The Brno 602 in .458 fitted with its Weaver 2.5X scope with various handloads.
By Ken Pearce (Written in 2016)
Like many deer hunters my age, my first encounter with a centre fire rifle was in the cadets, being of course, our nation’s iconic .303 SMLE Mk.III service rifle.
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Although, I had occasionally shot at rabbits with relative s’.22 pea rifles in the early ‘ 50s, I grew up with an increasing interest in military small arms. In 1957, while shooting with the cadets at the Williams town Rifle Range, I witnessed a RAAF Reserve corporal put five shots downrange at 600 yards with the standard open sighted, issue .303 at one of the now politically incorrect silhouette targets in use back then. When I saw the target brought back to the mound from the butts, with of all five shots in the torso area, I was rather impressed… my respect for our ‘old’ .303 saw the beginning of a long and continuing association with the Lee Enfield rifle.
As with many Victorian sambar hunters, the .303 SMLE was our first deer rifle mainly due to it being a cheap, readily available, powerful enough repeating rifle for taking on the sambar. I picked up my first, well-worn Mk.III specimen for ‘two quid’ with over 100 rounds of assorted Mk.VII ammunition.
At first, and apart from viewing them in the Royal Melbourne Zoo, I had no knowledge of sambar or how to hunt them and my trips were spasmodic and naturally unproductive. In 1964, I bought a ‘new’1942 barrelled action, fitted it back to full wood configuration and for the next decade it became my constant companion.
The coming of the Australian Deer Association in 1969 opened up a new world: meeting other deer hunters, along with invitations to go out on hound hunts. It seemed owning a Remington .30’06 or .308 ‘Woody’ semi- auto carbine was the way to go to be one of the boys. Team leaders Dicky Dixon and Neil Page had them, others had .303 sporters while a young Rod Heron carried a cut down M-17 Enfield… t here was even a .30 M1 carbine (not enough gun for deer) and a Ruger .44 semi- auto!
They were interesting times and I learnt a lot watching the boys looking for marks and when found, the trackside conference planning the day’s hunt. Later, at the post- hunt b oil up and sausage sizzle, I was often regaled about the amount of ballistic punishment sambar were often subjected to.
Finally discovering that the .303 was less than ideal for running shots on full grown sambar that could weigh over 270 kilograms, I sought the collective wisdom of opinions about using a .375 magnum from several hunters who, despite admitting they had never used one, were rather negative. However, one enquiry le d me to Kevin Kincaid, who owned an M-17 Enfield converted to .375 H&H magnum by Jack Miller. Kevin also owned a .30’06 ‘Woody’ and a .270 Winchester ZG-47 Brno, having taken sambar with all three calibres and was very articulate and emphatic about the superior ‘stopping’ qualities of the .375 H& H compared to his ’06 and .270. The seed was sown and early 1975 saw me visit Barry McDonald’s gunshop, then in Barkly Street, Footscray, where I found what I was not actually looking for.
The two Brno Model 602s on the wall rack were pointed out by Barry and the first I picked up was indeed in .375 H&H magnum. Immediately I was struck by how heavy it was… it must have be en around five kilograms! Examination showed the barrel to be rather thick for the calibre and disappointed, I put it back in the rack. Picking up the identical looking rifle below it, I was amazed at the difference in weight… maybe a touch over four kilograms. The larger bore instantly revealed I had met up with Winchester’s famous African big game calibre, the.458 magnum!
Examining the rifle, the realisation was that here in deed was something different. As a rifle it had everything: it pointed well, a choice of triggers, express sights, all steel, double square bridge magnum Mauser action, grooved integral scope mounting, barrel mounted sling swivel, hinged magazine floor plate… a classic big game rifle at considerably less cost than the slightly lighter, more compact .458 Model-70 ‘African’. I recalled Ackley’s 1962 Handbook forReloadersand Shooters that had .458 magnum figures of over 2,700 fps for 300 grain bullets, over 2,400 fps for 400 grainers and over 2,100 fps for the 500 grain heavyweights. Despite knowing I would cop endless ribbing from mates, friends and other hunters, I was hooked. Things were going to be different from now on!
With a $10 packet of Winchester 510 gr ain ammo, the first shots standing indicated, at worst, the felt recoil was ‘tolerable’. Murray Vague commented after his turn to shoot ‘Yeah, I could shoot a deer with this, but that’s about all’. Our host’s chronograph registered 2,120 fps and a long journey with the .458 began. Being summer, there was no rush to hit the sambar hills even though I had hunted them through three straight summers to 74 - a brush with dehydration had taught me a lesson. With the immediate challenge of learning how to cope with shooting the .458 and discover of the 60 2’s pros and cons, I combined ‘easier’ hunting of feral pigs in the forested north- east Kelly country, with visits to my parents in Benalla. On pigs, the .458 is an interesting exercise and certainly far too much of a good thing, with zero felt recoil on running shots!
The original factory target that came with the 602 displayed a 100 metre, three shot group of 40 millimetres for the 510 grain Winchester round. Protected in my padded range jacket, I was surprised to find I could easily duplicate or better the factory group size over the bench rest. Hand loading with 400 grain Speer flat noses saw superb grouping but also their downside for reliable feeding in a bolt action designed for .375 H&H length cases. Winchester or Hornady 300 grain flat and hollow points indeed saw them easily exceed 2,700fps with Winchester 748 powder but with downsides - unreliable feeding due to being too short in overall cartridge length and projectiles intended for .45/70 velocities being too soft for large animals like the sambar. For the time being Winchester’s longer 510 grain heavies ‘were it’.
The .458’s first sambar was a 13 year old (determined by tooth sectioning) hind taken after a lengthy early December tracking hunt … a running, slightly uphill, raking shot at about 80 metres as she burst out from under a tree fern. The bullet travel led the full length of her body, lodging in her upper windpipe! A decade later, an identical bullet recovery occurred after an unnecessary ‘coupe de grace’ was delivered from directly behind at around 40 metres, toppling the mortally wounded stag over the edge of the creek bank. The unexpanded bullet fell out of windpipe as the head and cape were separated from the neck. Animals taken over the years saw, with rare exceptions, complete penetration from any angle and no recovered bullets.
Shots taken at stationary sambar have mostly faded from memory… the spectacular running successes are long remembered…
The .458 has accounted for quite a few sambar over the years.
After 40 years and many kilometres carrying the 602 up and down rugged mountains, the bluing has long worn away on the barrel and the magazine floor plate and the checkering has been worn smooth enhancing, to m e, the character of the rifle. Internally, the bore is still excellent and the action is slick and smooth – smoother than any other 602 or current 550 model rifle I have handled. The ‘back the front’ safety on the 602 has been no problem, easily mastered by simply ‘cocking’ the safety catch backwards to release as with the hammer of a Marlin or Winchester lever action and most single barrel 12 gauges.
When past middle age, open sights become a problem over 50 metres and for some years, the 602 has worn a steel Weaver K2-2.5X scope. Load experimentation continues to this day with on hand, fairly hard 40 year old Hornady 500 grain RNSPs that have been precision lathe drilled to produce fearsome- looking, 460gr hollow points. Backed by 2206H, they shoot accurately to almost the same point of impact at 100 metres as Barnes’s 500 grain TSXs and with three 460s partnering a pair of TSX’s in the magazine, reliable feeding and rapid bolt cycling are assured if or when a first shot miss requires a quick follow-up ‘second chance’ which can easily happen. There is nothing like the awesome sight of a mature sambar rapidly shifting into high gear and starting to cleave through the sticks in a manner evolution has designed it to do so expertly.
Yes, to me, it has been a very interesting, satisfying journey and at times, an amazing experience hunting with a so much ‘different’ calibre and rifle than what most hunters would use on sambar… as the late Arthur B entley suggested with his Martini Enfield, my Brno 602 .458 magnum, has yet to play its last overture.
