Innehållsförteckning för December 2022 från Sporting Shooter

EVERYTHING is just so wet! Large swathes of the country as sodden and some parts have recorded their wettest year ever. The one time I did try to get out hunting recently, I got bogged. Hint taken. If I can’t walk, I can’t go. As I write, the creek’s up, the causeway is under and the rain’s pouring down. On my place, the pigs are ripping up the soft ground. There are goats everywhere. I’m sure the deer must be breeding up again. The fox kits are coming out. But it looks like myxo has hit the rabbits hard, so that’s one good thing … although the hunter in me disagrees. When things eventually dry out and the grass and weeds die off a bit, it’ll be a hunter’s paradise.…

There are many myths connected with shotguns, and one of the principal ones is that the smaller the gauge, the smaller the pattern. Not so! A full choke of any gauge (eg, 12 or 20) is one that will put 70 percent of the shot charge into a 30” circle at 40yd (76cm at 36.5m). However, the standard for the .410 is different. A full-choke .410 is one that will put 70 percent of its pat tern into a 24” circle at 25yd (61cm at 23m). The .410 then, does not shoot smaller patterns, given the same degree of choke. It simply shoots thinner patterns and it’s difficult to obtain dense patterns beyond 30 to 35 metres. Since patterns run thinner in the .410, it is less effective with larger…

WE get a lot of enquiries each month from people saying, “My membership with another organisation is about to expire and I want to switch to you and use Shooters Union as my sole shooting organisation membership — can I do that and still keep my licence and have somewhere to shoot?” The great thing is that we’re not like a phone contract or an electricity provider — you can be a member of us and as many other organisations as you like. Our strength, as we’ve always said, is lobbying, member representation, industry liaison, media engagement and legal action We don’t own or run ranges, although we do have affiliated clubs. We don’t run training courses on the best way to hunt game animals. We don’t rent corporate offices.…

GUN nuts get their kicks from dreaming up a new rifle. Once they’ve decided to go the custom route, choosing the component parts has them running around glassy eyed. The three main aspects of the project are selecting a cartridge, choosing a gunsmith to do the work and, most important of all, choosing which bolt action to use. The action is the heart of any rifle — the mechanism which secures the cartridge in the rear of the barrel, fires it when the trigger is pressed, contains the chamber pressure generated by expanding gas and then extracts the fired shell after firing. It also feeds a new round from the magazine into the chamber by a reciprocal stroke following extraction. The action chosen for a hunting rifle should be strong,…

Curiosity got the better of me. I decided to check the history of Lefever shotguns. All I knew was that they were made in America. The Lefever Firearm Company was set up in Syracuse, NY, by Daniel Myron Lefever, the inventor of the hammerless gun. The company operated between 1883 and 1916, when it merged with the Ithaca Gun Company, which also operated in New York. Our Lefevers are a product of this merger and are labelled ‘Nitro Special Hammerless 12 gauge’. They were called “a working man’s gun, but of good quality”. Both are bored half choke (modified) and full choke with 30” barrels; other gauges and barrel lengths were also produced. Surprisingly, both of our Lefevers were made in a 12-month period during 1924-25.…

HEADSPACE is a ballistic term which crops up frequently in print. Too bad it is seldom accurately defined, because its effect on the cartridges you load, and the adjustment of the dies, is critical. If you want to be a truly safe and effective handloader, the concept and practice of headspace must be understood and adhered to. An important mechanical aspect of a cartridge case is its system of headspacing, which is a dimension within the rifle’s chamber. Specifically, it is the distance between the bolt face and a datum point within the chamber, but it may also be defined as the amount of forward and backward movement of a chambered cartridge when the breech is closed and locked. Ideally, this endplay should be zero, but this is impractical in…

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 Over-under patterns don’t meet Q Someone told me that with an over-under shotgun there is a point at which the two shot patterns meet, which is from 40 yards to infinity. If there is a converging point, would the pattern from the lower barrel of my over-under cross this point and actually pass in front of my target at long range? And would the upper barrel be shooting behind an incoming bird as it passes overhead? I’ve also been told that the lower barrel of an over-under should be fired first because it is more accurate.…

DURING a hunting career spanning 68 years I’ve encountered some really difficult conditions — deep snow and ice, wet underbrush and forest canopies that drop a deluge of water. Extreme climatic and challenging weather conditions have to be contended with all over the world. You can go from extreme heat in the Northern Territory and Equatorial Africa to extreme cold in the Victoria alps and the Arctic. Conditions that are hard on the hunter are always doubly hard on a rifle slung on the shoulder where it is exposed to the elements. A rifle doesn’t get damaged on a foot or backpack hunt unless you tackle steep, rough country which is physically difficult; your rifle gets knocked against a rocky outcrop or you slip and fall on top of it,…

SPIKA’S new Xone pants are practical all-round hunting strides that are as smartly designed as they look. They’re a mildly slim fit, as is the fashion, but not tight, especially as the material stretches comfortably. They’ve also got some length to them, which I appreciate, being longer in the legs. A hook in the bottom of the legs allows you to hook them to the laces of your boots to ensure they stay over the top of the boots to prevent crap getting in. There are also elastic drawstrings on the hems so you can blouse them onto the top of your boots in military fashion. The waist design is great. It is slightly high-cut, which suits outdoors comfort. It has plenty of stretch to cater for you when you…

THE Hanic is a new boy on the block, a handy .410 lever-action shotgun cloned from the Winchester Model 94 Angle Eject. It could easily be mistaken for Big Red W’s original. It functions just like the .30-30 version. It also follows in the footsteps of Winchester’s own Model 9410, a Model 94-based .410 lever-action that sold from 2001 until 2007. Every feature of the Hanic .410 is familiar to a Model 94 owner — the flat-sided receiver, exterior hammer, barrel bands on muzzle and forearm, and lever loop, all of which are smoothly polished before being given a deep black finish. The forend and butt-stock are made of figured Turkish walnut, with the butt of the review gun showing an attractive tiger-tail figure. In place of the traditional half-cock…

AFTER competing in my local archery scene, I’ve started to realise the importance of setting goals. I don’t believe hunting to be a competitive lifestyle or pastime, but I tend to take a casual approach. This usually sees me floating around, pleasing myself and only getting done whatever I decide in the moment. I’ve since started putting things in place that encourage me to work towards some bigger achievements. A bigger achievement doesn’t have to be exotic or bettering a previous trophy. It could be as simple as rekindling a passion for something that used to be commonplace but has taken a back seat due to newer interests My fox shooting has gone by the wayside in the past few years and the handful I’ve taken have been purely opportunistic…

WE like to call our traditional hunt “Bally’s Safaris”. They’re led by Paul Ball, who used to be my primary school PE teacher. There’s his son Jackson and my uncle, Micheal. It’s always exciting to head out bush and try to knock over a few ferals. I had just purchased a new rifle, a Steyr Pro Hunter in .308. It hadn’t been christened yet. I’d only had enough time to put a scope on it and sight it in to make sure whatever I lined up was going down. As always, the trip out was awesome. It’s so good to get out and away from the city and into the country where peace and serenity can be found in spades. Eventually, early in the afternoon, we made our way onto…

Beretta 687 Silver Pigeon V The Silver Pigeon evolves with the V version, the top of Beretta’s range of ‘standard’ over-and-under shotguns. Hunters will love this gun even more as a beautiful symbol of efficiency, reliability and minimal maintenance requirements inherited from the 680 platform. The new model is characterised by a new look together with a superior wood grade. The fine engravings are made using state of the art, five-axis laser technology. Featuring an exquisite gloss finish which enhances the grain of the stunning Class 3 wood (a step up from the Silver Pigeon III’s Class 2.5) this beautiful shotgun is available in a hunting or sporting version, in either 12 or 20 gauge. The main features of the 687 Silver Pigeon V Field include its wooden butt pad,…

WHO needs a weekend getaway to the beach with cocktails when you could head inland chasing magnificent red deer? After a seven-kilometre walk following fresh deer and dog sign with Old Pop and good friend Clark McGhie from Wild Country Adventures, we returned to the legendary Suzuki without the red deer we’d hoped to get, but we’d downed a calf-killer so the cattle were safer. The ride back to camp was an adventure in itself as we drove past many wallows that had gotten a good thrashing over the rut. Even though we didn’t take a deer, back at camp Old Pop and I made ourselves useful, helping two other hunters butcher their hard-earned takings. In the end, there was nothing left whatsoever, with all the off-cuts pushed through the…