Marc Stokeld
I do not know in which part of our lovely little corner of the world you�ve been to (Finland?) but your picture of our hunting doesn�t really fit with mine... You really need to expand your horizons a little bit! Hunting in the Scandinavian countries is as varied as the terrain. Your �typical� shots at moose etc are not very typical at all nor are the distances or the �shooting of moose under a full moon". A lot of moose here in Sweden are shot for dogs especially in the northern parts � many of them by posters at greater distances and at trot or full run. Quite a few are also shot at drives � again many of them doing quite the opposite of standing still.. A bunch of others are shot during still hunting � in the forest or at a clear cut where distances are not very short at all.
Roe deer are mostly shot at still hunting or in front of a slow moving dog � a dachshound or a beagle fx. Distances vary from inside 30 meters with a shotgun or 250 meters with a rifle.
Hunting any deer species during the night is a legal offence here which should put the �hunter� behind bars!!

Many �hunting teams� here have rules that say that you are to pass the moose test on a shooting range before you go hunting. You shoot at a running/standing still moose at 80 meters and have to get your shots in the kill zone.

BTW My latest moose were shot at 230m and my first roe buck this year was shot at a hair under 200m.

Cheers
K9

Hi Zim Hunter

I think Will and N E hit the nail right on the head. Having been at this years proficiency exams we saw the same run of the mill proplems as always. Old and often worn rifles are all apprentices can afford. And, when they do buy a new rifle, of just about any make, there are teething problems that need to be sorted out.

If you believe you can buy a factory rifle today and have it perfect, you stand a good chance of beeing very disapointed.

As to the safety- I do most of my shooting left handed, so a winchester M70 safety works fine for me. Also though when testing guides on the night shoot, when their weak hand is holding the torch, you see the proplem with the safety on the "wrong" side. Also on some rifles- particularly old worn ones like one see's appy's carrying the safety catches are not infrequently put on when the bolt is cycles in a hurry. Have seen it a few times in the last two exams with CZ and Interarms X rifles.

And I think you would be very suprised to see the rifle Don carries as a back up on dangerous game. He doesn't own a german or british made rifle anymore. One American and one Belgian, both properly sorted out. Neither with wing safeties! It gets in the way of the striker mounted peep sight which he likes.

As an asside Following Zim Parks's experiences of Ruger M77's, the ones we had were sold and the departmental pollicy is never to aquire any more! To be sure, Ruger has improved alot since the culls, but the policy remains! ( I quite like Rugers and would use one if they were not so heavy)

Actually the left side safety on a right handed rifle is a good idea, as the right hand thumb would more easily be able to flick the safety to "FIRE". Or, a tang safety as on doubles or the old Ruger.

But don't hold your breath about that feature showing up any time soon.

Whoever wrote this article is not being fair to Weatherby.

They did have some problems with them firing when one took the safety off - I had it happen on two Japanese made 300 Weatherby Mk V rifles.

Since that time, I have fired quite a bit of ammo through several Weatherby rifles, and hunted with one, and never, ever had any problems whatsoever.

In fact, my PH uses a 460 Weatherby Mk V rifles as his back up rifle.