Thread: Looking for a New Hunting rifle

@bobbydazler love your work! There is an old saying which you, me and some of the older players might know, but the recent generation who are more easily sucked in by advertising hype and marketing, may not have heard, "Let’s not let the FACTS get in the way of a good story” (or marketing campaign).

Back in the 70's - 80's my uncle Steve (from your patch @bobbydazzler - Matapouri Bay) filled my head with stories of his and his mates commercial deer culling days. He told me that although 303 was standard issue at the start, some of the cullers were shooting deer with triple two. He himself owned a Brno Fox twin trigger 22 Hornet and become a living legend in his rohe when he dispatched the biggest pig shot in the area for years. He shot it in the ear, inside the local urupa for the local Maoris who wouldn't kill the pig in the urupa, because the urupa was tapu. My uncle was Italian!

But his advice to me on buying my first deer rifle was this, “But don’t you by a 2 calibre! You buy a big, powerful 30 calibre that will put deer down! Because as a new hunter, you will be shaking like a leaf! The adrenaline will be running through your veins, your knees will be trembling and you'll be lucky to hit the deer in the right place. So you need a rifle that will put the deer down no matter where you hit it!" I give the same advice to @KimMcLeod.

Back then I bought a second hand Alpine 30-06. Alpine is an English branch which is (perhaps) a close cousin to Parker Hale, but cheaper. It had a 4x32 scope and sporting Mauser 98 action with the full length claw extractor. My mates hunted with 7x57, 308. We all shot animals and they all stayed down, mostly, except for the ones we really messed up!

I owned that 30-06 for 40 plus years, I only parted with it about two years ago and here is the important part for Kim.

Two years ago I visited the gunsmith in Kapiti and said, “I’m thinking of selling my 30-06 to buy something with less recoil, which I can suppress to some extent.” His exact words were, “The best all-round calibre for New Zealand hunting is the 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser. It can fire projectiles from 85grn to 160grn and has shot more bears than any other calibre in the world!”

The following week I bought a second hand, MINT, Schultz and Larsen in 6.5x55 and couldn’t be happier!
@KimMcLeod if world-wide firearms production had ceased at the end of Vietnam War, we would all be hunting with military calibres and we would be completely happy. Here’s a few dates for when military calibres came into being, or into service; 303 British 1888, 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser 1894, 7x57 1895, 30-06 1906, 308 1952, 223 (5.56) 1964. These calibres have a proven pedigree and have kill all manner of game, all over the world. Ammunition and reloading components are both cheap and usually available.

By contrast the 6.5 Creedmoor was released in 2008, has no proven track record, and has excessively high breech pressures, which lead to faster barrel wear. It’s expensive to run and reload. Great for shooting cardboard at huge distances, but it's not a bush bashing gun.

I’ll leave you with a little joke, ‘After a tough day in mountainous bush country, a weary hunter bursts into a hut and throws his rifle on a bunk declaring, “This is a 6.5 Creedmoor, it is the best all-round calibre for New Zealand hunting!” And then the fight started…..’

Do your research and don't get sucked in by the hype.

Most importantly for a new hunter, buy a rifle with a "controlled feed claw extractor!" DONT buy a "push feed rifle" for your first gun. If you don't know the difference, do some research. If the shop attendant at the gun shop doesn't know the difference, go somewhere else!