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A few details about this ZG-47 which I have had rebuilt by a gunsmith named Harald Viken in Norway, from 30-06 to 9,3x62:

Barrel length: 48 cm / 19 inch

Total rifle length: 102 cm /40 inch

Weight: 8.3 lbs. without suppressor. So it is not exceptionally light, but fine for a 9,3x62.

Total rifle length with "short"/hunting length suppressor (it is modular, so I can add or remove modules as I wish) - 113 cm / 44.5 inch

The rifle is coated with "Duracoat". Duraheat is used on the suppressor.

The stock is a Basner "High Tech".

The front and rear sights are from ERA/Rechnagel.

The Talley scope mount copies have been machined by the gunsmith from scratch (to make a set lower than what Talley offers).

The first game taken with the rebuilt rifle was a 2 1/2 year old moose I shot yesterday. Using VV N-140, I have loaded 250 grain North Fork soft points to a pleasant 2450 f/s.

I was sitting out in the woods waiting for things to start, when a moose came galloping(!) down on the left side of the clearing I was at. I didn't have time to raise my gun, but thought to myself that it could possibly turn a bit to the right and come out of the trees it had entered right in front of me. Which it did! It was trotting then, only 30 meters away from me, and I could see that it had blood near it's neck/shoulder from before. As our neighbors had wounded a bull with 4 spikes the day before, I knew it had to be that one. Therefore I gave it two rounds of 9,3x62 as it passed thru the trees in front of me. It was going so fast that I wouldn't have shot at it if it hadn't been wounded. As this was apparently our lucky day though, the bull was hit solidly by my shots (one which trashed it's heart we later found out), and it crashed down dead after 20-30 meters. Needless to say, the neighbors were very pleased, as they had been searching for it since the day before. It turned out that it was our dog Jega who brought it to me (by chance), as she had been released only a few hundred meters away. Instead of heading where my mother who was acting as dog handler wanted her to go, she went straight up to where the moose obviously was, having probably smelled it the second she got out of the car.

The 2 shots the neighbors had put into it were non-lethal, and it would have undoubtedly gone for quite a long time before infection and a slow death put an end to it. So it was a good thing that I happened to be at the right place at the right time. Interestingly enough, both of the neighbor hunting teams bullets (a 30-06, and 9,3x62 Oryx) were found in the moose even though they were only flesh wounds, while my North Fork 250grains zipped right thru.

So far, I am very pleased with the rifle, and in addition it is quite accurate. With the North Fork loads, I get 3 shots just touching each other at 100 meters. Which is plenty good enough for me with a 1.1-4 scope.

Edited by CptCurl (11/10/08 11:44 PM)

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