Thread: Pest Control

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

well limiting with a bolt action I would argue perhaps not - well was goat culler for years I dont believe so - yes the bigger mag on some of the 223 semis are great but in terms of tipping over goats one can really only shoot so fast accurately - a good bolt action and timed shots accurately gets the job done -I would use my mag on a mob then carefull single shot with one very accurate 222 never wished for more - had seen to many guys blazing away with semis and really any better no - out of machine different of course - but no dont get sucked into the you must have a semi argument - all the goat work I ran Kaitaia and Taranaki none of us used a semi - and accuracy it takes a well worked up semi to be as good as say an A2 Sako in .222

You may well be a much better shot than me but I changed from A to E cat mainly because I found it hard to shoot mobs of more than 10 goats with only a 10rd magazine in the old 303. At that time I was losing thousands of dollars per week in newly planted trees to goats and deer, the investment in E cat was well worth it. And agree some people thought mag dumping was pest control but most of us understood that having a semi auto does not mean you don't aim before pulling the trigger. It's not essential to have a semi I agree, but it does make pest control of larger numbers far easier when both hands are steady on the rifle between shots without needing to move the action manually. I only had bolt action centrefires and found them totally satisfactory for over 30 years before getting E cat when it became necessary.