If anyone could say it like it was, it was Sporting Shooter’s late Technical Editor Nick Harvey. These are some of our favourites quotes from his nearly 70 years as a gun writer.
MARKSMANSHIP
“Shoot off your hind legs, like a man!” — A comment attributed to Nick when referring to people who can only shoot well from a bench etc.
“Where you hit your game is far more important than what you hit it with.” — On shooting skills versus calibre, August 1980.
“There is no such thing as a ‘Natural’, not in the shooting world … Riflemen are made and not born and the self-taught shooter will take many times longer to learn to shoot consistently than the youngster who begins by being correctly trained.” — October 1991.
“No matter how coordinated or how steady the hold, controlling the trigger is the very essence of good shooting.” — On triggers for hunting rifles, February 2019.
“The trigger pull for hunting is still a squeeze, but a fast one. The skilled hunter has taken up the pressure on the trigger long before the butt hits his shoulder. As soon as the sight picture is right he releases his shot without the slightest hesitation. About two second is par for the course.” — On trigger control, November 1979.
“This kind of shooting requires good muscular co-ordination and lightning-fast reflexes. It takes a lot of practice that you can’t get on the rifle range.” — Nick’s very next comment on trigger control.
“The idea is to throw the rifle up to your shoulder, take a fast aim and get your shot away in the instant your sights are properly aligned on the target.” — Along similar lines, October 1991.
“Everyone has an upper recoil limit and usually it’s much lower than most macho types care to admit.” — Ask the Gun Editor, March 2006.
“It takes a combination of rifle, cartridge and hunter to consistently bag big game. Of the three, though, the most critical is still the hunter. The success of any hunt depends mainly on his skill in marksmanship — or his deficiency.” — On knockdown power, September 1993.
GUNS AND AMMO
“The most expensive rifle you can buy is no better than the bullet you fire from it.” — Writing on terminal ballistics, January 2009.
“Any time you’d like to back that .243 against ‘Old Betsy’ with some real dough it can be arranged. The publishers have my address.” — Early 1966, in Sporing Shooter, in response to a reader who backed his .243 against the .270 Winchester.
“That story you were told about the .375 H&H grouping different weights of bullets in the same group is bull splatter … I dunno who told you that fairytale; I thought Hans Christian Andersen was dead!” — Ask the Gun Editor, January 2009.
“Few handloaders seem to realise that they are straining their rifle and shortening case life in order to squeeze an extra 100fps out of their reloads to gain one inch less drop at 300 yards.” — Practical Reloading, January 2018.
“Undoubtedly, the most dangerous cartridge ever made is the .22 rimfire, in the hands of a stupid and reckless shooter. If I could have collected a dollar every time I’ve heard a ricocheting .22 bullet whine over my head, I would be able to afford an overseas safari.” — April 1991.
“In my opinion the current Model 70 Winchester is a well-made and well-finished rifle. The people who said it is not accurate are talking through the seat of their pants. Winchester hammer-forged barrels are equal to the best.” — February 1982.
“Just what constitutes a long-range shot? Well, it is any shot made beyond the ordinary point-blank range of the rifle you are using.” — Australian Outdoors, January 1959, under the pen name Varminter.
“To be quite honest, you’d do as well throwing rocks!” — On using an M1 Carbine for hunting, December 1991.
“Any short-action Sako, Tikka, CMC or rifle chambered for the .222 Remington could be rebarrelled and otherwise modified to handle the 7.62×39, but why go to all that bother?” — Ask the Gun Editor, January 1994.
“Ex-military ammo is useless for hunting purposes.” — Ask the Gun Editor, October 1994.
“It’s how it shoots that bothers me, not how it looks.” — On the deteriorating finish of a rifle, February 1982.
“Time to ’fess up! I only tried this nonsense once or twice and since then have never bothered to ‘break-in’ another barrel … I just go to shooting and only clean the bore when the groups start opening up.” — When asked how he breaks in a new rifle barrel, Ask the Gun Editor, September 2004.
“My own idea of an ideal bullet is one that has a good sectional density combined with relatively high velocity. A bullet such as a 125 grain in .250 calibre or a 150 grain .270. I will be hung for this but I will go so far as to say that I would like to see a cartridge come out that would give either of those bullets a muzzle velocity of around 3200fps.” — Australian Outdoors, October 1957. Weatherby was already very close and Nick would get his wish eventually in other cartridges. In the end, his 26 Nosler was about 200fps better again.
“If anyone wants a factory cartridge more powerful than the .30-06 or .270, he ought to jump clean over to the .338 Winchester Magnum.” — Ask the Gun Editor, September 1996, in response to a question about the .300 Win Mag.
“Here’s the rub; .410 shells are just as expensive as 12g, and a lot less effective. So why not buy a 12g in the first place?” — Ask the Gun Editor, March 1985
“Whumping up a wildcat can be a lot of fun, but only seldom does one ever show advantage over its factory counterpart.” — After building his own wildcat 7mm Harvey Magnum, October 1986
“Gunsmiths have told me that they replace more barrels damaged by improper cleaning than are actually worn out by a lot of shooting.” — Ask the Gun Editor, June 2015
“Half-minute accuracy is difficult to get in a light sporter and the blunt truth is that it’s not needed.” — Ask the Gun Editor, January 2018
ON HUNTING
“It’s not so much their size as how you get ’em that counts most with me.” — Explaining his preference for a good hunt more than the biggest trophy, March 2002.
“Buffalo don’t charge very often but when they do it can be quite thrilling.” — After shooting dead a charging buff that came so close it landed on the legs of the hunter it was chasing.
“I spun around, took to my heels and ran for the car pursued by the bovine version of a cruise missile, at a pace that would have had Cathy Freeman straining to catch me.” — When a buffalo charged after Nick shot it with nothing more harmful than a camera. Nick was only saved by the quick action of the guide putting the 4×4 between the two. December 2007.
“That was damned careless of me … Never take a buffalo for granted! A cranky one doesn’t have to be wounded to have a go at you.” — Good advice — if you remember to follow it! As above, December 2007.
“Now, I ain’t got a thing against shooting Russians, but we were just a bit outgunned and we reluctantly turned around and headed back into India.” — After arriving in Afghanistan in 1979 to hunt, only to find the Russians had just invaded.
“Anyone can poke a rifle out the window of his pick-up and shoot a semi-tame deer in a game ranch, but taking a representative head in the wild is a lot more challenging.” — On hunting red stags, September 1992.
“I prefer to do execution … from 70 to 200 yards where possible. By my reckoning, there’s no future in trying to shoot an animal half way into the next country or trying to sneak close enough to ram the muzzle down its throat.” — Australian Outdoors, January 1959, under the pen name Varminter.
“Unless a head shot strikes the brain, it can cause some horrific wounds … I would recommend the chest shot as being more practical over all ranges.” — Ask the Gun Editor, October 1987.
“Give the game a fair go and kill it cleanly using an adequate calibre. Be over-gunned rather than under-gunned.” — Circa 1960s in his own letter to the editor.
“Carrying a rifle afield is no excuse for thoughtlessly destroying wildlife or becoming trigger happy.” — On teaching kids to shoot and hunt, October 1991.
“If you do your job properly your child will discover, as we did, there’s a lot more to being a good sportsman than merely being a good shot.” — Ditto, October 1991.
“I wouldn’t as I don’t like wounding animals and letting them escape. Buy a .375 H&H if you want to shoot buffalo.” — In response to being asked, “where would you place the shot on a buffalo with the .270 Win?” Ask the Gun Editor, September 1993.
“The secret of successful trophy hunting is cultivating patience. Patience to move slowly; patience to sit quietly and wait; patience to hunt carefully for days on end, even to go weeks without firing a shot.” — On deer stalking, May 2020.
POLITICS AND LAW
“Gun owners … consider, and quite rightly so, that the Federal and State governments’ proposed gun bans and gun controls [are] based fundamentally on a mistrust of the individual citizen. This can never be healthy in a liberal society.” — August 1996 in response to Howard’s gun laws.
“The pollies will keep whittling away at gun ownership and hunting until there’s nothing left.” — May 1998 in response to Howard’s gun laws.
“It was an interesting sideline, but I gave it away after I found it would have been easier to extract teeth from a rabid timber wolf than to squeeze my fee out of some of those shyster lawyers.” — Explaining why he gave away appearing as an expert witness at the NSW Coroner’s Court.
ADVICE AND CRITICISM
“I may get criticised for this, but what the hell!” — Probably a thought that preceded much of his writing, but in this case it was a remark before telling a reader he would “get along just fine” shooting sambar with his handloaded 6.5×55. Nick justified his reasoning.
“[Your] dealer is just as ignorant about reloading as a lot of other dealers I’ve met.” — In response to a reader (pick a reader; many readers!) querying the advice provided by a gun dealer.
“Oh, I just love the advice given by ‘a guy at the gun range’.” — Sarcastically, in response to reader’s query citing incorrect advice from the ‘guy’.
“I am incensed when some armchair critic and reader of Yank ballyhoo takes me to task.” — In reply to reader who criticised Nick’s hot .257 Roberts loads before spruiking an even hotter load for a 6mm Rem using bullets and powder apparently not available in Australia at the time, 1967.
“I’ve received a bagful of letters written by garrulous gents from all over Australia. Some abused me, some argued with me, some even wanted to fight me — all this strife engendered by some fancied slight on their pet calibre.” — A comment made early in a long article about the .243 and other 6mm cartridges which concluded that they were “extremely accurate, mild-kicking, hard-hitting” and suited “our soft-skinned game better than anything else”. October 1966.
ON GUN-WRITING
“I’ve seen many writers come and go. Alas, most of them didn’t last very long; they streak across the sky like a comet, enjoy a brief period of popularity and then plummet back over the horizon to fizzle into obscurity.” — Reminiscing about 50 years in the game, March 2006.
“Some readers with an urgent query ring me at home. This is not so bad, but once or twice I’ve taken calls at midnight from a bunch of happy drunks wanting me to settle an argument for them. If I want to watch TV uninterrupted I have to take the phone off the hook.” — As above,March 2006.
“Unless a technical editor is honest with his readership, he loses all his credibility; if he is too harsh in his criticisms, he may lose the goodwill of the manufacturer (importer/advertiser). So he has to tread a very fine line in order to keep everyone happy.” — As above, March 2006.
And finally, from that same March 2006 article: “It’s been a rewarding occupation beyond my wildest dreams.”
0 Comments