Mixed discipline shooting

[The Duncan 802]

Has anyone else done this?

 

Last weekend, Chris (bruno22rf), Dale (MIA) and I assembled at one of Dales vast permissions; a farmyard surrounded by barns, silos and rape fields.

After a mooch around with the shotties and having a fairly fruitless time for knocking anything edible down, we went back to the cars and guns at the yard. We had a bit of target practise with my hmr and the pcp air rifles (we had one apiece), even the odd plink with Chris' .22 Bruno using both subs and some crappy HV Velocitors that someone gave him

To look at the back of Chris' Shogun, you'd think we were doing an arms deal!

 

Anyway, after a while a woodie, came over our area, so I grabbed my Beretta, shouldered it and dropped him from about 30 yards - happy days!

As nothing else was airbourne anywhere near us, I put the gun back in the open boot.

Shortly after, some collareds landed on the silo, at the end of a 35 yard pig shed.

Dale picked up his pro-sport and used the pigshed as cover and then as a stable rest to take out the tasty bird - his first blood with that rifle.

 

The rest of the afternoon was spent picking up a gun/rifle from the boot, as and when quarry came along and we had a fab time, airgunning collareds and ferals off the silos, gunning woodies or corvids from the air or hmr'ing corvids on the ground - no expectations or pressure, informally plinking with the rifles between quarry and generally, for once, just being lads with 'big boys toys'.

A collared landed in a small tree (with a hillside backstop) about 130 yards away. It was Chris (Captain Shitshot's) turn with the hummer and he amazed himself by putting a neat hole straight thru the centre of its chest. I lauded his performance and patted him jubilantly on the back.

But then he broke the news that with the muzzle flip, after he squeezed the trigger, he couldn't see the bird and was surprised he'd hit it

Both guys commented on how fast the hmr is from lock time to impact 'it's like the bullet gets there before you've even squeezed the trigger' commented Chris.

Unfortunately (or not as you will soon understand), the collared dove fell only a foot or so and lodged by its head in the crook of a branch..

We took a couple of shots trying to dislodge it, but to no avail.

Dale is not a man to be beaten in retrieving shot quarry - he's like a mutated bloodhound when it comes to chasing down and grabbing a possible wild meal - and I thought I was tight lol!

He sauntered over to the stunted tree, 12 bore in handed and gave it 4 of the best. It still didn't tumble to earth!

At first I shouted over " Leave it mate - it'll be like a feathery string vest!", then changed my mind and went over to egg him on, offering him some 'full-on' foxing carts to try (given to me by a bloke known only as 'dodgy Mick'). I think they were BB or AAA of high grammage.

Dales face lit up (he's only young ).

I retreated back to the cars and left him to it, commenting to Chris that I wasn't about to try those dodgy carts thru my Beretta, was I?

Lots of bits of tree fell, but the collared dove was not to be moved. At the end, I went to check on the target in the tree. I saw why it hadn't fallen.

 

Chris theorised that if we shot it enough, the sheer weight of lead would bring it down, however, seeing the bird from the back I found it to be hollow! the hmr rounds had made neat holes in the front of its chest (we'd all had a go lol!), but had emptied the bird from the breast bone back.

 

So, no great bag, but a huge amount of fun and indeed, Dale commented that it was the most amount of shooting fun he'd had in months

 

Sometimes it truly isn't about the numbers.

 

all the best,

 

Duncan

[03milesR 6]

good read! relaxed shooting in the yards is often the most fun and sometimes (for me) the most productive