Giday from New Zealand.

[Von Gruff]

Giday Guys.
Been debating the 6.5 cartridges with myself for some time now and have come down firmly in the Grendel camp but unlike most of you it is the bolt rifle side of the Grendel capabilities I am considering.
It may be some time in coming but the intent is to use the Zastave mini mauser and go with a 8 in x 21in light weight barrel with a 2-7 Leupold and run the 123gn A max. I do my own stoickwork so will build along the lines of the English stalking rifles as I have done for a few others and have myself a dandy carrying rifles for some of the hill hunting we do here.
I see another poster has asked for a specific bolt rifle forum and that would be my place of special interest as well.

I was on the old forum some time back and have been lurking here of and on for a while.

Von Gruff.

[ricsmall]

welcome to the horde gruff.

[OLd Man]

What do you hunt there in NZ. I have seen wonderful red stag and sone deer that I can't think of the name for and tahr also. We need pictures! Welcome onboard.

[fkleinbu]

A bolt Grendel would be very nice indeed.. That or a custom Thompson Encore could very well be my second..

What are the gun laws like down there.. I once sold a Thompson Encore barrel to a New Zealander.. It took about 3 weeks to get it to him..

Good luck with your build.. I would love to see what you came up with once completed.. flk k

[BluntForceTrauma]

VG, welcome!

John

[Von Gruff]

Thanks for the welcome. This is a couple of the hunts I have taken a few pics of. Mostly I hunt goat and rabbit now. Have a shoulder problem that prevents me from going prone with a bipod now so use either stony point sitting height or Bog-Pod stanbding tripod so limited my shooting a little. Have built a 20 VarTarg for the rabbits and of course the 7x57 and the 404 Jeffery, so with the country I hunt the Grendel just makes so much sense although it may take a while financially. Waould anticipate building the Grendel similar to my 7x57.
Have Red, fallow, sika, Rusa, sambar, wapiti,tahr, chamois, goat, pig, rabbit, hare, and in some cases ferel cattle and sheep. Plenty of hunting available but I really like the goat and rabbit as they offer chalenges but with enough numbers to make it almost certain that a hunt will be sucessful.

http://www.mausercentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32271

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5621043/m/2801043151

Von Gruff.

[Variable]

Welcome aboard fine Sir! Thank you very much for the links to those threads. You sure live in a beautiful country! I've wanted to travel there ever since I used to watch old "Hercules" and "Xena" episodes on tv (it's OK to laugh at me for it...). Not to even mention the "Lord of the Rings" movies. The good Lord certainly graced your country with an extra helping of awesomeness.

Also--- What you are doing with your soft nosed cast bullets is very neat. I've never seen, heard, or even thought of something like that. Really cool! You are obviously pretty well versed in the firearms realm, so I hope you contribute often here. Hopefully you'll post some pics along the way too...

[Von Gruff]

fkleinbu,
Our gun laws are really quite benign taken as a whole. Firearms owners are vetted for a firearms licence which includes a background check and an interview with closest family member(usually spouse etc) and an unrelated referee. Quite simple and uncomplicated. An A licence allows unlimited any style shotguns and ordinary hunting rifles. B requires membership of a pistol club and allows unlimited handguns but the rub is that they may only be used at recognised clubs so while I had 7 or 8 for a while the restriction on use was a detractor. A C licence allows a collector to have but not use any firarm and a D is for a dealer while the E is for military style semi auto. Ordinary semi auto's come under the A licence so long as they dont have free standing pistol grip or detachable mag of more than 7 rounds. Not too onerous but the number or AR type rifles is limited by the high cost and the need rather than the law. As shown in one of the links I posted of a couple of my hunts a bolt action rifle is more than capable of taking on numbers of animals.

Von Gruff.

[JASmith]

Welcome aboard!

What part of NZ do you hail from? It looks like Christchurch is starting to settle down after a couple of awesome earthquakes. I assume recovery is still going on and it will be awhile before the area is completely back to what we would call normal.

+1 for the bolt rifle section in the forum.

[Von Gruff]

Welcome aboard!

What part of NZ do you hail from? It looks like Christchurch is starting to settle down after a couple of awesome earthquakes. I assume recovery is still going on and it will be awhile before the area is completely back to what we would call normal.

+1 for the bolt rifle section in the forum.

Lawrence is a small country town in South Otago which is in the southern half of the South Island. Christchurch is still in the deconstruction phase of recovery with decisions still being made as the make up of CBD that took the most severe hits. Will be many years before it will be considered normal but people everywhere are resiliant as you will know from the tornado, wildfire and flood damage that regularly strikes many places.

Von Gruff.

[OLd Man]

Checked out those hunting pictures and they look like great fun. You could have used that E license and a grendel for all those goats. Check out helo hog hunt, I think you will like it.

[Von Gruff]

Checked out those hunting pictures and they look like great fun. You could have used that E license and a grendel for all those goats. Check out helo hog hunt, I think you will like it.

You might like to check out this series of documentaries on the early days of deer culling in New Zealand that started the helicopter shooting when 100's of deer were shot at a time.

http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/deer-wars-2007

Von Gruff.

[txgunner00]

Howdy! Cool hunting pics!

[sneaky one]

Von Gruff-thanks for the cool old footage. Welcome to the Gang. BTW,-how does that red deer meat taste? , Also-how many deer are there now?

[Von Gruff]

Cheers Sneaky, Red deer is a good eating animal although the fallow and sika being the best of them all for taste. I remember seeing the chopers coming back into Wanaka in the mid to late 60"s and into the early 70's and hearing the chooper blades really whoping the ari they were so heavy laden They would just get over the tops and drop away down into the heavier air of the valley and in over the lake to their base. After the numbers dropped off a bit they went in for live capture and started the deer farming thaat has been a great earner for the farmers in breeding and export income, but some have taken to breeding high scoring antlered heads for the put and take hunting. The deer numbers are much reduced from the 60's but there is still a high enough number to cause concern at times. The hunter numbers have increased substantially and there is a understanding or the deer as a resourse for off shore hunters but much of this is captive hunting or put and take in many instances although there are many outfitters and guides who offer fair chase ground hunting to the big red. There was a Wapiti gift to the country early on last century and their numbers grew substantially but recently (as in the last 20 years or so ) the interbreeding of the wapiti with the red has led to a hybred that flourishes but head quality has morphed into non standard and usually not trophy quality. The hybrid is favoured for the farm situation for the meat trade though. For myself I have a preference for the Fallow in hunting chalenge, and taste.

Von Gruff.