Got my first pig today! Yay!!

[Buckshot]

Flippin' eck, Buckshot...
...I think that's probably too close for anyone!

Is that a story I might find online? Those "against all odds" hunting (as they often are) stories give me a kick.

I think I read it a US shooting mag a few years ago. I think the article was about suitable calibres for different beasts IIRC. This was one example of the exceptions that prove the rule!!!
Chap had gone out and annoyed a bear that decided to have a go. The article described the distance as 'sub point blank' which puzzled me until I read further and found the gun inside the mouth.
Thinking about it, if you can get the bullet inside the skull of a bear it may not have enough power to come out so just bounce off the inside walls - a bit like some anti tank rounds do.
Sorry I can't remember any more than that I'm afraid.

Mark

 

[jamie18thmo]

also I didnt realize NZ had such open guns laws. I thought they where very similar your neighbor down there Australia.(which would mean no 10/22s) would you say that you laws are similar to the USAs? i know hunting is big sport in NZ, I would love to go there sometime. i think its such a beautiful country.

oh yah and what job do you have where your 10/22 is for work stuff!?!? because I want your job!! 4 wheelers and pig hunting!! Im jealous!

anyway just remember Jamie we are all predators and you never have to be ashamed of that. "pork chops on the grill!!":AR15firin

Hi Folks,
Thanks for your comments.

Yep...the gun laws down here are probably more like the US. In Australia they are much more restricted. You can owwn some pretty interesting stuff here. One of my mates uses an AR15. Now that would be good to carry around!

You asked about the job. Well, I'm a Predator Control Ranger for the Department of Conservation. I spend a lot of my time riding around about 50-80Km of tracks checking traps. The 10/22 is for putting down animals caught in leghold traps and for shooting bunnies for gathering trap bait. We've got various guns/calibres here for different tasks, but the .22's are the main workhorses.

I'd be interested to know more about converting one of our 10/22's to a .17Mach2!
Here's some pics of the typical sort of terrain round here.

I dropped the porker off at the butchers today to be sausaged.

Cheers,
J

 

[statikpunk]

Hi Folks,

You asked about the job. Well, I'm a Predator Control Ranger for the Department of Conservation. I spend a lot of my time riding around about 50-80Km of tracks checking traps. The 10/22 is for putting down animals caught in leghold traps and for shooting bunnies for gathering trap bait. We've got various guns/calibres here for different tasks, but the .22's are the main workhorses.

I'd be interested to know more about converting one of our 10/22's to a .17Mach2!
Here's some pics of the typical sort of terrain round here.J

ooooooo Im so jealous of your job, i have been waiting for that same job to open up here where i live in the states, but the people who have those jobs dont give them up to often. here coyotes are the big problem predator and they dont trap them they will often shoot them from a plane.

as for converting your 10/22 it couldnt be easier. go online and order yourself a kit, or order it from a gun store, then all you have to do is replace the barrel (which involves removing two hex screws) and replacing the bolt handle with a heavier one, and thats it! actual time would probably be about 15 minutes on the conversion.
I love 10/22s !! they are so easy to work on and convert. mine doesnt even look like a 10/22 anymore, I put a carbon barrel on it and an aftermarket stock and trigger assembly with the ultralight carbon barrel the whole thing weighs in at 5Ibs 1oz with scope and full clip and everything
here is a pic of my rabbiting gear


and here is a pic of my 77/22 that i converted to a 17mach2 (which is even easier to convert than a 10/22)


i honestly think the 17mach2 is the best thing to happen to varmint hunters since the invention of the rimfire cartridge! I guarantee that you will be impressed with what it can do.
oh and make sure you dont confuse 17hmr, with the 17mach2 ...the hmr is a bigger cartridge, more expensive to shoot, and has basically the same trajectory. and for the conversion you need to get 17 mach 2 anyway hmr will not convert.
good luck and let us know how your pig tastes!
also you can pm me if you need to know more about the 17mach2 conversion process.

 

[jamie18thmo]

Hi Statik,
Looks like you've got some nice gear there! Is the pistol a .22? Do you use that for dispatching rabbits?
.17Mach 2 sounds like an interesting option. I'll certainly talk to the power-that-be about it, but as we already have a really nice varmint/predator set-up, I don't suppose they'll be too keen to go for it, although it sounds like it might be a good way to get rid of out.22magnum Marlin and replace it with something similar.
Our main predator (wildcat) rifle is a good old Remington 700 SPSS in .204 Ruger with a very nice Leupold 4.5-14X50 scope.
I'll post a few pics of our arsenal tomorrow.
J

 

[BigShot]

statik - don't worry about apologising (though thanks) - I wasn't upset by it, but your comment made me realise my fondness for a clean kill over a poor shot has made me start to sound a bit more like one of the nuts that goes absolutely insane if there's so much as a nervous leg-kick from the prey. Haha. I actually want to avoid that - especially considering a messy kill is still probably more humane than a life in a factory farm with a clean end.



Buckshot - I might have a bit of a google around for that article and see if it turns up.
I see what you mean about the round bouncing inside, I can picture it anyway. I know rounds often follow an odd path once they get inside and strike bone. I saw an x-ray once where the round hit pelvis on the way in, and finished up between the clavicle and scapula. I guess the came could happen within the skull of a bear.



Jamie - you can go ahead and add my name to the list of people who are jealous of your job too. Haha.
Looks like an absolutely wonderful place to work.

 

[statikpunk]

Hi Statik,
Looks like you've got some nice gear there! Is the pistol a .22? Do you use that for dispatching rabbits?
.17Mach 2 sounds like an interesting option. I'll certainly talk to the power-that-be about it, but as we already have a really nice varmint/predator set-up, I don't suppose they'll be too keen to go for it, although it sounds like it might be a good way to get rid of out.22magnum Marlin and replace it with something similar.
Our main predator (wildcat) rifle is a good old Remington 700 SPSS in .204 Ruger with a very nice Leupold 4.5-14X50 scope.
I'll post a few pics of our arsenal tomorrow.
J

as far as a business standpoint the 17mach2 is about half the price to shoot of a 22 mag (if you buy the right brands) so you can point that out. plus they are twice as accurate with better trajectory, which means less missing and wasting of ammo!
as far as the 204 I had almost that exact same setup , it was a 222 that my dad converted to a 204 for me (he is a gunsmith ) I even had the same scope ! (we must be brothers!) right now i have a remington model 700 police in 223 that I am going to have my dad re-barrel to a 20 practical , which is a wildcat cartridge (as in a non-production cartridge, not the animal ) built off of the 223. my dad has really gotten into the 20 calibers he has like 3 different wildcats that he has built.

interesting story, every year my family goes and shoots rockchucks for a weekend (marmots) and i had both my 204 and my 17mach2 I found that if that chuck was 300 yards or less i would just grab the 17mach2, and that is what made such a big impression on me, because the 17 costs about a 10th of what it cost to shoot the 204. i guarantee that if "the powers that be" ever got to shoot a 17mach2 they would be instantly sold on em'

oh an yes the pistol is a 22 its a colt woodsman that was handed down to me from my grandfather, i use it when the sage brush gets too thick to swing my rifle on a running bunny

 

[Diligence]

just a quick hijack:

..I remember reading years ago about a woman who shot and killed a grizzly (or maybe kodiak) with a .22 single shot. I've searched the net for the past 30minutes trying to find the article without luck.....

edit:
...whoo hoo found it.

Bella Twin was her name...1953,Grizzly with a .22...shot in the head. Here's a skull photo.
http://www.albertaoutdoorsmen.ca/record-twin-grizzly.htm

"....Bella Twin, an Indian girl, and her friend Dave Auger were hunting grouse near Lesser Slave Lake in northern Alberta. The only gun they had was Bella’s single-shot bolt-action .22 Rimfire rifle. They were walking a cutline that had been made for oil exploration when they saw a large grizzly following the same survey line toward them. If they ran, the bear would probably notice them and might chase, so they quietly sat down on a brush pile and hoped that the bear would pass by without trouble. But the bear came much too close, and when the big boar was only a few yards away, Bella Twin shot him in the side of the head with a .22 Long cartridge. The bear dropped, kicked and then lay still. Taking no chances, Bella went up close and fired all of the cartridges she had, seven or eight .22 Longs, into the bear’s head. That bear, killed in 1953, was the world-record grizzly for several years and is still high in the records today...."

 

[Mistwalker]

It's a strange animal the .22. It's tiny, almost silent, no recoil, the bullet weighs as much as 2 or 3 airgun pellets. And yet, at one time or another, it has killed all kinds of animal. Chris McCandless shot and killed a moose with one.

I'm certainly not advocating moose hunting with a .22, but as mentioned, if primitive man could kill such large animals with bow and arrow (say 36 ft lbs for a modern recurve) than it's no wonder that the .22 rimfire at 100 ft lbs or so is surprisingly lethal.

People argue about the .22s suitability for foxes, but certainly many foxes have been killed with .22s.

Anyway, looks like you have supper organised.

I think the .22 is badly under-rated. Personaly.. I do prefer a bolt action as it put a good bit more power behind the bullet, however I have put a lot of rabbits on the table with a Marlin .22.

I am curious, was the moose kileed with a bolt or an auto?

 

[dogwood]

I think the .22 is badly under-rated. Personaly.. I do prefer a bolt action as it put a good bit more power behind the bullet, however I have put a lot of rabbits on the table with a Marlin .22.

I am curious, was the moose kileed with a bolt or an auto?

I agree on the .22 -- if you had to choose one gun to survive on, a good .22 rifle is the way to go.

As far as McCandless is concerned, he had a Remington Semi Auto. However, the Anchorage Daily News disputes that he killed a moose because caribou remains were found butchered nearby. The theory is McCandless didn't know the difference.

See here (the story is from 1992, right after his body was found):

http://dwb.adn.com/news/alaska/mccandless/story/9317850p-9232624c.html

By the way, I lived in Alaska for a while and I know the area where he was found fairly well and it's not hard country to deal with (by Alaskan standards) -- McCandless, poor soul, was a sweet guy who shouldn't have gone out there on his own.

 

[statikpunk]

I heard that, my uncle lives in alaska and he sais that it is much more likely that he killed a caribou, statistically speaking. Even so the 22. has been proven to take down game when shooting at the head. a 22. round will go through one side of the skull, but not exit, it just skips around inside scrambling the brain (i think someone already mentioned that actually)

thats why the 22 been used as a hitmans weapon for years, 1 a headshot is a kill, 2 the bullets often fall apart and are hard to trace, and 3 with subsonic ammo and a silencer it is almost totally silent (just like in the movies!)

ooookkkkk i hope knowing that doesnt make me look like some sorta wacko

anyway the 22. long rifle, the great misunderstood cartridge.

 

[jamie18thmo]

Hey Statik,
Sounds like you really know your stuff and you get some interesting firearms to experiment with (not refering to the .22 hitman stuff ). Must be great having a gunsmith in the family.
I really like the sound of the 17 Mach2 and I'll certainly be doing some sweet-talking. I'd like to trade-in our Marlin .22mag because I don't fully trust it. It's gone off on it's own a couple of times! It's been looked at, but I still don't trust it.
Here's a few pics of some of our rifles: the top Rem. 700 is the .204, the middle one is my own .308 and the bottom one is a .270 that belongs to my pal Les. The middle two 10/22's are two of our bait gathering rifles (the Target version is very nice), the bottom one belonged to a colleague and the Marlin (main night-shooting workhorse, in combination with a 12g Beretta semiauto ) is at the top.

I dug a couple of rounds out of the pig I shot. One had mushroomed perfectly and one was still pretty much in the same shape it was when it left the barrel!
Got 10Kg of sausages back today. I thought I might post a picture of what I had for dinner tonight, then thought that would be too cruel .

That's an interesting article about McCandless. I admire the guys spirit and determination, but it sounds like he didn't really know what he was getting into. Sad story. I'm surprised the Colorado River didn't kill him!

Cheers,
J

 

[statikpunk]

well I dont boast myself an expert but, when your dads a gunsmith and your whole family and all your friends (and myself) are all gun nuts you tend to pick up a thing or two.

whats that big thing on the barrel of the 204.. (a silencer??) i notice that silencers are really popular over there on the other side of the planet, do you guys need any special licenses or anything to have those (same question to the brits) i have also seen a lot of silenced shotguns (which i have never seen over here) also why are silencers so popular over there??

here you can have a silencer on a gun but you have to pay a 200dollar federal tax to own it as well as the actual cost of the silencer, plus that silencer is registered to the owner and must be re-registered when it changes hands, even though the gun doesnt need to be re-registered! (silly guns laws, last i checked you cant shoot anyone with a silencer)

i have been actually looking at getting a pistol with a silencer a sig mosquito 22. the pistol costs $325 with the tax and the silencer it will total more than 800 bucks! thats a hard chunk of change to swallow just for a quiet gun. (but man it would be cool! )

 

[Doc]

Re Mccandless's moose.

According to the author of 'Into the Wild', Mccandless did indeed shoot a moose, not a caribou. It seems that some supposedly experienced hunters identified the remains as a caribou, leading to people saying Mccandless couldn't tell the difference.

However, film on McCandless' camera shows it was indeed a moose he shot. He made many mistakes but misidentifying his cervine quarry was not one of them.

Here in the UK sound moderators for firearms are regarded as firearms themselves, and are listed on the licence. Sound moderators for air rifles are not subject to control, even though they are exactly the same as the sound moderators for a .22 rimfire. So I can only have a sound moderator on my rimfire rifle if I have police permission, but there is nothing to stop anyone without a firearms certificate from buying an identical sound moderator for an air rifle.

The police used to be reluctant to allow sound moderators but all that has changed. If someone developed hearing damage because they refused permission, they would be open to a compensation claim. So in the UK permission for sound moderators for hunting rifles is nearly always granted.

It is now getting to the stage that sound moderators are mandatory for some stalking leases. They also reduce recoil and muzzle flip.

 

[statikpunk]

ah i see ! here in the USA they dont care about your hearing they just want their 200 bucks for the privilege of using a silencer. so needless to say you dont see many of them over here.

like I said its interesting to see all the silencers. i didnt even know that anybody made shotgun silencers!

anyway thanks for the info.

 

[jamie18thmo]

I used to use a couple of fully suppressed 20g single shot shotguns for squirel control back in the UK, but I don't think they're very common or popular (a bit big and bulky!).

Sound moderators are pretty popular down here and as far as I can tell, there are no special legal requirements to owning one. We have one on the .204 so we can be a bit sneakier when cruising around trying to spotlight cats and to be more considerate to our neighbours. It does make a heck of a difference to the sound levels.

J

 

[pothunter]

Statikpunk

Pop bottle and some tape. I'll say no more.

Pothunter.

 

[statikpunk]

wow jamie that is a huge silencer! it must extend back onto the barrel huh?? yah they do make a difference especially on 22.s with subsonic ammo, if your shooting subsonic then you dont even get the sound of the bullet breaking the sound barrier, just the sound of the action cycling (just like in the movies!)

and thanks for the tip pothunter, In my state its 75% public land and my guns can make as much racket as I want them to and feck anyone who dont like it:tapedshut
i actually like the noisy ones, my old man has a 44 mag revolver with a 3 inch barrel "whew" when that thing goes off everyone for 40 miles knows it. I just make sure I wear my ear plugs for the loud ones.
and the old school way of silencing a gun is to just cram a potato on the end of your gun (close range only) thats what they did in the gangster days. OOP there i go makn' everybody uneasy again