Thread: Hunting the old way

Great. Cheers to KK.

Originally Posted by hebe

Will do. Be good to see a report when you do!

Yep your on

Originally Posted by Nickoli

Waterfall is one of DOC's "heritage huts" - the intention is to leave it in the old NZFS style with open fire and original layout. Cold in winter, but one hell of a nice spot.

Complete with photocopies of the old hut books from the late 60s onwards, pretty fascinating if you’re into that kind of thing!

@hebe Great write up & pics mate ,l mentioned on another post just the other day that l was looking for a old 303 ,that had been sporterized in the old Kiwi Bushy style of rough hand checkering & the Schnabel forend carved into it,(what we called a "Bush Purdy"growing up in the 60-70's), to preserve a bit of Kiwi Bush Bastard history in the Man Cave & occasionally take on "Born In The Wrong Era" hunt .

I am lucky to have access to a private block under 1/2 hour from the farm, where a 100 yards is a long shot,so 2-3 MOA will still get the job done . l hunt this block usually once a fortnight ,for helping topping up the larders of a couple of elderly neighbors & a huge young family in our little bush block community,with the missus cooking up Old School farm casseroles & soups as well to give them some ready meals to take the pressure off them a bit .

I grew up learning to hunt deer from 12yrs old on ,with a "Bush Purdy" & putting 303 FMJ ammo into a Kiwi Bushy, clever bastard contraption,welded up in a farm shed , that held 4 303 rounds at a time, with just the FMJ tips sitting proud at the right height to hand file down, to just expose the lead core.We hunted with a old Sugar bag pikau on the back,lace up rubber boots,Shearer Singlets & red Swannys with just Rugby shorts under ,the Red Swanny was the high tech hunting safety gear of the day

From what l can see from the pics your mates 303 is a "Bush Purdy" ,with the triangular checkering on the forend & grip like l am chasing,they use to put those really shitty red ventilated recoil pads on them, that was about all that was available at the time (late 60-70's) & would start going sticky & crumbling if you gave them a hard stare & they weighed nearly as much as a lead dive weight I always found a peep sight would give you a 25%+ increase in hunting accuracy & as light faded it helped a lot .

I think a by product of using a lot of the Old School gear on hunts ,is it shows you what hard bastards the old cullers etc were & how good we have it now .Well done & great to see you have not lost sight of having fun while you are hunting.Any other clearer pics of the rifles ?

Originally Posted by Woody

Wore out two three o's and despite the several modern rifles I' ve owned since those days, collectively they have not dropped anywhere near the tally of the smle's and tip filed army bullets. I did miss out on a great sika stag one evening though when I could not sight him in dull light with the apeture sight.

My old mate brought his 303 out to the range, proudly announced he had shot his first 1000 deer with the first barrel and we were shooting with the third barrel!

Legends. I was trying to do something similar with a lever action 30-30 but had a mishap unloading it and it’s now banished to the safe! You’ve inspired me to have another go.
Cheers.

Great tale - Crumpy would be proud of you. Much to like about the old 303s - deadly old girls if you get a good bead on the deer. And a lever action 30-30 also right up there...

Ha'ha the sugar bag pikau and checked swanny certainly bought back the era..nice

Oh that's a sweet mission. Cheers for the story. I've spent a little time up the Waipawa but never gone over the top. The Kauwhatau is an area Ive always wanted to explore more and I think you've given me the encouragement. I'll take my modern gear though. KK is James?

Cheers Hebe, when's the next installment. AS said by others one of the best reads for a while.

great stuff,enjoyed every word.

Awesome write up well done

I know what you mean Craig C, having to work the rounds through the action to unload the 30/30 does make me rather attentive to finger position.

Awesome 😎

Circa 1965, Hikurangi Tops above Waterfall hut. We had some great times.






Me meat hunting up the Pari in the Ruahines. Not a 303 though - a Brno .222.

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A great read nice to see not another long range sniping hunt well done fellas!