CZ have lost their way imo.

Have to agree with Muir. Other than the bling/Rambo factor what is the real use of a 10 round mag? Serious question.

A 10-shot mag would come in *very* handy if culling a herd of feral goats.

That's probably the only downside I can think of to my Sako 75 in .223: no 10-round mags are available.
Indeed. Running out after 5 or 6 rounds is very annoying. As usual with this kind of thing there is a reason why a spec is available, irrespective that some will find it unappealing. It is because others will use it. My .223 runs a 10 shot mag and it gets emptied on goats regularly, whereupon the second 10 shot is whipped out of my pocket!

 
With feral goats worth $300-400 a head at the moment it’s pretty rare to be busting big mobs round here - pretty easy to net 5 figures in a day with a couple of good dogs, not sure how well that’d go in mountainous areas though. Pigs is another one. I’ve cleaned out the 10 round mag in my 303 a few times with a good sized mob. Things can get a bit hectic, I wouldn’t want to guarantee there are 10 dead pigs for each mag… for those of us that don’t live in the US with free access to semi autos with 30 round mags, 10 shot repeaters are the best option!

As this is “thestalkingdirectory” though - you’d think needing a 10 round mag would be rare. If stalking I don’t usually fill my 5 round mag up
 
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More details, please!
Well stock prices are absolutely through the roof here at the moment (500kg steers averaging $3k, cows going for $3-4k each) and goats are no exception, feral or not. Although they have been for the past few years. I don’t know who’s paying so much for goat meat, I’d be surprised if it’s the domestic market. I’ve heard surprisingly the US is a big market, i suspect most of it goes to Asia.

The problem is the goats are cunning and in rough spots - you really need good dogs, and preferably a horse. Obviously you need the land owners permission (farmers hate goats so this is normally ok, although some now want a cut), and then you just round them up to a set of portable yards, tag them and truck them to the sale yards. You might have to pay a bit of cartage and sale yard fees but a couple of mates recently got $18k from a truck load they took a day to get. The good dog bit is hard though - they don’t grow on trees…

There’s a couple of small mobs locally, I take the odd one for meat but as there’s an insane abundance of food I don’t flatten them. I’m trying to work out a way of getting my hands on them live, I don’t like my chances though!
 
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According to the latest Meat & Livestock Australia price schedule, goat is 818 cents per kg carcass weight. So a 20kg carcass (heavy for an Aussie feral goat) is ~$160. The average carcass weight is around 12-15kg.

So how do we get to $300-400 a head?

How’s that for thread drift?
 
Indeed. Running out after 5 or 6 rounds is very annoying. As usual with this kind of thing there is a reason why a spec is available, irrespective that some will find it unappealing. It is because others will use it. My .223 runs a 10 shot mag and it gets emptied on goats regularly, whereupon the second 10 shot is whipped out of my pocket!
Thanks for posting that video Dodgy, though it's hard to make out what's happening on the far side of the valley - looks way more than just 85-95m.

How did you make out, did you hit all the goats? Were there many?

In fairness the Sako 75 .223 mag does take 6 rounds, and if you have another in the chamber to begin with, you're up to 7. More than enough for most occasions, even a fair old mob of goats!
 
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According to the latest Meat & Livestock Australia price schedule, goat is 818 cents per kg carcass weight. So a 20kg carcass (heavy for an Aussie feral goat) is ~$160. The average carcass weight is around 12-15kg.

So how do we get to $300-400 a head?

How’s that for thread drift?
I don’t follow MLA prices, I go on prices from buyers. I know MLA’re meant to encompass the general pricing but they are one source and don’t accurately report every stock sale yard and buyer. I just go on what people actually get paid. I know our regular buyer pays well above MLA pricing for our cattle, there would be cases where buyers pay more and less all over the country. That job my mates did was two years ago, they pulled roughly $200/head - prices have gone up a huge amount since then. Goat meat $/kg is similar to lamb a lot of the time - higher more often than not recently. Lambs in Wagga were going for $350-400/head last month, so although my figure of $300-400 is an estimate and could be exaggerated it was based on on the ground figures. Most people that round up goats pick mobs of billys for their higher average weight (and therefor sitting in a higher bracket so higher $/kg again). I work in the cattle industry so don’t have current goat/lamb prices in my head at any given moment, but even if you’re still getting “only” $200/head for a feral pest it doesn’t really alter my point in anyway - they’re worth a hell of a lot more alive in a mob than dead in the paddock
 
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I don’t follow MLA prices, I go on prices from buyers.
Hmmm. I’m also in the meat industry, and we muster feral goats off the flat country. And our prices generally mirror Aus, same export market. So I shall retain a raised eyebrow, as I’ve never met a buyer willing to pay more than double the schedule, though I certainly wish they were more common here.
How did you make out, did you hit all the goats? Were there many?
Got all but one, missed the third (?) shot, the one where I make a disgruntled noise afterwards. It’s the camera lens that makes it look further away. If you turn the volume up you can hear them getting hit.

Back to the topic I think it’s very interesting that CZ have brought out the Trail, as that’s a style of rifle that is increasingly popular here and elsewhere - great ergonomics as a truck / bike gun.
 
LEADING Australian meat processor and exporter Thomas Foods International has announced it will pay a record $10 a kilogram for goat meat to supply a new value-adding initiative in the United States.

TFI’s national small stock manager Paul Leonard said the Australian record price will be paid for goats of 6.1kg-plus carcase weight delivered to its plant in Lobethal, South Australia, from next week.

The record price is an 80-cent a kg lift on TFI’s previous highest price of 920c/kg late last week, up from 800-820c/kg over recent weeks. The lower weight range minimum of 6.1kg, down from the former 8.1kg limit, reflected the US retailer’s capacity to market lighter goats into specific market segments.
 
In case you missed it this one is a solid boy.

Its well known that like the blokes letting well bred stallions go in the high country there are those that release big billies to further the wild mobs....its farming!

 
On the goat muster we helped on at Ravendale (Mutawinji) the goats were numerous, and small. Drafting out the Billies and you would have liveweight animals typically around 35-40kg max, averaging 30kg probably. Liveweight to cold hook weight factor, divide by two for a good estimate.

In WA in areas where goat populations were a lot lower (small mobs, big ranges), the average billy size was a LOT bigger. They’d stand out on the plain, easy to spot.

Same here, big numbers, smaller goats. Normal story.

I think it’s wonderful that goat is starting to show some promise as a sustainable resource because it’s long overdue. Goats were a lifesaver for pastoralists in the drought. Now that it’s raining so much over your way it will be interesting to see what their numbers do, and how this affects the schedule. There is talk here that the demand will remain high and long may that continue.

Here it’s much harder to muster them because of the terrain, and the standard of fencing required to keep them from busting through into the native is far more expensive than standard eight wire sheep fence that’s a bit tatty. Sheep don’t like the native.
 
The interior has always been subjected to major flooding rains although periodically and all it does is to make the feed go mad when the waters dry off. Goats are good swimmers and will swim to safety or climb onto trees as well. Some will drown,most will survive. Like the pigs they are a resilient animal in Australia and no natural event will ever stop them.
I saw big mobs of them 3-400 or more in saltbush and lignum country north of Oxley Nsw when we were dogging pigs fortnightly,we never bothered them at all. Shooting a goat is no effort in Aus. Another place I saw monster billies with 40" horns was on the Head of the Peel Station Nundle NSW a lot further north in more mountainous country. I rolled a good boar there and photographed some young red boys but we didnt bother any of them as we were looking for the reds there.
 
Well maybe the point of my post was lost in the detail - the upper limit I mentioned might be a bit off but either way either way not a lot of people here are shooting big mobs anymore because of their value
 
Steering back on topic: Unless I’ve missed something, where are the 17 and 22 Hornets in the new lineup?
 
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