Thread: Hunting Rifle

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Most of those thoussnd wallabies are on private land so you will need to work on access. Trout’s not encouraging people to shoot by the road - its just an indication they are not uncommon where hunting pressure is low.

Theres 1000s of acres of doc land on the Hunter n Haka hills with 1000s of roos on them.You just gota walk the hills n get them on sunset or early morning.
Also 1000s of acres of private land too full of roos,just get permission to shoot them.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

Most of those thoussnd wallabies are on private land so you will need to work on access. Trout’s not encouraging people to shoot by the road - its just an indication they are not uncommon where hunting pressure is low.

Not so, there are heaps of the buggers on doc land as well, the place is rank with them! There may be "more" on private land but they're far from scarce on the doc blocks

Originally Posted by Trout

You live in rhe right area to shoot a few thousand roos over there.Seen 4 on the side of the road in the long grass just pass Dobson the other night on sun set.A big buck and 3 small roos.

Ya not wrong, the whole Waimate District is filthy with them

Originally Posted by Zedrex

Ya not wrong, the whole Waimate District is filthy with them

yeah, ended up going up mt studholme with my father in law just after new years, even with the cloud not playing ball we saw tons. every time i had to get back into the car I was wiping wallaby shit off my boots.

Originally Posted by 16Tontovarish

yeah, ended up going up mt studholme with my father in law just after new years, even with the cloud not playing ball we saw tons. every time i had to get back into the car I was wiping wallaby shit off my boots.

Now the shits hitting the fan, lolol

Originally Posted by Zedrex

I'm far from experienced nor an expert . I have however just jumped on the hunting wagon within the last 12 months. ANd whilst the collective wisdom in here is a very awesome font of knowledge, I can't help but think that many of the greybeards have forgotten quite what it's like to be "new" to hunting, seeing as they were "new": around the time that Adam was getting refused service at the local.

So from one newbie to another, this is what has worked for me.
Firstly, I spent a few months limbering up with a scoped Rossi semi auto .22. Cheap as chips to buy (new ones go for around $400 with a scope, from memory) and cheeeeep as chips to run (ammo is about 33 cents a round) This is important because of the following:

If you're new to firearms, you need to get adept at handling them safely, shooting them safely and just generally being safe around them.
To achieve this, you'll want to spend plenty of time (as I did) shooting vermin (possums, rabbits, magpies etc) This gives you experience in managing your firearm, ensuring your shooting safely (what's around you, what else is in the direction your aiming (houses, vehicles, other people etc) have you got a good backstop? (this is the landscape that catches your round when you miss whatever you're trying to shoot(this happens a lot in the beginning btw))

Whilst shooting your .22 you can practice position, technique, breathing, trigger pull and everything else involved in being a proficient and safe shooter/hunter AND MOST IMPORTANTLY (in my humble opinion) you'll learn great shot placement (because ethical hunting is all about minimal suffering of the prey imo) and it'll be cheap (for comparison, my Franchi .243 costs 3 buck 60 per round. I couldn't afford to "learn the basics" at that rate) and dare I say it, an "accident" would be less catastrophic with a small calibre because you've got a much shorter effective range (that last is my own personal opinion which others may differ on)

Whilst you're practicing with your .22 number of things will occur. You'll get comfortable with what you're doing and won't have to think so much (you've still got to be sharp but your brain won't have to work so hard, this in turn allows you to relax a touch) you'll get comfortable with your gun, with handling it, reloading it and most importantly, you'll get comfortable shooting it (nothing stuffs up a well aimed shot quite like a flinch)

The payoff with all of the above (as I discovered) is that when you move onto a larger (deer killing) caliber (in my case the afore mentioned Franchi .243 Win Horizon, bolt action) you'll be comfortable with what you're doing and will be able to focus on getting to know how the new rifle shoots and then shooting some veni! Cos thats what we're here for right?

My experience has been that having followed the process above and got comfortable handling and shooting with the .22 , going out with the .243 I'm getting one wallaby 1 round out to just over 200m (the effective range on the Franchi with the 95g projectiles is a shade over 230 metres) I should add that bar a few clay pigeon shoots and an air rifle as a kid, my shooting experience was zero before I got started.

There's a lot to learn and the good buggers in here are a wealth of mostly useful information (and opinionated!) and if you ask questions....you'll get someone who will point you in the right direction.
My next is to join the Deerstalkers and then do the HUNTS course, it seems like a logical next step

Post of the year right there mate.

Originally Posted by Bagheera

In theory a real primer will soon get dented in and not cushion the firing pin. Supposedly, commercial snap caps have rubber or spring loaded “primers”.

Snap caps are also useful for practising feed, bolt running, reloading the mag etc which I do in the dark, by feel.

I make it a rule to never have both live ammo and the red snap caps out at the same time.

if a spent primer is good for say 3 other pings..a box of 20 will let you ping 60 times..... if you cant tell difference between a spent case and a loaded one...you shouldnt be near a firearm.....
no different to 5 sandfilled shotgun cases to practice shucking the pump quickly.....

and I did say in a pinch.........

I use a spent cases in the rimfire for dry fire practice.

Rimfire practice rounds are not meant to be struck by the firing pin! Go figure.


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Good post by Zed on the importance of getting a .22lr to start with and build shooting skills. I’d go one step further and say a good bolt action .22lr.
Cz, Brno tikka etc that you can tune up to perform well. It improve your shooting so much particularly when you reach for the center fire


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Originally Posted by STC

Because somebody will confuse a once fired case with a live round and kill his neighbour.

Dry fire practice is only ever done with snap caps, that are of non-brass colour (most often red), or nothing at all, depending on the rifle model (most centrefire rifles are perfectly fine to dry fire)

What about the lack of pointy thing sticking out of the case mouth? Iv trained all my dogs with shot gun round cut in half and all the good stuff tipped out so they just get the primer ignition crack and even so always pointed at the ground safe practice starts well before you chamber a round mate and we’ll after for that matter

Originally Posted by Kelton

What about the lack of pointy thing sticking out of the case mouth? Iv trained all my dogs with shot gun round cut in half and all the good stuff tipped out so they just get the primer ignition crack and even so always pointed at the ground safe practice starts well before you chamber a round mate and we’ll after for that matter

When checking whether a firearm is loaded you do not see the pointy thing.

It also conditions your brain to not immediately associate brass in there as a live round.

Its piss poor gun safety practice, that greatly increases the chances of a negligent discharge Just because some people are too cheap to spend 20 bucks.

Most 22s of reasonable quality manufactured after the 1960s or so are fine to dry fire, Tikka T1x's being an exception!

Originally Posted by STC

When checking whether a firearm is loaded you do not see the pointy thing.

It also conditions your brain to not immediately associate brass in there as a live round.

Its piss poor gun safety practice, that greatly increases the chances of a negligent discharge Just because some people are too cheap to spend 20 bucks.

That’s even worse when checking if a fire arm is loaded and theirs a case in it it’s loaded full stop

Originally Posted by Kelton

That’s even worse when checking if a fire arm is loaded and theirs a case in it it’s loaded full stop

Agreed. I also have no idea how the hell you can truly check if a firearm is loaded without seeing the pointy thing at the end of the brass... My procedure for checking for loaded is to UNLOAD.