A mixed day's shooting with Andyfr1968 on my permission!

[pianoman 3,587]

Phew where to start.

Well, it's monday and the best cure for the monday blues is to go shooting! So, with Andy free for the afternoon and the sunlight breaking the overcast, we met up at mine to go visit the fields and see whats about. After a great chat with Si and Laura on the phone and a brew up, we off under the cloudless, brilliant blue skies and sunshine over my permission, to field number 1 and a zero-cum-target shoot session. Out of the gunslips came Andy's Weihrauch HW90 gas ram .20 cal. rifle and Walther scope. For me, my beloved HW77 .22 rifle with, on this occasion, my Nikko Stirling 6-24x44 platinum Nighteater scope. With a gentle breeze, we set to a basic 35-yard target range. I had my high mounted scope punching tight, penny sized groups fairly quickly. A few fliers due in part to a bit of dieselling and the odd pellet feeling looser in the breech, but generally getting the groups to shrink to one-hole, pellet-on-pellet. Nothing less will do from myself and this incredibly accurate spring rifle.

 

Andy, however, was having problems...!

 

His groups were about a good 3 inches apart at best and that's not Andy's shooting nor his rifle! I've shot with this HW90 and I know it's as accurate as you like with Dynamic .20 pellets. But, there they were, hitting all over the place! He handed the rifle over to me. I checked it over, everything was screwed down tight. The pellets seated nice and firmly in the breech. I decided to shoot at the spce between the two targets we had been working with left o, clear of any other pellet holes to give me a fresh point to establish zero.

 

First shot hit left of my aim-point. 2nd shot hit high left. 3rd, 4th and 5th hit loose low-right. I couldn't hit a worse group off if I deliberately tried! This is either scope or pellet problems. So, on the past success of the Dynamic pellets, the Walther scope was held suspect. Andy's only scope for the day!

 

Back to the car. Back to my house for a change to one of my scopes.

 

A very trusty Simmons Pro Air 6-18x40 AO came off my HW80K and went onto Andy's HW90 with no further fuss other than to alter the depth of arrestor stud to fit the holes of his rifle properly. This scope is a tough, lovely compact unit well up to withstanding the recoil crack from a gas ram action. I switched my Nikko Stirling Nighteater back for my HW77's usual Simmons Whitetail Classic 4.5-14x40 for some low-light woodland hunting I had in mind. The Nikko had performed very well as a target scope, but what I want to do with it can wait another day. Then back to the field and re-zero and we can go hunt -simples!

 

Er...no!

 

Andy's pellets are still hitting off all over the place with absolutely no change. He even wanted to shoot a target string with my HW77 to see if it was down to him! It wasn't. He was hitting a tight 35-yard group with my rifle no sweat! It's got to be a duff batch of pellets! The only solution left was for Andy to re-zero his rifle and scope to a closer, 20 yards which effectively shrank the group to about 2 inches. Risky for hunting but, it'll have to do.

 

The rabbits are very scarcely seen at this early time of the new year on my shoot but, there are Buzzards gliding and wheeling about aloft, keeping them hemmed in the woodlands. Two were flying over the woods when we arrived. I wanted to get into the woods and into cover to see where the rabbits were getting active at dusk, safely out of the way of Buzzards beneath a protective maze of Hawthorns and silver Birch tree branches. The Simmons Whitetail is a superb low-light scope for this purpose. It'll gather the last vestage of daylight and give you a sightpicture you can shoot by, when others will just pack up in the dark.

 

We moved into this thick, densely covered area of forest and the earth was soft with diggings and scrapings. Centuries of rabbit warrens carpet the forest floor here. It is one continuous rise and fall of rabbit-holed ground. We split up with Andy taking the lower slopes about a hundred yards from my position on the higher ground.

 

After just half an hour, right in front of me just a few yards away, a pair of rabbit's ears waggled up... I kept as quiet as I could as I lifted my rifle...Still there. The little bugger must have it's hole just on the risen earth in front of me and it's popped up to start the night shift. I just got the rifle to my shoulder and it bolted off in leaping bounds up the last bit of the slope into the maze of tree trunks and hawthorns.

 

Oh well... Back on the wait.

 

After a while comes this distant crack of a shot and suddenly a squadron of woodies clatters and darts just over the tree tops above my head. Andy's had a crack at a roost. I move further along the woodland tops till I find a really nicely lit clearing below. The ground slopes away to fall steeply into the river valley. Chances are anything shot here will tumble down the slope out of reach. So it proved with the one rabbit I could get a bead on. I hit it clean through the head at thirty odd yards and it kicked and bucked over the edge of the slope and disappeared sliding in the fallen leaves. I went looking but, it was down the slope in the gathering dark and I couldn't find him.

 

I saw three really good rabbits after that, scamper into the thick, dark overgrowth right towards Andy's position. Not a shot comes back! Oh well...again!

 

It was almost too dark to continue when I heard Andy fire at something. I'll give him five more minutes then wrap it up. One lost tumbler bunny -again like last week; but still, better than nothing.

 

I packed up my rifle and slowly picked my way back, causing a bloody great ruck of pheasants to go flapping out of the trees and clucking into the darkening woodland beyond. and met up with Andy coming up the sloping ground. He'd had a shot at a pidgeon silhouetted in the trees and clipped a branch causing a miss. That's what sent the flock over my head. He also got a decent hit on a rabbit but, groping about in the dark, we couldn't find it. Oh well... We got back to my house and over a much needed cuppa we examined Andy's Dynamic .20 ammo in close up. Even with a naked eye, there is some off-centre turning with virtually all of the ones we looked at. A duff batch of ammo indeed! Heyho but, a lot better than a good scope gone duff.

 

Hope your testing proves it to be working fine Andy mate, despite that bit of metalic rattle that's coming from it!

 

Pics to follow if some kind bod can help out getting them posted from Andy e-mailing them to you.

 

All the best till next time.

 

Simon

 

So a day of a bit of mixed fortunes today, but, a kill a-piece and I'm better aware of where and when the rabbits on my shoot are moving and how I'm going to plan my approach next time.

Edited March 8, 2011 by pianoman

[secretagentmole 1,701]

Andy has my email Simon, Mole will work his magic again, tell him to get rid of that Victorian steam powered relic of a laptop he is using (his description not mine I hasten to add) and move onto an Edwardian internal combustion one, like me!

Edited March 8, 2011 by secretagentmole

[andyfr1968 772]

Thanks, Mole.

 

On their way

[festa 206]

i enjoyed that read simon buddy these things are set to try us but it all came good in the end lads

 

atb gary

[zini 1,939]

Nice write up that Simon pal .

 

At least you lads got out together and spent some time enjoying your hobbies . Its not always about the big bag is it buddy ?

 

Great to chat to you both yesterday as well on the phone pal .

 

Laura says hi again.

 

Si

[hunter1989 91]

very nice read buddy

 

spa from me for great read

[secretagentmole 1,701]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editied cos some damned fool used the link bit not the photo bit...

Edited March 8, 2011 by secretagentmole

[hunter1989 91]

great pics lads

[secretagentmole 1,701]

OK Simon, where did you stash the rapelling equipment? Is it camouflaged as well?

[markha 99]

Nice write up Simon, and a nice bit of woods to wonder round.

[pianoman 3,587]

Thanks Markha. It's a lovely, haunted place I've grown up with all my life as my playground to shooting ground. It's a fantastic place to be alone or share with a good shooting mate. The ground in these pictures is soft with diggings and centuries old warrens and holes.

 

Cheers Steve. Very kind of you to say mate!

 

Thanks Gary.

Aye, it's a sod when things like this happen but, we managed to overcome the set-back as well as we could. Thing is, these Dynamic pellets cost around 16 quid a tin of 500! Not exactly cheap-as-chips but, the last batch were really sound and, when I shot with Andy's HW90 the first time he came over, I found this combination to be extremely accurate at 45 metres and even further. The rifle's a beauty too. Handles like an HW80, it's really got a very nice, pleasingly tactile feel in handling. Makes you want to shoot well with it!

 

Thanks too Si.

It was great you called me just as we were getting the shooting day ready. Talk about immaculate timing pal! You are bang on right mate. If I rated my day's sporting success by the size of the bag at the end of it, I'd come home down and disappointed more times than up and elated! Shooting for me is totally about your performance with your rifle at a target at distance. Fur, Feather or Paper on Wood, it makes no difference. Taking some basic principles and using them to put a tiny piece of lead right onto a pinhead at a downrange point you couldn't see with the naked eye. It's fantastic when you have the fields to yourself on a sunlit evening or first light and the rabbits and pidgeons are out feeding in force on the corn and barley crops and you are knocking them down dead at all ranges. Nothing like it in the world. But, when there's hardly anything about you can either stay away, or get out in the sunshine and fresh air and get some serious practice shooting done with a good recce to see where the quarry might be in numbers. I can never understand these guys who put themselves under pointless pressure to come back with a hefty bag or the day's been a waste of time..!

 

The wonderful thing about shooting with an air rifle is the way it encapsulates every shooting discipline and theoretical principle in to one micro-world that's just a hundred yards long in the face of the wind, when you think about it. Everything takes place within that 100 yard length. From zeroing to hunting ranges to sighting a rabbit, to stalking it to reduce the range to your rifle and scope's zero and bagging it.

 

If all you have to show for your shooting day is one rabbit, rat, squirrel or pidgeon. That's been a successful one in my book. If you come home with nothing but a greater knowledge of your permission, yourself and your rifle's capability, that's even better! Andy has become a great close mate and it's great to have a knowledgeable shooting buddy who's there to witness the great shots as well as the bloody howlers!

 

I wouldn't have it any other way, would you?

 

ATB

 

Simon

Edited March 8, 2011 by pianoman

[rossy08 33]

nice one lads good right up as ever and its bloody good to see some pics of your loverly permission.

 

your very right about the bags Simon, me and my mate andie have been getting out a bit of late and have been haveing very little bags, but we never come away dissapointed. its all about being out there and having a good time with good mates, a good bags a bonus.

 

keep up the good work

 

Andy

[pianoman 3,587]

Ahaaa! The pics have arrived from Mole's Intelligence HQ!

PIC No.1.

The rifles of the day. Weihrauch HW77 .22 rifle with Simmons Whitetail Classic 4.5-14x40. Andy's Weihrauch HW90 with the Simmons Pro Air 6-18x40 that kept him shooting.

 

Pics 1. 2. 3. 4 and 5.

Good shots showing how the slopes of this forest generally are. It gets steeper in places with little flat ground down to the river. Andy's position looking up to the top tree-line where I was more or less positioned further to left of here. And the lad himself!

 

Pic 6 and 7

My air rifles. Top to bottom:

Air Arms TX200HC .177 carbine with Bushnell Scopechief 4-14x50 AO in walnut

Air Arms TX200 .22 rifle with Hawke 4-16x50 AO MAP PRO.

Weihrauch HW80 FAC. .22 rifle with Simmons Whitetail Classic 4.5-14x40 AO

Weihrauch HW80K FAC .22 with Simmons Pro Air 6-18x40 AO. This is the rifle I restored from a near-pile of rust over the course of a year. It's an absolute beaut of a rat-killer now!

Weihrauch HW77 .22 rifle with Simmons Whitetail Classic 4.5-14x40 AO. Note the absence of a dished cheek-piece. This is a beautiful handling, unbelievably accurate rifle and scope.

 

I could never sell or part with any of these rifles. They have all made kills at some astonishing ranges and given me some of the most memorable shooting I've ever known.

 

Thanks for letting me share them here!

 

Simon

[secretagentmole 1,701]

Mole's Intelligence HQ? Some might consider that an oxymoron, some might consider me an oxymoron!

[pianoman 3,587]

nice one lads good right up as ever and its bloody good to see some pics of your loverly permission.

 

your very right about the bags Simon, me and my mate andie have been getting out a bit of late and have been haveing very little bags, but we never come away dissapointed. its all about being out there and having a good time with good mates, a good bags a bonus.

 

keep up the good work

 

Andy

That's very kind of you to say Andy mate. What you don't bag today will still be there tomorrow. It's generally a very quiet period at this time of year for rabbits. Even down among the heart of the warrens in the woods here, I only saw 5 rabbits in total throughout the whole time. I don't think Andy saw any more from his position. But owning a rifle that can reliably hit a 5p coin in your hands at 60 metres and honing your shooting with it..now that's a pleasure you can indulge all day long.

 

ATB

 

Simon