A evening and night shooting with the NS200 and Malc Barnard

[zini 1,939]

Hi lads,

 

Well I went out yesterday evening and met up with Malc Barnard from Country Pursuits TV and his friend Alex Honeywell a young HFT shooter and future England hope from the south of the country.

 

After some nice pub food we went to 2 of Alex’s permissions to see what we could see in the form of airgun quarry.

 

I personally had 2 long stalks of around 100 to 150 yards each which ended in 2 unsuccessful shots. One of the misses I could have kicked myself for and was due to not having a bipod fitted at the time and having to try and take the shot resting the rifle on my hand from the prone position which due to the undulating ground was tricky.

 

Alex had a shot too at a bunny but it disappeared in the long grass out of sight safe for another day.

 

Next we moved to another permission that on entering was quite leaping with bunnies. Alex had the first shots there at 2 or 3 bunnies with his .22 HW100 KS missing each one but only by a knats whisker before the rest all disappeared.

 

Next Malc and Alex went for a mooch while I set up in camo and the Jack Pike LL suite from a static location waiting and hoping that the bunnies would come out again after 10 or 15 minutes for me to shoot them, this time from my now fitted bipod. This wasn’t to be though and after over a hour of waiting before Malc and Alex returned I had only seen one show itself which I didn’t manage to even get a shot at, gutted wasn’t even near how I felt.

 

Luck had changed for Alex though and he had managed a nice bunny on his stalk.

 

By now it was around 2200 hrs and getting dark so we said bye to Alex and dropped him off at home before heading to Malc’s golf course permission to do some NV shooting from the vehicle. I tried to set up the new HD Nite- Hunter Snyper Cam to use but didn’t have the correct scope collar so ended up using Malc Nite Site NS200 which worked brilliantly all night and well impressed me I have to say.

 

Malc was driving and I was spotting using a lamp before Malc moved the vehicle into position for the shot which I took each time in digital.

 

The first bunny of the night came within about 1 minute of driving on to the golf course with a nice head shot and it rolling over very cleanly,.

 

After that we went through a bit of a stage of misses, maybe 4 or 5 either over the top or under the rabbit due to not being able to range estimate the rabbits with the NS200 easily in the pitch black.

 

I did manage to hit 2 rabbits at this point in the night, but the shots were not as clean as I like them and they both needed follow up action taken with 1 being shot a second time very fast and it being around 15 metres more than we had first thought hence the low shot and the other Malc dispatched for me.

 

It was at this point that we stopped had a long think about what had been going on and we re accessed the situation.

 

We then changed tactics slightly using the parallax on the Sidewinder as a fixed range finder and shooting when we were within 25 to 35 metres only (the furthest Malc paced at 41 yards) with Malc driving and placing us nicely within focus each time.

 

It was then that we struck the gold and this tactic really worked a treat with me hitting 7 bunnies straight on the trot with nice clean shots.

 

Six of the seven Malc managed to film but by the 7th shot along with the other misses had flattened Malc’s mini HD DVR battery which wasn’t fully charged at the start of the night so we never managed to get that one on camera, which is a shame as it was a cracker of a shot too.

 

So at the end of the night we ended up with 10 nice plump bunnies 8 of them shot very nicely with the NS200.

 

All the footage should be up on Malc’s YouTube channel, CountryPursuitsTV by tonight so he says so if you’re interested you will be able to watch it.

 

So all in all it was a cracker of a good night with some great footage being filmed and where I learned something new about NV shooting from a vehicle.

 

I also confirmed my own suspicion that even with a recoilless .177 pcp shooting really flat compared to a .22, you cant always guarantee perfect kills in the pitch dark when looking through a TV screen where target depth isn’t possible.

 

Malc as the photos taken at the end of the session which he has already posted onto his Face book site.

 

Si.

Edited June 26, 2012 by zini

[Daz 7 563]

Nice one Si ,

Shame about the HD Snypercam, Was looking forward to that as it's the one i quite fancy

after looking at it at the Meet with Emma.

 

atvb Daz 7

[zini 1,939]

As soon as i get a collar for my Sidewinder I'll get some filming done Daz buddy.

 

The collar i had with me was for my Panorama and was too tight for the Sidewinder.

 

I'd forgotten that the last time i played with the unit it was on my springer (Damn).

 

If the footage from last night though comes out anywhere near as good as it looked through the NS200 screen it will be really good viewing buddy.

 

It really impressed me last night and did the job brilliantly.

 

Si.

[Mawders 595]

Can't wait to see the footage, good to hear as well that the numbers increased as you went on.

 

ATB

 

Phil

[zini 1,939]

Thanks Phil,

 

Yes mate as soon as we cracked the correct shooting tactic to match the style of shooting we were doing, i.e shooting a target where no range was actually known we started dropping them shot after shot without fail.

 

Its surprizing how hard it actually is shooting something through a tv screen pointing your rifle just into a dark black hole where you dont actually see anything.

 

It appeared that quarry at 25 metres looked at 35 -40 metres and quarry at 40 metres looked either 30 metres or the opersite 50+ metres, really confusing.

 

Si.

[Phantom 631]

Sweet

Sounds like you guy's had a ball

I misjudged a range last Friday, Pellet fell low but severed it's spinal column in the neck so was still a swift (if not clean) kill.

 

 

Hay Adam..... a new piece of film for you to listen to :laugh:

 

Tony

[kanny 19,480]

nice going in the end ... its a simlar tactic i use with the handycam setting its the only way when your on the move otherwise your constently having to twiddle and its easy to loose your distance perception with this way if its in focus its dead on the money if you have set your gun up for it

[Smokey 1 56]

Sound's like it all came good in the end, well done for stopping to think about what was happening, it is all too easy to let the red mist take over and just keep trying. That for me has been the bigest challange whilst shooting with NV gear, It is very hard to gauge the distance. On the railway permission I have fixed some reflectors to the fence at 30m intervals which helps a lot.

 

Smokey

[Mawders 595]

That's a really good tactic smokey!

[The Ghost Maker 20]

Hello chaps si said he had posted in here about last nights expedition.

 

Great write up above Si by the way spot on to what happened.

 

I am editing it now guys but I did not realise just how much footage we had. I think it will hit Country Pursuits TV's YouTube channel early hours of the morning by the time I have doen the finishing touches and annotations.

 

Looking at the edit now I recon it will be well worth the wait.

 

Thank you very much for joining me last night and allowing me to film it Si it was a bloody good night.

 

ATB Malc

Country Pursuits TV

[Pelletpower 203]

Nice read Si, going to check out the footage now ( if it's up that is).

 

Edit: malc posted as I was writing....oh well I'll have to wait n watch it in abit....can't wait tho !

Edited June 26, 2012 by Pelletpower

[The Ghost Maker 20]

Sorry bud I am going as fast as I can =)

[zini 1,939]

Thanks Malc.

 

I was there and Im still excited about seeing it LOL.

 

Si.

[porkycrook 466]

I am ever so happy to read that you miss every now and again Si, It makes me feel normal now. :boogy: . Now with Daz, Pianoman, Darryl, Davy, Chaz and Adam out shooting you, your shooting crown is slipping.

 

Carry on like this Si and your halo will be on somebody else (perhaps me?).

[Buster321c 1,010]

Oi oi , just going to have a look . On Malc`s channel is it ?