Newbottle Farm

[zini 1,939]

NOW EDITED SO NOT TO UPSET ANYMORE READERS

 

Hi lads,

 

I met up with Mark Vining (Markvining) from the forum yesterday evening at around 1830 hrs at Newbottle Farm, the 10 acre pig farm that he is the manager of.

 

Mark met me and my friend at his house before going into his garden to set up and chrono his HW97K for him.

 

Mark had previously had problems zeroing his combo and was finding it hard to get a good consistent group. On carrying out some further investigation I ascertained that Mark was using Marksman .22 pellets, the pellets that his guns shop had given him. I told him to throw them away and explained that Marksman pellets are probably the 2nd worst pellets sold, and would not group well in such a good rifle like the HW97K. I also explained to him the importance of using a quality pellet for accuracy .

 

I went to the car and fetched Mark a new tin of FX 16 grain pellets and told him to watch the readings on the F1 chrono now that I was using a top quality pellet in his rifle.

 

I was pretty amazed myself on chronoing Marks rifle to see a non tuned rifle producing super consistent results over a 10 shot string, with 4 of the 10 shots producing the exact same reading with the average power working out at 11 FP .

 

After the chrono test I put up a target for mark at a lased 25 metres and asked him to take a steady shot at the bull. After only 4 to 5 shots of turret adjustment Mark was putting pellet after pellet through the bull’s eyes and was amazed by the huge difference in pellet performance.

 

To finish off the zero I put up a coke bottle top with a drawing pin in the middle to see if Mark could hit the top. It was nice to see Mark not only hit the top but he actually hit the drawing pin in the centre (great shooting Mark) especially with a springer buddy .

 

Next me and Mark went for a walk around his farm which is absolutely full of rabbits, crows, and rats, and when I say full I mean mega FULL and needs to be seen to be believed .

 

The first rabbit was spotted within 30 metres of his house and was at a lased 41 metres. I crouched down and got into the sitting unsupported position and took aim with my HW97KT. Placing 3 mil dots of hold over on x14 mag from a 25 metre zero on the bunnies KZ before smoothly squeezing off the second stage of the tuned Rekkord trigger to watch the bunny flip and role over . On inspection the bunny had been hit straight through the brain.

 

The next species to be shot was a wood pigeon. The woody was hit by Mark at a range of about 22 metres but sadly fell into the pig sewage pit so was left as it was covered from head to claw in pig mess.

 

On Marks farm is a huge pile of old pig bedding and mess, and this pile is covered with crows. I must have seen 50 plus crows in and around this area. (Next time we are going to concentrate on them) .

 

Next we went into one of Marks fields where we saw about 20 bunnies just sunning themselves. At this stage my GunTuff LRF tempararly broke with the lens housing cracking and needing glueing which in turn produced some crazy readings which I thought were wrong. (Its fixed now).

 

Due to this I needed to guestimate the ranges to the bunnies.

 

The first bunny I chose was a shot at a guestimated 30 metres which needed to be taken by a standing unsupported shot or the rabbit would have seen us both. Giving the bunny 1 mil dot of hold over I released the second stage to see the bunny flip in the air and role over again. .

 

Next I used a fence post for support where I shot a further 3 bunnies, 2 at 40 metres and one at a large paced 45 metres, all witnessed by Mark .

 

Next we went into the pig pens themselves after going through the shower unit and putting on some clean clothes. This is done as Marks farm is a disease controlled farm and you can only gain entry into the pens once you have showered and put on clean clothes and boots. I wanted to shoot a few rats and was amazed at how many there were. I managed to shoot 20 rats with the HW97KT but sadly we could only pick up 11 as the other 9 fell down false walls and behind heavy machinery .

 

The furthest rat was taken at 30 metres with 2 rats at 25 metres. Some were actually taken at around 5 to 6 metres and required 2 mil dots of hold over to raise the barrel on x6. mag. Even on x6 the sight picture was still blurred so next time Im taking the HW95K with the 3-9x50 Bushnell on with me.

 

The majority of the rats though were taken at between 10 and 20 metres and gave me some challenging shots in regards to point of aim (POA).

 

Finishing at around 0130 hrs I said goodbye to Mark and his lovely fiancée and thanked them both for the brilliant time before presenting Mark with a full Logan hunting lamp and charger to show my apprieciation .

 

Mark and his fiancée are really kind people and proved this by them offering to put me and my best mate Sergej up for the whole week in August when we come over again shooting, offering us both accommodation, cooking and showering facilities .

 

This is obviously an offer I am not going to turn down as this permission is the best permission I have ever shot on and an air rifle hunters dream come true .

 

Cheers Mark, the idea of shooting on your farm for a full week is just a dream come true. Next time Im going to bait the rats with sweet corn in the positions we identified and set the camera up to film the shots. I also am going to film some static hunting in the bunny field pal and thin that huge flock of crows out.

 

If I don’t get at least 100 rats, 40 to 50 bunnies and 50 crows I’ll be shocked mate with the amount of vermin you have pal .

 

Si

 

NOW EDITED SO NOT TO UPSET ANYMORE READERS

Edited July 10, 2010 by zini

[venomviper 129]

hi ya si

well the land looks nice buddy and great shooting as well its a shame mark got covered in pig sh-t though hummmm not nice lol it does smell a fare bit

 

and great pictures to buddy so you had fun then matey and thanks for the txt this morning at 01.25am

as it didnt wake me up so its all good lol

 

fantastic write up as ever too matey

 

shay

[JackReid 35]

Holy good shooting mate.

 

I was out last night only a few miles from yourself but a combination of bad hayfever and suprisingly very little about (last night wa sperfect aswell?!) I only got the one kit.

 

Was using my mates un-tuned 97KT and after shooting a tuned rifle I can't enjoy un-tuned! I can see why you've had all yours done.

Its just simply too loud to hunt with at the same level of stealth I could achieve with the tuned 95k! Bring back my 95k arghhH!!

 

Aroudn that time in august mate is when we should do a swinging past meet up... Would make sense,m and I'll have my gun back by then!

 

Jack

[stealthy1 3,964]

Like the wellies mate, looks a very good permission, have a slut

[zini 1,939]

Cheers lads and cheers for the SP Stealthy .

 

Shooting a springer or any sub 12 FP rifle at them ranges is crazy i know but im sure that when Mark logs in and reads my post he will back me up 100% that what ive written is no BS.

 

I just cant wait to get back there shooting again soon Mark.

 

NP Shay i thought that you would like the text

 

Si

Edited July 9, 2010 by zini

[fry 209]

good spot an sharp shootin i must think about getting one of these range finders i went out last night with my lad zeroed my aa s410 at a paced out 32 yards on a 180 full charge had to raise the height 3 clicks on the scope, then later on i found i was shootin over the top of the rabbits head? went back to the target an sure enough i had to drop it 3 clicks! i have found with this rifle that the power goes up when it drops to below 170. starting to think the classic is the better option with more full power shots to a fill. its all new to me its my first rifle for nearly 20 years.

[markha 99]

Nice shooting Zini

 

Fry: If you fill to the recommended 190 bar you will have around 20 shots to zero before the shoot, then your right on the sweet spot for the next 40 shots, they will all be at the same ftlbs, give or take half ftlb.

Your zero will be pretty much the same.

Once you get past the 40th shot youll be down to around 130bar or as low as 110 bar and your point of impact (POI) will rapidly start to drop.

Dont go below 100 bar as you will run the risk of getting a pellet stuck in the barrel.

The sweet spot on mine is 170 down to 130 bar on the rifles gauge, which is not accurate at all when compared to the filling tank gauge.

Always use the filling tank/pump pressure gauge as an accurate reading, never the rifle gauge.

[Sweeney-Todd 208]

Hiya Si.

 

 

Very good write up mate

 

Top bloke too for helping Mark out with his rifle, good on you.

 

Sounds like Mark is hitting the spot now, he must be one very happy chappy

 

Mark and his Fiancee sound like real nice people, the gift of the lamp was a nice thought Si. Have a Slut

 

As for your shooting..........what a load of pants !!

 

Just kidding mate :crazy: , excellent shooting by any standards, especialy with a Springer, AND from standing/sitting too

 

I doubt anyone on this forum thinks your a Bull Shatter mate so really no need to justify your shooting buddy, we know your Marksmanship is first class.

 

If that were a Sheep pen you were wearing them boot's in, I think there may have been questions asked

 

The pictures are brilliant too, cant believe the amount of bunnies playing in the meadow, there's even one in spitting distance if you look through the metal bars .......... your going to have some real fun there

 

Good luck and good hunting in August, hope you enjoy your stay mate.

 

 

ATB.

 

 

 

 

Bill.

[fry 209]

Nice shooting Zini

 

Fry: If you fill to the recommended 190 bar you will have around 20 shots to zero before the shoot, then your right on the sweet spot for the next 40 shots, they will all be at the same ftlbs, give or take half ftlb.

Your zero will be pretty much the same.

Once you get past the 40th shot youll be down to around 130bar or as low as 110 bar and your point of impact (POI) will rapidly start to drop.

Dont go below 100 bar as you will run the risk of getting a pellet stuck in the barrel.

The sweet spot on mine is 170 down to 130 bar on the rifles gauge, which is not accurate at all when compared to the filling tank gauge.

Always use the filling tank/pump pressure gauge as an accurate reading, never the rifle gauge.

yeah i use the bottle guage never filled to 190 for fear of over filling what distance do you use for a zero? maybe i have a problem with the rifle because on a 180 charge it chrono s at 10.4 -6 with aa feild plus 18 grain an when it gets 170 or less its 11.5-7 is this normal my boys 400 classic is 11.5 full up to 11.9 on the sweet spot? maybe i will get the combro out an run it all again i have just bought 500 16 grain superdomes.

[markha 99]

I zero for the typical ranges I need to shoot at at different locations, generally set now at 45m.

I have not tried the aa field plus, a bit heavy for a 12ftlbs rifle at longer ranges, but I suppose ok for hard hitting at very short range, theres going to be a lot of poi drop on them.

If I fill to 170 bar I get chrono,s minimum - 11.25 and maximum 11.49 right down to 130 bar where it starts to drop back down from 11.39 to 11 at 120 bar.

By the time IM at 100 bar its down to 10.68ftlbs.

 

So I would say that your rifle, compared to my chrono results, normal.

A full 190bar sees the gun at 10.92ftlbs, hope that helps.

[farmerkev09 105]

hi zini

 

great write up buddy and the pics are great to

 

happy hunting

 

farmer

[zini 1,939]

Cheers lads for the kind comments

 

Thanks Bill your confidence in my ability

 

And thanks for the SP

 

Si

[wullieh 53]

Cracking pic and the ground speaks for its self through your pics mate well done and great wright up si. ye lucky bugger.

[markvining 18]

Hi all,

 

Thanks again Si and coming over im glad the farm had all you wanted, i think i learnt more about field craft and shooting in a couple of hours than months of plinking about on my own.

 

I dont think are girl friends were to impressed with us coming back at 1.30am but a load of bunnies and rats it was a good haul.

 

I can back you up on all shots great night shooting with top bloke Si

 

Mark

[gurtwurz 792]

nice work si, and well done on that standing shot buddy, what a cracker , i best get some extra practise in this week so's i dont shame myself too much next week!(although i could blame my crapness on the new rifle-like it'll be the kt's fault ) the standers worth a slut point alone, coupled with a great write up and some cool piccies too, although those wellies are never gonna catch on, they'll clash with dpm summat chronic buddy...

cheers mate, wurz