In which Pine Marten's rifle arrives!

Pine Marten

Well-Known Member
I had a call from James at the Sportsman's Gun Centre this morning to tell me that my Steyr Mannlicher fullstock in 7mm-08 has finally been delivered from Austria, a month or so late which means I missed the chance to shoot my first deer with it, but better late than never, and there will be other occasions. I should be able to pick it up from Ray Ward's on Saturday. Unfortunately they weren't able to send a box of Federal Fusion along with it as the carrier won't take ammunition, and he said they'd have to send it separately at a cost of about £40 for a single £32 box, which is daft. Never mind, I have four factory loads to try, one of them will be fine.

Now I still have to wait all the way to Saturday!
 
I had a call from James at the Sportsman's Gun Centre this morning to tell me that my Steyr Mannlicher fullstock in 7mm-08 has finally been delivered from Austria, a month or so late which means I missed the chance to shoot my first deer with it, but better late than never, and there will be other occasions. I should be able to pick it up from Ray Ward's on Saturday. Unfortunately they weren't able to send a box of Federal Fusion along with it as the carrier won't take ammunition, and he said they'd have to send it separately at a cost of about £40 for a single £32 box, which is daft. Never mind, I have four factory loads to try, one of them will be fine.

Now I still have to wait all the way to Saturday!

Have fun with your new toy! I'm sure you'll like it, the 7mm-08 is a great calibre. If you can, stick with the Fusion as they work well and are very accurate (at least they are in mine). The Remington 140gr Core-Lokt aren't bad either and if you can get to try some I know where there are about 100 rounds available at probably a reasonable price.
 
Have fun with your new toy! I'm sure you'll like it, the 7mm-08 is a great calibre. If you can, stick with the Fusion as they work well and are very accurate (at least they are in mine). The Remington 140gr Core-Lokt aren't bad either and if you can get to try some I know where there are about 100 rounds available at probably a reasonable price.

I'm sure I will! I can't get hold of any Fusion in London, but I have a choice of Remington and Federal loads to try out. Once I've worked out what workes best in my rifle, I'll be in a position to buy larger quantities. I shall let you know how it goes.
 
Glad to hear your new toy has arrived keep us posted how your getting on with it
the federal fusion in my 30 .06 were awesome so hope they go well in yours
regards pete .
 
Glad to hear your new toy has arrived keep us posted how your getting on with it
the federal fusion in my 30 .06 were awesome so hope they go well in yours
regards pete .

Well the Federal ones have much nicer boxes so my current favourite, based on no test data at all, is the 150gr Speer HotCor Vital Shok. But I think that some rather more rigourous criteria than that should be considered when the opportunity arises.
 
Have you managed to get a box of ppu ammo? It's a lot cheaper than all the rest, but obviously only if it groups in your rifle well. Henry Krank sell 140g sp for £68.40 for 100.
 
Have you managed to get a box of ppu ammo? It's a lot cheaper than all the rest, but obviously only if it groups in your rifle well. Henry Krank sell 140g sp for £68.40 for 100.

I did try to obtain some, but there was none to be had, unless again I ordered a great pile of it, but not in small quantities just for test purposes. Also someone told me that the Prvi cases aren't reloadable for some reason, although I can't remember why. The fact is that I live in London. There are therefore no budget options for anything whatsoever...
 
I don't think so unfortunately as Sunday is the Stalker's Match, and I don't think I'd impress anyone very much by setting myself up at a bench in everyone's way when the club is busy. But a midweek session is on the cards shortly when I won't be in anyone's way and can have a nice leisurely tinker with plenty of barrel-cooling time.
 
I don't think so unfortunately as Sunday is the Stalker's Match, and I don't think I'd impress anyone very much by setting myself up at a bench in everyone's way when the club is busy. But a midweek session is on the cards shortly when I won't be in anyone's way and can have a nice leisurely tinker with plenty of barrel-cooling time.

It's in my diary, so see you there

Cheers
i.
 
PPU is re-loadable, good brass from my experience.
You should be able to order a box of 20 from any PPU dealer, they just tag it on to their stock order.

Neil. :)
 
I had a call from James at the Sportsman's Gun Centre this morning to tell me that my Steyr Mannlicher fullstock in 7mm-08 has finally been delivered from Austria, a month or so late which means I missed the chance to shoot my first deer with it!

Congrats on the delivery !

Cut you out a cardboard silhouette of a Roe or Sika or Fallow or whatever you prefer and pound it a few times at variouse ranges from field positions .
While it isn't the real thing it might just take the edge off a bit ;)
 
Sadly it appears he is lumbered with dealing with John Ward. Unlike his father who was a gunsmith and nice man John is just a retailer with an eye on large profits hence the move into London. Dad Ray worked for Continental Sports in Redhill Surrey before opening his own shop a hundred yards or so up the road. I only ever went into Wards under Johns running of the place if:-

1) Was very bored

2) Very desperate for something.

Unless he has changed a LOT then John Ward would not be interested in ordering one box of ammunition.
 
New rifle!!! I'm excited for you! Hope it goes well, don't you do a bit of wild fowling out in Kent? Or did I imagine that? Maybe there is a gunshop out there you could deal with for ammo? If not join the Alde and Ore wildfowlers and stop in to Trulock and Harris on your way down the A12. (Maybe I'm pushing it with that one a bit.) I have to take issue with the below statement

The fact is that I live in London. There are therefore no budget options for anything whatsoever...

While true in the main my missus used to live in Bethnal green, there is a 24hr Bagel place in Brick Lane (2 actually) let me tell you at 2 in the morning those bagels were definitely a bargain!
 
On that point please try John Forsey Guns in Welling, Kent.

He's a wildfowling man from head to toe but a charming person to deal with and has been consistently from the first tin of pellets he sold me in 1974 to date.

I'm sure he would get you what you want and Welling is really South London.

K
 
Well the Federal ones have much nicer boxes so my current favourite, based on no test data at all, is the 150gr Speer HotCor Vital Shok. But I think that some rather more rigourous criteria than that should be considered when the opportunity arises.

I forgot about those ones, I can can tell you now they work extremely well and still have some which I'll use after the Fusion have run out.
I also re-load for the 7mm-08 so if you go there let me know and I'll send you the load details.
 
Sadly it appears he is lumbered with dealing with John Ward. Unlike his father who was a gunsmith and nice man John is just a retailer with an eye on large profits hence the move into London. Dad Ray worked for Continental Sports in Redhill Surrey before opening his own shop a hundred yards or so up the road. I only ever went into Wards under Johns running of the place if:-

1) Was very bored

2) Very desperate for something.

Unless he has changed a LOT then John Ward would not be interested in ordering one box of ammunition.

Honestly, I've not had a great time with John Ward's in the past, it's just that it's the closest gunshop to where I live apart from Boss, who are a ten minute bike ride away, but they wouldn't help in this case. Their showroom only usually opens by appointment and whereas they were happy to act as a sort of PO Box to receive my rifle if it was already on my FAC, they didn't want to do the paperwork. You're right in that John Ward quite openly court very wealthy London customers and a lot of international customers (there's a Russian version of their website) and that's fair enough. The only problem is that no-one in London caters for the little guy anymore, as they can't make any money from it. This is a problem that's rather wider than just gunshops.

I also understand that they're not bothered about ordering just one box of cartridges, especially if it costs £40 to send it as the SGC told me. But that's still pretty inconvenient for me. Still, I can get by with what I have for now.
 
Back
Top