Lever-action firearms user comments on gun debate

Gordon spent nine years on a state government ministerial macropod advisory committee in the 1980s and 1990s, and was one of the authors of the code of practice for the humane treatment of macropods.

He’s been hunting for 53 years, using everything from air rifles to elephant guns, and he believes that while the tightened regulations agreed to by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) won’t make a lot of difference to him, the changes shouldn’t be seen as the thin of a gun control wedge.

“I’ve used lever-action rifles and shotguns,” he said. “It’s all about different tools for different jobs.

“If accuracy is your main concern, then a bolt action rifle is what you want.

“If you’re in heavy cover, lignum and so on, then a lever-action comes into play, mainly because it’s shorter.”

He said they gave him the option to use a repeating weapon without needing a category C or D licence, which had a lot of extra hoops to jump through.

Pump-action shotguns are currently in category C, which Gordon would like to see moved to category B, saying he was relying on multi-shot weapons more often when hunting wild dogs.

“I’m shooting dogs up to 35kg these days – they’re very aggressive and come in looking for a fight, and lever-action shotguns aren’t fast enough in those circumstance.

“You’d be lucky enough to get two or three shots off in eight seconds.”

As far as moving lever-action with more than five shot capacity to category D, Gordon said two extra rounds weren’t going to make a lot of difference to him.

“If you can’t shoot something with five rounds, it’s pretty unlikely you’re going to shoot them with seven,” he said.

Gordon’s thoughts were reflected in the Fairfax Agricultural Research and Marketing (FARM) survey conducted last week, in which opinion on the changes were evenly divided.