Rod and Gun Small-Calibre Rifles Upset Killing-Power Theories

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31154, 2 September 1966, Page 15

Rod and Gun Small-Calibre Rifles Upset Killing-Power Theories

(By JAMES SIERS.)

A letter from Parker O. Ackley. I had written to Mr Ackley inquiring after a .17 calibre rifle (the old air rifle or BB bun calibre loaded to great velocities in a centre-fire case). Soon. I hope to have the rifle here for a practical test in New Zealand shooting conditions.

In his reply Mr Ackley dealt with several other topics of interest to most shooters: “The .17 calibre idea in general has sort of upset the killing-power theories because this little rifle seems to kill the largest animals just as ‘dead’ as the cannons. The game killed includes some pretty big bears. I have been receiving reports for several years from all over the world and every one seems to agree that the killing power is quite surprising,” Mr Ackley writes. >

“The results which you have been able to get with the 6mm/303, [a rifle made up for me in New Zealand]

which can be considered identical to the .243 Winchester or the 6mm. Remington, points up the fact that there must be something wrong with the old killing-power theories which would have us believe that the bigger the bullet the better the results, even though these heavy bullets produce trajectories similar to a baseball.

“I suppose,” Mr Ackley says, “a simple explanation is that the animals themselves do not know anything about these theories and a .17 calibre hole through somebody’s heart is just about as deadly as a .50 calibre hole and the placement of shots doesn’t sCem to be much more important with the little ones than it is with the big ones.

‘For example, O’Brien was able to kill a gocd-sized glacier bear [I suppose this means a polar bear] with two body shots at 165 yards with the .17 magnum using a 25 grain bullet. He also shot a 10ft 7in record brown bear with two head shots with the same size bullet from the .17 calibre.

“Please don’t get the idea.” Mr Ackley says, that I am advocating a 25 grain bullet for hunting elephants. I am just trying to point out that there is obviously something wrong with some of the old killing power theories. Mr Ackley says he has been trying to visit New Zealand and Australia for several years and is still thinking of making the trip. “I have no particular ideas to test because it is getting too obvious that almost any reasonable size cartridge will do the job. and I am very much against the idea of stories, such as the one apoearing in a gun magazine a few months ago, which would have us believe the .280 Remington improved cartridge will kill African game just a whole lot better than the standard .280 Remington cartridge. “I have fooled with these things for 30 years and I have found that some socalled improved cartridges do not do 5° well as the standard and the .280 Remington is one of them.

“A Ibt of gun cranks,” Mr Ackley says, “get a rifle chambered for a cartridge of this kind and then read glow, ing accounts about the high velocities that are possible and actually believe that a 140-grain bullet, for example, going a certain velocity, is a lot more deadly than the same bullet fired from the standard cartridge at exactly the same velocity. “We see manj’ many articles expounding the great killing power of some 7mm. Magnum, for example, which happens to produce the same velocity that the same bullet attains out of the old reliable 30-06 case necked down. I guess the idea is that it fills up space and is described by the word sensationalism iwhich magazines are indulging in more and more all the time.”

Referring again to New Zealand. Mr Ackley says: “I have wondered many times about the tremendous slaughter of game animals in New Zealand and how long that practice can last. In many instances the recreational value of such animals is worth more than the so-called damage they do. In this country, the common prairie dog has been almost exterminated. They never did do any actual harm and were never found on land that could support any thing. For example, where these animals are found it would take at least 50 acres te pasture one cow and that cow. of course, is in surplus. “Ranchers,” Mr Ackley says, “are a class of people

who don’t wish to see any living thing except a cow or a sheep so they agitate continually to do away with our game animals, national forests, and so forth, and they always use the one argument, citing the damage that these animals do. “Of course, this includes predators such as mountain lions, coyotes, and so forth which are rapidly becoming extinct. The number of sheep that these animals kill each year can only be described as infinitesimal and many losses are wrongly attributed to these animals.”

So says Mr Parker O. Ackley, and many New Zealanders will echo similar sentiments. The sceptics who sneer now, will live to see the day when our game animals will bb regarded as a national asset and managed for the benefit of our own and overseas shooters.

Some ballistics of the -17 Ackley Magnum: 27 grains of reloaded No. 11 powder; barrel length of test gun 25in; velocity: 4762 feet per second; 22 grain' bullet, maximum load 25.5 reloaded No. 11 powder, velocity 4585 feet per second; 25 grain bullet, 24.5 grains of Reloader No. 11 pow. det; velocity: 4184 feet per second.