G'day
My name is Shane, from and living in the amazing state of Tasmania which is the island below mainland Australia. 53 working as a nurse, mainly in hospitals in Hobart. I am into Triumph Motorcycles and have three, a Thunderbird, Tiger 800XC and a Tiger Sports 1050. Shooting is another of my hobbies, and I would probably only have three or four if it were not for having to learn about what is available due to changes forced upon us after a mass shooting in 1996, where the shooter with a mental disability performed better than a lot of military personnel would have.
I love my Lee Enfields, and their derivatives, my favourite despite being heavy is a No4, made by Longbranch in Canada, which I have put an XS systems scout mount on, this allows for me to use the iron sights, a scout scope and with an adaptor a normal scope on the rifle. I have an Australian Lithgow with Air Force stamps on it as a spotter in 303-270 (303 British necked down to the 270) as my deer rifle, and a few others that I just love shooting. On the more modern front I have a Thompson Dimension, with barrels/calibres in 204 Ruger, 223 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor (this hasn't arrived yet from the US), 7mm08, and 308. I love the concept of a single rifle with different bolts that can take multiple calibers, this works quite well when you need to ask permission for every rifle, but not the barrels.
I have a trusty Marlin 336, which is my short range brush/bush gun, and I really enjoy the lever action rifles for pointing and shooting. I have a pistol endorsement on my licence and go to the local pistol range every month or so to have a shoot, here we can only use handguns for target shooting, the concept of self defence is frowned upon and certainly not allowed with firearms for mere mortals by those who must be obeyed.
I have just got myself a Ruger American Predator in 223, as its going to be my wallaby gun, and I was wanting to see how the Rugers performed after being severely disappointed by the action of the Gunsite Scout. I was probably spoilt by the Lee Enfield action, and found the Ruger to be not what I hoped for and gave up on them. Since then I have also go a M77 Compact in 7.62x39, a very nice little deer rifle and my partner will be using it when she has her licence. I like that I can use the same projectile on this as I can on my Lee Enfields in 303.
I am going to try to improve my shooting skills, by getting into longer range shooting, out to hundreds of metres initially then 500+ then hopefully 1000. Something that I enjoy is self improvement. I have gotten better as a motorcycle rider by working on my riding skills. I am looking at getting a better marksman by learning as much as I can about the trade, something that I will enjoy doing, and something to help me be a better hunter.
I am a bit of a tragic with the Dimension, and am looking at getting a second rifle, and having a couple heavy longer range barrels done up. 204 Ruger is a great calibre so I am looking at a longer heavier barrel in this calibre, and I am tossing up between 6.5 Creedmoor & 7mm08 as my heavier barrel long range shooting barrel. I spent some time in the Army Reserve, then the permanent Air Force here in Australia, so most of my shooting there was at man sized representative targets out to 300m.
So between work, sleep ( I work night shift all the time), having a life and other commitments I am looking to learn the theory of longer range shooting, what can work against me and becoming a better shot. My goal from joining this forum is to be able to read comments from the group, make comments and learn.
Cheers & have a great week.
ShaneBroomy