I must have put the fear of God into them!

[Phantom 631]

What a contrast yesterday was to the 1st time on the new permission.

 

I got to the permission as about 12:40, made sure the Geese were out of the way and set up my zero check target. Six shots later I had my first bunny in the bag And before any of you sarky tw@ts go on about it, five of those were into the zero card and backstop

 

I celebrated by opening a nice cold can of lager and pouring it down my throat. That kissed the spot. I put the other three cans in the shade for later.

It was an hour later when my next target arrived on the scene, it was a woody sat right at the very top of a very tall conifer Not having taken many shots like this before I had a quick debate with myself as to wether I could pull it off or not, but bolstered by the last shot at a woody I figured I could do it. I gave it two mildots hold under to compensate for the angle and sent the 16grains of lead to meet its mark. There was a puff of feathers as the pellet hit its mark a little low and went into the neck of the bird!

It had obviously missed the spinal column as the woody stretched its wings and tried to fly away, it got as far as 15 feet in the wrong direcion before falling out of the air and landed on the nearside lane of the A63 where it was promptly flattened by a large timber laden lorry.

Damn! I was looking forward to eating that

Later I noticed just how many Corvids seemed to be circling around above my permission, some were actually comming very low, figuring they were eyeing up my 1st kill I took the rabbit and placed it at my 30 yard zero point and then came back to my sniping position.

Only a few minutes had passed before a Carrion Crow perched itself on a tree overlooking the tasty meal on the floor, I moved rather sharply to get my eye to the scope and that big black bird took to the sky

I didnt have to wait long before a Magpie landed on the same tree, clicking and flicking its tail up and down. I slowly moved my eye to the scope and the Magpie swooped from the tree across the rabbit and up again onto the fence at the left of me. After a few more calls, it

reversed the flight and this time came lower still to the dead meal I had laid out for it. But once again it didn't land until it reached the tree. The third short flight it made ended with it landing just a couple of feet away from the tasty looking corpse. It looked this way and that, its head going all the time in fast jerky movements.

A minute or so later which seemed to drag on for an eternity, the Magpie made its move towards the rabbit. It pecked inside its ear and pulled out the large red blood clot and swiftly gobbled it down it then tried for the eye of the rabbit.

With the adrenalin coursing through my veins, I took the shot without being totally composed and I saw the pellet part the feathers at the back of Maggies head, Damn I missed.

The Magpie stood upright and looked in my direction, then as I was driving the bolt home with the fresh pellet now loaded, Maggie took objection to the idea of gaining an extra 16 grains of weight! I suppose she was correct She'd never get off the ground again if she had hung around another few seconds

 

I opened another can to comiserate myself but this time I drank it over the space of half an hour.

 

Things went very, very quiet after that apart from the noise of the traffic on the road rushing buy at the national speed limit and above.

Then just before 19:00 I noticed a rabbit facing me in the far left of the plot. I watched it through my scope, It had obviously popped out for a spot of sun bathing as it wasn't eating, just laid comfortably soaking up the rays of the hot evening sun.

After 5 minutes or more waiting for the thing to turn its head and give me a nice clean side view, I grew impatiant and placed the crosshair at the top of its skull knowing the pellet would strike right between the eyes.

Steadying my self, I let off the lead missile and a fraction of a second later the bunny did a reverse roll landing on its back, its body was trembling like it was shivering with cold.

 

It was of course dead but the twitches were more like tiny tremors.

This is how I found it!

 

And heres the entrance wound.

 

 

I waited another two hours before calling it a day. What a contrast to the 1st hour and half

 

I spent here eh?

Hopefully next time will be more productive

I decided to go home by cutting through the cemetery and paddock. As I entered the cemetery

 

I saw two 3/4 growns dissapear down the central warren and a couple of other exit stage

 

right into the old ladies garden. I noticed a kit munching on some flowers in the new

 

section so I opened my slip, pulled out the gun, loaded and from prone I took the shot at a

 

perfect sideways on target.

I don't know what it is about kits just lately, but most I have shot have flapped and danced

 

about for a good few seconds, even the one from the other day with its brain hanging out of

 

its skull flapped about for a few seconds. As I reached it, it had stopped the pellet was a

 

straight through the brain and out through the other side.

 

I didn't photograph this one as I wanted to get home to have the rest of my beer

 

Heres the group from the new permission.

 

 

Phantom

 

Edited May 19, 2010 by Phantom

[zini 1,939]

Hi Tony,

 

It sounds like you had a good time mate.

 

At least you had a few kills and a few beers and you were away from all other chores that the family try to give us all.

 

I am just going to send you a PM buddy.

 

2 mins

[falcongit 242]

nice one mate,i bet the beer went down well.....

 

sym

[venomviper 129]

hi ya tony

it does look as if you had fun buddy nice shooting to tony and cracking write as ever plus good pictures to matey

 

shay

[aaronpigeonplucker 32]

nice one mate! i hate angled shots, mainly because i cant practice them enough because my garden is too flat.

[garfield 23]

well done Tony at least your putting plenty of bodies in the bag

[Phantom 631]

Thanks guy's

 

I enjoyed the afternoon and evening,fairly relaxing; even if was a bit low on the body count

Like you Aaron, I need more practice at the angles

When I went out early last year I did a few steep down hill shots at a target and every one hit the mark (or very close to it) but when it comes to upward shots, I usually get a clean miss for some reason

 

Thanks Si for pointing out the reason I usually miss these shots

 

Garfield my good man, glad to see your back with us I was thinking you'd deserted us all

 

Decided to stay in this evening and get some more of my project work done, trouble is its a bit mind numbing so I may yet sneak off for some very early morning bunny boppin'

 

Take care all

 

Phantom

[zini 1,939]

Just seen the pictures for the first time Tony as my work PC doesnt allow me to view most pictures for some reason, must be the security or something.

 

Cracking photos mate, i have to say

 

Vermin doesnt get dispatched much better than that buddy

 

Thats proper good shooting pal.

 

Im glad the PM helped mate

 

The more i read about the S200 the more i like the idea of getting one myself

 

Keep up the great posts mate

 

Si

[Sweeney-Todd 208]

Hiya Tony.

 

Bloomin eck mate, my eye's are still watering from laughing at the Bunny on it's back what a brilliant picture!!

 

Sound's like you had a good few hour's of fun mate

 

Shame about the Pigeon mate......at least it had a fitting ending.....getting splatted by a WOOD lorry :wacko: .

 

Nice shooting buddy, and the pic's.....well

 

 

ATB.

 

 

 

 

Bill.

[Marksman 934]

Well done Tony!!

 

Good bag there mate!

 

Darryl

[stealthy1 3,964]

Well it looks like your new permission is working well mate

[ArchieHood 3,692]

Did that can of beer go to your head Tony? .............

 

 

 

 

............That looks like lipstick to me.

[gerron 13]

glad you enjoyed your day mate but is it really a good idea to be drinking when out shooting ? nver mind your first time on new permission ??

[stealthy1 3,964]

Did that can of beer go to your head Tony? .............

 

 

 

 

............That looks like lipstick to me.

 

 

It does'nt look dead, it looks love struck

[Phantom 631]

Thanks Gents

 

 

 

Hiya Tony.

 

Bloomin eck mate, my eye's are still watering from laughing at the Bunny on it's back :rofl: what a brilliant picture!!

 

 

I wish actually I had turned the camera on to video mode, and caught the 'tremors' looked like a sozzled out of his skull, on his back p!ss artist :alcoholic:

Hind sight is a wonderful thing aint it.

 

 

Shame about the Pigeon mate......at least it had a fitting ending.....getting splatted by a WOOD lorry :wacko: .

 

Bill.

 

GROAN......

 

Phantom