Thread: Semi-automatic guns sold by Defence Force being used by gangs

Originally Posted by gundoc

Ah, yes! 9 June 1989. How are you, my friend?

Doing well, life has thrown the odd curve ball, as it does to all of us. The more things change the more they stay the same as they say.
Joined the migration North when the kids were young to provide a better future, and looking forward to retirement!

Good to hear! I am enjoying retirement but still keeping busy and active. I still do quite a lot of shooting (pistol, rifle, and shotgun) and just agreed to do a bit of part-time shooting for one of the local cherry orchards. Shooting doubles on starlings with a pump action is good practice!

Some photos from 1988 and 89. First two are the 1,000 SLR's and 1900 Bren gun magazines the day they arrived from Trentham 1988.



This one is the custom L1A1 we built to donate as the prize for the winner of the 1989 Practical Rifle champs. Myself and Jon Jones with the rifle. It was won by the late Paul Mander of the Christchurch Pistol Club.



These are 5 sporting model SLR's we built in .243. They have 10 shot mags and are fitted with 4x Nikko Stirling Gold Crown 'scopes. There are also 3 .45 Marlin fully suppressed Camp Carbines, 1 completed and 2 yet to be anodized.

Wow gundoc and thanks for those photo's. It could very well be that one of those SLR's was issued to a young fresh faced Private Rushy back in 1971. I loved the aperture sight on the SLR and could knock the nuts off a gnat at a hundred with it. Mind you I would have to admit that my eyesight was a bunch better back then.

Drool

And as a paraphrase of the old monty python sketch "if you told the americans we did that to slr's they'd never believe you.."
@gundoc a workmate of mine 20+ years ago who from memory had some sort of family connection through marriage to you, had I believe a fat (maybe target?) barrel version of an slr you did.

Originally Posted by Rushy

Wow gundoc and thanks for those photo's. It could very well be that one of those SLR's was issued to a young fresh faced Private Rushy back in 1971. I loved the aperture sight on the SLR and could knock the nuts off a gnat at a hundred with it. Mind you I would have to admit that my eyesight was a bunch better back then.

Hi Rushy. A bit of a long shot but quite possible! My 1,000 was from the sale batch of 2,500, from a total of just over 15,000 SLR's in NZ service. We were issued No4's when I went through Burnham in the early 1960's but we trained with SLR's. Only the Regular Force were issued with them at that stage. As for eyesight, we won't go there!

Originally Posted by csmiffy

And as a paraphrase of the old monty python sketch "if you told the americans we did that to slr's they'd never believe you.."
@gundoc a workmate of mine 20+ years ago who from memory had some sort of family connection through marriage to you, had I believe a fat (maybe target?) barrel version of an slr you did.

Yes, I did a small number of heavy barrel rifles which shot very well. One of the important things was to make the lower receiver a very tight fit and have minimum headspace. On some of them I had to make oversize hinge pins to remove the wear. Our family has been in NZ for 6 or 7 generations so there is the odd relly out there!

Originally Posted by gundoc

Yes, I did a small number of heavy barrel rifles which shot very well. One of the important things was to make the lower receiver a very tight fit and have minimum headspace. On some of them I had to make oversize hinge pins to remove the wear. Our family has been in NZ for 6 or 7 generations so there is the odd relly out there!

looking at that photo makes me feel old !! heck i first met you near on 30 years back

Yes, I was in my early 40's when that (not very photogenic) picture was taken.

Fantastic photos, hopefully they make their way onto nzhistory.govt.nz one day.

Originally Posted by gundoc

Good to hear! I am enjoying retirement but still keeping busy and active. I still do quite a lot of shooting (pistol, rifle, and shotgun) and just agreed to do a bit of part-time shooting for one of the local cherry orchards. Shooting doubles on starlings with a pump action is good practice!

You used to compete with the pump didnt you? IIRC

Originally Posted by johnd

You used to compete with the pump didnt you? IIRC

I did. I still use the same gun (Winchester 1200).