A perfect bushcraft gun??

[GordonM]

Sweet little folder BR! I follow your logic very close!

ATB,

Gordy

[sandbender]

For any who have ever wondered, this is what Ray Mears uses to stock his larder these days...



...now I did have a note of the details of both rifle and scope, but have mislaid it.

[spandit]

For any who have ever wondered, this is what Ray Mears uses to stock his larder these days...

I bet he probably uses something more like this:

[British Red]

Well, the little folding .410 got christened today.

Note to self - do not underestimate the .410 cartridge

Neck shot a woodie at 10 to 15 yards (mt favourite shot on a woodie when using an airgun - severs the brainstem). The head was barely attached afterwards

No meat damage though which is the name of the game

Super little gun - no felt recoil at all. Would certainly keep me fed round here with the number of woodies around.

[Damascus]

Hi Red

Had one of those little guns for years bought it originally for my girls to learn to shoot with, I take it with me when i have a wander round.
Made a small bag it so it fits the gun folded and so it doesn't look like a gun is in there an fits the side of a rucksack. Stops people becoming paranoid cos you got a GUN and you might SHOOT them.

I use 3 inch number 5's for rabbits and 2.5 number 7's for woodies and squirrels a very underrated and effective gun and fun to boot.

D

[merman]

When I was a lad I had a Baikel .410 for harvesting game round the farm and loved it, with eley fourlong 6's there is no small game that you can't take cleanly, and if you add in subsonic cartridges and a silencer it is no louder than an air rifle with the ability to shoot flying/running supper.
For a single gun with versility I stand by my Beretta AL391, it will cycle slugs, heavy wildfowl loads and standard 6's allowing a full range of game to be shot cleanly.
If you had to feed yourself to survive for a prolonged period in the wild, I guess a .22 spring air rifle would keep you alive, no real maintenance and a tin of 500 pellets weighs nothing and will cleanly kill small sitting game.

[spandit]

a tin of 500 pellets weighs nothing

Maybe less than firearms ammunition, but still quite heavy (unless you're using Prometheus pellets)

[British Red]

When I was a lad I had a Baikel .410 for harvesting game round the farm and loved it, with eley fourlong 6's there is no small game that you can't take cleanly, and if you add in subsonic cartridges and a silencer it is no louder than an air rifle with the ability to shoot flying/running supper.

For the real quiet stuff my good lady uses a spressed Mossberg 500 in .410 - very quiet as you say!


Mossberg 500 Stealth .410 by British Red, on Flickr

Red

[merman]

Thats cool, how long is that barrel? I have no experience with .410 semi autos, but I guess it is zero recoil.

500 pellets must weigh about 750gms, with a 50% hit rate shooting small game would possibly provide 100kg of edible food giving 99.25kgs profit (not including weight of rifle), compared to carrying 500rds of rifle ammo all day, they do feel like they weigh nothing.

[Aaron]

Thats cool, how long is that barrel? I have no experience with .410 semi autos, but I guess it is zero recoil.

500 pellets must weigh about 750gms, with a 50% hit rate shooting small game would possibly provide 100kg of edible food giving 99.25kgs profit (not including weight of rifle), compared to carrying 500rds of rifle ammo all day, they do feel like they weigh nothing.

[spoony]

Thats cool, how long is that barrel? I have no experience with .410 semi autos, but I guess it is zero recoil.

500 pellets must weigh about 750gms, with a 50% hit rate shooting small game would possibly provide 100kg of edible food giving 99.25kgs profit (not including weight of rifle), compared to carrying 500rds of rifle ammo all day, they do feel like they weigh nothing.

I think it may be a pump action

[Aaron]

For any who have ever wondered, this is what Ray Mears uses to stock his larder these days...



...now I did have a note of the details of both rifle and scope, but have mislaid it.

Looks like a Blaser R93 to me (I've just spent the past fortnight sat around in tractor cabs waiting for combines to load me, with nothing but back issues of Sporting Rifle for company) Anyway it must be a very small larder if he handles his rifle around by the scope

[Bigfoot]

For the real quiet stuff my good lady uses a spressed Mossberg 500 in .410 - very quiet as you say!


Mossberg 500 Stealth .410 by British Red, on Flickr

Red

Is that the Hushpower system? How do you find it? Does it need lots of maintenance?

[British Red]

It is a pump indeed spoony - and a Hushpower Bigfoot. Doesn't need a lot of maintenance - but use a mop not a patch - the barrle is ported inside the moderator and a patch can get caught!

[Labrador]

That's the classic "poacher's gun".
Growing up in Norfolk most houses had one like it behind the back door. Designed to be folded & concealed under a long coat then brought out to shoot roosting pheasants!

[British Red]

You don't say

Now if you want a gun for poaching, my friends gun was, perhaps, designed with that in mind


Walking Stick Gun by British Red, on Flickr


Walking Stick Gun Breech by British Red, on Flickr


Walking Stick Gun Trigger by British Red, on Flickr


Walking Stick Gun Muzzle by British Red, on Flickr

...a real collectors item now though...

[WoodMan]

Looks like a Blaser R93 to me (I've just spent the past fortnight sat around in tractor cabs waiting for combines to load me, with nothing but back issues of Sporting Rifle for company) Anyway it must be a very small larder if he handles his rifle around by the scope

No problem handleing a rifle by the scope, if scope and mounts can't take it they will never stand up to normal use anyway. Be careful reading too much Sporting Rifle, very much the Sunday Sport of the fieldsports press. Glyn.

[mrostov]

Red, long time, no talk. Been busy and haven't logged in here in a while.

That Belgian .410 is neat in how it folds, and I can understand your reasoning for it, considering where you live.

For your little Belgian .410, if I may make a suggestion, look for a sub-caliber insert for it. They are just a rifled steel tube with the strength of a gun barrel that you drop into the open breach of the shotgun barrel just like it was a cartridge. I don't know if they sell such a thing to shooters over there, but there is a company in Anchorage, Alaska, that you can order them from. Legally they aren't a firearm here, just a steel tube, so they can send it through the mail no problem, but on your end though, I'm not sure of the laws that might apply.

http://www.mcace.com/shotguninserts.htm

They come in 2-3/4", 10", and 18" lengths. For the .410, they come in .22LR, .22mag, .22 Hornet, and .218 Bee.

They also make sub-caliber adapter cartridges.

http://www.mcace.com/adapters.htm

One great combo which should be compatible with your gun laws, is a .223 or a .22-250 with sub-caliber cartridges that you can drop in and shoot .22LR. These look just like cartridges that you pre-load with the smaller rimfire round and then use them just like they were the proper caliber for your rifle. The .223 and the .22-250 have a bore close enough to a .22LR that they typically work surprisingly well. For example, on my 5.56mm AR-15, using a Ceiner semi-auto drop in .22LR adapter, even though the .224" bore was just a bit bigger than the .223" of the .22LR bullet, and the rifling was 1:9 instead of the native 1:16 twist of a .22LR rifle, I could still accurately kill rabbits at 75 yards.

The bush in the area I'm currently in, a hardwood forest with thick undergrowth, is infested with wild pigs. Pigs really aren't native to N. America, only their distant cousin the javelina (peccary, aka 'skunk pig'). The wild pigs can sometimes get very aggressive and mean, and they sometimes get very large. It's open season on them, 24/7/365, kill as many as you want, any time you want. So, for wandering around in the bush around here, I prefer something with a bit more punch than a .22LR or a .410 and preferably something with some extra follow up shots rapidly available.

We also have as common game animals around here lots of white tailed deer (they are a road hazard in town at night), ducks, and alligators, but there are specific seasons for those. A while back a 7ft alligator somehow found his way into the garden department at the local Wal-Mart and was wandering around freaking out the shoppers. Alligator is very tasty.

[Bushwhacker]

You don't say

Now if you want a gun for poaching, my friends gun was, perhaps, designed with that in mind


Walking Stick Gun by British Red, on Flickr


Walking Stick Gun Breech by British Red, on Flickr


Walking Stick Gun Trigger by British Red, on Flickr


Walking Stick Gun Muzzle by British Red, on Flickr

...a real collectors item now though...

That brings back some childhood memories. The old major that lived in the big house in the village used to walk his long drive and shoot squirrels with one.

The mad old b****r also used to fire rock salt at us if we were in his fields or orchard. Never deterred us, just made it more of a challenge.