changed our stalking direction twice and finally, upon getting to about 150 metres we stopped for a breather. Not knowing exactly what we were chasin, g we proceeed to push ahead at 30 metres apart, slowly negotiating the light scrub. We then saw the silhouette of a large boar slowly feeding away. We would…

THE hunter should constantly check the direction of any wind, since even the slightest breeze can influence whether he enjoys success or failure. Your scent may be non-existent to your own nostrils, but to a game animal it spells danger. More game is spooked by the hunter's scent than any other cause. A famous English writer once wrote that man scent to any wild animal was "most awful vile." This scribe may not have been an outstanding hunter, but he summed it up succinctly in a few words. Unless the hunter is careful to keep the wind in his favour, he is not going to achieve a very high degree of success. It is astonishing just how far man scent carries, even on a seemingly still day particularly in mountain…

IT is quite common for me to get letters from readers who are experiencing problems with their reloads becoming hard to chamber after only four or five reloads. I tell them that this is quite normal and advise them to check the length of their cases and if they exceed the maximum case length listed in their manual to trim them back to length. As a rule I never hear from them again so, evidently, this advice solves their problems. However, it isn't always that simple. The first thing I do when setting out to reload a batch of brass is check the length of every case, preferably by using a micrometer. Handloaders who don't pay attention to the length of their cases, sooner or later will run into trouble.…

BUT, the pros of being back south is definitely Mum's cooking and being able to dive head first back into annoying the customers in Dad’s gun store. On Thursday I had the opportunity to talk to a man who came in for some last-minute archery gear before he moves up north chasing the warmer weather. We got to talking about the pros and cons of hunting with a bow. I walked away happy that I got to share my opinion with a fellow hunter. Even though I choose to hunt with rifles, I remember when I tried my luck with a bow. Yes, it was pink to match my Howa .243, but just because it was pink didn’t mean the occasional bow string to the forearm didn’t hurt any less.…

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. Sixty-Five Years A Gun Writer Q I've been reading your articles in various magazines for the last 40 years and am amazed that you are still going full throttle at 88 years of age. Can you tell me when you first started writing? I hope you aren't thinking about retiring. Please keep on, keeping on. – Charles Richards A My first article was published in the first issue of Australian Outdoors in August 1955. It was entitled "Rifle and Roo Dog". My first article for Anglers Digest Shooters Monthly appeared in October, 1956, and was called “Where Bighorns Roam." I…

ANYONE who has kept up with this column or followed me online knows I’ve become completely obsessed with my recurve bow. On one hand, it makes perfect sense to me that I’d transition into this style of hunting, and on the other hand, the amount of time it takes to become just proficient is staggering and it consumes me. My journey has been mostly fun, occasionally infuriating, and above all, a fantastic learning experience. Success can come through a variety of means to a hunter; luck, planning, appropriate equipment choices, experience, among many others. For me, time in the field and the good fortunate of having some great access has seen me come into a lot of success in recent years. If I think about some of the most impressive…

Rossi 8122 Bolt Action Rifles The Rossi 8122 is a reliable and very accurate bolt action rimfire rifle. This well-made firearm features a black textured synthetic Monte Carlo stock and 18-inch free-floated barrel for outstanding balance and feel. Offered in .22LR the 8122 features fully adjustable front and rear fibre optic sights, 10-round detachable magazine and the receiver has a ⅜” dovetail to accept scope mounts. The 8122 also features a threaded barrel. Rossi also offer the model 8122M. This model is available in. 22 magnum and features the same Monte Carlo style stock, fibre-optic sights and Weaver-style scope mount. The 8122M (magnum) is available in an 18-inch sporter or alternatively an 18-inch heavy barrel, both of which come threaded at the muzzle. The 8122M offers a 5 shot detachable…

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