Thread: Hares in the Garden

My Nitecore 'New P30' arrived yesterday. So I charged the battery and mounted it on the scope of my old Anschutz.




I sent Terry, who sold me the torch, (Knives4Africa) a picture of the rig, and he suggested I should mount the torch on the forward part of the scope and rotate it over to the right for better results. So I will try that next time.

Keen to try it, I went up to the farm where the hares were damaging the garden. There was a bright moon (something that I always thought was less than desirable for spotlighting) and a bit of fog. I crept over to the garden area and attempted to load the rifle. As sometimes happens, the top bullet in the magazine got an erection and flew out on to the ground. So I had to fluff around for a few minutes until I finally spotted it.



I saw three hares and shot at two of them.... and I got them both. The first hare required only one shot. The second needed more. I was shooting down a grassy slope near the bottom of a gully. I was surprised that two of my shots apparently went through the hare then ricocheted off the wet pasture. The first bullet I heard smack into something on the other side of the gully, but there was no 'whine'. The second made a loud noise as it spun through the air. While the situation was relatively safe with a high hill covered in macrocarpas as a back stop, it was a sobering experience to realise that even though the hollow subsonic bullet had passed through the animal it still bounced off a wet grassy slope.



I got home some time after 10 pm. I hung the hares up, then pottered about for a bit.... getting into bed well after midnight. Our daughter is a nurse and some days we look after her young whippet. This morning she dropped the dog off while I was still snoozing, and I was treated to an enthusiastic damp nose in my ear hole. I took this photo once I'd acheived full consciousness.



I am delighted with the P30. It has five power settings and I found that the third highest setting was plenty. It is amazing how much light this little unit produces.