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Double Rifles, Single Shots & Combinations >> Double Rifles
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NitroXAdministrator
.700 member


Reged: 25/12/02
Posts: 39248
Loc: Barossa Valley, South Australi...
Big Game Rifle Club
      #1957 - 10/03/03 12:02 AM

Who's heard of the Big Game Rifle Club here in Aussie?

In the current issue of the "Australian Shooter" magazine, March 2003 issue there is a centrespread feature on the club.

Formed in 1983 in Victoria the club conducts shoots with mostly large bore or vintage rifles and now has branches in Vic, NSW, Queensland and WA.

There is at least a couple of members who are also members of these forums (myself being one of them - I am a new member and have yet to make the 10 hour drive for a shoot).

What is better than shooting one's favourite safari rifles or doubles (for those priviledged ones who own one or twenty!)


--------------------
John aka NitroX

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Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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mickey
.416 member


Reged: 05/01/03
Posts: 4647
Loc: Pend Oreille Valley, Idaho
Re: Big Game Rifle Club [Re: NitroX]
      #1983 - 10/03/03 03:29 PM

I'm a member and have been for a dozen years or so. I have only mad a few shoots (it's a long commute) but it is loads of fun with guys who really know there stuff. If anyone has a question on english rifles and cartridges it is the place to go.

--------------------
Lovu Zdar
Mick

A Man of Pleasure, Enterprise, Wit and Spirit Rare Books, Big Game Hunting, English Rifles, Fishing, Explosives, Chauvinism, Insensitivity, Public Drunkenness and Sloth, Champion of Lost and Unpopular Causes.

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470Rigby
.333 member


Reged: 23/02/04
Posts: 328
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
Re: Big Game Rifle Club [Re: NitroX]
      #11645 - 16/03/04 12:33 PM

The Big Game Rifle Club was founded in the early 80's ( 22nd November 1983 to be exact - I have the original committee minutes!) in the wake of Julian Knights' contretemps in Hoddle Street Melbourne, by a group of collectors of fine - mainly English heavy double rifles as a means of - should the excreta hit the legislative fan - justifying their ownership. Afterall - you don't need a 600NE to hunt in Victoria. Throught the 80's and most of the 90's the club flourished as doubles flooded into the country from India due to the commercial enterprise of a small band of dealers. Most of those doubles have now been re-exported - mainly due to the extremely advantageous situation for US buyers currency-wise - and the complicity of some nervous nellies who decided to get out of guns for fear having to see them go into the crusher after the Port Arthur massacre - and - dare I say - aided and abetted by the same band of dealers that originally imported them. Most of those original collectors lost interest in the club - and a great body of expertise on loading for, and shooting doubles was lost, possibly forever. Needless to say - classic doubles are pretty thin on the ground at Club shoots now. The Club is now- it seems to me - to be in the hands of a group of anglophobic, anti-elitists who are more interested in shooting blackpowder lever-action Winchesters, converted military Mausers and running 22RF events for women and children! To quote Ned Kelly - "Such is Life"!

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NitroXAdministrator
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Reged: 25/12/02
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Re: Big Game Rifle Club [Re: 470Rigby]
      #11656 - 16/03/04 02:07 PM

470Rigby

You will note we have a BGRC forum on NE.com. But it has seen little - no - use so far.

I am a member, only in the second year, but have never attended a shoot to date but one day soon I will make a trip East to attend a shoot. Thankfully I saved one of those Indian doubles from being exported. It is still to be blooded (by me) and will be this year without doubt.

Welcome to NE.com. I hope you enjoy the site.



--------------------
John aka NitroX

...
Govt get out of our lives NOW!
"I love the smell of cordite in the morning."
"A Sharp spear needs no polish"

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mickey
.416 member


Reged: 05/01/03
Posts: 4647
Loc: Pend Oreille Valley, Idaho
Re: Big Game Rifle Club [Re: 470Rigby]
      #11663 - 16/03/04 04:20 PM

It has been two years since I attended a shoot, the 'Nationals' in Sidney. If what you say is true than that was a fast turn around and a shame.

I don't understand your problem with people making money when you sell something though. You seem to think that these rifles should be sold to an Aussie for less money to keep them in the country. A bit confusing to a capitalist.



--------------------
Lovu Zdar
Mick

A Man of Pleasure, Enterprise, Wit and Spirit Rare Books, Big Game Hunting, English Rifles, Fishing, Explosives, Chauvinism, Insensitivity, Public Drunkenness and Sloth, Champion of Lost and Unpopular Causes.

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470Rigby
.333 member


Reged: 23/02/04
Posts: 328
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
Re: Big Game Rifle Club [Re: mickey]
      #11668 - 16/03/04 05:56 PM

mickey - I don't recall disparaging those that sold doubles overseas for purely monetary reasons - only the shortsightdeness of those who, not realising their true worth, panicked and sold them off when they saw autos going into the crusher after Port Arthur. Perhaps one of those unfortunate confluences of history that this happened when the A$ was weak. I have sold stuff overseas myself - but only to finance getting into something better - and I have had this hoary old argument thrown at me about doing the needfull and giving priortiy to Aussie buyers, even if it meant settling for less spondoola. My attitude it - it goes to whoever has got the most readies at the time! I was merely chronicling the history of the BGRC, and noting the fact that, for one little moment in history, Aussie afficionados of heavy doubles had it pretty good - probably too good, because they thought it would never end. Doubles were bought (and sold) like there was "no tommorrow". But there was, and as you know, the supply in India dried up - but some here still didn't understand their good fortune and flogged them off overseas (usually too cheaply!), from where they will never return, without realising that these were very rare things. Easy come - easy go! The Poms tried to emulate the succes of the BGRC with the Express Rifle Association (ERA), but soon found that, even in the country that they were made, there were not enough to sustain a club. Sadly, that is the situation that the BGRC is currently in now, and it is in some measure, self-inflicted by adopting rule and class structures that provided no incentive to hanging on to collectable double. In the club's hey-dey, even H&H's David Winks's eyes would boggle at the number of their doubles at H&H Shoots! Probably never as many in the H&H showroom at one time! It is the demise of that once great club that I lament - sorry if you interpreted that to be regret about the loss of the rifles (regretable as that is) or just sour-grapes about not being offered one at a "mates-rates"! I did manage to hang on to a few - and those that went only made way for my other love - Pommie shotguns!

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mickey
.416 member


Reged: 05/01/03
Posts: 4647
Loc: Pend Oreille Valley, Idaho
Re: Big Game Rifle Club [Re: 470Rigby]
      #11672 - 16/03/04 06:25 PM

470

Sorry if I misunderstood your intent. We all make decisions to buy and sell things that look silly in retrospect. I am also sorry that the club is loosing momentum. For a long time there was, and still is I guess, a tremendous amount of knowledge that was concentrated around Melborne.

Anyway, welcome and maybe we can get some of that knowledge collected here for other people who would like a bit of information.

--------------------
Lovu Zdar
Mick

A Man of Pleasure, Enterprise, Wit and Spirit Rare Books, Big Game Hunting, English Rifles, Fishing, Explosives, Chauvinism, Insensitivity, Public Drunkenness and Sloth, Champion of Lost and Unpopular Causes.

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