Poacher's Rifle

Down in South Africa, there's a favored rifle for hunting meat for the cookpot by poor poachers. While it is still relatively common to find African blacksmiths building crude muskets and using and reusing the same bullet over and over again, there's a more stable and reliable platform that's been in use since the late 60's, after release of the NATO 5.56 round for the M-16 rifle.

Take the spent brass casing, clean it and resize the neck slightly larger to 6 mm, add primer and powder and seat a 100 grain bullet. A small bolt action carbine-weight rifle in 6x45 mm is enough to punch through most game if aimed carefully, and won't ruin the meat because it is deliberately too slow to fragment. Its essentially a bigger .22 LR, but can be reloaded. Its also quiet because the powder charge isn't very big, and won't generate much muzzle flash so can be used at night. This is illegal for hunting in the USA, at least game animals. Its mostly used by poachers, but has value in a survival scenario for the same reasons.

It can be loaded hotter with a lighter bullet, like the 85 grain, and becomes a decent coyote and deer rifle, oddly enough. It can also be seated in an AR-15 or a heavy bolt rifle rather than a light carry carbine and gets used in benchrest competition. Benchrest is a rifle that weighs 15 pounds and is placed on heavy sandbags on a concrete bench and is fired into a target at 100 yards with the object being the fewest holes in the paper. Yes, that's right. FEWEST HOLES. The idea is overlap or shoot through the prior hole. I am that good with the proper tools, but I rarely put that much effort into bullet concentricity and weight variance testing, which is necessary. My powder charges would get me dime sized cloverleaf holes though. I did that with a .223, and later my 8mm. My .338 and 7mm are capable of it too, though the 338 is like being kicked by a mule. If it were in a Browning or a rechambered gas action rifle, I'd carry a rifle like that in Bear Country. It is capable of killing a charging grizzly if you can unsling it fast enough. Wilderness people tend to treat grizzlies very carefully, which is the right answer to them. I've had enough close encounters to agree. Black bears are more aggressive however, and I'd prefer to shoot those on sight. They should be afraid of us. When they aren't, they kill people.

For some crazy reason, the survival rifle for downed pilots is the AR-7 .22 LR takedown rifle which fits into its plastic floatation stock. Useful, so long as you only want to kill rabbits or turkeys. I'm really unclear why this wasn't upgraded to a 9x19 mm carbine instead, since pilots already carry a 9 mm pistol with them. This is not the only choice, however. Considering the growing success of the 6.8 SPC, I remain surprised the US military isn't changing out the upper receivers on their rifles for that caliber. It is better in every way for all the varying missions our troops are using rifles.

I know a friend who killed marauding feral pigs with a friend whose property was overrun and being contaminated by them. They used 6.8 SPC rifles for most of it. Note that feral pigs are considered pest animals in all 50 states and territories and may be killed with any weapon any way or time you like. Poison is allowed too. They are NOT game animals and do not receive game animal protections like deer or elk. Killing pigs gets you a thank you from State Game wardens. Not fines. I've read many reports of deer and antelope hunting with 6.8 SPC, and its a legal round for it. A good compromise, and rifle rounds are all about the compromises.

I could easily see the argument for survival rifles being a 6.8 SPC, provided you find your ejected brass and reload it. I'm not a fan of survivalists shooting crappy military surplus ammunition. It speaks to incompetence and ignorance and is rather the opposite of preparedness. Ranchers and farmers load their own because they can't afford to miss and hand loading is the only way to know you will hit what you aim at. Handloads are quality control. Factory ammo is for lawyers. So really, your choices are:

1. .223 aka 5.56x45 mm NATO
2. 6x45mm
3. 6.8 SPC (Special Purpose Cartridge)

Load that into a bolt action, make your shot count, and keep the weight down to 5-6 pounds. The rifle you have with you is worth infinitely more than the one still in the truck because it is too heavy. 

Don't get me wrong. This is an engineering challenge to me. I am not a poacher. I get my meat from the grocery store. I respect the wild game and prefer to photograph it. Poaching and habitat destruction are really sad events that I'd like to see prevented. Wildfires, like the ones around me these days, are destroying habitat and killing wild game more than poachers do. 

I'd like to see the outcome of these wildfires being further funding to CalFire to clear more understory brush. The Rim Fire is a crown fire because Yosemite got behind on their understory brush clearing. You gotta clear every 3-5 years or you get a ladder fuel and crown fires with smoke visible from space, and chokes me awake at 4:00 AM this morning, again. It takes work to save the old trees. 

Real environmentalists are horrified at the Rim Fire and the resulting habitat destruction of all those game animals, the terrible erosion and landslides which will come this winter, and flood and filled-in reservoirs that will cause worse floods downriver in the Delta, all from these bad fires. This is the result. I'll have to watch the other stuff play out. 

I love California, I just wish it was more proactive about caring for itself. Have a little dignity and a lot less self destruction.