Damn! My Mum warned me not to make friends with strangers!
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Damn! My Mum warned me not to make friends with strangers!
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First walk with a rifle for over 2 months. Good to get my eye back in.
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I used some bird shot on a rat worked ok didnt put a hole right through my house just looked like borer it the bits where it did hit the wall
Very pleasant shoot last night on one of our team sites near Christchurch, with @alan and @gadgetman from this site.
Wandered the big paddocks in the 80 series Cruiser with maxtochs and thermal. Very challenging - strong winds made precise shooting hard esp at distances, but the boys did very well on 223 and 22 magnum. Well pleased with success - we nailed 154 bunnies in about 5.5 hours. That's a good strike rate of about one bunny per 2 minutes, and our record tally for this site. About 85% hares and 15% rabbits.
Lots of different strategies for different spots - you'll get more time for the shot using thermal because they don't think they're visible. But you are lucky to get 2 seconds with the little rabbits around the woolshed, yards, homestead treelines etc - so often shrewd little sods. Speed shooting! At other times you may be circling in truck in big paddocks to get between a hare or three and any sheep in the paddocks, or you're flat out across paddock to cut off a hare, or get him at his fenceline pause. Or the variety of yips and yells and whistles the boys use to stop a moving running hare for a moment to ID the noise.. Boom! That fatal pause. Or giving the hare a 'Texas' - i.e. when he runs away from you in straight line so you have a moment's line stability to shoot him up the arse. Known as the Texas heart shot!! -always good for a laugh..
I had my Howa 223 beside me but didn't bother shooting last night - left it to the other two in the back. Quite happy to do the driving and spotlighting. Dam those maxtochs we (Brian gadgetman and I) designed few years back are still amazing. Used two sets of batts in 5.5 hours on full power. No step downs, beautiful beam balance and colour tint.. Mmmmm..
A very enjoyable and efficient night. Popped 701 so far since lambing in 7 outings - and we haven't made it to Tekapo/McKenzie yet for the BIG numbers. Bumper season coming... :)
Was certainly an interesting trip, @mudgripz. Strong winds, light winds, dry and dusty then rain. Considering the conditions the shooting was both exceptional and challenging. I was impressed with the little 22mag. With the rate we were bowling the little pesties it was difficult keeping up with the mag reloading.
Three possums in three nights than this wee girl this morning. Have a hen pheasant with poults at foot running around home. Chance of survival just drastically increased, I hope!
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Those are serious numbers.
I'm bloody jealous as my various varmint rifles have had sod all use this summer, such is the grass length up here. I'm actually desperate to knock some bunnies over as the Coon got the very last piece of rabbit for breakfast this morning. He'll hafta suck it up as we have about 5 days of damp weather coming.
01;30 today..SH1 just south of st andrews township...eg along straight halfway to bridge..no more than 300yards from houses a wallaby sitting on side of road wondering about the two moons barreling down road towards it..... thats a wee way out of normal range for them that is for sure.
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Good one is a dead one
Good haul yesterday evening.. 64 bunnies, 3 roos, 1 hedgehog, and a hat-trick of ferrets. (Actually got another ferret with the truck on the way back out to the road.. silly thing, I was barely above walking speed). Thankfully had a ziplock and a knife with me, so a good start to the swamp comp.
One of the bunnies was a mighty jackalope..
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@StrikerNZ
Douglas score ... ??
Been hunting years for one of those. Damn hard to locate in the "roar". Very jealous !
Old man shot this last night. Seen plenty of white rabbits but never a white Hare
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Nice in white,but iv never seen a black hare.A few black bunnys around,came across these 2 down the street about 9pm.
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About 20yrs ago i shot a white hare down the Tekapo river,2 days later seen one about 2ks further down the river,didnt bother shooting him.About 2 yrs later,seen a white hare in the Haka pass at the road gate,didnt bother shooting him either.Let his white gens breed on i thort.
seen one by pleasant point golf course...another closer to waitui (saw that one over a 3 year period so might be a few) and one other in hill country just south of pleasant point.... hard case how they can still "dissapear" running along in irrigator rut.they must be super cunning to avoid becoming hawk food when young.
Taking the rifle out when I put the chooks away, paid off. It's been months since there have been enough rabbits to bother heading out. Bonus possum sitting on the lawn. Looked like a cat in the thermal, and I had to wait for it to show a profile of it's head to 100% identify it correctly. Nothing worse for neighborhood dynamics than shooting the neighbors cat.
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Another all night session with @alan last night, got home about 8:15am. I shot 1, Alan knocked over 204 for a total that wasn't predicted after some of the others only got something like 84 from the previous shoot. The first 100 came up after just under 3 hours. I retired early from shooting and took up driving duties after an altercation with a Macrocarpa limb, receiving a punch to my right eye making vision not too hot. Great fun.
Went out in North Canterbury last evening with my mate Dave to shoot some rabbits. Well it poured and blew and rained. We arrived at the farm and parked giving the weather a few minutes to settle. I spotted some rabbits about 4 metres outside the truck window so this then turned into a comedy scramble for ammo, bolt, rifle in the confined space of the cab. It eventually came together and I stealthily opened the window and Dave let strip-- 4 with 5 shots in around 2 minutes. He was wrapped because he hasn't been shooting for ages let alone firing the mighty Toz-- pretty sure there was some rust blown into the first bunny. From there we walked around in the rain for about an hour with lead flying and bunnies dying. Surprised they were out in numbers. Eventually the rain got worse (or way better for the farm as very dry). Ended up with 21 for an hour. Attachment 243491
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Last night I shot three of these skinny little Fuckers! I think I got the whole family! Plus 49 rabbits.
Good work
Another session with @alan on the local farm last night. Numbers were way down in the high population areas but Alan still managed a record high tally of 232 for the night with phenomenal shooting. I injured myself earlier in the day so just stuck to driving, finding, spotting, navigation duties.
School is in, but these are always my favourite subjects.
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Plenty of rabbits about and a few of these. The Unique scores another
I almost forgot that @viper gets all the pussy [emoji3]
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53 rabbits and 3 roos with the 223 for an evening wander, then a mouse with the Sportivas and another bunny with the truck on the way home.
I saw something in the grass this evening, got out of the vehicle with the 222 in hand and slowly crept to the gate, carefully eased around the strainer post to see Mr bunny hiding in the tall grass in a wee hollow, I'd already made sure that the scope was on its lowest setting and at three yrds I gave Mr bunny the coup de grace. Not much of an outcome for the rabbit.
6 Bunnys and 2 Spur wings, nice little 1hour session. Closest shot 22m, Longest shot 116m. 27gr Slugshttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9e0132dbf7.jpg
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Had a job for some long(ish) range quiet sniping of some pesky pooks last night, these 8 were all taken from 90-120m with a paddock full of pedigree race horses next door that I had to be very careful not to spook. Yes I have a permit for them.
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It's just another day in the office Bradley!
It's got to be bedtime now!!!???
@Hugh Shields
Nice one Hugh. Some very good shooting by the looks ....
How long did you spend out to collect that bag ?
Got permission to visit a small block I hadn't walked for many weeks. Usually a good bet for both Hares and Rabbits and I expect to get one or two.
The block used to have Turkeys although these days seems mainly it has a growing population of Peacocks. Never shot any before but discussed a little culling with the owner as their numbers need thinning I think and got the green light to deal to a few.
I haven't shot my little Sako M591 in .243W for a while and decided to take that today. It shoots like a laser with Hornady ELD-X 90gn bullets.
Arrived nice and early in the per dawn light and set out on the usual circuit with great expectation. I was sorely disappointed. Only one young Hare seen in a small gully, spied as he loped slowly along towards me. I was careless, thinking he would be too stupid to be too concerned when he saw me, but he was a smart one. He moved every time I changed position and eventually got away without any opportunity for a steady shot.
Carried on, glassing all the good spots and found absolutely nothing. But on the very last and back paddock I got the jump on a small group of Peacocks working through a clump of Gorse bushes. I quickly got prone and smacked one at 120 yds. About half a dozen took fright and hustled away but one stopped to look back at 150 yds and I caught him nicely with my second shot. Got photos and carried on. I had seen a Turkey from way back and homed in on the location hoping to see it again but it had vacated the area. Then looking downhill I saw something slightly out of place I thought might be a Peacock. Glassed for several minutes and was just starting to believe it was a flat rock when the head popped up. Yep, Peacock, 98 yds. Already had the rifle lined up and shot three did the deed.
Well, farmer will be happy about fewer Peacocks. A pity about no shots at Hares and Rabbits, which I know are there, and which I will have to find next time.
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