Innehållsförteckning för November 2024 från Sporting Shooter

TONY Pizzata shot me the other day, right when I was in the act of shooting a good rusa stag. Both shots were taken with cameras, not rifles, the moments immortalised in pixels instead of taxidermy (and why anyone would want me looking down at them from a wall is beyond me). On any day I’d prefer to release a bullet than a shutter because I’m a hunter first and photographer second. Or maybe third. But there are, of course, many similarities between hunting with a rifle and hunting with a camera. The experience can be almost identical right up to and including the moment you pull the trigger or press the button. Almost identical, but never the same. You can’t control invasive animals with a camera, for a start.…

EARLY afternoon, day one, the hunt hasn’t even started and the first thing I see is a deer way over the other side of the oat paddock. Nice to know they’ll be out in the middle of the day. I park the car in the shade of trees on the edge of the creek, just short of the gate into the crop, and lift the binoculars for a closer look. The deer is a lone doe. FROM the dead ground in the middle of the paddock, the distinct shape of a fallow doe’s long neck and big-eared head pops up, looking back at me. Another springs up. Hmm. I haven’t even left the car, let alone thought about taking a shot. Besides, I’m here for a buck, so I don’t rush…

THE Sordin Supreme Pro-X Slim is a premium hearing protector designed to be comfortable and functional in a variety of shooting and hunting situations. This Slim version is an update of a previous model, made more streamlined with a narrower profile. Sordin is a Swedish company that has been in business for over 35 years and has plenty of runs on the board when it comes to high-quality hearing protection. Sordin produces hearing protection for military applications and puts similar technology into its commercial products to ensure they will last. The headband joining the cups together has a leather wrap on it for comfort and is wide enough to provide proper fit and stability on all head shapes. The band attaches to the cups with metal feet that are locked…

BROUGHT TO YOU BY Powered By BROUGHT TO YOU BY TSA Australian distributor for Weatherby, ZeroTech and Fiocchi. YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A WEATHERBY RIFLE & ZEROTECH SCOPE 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 Two-stage 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…

KNIFE making is a passion and even at my old age of 81 years, I love being able to fashion something lovely from a plain-looking piece of steel and maybe an antler or a piece of pretty wood. I make many different shaped knives, with different handles, and harden and temper them all myself. The people who have them always get back and tell me how good they are, how they stay sharp and hold such a great edge. It’s a special feeling and a sense of achievement knowing that I can make something that looks nice and is very useful. I hope to be able to keep fit and active enough to keep on doing it for a while yet. Two steels and sometimes more are used to make the…

I DIDN’T need the binoculars to tell me he was an absolute cracker of a buck. I was only 80 metres from him after belly crawling for over 70 metres to get into this position. REWIND 48 hours. I decided to head out for a few days alone as Sam could not join me. This time instead of staying in the old house on the property I decided to camp out the back in the bush to hopefully be in the middle of a good start of the approaching fallow deer rut. I didn’t bother with a tent, mainly because I don’t own one. Instead I found a suitable tree with a low canopy to park the truck under with the intention to throw the swag in the back for a…

THIS month we’ll begin looking at very basic load development with the primary emphasis on economy, while yielding safe, predictable and satisfactory end results for accuracy and performance. We’ll set the scene this month and continue it in the next issue. I’ll use the 7x57 Mauser as the subject chambering but the lessons apply to almost everything. We all now feel the pinch of grossly increased retail prices of ammunition and handloading components. Primers? Sheesh! The scenario outlined here aims to minimise consumption of expensive time and components to yield an acceptable handload with which to reliably hit the vital zone of your target animal, out to and perhaps somewhat beyond your predicted maximum point-blank range (MPBR), shooter skill permitting. The desirable cheapness of this approach could be undesirably counterbalanced by…

COMPETITION BROUGHT TO YOU BY 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 every…

Not so old Savage Model 99 Q During the firearms amnesty I purchased a Savage Model 99 chambered in .250 Savage. The old farmer I got it from said he had had it for a long time, stored in a cupboard as ammo was too expensive. I emailed Savage for information on the date of manufacture and they said it was made in 1980. But I am dubious about this as the gun has a rotary magazine and the safety is on the underside, near the lever. The stock is not chequered and the forearm is a semi-beavertail type. What do you think? Are ammo and unprimed brass still available for the .250 Savage? Tod Fleming A By 1940, 398,400 Model 99 rifles had been made. The total at the…

IF the Sauer 101 Highland XTC was a sports car, it wouldn’t be just a Porsche, it’d be a 911 S/T, the lightest of its kind, pared down to minimum weight to maximise handling and agility, and looking like it means it. Sauer has built this rifle for hunters who want the least they can get from the very best — a premium, fighting-fit firearm stripped of extraneous fat. It is 2.5kg of sheer European sexiness. The 101 was already the lighter of Sauer’s top-spec models. The 404 and 505 models have a switch-barrel design and two-piece stocks, with more complexity and a greater number of parts. That might be fine if switch-barrel ability is important (as it might be to Western Australians under the incoming ownership limits there) but it’s…

FINDING good hunting mates can be tough. It might take a while to find someone who shares your values and desires. It doesn’t get any easier the older you get as life tends to get in the way. I’ve been lucky to have had plenty of great hunting buddies over the past few years and I’ve found the relationships that work the best are the ones with shared opportunities and experiences. Bailey is one of my bowhunting mentors. He’s significantly younger than me but has been bowhunting since he was a little kid. We met at our local archery club and as we got to know each other, we started accompanying each other on hunts at our blocks. It was all very casual and the more time we spent together, the…

HUNTING wild dogs can be a test of patience, skill and what often seems like pure luck. For us, it’s more than hunting; it’s essential for our livelihood. Wild dogs have been particularly vicious this year, causing thousands of dollars in losses. My dad has spent countless hours walking, sitting and calling in the cold, wet mud of the Atherton Tablelands in an attempt to save our property and neighbouring ones from further calf deaths. But more often than not, he returns empty-handed. Coming home for university holidays, I was eager for a hunt, picking my dad’s brain for all the tips and tricks he had learnt since I was last back. I was excited to put these lessons into practice, but I also knew that success was very unlikely…

MY lovely wife had done some groundwork for me with a friend of hers to get me on to private property not far from home to hunt. It took a bit to eventuate until one afternoon they called and said they had a wild dog taking their lambs. I spent a few nights out there looking for this wild dog, but it had either vacated the area or was too smart for me. I saw a fair few deer while looking for the dog and the property owner showed me a couple of impressive ones that had been shot on the place over the years. He said I could come back any time to hunt deer. A couple of weeks passed and I hit the property early one Sunday morning. I…

I really like using good red-dot optics on both rifles and pistols, especially as my eyes age. Yet at the same time I am sometimes reluctant to review them, because many of them are truly a pain to set up and sight-in, with almost a hit-and-miss approach to adjusting the zero. When the new Thrive HD multi-reticle reflex sight arrived, I was relieved to see ZeroTech has made the sight-in process simple and straightforward with accurate MOA clicks that really click on the elevation and windage adjustments. Unlike magnified scopes, where no one would consider selling (or buying) a scope with non-click, non-repeatable adjustments, it is actually commonplace in the red dot world to have mushy, no click, non-repeatable dials, as ridiculous as that sounds. The tiny optic weighs in…

SHOOTERS Union is a national shooting representative organisation, covering everything happening around the country, and our focus is primarily on lobbying. To do that effectively we need solid facts and evidence. That’s why it’s critical to acknowledge the work done on the ground by established hunting organisations such as the Australian Pig Doggers and Hunters Association (ADPHA) and the Australian Deer Association (ADA) on an often-overlooked aspect of the fight for shooters – data gathering. Politicians and academics love statistics, and even more so when those statistics have a dollar sign involved somewhere. The APDHA is running a promotion called the Great Australian Pig Hunt, which has a multi-pronged approach to the serious issue of feral pigs. Hunters sign up to the project and then provide returns of all the feral…

huntingdepot.com.au The Hunting Depot Hunter’s Diary competition is open to your hunting story of 200-400 words with at least one high-resolution digital photo. Simply send it with your contact details to mickmatheson@yaffa.com.au. PRIZES  Every published entry wins a Vanguard Scout B62 bipod worth $95! At the end of the year, the best three entries will be chosen by the editor to win first, second and third prizes of: 1 Vanguard Endeavor HD 82A spotting scope with case worth $750 2 Vanguard VEO HD 10x42 binoculars worth $699 3 Vanguard Endeavor RL 303CGM Carbon tripod with gun vice head worth $649 Find out more about the competition and the prizes at sportingshooter.com.au/win…

BOG Inception & Helix 6000 bivy bag This pack-and-frame combo is designed for multi-day hunts and features a carbon-fibre frame, making it lightweight at just 2.6kg yet rigid. The pack boasts almost 100 litres of internal capacity — enough storage to carry all your essential gear (there’s also a 57L version). The bottom of the bag also features separate access, allowing you to get at gear at the bottom without having to unpack the entire upper contents. Offering a durable 420D micro-ripstop shell, it is water repellent, puncture resistant and rip-proof. The pack also includes a removable guide lid for additional storage, a ripstop rain cover for inclement weather and a detachable boot to carry your gun, bow or DeathGrip. For the carry-out, the frame includes a pliable meat shelf…