That lot was a out an hour. Basically I got back to THE WOOLSHED I'm staying in and thought, "I'll just do a quick lap around the hay paddock and there you go. Most of the shots were 40 - 80 metre with Ruger 10/22 with GUIDE 450 thermal scope.
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Hey @30.06king that was a good yarn. Have you ever tried eating peacock? Has anyone?
There is property down here which breeds the things, I'm talking twenty birds sitting on the fence or shed roof. Not feral though.....
@Hugh Shields
No, never tried it in a meal. Wouldn't trust myself to attempt cooking it. If some half decent cook served it up though, yes, would definitely sample it.
There was some discussion on some thread a while back about the culinary merits of Peacock. IIRC young Peacock was allright ....
Fx wildcat PCP dial right back, night vision scope, shooting max of 15ft, 40s of action, in a horse shed, at dusk. Will put a red dot on for next time, as snap shooting they don't hang around for long.
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Another morning outing with the little Sako M591, .243W. Good early start again and little breeze. Felt like it would warm up quickly, and it did. Not much time so homed straight in on a small hill with old Rabbit warrens. From quite far off saw 2 Rabbits so angled that way while staying unseen. Got there and obviously the Rabbits had moved. Glassed around for 10 mins or so, couldn't find them. On my feet again, sneaked ever so carefully around the curve of the hill. Was standing, just looking when these three sprang from literally under my feet. I had almost walked on them. Downhill they darted but one stopped only 25 yards below with only ears visible above the grass. Over my knees I held steady and got the shot away. Rabbit 1 down. I didn't realise the other two had gone all the way down, crossed a shallow gully and were on the opposite bank, close to Rabbit holes. I saw a flicker of movement which was a Rabbit hard behind a grass clump. I shot through the clump and got him. Just to the right the third and youngest Rabbit sat up. Still over my knees I got the shot off just as he darted left, and missed. Instead of hastening his departure it abruptly brought him to a standstill. My next shot didn't miss.
So, three for four shots taken over my knees from 25 to 58 yards. Happy with that.
Had a wee job to do in another paddock and kept the Sako propped on the bipod, sitting on the ground, one round in the magazine. Just in case a silly Magpie landed within range. Had stated packing up when exactly that happened. Only 101 yds away. The rifle was too low so rested over my little stool for a very steady shot. Drilled it dead centre.
Some great trigger time in our Kiwi countryside. Hard to beat it.
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@flock Jamie Oliver and Rick Stien cook pigeons, it's a UK (and maybe American too?).thing, so I thought I would try them.
Just breasted and legged them. Slow cook casserole. Very delicious!
I wouldn't eat the filthy city scavengers, but country ones are good eating!
Quick little mission to grab some cat food for a mate. Tricky going in the long grass, was too long to use the bipod and hard to spot if moving.
Good on ya mate
Young Spence doing a bit of pest management.
When I was seven I sure as heck wasn't shooting anything larger than a sparrow.
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Gotta love a two for one.
The dogs flushed out these bunnies from the neighbour's hedge. Because there's an electric fence on the other side of the hedge, there was no chance of pursuit - both dogs flatly refuse to go anywhere near two wire fences. Eight wires? Deer fence? No problem! Smart dogs.
So I grabbed the .22 and the binos and peeked through the hedge, and as I suspected the rabbits had pulled up in front of the neighbour's wood pile about 60m away. Stupid move! I setup with the "sitting" bipod - such a handy tool - and waited about 30 seconds for them to obligingly line their heads up.
Game over.
:thumbsup:
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Set some possum traps but no possum this time (unusual) but got some little pests.
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Went to mow the lawns at the maimai and noticed some pig rooting around, had my new .308 with me to show my mate but she sure came in handy
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Cold but clear evening chasing hares and whatever else might pop up in North Canterbury. Not much out, managed three hares and 1 possum for a two hour walk around.Attachment 245981
@AdamAnt Frick that's a cool photo! Good skills, good eating. Was that like one barge or one ever thirty minutes?
Last week there was a thread discussing what was left to eat after shooting rabbits and hare with 222 Remington or 22 Hornet? I said the exit hole for a Hornet was about the size of a golf ball.
On Wednesday I spent a bit of time getting my GUIDE TS450 shooting well on my Weihrauch CH66J 22 Hornet.
On Thursday night I was on the river flats of a regular client and got onto some hare.
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It as impressive as @AdamAnt pigs, but...
These were shot between 10m and 90. Photo below to shot the damage.
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So the I skinned them to shot the damage
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Then gutted.
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Processed
Photo**
End weights, plus a feed of livers and kidneys. The bones are in the Crock Pot making stock. When I'm hunting late at night I prefer Thermos of stock, rather than tea or coffee. It warms my engine room up.
Ha! Got timed out before finished adding photos of Processed hares
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This hares had some ugly cysts, so I dumped it. Possibly cancer??Attachment 246042
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@Hugh Shields Shot the first two at about 200M as they fed out of the bush, went and picked them up and got them back to the truck. Looked in the opposite direction and saw another 4x had fed out of the bush into another paddock.
First time in my life a "On the count of 3" shot has actually worked out
Peafowl shooting yesterday morning with the .222. Really enjoy it and the cockies like them gone. Got 2 close ones and one at 192m and one at 161m. Quite a strong cross wind so allowed about 2" and that worked.
@Hugy2023 …… I love shooting peacocks. They are a lot harder quarry then many would think. Very wily! Well done.
Ye they are a smart bird with high optics eye sight.
1 vixen n 3 wabbits, been shooting rabbits for solid 12 months and just getting on top now. Skinned the vixen and it's in the freezer waiting for some more of her mates, I'll do them as the old cowboy/ fur traders, like a wolf skin, hang them in a bunch.
After a few weeks off with life it was back into it last night, all night, with @alan. Conditions were great, very little wind. A new high score of 248 for the site for the evening. We managed to put a hole in an alkathene pipe, so I turned off the tap about 15m away, marked it so the farmer could find it quickly and notified him.
Following on from a thread discussing what was left to eat after shooting rabbits and hare with 222 Remington or 22 Hornet?
A couple of weeks ago I put up some photos showing the wound damage on hare, from my 22 Hornet pet hand load: 10grn ADI AR2207 pushing a Winchester 40grn HP FBX CJ CANN with CCI primer. Estimated muzzle velocity 2200 - 2300ftps.
Last week I ran out of my pet loads, so was using Hornady factory loads 45grn SP MATCH with an advertised muzzle velocity of 2665ftps. I pulled one of these projectiles and found 11.2grn of either Lil Gun or Winchester powder. Interestingly the Hornady reloading handbook states that 11.7grns of Lil Gun (compressed?) produces 2600ftps, so another example of box advertised velocity perhaps being exaggerated? Hornady projectile is probably #2230.
That detail aside last week I shot 10 hare in one evening. At one stage I shot 6 (with seven bullets) in one herd at ranges for 30 to 65 metres. Interestingly the herd mostly sat, or spooked and ran 10 or 20 metres before stopping again, always a fatal mistake! It was about midnight, so they were probably asleep!? The photos show only the 8 I processed, one received the cruelest shot of all at 70 - 80 metres as it ran for the ridge, the other was simply gut shot and things had gotten a bit shitty!
Basically, comparing the first set of photos, to this weeks photos, clearly show the heavier faster bullet does more damage than the slower lighter bullet, no surprises there. It would be interesting to know which projectile has the thickest/thinnest heavy/light construction.Attachment 247019Attachment 247020Attachment 247023Attachment 247025Attachment 247028Attachment 247030Attachment 247031Attachment 247032
NOTE: I'm happy with the results from my pet load, but I am going to increase the powder from 10 to 10.2grn just for the hell of it. What's your thoughts on how much that will increase MV by? 50 - 100 - 150 ftps?
Out to the local haunt again with @alan and Neil, just a short 4 hour shoot but we still managed 106. Can definitely see we are making a massive dent in the population, having to travel further to get the numbers. To be continued ...
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One of the 20 odd rabbits destroyed this afternoon by the 17HMR.
that many hares together is USUALLY/OFTEN a doe in season and all the rest are hopeful suiters..as long as she still hopping the males are still hopeing... someone had hard case video of this taken close to temuka a year of two back on forum...just kept shooting till they were all gone or dead. my guess is 50fps but unless it s more accurate or less..it shouldnt matter
Wellington region seems to favour hares far more than rabbits. So it's not unusual to see a lot of them around and a lot together. I think it may be predator related - hares are a bit big for stoats and cats.
Chase my Tui's at your peril!!
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This family of possums were having a little possum party in the willows around the Waikanae Golf course........BIG MISTAKE!
Tally so far, 3 Canadians, 26 Australians, 23 Welsh and 2 Partridges in a pear tree. I still have 4 hours before the.staff arrive and I've just heard the Honkers return to the 17th fairway......Goose pepperoni salami on its way....Attachment 247746
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I got something.
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Big long walk today no deer seen but knocked these two over on the way back.
About 30min from the truck so we dragged em out for mate to use as dog tucker [emoji106]
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Four of these.
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Went for a walk on sunday, a bit wet and not many bunnies around. We saw a few, dispatched a few, but all were under 40m and damn the 17hmr really disassembled them.
Went walkabout yesterday, taking the Sako M591 243W on the hunt for Hares and Rabbits. I visit this block several times a year and while it's been a reliable provider over the years of these small game animals they were fairly non-evident on my last visit. I'm unsure of why. As far as I know it's not been poisoned or shot by other than myself.
Yesterday I entered the block in the very early dawn. After the previous day's rain the morning was quite foggy with all the valleys shrouded in white mist. It was quiet. The farm animals were not making much sound.
I found a commanding spot to enjoy the new sun as I sat and worked the binos hard. The Sako magazine was charged with a favourite load shooting Hornady ELD-X 90 gn bullets. Excellent varmint medicine.
No furry friends seen. A pair of Spur Wing Plovers decided to land a tempting 104 yards below me on the grass. I dislike these horrible things and don't mind culling a few. I lined up the Sako and the explosion of feathers was impressive. I was ready for another shot should the partner bird swing around and land near but it kept making distance.
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Even on such a light framed target the ELD-X seem to expand aggressively.
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I related in a previous post that Peacock numbers here have really increased. They were not too evident very early but as the day slowly warmed a few were emerging into the open hear and there. On the move I came over a little rise, immediately spying a single cock coming out from the bush edge. I sneaked in a little closer, using a fence post as cover against his strong vision, and couldn't get closer than 240 yds. The Sako was exceptionlly steady on the bipod and one shot was all it took to nail him. I was pleased with my shooting.
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By now it was a bit warmer with the sun reaching into the gullies and I sneaked through several looking for shootable game. It was disappointing to, again, not find any Hares or Rabbits. On the far side of a bigger gully I caught a glimpse of movement and brought the binos up. There were two big Peacocks there scratching around for food. Too far away to shoot from where I was so I quickly snuck across another couple of gullies and around the head of a bushy gully to reach a point that would put them in range. I didn't find them for several minutes as they had moved much further to my right than anticipated but they were now at 250 yards, so worth trying a shot. I had to adjust the bipod height but one leg was stuck which took a couple of minutes to rectify and I just managed to get the crosshairs on them as they dived into the scrub. Bugger ! So I continued walking. Hadn't gone much further before glimpsing something white across a stream gully. It was one white peacock and two others settling into the grass for a mid morning break. I had a solid shooting platform and a 220 yard distance so the rapid kill ratio was three for three. Just as I shot the third bird the two cocks I had just lost to the scrub earlier suddenly popped out to investigate the ructions and I was quick enough to throw another round into the chamber and nail number four. I had evil intentions towards number five but he seemed to be a bit smarter and hastened back to the scrub.
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I needed to be home by lunchtime and soon turned to return to the truck. Of course, nearing the truck I walked around a couple more gullies and counted another six big rooster peacocks. I would love to have used the last of my ammo but the countryside around here is ever more built up and one must be very concious of background before loosing off shots. Although I had safe background there are unfortunately houses out there within the reach of bullets and it's just not worth being careless or inconsiderate. Anyway, if my luck holds those big cocks should be there for me to find next time.