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Oz lifestyle?

Unlike America nearly all Australians live either in one of five cities or on the outskirts of those cities or up and down the coast of some of those cities. For example, we have 20 million people and about 8 million love in Sydney and Melbourne. Brisbane has about 2 milllion so that is half our population in 3 cities. The there is the all the people who live on the East coast between Melbourne and Brisbane.

So Australia is basically two extremes of nearly everyone living in a heavily populated area and the rest with almost no one.

Where the buffalo are shot in the Northern Territory would be similar for most Australians as Alaska is for most Americans but of course with opposite climate.

The extreme concentration of people living in big cities is probably the foundation of our gun laws.

As to shooting the American is much better off at getting gun gear both as to availability and price. Where we are better off is that our version of prairie dog shooting is on full size animals like roos, goats and pigs.

Basically we are shooters and not hunters. In fact our main gun magazines are called Sporting Shooter and Australian Shooter. We tend to say "I am going next month" or "how did your shooting trip go" etc.

However some Australians are into the hunting and in particular some of the deer and especially the Sambar deer as it is found in our south.

But overall I would imagine that most Australians have a life style similar to what would be found in big American cities. But for the shooter when he goes shooting he is likely to do far more shooting than the American. We shoot on private properties and how much there is to shoot varies from time to time and where and how big the properties are.

Because of the number animals shot we tend to assess a calibre or given bullet different to the American. Our assessment tends to be based on the shooting trip as a whole as opposed to the results on a couple of animals.

The vast majority of shooters here use the 223, 22/250, 243, 270 and 308. The average shooter thinks the 375 H&H is an absolute cannon and more powerful than 375 is virtually beyond his imagination.

If you came to Australia you would find the general calibre line up similar to America except the 30/06 is not that common, especially in new sporting rifles as opposed to military conversions. I think 375 would be a lot more common here than 338 with the vast majority of them being CZs or BRNOs. I think if the price is similar, then the Australian will buy 375 instead of 338 as most Australians once they leave the 308 or 270 are are into "toy" guns.

Also, the Australian with the big bores from 375 and up will go and blast roos, pigs and goats with it until he needs a rest. Because of the large number of animals "efficiency" is not such an issue.

Mike

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