• Hey All! Lately there has been more and more scammers on the forum board. They register and replies to members requests for guns and/or parts or other things. The reply contains a gmail or hotmail address or similar ”anonymous” email addresses which they want you to reply to. DO NOT ANSWER ANY STRANGE MESSAGES! They often state something like this: ”Hello! Saw your post about purchasing a stock for a Safari. KnuckleheadBob has one. Email him at: [email protected]” If you receive any strange messages: Check the status of whoever message you. If they have no posts and signed up the same day or very recently, stay away. Same goes for other members they might refer to. Check them too and if they are long standing members, PM them and ask if the message is legit. Most likely it’s not. Then use the report function in each message or post so I can kick them out! Beware of anything that might seem fishy! And again, for all of you who registered your personal name as username, please contact me so I can change it to a more anonymous username. You’d be surprised of how much one can find out about a person from just a username on a forum such ad our! All the best! And be safe! Jim

Sako Rifles Afield (as intended)

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

Wonderful photos and stories! From all!
The best of all stories is when it passes on to the next generation and then again to the next. I love spending time afield with my spawn, my sons and grandsons. Teaching them and watching them develop over time. Seeing that humongous smile when they harvest their first, along with watching them playing on their phones while they are supposed to be patiently waiting for “the buck of a lifetime”!
Stone..your grandson has fine taste in hunting apparel! Especially the hat! I bet he is a character, just by the look in his eyes! Good stuff right there!

This is awesome everyone! Thanks to all for contributing! Keep it going! Where’s Deergoose? I’m sure he has something to add! Dirtswine tally perhaps? 40lb long beard? I betcha he does!

Hippie
 
Yep.. Fox, Deer, Hare, have provided some great sport, and income.
Not to throw a “wobbly” into the thread, but if it was not for the “Poms” and their foresight to bring “real Game” to this country, we may never had Sako’s here! Well not to the extent we have, and the Hunting sport we have.
I remember an old saying “ you don’t bite the hand that feeds you”
I just hope our Game survives for at least a couple more generations.
I don’t think it will be the Animal Activists that will end Hunting as we know it today, but technology,,,,!!!!!

Nice buck!

I get where you're coming from on this, and I agree with a lot of what you say. I have no sympathy whatsoever for the anti-hunting, anti-meat, bunny/Bambi/tree-hugging activists who want to impose their peculiar ascetic world view on the rest of us. They are as big a nuisance as the rabbits, and probably as dangerous to the environment. There's a big difference between a bunny-hugger and a genuine environmentalist, who uses science to understand and preserve ecosystems.

It's true that a lot of people have gotten a lot of good hunting out of introduced European game in Australia, but the price has been high. Foxes, introduced so that toffs in red jackets could ride to hounds, have had a major role in the extinction of many native birds and marsupials. Rabbits, as we all know, have been an absolute catastrophe, stripping large areas bare of vegetation. Billions have been spent on rabbit control. They are making a comeback as some develop immunity to the second virus. As far as I know, the deer have not been responsible for any major damage. Interestingly, the foxes did not take hold in Tasmania. Scientists speculate that they were out-competed by the devils, a stronger and fiercer apex predator.

In general, introduction of alien species has a bad history. The Law of Unintended Consequences runs rampant. Where I live in Arizona, we have a plague of bufflegrass, an African grass introduced in the 19th century as forage for cattle. Like eucalyptus, the stuff thrives on bushfires, burning hot enough to destroy native plants such as the iconic saguaro cactus. And speaking of eucalyptus, large numbers of them were planted in California in the 19th century. They constitute a huge fire hazard and the California authorities have been trying for years to get rid of them. Of course, a group of local tree-huggers has formed to "Save our Trees" and have succeeded in protecting most of the eucalypts, thereby increasing the danger of out-of-control wildfires. And then there's the rich imbecile who decided to introduce all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to the United States. Several of them, notably starlings, have become major pests.

And let's not even talk about feral cats. Or cane toads.

Everything is a trade-off; we must weigh benefits against costs. That's a balance each of us has to strike, and then make a collective decision. I love to hunt, but I also love to see native plants and creatures thriving in a balanced ecosystem.

I'll close with a little personal story. I note your screen name is Wombat. Years ago, my girlfriend and I took a road trip around Tasmania. We stopped at a roadside animal park a few miles out of Launceston, where I took a picture of her hugging a young wombat. To this day it is her favorite portrait of her (did I mention she loves animals?).

I like it here in Arizona, but I do miss Victoria Bitter.
 
Hello Icebear,
I value your comments, obviously you’ve been around the block a few times.
Victoria Bitter is almost going the way of the Tasmanian Devil, lower numbers due to virus, but mainly due to the Yuppies and their trendy beers!!!
I’ve got a story about a Wombat too.
During the Bushfires here in Victoria a couple of years ago ( I know for a fact) a Wombat was flown by an Australian Air Force Hercules plane about 2 hrs to an animal sanctuary for burns treatment!!!!!! $$$$$$$
While every night, Every night! Thousands of Kangaroos and Wombats (permits are available for Wombats ) are shot. Culled !!
The Hypocracy and Greed never ceases to amaze me.
 

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I may have seen that wombat. There was an episode of one of our TV shows about animal rescue in the bushfires, and I seem to remember a bit about evacuating a wombat. I had no idea they were legal game, and I'm a bit puzzled as to why anybody would want to shoot one, unless they are good to eat. I've had kangaroo more than once and that's fine, but never tasted a wombat. And I don't think I'll mention that to my girlfriend. She's not a bunny-hugger, but she is a wombat-hugger.

The cost of the air evac might be less than you think. Air Force pilots have to fly a certain number of hours every month to keep up proficiency, and if they're short at the end of the month they just take up a plane and fly it somewhere and back to get the hours. So the cost of that airlift might just be written off to training, and they'd have had to burn the fuel anyway.

Since you mentioned a Hercules, that's the aircraft in my profile picture. I was never in the military, but I have a pilot's license and some mercenaries in West Africa invited me to go for a ride with them. We dropped some food on a village in the jungle and they let me fly the plane home.

Interesting photos. Looks like you've got that roo bundled up nicely. And my American spell checker didn't recognize the abbreviation for kangaroo, and asked me if I meant goo, moo, poo, zoo, etc. So I taught it a new word.

Cheers mate
 
Hi Icebear,
Just to clarify, as I said, u need to have a”pest destruction” permit to be able to legally shoot wombats here in Victoria. Personally I would not waste ammo on them.
But to Some farmers they can be a real pest, in digging their burrows along creeks, then floods eroding banks etc. and also burrows in open paddocks can cause stock injuries.
The legs on my game recovery trolly are the legs of the Sambar Hind in the picture.
Jay
 

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Hi Icebear,
Just to clarify, as I said, u need to have a”pest destruction” permit to be able to legally shoot wombats here in Victoria. Personally I would not waste ammo on them.
But to Some farmers they can be a real pest, in digging their burrows along creeks, then floods eroding banks etc. and also burrows in open paddocks can cause stock injuries.
The legs on my game recovery trolly are the legs of the Sambar Hind in the picture.
Jay
Thanks for the clarification. I can see where a burrowing animal like a wombat could do a lot of damage to a riverbank. That makes more sense than hunting them for sport.

I assume the Sambar was good eating.
 
Thanks for the clarification. I can see where a burrowing animal like a wombat could do a lot of damage to a riverbank. That makes more sense than hunting them for sport.

They also cause a lot of damage burrowing under stock watering troughs, farm building foundations etc, and their burrows can turn paddocks into minefields for vehicles and motorbikes. Very easy to fully drop a wheel into a hole while driving around the paddocks mustering stock or generally looking at other things.

Marcus
 
You mean some people own Sakos and don't hunt with them? ;)

Here's a few I've posted before here. Antelope in New Mexico with Finnlight 6.5x55, daughter and I with Texas boar taken with 1968 Finnbear in .30-'06, Oryx taken with the same gun on a Ted Turner ranch here in New Mexico, cow elk taken on another Turner ranch in NM with Finnlight 6.5x55, AK 429.JPG


TX 002.JPG Oryx 007.JPG 071.JPG
 
A few pics of our Sako's in the field.

Youngest daughter with her A1 in 17 Rem and a couple rabbits she took at 225 metres.



Like the old song, Fox on the Run so was a quick reflex shot. Stopped it though. Sako L461 223 26" Maddco barrel.


A nice pig taken with the 223.


Pete
 

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Wonderful photos! Thanks to Foxhunter and Pete 7 for chippin in!
Lots of good times here.
Whitetails are dropping fawns here soon if not already, time to get after those nasty yotes. I’ve been out a couple times with no luck, yet
Hippie FB966081-59DB-4A43-86AD-75C62163A831.jpeg
 
There used to be a very healthy fox skin market back in the 70's and 80's. A Sako or Rem700 chambered in 17 Rem with a 8x56 Kahles was THE combination to have. Red fox skins sold for an average of somewhere around $Aus 30-40 each, with top dollar being $Aus 70 for a skin. For many fox skins were a significant source of income. With the rise of animal activism the skin market died away.
For the last 10 years or so there has been a $10 bounty for fox scalps here in the state of Victoria.

There also used to be a significant rabbit skin and meat market too, with many going towards the felt hat industry, such as the iconic Aussie Akubra. The introduction a Calicivirus 10-15 years ago cleaned most of the rabbits out and the rabbit industry has basically gone.

Marcus

A little bit of a thread digression, and it doesn't involve a Sako, so apologies in advance - but I thought some might be interested in this article from an Aussie magazine from 2004:

ac3a07fd76a5cfcfd7b33df478798159.jpg


Marcus
 
Wow! That is huge display of “Fox Wrappers!”
The 17 rem wasn’t as popular in my area then, most used .22 mag or hornet or bees to hunt fur trade critters.
I don’t hear much of that nowadays but there is still a fair amount of trappers around, hoping something nice will “step in”.
I have never fathomed the possibility of harvesting 800 pelts in a lifetime let alone in one season! Incredible!

Hippie
 
Thanks guys for joining in !
These are awesome photos.
Kevin, I may need to get with you in the future, as I enjoy those “ lil guns” as well.

deersako! That is one lucky bunny!
I’d be honored to be harvested with a barrel banded 7x33! Beautiful gun !

Happy Dads Day People!
 
Kevin
You gotta tell us the story with this one! O’Brian and Winslow rifles have always captured my attention. I’ve only had one in my hands and I’d have it now but it was terribly beaten up with half the grip broken off. I had tears in my eyes as I walked away from it!
Very cool man , very cool!

Hippie
 
Kevin
You gotta tell us the story with this one! O’Brian and Winslow rifles have always captured my attention. I’ve only had one in my hands and I’d have it now but it was terribly beaten up with half the grip broken off. I had tears in my eyes as I walked away from it!
Very cool man , very cool!

Hippie

100% - keen to hear the story!

Marcus
 
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