Since I actually live in a country town and have some access to a few properties some mates from Sydney often ring and ask if they can have a poke around to see is they can shoot something. In fact one good mate originally asked me cold over the Net and after meeting up with him and sounding him out I decided he was a top guy and have shot a couple of times with him since. But the guy who came out with me this arvo was his shooting mate who I'll call Paul and so I'll get to the story.
After some fairly pointed emails because he's between jobs and busting to get out in the paddocks with a gun I contacted a farmer and organised for us to have a walk through his property. The farmer assured that there were very few rabbits about and even the roos had moved on but if we wanted to take a walk then fine; we were quite welcome. The only stipulation was to tone it down on the firepower as the local land was being sub-divided at a savage rate; one owner had had 12 neighbours vor the past 40 years......now he has 42 neighbours! :(

So armed with his 12 guage single barrel and his .22 Paul made the 2 and half hour drive south west and arrived at my place well in time. After packing and fueling up we drove about 30 miles north to the property, prepped our gear(his 12g and my 25-20 Martini Cadet) and set out on our walk.
Unfortunately the stock yards that I'd shot bunnies in before on the property were full of sheep; the rotten things ran from one paddock to another when we arrived to get in there! :confused:
So we headed into a field with light timber and long grass and took our time.

The farmer wasn't lying.....the place was devoid of rabbits although we saw a decent amount of roos coming out again. But the weather was nice and mild and the birds were out and it was clear we were in God's country. I put in more than a few prayer to the Big Guy for "just one each" but nothing was turning up.

Finally we left the big field and returned to the yards......only to see 2 little rabbits in an adjoining field do the bolt. We pursued them and Paul almost nailed one with the shottie but he hadn't shot it in a while and his aim was low. We were kinda miffed but optimistic and as we made our way back into the yards I spied a huge hare just sitting inside one of the pens. I told Paul to take it and it just shuffled into the open long enough to cop most of the No4 shot at about 15yds! Fortunately Paul shot over it a little and didn't blow it apart and I applied a final sleeping pill from the 25-20 to speed it's journey. So content with a much better haul than a little rabbit we then went in search of something for me.
Paul with his booty and Bentley Vanguard 12g SB. :cool:
http://www.geocities.com/kombicat/NetShootingPics/PetersHare15_2_06.jpg

It wasn't to be and Paul reckons we ended up sharing the hare but it came off almost exactly as I wished and I think it's the way shooters with access to land need to think. It felt great seeing him nail that hare and it would've been wrong to have him drive all that way and see me nail it instead. I wouldn't even have made the effort truth be told if it weren't for the prodding so it was a great afternoon well spent. I also got a chance to see what a 75gn FP out of a 25-20 will do to a soda can at 40m. I nailed it in the centre and the can exploded, leaping off the log 6yds to the left! :eek:
Ok, I confess, I shook the ringer out thing first. :o :D
Here's an after, before and cartridge pic:
http://www.geocities.com/kombicat/NetShootingPics/SodaCanCourtesyOf25-20.jpg

Any walk in the country with a gun in hand and companion at your side is a pleasureable experience - the game taken is a bonus.

Glad to hear things went well and that you enjoyed yourselves. Now, you have a new hunting pard to add to your circle of friends. Well done!

WALK????? Did you say WALK??????? :eek: :eek: Dear, oh dear, oh dear !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANDY!!!!!! MATE!!!!!!!!!!!! How many times do I have to tell you ? Walking is bad for you! It increases the heart rate to a unacceptable rate there by affecting the steadyness of your aim ect !!!!! Look get over here & I'll show you how to hunt the civilized way ! (Plus the fact I've got that 20 skin fox contrat to fill ) WE went out the othernight & wacked the first Fox exactly 5mins after leaving the back door !
On a serious note good on ya for taking that chap out with you! To many people are missing out these days due to places being built out like that! I'm glad I don't have that problem !

Dave

Any walk in the country with a gun in hand and companion at your side is a pleasureable experience - the game taken is a bonus.

Glad to hear things went well and that you enjoyed yourselves. Now, you have a new hunting pard to add to your circle of friends. Well done!
New hunting buddies aren't hard to come by.
In fact they're disturbingly easy to accrue.
It's getting GOOD hunting buddies and SAFE hunting buddies that is the difficult bit.
Since I spend a fair bit of time reading & surfing the Net I aim to find guys who've had a bit more field experience than me but aren't necessarily as well versed in ballistic and firearm trivia.
That way I get the dope on the tricks of the trade and they find out what this obscure cartridge/rifle is or whether the newest rifle/cartridge/scope on the block is worth the dosh.
I certainly don't profess to know alot but, well, I'm a bit of a sponge as far as gun info goes.
And with such gurus as Dave H you pick up a bit of stuff here and there. :D
To give you some idea I tried to convince a guy from the local club that the 30-30 was smokeless cartridge from day dot.
I've read it 10 times from different sources.
But he was convinced it started as a black powder round, was invented in 1830 and would hear no different! :eek:
He then moved onto claim that the 45-70 was invented in 1870. :confused:
"Stands to reason...the number at the end was the year!" :(
It was at this point I decided not to labour the point.
When you argue with a fool you may be mistaken as one yourself! :rolleyes:
Suffice to say he won't be invited out............

Sounds like a game plan, Kombi. Nothing wrong with your thought process.

Have met some pretty good guys here on the internet. Only met one that won't be included in the future groups and that one was several years in the past.

Some folks are pretty well set in their convictions of preceived information. Had the same arguments/discussions with folks over how certain cartridges or firearms were developed and what the nomenclature meant. No one ever said we English speaking folks maintained a ridged system of identifying our cartridges. Only the European method of millimeters seem to be fairly consistent. This way, we have lots more fun arguing the finer points! ;)

I've been hunting with another guy I met on a forum.
As soon as I met him I knew I'd never be his best mate but we still had a good hunt and I knocked over 4 goats that weekend.
The other guys I've shot with are all excellent.
The trick is to find a time they can come and since we're all busy that can be hard.
The "30-30 made in 1830" guy seemed happily ignorant of pretty much everything.
He also complained about the fact that he couldn't get his '94 to group any smaller than minute-of-elephant and then proclaimed that he probably should've done some load development........ :rolleyes:
At my suggestion that the magazine tube attachment also caused accuracy problems at times he shrugged and just implied that '94s were inherrantly inaccurate. :confused:
Now, I'm no great lover of Winchester lever guns but I'm not that stupid. :mad:
As far as nomenclature for rifle cartridges I reckon the British are the worst.
Since there were a number of basically boutique gunsmithing companies like H&H, Rigby & Gibbs that created their own cartridges they stuck their own names onto the cartridge or in the case of the big bores simply Nitro Express, which may or may not be based on a previous N.E. case.
Most American cartridges, bless their little parochial cotton socks, are based on PARENT American cartridges(i.e.270 & 30-06; 22-250 & 250 Savage) or for the older ones are calibre/powder-load(e.g. 45-70, 30-40) and sometimes a combination (i.e. 25-20 & 32-20).
There are a few different ones but mostly it's easy to identify.
The only major cartridge that I know of named because of it's date of invention is the 30-06.
Of course, I'm still a greenhorn in many ways and I'm sure you can give me lots of examples of others.
But yeah, the Europeans have cartridge naming down to a fine art.