1st outing with the sps
My day started with taking the family up to see the fox hunt in my area with 3 of the local clubs meeting,the numbers on the turn out was huge and was nice to see a English tradition still being kept as with
i had pre arranged with my buddy to meet at mine for 5 ish and be on shoot for 5:30 pm this was to give me some time before last light to sight in the scope and make sure it was running smooth. the target was placed out to 150yds and the altitude zero: 85ft temp: 12 degrees wind: 0 mph and clear visibility. Tony had moved off to an area to watch over a warren and i moved back to my FP and took aim at a nice tuff of mud. Round fell and shot observed with the corrections applied to the scope i released round 2 and once corrections applied i moved onto the target. taking aim on the bull i put my 1st shot off but couldn't see the shot so fired again with my POA being in the exact same position. strike observed and correction applied 12 clicks up 4 clicks left. i chambered the 5 and final round my hornady 55gr vmax and took aim and released the shot here's the target for you all.
you may just be able to see my rifle set up in the distance lol
now i was happy with the zero so met back up with my buddy who informed me that he was eyeing up a bunny when i released the 1st shot and all heaven and earth moved and with that a possible 1st kill for him (sorry again pal)
we moved off after waiting for about 40 mins for another to show and by now it was dark so on went the NV.
NOW I WILL SAY THIS LADS ALL THE RANGES AND SHOT DETAILS ARE 100% ACCURATE AS I NEED IT FOR THE SHOOTING LOG ( CONFIRMED WITH THE LASER RANGE FINDER AND KESTREL ANEMOMETER AND YES I WAS RUNNING BACK AND FORTH LOL).
Walking the land we made our way round to another part, scouting the for ground every couple of meters, it wasnt long before i made an ID on a rabbit at 70yd+ and told Tony about it. i told him we will move closer to 50yds and ill get the torch out and you can do the rest but when we did that Tony still couldnt see the target . i asked him what did he want to do and he said to shoot it and we'll use it as fox bait ( he's learning very well ). i didnt have a clean shot and the target was 49yds away with its backside to me..
Made a mess i can show you
as we talked about the noise the mess and the general AWE of this 223 we heard the infamous squeal of a rabbit. now unless my round had ricocheted down the land behind and to my right and struck an unfortunate bunny it was clear that we wasnt the only hunting party out this evening
tony looked at me i looked at him and we ran to the rifles
Gear collected and we were off. power walking and scouting i picked up eyes. i wasnt sure through the NV how far but knew it wasnt fecking close.
in prone with a new setup freshly zero'd and my charlie face on i took aim on the center of its head in case the round dropped. shot one and my buddies eager response "you get it" my reply "dunno i can't tell". so i covered the NV up and switched on the white light and we got about 10 yds when we spotted eyes again. we didn't need telling twice and Tony shot the light (not literally) and i got behind the rifle same area and same POA my 2nd shot went "this time i watched it hit my target flat out and put it down cold" inch perfect i thought i looked to Tony "he's down".
we found my target after a somewhat lengthy walk.. well i mean TARGETS lol
Two down in 25 secs.
Charlie one POA called between the Eyes
POI = well ill let you lot tell me.!!
Charlie two POA called just left of center
POI= Again ill let you tell me
i ran back to the firing point and lased my hunting buddy after a hand shake and high five of course
range gents 154yds
we laid up by our 1st bunny after and let our adrenaline subside and had a talked some when we decided to make our way back to where we zero'd and lay out the bunny and caller at 170yds.. we waited for an hour calling every now and then but nothing other than a couple bunnies that the NV was picking up eye shine on. this were quite away away but after an hour of nothing showing i was intrigued on how well my new investment can perform. informing Tony who then said sure and put his fingers in his ears i let rip.. again we couldnt confirm if the shot had been true so packed up and headed over under white light it took fecking ages to get there lol and when we saw the hit my POA was exact to the POI gents .. through the left eye..
i ran back to where we took the shot and Tony again put the light on him so i could laser him for range
204 read up on the dial.. 4 shots 4 hits with a rifle i had only just zero'd that day..
not a bad start eh ?.
atvbr & keep hunting
Max...