Road trip

So we're goin' on a road trip. It's organised - DaggaBoy and his girls are gonna' hop into the wagon and hit the road for a 3-day-marathon cross-country trip, and it's all in support of the latest rifle to find its way into the safe...

In my last post on Nitro Express, I mentioned that I had ordered a Ruger No1 chambered in that old classic, the .450/400 3” Nitro Express. Well the folks at The Stockade have come good and I have the all the kit safely home, just waiting for a few quiet moments when I can work up some loads and head out bush for a bit of paper punching and a few hours over the chronograph.

So what are we waiting for?  I'll go into the details of what I have got in another post - but  right now, there's the important point of what I haven't got - and that's brass.  I don't have any brass! And where's the best place to pick up a batch of brass for a classic African big game calibre?  Bertram Brass.

Back to that road trip...
 
Our journey will take us from our temporary lodgings in Sydney, 750 kilometres south west to Seymour, in country central Victoria. We're catching up with Bruce Bertram for a feed of venison and a bottle of red (or two). I expect we'll leave Seymour with a bag-full of brass, ready for the next steps with the new nitro rifle. We might check out the trophy room and go for a wander through the factory time permitting...

It's a hundred clicks south to Melbourne, so we'll head down that way the next day to meet up with Ado, a friend who has also developed that same condition I have - an addiction to African Big Game hunting.  Plan is to have dinner with Ado and his missus, maybe tell a few stories about our safari adventures - perfect - except for the lack of a hot fire, the cold starry night and the laughing hyenas... Then an overnight in downtown Melbourne, before we hit the bitumen for the 950 kilometre trip back home - including a detour via Bendigo for a special lunch that the missus would like to share with the team.


How will I cope? Well it's 1,700 kilometres and over 20 hours in the car with the wife and my two girls, 2 and 4-year-olds: "... are we there yet?  Is it a long way dad? Are we going hunting dad? I need to do a wee...  I'm hungry...  I want something different..." The fathers out there know what to expect.


I'm excited already.