Thread: Calibre Choice in the 1970's

Oh; and as a 13-ish year old I used to drool over the mint, in grease M1 carbines and .303 Jungle Carbines in the Valentines ad in the back of dad's farming mag! They could be bought for $26.....

I made the switch from .303 to .308 for deer hunting in about 1982. I have owned (in .308) a Mohawk 600, a Remington 742, a Winchester Model 100 (all great guns but now sadly gone), and keep a Winchester Featherweight and a Winchester Model 88.
CAC manufactured .577 snider, .577/.450 Martini Henry, 7.62x51 and .303 for the military, and .303, .308, .243, .270, 30/06, .30/30 and .303/.25 for the civilian market.
They made special loadings of .270 and .308 for the NZ Forest Service hunters. In my collection I have full original packets of all of these calibres.

I had a cut down .303, mate had a new Husky 3006 and remember all the talk and discussion on that new fangled 243, the all round sporting cartridge for NZ?

Don’t forget the truckloads of European chamberings that were available from Brno, Sako, Mauser etc.

http://www.cartridge-corner.com/metric.htm

6.5x55, 7x57, 7x64, 8x57, 8x68s, 9.3x62 and 10.75x68 to name a few remain excellent hunting cartridges to this day.


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Originally Posted by bumblefoot

Oh; and as a 13-ish year old I used to drool over the mint, in grease M1 carbines and .303 Jungle Carbines in the Valentines ad in the back of dad's farming mag! They could be bought for $26.....

There aren't many times I wish I was way older than I am now. But when I read of in grease m1 carbines for 26 bucks and JDM turbos for under 10 grand there's a lot of desire.

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

There aren't many times I wish I was way older than I am now. But when I read of in grease m1 carbines for 26 bucks and JDM turbos for under 10 grand there's a lot of desire.

Don’t forget the Toz17s for $14.

And $6 for a Mercator

Originally Posted by Mauser308

Huh. There were firearms before I was born... (my takeaway from this post).

My apologies Mauser308 I seem to have deleted my reply but here it is from memory.
Yes there were wonderful rifles and cartridges. Examples the .280 Ross in the Ross straight pull rifle and the .250 Savage in the Savage 99 lever action. Some still are with us today, a century after their introduction and some have disappeared without trace.
Regards Grandpamac.

@Russian 22 But $26 was a fair chunk of change in the mid 70's and the M1's etc were only 30 years old max. And; there wasn't the disposable cash to spend on rifles etc as there is now. You only have to see what people spend on their "toys" and holidays etc now to see that. Just look on the forum here tp see how much people have to spend, Times and expectations change over the years.

I reckon hunting rifles have never been cheaper. My Ruger M77 cost me $434 in about 1981 and I was on about $48 gross a week, so 9x my wage. When you think you can buy a decent Howa etc for under a grand and the minimum wage is $800 a week..... Even if you spent $1500, it's still cheaper.

Originally Posted by bumblefoot

@Russian 22 But $26 was a fair chunk of change in the mid 70's and the M1's etc were only 30 years old max. And; there wasn't the disposable cash to spend on rifles etc as there is now. You only have to see what people spend on their "toys" and holidays etc now to see that. Just look on the forum here tp see how much people have to spend, Times and expectations change over the years.

I reckon hunting rifles have never been cheaper. My Ruger M77 cost me $434 in about 1981 and I was on about $48 gross a week, so 9x my wage. When you think you can buy a decent Howa etc for under a grand and the minimum wage is $800 a week..... Even if you spent $1500, it's still cheaper.

I guess so. I just wanna go to reloaders and find a few barrels of milsurps like the good old days!

Yeh we do not know how lucky we are now,reminds me of when first went to Oz shearing in the late 80's we went up to go hunting in Arnhem Land a huge expedition back then ,that locals doubted was possible, 3 nutters all loaded into a SWB Tojo with a letter of introduction from a Aboriginal Elder from the literal Back Of Bourke in NSW .

The locals were still using Siamese Mauser's converted to 45/70 to hunt Buffalo which were in herds of 100's on the Billabong flood plains .The moronic local government had a law back in the 60-70's that large bore rifles had to be Black powder based . I have owned & shot many big bores over the years & am a 458 Mag fanatic, having owned a old Husky 458 mag on its second barrel for decades & often hunt pigs with it for shuts & giggles now,so have fired some big kicking guns in my time . Those Siamese 45/70's loaded for Buff are among the worst of them & snapped & repaired stocks were common,in fact that was the first time l had ever seen the old brass never ending screws used to repair stocks by Old School Gunsmiths .

Some very interesting and effective rifles back then. Old man first got me to fire a jungle carbine 303 - kicked like a horse! My own first rifle was Parker Hale in 243, but it was not very well made, and had a fairly sloppy bolt from memory - entry level back then. My favourites for northern bush conditions were a 60s Winchester 94 in 30-30, and bit later a Remington 600 in 243. This 600, immediate predecessor to the Mohawk and 660, was a brilliant little hunter. A wee thing with 18" barrel, vent rib which some didn't like, and it was also excellent on the range at NZDA shoots. Would like another one now..

Old man's favourites were a Schulz and Larsen in 7x61, and his go-to for decades (for the bush and south westland shooting) was a Remington 760 pump action in 308 with 180gr Norma load. Very quick action and hit like a Mac truck.

Contrary to current internet 'expert' opinion, in my experience it was rare for an animal to get up after taking a shot from any of these rifles. They really did the business.

Ray Garner was the manager of Tisdalls Ch-Ch when I started with them as senior firearms salesman/gunsmith about 1969. Ray was a gentleman and a nice guy. He moved on and was replaced by a retired air force office, John Claydon, who was the last manager before they closed down.

well i an obviously not as old as some on here couldnt get my lisence till 1980 (days after turning 16) the old mn had already bought me a .22......
first centrefire was a winny 94 trapper in 30/30 then inherited an 8x57 brno (brother inherited a savage .303 )dabbled with 6.5x55 and 7.62x39 never been coerced into any of the new fancypants calibres and i must be one of the few that has never owned a 308.........having said that if i hadnt have got the 8mm i probably would have owned a .308

Originally Posted by zimmer

In 1967 I bought a Sako Forester in that maligned (by a few) chambering of 308W.
I was told by older members of my branch NZDA that I was mad spending that sort of money.
Within the next 10 years (the 70s) most of them had replaced their old 303s.
I paid 59 pound 17/6 for the Sako. Just b4 change to DC. My take home pay as an apprentice was 10 pounds a week.
I still have that rifle. Other safe mate's have come and gone.

So despite the horrific cost of a Sako hunter now at around $3600 that is only around 4 weeks wages for an apprentice on minimum wage doing 50 hours a week compared to the 6 weeks wages you payed......kids these days dont know how good they got it.😉