kenj
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Posts posted by kenj
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Getting down to my last 100 Hornady HMR bullets, I visited my RFD to buy more and was told there were none in the country. True?
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Plenty of apples for cider, but very few sloes around. Will have to make last year's stock of sloe gin last. No Christmas visitors last year, so had a couple of bottles left over.
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I finally collected my completed medical form from my surgery this afternoon. It took over a month for the Dr to write No eight times, sign and stamp it. Good value for £45? Posted it off. Let's see how long TVP now take.
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Thanks for the comments. When I handed over my £45, I was told that I would have it back in two days, but all I get is that she is very busy due to Covid and that they will let me know when it is done. I was in the surgery on another subject last week (you can't get in without an appointment) and saw that the Dr was working that day, so after seeing the duty doctor, I asked at the reception, if I could wait, until she had completed the form. It was like I had asked for them to hand over the Crown Jewels. Head shaking and the same reply, "Very busy, cannot disturb her, we'll let you know, when it's signed." They are not Gods, they are doing a job like anybody else, although Drs have cast iron jobs and bullet proof pensions and don't have to worry about Customer Service like the rest of us running a business. I've got two months to complete the form with Thames Valley and have already burned through half of that waiting. If I kick up too much of a stink, they might put me down as unstable on the form. You can't win against these people.
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I have had an early firearms license renewal form from Thames Valley Police and submitted the medical form to a doctor at my local surgery. I have paid £45 CASH, but despite enquiring several times over the last three weeks, it has not been completed by the doctor. A friend with a different surgery paid £35 and had his back after two days. Any suggestions?
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FLATTOP Round my way I have lost five permissions in as many years due to gentrification. Two to polo pony owners taking over the land, two to housing developers, where farmhouse and out buildings were turned into luxury homes and the most recent was a building bordering a large paddock converted into a bungalow, where the new owners complained to my farmer about the nasty old man shooting the rabbits, which upset their children. So I don't hold much hope out for the last farm, both Ruth (who was born there) and her husband, who now has dementia, were renting out their land for grazing, much of it being left fallow and selling hay, which was cut by a contractor. She kept geese, ducks and chickens for eggs on sale at the gate. (Probably how she caught Covid) I shot foxes and rabbits around the free range pens. The son is not a farmer, living in London and I can't see him continuing it. Different times now.
I know this is nothing to do with cider, but I'm sure others are having the same problems.
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FLATTOP In the blog I said about my first natural batch having varied results on natural yeast from the juice. I used to make wine, esp apple wine and elderberry using wine yeast and remember that it was slow to get going and added some wine yeast, that I had, with mixed results. There was a good home brewing shop nearby for years and I went back there this year for more yeast to find that it is now a Screwfix. So this year I have tried the yeast pictured, that I bought off eBay. It is from Poland and came with a sachet of nutrient. It fizzed off well for a few days and has now settled down after 3 weeks to a slightly hazy golden orange with about 15 mm of lees. This week I will rack it off into a clean demijon, drawing some yeast through and add some sugar depending on the SG, to start a second fermentation.
I go shooting and for years have had mixed apples from an old orchard on one of my permissions, but unfortunately the lady owner died of Covid this year and the farm is up for sale and will no doubt go to some horse owning types, that think bunnies are cute, so I will lose another permission. This batch was made from 60% bramleys, plus eaters and 20% mixed crab apples. Interested to see how it turns out.
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Outofnowhere The shredder is used for reducing green garden waste for the compost heap, but is ideal for producing the pulp. A quick hose down and its ready to go. I've found that squeezing out the pulp by hand can produce a reasonable supply of juice, if you can't make, or buy a press. Mind you the tannin in the juice turns your hands black. My wife has always been the other half of the team, cutting and feeding the shredder, also helping with picking up apples, while I shake the tree.
FLATTOP do you add yeast, or just use the yeast from the skins?
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With so many apples around this year, October is the ideal time for making cider and I have written a blog that will get those interested started.
This is my garden cider making production line, including shredder for making the apple pulp and bottle jack for pressing the juice.
The full illustrated blog and step by step instructions are here. http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/homespun-cider-making-made-easy/
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I always seem to follow Deker on these posts. I've had my Magtech 7002 for more than a dozen years. Eleys were perfect. Winchester semis were a nightmare in it, so switched to RWS on Deker's recommendation. Now I'm back with Winchester 42 grains, no problems, consistent shots and no jams. Trouble is now, I can't find any rabbits to shoot.
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When I renewed my licence last year, I put a 17 WSM on as a variation hoping that CZ would come up with the calibre, but Savage seem to be the only one in my price range and don't like the feel of the plastic stock, or the bolt. I shoot rabbits with air rifles on one park permission. I prefer my Magtech 22lr for rabbits, but most of my permissions are wide open, where my CZ 452 HMR works well, but is subject to wind. Finally, last year I head shot a called in fox in long grass with the HMR and the bullet appeared to bounce off at 60 yards, The fox ran off, but was dead, when I found it half a mile away. The wound was above the right eye, where the bullet seemed to have disintegrated and not penetrated. A heavier, faster bullet from a WSM would have dropped it. For fox I prefer a shot to the bib.
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Interesting to see the 17 WSM in action. Is anyone on here using a 17 WSM for rabbits, or foxes? Heard that they are no good on rabbits, if you want to eat them?
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Many years ago I did side by side tests with Eley subs against Remington yellow jackets (still have a quantity of yellow jackets). This was before I bought my CZ452 HMR and was looking for extra range. I found that targets set at 10 yard intervals from 60 to 100 gave some interesting results from a prone position. firing through my Magtech .22 semi auto. Zeroing the rifle at 70 yards for the Eleys, the yellow jackets were about an inch higher on their target on the same scope setting, being dead on at 90 yards at the same zero, so a twenty yard gain. The Eleys at 90 yards were hitting the ground in front of the target, This was firing two groups of five, which were generally within an inch of the bull, enough for a chest shot on a rabbit in a field I was clearing. I gave up on the HVs as soon as I got the HMR sorted, it was shooting tight clover leaves at 90 yards every time.
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My CZ452 HMR with its 16 inch varmint barrel is a heavy bit of kit to carry round a field, but shooting off a bipod, it is still as accurate as ever. Ok, I had to do the trigger and rub down the stock to clear the barrel, but a dozen years on It continues to knock down those long range bunnies. The field I was shooting last evening has rabbits along the far fence a hundred yards plus away. Just entering the gate had them on the run.Two stopped at the fence long enough to get them both with a quick working of the bolt. They would have been long gone, if I had tried to get in range with my .22lr, even with HV rounds. Both rabbits were dead when they hit the ground, the Hornady .17 passing through the head on one and the chest on the other, leaving exit wounds that nothing can walk away from. Later on I took another pair side by side at 120 yards. At that range they don't hear the bang. They just fall over. Get a CZ. Even a second hand 452 won't let you down.
My blog: http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/cz-452-varmint-hmr-accuracy-reward/
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I know what you are saying, I shoot air rifles too, usually prone. My FAC Career 707 at 28 ft lb firing H&N Barracudas stops rabbits at 30 yards with chest shots, while my HW100 Weihrauch at 12 ft lb is head shots only at that range. Anything slightly off due to a movement and they are kicking, sometimes running off. These are on parkland and recreation grounds, where my permission is air rifle only.
My .22 rifle is a semi auto, which I use for walking up rabbits in a wooded area and around farm buildings. Most of my shots are to hand and go for the chest area. Whether it is the semi auto absorbing some of the charge, or the slower RWS bullet with its very small hollow point, or a combination of all three, I don't know, but many times a dead on shot has, tumbled the rabbit, only for it to keep on running. I got into the habit of tap,tap shots to make sure. On paper the RWS is very accurate. Since using the 42 grain Winchesters they go down and stay down, maybe due to more puff, heavier load and a much bigger hollow point by comparison. I bought a block of 400 at the time and all seem good.
For long range prone work it is my CZ452 Varmint, 16 inch barrel HMR firing Hornady VMax, that does the business.
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Eley subs were once my preferred bunny basher, consistant, quiet and accurate, but became unobtainable in my area. I tried a couple of boxes of 40 grain Winchester subs in my Magtech semi auto, which gave misfires and failed to cycle, plus the odd zinger, probably one in four giving some sort of trouble. A friend gave me some RWS, which never failed to fire and were as quiet and accurate as the Eleys, but did not knock the rabbits down as hard, often needing that second shot, that a semi can give. Then my RFD retired and couldn't find a dealer with RWS, so tried the 42 grain Winchester, which though noisier, give me the confidence to take on 70 yard rabbits.
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The 40 grain Winchesters were a nightmare in my Magtech semi auto. RWS were much better. I now use the 42 grain and have had no problems, with better knock down power than the RWS out to 60 yards. This was my first field test with the 42 grain Winchesters. Four rabbits in four shots out to 70 yards. http://www.urbanfieldsportsman.com/index.php/42-grain-winchester-22-subsonic-long-range-field-test/
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They were festive pasties Ted, the mincemeat, sweet potato and whiskey making them very sweet. Added oranges and brandy to perk up the mulled wine. I usually make rabbit pasties with chorizo and recently added sweet potato to these, along withe the onion and potato instead of swede. Improved the flavour and texture. I am not a cook, but enjoy trying new ways of cooking game.
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We are having a couple tonight. Saute'ed pototatos, veg and gravy. just right for a wet evening.
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This thread has gone well off topic. The HMR is an ideal long range rabbit rifle, which does little damage to meat with head and upper chest shots. Having said that the anti brigade are winning. Otters are getting out of control, but we can't touch them, same with cormorants. My club tried to get a license to shoot them, but it was like trying to push water up hill. I keep quiet about my shooting. "Rabbits and fox. How could you? I thought that you were a nice person!" etc. Just wait until they find out about the thousands of peasants being buried after shoots, because even the game dealers don't want them.
That will do, I'd better get back to my knitting.
Happy New Year Folks
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HaHa deswal. You must have been watching West World. Shot through the bib at 50 yards, they don't go far. This was a group, 1 vixen, 1 dog, two cubs and a smaller female. Shot over three hours. One ran off. As I said they seemed tame. There were plenty of rabbits in this blackthorn for a successful den and saw more on the permission over the summer, getting another dog and two females, while waiting for rabbits.
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This is my 177 Relum ZII, bought new by myself aged 16 in 1962. Archers in Slough were selling these in the sports department for £7, yes seven pounds. I wanted the .22 barrelled version, but they had sold out and the salesgirl had no idea when more would follow. I shot many a rat with this rifle. It lived under my bed for 25 years, before getting a new spring and a PTFE compression washer. It is still very accurate and tested at over 11 lbs. Good in barns for pigeons.
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Good argument here as usual, when Deker is involved.
I listened to a repeat of a question on the Jeremy Vine lunchtime radio show last week, regarding fox hunting and control. On one side was a lady farmer who had lost 30 out of 200 lambs put out last spring, taken by foxes with cubs on their land, who wanted control and an anti, who said that raising and killing animals for meat was wrong. No lambs, no fox problem. That's what we are up against, antis get air time. I do not shoot foxes unless asked. One of my permissions is used for breeding horses. Sometimes the mares miscarry and he buries the carcasses. (probably illegal) He has a fox problem, digging them up. They were so tame , I shot five in daylight with the HMR. They keep coming back.
On one of my permissions in the Chilterns they had a massive problem with rabbits and over 5 years reduced them from 150 shot a year to about 5 a year, a story I have repeated many times on other sites. I left the Chiltern permission for a year to repopulate, only to be told by the farmer, that he and his neighbour had paid for them to be gassed. I was gutted, but it was my own fault. I had forgotten, why I was on the land. It was to kill rabbits, not harvest them.
On the subject of NV, due to publishing a fishing book this year, I have some spare cash coming in every month and have invested in an IR NV scope add on, with which I hoped to increase my tally on my night time only permission. This is on a public sports ground, where the council would be very embarrassed, if it became public knowledge that they allowed me to cull the rabbits, that had been damaging their pitches. A step up from the torch, that has done a good job so far.
I am not a paid pest controller, shooting only for meat. A social visit to one of the landowners at the week end, has given me two more recommendations to shoot. Success brings success.
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Saving a couple for mulled wine in front of the TV with Jools Holland at New Year.
Hornady 17 HMR ammo shortage?
in Rimfire, Centrefire & Shotguns
Posted
Thanks for the info. No replies from my neck of the woods down South. I'll just have to start ringing around.