After this mornings clarity test at 1k I contacted my hunting partner and asked if he'd be happy to shoot this afternoon range work.
He agreed and I brought along my WMR for him to test and zero whilst I tested the Bushnell. The range was 100m to target and after a zero session I moved on to the tracking, the title gents is a little misleading and I do apologize for that as the scope tracked perfectly !
I wasn't on best form today not having dinner or anything sugary meant I was a little shaky in the shoulder but still shot a decent .6 inch group, we had about an hour of light left and after tony had put a 3 shot 40Gr soft point group almost through the same hole at 50M we moved round to the other side of the shoot to see what was around.
As we passed through the passing into where the land opens the air was brisk but very little wind at all, and the slight breeze we did pick up was a NE posing no issues to us being head on.
Skirting the woodland to keep from silhouetting ourselves on the gorgeous sunset occurring behind us
we moved down into a position to get better eyes on a rabbit tony had spotted from about 240M away, now with us tucked up in our final firing position I took a range for tony, 154M from us to target. I told tony to keep eyes on whilst I ran the data through Ballistic App on my iPad and was telling tony to wait a sec when he almost squealed "Charlie"
I was mid sentence telling him his data for the rabbit and looked up hearing another "Charlie" squeal from my hunting partner.
I spotted her instantly almost on top of where the bunny I'd ranged and was she was stunning. Dropping the iPad and assuming a position to fire I told tony to stop her as she was starting to move off. The next scene could of written a Harry hill joke as tony gave out a flurry of squeaks and farts so I just barked.
She stopped sharp. Looked directly at us although the position was completely hidden due the sun being behind us and the last light cascading low and into her eyes. " click "
FAILURE TO FIRE I spoke out...
Bolt rear no ejection a quick look clear, bolt forward!
I half expected her to have gone but with us being down wind and low sun hiding our exact location she was nose high sniffing the air, showing her beautiful white chest to all, my adrenaline was going ballistic my train of thought shot to shit, it was a matter of time and I hadn't had any to soak up the situation that had developed, I had been sorting out a shot for my buddy when a target had appeared, not even loaded the rifle hence the dead mans click for the make safe id done after leaving the range part ( safety first guys )
But my fox was still there and I pulled the trigger, my aim was on shoulder as she was cock angled to me and the broadside shot was the safest considering my breathing along with everything else had gone to the dogs.
Disaster struck ! For the her that is
I lasered her after she dropped folding in on herself and 140m flashed on the Bushnell scout 1000 range finder. I told tony to sit tight and walked over to pick her up. A couple of mins later I came back with our prize.
A stunner of a fox and a pride to have on the shoot. She wasn't big early this years I would guess but prior to my 55gr VMAX round hitting home was a very healthy vixen.
We sat on station for another 30-40 mins and moved back round the other side to gather as much of the last light as posssible. Moving back through the entrance of the passing I stopped and stopped Tony too, whispered back " rabbit mate " " come up and lay the rifle next to me ", I took the range and waiting for my hunting partner to get his target I had to back off his zoom from x12 to x8 so he could gather move light in to the 44 objective / 30mm tube. He found his target sat under the bush and I told spoke back "70m away, aim at the base of the neck pal ". He steadied for the shot and squeezed the light 3.5ftlb trigger until it broke clean sending the 40gr Soft point at 1989fps towards his point of aim.
Impact !
A quick congratulations and we went to collect, the rabbits brains were in its ears and a good sized entry under its cheek line bang on his aim
Walking off back to where we set up the range I was interested in seeing how the 34mm tube worked in the now extremely low light that we were now walking through, my answer came after about 5 mins of panning about, 208m / 227yds away I spotted a rabbit on the hill side grazing. My first shot after dialing 4 clicks of adjustment (8.32cm) for drop missed slightly left, and the rabbit moved to the right, my second shot released about two-three seconds after the first struck the rear section of the half turned rabbit ruining the meat completely but what a shot to have made. Along walk up and back and a pack up of the rifles had us both grinning.
Disastrous shooting session .... For our targets that is
Atvbr
Max...
He agreed and I brought along my WMR for him to test and zero whilst I tested the Bushnell. The range was 100m to target and after a zero session I moved on to the tracking, the title gents is a little misleading and I do apologize for that as the scope tracked perfectly !
I wasn't on best form today not having dinner or anything sugary meant I was a little shaky in the shoulder but still shot a decent .6 inch group, we had about an hour of light left and after tony had put a 3 shot 40Gr soft point group almost through the same hole at 50M we moved round to the other side of the shoot to see what was around.
As we passed through the passing into where the land opens the air was brisk but very little wind at all, and the slight breeze we did pick up was a NE posing no issues to us being head on.
Skirting the woodland to keep from silhouetting ourselves on the gorgeous sunset occurring behind us
we moved down into a position to get better eyes on a rabbit tony had spotted from about 240M away, now with us tucked up in our final firing position I took a range for tony, 154M from us to target. I told tony to keep eyes on whilst I ran the data through Ballistic App on my iPad and was telling tony to wait a sec when he almost squealed "Charlie"
I was mid sentence telling him his data for the rabbit and looked up hearing another "Charlie" squeal from my hunting partner.
I spotted her instantly almost on top of where the bunny I'd ranged and was she was stunning. Dropping the iPad and assuming a position to fire I told tony to stop her as she was starting to move off. The next scene could of written a Harry hill joke as tony gave out a flurry of squeaks and farts so I just barked.
She stopped sharp. Looked directly at us although the position was completely hidden due the sun being behind us and the last light cascading low and into her eyes. " click "
FAILURE TO FIRE I spoke out...
Bolt rear no ejection a quick look clear, bolt forward!
I half expected her to have gone but with us being down wind and low sun hiding our exact location she was nose high sniffing the air, showing her beautiful white chest to all, my adrenaline was going ballistic my train of thought shot to shit, it was a matter of time and I hadn't had any to soak up the situation that had developed, I had been sorting out a shot for my buddy when a target had appeared, not even loaded the rifle hence the dead mans click for the make safe id done after leaving the range part ( safety first guys )
But my fox was still there and I pulled the trigger, my aim was on shoulder as she was cock angled to me and the broadside shot was the safest considering my breathing along with everything else had gone to the dogs.
Disaster struck ! For the her that is
I lasered her after she dropped folding in on herself and 140m flashed on the Bushnell scout 1000 range finder. I told tony to sit tight and walked over to pick her up. A couple of mins later I came back with our prize.
A stunner of a fox and a pride to have on the shoot. She wasn't big early this years I would guess but prior to my 55gr VMAX round hitting home was a very healthy vixen.
We sat on station for another 30-40 mins and moved back round the other side to gather as much of the last light as posssible. Moving back through the entrance of the passing I stopped and stopped Tony too, whispered back " rabbit mate " " come up and lay the rifle next to me ", I took the range and waiting for my hunting partner to get his target I had to back off his zoom from x12 to x8 so he could gather move light in to the 44 objective / 30mm tube. He found his target sat under the bush and I told spoke back "70m away, aim at the base of the neck pal ". He steadied for the shot and squeezed the light 3.5ftlb trigger until it broke clean sending the 40gr Soft point at 1989fps towards his point of aim.
Impact !
A quick congratulations and we went to collect, the rabbits brains were in its ears and a good sized entry under its cheek line bang on his aim
Walking off back to where we set up the range I was interested in seeing how the 34mm tube worked in the now extremely low light that we were now walking through, my answer came after about 5 mins of panning about, 208m / 227yds away I spotted a rabbit on the hill side grazing. My first shot after dialing 4 clicks of adjustment (8.32cm) for drop missed slightly left, and the rabbit moved to the right, my second shot released about two-three seconds after the first struck the rear section of the half turned rabbit ruining the meat completely but what a shot to have made. Along walk up and back and a pack up of the rifles had us both grinning.
Disastrous shooting session .... For our targets that is
Atvbr
Max...
