Thread: Calibre Choice in the 1970's

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!

Pecar Berlin 4x scopes were a go-to back then. I did like the BSA centrefires - esp Majestic - still a well regarded rifle. Certainly a cut above the entry level Brit offerings at the time like Alpine, Midland, and Parker Hale.

Refurbed a Midlands 243 for a farmer recently and it was quite okay - grouped just over 1" at 100m which is certainly minute of wallaby. Gave it to the farmer reblued and with lovely new Danish oil finish, he looks at it, admires it, says thanks, then puts it down on the gravel. Whaaaaaat!! Like a bloody shovel or something.. Farm boys!!

Originally Posted by mudgripz

Pecar Berlin 4x scopes were a go-to back then.

There were other reasonable scopes around as well, some very expensive as well and not common on the ground here. Macro Zeil (Kahles?), Lyman All American, Kowa (early Japanese and very good), Nickels, Hertel and Reus plus others. Weaver (El Paso Texas) was there. I had one but wouldn't rate it as great. Rugged steel tube. Mine fogged and later on the objective lens delaminated.

Shooters mostly used fixed power as vari powers were not trusted to be reliable and in some brands rightly so. Fogged scopes not uncommon.

The Pecar 4x81 was a good scope except it was reticle moving not image moving like all its competitors of the day. It meant that if you didn't have windage adjustment in the mounts and you needed to do a bit of windage correction the reticle could end up very off centre. Very off putting.

The Pecar and the Nickel 4x81 were probably close competitors. The Pecar had the advantage of a steel tube, the Nickel had image moving but an alloy tube.

I still have a Nickel 4x81 (now going on 60 years old). The optics are still as clear as and would probably give the mid range scopes of today a good run for their money. No fancy coatings in the Nickel. Has fast adjust eyepiece, something Leupold hasn't long introduced on their scopes.

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.

Bunji..I had a little Ruger .44 Magnum carbine too. Loved it! I walked onto a group of 4 hogs in semi open bush, nailed 3 with 3 quick shots, then months later, snuck up on 8 pigs feeding in a tight group and whacked 4 in literally 2 seconds. Just for those memories alone I wanted to keep it till the day I fell off the perch, but Aunty Jacinda had other ideas.

Originally Posted by Ranger 888

Bunji..I had a little Ruger .44 Magnum carbine too. Loved it! I walked onto a group of 4 hogs in semi open bush, nailed 3 with 3 quick shots, then months later, snuck up on 8 pigs feeding in a tight group and whacked 4 in literally 2 seconds. Just for those memories alone I wanted to keep it till the day I fell off the perch, but Aunty Jacinda had other ideas.

They were a great little gun IMO & carried really well into the thick stuff ,l would still rate them as the best bush pig type gun l have ever hunted with .Often wondered why a carbine pump 44mag has not been released by a big manufacturer

I had one of the .44 mag Rugers but didn't like it because of having to bush stalk with it cocked and the safety on. Likely safe, but I didn't feel comfortable.
One day I was travelling along a creek and was in a deep rut that animals had made travelling the same route over the years. I had my head down looking at my feet and when I looked up my GSP was solid on point. A stag was in the causeway about 15 yards away. It saw me and lunged up into the Kanuka - and I jacked a round into the chamber and let strip with the .44 Ruger. Well, I never got it inspite of emptying the magazine, but I reckon I cleared about an acre of scrub I hit at least two stout young Kanukas' and they were leaning over looking pretty sick. Not so the deer.

Later I bought a Ruger lever action in .44 mag. That was a far better gun and could be carried in half-cock/half chambered. Shouldn't have sold it but it was pretty restricted in range really.

Originally Posted by Tahr

I had one of the .44 mag Rugers but didn't like it because of having to bush stalk with it cocked and the safety on. Likely safe, but I didn't feel comfortable.
One day I was travelling along a creek and was in a deep rut that animals had made travelling te same route over the years. I had my head down looking at my feet and when I looked up my GSP was solid on point. A stag was in the causeway about 20 yards away. It saw me and lunged up into the Kanuka - and I let strip with the .44 Ruger. Well, I never got it inspite of emptying the magazine, but I reckon I cleared about an acre of scrub I hit at least two stout young Kanukas' and they were leaning over looking pretty sick. Not so the deer.

Later I bought a Ruger lever action in .44 mag. That was a far better gun and could be carried in half-cock/half chambered. Shouldn't have sold it but it was pretty restricted in range really.

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.

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.

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 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 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.