Friday the 13th, unlucky for 5

[Phantom 631]

Woke up with that oh crap feeling in the morning, not that I’m superstitious but things generally don’t go well for me on the Friday 13^th

Anyway the thoughts of a decent afternoons shooting perked me up so I got up, put the coffee machine on and I got my gear ready and put my contacts in.

 

Chris arrived and we loaded the car, hopped in and we were soon heading towards Brough. As we drove down Great Gutter Lane the bunnies were out in numbers and a Fox had obviously been hit bya car and was laid dead at the side of the road. It looked very fresh and intact, if I had been walking or on my push bike I would have skinned it and preserved the pelt and tail.

 

Anyway first job on hitting the permissions was to put up the Caution signs and then go kill some paper targets and make sure the pellets were going where the crosshair was indicating.

I got my first look at Chris’s hand crafted stock that he had done. The stock looks lovely and the weight of the gun was a great deal less than what it was. Well done Sir

 

I had taken the refurbished ratty with me to have a quick zero, and although not bad the grouping could have been better. Chris in the mean time had zeroed his S300 and was tearing the bulls out of the card targets. I then began with my baby, a 2 click adjustment and she was sorted.

Moving to the far end of the cemetery we dropped the excess gear under the ancient Horse Chestnut Tree. As we hooked up the radios I spotted a bunny about 50 yards away inside the Paddock that backs onto the cemetery. Grabbing my baby I headed over to the paddock slowly bringing my LRF to my eye, I knew I had covered 10 yards and the bunny was now on the move towards me. As soon as it stopped, the ping from the laser told me 36yards. 1 and a touch Mildots holdover freestanding I settled the crosshair at the front and top of her head (she was not quite full on facing me) as soon as the pellet hit she launched upward and completed a 360 degree back flip, landing on her rump and rolled over, no wave, nothing

I’m happy with that I thought and walked over to collect my prize.

Chris had the side of the paddock where there was usually a fair few about but after the rain and lack of horses; he certainly had his work cut out for him with the amount of long scrub and nettles bordering two to three feet high most places.

It wasn’t much later after Chris and I had split I got a beep in my ear and Chris had evened things up with a nice shot through an eye and out the back of the head

 

A bit later and we decided to have a wander around the perimeter of the paddock, a youngish woman with a toddler was making her way down the bridge over the A63 and I was too close to the fence not to be seen, she looked a little worried and I didn’t know her. My immediate thought was “Oh dear here we go again, stranger sees stranger with gun = call to Police”

Just at that moment, a familiar face appeared walking so I shouted over to Mrs. A, and waved, she called me over and I noticed a relieved look on the strangers face.

Mrs A asked me to have a wander around Mrs G’s land as the population of bunnies in bunny-land was rapidly expanding again now that the Vixen and her cubs had gone. I promised I would look in later.

As we parted I began a slow walk along the boundary between Mrs G’s and the Paddock. I’d got almost back to the entrance to the Cemetery when I heard this really loud whistle, can’t be Chris I thought, he would have used the radio so I turned 180 and saw a bloke with a pushchair standing on the first section of the bridge, he was obviously trying to get our attention, Chris I later learned was busy clearing those damned red ant’s from him and getting bitten to pieces having found himself laid on top of a nest 'Ouch'

I walked back over towards the bridge. Strange how these gobby types never come down to talk face to face. Dropping my bipod legs down and facing the gun in a safe direction I put the gun down about 20 yards from the fence and continued over. I won’t go into the specifics of the 1^st part of the conversation that he said but the second part was “What would that woman say if she saw you two dressed like that with guns?”

Smiling I took off my hat so he could get a clear look at my face and replied “She would come to the fence call me over and ask if I’d shot many rabbits, then; she would invite me in for a cup of tea and make me promise to leave a skinned and cleaned rabbit for her cats as she always does” I then said “I’ve been doing rabbit control for her for a few years now. I also do the rabbit control in this paddock and the cemetery, if you wish please feel free to contact the Police, they’ll send someone down to check me out as per the norm, If you are going down past the cemetery gates you’ll see the car and my signs up. If you do decide to call the Police, let them know it’s Tony and they'll send a local officer down and not the Armed Units to check me out.”

This seemed to pacify him and he continued on his way. I wasn’t stroppy with him, just friendly and I totally understand why he challenged me I would probably have done the very same in if I were him in this particular instance! No Police turned up.

 

After a break for coffee Chris and I split again, he’d had a few stalks one of which had produced a kit. I went back to the cemetery and I settled down and hunkered behind a large headstone that hid me yet allowed me to use it as a stable solid rest from which I took a 55 yard head shot on a Woody and couldn’t believe it when I missed Soon after I spotted a flower thief, he had popped out of bunny-land and had his eyes in the direction of the new flowers in the cemetery.

The big buck was stood on a grave and I knew it to be exactly 50 yards from me. This one was too easy, no breeze and I let loose the lead, “SLAP” old bugs jumped up, turned and legged it back the way he had come How the feck did I miss that?! 4.75 Mildot hold over that should have been on the money, my POA didn’t change a fraction what happened? I walked over and found a pellet mark on some sandstone a touch below where the bucks head had been. Two shots that should have been easy for me both missed!

Maybe I’d banged the barrel but I don’t remember doing so. Oh well best go back and check zero just in case.

Then I saw the reason!

Looking at my gun I noticed the scope was now on 12 magnification, I’d increased when looking for a bunny earlier and not taken it back down to 10x Wound it back to 10x aimed at the ground where I had been stood, gave it the appropriate hold over and watched as the pellet struck perfectly where it should, no need to re-zero.

I went back into hiding not long later I noticed a Woody to my right, walking between the headstones. Bang on my 30yard zero, as I let the second stage go a my scope filled with grey as something appeared in my scope, the shot was on its way, I pulled my eye away from the scope to find another Woody had landed much closer to me, it was now flapping about with an injured wing

I felt sick and rushed forward to grab the bird and pulled its neck.

That really put a dampener on my day. I informed Chris and laid the now dead Woody with the other kills.

I was really angry with myself, but that split fraction of a second couldn’t be helped. If the bird had remained in the air a fraction longer, it would have flown away safe and sound and the Woody I wanted and had in my sight would not have known what hit it and I would have been feeling on top of the world.

I now needed a serious booster shot. I climbed into the paddock, informed Chris I was heading towards Bunny-land so he wouldn’t be shooting into my area.

Closing up on bunny-land I saw the head of a nice healthy looking bunny going up and down feeding. It seemed very at ease and totally oblivious to my presence. I guessed 40+ yards, the LRF confirmed it was 44, I didn’t think about it, my baby came up, looked at the magnification, still ten, gave 2.5 Mildots hold over as the head came back up with a strand of grass in its mouth getting shorter and shorter I let the shot go. Perfection! Sweet as Candy, the bunny rolled over dead as a Dodo

That was all I needed to lift my mood again, freestanding 44 yard brain shot.

Now I had to recover my prize which meant back down the paddock, through the cemetery, down the road into Mrs. G’s land back up towards the paddock a right turn back towards the A63 about 300 yards in total! Does that count as a long shot

We then decided we’d had enough, bagged up the gear took the pic and left.

Overall a fantastic few hours on what is traditionally the worst day of the year!

Thanks Chris, really enjoyed our shooting

 

Tony

[Woodworm1972 24]

Nice write up bud, a good day.

 

I do think you could of expressed more the agony of ants in my underware though mate :-)

 

Chris

[AR177 588]

Great write up tony and some fine shooting!

 

ATB

 

Adam

[falcongit 242]

nice bag and great shooting sounds like you had fun bud,i went out with my new hw97kt this morning setting the scope up so had nice day 2 cheers tony atb symon

[ftm 3,357]

great write up tony -i have to admit that i poached the brough area when in my teens so i apologise if i stepped on your toes mate-im older now and wiser[mr muwaggy]-karate kid lol

[Phantom 631]

great write up tony -i have to admit that i poached the brough area when in my teens so i apologise if i stepped on your toes mate-im older now and wiser[mr muwaggy]-karate kid lol

 

Thankd guy's,

 

Brough as in East Yorks?

Mind you, Brough is a BIG area

 

 

Tony

[Daz 7 563]

Well done to Chris & Your good self Tony bud ,

 

Nice to get out, I've got 3 more weeks working away down Shandy Land before i can go shooting .

haven't touched the Prosport in over 2 weeks .

 

atvb Daz 7

[AR177 588]

Well done to Chris & Your good self Tony bud ,

 

Nice to get out, I've got 3 more weeks working away down Shandy Land before i can go shooting .

haven't touched the Prosport in over 2 weeks .

 

atvb Daz 7

 

Bet you have stopped drinking real pints as well! Dosn't adding lemonade make it a cocktail???

 

ATB

 

Adam

[stealthy1 3,964]

Good shooting lads

[zini 1,939]

A great read that Tony pal.

 

It sounded like you 2 had a blinder of a session there.

 

Si.

[Phantom 631]

Cheers guy's,

 

Even if we'd not shot anything, it was nice to get back 'home' and get away from this bloody town (well allegedly a (and officially Englands Largest) village).

 

Tony

[milegajo 595]

Great read Phantom, some superb airgunning to soothe my sodden heart...