pianoman 3,587 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 (edited) Ladies and Gentlemen Settle back, pour yourself something suitable to the hour and gather round your PC, for here is a tale of three intrepid shooting men and a day of extremes, of joy, triumphs, of no small disasters and the finest shooting since that certain American Civil War Army general stuck his head above the ramparts saying; "Ha! They couldn't hit a barn door at this dist.......!" I'd had a really excited gut-feeling that this day was going to be an amazingly special and didn't sleep much for thinking about it. I just knew in my blood and bones this day was going to be something else. So, here was Si revved-up and keen as a razor at my house at 10:30am after a fair drive up and I'm still a bit bleary and yawning. The sunlight was beautiful and the sky peerlessly blue and warm. As I sit him down with coffee he shows me the true gentleman he really is and presents me with a gorgeous little hand-crafted knife and leather sheath. While I'm flummoxed by such unexpected kindness he simply says "You could do with a good knife. Just to say thank you for the shooting we've had together and letting me join you on your permission". If this wonderfully kind gesture wasn't enough to almost get me hugging him, Si produces another, a giftwrapped package on which is written.... To Simon. Thanks for the Invites. Regards Si and Laura. Inside is ..well..ALL this remarkable man's shooting DVDs PURE AIR RIFLE HUNTING. SPRING RIFLE VERMIN CONTROL. ULTIMATE VERMIN CONTROL and the new THE VERMIN SNIPER. I just do not know how to adequately express my profound thanks SI and to you too Beautiful Laura, but as insufficient as it is, thank you both for the warmth of your boundless kindliness and open-armed friendship. Laura sweetheart, please make time to visit us with Si and shoot with us here soon honey. I'm not saying my permission is everything to shooting perfection.....But it's near enough ! To everyone here. If you really are half as serious about your shooting as you say so here, you should all have Si's unique DVDs in you collections. Here is honest-to-God demonstration and instruction of truly astonishing air rifle marksmanship and hunting tips and hints that really work. From a great man who has given his working life to accurate shooting and one of our Heroes in the British Army. Show some support for one of our own and bag yourself the best instructor you will ever have. And after coffee and a throw of my head under a tap we were off to Field No.1. Rifles for this session were Si's "spawn-of the-Devil" BSA R10 .22 and my old faithful TX200HC .177 plus a healthy supply of AA Fields and JSB Exact in 4.51mm. A 40-metre lazed zeroing target was set up and we set to work getting our rifles into song. And that's when trouble No.1 of the day showed up. While Si gleefully went from one-hole pellet-on-pellet zero, to hitting empty pellet tins and the lids at 50 metres, some alarming inconsistencies started showing at my target I was getting one-hole perfect groups; then the pellets began "shotgunning" or spraying wildly at the target then coming back into settled groups. This is down to my ammunition. The AA Fields have gone dull and needs a re-wash and lube. The JSBs are not exact! Despite being exactly the same headsize 4.51mm. I got things to a level where I could deal a fatal hit but, I cannot guarantee a humane fast kill; something I am absolutely bloody serious about. So back home and switch to my Weihrauch HW77 .22 and 250 H&N Field Target Trophy pellets. Si noticed I have a Hawke 6-18x44 AO SR12 scope...just lying unmounted on my cabinet. The very same scope he is using on his R10! "Get that fitted on your 77 and I reckon you'll be deadly with it" He says. So, on it goes with a set of spirit levels to centre it perfectly and he sets to work with my laptop and calls up the Hawke Chairgun software thingy. With all the details of power at 11.7 ft/lbs and pellet weight of 14.66 grain and a few other bits of info, the programm established a prescribed set mag of 15 at a basic 25 metres would give me just a centimeter of hold-over/hold-under needed between 7 metres and 25 metres with the lower 3rd dot dead on 35 metres. This through the ladder meant I would have 50-metres accuracy on the lowest dot, 55-metres on the lowest bar below it and 60 on the thick post below the ladder. Si has that glint of "Trust-me-I-know -it'll-work" look in his eye. "You watch. With your marksmanship techniques and that scope now calibrated to your rifle, you'll be deadly with it all!" Back to Field No.1. I zero my third mildot dead on at 35 metres. The grouping from this rifle and pellet is amazingly tight, pellet-on-pellet. The winds have decided to pay us a return visit and now a mild but, deceptively positive breeze is blowing across our zero range. I know that my scope zero is absolutley precise but we are both getting slight drift we must correct by instinct for. Si sets up bottle tops, a pellet-tin lid and a couple of drinks bottles at 50 metres. And knocks the lot flying one shot after another! Now it's my turn. If the software was fed with accurate info and my scope calibration has been set right, my bottom mildot should be dead on to any one of these targets. I place the dot. The sightpicture is a bit blurry at 50 metres after pinsharp at 35. I allow left-left drift for wind....Breathing through the nose...steady...down to the pause...keeping air in my lungs...the shot is composed, aimed and fired within 5 seconds...THWACK! The little blue water bottle top goes flying! Bugger me it works! The bottles and pellet tin lids follow the same treatment! Check-shooting targets through the reticle, I can effectively hit anything from 7 metres out to 65. A pellet tin was placed on our old friend the frying pan across the field at a lazed 63 metres. Si had hit this with the R10 till it had been pretty bashed up. I took aim on it with the thick post at the base of the reticle. BOP! hit it dead square. Andy meanwhile has arrived to join us just after 5-pm and sets up to zeroing at my 35-metre target board with his Diana 52 .177 sidelever as we arrange targets for him to stretch his shooting legs on. Very soon he too, is bashing bottles and shattering the last bits of bottle top at 50 metres range. Don't ever let anyone tell you a spring rifle is not as accurate as a pcp. That is the biggest lie in air rifle shooting there is. To prove the point, after consistntly shooting drinks bottles, tin lids and bottle tops to pieces, and pieces to fragments, we looked for something small and robust to further test ourselves with. Si came up with a penny piece and placed it on a small rock. A target smaller than the killzone on a woodpidgeon's head at 50 metres. Well, I reckon by now, you will all be thinking "Bollocks! Not with a springer!!! :hmm: :hmm: For now I'll leave this hanging, while Si posts up the video film he took of what we attempted here, and you can judge for yourselves. As it is for now, I am a reborn believer in mildots for air rifles, the wind was settling quietly down and all was doing well on the permission.... Then came trouble No.2. Andy's rifle suddenly seemed to lose power. Si an I were watching him shoot his turn at the target range and the shots started going very low-off left. Andy felt the rifle was perfectly normal but, we though it was definately starting to under-perform. Shots were taking a fraction longer to hit and they were going low. Andy then switched back to the 35-metre zero target and the hits lack the THWACK! that it was hitting with before. Nonetheless, he felt he could successfully hunt with it so, I gave him my tin of JSB Exact as they perform far better for his rifle and I shouldered my HW77 and we set off to hunt the paddock and forest. Si lent me a handy Deben red-filtered gunlamp which fitted to my scope nicely without upsetting zero, while he fitted a powerful unit onto his. For Andy, it was his trusty headlight unit around his forehead and off we went in search of rabbit. We ambled down and along the field edge at the forest. Hundreds of rabbit holes have appeared since my mate drilled and seeded here last week and the signs look good. Just as we reached our intended hunting ground... DISASTER! Andy cocked his rifle's sidelever back and...CRACK! The cocking lever just snapped in two! There it was, broken clean through and hanging off the pivot. Useless. Some thing's are just not bloody fair. The rifle is over 20 years old and has cocked and recocked tens on tens of thousands of shots. It's finally given up. I was so gutted for my friend here that I offered him my 77 rifle. But no, Andy just looked at the sorry state of his trusty Diana 52 with a philosophical shrug. Thank God it didn't happen in a way that could have smashed him in the face or sliced his fingers off. But chuffing hell. I've just been given a lovely knife and Si's collection of DVDs and had the best day's target shooting with these fine lads I've had for a long time and this has to happen... Andy decided on returning home and fetching back his HW90 .20 Gas Ram. Off he went alone while we turned to the paddock. I got settled a way further down from Si's position and got a shot at a couple of settling woodpidgeon in the tree-tops. I though the shot was clear but the branches I thought were behind the birds wer, infact in front of them! They were clattering out of the trees faster than they got in. Shit! Mindful that I had now fruitlessly alarmed the dwellers in the woods of my presence, I moved further downfield away from Si's proximity so that if I fired again, it will lessen the effect of muzzle-crack over his way. As it was, a bit less than an hour in the dusk later I got a nice bead on a 3/4 rabbit at a shade under 40 metres across the next field and dropped it with half a mildot above my lower 3rd on 6.5 mag giving me a safe shot through the back of it's head. I got a second rabbit with the lamp at a tidy 20-odd but, here was a problem. Without a velcro strip to secure the pressure switch to activate the light, meant I had to keep it firmly pressed against the forestock to keep it lit and that had a bad effect on my hold in the aim and I hit the rabbit through the ribs just behind the shoulder. A very lucky shot that got into it's heart/lungs and killed it reasonably quick. But, the head was what I was aiming at. Must get a velcro strip and a fixed on/off switch if I go deeper and more regularly into this aspect of the sport. I don't go breaking cover for shot rabbits until the shoot is over or I'm relocating much further away, but these were the only ones I saw, as Si made a silent foot patrol across the paddock and along the top where there are scores of new holes and made intermittant use of his lamp. I had a long, slow wander down to the forest edge and tried to get a fix on anything moving in between the trees. Nothing there at all, except the hooting of an owl (probably explains why!) I decided, after a good couple of hours in pitch dark to collect my bag and relocate further afield. And I couldn't find where the hell these rabbits were fallen! Maybe a fox got them or I was disorientated in the darkness, but, they were not where the bloody hell I thought they were. I gave them up for lost and went to see how or where Si has got to. I could see his red light was more distant from the paddock boundary. I eventually caught up with him and found Andy had returned with his HW90. I wouldn't have blamed him if he'd have sacked it for one day, but here he was; rearmed and back with us! Nobody had seen a sodding thing all night! If I'm really honest, I didn't try too hard looking for my shot rabbits. I was feeling very tired by now and a bit fed up that not one rabbit had presented to give the lads a shot to show for their hard worked efforts. No moon in the night sky, no wind of any note. I just don't know why this place has more signs of rabbits than you can count but, they are being very elusive right now. All I can say Andy, Si is, you just wait when the barley is coming up. You'll be falling over the bloody things here then! Still, the target shooting was amazing. Si will be along with the pics and vid! Simon . Edited March 25, 2011 by pianoman 5 Quote Link to post
Webby1 34 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 Nice read that i just wish in Gloucestershire that we could find a permission to shoot over as yours sounds a dream but with all the bad press at the mo regards air rifles/swans you know what i mean its like looking for a needle in a haystack Dave Quote Link to post
rossi_j 99 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 Cracking write up simon, sory to hear about your trusted rifle andy, I wish it a speedy recovery. Some great shooting and good fun amoung freinds, thats what its all about I am surprised there wasnt a big bag taken here though, I know thats not what its about but with all the activity and a little rabbit presence during the day left me thinking it would be like a night club for bunnys out there in the black of night. Anyway simon, when is your r10 due to arrive? Perhaps those feretters you spoke of the other day made a dent? .atb. .ste. Quote Link to post
boroboyoli 0 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 Very Interesting read!It's a shame Andy's gun broke, better luck next time lads. Kind regards Oli Quote Link to post
rossy08 33 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 fantastic read as always Simon... sounds like you all had a good day out,,,,,well all but Andys Diana who decided to throw a sicky. wish you the best at getting this fixed up asap pal.. Andy Quote Link to post
zini 1,939 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 What a great write up again Simon. Thank you again for a great time on your permission buddy. It was a pleasure to spend the day and some of the night with you and Andy again mate doing some seriously accurate air rifle precision shooting. Don’t worry about me not seeing any rabbit’s buddy, as you know it’s not all about the size of the bag mate and I had a brilliant day just shooting and being with 2 very close friends. Glad that I managed to assist you with your scope calibration to and teach you something in regards to Chair Gun Pro mate. As you saw pal, when you put in good data to the software good data is spit out, and the data that I put in for you from your living room was correct to the mildot in the field. You’re a seriously great shot with that springer to buddy and as good as anyone I know with a PCP and I know some great shots now since being on this forum a while. Guys this bloke (Simon) is the real deal and not a bull shi**er. He does exactly what he says he can with his rifle and I have witnessed it now on 2 occasions myself. Same with Andy who is another what I would call exceptional shot with a springer. Anyway here is a small clip that I have put together and a few photos. I saw the spelling mistake at the end in the credits but never mind its staying there now. Note the bottle top with 2 holes in it in the middle was shot by me with my .22 BSA r10 at a lased 50 metres with Simon and Andy as witnesses. No shots on this clip were edited in any way and what you see is what happened in real time and real life. ATB Si 2 Quote Link to post
markha 99 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 A fantastic write up, sp given mate, gutted for Andy I hope it can be fixed. Again, cracking shooting lads. Quote Link to post
zini 1,939 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 (edited) Thanks for the interest in Simons great post lads. I can honestly say that our personal marksmanship shooting skills along with my r10, Andys Diana and Simons HW77 have now been tested to the finest degree for precision and accuracy at a credible range and that we cant really do anything else to test them. What ever target we put out it got destroyed. At one point earlier in the day me and Simon were shooting at a top off that hand sanitizer that girls carry to use when out in public toilets etc. The blue top was half the size of a coke bottle top at the start. That got hit every time without fail at 50 metres. In the end it was a piece of plastic 8mm in size at he max. Even that we both hit every time and thats no bull and the Gods truth. I was well pleased with my r10. Si Edited March 25, 2011 by zini Quote Link to post
gurtwurz 792 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 feck but you lads can shoot!!! nice going lads, and excellent write up simon, really enjoyed that mate bad luck andy, hope the diana's repairable mate. am sat at home, having had what feels like extreme dentistry done so needed cheering up- my cheek is so swollen i'm aiming 3/4" off at 15m so i've given that up s a bad bloody job i can tell you! nice photo's si mate, glad you all had such a good time cheers, wurz Quote Link to post
matt_hooks 188 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 Feck me, it's last of the summer wine but with guns! Nice shooting there guys, gotta love those old springers, deadly in the right hands! Quote Link to post
gurtwurz 792 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 Feck me, it's last of the summer wine but with guns! Nice shooting there guys, gotta love those old springers, deadly in the right hands! PMSL!!! nice 1 matty cheers, wurz Quote Link to post
zini 1,939 Posted March 25, 2011 Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 Feck me, it's last of the summer wine but with guns! Nice shooting there guys, gotta love those old springers, deadly in the right hands! :realmad: :protest: :11: Simons got to be Foggy Andy Compo and me Chegg Si Quote Link to post
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