The hunting thread.

[Ishmael]

.338 Win Mag, my go to game getter.

But, a 30-06 will always put food on the table.

7mm and up.

Ya know, it's occurred to me that it's not unlike Golf. Ya got this bag of 'clubs' and you say to the caddy, "Give me the 5 iron Fred." Of course carrying around this bag of 'shooting irons' is just a tad impractical, even if you can afford it or carry the weight.

That being said, agreed on the 06, morphing to the 308 these days. It'll get the job done.

Ishmael

 

[toeskr]

Good all around cartridge for virtually all N. American game. If you can only afford one, it's one of the few on the list.

Ishmael

I made an awesome trade for it years ago, bought tons of ammo and reload for it. Won't pay the ridiculous prices they want now. Artificial price increases.
Getting ready to really get into handgun hunting, although that is probably old school for Thor.

 

[UselessPost]

https://up9.xhcdn.com/000/125/649/431_1000.gif

"Take that you gopher!"

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/4d/f6/d8/4df6d8b8c14cc0fe23618448e88fe610.gif

"What a lousy shot... She missed me."

 

[Jamiegeo]

I used to hunt for a living here and food for a couple of years.
Was a licensed 'Macropod Harvester'
Took feral pig too where possible.
I have around 350pig kills, ranging from 61kgs-154kgs dressed, all for human consumption
(Export&domestic dinner plates) all shot with only 3rifle calibres: .22 .223(long bore rifles) & .357/.38spec.(Lever action for walking hunt)
Around 1800kangaroo's harvested for human consumption(Export market) all shot with .223.
I found the .223 to be the cheapest most accurate bang for my buck over the years and provides
Great range for both species and easily enough penetration for front on headshots of feral pig out to
About 200-220metres.(Feral dog and cat control out to 350m)
Reloading ammo cut my round price at least in half, and most remington brass good for around 5resuses(always resized and measured though).
I dont hunt now at all as its no longer a necessity for me, but i still enjoy target range shooting.
I'd really like to try elk or bear but my concience would only allow me to 'laser tag' them only. Would still be a thrill.
How much would a .308 round cost you guys over there in the US & Canada??
Its around $1.03 a shot here(Aus $'s)!.

 

[Ishmael]

I made an awesome trade for it years ago, bought tons of ammo and reload for it. Won't pay the ridiculous prices they want now. Artificial price increases.
Getting ready to really get into handgun hunting, although that is probably old school for Thor.

Reloading is the way to go. Check out the Hornady ELD-match and ELD-X hunting line. And especially their new ballistic calculator.

Ishmael

 

[toeskr]

I used to hunt for a living here and food for a couple of years.
Was a licensed 'Macropod Harvester'
Took feral pig too where possible.
I have around 350pig kills, ranging from 61kgs-154kgs dressed, all for human consumption
(Export&domestic dinner plates) all shot with only 3rifle calibres: .22 .223(long bore rifles) & .357/.38spec.(Lever action for walking hunt)
Around 1800kangaroo's harvested for human consumption(Export market) all shot with .223.
I found the .223 to be the cheapest most accurate bang for my buck over the years and provides
Great range for both species and easily enough penetration for front on headshots of feral pig out to
About 200-220metres.(Feral dog and cat control out to 350m)
Reloading ammo cut my round price at least in half, and most remington brass good for around 5resuses(always resized and measured though).
I dont hunt now at all as its no longer a necessity for me, but i still enjoy target range shooting.
I'd really like to try elk or bear but my concience would only allow me to 'laser tag' them only. Would still be a thrill.
How much would a .308 round cost you guys over there in the US & Canada??
Its around $1.03 a shot here!.

Elk is delicious and my favorite, bear? Not so much, pretty greasy. .308 is about half here at the moment.

 

[Rollinbones]

I kill things and eat them. This is a cool idea for a thread.

I mostly hunt things not to eat. Just to tidy up the predators that mess with my domestic animals.

Oz doesn't have too many large predators, biggest would be crocs but I live inland where we get dingos, feral cats, feral dogs. (Some feral cats I've shot have been the size of dogs.)

When hunting for meat, I chase some of the local feral deer population. It's hard to get onto a property to get at them because a lot of station owners have been burned by yippee shooting fuckwits. I'm lucky that my neighbour is a old time local with access to some good spots. We get red deer and the little spotted ones whatever they're called. (Waste of time if you ask a butcher.)

My kids, 8yrs and 17yrs both like hunting and helping dress, butcher and cook.

My 8yr old loves venison. Only meat he'll really eat. My 17yr old loves rabbit.

I own a .25-06, a .308, some .22's and a .410. Our gun laws prevent us owning semi-autos and pumps and such but I really don't need them. Mostly I use the .25-06, I can take it anywhere for any game in Oz and have it covered with a decent load. I'd never heard of a .25-06 until we moved out bush and I started looking for a gun again after the howard era buy backs.

Until then I'd owned a shitload of different guns but mostly loved my old .303-25. Canadians and ozzies both know and love the calibre. It was my 'one gun'. The one I'd pick up if I wasn't sure what I'd run into. Turned out really hard to find a good example so the dealer suggested a .25-06 and it's just a slightly meatier version of my first love.

I use a .117gr SST hornady on top of some reloader 19 for deer and I have a 85gr sierra for dogs and such that's way too messy to harvest with. For the wabbits we have a couple of .22's anything else defeats the purpose of trying to eat them.

I'm selling the .308 soon cause I just don't use it and want to find another gun for home kills and one for larger things (big pigs, camels, brumbies, buffallo.) For the home kills (sheep and cows) i might grab a .22 hornet. For the camels etc I'm leaning to a .444 marlin only because I owned one once as a boy and thought it was probably the gun god would own. You could smite things like the fist of zeus out to about 150yds. I'm tossing up .444, .45/70, or a 9.3x62 cause I owned one of them once too and loved it.

Would love to hear opinions from people who've used those large calibres on game over the 120kilo mark both to harvest and to cull.

 

[toeskr]

I kill things and eat them. This is a cool idea for a thread.

I mostly hunt things not to eat. Just to tidy up the predators that mess with my domestic animals.

Oz doesn't have too many large predators, biggest would be crocs but I live inland where we get dingos, feral cats, feral dogs. (Some feral cats I've shot have been the size of dogs.)

When hunting for meat, I chase some of the local feral deer population. It's hard to get onto a property to get at them because a lot of station owners have been burned by yippee shooting fuckwits. I'm lucky that my neighbour is a old time local with access to some good spots. We get red deer and the little spotted ones whatever they're called. (Waste of time if you ask a butcher.)

My kids, 8yrs and 17yrs both like hunting and helping dress, butcher and cook.

My 8yr old loves venison. Only meat he'll really eat. My 17yr old loves rabbit.

I own a .25-06, a .308, some .22's and a .410. Our gun laws prevent us owning semi-autos and pumps and such but I really don't need them. Mostly I use the .25-06, I can take it anywhere for any game in Oz and have it covered with a decent load. I'd never heard of a .25-06 until we moved out bush and I started looking for a gun again after the howard era buy backs.

Until then I'd owned a shitload of different guns but mostly loved my old .303-25. Canadians and ozzies both know and love the calibre. It was my 'one gun'. The one I'd pick up if I wasn't sure what I'd run into. Turned out really hard to find a good example so the dealer suggested a .25-06 and it's just a slightly meatier version of my first love.

I use a .117gr SST hornady on top of some reloader 19 for deer and I have a 85gr sierra for dogs and such that's way too messy to harvest with. For the wabbits we have a couple of .22's anything else defeats the purpose of trying to eat them.

I'm selling the .308 soon cause I just don't use it and want to find another gun for home kills and one for larger things (big pigs, camels, brumbies, buffallo.) For the home kills (sheep and cows) i might grab a .22 hornet. For the camels etc I'm leaning to a .444 marlin only because I owned one once as a boy and thought it was probably the gun god would own. You could smite things like the fist of zeus out to about 150yds. I'm tossing up .444, .45/70, or a 9.3x62 cause I owned one of them once too and loved it.

Would love to hear opinions from people who've used those large calibres on game over the 120kilo mark both to harvest and to cull.

We need to visit and share hunts.

 

[Rollinbones]

We need to visit and share hunts.

You'd love the last hunt my neighbour went on. Bastard didn't take me either but he's promised me a seat next time.

He was culling from a helicopter. All ammo paid for. All guns provided.

Pigs and ferals.

Came home bruised from collar bone to armpit.

 

[toeskr]

Reloading is the way to go. Check out the Hornady ELD-match and ELD-X hunting line. And especially their new ballistic calculator.

Ishmael

Thank you. I will definitely check it out.

 

[toeskr]

You'd love the last hunt my neighbour went on. Bastard didn't take me either but he's promised me a seat next time.

He was culling from a helicopter. All ammo paid for. All guns provided.

Pigs and ferals.

Came home bruised from collar bone to armpit.

Lucky bastard. The best bruises ever.

 

[Jamiegeo]

. .444 marlin only because I owned one once as a boy and thought it was probably the gun god would own. You could smite things like the fist of zeus out to about 150yds. I'm tossing up .444, .45/70, or a 9.3x62 cause I owned one of them once too and loved it.

Would love to hear opinions from people who've used those large calibres on game over the 120kilo mark both to harvest and to cull.

Funny as mate. G'day, from a fellow Aussie.
I agree totally with you about the .303. I was/am a huge fan of that calibre and those rifles.
Having shot up to .475HH (and recovered ) i honestly cant see the performance or economic advantage of going above .303-.308 here in Oz. (Unless your regularly hunting buffalo).
Will be interesting to see what the fellas on the other continent think of the large calibres..

I have often thought of buying a .17hornet for plinking, anybody Rate it?

 

[Rollinbones]

I used to hunt for a living here and food for a couple of years.
Was a licensed 'Macropod Harvester'
Took feral pig too where possible.
.

Did you ever go after the pigs with dogs mate? One of my favourite ways to spend a bloody cold winters night.

 

[Rollinbones]

what type rifle do you have? Rate it?

My .25-06 is a tikka t3 lite stainless synthetic. It's really quite awesome. Sako accurate and slick just with a cheaper finish. Weighs fuck all to carry around and puts 5 shots in half inch at 150m. (with 100gr hollow tip boat tails at just under 3000fps.) My hunting rounds spread to inch and inch and a half with 117s and 85's at full velocity. I've got a simmons whitetail 6.5-20x50mm on it which is good unless something is standing right in front of you.

I'd love a little anshutz .22hornet. I hunted some skippys once with one of them. Helped a pro mate when his off-sider (mrs) was busy. Got a little bit sick of hunting after those times. Not much sport in it. Lost its joy.

My .308 is a 7600 remington. It's a piece of shit. Jams and feeds all fucked. Shoots straight when it fires though which is impressive for a pump gun. Too heavy and not reliable enough to take stalking.

 

[Jamiegeo]

Did you ever go after the pigs with dogs mate? One of my favourite ways to spend a bloody cold winters night.

Errr...nope
Yeah i had a couple of handy dogs for a coupla years, but was making a living better with more pins on the ute rack and without the ute moving around due to dogs moving.
I used to shoot till after dark, throw the dogs on and go look for some pigs then tie dogs back up around 4am then shoot roos again until sun up. The hit the 'Box'.
Been a while since i used the sticker.

 

[Rollinbones]

Errr...nope

Been a while since i used the sticker.

Me too. If someone handed me a knife and said, "chase those dogs at a sprint for a kilometre, wrestle a pig and stab it to death then gut it and I'll give you fifty bucks" I'm afraid I'd decline these days. Bit of fun still though.

 

[Jamiegeo]

Yeah the T3 smashed the market on affordable accuracy an choice.
Yeah, an Anshutz has been on my wish list for many years.. Maybe one day.

Yeah i do miss the dog and sticker pigs,feels like a 'Real' hunt.... Had some major near death adrenaline times Doing it tho.. and to this day i keep a 'Stapler' in my first aid kit...just incase anyone gets a cut. , my dogs run when i reach for it..Lol

 

[toeskr]

Funny as mate. G'day, from a fellow Aussie.
I agree totally with you about the .303. I was/am a huge fan of that calibre and those rifles.
Having shot up to .475HH (and recovered ) i honestly cant see the performance or economic advantage of going above .303-.308 here in Oz. (Unless your regularly hunting buffalo).
Will be interesting to see what the fellas on the other continent think of the large calibres..

I have often thought of buying a .17hornet for plinking, anybody Rate it?

.17 Hornet is awesome. The latest here is the. 17 hmr. Good varmint round.

 

[Jamiegeo]

.17 Hornet is awesome. The latest here is the. 17 hmr. Good varmint round.

Cool... Next tax time maybe

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I don't "go" hunting.

​

It usually comes to me.


Who here likes furry-tailed tree rat?

 

[toeskr]

I don't "go" hunting.

​

It usually comes to me.


Who here likes furry-tailed tree rat?

Furry tailed bed twats, I love em.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Miss Kay is fond of the brains...


I fear catching something, so I prefer mine headless.

 

[JohnnySavage]

I find the switching back and forth between metric and American calibers in the nomenclature annoying.

 

[toeskr]

Miss Kay is fond of the brains...


I fear catching something, so I prefer mine headless.

Agreed.

 

[Liar]

Is it still considered hunting if I don't fire a boomstick?

I usually "hunt" fish, but on occasion I trap grouse and rabbit when it's season. The island where we have our summer cabin is full of' em. Rabbits, that is, too far south for grouse. But my sis lives in grouse central.

Have a license for hunting w rifle, but I'm so godawfully bad at it that I don't bother.