dave h

Funny looking back how our Fathers had no sense of humour ! I rode my motor bike into town on my 16th birthday to see about getting a motor bike lisence ! The local Cop made me push the Bike home & wake my father to tell him what I'd done (The death sentance would have been prefrable )After the Old man had kicked my arse from here till breakfast time! He drove me back into Quorn & the Copper had my license writtern out !As he said there was nothing in the law that he could of punished me with worse than what Dad could do to me ! One of my punishments ,along with a long spell on the wood heap chopping wood for Mum ,was the confersation of my Crystel radio for a month !!!! Now that hurt as we still had the old radio plays & serials ! A whole month with out westerns ,the Goon show ect ! Brings a tear to my eye even now ! On the bright side I rang up Tandys today (a electrical supplier like Radio shack & eventualy got one of the Older staff who informed me that they have Crystal radios in stock ) Guess where I'm going this week ??? Dave

[attachmentid=15] This is My Lad,Evan with his shooting Car (please note the air conditioned comfort & easy access or quick escape route for Dad in emergencey ) I'm holding my 45-70 & SBH.44mag ,Ev has his Trapper in 30-30 & the ruger single six (with the mag cylynder in place I think ) .WE were off on what turned out to be a unsuccessfull goat hunt ! Dave

I'm lucky in the sence that I got a second chance with having another son to hunt with as this is my second marraige !My Kids are grown up & now have in one case a Child of their own ! My eldest son is serving overseas with the SAS with the Army so we don't see much of him ! It's fantastic when he pays us a visit as it involves going out for a couple of days of just the Boys as it were . Only problem being his leading his step brother astray ! Teaching him how to out shoot Dad !!!!!!! Dave

God I haven't heard of anybody using a Crystal radio in years ! THis brings back some pleasant childhood memeries !!!! Years ago I got a couple for my Nephews .They were right in to computers & all things tecnical ! It had them stuffed as they could'nt work out why there were no batteries & the radio still worked ! Those units I got from Radio shack & they came with a small ear piece ! On reading this I may just have to go & check out if you can still get them or if I have to get the parts my self ? Wonder if the Kids that work in these stores would know what a Cat's wishker is? Dave

Sorry bout that Jerry I forget myself on occastion with our slang ! The ducks guts means something is just right or exellant ! As flash as a "rat with a gold tooth" is another way of saying it ! If something is just right it is "Just like a brought one " Down here it would be (depending on the size of the proprty ) Joe from down south ? Yeah "his a Big Cockie" or Joe from down south ? "No mate his just a small time Cockie" It's funny most of the big stations over here were taken up by Blokes from Scotland ! They must have colinized the world of Cattle farming (must be a small country syndrome or something ) Vestery was a Scot as were the Mac Lachlins who owned Commonwealth hills (the biggest sheep station in the southern hemisphere in it's day ) As for bird shooting ? There you have me ! I know there is a duck season .There is also quail ,dove ,& Geese in the Northern Territory .But it's something I've never delt in (as there was no money in it ) I live on a large property of roughly 20,000 acres (No I'm not a Cockie I leave that up to my Brother ) I enjoy shooting crows ,Rabbits ,Foxes ,Goats in my spare time anything else is like work! The curse of shooting for a living is trying to relax & seperate leasure from Work ! My 12 yr old step son has given me a second lease of life as he & his sisters were born in the city & had never ventured out of there until their mother & I got together ! So in the last 5 yrs the Lad has his own Bush bashing car (Minus doors, front fenders trunk lid ,& windscreen & uit's a case of every night I'm Home of can we go spotlighting Dad ???????? It's nice to go out without haveing to worry about hitting or missing & tallies ect ! He quite often helps himself to a .22 out of the safe & goes to scare a rabbit or 2 or takes his .310cadet & clobbers a Goat ! Dave

Down here a Station owner is Known as just that .They are also refered to as "Cockies" (a Native bird that causes great damage to crops .A pink & grey parrot ! The term is not one of indearment ) Most of the larger Stations are owned by large coorparations & employ Managers to see to the day to day Running of the Land ! VRD in the North was the size of Belgium & was owned by a Lord Vestery of the Blue star Shipping company .It is said that he never came to Australia to see what he had invested in .It has since changed hands & I have No idea of which company owns it these days ! The Bombs you speak of .Would have been the Duck's Guts over here ! Instead we have until recently used Stichnyne & 1080 .There is now a test going on to use Pure Cocaine in the baits as it causes the animal to go into Hyperthermia & Die in a "Humaine Fashion " (Please note my political correctness ,in my line of work I'm dealing with do gooders & tree huggers all the time these days !!!!) Dave

Cheers for the Heads up on that FC! I did'nt realise this! Added to the fact of Googles hesitation to release details of the number of hits on Child Porn sites to the Gov it makes for a fairly shakey company Dave

I'm related to Royalty........Me cousins a "Queen " (slang for Homosexual ) Dave

WE take the Ears as proof of a kill when just culling ! Everthing is taken when shooting for human /Pet food consumption The animal is dressed in the Field (the Liver ,Kidneys ,Heart & lungs must be left in the beast for inspection the same thing applies for Kangeroos) they are then moved to a large mobile Chiller were they are then shipped to the Processing Plants ! On a Culling job like I was just involed in each camel is worth $200.00 to me & I work by my self where as For The Meat industry It is a case of hiring several Hands to assist in the removal & dressing of the Carcass .A large Bull or cow is worth round the $800.00 mark ,but after I allow for wages for the crew & find a reliable crew at that it whittles down my profit margin ! Roos are normaly a one man operation although I've hired Off siders over the years in times of Plenty when I was Training up New Guys (They work for nothing ) The first time I ever saw the Dried apricot idea I did'nt belive that it would work ! It was a art form in it's self to get it just right ! But the expression of discussd on the Inspectors face on opening the bag was always priceless ! Most would stand up wind & get you to count them out ,then rebag them & into the furnace to be destroyed! This went on for years before somebody got careless & got too greedy & added to many Home made Snouts (ruined a perfectly good cottage industry ! Apricot growers must of felt the Pinch ! To say nothing of the Fall in Pigs destroied on the Books of the Gov inspectors ) Dave

Mate I just pray the statureof limitations is up on the things we used to do ! In the Northern Territry Dog scalps were worth 5/8's of nothing due to it being cattle country ! Yet over the Border in WA or down south in SA they were worth in those days about $30.00 in Gov bounty It would scare the Bejeeze out of the Berucrats in the Deptment s concerned in Feral & Dog control of the number of Dingos that crossed the borders to comit suicide ! (Well their scalps crossed the borders anyway ) A good Dogger before they modified the rules on scalps could get a good 6 or 7 out of one dog ! In my Dad's day 1930's until the 60's they used to use Kangaroo hides cut up & then mixed & left in the sun to make up scalp Numbers ! Funny thing is young Blokes ask these days why it's so hard to break into the industry ???????? Before the kangaroo Indutry was reclassified as for Human consumption & monitered more closely I was selling to one Processor BoB Jesser (He still owes me money ) That would take Goats as Roos & stick the Tags we were issued on them ! THereby classing them as Roo meat & getting more for the meat ! Dave

FC. Dog stifferning used to be a "trade" unto it's self as it were. Doggers were always viewed with suspition by all & sundry! THere is a Fence that starts on the Great Austrailian Bight (infact it hangs over the Clifts) & then travels through the desert between SA, WA, the Northern Territory & into NSW & finnishes up in a field in the middle of nowhere ! Although it was buil;t as a Rbbit Proof fence it later became a Dog Fence to control Dingos .In the early days there were control Officers (Doggers ) ever 20 mile & they were issued Push bikes to patrol their section of the Fence ! Imagine a push bike (we're talking early 1900's) carrying Crow bar ,Fencing gear ,shovel ,Water Bag ,Rations ,Rifle ect through sand ! These were hard men indeed ! I did a stint on the Fence .But I had the luxury of a 4x4 & 500miles of fence to maintain ! The Gov used to pay a bounty for Dog scalps ,but now it is up to the indavidual Property owners to pay the Dogger the price per scalp varies from about$60.00 to 160.00 per scalp with several states still emploing their own Officers on a limited scale & then contracting out work ! In the past when working on Stations(large Properties ) I have been known to stop on my way out to work if I saw a Dog that had been run over in town & scalp it & faithfully "cash" it in on the Station ,stating that I got it on the Station !!!!! For many years there was a bounty paid on Feral Pigs it wa about $1.00 per snout ,so we would get dried apricots & punch 2 holes in them with a pencil & mix them in with the snouts & leave them out in the sun for about a week! THere was not a Gov inspector in the world that had the stomach to really take care in counting them !In Western Australia there is still I belive a $5.00 bounty paid on Starlings (Black birds ) As it is free of the damned things .Whilst working for the WA gov as a pest control Officer (Dingos Camels,Horses ,Donkys )I lined my Little brother up in SA to shoot Starlings with his Air rifle ,pack em on ice & frieght em over to me were I trckled them on to the market! Like all good things though word got round on what I was doing & other greedy people flooded the market as it were & it did'nt take long before some one realised what was going on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dave

Jason I personally have made tinkering,converting,sporterizing on the odd occassion off loading real clunkers to new chums ! They have been the basis for nearly all of my working rifles ! Moden calibers came & went but at one stage there were about 30 Enfeilds in my safe at one time . The two most popular wildcats were the 270-303 & the 25-303 . There was a time when several home grown companies stocked factory ammo & brass for nearly all of the 303 convertions from .22-303 (5 types that I know of ) 243-303,25-303& 270-303 .Of course these companies went by way of the DO-DO ! But a local company Simplex (God love em ) still stock dies ,including Forming dies for em ! There has been a resurgance of intrest in the last couple of years for the 25-303. I still own & use the first Mk1 (1902) I ever bought as a Water Buff Rifle in the late 60's (the Old girl is on her 8th barrel ) The Old PH's tool kit comprised of a Hacksaw blade,Triangular File ,Car inner tube (for bedding ) & a stick of brase as when you cut em back (the stock ) they shot about 6" high so you soldied som brase on the fore sight & filed it down until she shot where you wanted it ! It must be remembered we shot (& still do hundreds of miles from any gunsmith ) Mounts ? There was a Aussie company "Field" that produced several different types of mount but failing that ! I have once wittnessed a set of mounts that had been Arc welded to the reciver of a Smelly ! Ammo was normaly Milsup ranging from 215gn RN to 174 gn solids (which were dum-dumed by cutting a small piece off the nose with side cutters ! God help you if you cut too much off )I suppose apart from the appeal of a cheap tool ,these rifles have proven them selves time & time again & everybody has a story to tell about sporterizing ,reloading & the leasons learnt Dave

G'day josh Try http://www3.sympatico.ca/shooters/ScopeMount.htm this is a interesting home made job Dave

Roscoedoh you now owe me the cost of cleaning my key board & Moniter ! I read that with a mouth ful of coke ! wich is now sprayed over everything ! I bet that Reporter will have nightmares for the next 10 yrs Plus ! As For the Marine ? God Bless Him & keep him safe ! & Keep up the Good work ! My Son is with the SASR1 & is overseas at the moment .I've sent the Quote to him in case of reporters ! Dave

Over here we have a company CIG that sells complete Oxy /Acete kits of various sizes .WE can hire the bottles from several differant companies Try http://www.cigweld.com.au this may help answer a few queries Ps: we call em Gas axes over here as a nickname Dave

FC Camels wander around most of the Northern areas of Australia from the middle of Nth western aust right through to the eastern states . There is a estimated 700,000 feral camels in the Northern Territory alone ! Not only are they shot for Pet food these days but there is a market for Human consumption ,as well as a live export trade for calves & younger camels a Good one can bring up to 40'000 dollars ! I was away this last 10 days on a dingo control project ! I was also asked to destroy any Camels I came across but to leave any juvinile & calves .When I enquired why the sudden show of feelings by the property manager ? He informed me that they would muster up any young stock but did'nt need the hassel of the Old Bulls & Cows . (Hey I got a nice bonus out of it so I'm not complaining ) My incident with the ribs is a common issue with Pro Shooters over here ,a number are injured or killed each year. It's just not a publisied thing (it don't sell papers) This week I accounted for 37 dogs & 15 Camels Dave

My personal faverite loads for the .303Brit are 150gn 36gns of H4895 174/180gn 34gns of H4895 or 43gns of H414/H4350 215gn 40gns of H414/H4350 These are starting loads & are sutible for Mk3 actions . There is a formular for reduced loads from Hodgdon ,but it escapes me at the presant time ! Dave

My long suffering Barrel maker has a Reamer in 357Max at the moment .So it's just a matter of sweet talking him into turning out a nice medium weight barrel for me ! His slightly snowed under with work at the presant time (including several barrels I have ordered )So I have no wish to incure his wrath at the presant time ! It would not be the first time his chased me out of his shop whilst threaterning my with bodily harm ! That would require ,a Proctologist to remove the Blank from my body !!!!! Dave

My learned collegues have hit the nail on the head as far as education is concerned ! I've been a Pro shooter for all of my life (with a short exception of when the Army decided it needed me to keep the world a free place ) Yeah ! Everybody tells me what a great career & Life I have! Shooting for a living ! Yeah that's all I do for a living ! Or as I see it ! It's the only thing I can do for a living ,as I left school at 14 as like you I hated it ! Now I'm a victam of a lack of education ! No do the hard yard & then decide what you want Dave

Only heard good things about Huber triggers.It seems to be the best kept secret in the world of the Web on where to get them ! I've just found a new Gunsmith! I've yet to try him out ! I normally get my barrel work done by Sprinters Dave

Jimro .I'm not right up in the religion Biz but I do know that God has our lives under control & he will know which way to point you & open doors for you ! My prayers for your guidence are with you ! Try to sit back & let God show you which way you must go ! Hope this helps Dave

One of my great weaknesses in life is the Humble Martini Cadet action ! My .22 Hornet is a origanal Sportco (a now deflunct South Australian company ) I had a long gone Uncle who was their Head Gun smith & sepcialized in rechambering Cadet actions ! Over the years I've rebarreled them to 218 Bee ,222 Rimmed ,25-20 ,Re chambered or rebarreled to 32-20 & Re cut or rebarreled to .357 mag ! I have normally had one hidden in the back of the safe as a Rainy day project ! My first "Big Game" Rifle was a .310 Cadet ! Some time back my Stepson who had never shot until he moved out to my place was looking through the safe & found my spare .310 & ended up claiming it for his own use (much searching round for .310 Dies .....Now were'd I put em ?) So I found myself with out a Spare project action ! My Gun guy has come to the rescue & has found me a Cadet (at the right price ) I really have a urge to go for a 357max this time round ! Also I have tracked down a Greener action in .303 . I think this will become a 270-303. Dave

Know where your comming from Jim (I hope to be late for my own funeral ....only cause I'm too broke to afford it ) As I have a fair bit of time on my hands these days (hope the wife don't read this ) I hope to get on a fair amount Dave

I said " Knife" not "wife" you Twit ! The wife would be the first to go ! & if I sampled the product of that still of yours ........Well the Ugliest Roo in the world would start to look good (come to think of it if ya spend enough time out on your own .....Hell you do'nt even need the product of the Still ) Dave

Mate sounds like your on a winner there ! I'm sure with a match trigger & once that new barrel settles in those groups will probarly shrink a little (mind you their pretty darn good at the moment ) Are you going to reload or stay with factory ammo? Dave