Diana, goddess of hunting

[Manco 16]

Yesterday I got carried away when lining up a shot and stepped backwards off a ledge, falling on to a rocky dried up water course four feet below me. Instinct kicked in and I let my rifle go to save myself. Gun...rocks...smash. I managed to twist my body round and broke my fall, but my knee had an argument with a rock – lost the argument. I was much more concerned about my airgun and scope which had a few seconds earlier had parted company from me and each other.

 

I retrieved the scope first, a Burris 3 – 9 x 40, formerly a nice piece of glass. Would it now be consigned to history, a case of Burris R.I.P? Maybe not - there were a few dents and abrasions, making the appearance of the scope more in tune with its owner, a little beaten up and battle scarred over the years. But cursory inspection suggests that mechanically and optically it’s probably OK. (You just have to hand it to Burris the company; their scopes are tough bliksems, like it says on the box.)

 

A few feet away I picked up my Gamo Whisper X – a make revered by a certain member of this forum who shall remain nameless (just kidding lol) – the one with a synthetic thumbhole stock, plastic coated barrel and THAT THING on the muzzle. Superficially, apart from a few additional scuff marks on the synthetic stock, it looked all right. Breaking the barrel I squinted down the bore and amazingly the barrel did not appear to be bent.

 

They say that if your horse throws you the best way to make a comeback is to get straight back on it. I waited until the following morning before shooting with the ‘X’. I fitted a 4 X fixed mag. scope and spent a few minutes zeroing , then stuck a target patch (1 x 1.5 inches) on a piece of board. Time to check what damage had been done to the functioning of the gun where it counts – on the range.

Perhaps because I expected the gun to perform badly as a result of the accident I felt ‘philosophical’ about the outcome and quite relaxed. I stood at what I considered a typical hunting range (later measured at 27 yards by LRF) and fired seven shots off hand. It was one of those sessions when everything comes together and the result was a nice tight group (see photo below). I could hardly believe it, the gun had fallen four feet on to rocks in a dried up river bed and was shooting like a thoroughbred!

 

Something must have caused Diana, goddess of hunting, to smile yesterday.

 

Good shooting and have fun, Chris

[Sweeney-Todd 208]

Hiya Chris.

 

What a disaster that was , glad you and your kit survived the fall, could have been a lot worse than a few bumps and scratches, to you, and the rifle / scope, glad your ok.

Not a lot wrong with the rifle / scope looking at that picture, nice shooting.

 

 

ATB.

 

 

Bill/

[secretagentmole 1,701]

Ouch, glad to hear the gun and scope are ok! Hope your knee is recovering as well!

[Phantom 631]

Not a lot wrong with the rifle / scope looking at that picture, nice shooting.

 

Bill, what you fail to realise is that was an A4 sheet pinned to that board

 

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You let go of your precious rifle, shame on you Sir

 

Glad the gun, scope and yourself are just a little bumped and not seriously injured.

 

Tony

[Sweeney-Todd 208]

Not a lot wrong with the rifle / scope looking at that picture, nice shooting.

 

Bill, what you fail to realise is that was an A4 sheet pinned to that board

 

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You let go of your precious rifle, shame on you Sir

 

Glad the gun, scope and yourself are just a little bumped and not seriously injured.

 

Tony

 

 

 

 

[bsa rifles 3]

Blimey, not the best trip out, im glad the rifle is ok tho.

[Manco 16]

Thanks for the kind words fellas. I have a big lump on one knee, bruised but nothing broken. Amazing that the Whisper X got away with only a few scuff marks and still shoots fine. Even more amazing that the Burris scope continues to function perfectly; its new dings and abrasions are just cosmetic. Burris really do make tough scopes. There ought to be some mileage in making some advertising copy out of my recent experience. Nothing like 'word of mouth' for promoting sales. I'll give it some thought. No prizes for guessing what I would spend any extra money on: more shooting toys of course. Damn, there goes another pig flying past the window!

 

Later, Chris