Saturday I was out with tom, Monday I was out with Russell.some good shooting too!!!!

[davyt63 1,845]

Hi Every One

Saturday/Monday shooting trips out!

It’s been a while since I put a post up so thought I would share my last 2 trips out in the field!

 

1^st trip started with Tom AKA Dearing picking me up at my place, ready to set off to Oxford. After a quick load up with the required kit AAS410K .177 & my Heavy rucksack! “Well I don’t think it’s heavy” only those with noodle arms complain! Lol, quick pit stop at the garage for some monster drink “don’t want tom falling asleep again” lol.

After a 45 minute trip to the permission we arrive at the field gate, the lights picked up a few rabbits running for cover, because the last time we were here! We bagged 37. As I was the gate master I jumped out to let Tom get the van in, and we would just go around on tick over!

 

We always start of by going to the far side of the permission, right out of the way to set up! As we are making are way down there it was nice to see “for the first time!” rabbits by the hedge row. They soon disappeared when we got to close, as we were still about 100yds from the set up destination.

We got our kit out and began to set up rifles; Tom was using a Gaystate MK4 dressed with a leaper’s scope 3-9x40, and using his Deben tracer max. Using.177 Accupels 7.85gr,

As you know I had my AAS410K Dressed with a MTC Mamba 4-16x50 using my Tiablo A9 Tactical torch and using.177 Air Arms Field 8.4gr.

 

Now we were ready for some lamping drove because tom wasn’t use to the land, and it could get a bit bumpy in one of the fields. As we set off the bunnies we seen on are way down were back out, having a bit of a graze! We ticked over to within 35yds quick right hand down on the steering wheel, tom was shouldered and ready! Flick of the lamp to acquire POA, one more flick of the lamp and a squeeze of the trigger game over for bugs. We took a reference point of the tree line and would pick it up on our return for coffee.

 

As there was a quite a bright moon, there was no need for head lights knew the land pretty well. And just ticked over using are NV monocular as spotting scopes, before we knew it tom softly shouts “woe” that’s are code for stop! Once are quarry has been spotted, “yes I know what you are all thinking” why not stop! Because it’s the way we roll!!!!!!

As we stopped tom was ready again, this time we were about 25yds from the rabbit, the Gaystate rose again to the challenge and the pellet strikes it kill zone. But the bunny rolls down the warren hole; it was just outside its dwelling DOH!

 

Now we carry on and start to enter the top of the land near the manor house. Tom was gate master now “ my bitch really” lol so out he jumps to pop open the gate I stroll in to find no cattle, so that was a bonus! As the cattle can be a pain in the neck! “Like the way I worded that” my bitch and a pain the A**e in the same paragraph. I know what a dirty mind you all have!!!! Lol

As tom jumps back in to the van we tick along another 20yds from the gate, and I spot a lone bunny about 35yds away. Quick left hand down engine off, AAS410K shouldered flick of the lamp then took the reference point of bunny, right in line with the corner of a large building in the background. My eye to the Mamba I focused on the corner of the building, and slowly followed its outline to the ground where my bunny was still sat grazing, I could just make out its outline. Cross hairs on target flick the Tiablo on up its head comes “too late” I was already over my first stage, THWACK! Over it went!

We decided to pick this one up as we also spotted a fox on the prowl, on my arrival to pick it up, seems it was further than 35yds, it had to be at least 45yds because on inspection the pellet hit low and severed its spine killing it instantly!

If anything I forgot one rule I make when out lamping, if you’re unsure of the range ,give more hold over, at least you will hit the kill zone or totally miss your bunny altogether! My bad but I will get over it! In the back of the van it went after I pissed it off.

We carried on around the field but seems ole Charlie was about, we decided to go have a coffee and pick up the first of fallen, well would you believe it nowhere to be found, maybe Charlie did get his meal in the end?

 

While I was pouring the coffee tom spots a red lamp shinning are ways! Now I know chaz & I are the only ones who shoot this permission with are chosen guests, so after a quick coffee and a cigarette. We set of to investigate straight over to where tom had seen the lamp. But we couldn’t find any one, but did see a car pulling away about 150yds away from the main gate DAMB!! Poachers!

We had another drive around after this, but I think all the noise had disturbed every rabbit, plus Charlie as about too.

 

So I decided to take tom to another small permission a Orchard still owned the landowner, it’s a few minutes away literally. As we pulled up at the gate I jumped out and had a quick spot with my Aldi NV monocular, and I spotted nine bunnies all in the centre of the orchard just grazing!

So quietly back to the van to let tom know we were in luck, we had to get the rifles back out of the back of the van. Although it’s only a few minutes away best not chance it. Rifles out and ready to go, I open the gate “as I was gate master Again” tom pulled in slowly only about 15yds into the field.

Van locked up and we started to head towards the bunnies, but they had here’d/seen us come in and scarpered. So we took another 10/15 steps and had a look through the NV monos, I spotted one inside some brambles with a pretty much clear shot. So down on one knee the aas410k supported by my thigh quick flick of the lamp, it’s still there! Another flick THWACK!! It’s still there but lights out, a lovely shot!

 

We spotted 2 more about 60yds away, so we walked over to a tree frame which protects it from damage. I had a missed call from Russell AKA dogvixen so tom pursued the bunnies while I returned the call, I had just finished the call and I see tom get the shot of the evening unsupported standing shot. He went and picked up the bunny and brought it back “like a good little retriever” lol

 

I asked him did he pace it out, no. was his reply, off he went and paced it out. and came back with 40 plus pace’s .which I think was a great shot of the evening “well done tom” then tom had to retrieve my bunny from the brambles ,because I am too old to bend down lol. Once we got all the bunnies together it was time for a pic and here they are.

 

TOM

 

 

Myself

 

 

Can you see the brambles behind me! That’s where tom had to get the bunny out of, not easy I can say!

 

 

 

Monday

As some of you know Russell has paid me a visit a couple of months back, well as we got on so well I had invited back over to do some more shooting with me!

He had arrived at 8:30am and as promised the kettle was on and the bacon was warming in the oven, after we had our bacon sarnie’s and cuppa, it was time to get the kit together and head out to Oxford, this permission was about 25 minutes away, on arrival I spoke to the gardener yan to let him know what we had planned for the day, he was ok with it. And we began to check zero!

I have a piece of board there behind some propane tanks, to keep it dry and it does not get thrown away as there is a major refurb going on the manor house.

I range out 35yds with my gun tuff range finder and set the board up against an old oil drum, which is being used for fire rubbish. Russell went first to check zero and after a few shots was bang on zero, then I checked my zero 5 shots later I was happy!

 

Russell

 

 

Zero pic

 

 

Russell on the right and my smily face on the left.which I can tell you I aimed for lol.

 

 

As Russell had been here before there was no need to show him the boundaries, as he was shown the last time. We decided to head down to where we seen some squirrels on our way up the manor drive. I stayed by the location while Russell went on a mission after spotting a squirrel on the move!

 

I stayed in this position for about an hour, but nothing showing before making my way back down to where Russell had went. Slowly I set of and just hugged the hedge row and tried to keep in the shadow of the hedge, as it was a nice sunny morning with a 5/6 mph wind. So not a bad day for shooting!

I finally met up with Russell and found him with 3 squirrels in his sights! He had already taken one of them, and was lining up the other one. But I couldn’t see the one he was aiming at, and as the wind had got up a bit I decided to give him a hand took my first shot and the wind took it left so my next shot was 1 mildot of wind, squeeze THWACK! It tumbling down and landed about six feet from Russell. Sorry Russell for high jacking your squirrel lol

 

Where it fell

 

 

Here is a close up of its teeth!

 

 

 

Poi

 

 

 

I watched as Russell was aiming his shot and smacked it straight in the Swede,

Down it came but like the other I found out, straight into a thick “Y” branch of the ivy tree, and impossible to retrieve if we could see it even!

After the squirrel slaughter we went our separate ways, but still in tough via the radios “just in case of emergency” we wanted to go for a cuppa lol

I headed to a major warren just out of view of the manor house; Russell went towards the wooded area to the rear of the house looking for rabbit, squirrel, and pigeon.

 

I got myself settled 34yds from the centre of the warren and got low to the ground in a prone position and using my 6-9 bi-pod. This bi-pod is great for keeping you concealed and close waited for about an hour, and while I was killing time I took one shot at a brown wrinkled leaf which was in the shape of a flag blowing left of my position did this because the wind had got up a few more mph, i put the cross hairs on the right hand of the leaf, and took the shot and good news 1 mildot to the left it struck. That was a releaf pardon the pun lol

I then set about range finding all the fresh soil which I could see which will give me an indication of where my bunny would come from! So those areas got ranged 34/3725/26/19/15 so pretty much all on cross hairs, I waited another half hour and like a blot of lighting a bunny came out of the biggest hole on the warren which I hadn’t ranged, because one I knew it was there but could not see any fresh soil.

 

So now I have a problem which I was keen to solve, so I looked back across the whole warren again and remembered the 34yd soil mark, and it looked level with it or there a bout’s. And slowly moving my head back to the scope I gently moved the angle of the aas410 to my left, closely followed by my eye. Once the rifle was in position I had to move my body too which was very slowly too, once I was happy with everything I popped of the safety and lined up the cross hairs just off the back of its head! 1 mildot on POI just by its ear and took up the first stage, gentle squeeze THWACK! Up it went like an Olympic gymnast and landing to die for! Lol

I was really pleased with the shot, and pleased I done my homework!

 

Where it fell

 

 

 

 

Not much more happened after this so it was on the radio and an emergency coffee was order of the day!

 

After coffee we set off again, Russell went north I went south. As I passed the swimming pool I decided to take a peek in the garden, because last time there was pigeons in there. But this time there was a squirrel in the garden having a good chew; it was about 45yds so I thought! So I shouldered the S410 put one mildot hold over on its head, squeeze thwuck! Missed it went high Ranged it wrong. And it shuttled up the back of the silver birch tree, and unknown to me Russell had been stood on a tree stub the other side of the wall.

I hear a ppssstt THWACK! And down it came out of the tree!

 

Nice shot Russell

 

Here is where it fell

 

 

 

POI

 

 

 

 

We had another walk around for an hour or so, and we separated again went back to the major warren, to the same spot I was before and waited had a couple of more shots at a couple of bunnies but missed them. Another hour went by and about six pheasant came by, and one had to settle just in the same area where I shot the rabbit earlier knew it was a cross hairs and 1 mil to the left, but it was a smaller kill zone steadied myself put the first mildot left of my SCB ret on the Mamba and caressed the trigger, THWACK! Up it went about 20feet in the air and landed about 10yds from me stone dead, First time that has happened to me!

 

Here is where it fell

 

 

 

POI

 

 

 

 

By this time we were losing the light, and I told Russell I had planned a trip to do some ratting. Off we went to mine nice cuppa and some scoff and pick up the NV kit, when I went out to get me willies from the van it was pissing it down!

But thought Russell had come a long way! And not to mention he had to pay to get back in to his home land, lol. I decided we would go anyway because there was shelter there, off we set and it was not looking good wind was getting up and rain was heavier! But we still were determining to get some rats.

 

We parked up in the cattle shed in the dry and got our kit set up, we walked around the corner with me spotting with the Aldi NV unit and showing Russell where to shoot. Five minutes in and I had spotted one in the large feed storage bays at the back of the farm pointed out where about it was and Russell was on it like a shot pardon the pun lol THWACK!! Down the rat goes!

 

Here is where it fell

 

 

 

 

We had a walk around to the front of the farm where the dry feed is kept, and spotted another; Russell shouldered the AAS200 with his pulsar NV add on unit.

THWACK! Over it goes no more robbing grain for you!

 

Where it fell

 

 

 

 

And that my fellow hunters is how it ended, well it’s not the weather ended it for us!

 

So I would like to thank Tom AKA Dearing for his company and picking me up.

And many thanks for Russell for making the long journey on his day off work to pick me up and spend time with me and some outstanding shooting too!

 

Many thanks lads

 

Happy hunting

 

Davy

[chris k 205]

enjoyed reading that. good show and have some rep

[davyt63 1,845]

hi Chris

 

thanks!

 

Davy

[PIL 7]

Cracking write-up Davy ,well done all .

[Robbie uk 24]

Very entertaining reading and great pics aswell. Keep it up !!

[fry 209]

epic read and some cracking shooting! did not know squirrels had fangs like that bad boy.

[gurtwurz 792]

vampire squirrels!!

 

what can i say, they breed em tough in the west country...

 

cracking write up, photos and shooting davy, loved the smiley face zero

 

cheers, wurz

[airarmsman 2]

great pics and read

[secretagentmole 1,701]

Cracking write up and shooting, bet that pheasant tasted nice, always do when they are killed by one shot not bleeding hundreds!

[Tanican 24]

I really enjoyed that read sir. This sort of post is why I joined. Si wasn't wrong was he.

I think that will take some beating.

Tan.

[Webby1 34]

Another entertaining write up and good pictures

 

Well done to all

 

atb

 

Dave

[Phantom 631]

:clapper:

 

Awsome shooting guy's

Loved the images as much as proberbly the best write up I've seen on here Davy

Having seen those those teeth on that tree rat I now understand how my lads best mate lost his finger end when he tried to stroke one in a trap as a youngster! Silly boy.

 

And I think its teeth like that, that is the reason we carry our nuts around in a bag

 

Tony

[andyz 30]

Davy, cracking write up there bud as always! Glad to see your hand op hasn't affected your shooting or keying ability!!

 

Gutted I didn't make it out on the Monday, on the plus side got the landy sorted with the MOT so thats that for another year!

 

Keep it up, happy hunting mate.

 

ATB Andy

[ryan666 64]

cracking read and some nice shots too

[davyt63 1,845]

Cracking write-up Davy ,well done all .

 

thanks Steve,you could of been there too!

if you can get out of that ball n chain lol

 

Very entertaining reading and great pics aswell. Keep it up !!

 

thanks Robbie

 

epic read and some cracking shooting! did not know squirrels had fangs like that bad boy.

 

hi Fry

yes indeed they do! you wouldn't want a nip from these little darlings!!

 

vampire squirrels!!

 

what can i say, they breed em tough in the west country...

 

cracking write up, photos and shooting davy, loved the smiley face zero

 

cheers, wurz

 

hi John

thanks buddy,good to see you Sunday!!

 

Cracking write up and shooting, bet that pheasant tasted nice, always do when they are killed by one shot not bleeding hundreds!

 

thanks Mike

 

I really enjoyed that read sir. This sort of post is why I joined. Si wasn't wrong was he.

I think that will take some beating.

Tan.

 

thanks Tan

Si is rarely wrong!!

 

Another entertaining write up and good pictures

 

Well done to all

 

atb

 

Dave

 

thanks dremmel buddy lol

 

Awsome shooting guy's

Loved the images as much as proberbly the best write up I've seen on here Davy

Having seen those those teeth on that tree rat I now understand how my lads best mate lost his finger end when he tried to stroke one in a trap as a youngster! Silly boy.

 

And I think its teeth like that, that is the reason we carry our nuts around in a bag

 

Tony

 

thanks Tony

 

Davy, cracking write up there bud as always! Glad to see your hand op hasn't affected your shooting or keying ability!!

 

Gutted I didn't make it out on the Monday, on the plus side got the landy sorted with the MOT so thats that for another year!

 

Keep it up, happy hunting mate.

 

ATB Andy

 

thanks Andyz

hope to catch up soon!

 

cracking read and some nice shots too

 

Thanks Ryan

 

Thanks for all the comments lads,much appreciated

 

 

regards

 

Davy