Win cool stuff here; amazing wing-shooting footage; Winchester opens online store; award for the Hunting Party; get involved, WA dealers told; Olympic champ attacked as kids shoot; Finnish guns rendered worthless; massive arms collection found in Germany.
Win Ridgeline and ARB gear!
We’re giving you several opportunities to win good gear here at Sporting Shooter. We’re conducting an invaluable survey of what you think of the magazine and website, and simply by taking 5-10 minutes to complete it, you’ll go into the draw to win an ARB SkyDome double swag! And you’ll help us make a better product for you. Meanwhile, don’t forget our Ridgeline hunting photo competition. We’re about to officially announce that this month’s prize is the popular Ridgeline Coffin Bag. Send your best hunting photo to marcusodean@yaffa.com.au to be in it.
Amazing wing-shooting footage
We’ve long known that the man behind Australia’s largest firearm wholesaler, Rob Nioa, is a big fan of wing shooting in Argentina, so we weren’t surprised to hear he and a group of NIOA’s dealers went over there recently as a reward for boosting sales. We weren’t quite prepared, however, for the awesome video that came out of it. Four days of shoulder-bruising action, and the birds just kept on coming! If you haven’t seen it already, check it out in the wing-shooting section of our website.
Winchester opens online store
You can now buy Winchester Australia’s products online through the new Winchester Club Store. The site carries all sorts of accessories: books, clothing, hunting gear, cleaning equipment, lights and lots more, including products from the Browning, Daisy and CZ lines. It’ll offer one-off specials at times, too. All orders are sent by Express Post, and if you spend over $100, delivery is free.
Award for the Hunting Party
French author Agnes Desarthe has won a literary award for her novel, The Hunting Party, which is based on a conversation about life and death between an injured hunter and a wild rabbit. “The idea of the novel came from meeting hunters who showed me a love of nature and animals, which I hadn’t been expecting at all,” she told AFP. “How can people kill what they love? That is something I cannot understand. Maybe that is what crimes of passion are about. So perhaps we should see hunting as a kind of crime of passion?” We haven’t read the novel, but we suspect we know the outcome, given Desarthe’s award came from a French animal protection organisation.
Get involved, WA dealers told
WA firearm dealer Roy Alexander and Sons is encouraging the trade to become more active in the push to improve gun laws in the state. “We were recently asked if we are a current member of the Western Australian Firearms Traders Association (WAFTA),” they said. “We can confirm that we definitely are a current financial member of the association and have been actively involved, along with other firearms dealers, in meetings with Firearms Branch, the police commissioner and the police minister in an attempt to make the current licensing situation more workable for all involved. This process is ongoing and we encourage all licensed dealers in WA to join the association as soon as possible. Remember, it is in all our interest to be part of the solution.”
Olympic champ attacked as kids shoot
Olympic shooting champion Russell Mark is under fire after a video emerged of him helping his four-year-old son fire a shotgun. A child psychologist labelled it “normalising, sanitising and perhaps glamourising weapons” but Mark hit back, pointing out that firearms are a part of everyday life in his family and telling Channel Seven that teaching his kids how to handle firearms is “no different to me than putting them on my lap and taking them for a drive on the farm tractor, you know, you can’t let them drive a tractor but you can give them the sensation of sitting on your knee and holding the steering wheel, but I’m in control. I don’t see any difference between the two.”
Finnish guns rendered worthless
Handguns in Finland have become virtually worthless because new gun laws have almost stopped sales altogether. Sales have crashed by more than 90%, and applications for new handgun licences are down more than 20%. The industry says .22-cal pistols have no value at all. Dealers are reportedly stuck with about 10,000 handguns nation-wide, with little chance of moving them. Clubs had expected a rise in membership after it was made a condition of holding a licence, but this has not happened.
Massive arms collection found in Germany
A German man has been jailed for three and a half years after being found with what has been called the biggest illegal collection of arms and explosives found there since the war. The weapons, mostly of WWII vintage, included bazookas, light machineguns, an assault rifle (reportedly given to him by a friend who emigrated to Australia) and 40kg of explosives, some of which had degraded to a dangerous level. The 64-year-old had much of the collection in an unsecured shed because he “did not want it in the house”. There appears to have no question that the man was anything but a collector.
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