Innehållsförteckning för June 2024 från Sporting Shooter

HOW do we replace a man like Nick Harvey? Simply, we can’t, because there was no one like Nick Harvey. No one person can do what Nick did with anywhere near the same level of knowledge or breadth of experience, but a handful of individuals can each take on some of the load and, together, produce the goods. A number of capable people can step in to fill the void. Nick’s name will remain on Sporting Shooter’s imprint, below. However, his various writing roles will be covered by writers who you’ll already be familiar with. Marcus O’Dean, former editor of Sporting Shooter, is one. He’s a passionate rifleman, a high-scoring service rifle competitor and a tinkerer. His Bullet Points column replaces Nick’s Practical Reloading, covering cartridges, projectiles, ballistics, reloading and…

BUSHPIG is an inspired name for a repeating shotgun, especially one as black and beautifully ugly as this is. I never got tired of announcing I was “taking the Bushpig for a walk”. I could have been hunting goats, foxes, rabbits or even deer, but what I really wanted to do was hook into a mob of feral pigs. The gun is named for exactly what it’s going to be used for by potentially thousands of Aussie hunters. The Axor Arms Bushpig isn’t merely another of the growing range of button release repeaters on the market. It has a very neat trick: it folds in half, a nifty idea that comes with a number of benefits, not least of which are easy storage and better access for proper cleaning. We’ll…

THE word ‘trophy’ is thrown around a lot these days, and not just in hunting circles. Anti-hunters like to use the term to imply hunters are doing something wrong by pursuing trophies. For me, when you analyse the idea of a trophy, it comes down to a hunter being selective and working hard to achieve something. It is very much about personal goals and striving to be the best hunter you possibly can. Unless I’m culling, I’m always selective as a hunter, whether it be for the best meat animal, the prettiest skin, the biggest tusks, etc. Typically, a trophy in the sense of something to display is referring to a mature male, who is perhaps past his prime, and taking out such an animal requires focus, dedication and in many…

“WHAT was that?” The whispered question came from my left. A hurried rustling and snapping of broken twigs came from almost right under our noses. “A big fox,” I whispered excitedly to Scott, my 13-yea-rold nephew, as a large dog darted away up the hill, pausing at the 200-metre mark to look back momentarily. It made me second guess myself on whether we should take a shot at it instead of the small mob of goats we were stalking. Six in the morning on the Central West ranges of NSW is mighty cold in June, especially on the westward slopes of hills. Scott and I had risen early and had a quick cuppa before venturing out and up the hills. I would not have minded a sleep in after a…

I STEPPED slowly through the grass and down into the creek. There was no water running but the soil smelled dank and wild. I stalked down into the bed of the watercourse, taking note of the odd split wedge tracks of fallow deer between rabbit diggings and dung. Focusing on the opposite bank, I saw a rabbit sitting up, ears torn and ragged, silhouetted by the soft afternoon light. I SLOWLY thumbed back the hammer on the old shotgun, raised it to my cheek, put the bead on the forequarters and pulled the trigger. The gun bucked and when the smoke cleared I could see the rabbit — it gave a couple of kicks and then lay still. A week earlier, I had made my way down the same gully…

A few years before first coming on board at Sporting Shooter, I acquired my first .270 rifle by chance. A friend asked if I would like a Graham Spraggon-built custom Mauser that was made to take to New Zealand after tahr. The owner never got to use it and I eagerly snapped up a rifle not of military chambering. I had always used .308s, .303s, .222s and .223s and had only read of the great properties of the legendary .270 Winchester. I was soon to use it in the field, enjoying its devastating effect on deer, pigs and goats. Armed with the Mauser, I shot my first trophy fallow buck right on dusk of day one of the season. After that, a cud-chewing billy succumbed to a shot across a broad…

COMPETITION BROUGHT TO YOU BY WINNER WIN a GARMIN eTrex 22x 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 produces a range of bow sights with built-in rangefinder enabling better shot placement. A Garmin eTrex 22x GPS Navigator will be sent to the best entry…

LETTER OF THE MONTH Another fan of the .25-06 Q After 50 years of shooting with .22 Hornets, .270s, .303s, 7mm and 8mm magnums, .300 Weatherby, .300 Win Mag .30-30, .45-70 and two .308s, I am down to a single rifle — a Ruger Varmint in .25-06 — and a five-shot Adler shotgun. Your article, “Handloading the all-around .25-06” in the April 2016 issue, was interesting historically and the loadings spot on. You are dead right: it is difficult to get 3400fps (1036m/s) with a 100gn bullet. A charge of 54gn of AR2209 gets 1049m/s (3440fps) in my Ruger’s 65cm (26”) barrel. I may possibly achieve 950m/s (3115fps) for the Hornady 117gn SST with 52gn of RE-19, given a 65cm barrel with 1:10” twist as opposed to your M77 with 600mm (24”)…

THE Outback combines two of Australia’s most prominent home-grown shooting products: the Lithgow Arms LA102 centrefire action and the Southern Cross Small Arms TSP X aluminium chassis, creating a rifle that’s as rugged and long-wearing as the remote country it is named for. It’s made to be a hardworking, practical firearm that farmers might carry in their utes, professionals might shoot from a tripod or serious enthusiasts might snipe with over a bipod. All Lithgow had to do to create this new model was forge a short little 46cm (18”) sporter-weight barrel to fit to its well-known action, then do a deal for the chassis that Southern Cross (SCSA) has been producing in its NSW factory for a while now. Add the LA105’s steel 10-round magazine and ship ’em out.…

TO most shooters, ‘Green’ is a dirty word — an organisation that hates shooting and seems hell-bent on ensuring no-one can actually experience Australia’s natural wilderness areas for themselves. What they fail to appreciate is that as shooters, we are also green — for the Australian environment, because without it, we have nowhere to hunt, nowhere to properly go 4WDing and nowhere to camp. That doesn’t mean we’re collectively chaining ourselves to trees to stop new housing developments, but it does mean that we look after the environment when we hunt, and when someone threatens large areas of wilderness, we take notice. Right now, Queensland’s peak agricultural body AgForce is fighting a court case against mining company Glencore over the latter’s government-issued approvals to pump waste (liquefied carbon dioxide) into the…

REYNARD, the fox, figures prominently in the legends and folklore of Europe and is especially lauded for its cunning in Aesop’s Fables. The fox (Vulpes vulpes) belongs to the family of wild dogs in which wolves, coyotes, jackals, hyenas and all domestic canines are closely related. The common red fox is widely distributed all over Europe, Asia and the North American continent, and was brought to Australia from England to provide sport for the colony’s early landowners. The fox is not a large animal and, once its pelt of thick fur is peeled off, is about the size of a large hare. The fox’s eating habits show us it has a varied menu, that it is extremely catholic in its tastes. Foxes are considered carnivorous, but they are not strictly so.…

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IN THE times we live in it seems so easy to get information on anything we need by simply entering it into a search engine or jumping on a Facebook group and asking a question. As a hunter, information has never been so available to do your research. That being said, I’m not sure if the next generation will have the purity of experience I had, much less that of those who came before me. One thing I absolutely love about hunting is learning from my mistakes and learning different game animal instincts and habits. This is why I enjoy travelling all over the world in pursuit of different animals. “I make a conscious effort to never hunt the same way twice” All wild animals have similar instincts. They need water,…

GOOD boots are a must. Comfort, support, durability and construction are important considerations, and the boot you choose needs to suit the type of terrain you hunt. Outer shell construction, sole design and rigidity are of utmost importance. Ridgeline has several models suited to a variety of terrain. This new Tasman leather boot sits in the middle of the range as a great choice for the serious stalker or high country hiker. Of mid-cut design, they are made in Italy and extremely well priced for European footwear. The Tasman features a brown Dakar leather upper with synthetic/leather tongue and grey mesh gusset. Like all good boots, they have a Vibram sole with a chunky lug pattern for sure grip in rough terrain. The hi-vis orange mid-sole adds style to the…

BROUGHT TO YOU BY Powered By WINNER YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A WEATHERBY RIFLE & ZEROTECH SCOP PACKAGE IN EVERY ISSUE IN 2024 *THE WEATHERBY VANGUARD WILL BE CHAMBERED IN .223 WITH BLUED METALWORK AND SYNTHETIC STOCK With the basis of a cold hammer-forged 24-inch barrel, 3-position safety and adjustable Match-Quality Twostage Trigger, the Weatherby Vanguard S2 Blued Synthetic guarantees sub-MoA accuracy and user safety. The Griptonite® stock and Weatherby recoil pad makes for comfortable shooting and the hinged floorplate allows instant unloading. To be eligible you need to include a box of any Fiocchi ammunition in the submitted photo. ENTRIES: please send your high resolution. jpg or. png image as an attachment to your email addressed to mickmatheson@yaffa.com.au – all images must be at least 1MB in size. For…

Do All Outdoors Flyway 180 Do All Outdoors has just released the Flyway 180, which has the largest target capacity to date. Holding a whopping 180 clays, this turret-style thrower will ensure the fun continues longer than ever before. It features a two-wheeled cart for easy transport as well as an integrated cord keeper for a tidy setup and storage. In addition, the Flyway 180x includes wobbler to automatically put each target in random positions. Now any shooter can have every type of target presentation automatically and hands-free. The new Flyway is also available with a 4x4 Clay Flyer Cart (pictured) – basically a small trailer for your Flyway trap for transportation across most terrains. You can tow it behind your ATV, UTV, lawn tractor etc or pull it by…