As a few of you guys know I had one of these on order and was probably going to be waiting a year or more for the order to be filled.
Fortunately a few mates of mine had their eyes open and when one popped up on
www.usedguns.com.au I received a number of quick messages and my call happened to be the first.
To be frank the timing was bad but after some budgetary considerations and a bit of discussion with the missus we decided we could afford it so I plumped for it.
It has only had 6 shots through it and all of those were at the range.
The PO bought it to hunt Asiatic water buffalo in the Northern Territory but ended up taking a 338 Win Mag instead and his current project forced its sale.
Turns out I was pretty lucky about being the 1st caller.
At least 3 other guys chased it after me and it has created some attention on an Aussie hunting forum I'm a member of.
So here are a couple of truly shocking pics taken with my really old digital camera.
On top of that a mate of mine is friends with Bruce Bertram of Bertram Brass and as I was unsure whether the Ruger chambering was identical to the cases Bruce makes my mate explained the issue and Bruce gave him a sample case to see.
Turns out it fits like a glove.
Here's a couple of pics:
Here's a comparison to a 308 Win case.....
Makes it look like the 308's a 223!
To top the deal off it comes with the 6 once-fired cases and the other 14 Hornady factory rounds at no extra cost.
When you consider that a box of 20 unprimed Hornady cases is AUD$75 and a box or 20 Hornady factory rounds is about AUD$170 that is a CONSIDERABLE bonus.
The ammo isn't here yet but I'll post a range report when it arrives.
I can also start messing about with it and see what can be done with cast bullets and with some of the jacketed .41 cal pistol bullets.
Most of the time the big Woodleigh 400gr RNSNs with would be overkill but a lighter bullet would be fun on goats, pigs and smaller deer.
One day, though, I'm going to chase some buffs with it.......
