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Had a wee dig through a drawer today and found these, CAC NZFS .270 ammo.
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Probably quite popular back in the day, i know i certainly used a lot of CAC .303 ammo.
Has anyone used NZFS ammo before or found some brass in out of the way places ?
That stuff made me think the 270 was rubbish. Had a school mate who got into the forest service and became a culler, got a sako forester thru him too, came with 200 rounds of that. Accurate but the bullets either blew up on impact or didnt expand at all. Sold it and got a bruno fox in 222 and was very happy.
The ammo is quite collectable now especially in packets in good condition.
I shot 5 rounds of NZFS ammo over a chrony years ago in a tikka .270
The 130 grainers were doing 2610fps :)
I picked up one of those NZFS CAC 270 cases on the Urchin ridge about 20 or so years ago. I gave it to my mate Cooch who collects old stuff.
When I was meat hunting I sometimes picked up old CAC 303 cases in the Ruahines. It seems that hunters gravitate to the same lookouts and shooting spots.
There is a broadleaf tree by the lookout over the big slip up the Pari that over the years I have hammered several fired cases into after I have shot (or missed) deer. The last one was a .243 about 8 years ago - its pushed onto a little branch end.
Now I grovel around picking up every one of my fired cases to bring home to reload. Last week Wellington airport security picked up an empty case in my jacket pocket packed in my bag. They didn't seem to mind, but it was confiscated. :)
Memories, eh.
The NZFS .270 ammo by CAC was loaded with both 130 and 150 grain bullets. The North Island got the 150 grainers because of the higher amount of bush shooting, and the 130 grain loads were for the South Island high country. Single rounds are interesting but full packets in good nick are highly collectable. I see that the rounds in the photos are reloads.
I seems recall CAC 308 brass not being too bad to reload? I've still got a bit of it.
I have about 50x CAC .308 brass here as well
NZ company from memory
I wonder where all their manufacturing machinery is ?
I did some summer work at Industrial Research(the old DSIR) 15 + years ago and they had heaps of CAC shot in stamped hessian bags and other bits and bobs downstairs in the test hallQuote:
Originally Posted by 7mmsaum
That's interesting, I wonder where the rest of their gear went when they shut down
I picked up three very old 303 cases from a handy look out point up behind Tussock Hut two years ago.
This point looks over and down a grassy slip face and a clearing near the bottom
All three cases were within a foot of each other.
Often wondered if these were from a NZFS culler.
Also wondered if he was a good shot and got three deer or a bum shot and used three rounds before the deer all buggered off.
My Dads Uncle was a NZFS Employee for his entire career beginning just before WW2.
Cheers
Pete
I could be wrong but I thought CAC turned into Belmont Ammo. I have a heap of the 308 brass all prepped ready to reload that a kind forum member gave me.
I think that arms dealer chap in Hawera has got the CAC trademark now.
For the unfamiliar, CAC stands for Colonial Ammunition Company.
Import restrictions meant it was pretty much the only ammo we could get. 303, and then 270, 243 and 308 as I recall. The first imported ammo I remember was circa 1965, Norma 308 and Hertenburg .222 (spelling?). I thought I was untouchable using that imported .222 ammo.
Around about 1968 I used Norma 308 (having discovered that Hertenburg .222 ammo was not magic, and each lost deer was worth a weeks wages). The projectiles were silver (some sort of gliding metal) and they had yellow plastic tips which looked like they may have been actually round with the front half exposed. We thought they were the bee's-knees. Worked ok anyway. My 308 had one of the first Tasco 'scopes on it...they were Japanese and were ok...its on CraigC's .22 now...its well over 40 years old. It was born before he was.
I burned, my way threw a bit of that CAC NZFS ammo, when I first got a .270, prior to moving down south, the old man got several hundred, of one of his Ex forest service cullers for me, Seamed to work ok, but going from a vixen .222 to a .270, I wouldn't have know any better if it was a bit lack luster,
Used to come across piles of .303 brass when doing venison in South Westland. Nearly all the major basins from Paringa to Milford would have a wee pile somewhere.
Never disturbed them. Some of the piles were almost 50+
I know of one that has over 100 pieces in it.
I enjoyed looking over that country in a quiet moment and imagine huge mobs of Otago deer with several stags looking for supremacy.
Some of the game trails out of a lot of those catchments are over 100 yrs old and still well formed and used.
I have seen a mob of 40+ deer once thru that country but I would say it was once an everyday event for some cullers in the early days.
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No, CAC didnt turn into Belmont but interestingly I think Bruce McMillan may have also run off ammo for the Forest Service when he was operating at Belmont, Lower Hutt. Maybe at the point when CAC had folded.Quote:
Originally Posted by MassiveAttack
CAC 308 brass in its time (even once other brands became available in NZ) was acknowledged as quality stuff. Apparently they used brass that was a good as any worldwide to make their cases. @Tahr Re Hirtenberger - I used their primers to load my first 308 ammo, and Norma Re brass. That was at the time when the goverment protected CAC and no other commercial 308 ammo was able to be imported. Cannot remember where I sourced the Norma Re from but it was quite rare.
I also managed to buy 60 rounds of Hirtenberger 222Rem from a gun shop in Marton (long, long gone). Never ever saw the brand again.
Hah! I might have got mine (Hirtenberger .222) from Marton too! I was playing footy for Marton Old Boys and was living near Hunterville.Quote:
Originally Posted by zimmer
Btw, has the round in the left got a split in the neck? Or is that a trick of the light?
Mega split in the neck
@Tahr I think you are talking about the Norma plastic point projectiles:Quote:
Originally Posted by Tahr
Norma Plastic Point - Norma
They were still silver in the early 90's (copper-nickel) but seem to have changed to gilding metal.
We killed lots of things with them out of SLRs and my mates 30-06. They expanded quite fast in comparison with the common lead tip projectiles and tended to rip big holes in goats.
I think I still have a silver one somewhere.
They turned a .270 into a 7mm08...Quote:
Originally Posted by 7mmsaum
A gutless one, most 7mm08 rifles push a 140 grainer at 2880fps
A good friend of mine was a shooter in the Waioeka. He would bugger off the Aussie quite regularly and always left his rifle and ammo with me and at one stage I would have had at least 200 rounds of the NZFS 270 ammo.
Got one left now:P
I used .303 CAC brass I bought in 1977 and reloaded it a dozen times before the bases separated. Had to get the headspace fixed and a new batch of Norma brass which lasted about 20 years.
I worked briefly for the NZFS at Optoki in 1977 but .303 wasn't a NZFS caliber by then and I was given some in a green box, Speer perhaps, with hollow points. Mostly used my own reload ammo as I wasn't there long (good keen man and all that ...).
There was a silver lead point Norma 180gr .303 bullet but it was hard as - must of been designed for moose or crocodiles. 130 gr were the best on goats but after a few years were not available any more and I had to change to 150gr Norma. I got my last of those from Graham Henry after he wrote an article about the .303 for Rod and Rifle and shortly before he died. In about 2004 I saw a box of 130gr Norma projectile in a gun shop in Copenhagen but they wouldn't sell them to me without a permit. :(
Max Headroom....here you go,all you ever didnt want to know about the old NZFS ammo.
These are the Norma Dual Core plastic tip bullets (180gr) loaded in a 30 06. They were available as a factory load and were very good on game, the recovered projectiles are from deer.
Norma also did a bullet they called the Tri Clad which I used a lot in the early days in my first 270 (130 gr )these to were great on game.
When I was in the NZFS we were issued Sako 50 gr in 222 Rem and a little bit of Hertinburg. The Sako stuff was more reliable than the Hertinburg on deer but worked well on the goats which was our main target.Attachment 104795Attachment 104796
