Vince Green

Its illegal to buy or own expanding bullets unless you have a variation on your FAC to own them for hunting purposes. Since .357 is not an approved calibre for foxes or deer you are not likely to get that. Although a .357 would kill a fox with no problem at 100yds the rifle would not be accurate enough to ensure a clean kill. Anyway, nobody is stocking the bullets so its a moot point. Best FMJ bullet is the Sellier and Bellot 158grn. Don't be confused by some of these copper plated lead bullets which look like jacketed.

Your Marlin barrel won't like those lead bullets. There are two types of barrel fitted to the Marlin and by far the commonest is the microgroove barrel which really needs a jacketed bullet. Other than that fine. Bullseye is OK for carbines but slower powders like Unique or blue dot are better. Also, all this talk of jacketed soft points is a bit off topic because you can't buy them.

There is an interesting twist on the .22-250 and any other calibre which is over the velocity or energy requirement. I was told this but haven't seen it in writing. Many people have assumed that all they have to do is download the round to make it legal but its not that easy. The "authorities" whoever they may be (police, MOD or the NRA I'm not sure) have decided that they have no way of checking whether your rounds are legal or not. You could be lying or just got your sums wrong, equally you could have picked up the wrong box of ammo. Therefore all calibres are deemed to be of factory velocity irrespective of what evidence you can produce to the conterary. So its no use turning up with a loading manual or whatever and expecting to be allowed to shoot your reloads. I believe, but can't be sure, that this applies to all ranges. I am down at Bisley on Thursday so I will try to get it clarified.

CZ550Kevlar you are not allowed to do that. The range you describe is almost certainly licenced for pistol calibres only. Lots of clubs have had the same idea and have asked the question about downloading C/F rifles. The answer is always the same - no. There is a list somewhere which defines what is regarded as a pistol calibre and stuff like .308 no matter how its loaded is not legal.

Over 20 years ago we invited a guest to come shooting on some land owned by another friend. It was duck flighting, the ducks used to come over at dusk on their way to the lakes where they spent the night. We put our guest in the best spot in front of a big bush right where the ducks usually come over. I remember now that he had bought some special cartridges for the occasion. They were French Gevelot cartridges, blue plastic with a high chrome base and very distintive. Many years later the owner of the land was trimming back the bush and found one of the blue plastic cases deep inside and remembered the guest who had used them. apart from the fact that the base had gone rusty the case hadn't degraded at all after all that time.

The ammo I reload for my .303 is a lot dearer than some of the ammo I could buy. I tend not to reload as much as I used to. If you try to justify it on cost alone you have to load a lot of ammo to get back your initial investment. However, by reloading you can create a load thats taylored to your rifle and it really does increase your enjoyment.

It doesn't matter anyway. Pierced primers aren't a safety issue in a shotgun. The pressures are too low to cause any concern.

Yes, LG is the largest size that is legal .36". As Steve says thats approx 9mm.

If its an allotment with lots of human activity they probably aren't that sensitive about smell but don't risk it unless you have to. If the allotment holders have been troubled with rabbits for a long time they have probably tried all the old tricks to deter them like pee-ing on the ground near the holes where they get in or soaking string in creosote and wrapping it around the holes.

I have a 1917 SMLE that I bought about ten years ago. Don't get too much chance to use it these days but I will be down at Bisley with it on 23rd. With good ammo they shoot well but most of the surplus stuff now is rubbish. I buy Sellier and Bellot or load my own. Don't run away with the idea these were super accurate rifles. They have their limitations.

Hoppes, 009 or shooters choice are best. You are always going to get some leading, its inevetable.

Just call me ignorant but where is Sywell? Just for the record, the Competence Certificate is an MOD requirement and nothing to do with NRA . The MOD want proof that all people using their ranges are competent because if they allow somebody who is not competent use the range and there is an accident they might be found negligent. So its a massive cost to shooters and clubs against the remote possibility that the MOD might just have to fork out at some stage in the future if a claim was ever made against them. It would be better to put a pound a time on the range bookings and use it to cover an insurance. However, there is a downside, as it can be seen from this thread, it makes life for the simple honest shooter far more complicated and events much harder to organise. There is already evidence that the Police have picked up on it and are now asking for certificates when granting or renewing FACs. What I find most baffling is why the certificates have to be renewed each year? If you are competent that doesn't change from one year to the next. I was passed competent to drive a car when I was 18 and that was it.

Why release them? Going back a couple of pages on this thread. I thought we had agreed that releasing vermin, once captured, was illegal but we couldn't decide what law actually said that. I would still like to get that point clarified if we could because that really would be useful.

Have a look at the fox traps section of www.trapman.co.uk You can see how many times they stress the "humaine" aspect of the traps and while they don't actually say about re-releasing the foxes that clearly is the implied intent. The average Mr or Mrs housholder would have no way of killing or disposing of a fox. Neither would they probably want to. There used to be a man who operated around Ruislip who called himself "The Fox Man" who would trap foxes and take them away to be re-released. He was some kind of misguided do gooder but I know the local council used to refer enquiries to him. I haven't heard him mentioned recently, perhaps he's given up. I really can't see the RSPCA doing that much to rehab foxes. They are pretty cynical when it comes to money and vets cost plenty.

There were a lot of these around a few years ago but that is a particularly nice one. Unless you can get a dealer (not necessarily a gun dealer) to put it up in their shop and sell it on comission I guess e-bay.

The police do routinely sell guns handed in for disposal. That is a matter of fact and its official police policy. They put them through the auctions in the normal way. I think that what appears to have happened here is a little private enterprise.

Releasing foxes is probably illegal but the RSPCA certainly do it, however they are a law unto themselves and as such untouchable. There are a number of pest control companies who offer "humane" trapping of urban foxes so that the little housewives who pay them about £60+ per fox can know that the fox is going to have a nice long life with all its friends in the country. Actually, the same arguement applies to squirrels and its the same pest control companies that are re-releasing them as well. I would actually like to know what the law is on this because I have often been told its illegal but I don't know which law is being broken.

Some of the earliest ballistic tests on old cannons were carried out by firing them vertically in the air and counting how long it took before the cannonball landed back on earth. The question is where would you stand while you were waiting? A cannon was fairly low in terms of muzzle velocity, a 7.62 bullet would be a different thing altogether. Lead shot just falls out of the sky like hailstones when it fired upward. A spent rifle bullet would not come back down at 2800fps but it could cartainly injure you.

My old shooting mate Ron always used to say that cheap cartridges are the most expensive cartridges you can buy. While its not always true I can see where he is coming from on that one. For many years I have been rifle shooting at Bisley and cheap rubbish old military surplus ammo always gets snapped up and yet its often not worth putting down the range. You spend a lot on your shooting, you drive miles, you risk the wrath of her indoors for being out shooting when you should be at home with her, etc etc. Don't you owe it to yourself to buy a quality cartridge?

Ah they don't make them like that anymore, real cartridges them were!

I have been shooting .303s for over 30 years. and I have been loading for most of that time as well. The .303 is one of the most difficult calibres to reload because the cases stretch so much. Buy Privi Partisan, its good ammo and its about the same price as reloads but without the sweat. It will shoot as good as you can. Sellier and Bellot is good as well but a bit dearer. Kynamco is supposed to be very good but I haven't tried it

Clayman is dead right. In black powder days the length of a cartridge directly represented the size of the load. Also with rolled turnover the cartridge really was that length.

The NRA at Bisley do run reloading courses but you have to be a member.

Rabbits aren't fussy.

Before you go much further with this discussion you really need to get in touch with the Muzzle Loaders Association GB who are the "be all and end all" where this branch of shooting is concerned Google MLAGB