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Wyatt Baker

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Posts posted by Wyatt Baker

  5. Shooting pic

    in Rimfire, Centrefire & Shotguns

    Posted

    On 31/07/2021 at 15:26, shovel leaner said:

    Just an update. Moocher71 sent me the picture, not only that he also packed another picture by Mick Cawston “ the one that got away . He said all he wanted was postage ,  but when I pressed him for details of how I could pay him , he said don’t worry it’s nice to do something for someone. I’ve got to say that his generosity has touched me . If he won’t take anything for the pictures I am going to make a donation to the Johnny boy charity on the general section, it seems a worthy cause . I get a lot out of this forum , there are some good souls on here and reading about Johnny boy , he seemed to have been a good’un who was taken from his family too soon . 

    both of you got a good soul!!

  21. New to hunting

    in Big Game Hunting

    Posted

    I suppose a better description for our deer rifle would probably be the medium game hunting rifle. This is because just about all hunters that I know use their favourite deer rifle to take other game when the opportunity arises. The deer species that we have here in Australia vary a great deal in size from quite small with the little hog deer to very large with the mighty sambar. However, by world standards, they all fall into the same category of medium-sized, thin-skinned game and are all hunted with a myriad of different calibres

     

    Let’s start with the .243 Winchester, which is an old favourite of mine and the second centrefire that I ever owned, in a Sako Forester with a 4-10 Pecar scope. I used that rifle to take all manner of game including pigs and a few red deer with 87-grain Hornady projectiles and it worked a treat. Projectile design and manufacture have come a long way since then and premium projectiles from numerous different makers are now available for the .243, which have enhanced its performance as a perfectly acceptable hunting round for our medium-sized deer. The .243 has mild recoil, so can be used effectively by anyone who is recoil sensitive, or by smaller statured hunters in lighter rifles. It’s a real favourite at our main hunting property, with several younger hunters using it with excellent results for goats, pigs and fallow deer. My favourite factory round for the .243 is the 100-grain Remington Core-Lokt, which performs well on both red and fallow deer.

    Stepping up to the .25 calibres, there are a few cartridges that will fit the bill, although the .25s have never really gained the popularity of other calibres. The .257 Roberts still has a few diehard followers and the .25-06 has its own fan club. But without doubt the top dog of the .25s has to be the revered and still reasonably popular .257 Weatherby Magnum. Shooting premium 120-grain projectiles at 3400fps, it stays flat and hits hard, just about as far out as you can see them, but there’s a price to pay with expensive ammo, excessive muzzle blast and short barrel life.

    The 6.5mm cartridges have been around a long time but have never really had a big following in Australia either. Possibly the most popular of the 6.5s is the old 6.5×55 Swedish, which fires a 120- or 140-grain bullet at 2700 and 2500fps respectively. It’s still a favourite in the Scandinavian countries for hunting game up to the size of moose. The biggest drawback for the cartridge here in Australia is that it’s mostly found in ex-military 1896 Mauser rifles, which are strong enough, but they cock on closing the bolt, taking it out of the league of the great Mauser 98. Remington’s recent answer to the 6.5×55 is the .260 Remington, which almost duplicates the 6.5×55’s ballistics and can be had in most makes of rifle. With the right bullets, it would fit the bill nicely as a calibre capable of taking most of our deer species with minimum recoil.

    Ah, at last, my favourite deer calibre, the .270 Winchester. It has been around since 1925 when it was introduced by Winchester in its Model 54 bolt-action rifle and has been going from strength to strength ever since. It was specifically designed as a flat-shooting deer cartridge that could be made in relatively light rifles, without excessive recoil. With it, I have successfully hunted most of the feral and game animals available in Australia, including buffaloes and plains game in Africa. With premium projectiles, in the 130- to 150-grain range, the .270 Winchester is a great performer. The only other factory cartridges in this calibre worth considering are the .270 Weatherby Magnum, which is an excellent round that only suffers from a lack of available rifles, and the .270 WSM, which has never really taken off in Australia for some reason.

    There are several popular 7mm cartridges, starting with the 7mm-08, which is ballistically similar to the 120-year-old 7x57mm Mauser. There are several 7mm Magnums in existence and all perform similarly well. They include the 7mm Remington Magnum, 7mm Weatherby Magnum and 7mm Winchester Short Magnum. When I was 16 years old, I bought a 7mm Remington Magnum in a new Ruger M77 rifle. It was an excellent performer on pigs and deer, but was heavier and longer than the .270 and I could not really tell the difference on game.

    Some of you may have thought, he’s forgotten the .280 Remington! No, I haven’t, I’m just leaving the best until last. This is the cartridge that the .270 should have been, as it’s just a little bit more versatile all round, owing to a better useable selection of projectile weights ranging up to 160 grains.  The .280 is truly an excellent round for all of our deer species.

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