Thread: Calibre Choice in the 1970's

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings Tahr,
The 44 Mag was restricted in rifles by an extremely slow twist which would not stabilise the heavier projectiles. A common theme in the US.
Regards Grandpamac.

I didn't know that. I just used factory stuff. 230 grn maybe.

Originally Posted by bumblefoot

@Maca49 My first car was a 1961 Morry Minor. Bought it in 1979 for $600; it was all I could afford. Again; with wages of $48 a week (gross) I had to borrow off mum to buy it. Holy sh$t the garage scored some coin off me for suspension repairs due to taking it pig hunting on corrugated metal roads every weekend..... I actually had a running account with them paying off my garage bills.

In those days the Whangamomona Saddle was gravel and if it was raining any cars coming downhill had to pull over to let the ones coming up past. If you had to stop in the rain on the way up, you couldn't get enough traction in the slushy metal. So had to turn around, go back down and start from the bottom again to get momentum!

Should have wound rope around the spokes? My second car was a 62 Morry 1000 $800.00

Originally Posted by Frodo

I thought everyone hunted with spears in the 1970's.

Yep .311 tips

Originally Posted by erniec

I bought a secondhand Winchester Featherweight in 30-06 about 1983-84.
From memory $660 when my shepherding wages were about $160 a week before tax.
So a months gross wages.
I had got into reloading for a .303 before this because a box was $45 bucks.
Then free trade kicked in.....

I bought a case of 303 tracer for $30.00, buggered if I know how many rounds, wrapped in paper, pilfered from a WW2 bunker in parts only known to a few, the Brens were well gone!

The other apprentice where my mate worked got one of the brens. He used to shoot it at red rocks till someone complained.
Mate still had 50 round boxes of tracer from the same bunker he'd been given. I pulled it and reloaded it with hornady's for him.
Reloadable canadian stuff.

Same area, just a little north?

Originally Posted by Brian

The other apprentice where my mate worked got one of the brens. He used to shoot it at red rocks till someone complained.
Mate still had 50 round boxes of tracer from the same bunker he'd been given. I pulled it and reloaded it with hornady's for him.
Reloadable canadian stuff.

Sounds like the good old days for sure.

Yeah Belmont
They used to pull artillery shells apart up there and blow up the powder.

Originally Posted by zimmer

There were other reasonable scopes around ..
The Pecar 4x81 was a good scope except it was reticle moving not image moving ..

Not the one I got, it was "permanently centred". Obviously they changed the design at some point. The other common Pecar model was a 2-7 variable and they all boasted interchangeable reticles, not that many ever tried it I guess.

The 4x32 Kahles were a very good scope in their day, and more compact than the Pecar. My br-in-law had one on his Tikka and despite it being a useless .308, he killed a heap of animals with it.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
Reading through the posts on Hermitage's thread I realised how spoilt for choice we are now compared to the time I bought my first new center fire rifle in the mid 1970's. I plunked my money down and bought a Remington 700 ADL in .308 Win at the long gone Carlton Sports in Hastings. It cost $243.00 and I still have it. My other option was a Winchester M70 in .270 Win but it was $30.00 dearer. US made rifles had just become more common with import controls easing. Previously BSA and Parker Hale were the standards of the day, cheaper in .308 Win and, I think, .222 Rem due to less import tax for some reason.
I fished out an old 1979 Shooters Bible from my library and found that the 700 ADL was offered in only nine cartridges. .222 Rem, .22-250 Rem, 6mm Rem, .243 Win, .25-06 Rem, .270 Win, 7mm Rem Mag, .308 Win and .30-06. Other models and manufacturers added a few more but didn't widen the choice much. The .223 Rem was only offered in Varmint rifles and all stocks were made out of dead trees. A look in the scope section looked pretty thin as well.
There would not have been much to support an internet debate, not that the internet even existed.
Regards Grandpamac.

Owen Bold in Market Street in Napier, another shop in Lower Dickens Street and Jack Lockyer in Taradale. A young hunter got sold a pig of a rifle called a BSA 270 in 1975. Should have stuck to his guns and bought that sako 243.Life. Holdens book mentions a Kaweka culler using a Husqvarna 270.

Originally Posted by Brian

Yeah Belmont
They used to pull artillery shells apart up there and blow up the powder.

Back to front you blow up the [ bullets] and burn the powder , from an x gunner .

Originally Posted by Phil_H

My second hunting rifle way back then was a Mauser 6.9x57
Now that has surely got to be a head scratcher. I can find no trace of that calibre anywhere on the internet now apart from a couple of company's in the States that make mandrels for re-sizing brass.

I bought it from the Petone Frontier Gunshop for $150. It was brand new and still covered in grease and wrapped in wax paper. Apparently they were a small run of Mauser's made for the Swedish Royal Guards or something like that in about 1893.

The last picture or reference that I ever saw of this calibre was one selling on some gun auctioneers about 10 years ago and sold for something like $3700 US.

Any Mauser aficionados out there who can through further light on this calibre?

Cheers
Phil

Sounds like an alternative name for 7x57 Just like 7.92x57 vs 8x57?

Originally Posted by Mooseman

I started out with the 303 as a lot did back in 1970. Soon after I replaced it with a Parker Hale Hassar 270 which I had for many years and shot quite a few animals with it. When in Forest Service I got a Sako 222 and soon after a Forrester 243 , both were great rifles and I wish I still had them. Over the years I have tried most calibers and still enjoy using different rifles etc .
Those bygone years were the best , we were lucky to have such good times. Unfortunately young people of today will have a tougher time enjoying Hunting and Shooting with the way people see us as a group.

Hi @Mooseman, when in the NZFS did you get a discount on rifles purchased and free ammo?

Read somewhere that you got 3 rounds of .222 per deer or 2 rounds of .270/.243 etc.

Supposedly some cullers would sell their surplus factory (Belmont?) ammo then reload cases to increase their take home pay, can you confirm?

Many thanks and much respect!

First rifle I brought was a no 4 mk1* got it from sportsways in downtown auckland along with a cylinder of cac 303mk7 (150 rnds) for $20 they had them stacked in bins that was about 75. Saw my first 6,5x55 then as well a jungmans mag 42 b well out of my price range but they were evidently the tool of choice for the helicopter deer cullers.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

First rifle I brought was a no 4 mk1* got it from sportsways in downtown auckland along with a cylinder of cac 303mk7 (150 rnds) for $20 they had them stacked in bins that was about 75. Saw my first 6,5x55 then as well a jungmans mag 42 b well out of my price range but they were evidently the tool of choice for the helicopter deer cullers.

I had one of those AG42B LJUNGMANs, they were a reloaders nightmare, they flung the brass a long ways and really dented the spent cases, got rid of that in a hurry. Stuck with M-94s and M-96s and later M-38s, love that calibre.