Thread: Calibre Choice in the 1970's

It could have been a Winchester M100 too.

Originally Posted by rewa

I often went into Tisdall's after school, early 70's. They just don't have shops like that anymore. It was like walking into 'Santa's Gun-Cave', not a stainless barrel in sight

And ISCO sports just around the corner

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

It hasn't shot a Rusa or Sambar, but it's shot everything else in NZ. Although the Wapiti wasn't in Fiordland. And I'm not saying where.
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there was a story of some escapees from a farm into the pureora a long time ago......probably just a myth but my trail cams did pick up a stag that looked like it could have been a hybrid about 8 year ago...........

Originally Posted by rewa

I often went into Tisdall's after school, early 70's. They just don't have shops like that anymore. It was like walking into 'Santa's Gun-Cave', not a stainless barrel in sight

@rewa Re; Santa's Gun Cave..... Wilsons in Whanganui isn't far off that. I'm sure they have to get the carpet cleaner out to clean up my drool after I've been in there....... Bloody good selection for a small city shop

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

Greetings @Phil_H,
There was a 6.8 x57 Chinese Mauser from 1908 some of which were made by Mauser so this may have been the rifle you had. Projectile dia was .277 inches. There was supposedly a longer version as well. The .270 Win was not as original as we have been led to believe.
Regards Grandpamac.

As far as gunshops went, it was rather good when I was studying in town (Auckland) mid 80's.
You would start at Hewit&Bale at the bottom of Queen street, Tisdalls 1/2 way up, Harmony house near the top, then a 10 min walk across to Sportsways next to the prison.
Not that I'm saying it was a regular loop or anything

When I was a kid and the family was on holiday touring the country Dad and I would go window shopping at the gun shop in whatever town we were staying the night - almost every town had its sports shop with its array of guns.

Unlike today’s naff ‘sports shops’ like Stirling Sports etc.

We currently have this bit of l am guessing 70's, .222 Nostalgia for sale on the forum ,would be a good thing for someone with the nostalgia/Deuce itch .

Anyone have one of these back in the day ??

BSA Hunter/Regent .222 for sale

https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....t-222-a-74396/

"almost every town had its sports shop with its array of guns."

@Finnwolf Yeh amazing how things have changed, a couple of funny stories from our time in Oz,one bloke we worked with had a framed photo of Charles & Dianne doing a visit to a regional town ,pic was taken by his wife with him smiling with his back to the car as they drive past.In front of him is a gun bag containing his pig/deer hunting rifle a 308 Woodmaster, all totally innocent & of no concern to anyone at the time , as he was simply a bushy on his trip to town picking up his gun with a new scope on it,that just happened to be on the day they visited .

The other was in the late 80's l think it was one of their major stores & sporting chains Myers decided to get out of selling guns & sold off the stock at huge discounts .I was shown photos of switched on blokes buying all the shotguns & ammo etc in stock for reselling before the up coming duck season. They had pics taken at the check outs with shopping trolley's stacked with guns like umbrella stands & overflowing with cases of ammo, can you imagine the panty wetting now

Originally Posted by Finnwolf

When I was a kid and the family was on holiday touring the country Dad and I would go window shopping at the gun shop in whatever town we were staying the night - almost every town had its sports shop with its array of guns.

Unlike today’s naff ‘sports shops’ like Stirling Sports etc.

I can remember one gun shop,I think it was Blenheim or Nelson that had a few Dozen Pistols,SMG's and long arms high up on the wall behind the counter. I was in there with Dad as a kid and they had some kind of heavy Auto cannon on the floor that had been recovered from a Zero fighter in PNG.

I would love to know where that shop was,Dad and I have been arguing over it for years.

50 quid to knob of goat shit...the fellas at combined services club in Blenheim will know..... went there for meal a few years back and took young fella into the display room where all the rifles etc were stored......AWESOME to see them there and good to show young people what our service folk have used over the years.

The animals in the 70s weren't nearly as literate as they are today.

I never had a deer, a big pig etc get up after I'd shot him and tell me "that 308 has poor BC and is not a good choice", or " don't you know a 284 has flatter trajectory after 400 meters", or "excuse me but that 30-30 soft nose you just shot me with only has 990 ft/lbs at 200, while a 308 180gr Norma has 1800 ft/lbs". The animals weren't internet 'experts' back then. So they just fell over and died without a word. Clearly I/they have alot to learn..

@norsk That reminds me years ago l had done a gig guiding Americans on a Chital Deer & pig hunting trip in Northern Queensland & they wanted a bit of a tour through the country side back to the airport ,so for that sort of thing l would pick out towns with a bit of history & do a over night stay in a old outback pub to give them the feel of the country/locals.

We pulled up in a old mining town in the middle of no where , that the bakery was renowned for its pies & cakes & a local that every day took his Brahman bull for a walk down the pub & beer.While they were filling up on pies, l went for a walk in the old main street to try to get service on my phone to confirm the over night booking at the next towns pub for that night & there was the towns old RSL hall, all neglected, broken windows ,the paint on the weatherboards peeling & falling off from lack of use & neglect obviously had not been used for a while. Well bugger me sitting outside in the dirt was a Japanese war booty, Type 3 / Type 92, Heavy Machine Gun,just left rusting , a dog or kid had dug down the couple of inches to show it was only held down by old paint tins filed with concrete with a bit of bent wire.

The guys l was guiding were all Vietnam era veterans & they could not believe it either,often wondered how it escaped the Ozzy Nanny state grubs or how it was not nicked as a wall hanger or if they had sold it whether it would bring enough to fix up the RSL.

#109 @bunji. On the strength of those photos I,d condition score that Hunter @ 4-5 outta 10.Good mate of mine totes his trebly Hunter & regularly sacks Reds out to 300 yards confirming they arn,t flukes.His beater would struggle to score anymore than 1, and it wears the cheapest raggedy arse poxy chinese scope ever imported to this archipelego.The barrel looks like it served on the Western Front in a previous life devouring cordite & yet bugger me it will still shoot the eye out of a needle.Treat em mean....keep em keen

My old .222 works the same. A year ago (ish) my father-in-law offered to get it shortened by half an inch, and recrowned by a retired Gunsmith mate in Wangas. This came about when I mentioned I was going to do it with hack-saw and file, because I found it a bit loose, in that last 1/2 inch when I 'slugged' it with a couple of .22 pellets. Some weeks later, when I picked it up, he said it wasnt done, because his mate reckoned it needed re-barreling. I still havent done it, though I believe it would tighten it up a bit. It still hits golf-balls at 150m and I put this down to expert craftsmen, who knew how to hand-cut chambers and rifling properly. (tikka m55) I often consider getting it re-barreled, but the only time I ever did that to a rifle, it was never the same again, or accurate