Mysparetime1977’s Weblog

I’ve learnt something over the last week or so. After my maiden North Island bush hunt I’ve learnt that things are quite different up here in the North. Where I hunt in the South Island (Southern Alps) a long range flat shooting rifle is required. Calibres such as the .270 Winchester, 7mm Remington Magnum and the 243 Winchester are called for, they drive a relatively long bullet weighing anywhere from 87 grains up to 160 gr relatively flat, making that long across valley shot easier. I’ve owned a 7mm Remington Magnum and loved it. However boyhood dreaming saw me want more, so I sold that and picked up my pet rifle, the one I’ve been dreaming about since I was a young chap (too young to have a firearms license that is), the Weatherby .257 Magnum in Mk V Ultralight, nicely crafted piece of hardware…and oh so sweet to shoot. It was Roy Weatherby’s personal favorite and one of his first creations (the .300 Weatherby was the other). Capable of knocking down deer sized game right out to 600 yards (in the right hands of course with everything going your way) I thought I’d found the one gun I would ever need. No so, after four days of dragging myself through the North Islands bush where the 26 inch barrel of the Ultralight was more of a hinderance than anything else…I decided I’d better do something about it. Stage left enter Gun City in Christchurch. The supplied  me with a Rossi Puma in .44 Magnum…but that’s not all. They also offered to customise the length to whatever I wanted so long as it didn’t fall below the legal 762mm length deeming it a pistol (and different license is required for this in NZ…limitations include you can’t take a pistol hunting). The rifle comes with a 20 inch barrel, Rossi also do a 16 inch barreled version…I chose to go down to 13 inches after the encounter with the Weatherby in the bush. Rifle should arrive this week so once I’ve run the barrel in I’ll report back with how this machine goes!