This is a typical write up of one of my pest control trips. I don't do wasps and ants, just rabbits, pigeons, crows, rats.

This blog contains pictures of dead rabbits but they are not particularly gory. The rabbits are doing a great deal of damage to the field and dyke and have to be controlled.

Yesterday saw the return of the Sako, after more than two weeks to get the barrel shortened and then refitted as it was in too much and the bolt would not close !!

Anyhow, picked it up and went straight up to the 50m range. She was off to the left but a few rounds later I was putting a mag of five rounds onto the white dot sticker for patching targets, sorted !

Here is the new look.

Sako Finnfire .22lr, barrel shortened from 21" to 16"

Today it was back up to Heartbreak Ridge the field with the ridge of boulders that offers two shooting positions.

Looking towards the Ridge the pirate is at firing point red and good old Frankenstein's monster is at pink :)

I followed the same MO as last time parked up and then moved slowly to the ridge to engage rabbits in the red zone from firing point red. I'm going to have to organise a comfy position here as this time I sat on a rock resting elbow on knee and took this bunny at 48m.
No obvious entry or exit.

I then moved to pink position and went prone, no bipod as I leave that on the HMR now.

Scanning with the LRF showed some movement in a gully at 63m, young ones playing about however another bunny entered from left at 45m and was duly despatched.
The round went right through and I saw it hit the dirt behind !

I sat tight for a few mins the young ones at 63m still not presenting a decent shot, a decent sized doh emerged at 55m and was bowled over with a similar shot to the one I made with the HMR last week face on, doon the throat! The surface damage a lot less with the sub HP .22, but devastating further into the target.

A decent few days, 6 feral pigeon on Sunday with the Ultra, three with the HMR Monday and three today with the Sako  :)

Now We Have Wheels !

Whilst out shooting on farmland I know only too well how easy it is to get your vehicle stuck and have to call the farmer to tow you out, quite embarrassing.

People who know me will also know that I have no real interest in cars, except for making sure they are equipped to be useful, e.g. tow bar and roof bars. There is one vehicle that I have always liked though, the Land Rover Defender. I had the privelige of driving various Land Roverss in the 1990's, even driving one over to Germany and back.
Here's a 101 that I used to take home but I was in the back of it once when the driver had a wee accident.

It rolled several times, end to end. 

Here's what we crawled out of:

I digress.

I decided to get myself a Defender 90, something I could drive the fields with, get timber from otherwise inaccessible places.

It's a 1993 Defender 90 with a 2.5 litre 200TDi engine.

Right away there was a list of jobs. So far I have changed the alternator and PAS belts, replaced the window regulator, the fuel tank, rear right indicator, removed the top fog lamps which were on a roof bar and not connected anyway, tied down the batttery in wired in a trip and isolator for the winch, got the diff light working...

There's more stuff to do, but I have alos been out shooting with it. I took the air rifle and the .17 HMR and got two bunnies. I missed with the air rifle and got two with the HMR.

Oh and we have taken it offroad too, we went to Experience 4x4 near Inverness. We did the adventure course a few times then went into the Zone for some serious stuff.

Here's some Adventure footage.

Now then, where's that job list...

.17 HMR Added To The Cabinet

I went to my local RFD to get some ammo for the .22 and asked him if he did package deals as I was planning a HMR in March.
Turns out that he had just got a second hand one in that morning and it was available soon for a pretty decent price. After seeing it I put down a deposit there and then :)

Here it is.

It's a CZ 455 16" Varmint with a lovely Thumbhole stock. Also included was a SAK moderator and a Nikko Sterling 6-24x50 scope.
I was lucky that we had a couple of days of settled weather and managed to get it zeroes in at 100 metres.

The next lamping session didn't prove too successful when I tried a shot at a 91m shot at a bunny and missed completely. I hadn't compensated for the wind drift !
I returned to the same spot a day or so later and recreated the shot in slightly less windy conditions from the original miss.

The target is on the white plastic container 91m away, wind is about unsteadily between 5-11mph.

The shot falls to the right of aim point. Adjusting 3/4 of a mil dot allowed me to hit the red bull. Some internet searches and the phone app Strelok allowed me to make up a table to compensate for the wind. I made one up for the .22lr aswell.

Next time I should be ready. 

Lovely Highland Spices

Worth tracking down at a good delicatessen near you. Hand blended in the Highlands and has a list of additional ingredients required and the method on the other side.

Shotgun, Hide, Decoy

Well I got a good deal on an old shotgun. Its a Francais D'Armes Robust No26.
Any information you have on above gun would be appreciated as there's not much out there in interweb land.

It's pictured here with a BSA Sportsman 5 .22lr rimfire rifle which was thrown in with the shotgun ! I told you it was a good deal !
Theres a piece missing from the shotgun butt which used to be a cheekpiece, I fixed this with a piece from an old BSA walnut stock given to me by John Macrae of Tain Rifle and Pistol Club.

So it went from this:

 To this :

It's had some more sanding and oiling since then too.

So, I bought some FUD pigeon decoys and a hide and set off on some trials, setting up in a stubble field at first and bagging a bird that actually landed.

We moved to an Oil Seed Rape Field

Yes kids, those pigeons are Fold Up Decoys and should not be shot and eaten.

This is the view back to the hide

Here are my decoys being attacked by a Buzzard !

and here is the first pigeon I have shot on the wing when I moved the setup into the adjacent stubble field.

If you haven't tried Wood pigeon and know where you can get one, then try it.

Pigeons

I like pigeon. Not the feral pigeons that hang around the distilleries munching on all the grain and making a mess by crapping everywhere. These I don't eat I just shoot.

The Wood Pigeon on the other hand is a much better bag. Now I'll try to eat anything within reason and so I have cooked some feral pigeon to see what they taste like, and the breast meat has a texture I don't like similar to liver.
Wood pigeon breast fried is lovely, more like a good steak than poultry.

 I had managed to shoot a few 'Woodies' with the BSA Ultra but got a good deal on an old shotgun and decided to have a go with it.

Shotgun story to follow...

New Arrivals

After several months, one interview and a couple of emails I received my firearms certificate and my shotgun certificate.

I had lined up a possible purchase and made the deal a day after receiving the cert.

It's a Sako Varmint Finnfire .22 rimfire rifle.

Once again I began the task of selecting the correct ammo for the rifle. I wanted to choose subsonic hollow point ammunition so that it was more suited to hunting.


After grouping trials and the CCI's almost not fitting in the rifle I decided on the RWS ammo.

It produced this little group on the right at 50m.


My son and I went lamping that night and took an unfortunate bunny at our zero range 50m.



I also managed a crow at 104m !



Two weeks later I acted on an advert at the local club and bought two second hand guns, another .22 rimfire in the shape of a BSA Sportsman 5, and a Francais d' Armes 12 gauge shotgun.



More about them in my next post :)

More Bad Knee News

The last few weeks I have been suffering from pain in my other knee. Seems to be the medial meniscus with no apparent cause.
Looks like degenerative damage again!  My running and hillwalking days may be done.
:(

Fac and SGC

I started doing the forms in the middle of May, got everything filled out and sent off at the start of June and eventually got the accepted certificates back at the end of September.

I had to choose my proposed weapons on the forms and chose .22lt cor the club competition and also vermin control, and a .17 HMR for vermin.
I also applied for a shotgun for rabbits and especially the flying vermin and tasty Woodpigeon.

Rifle Club

Of course, my son and I also joined the local gun club which is Tain Rifle and Pistol Club.
They have a25m indoor range and a 50m outdoor. We went along for a few weeks to see if we liked it and we did. The members are a nice bunch and we've both learned a lot.

We have also had the opportunity to shoot lots of types of weapons. Here's a wee example of the range of calibres. I hope it also conveys the fun aspect of shooting.

After a few months I decided that I would like to take things more seriously and maybe shoot a competition. For this I needed a rifle, and so began some forward thinking, some pretty far forward thinking as I discovered that it's a long process.

Zero

Had no luck with the first scope I bought, it originally went on the rifle we found in the garage but whilst zeroing the rifle fell off the rest and landed on the scope disabling the vertical adjustmnent.

Another one was purchased and the zeroing took place.

As you can see, I went with the AA Diablo Field pellets after trying two other types.

Happy with the accuracy it was time to venture out. When I eventually found where the rabbits live I managed to get one with a 25m standing shot.

You can see that I've 'camo taped' the moderator and some of the barrel, this is to hide it from the pigeon and it helps to soften the report.

Yes the sound moderator or silencer does make a huge difference on this rifle.

Other helpful accesories have to include a pair of homemade shooting sticks.

Now to Regulation

The Ultra us a very good and accurate rifle, nut what if you could improve it ?
There is a way of increasing the shot count and consistency.
The air from each shot is released when the hammer strikes a non return valve on the air cylinder which releases roughly the same amount of air every time. This varies mostly at each end of the cylinder being empty or full. You can have a regulator fitted so as to more accurately regulate this quota of air given to discharging the pellet.
Of course I got one fitted :)

Here is a video showing the sort of consistency and shot count you can expect from a regulator.

If you are interested then visit XTX Air's site for full details.
XTX Air

Getting up and running. Shooting.

Had no lucvk with the first scope I bought, it originally went on the rifle we found in the garage but whilst zeroing the rifle fell off the rest and landed on the scope disabling the vertical adjustmnent.

Another one was purchased and the zeroing took place.

As you can see, I went with the AA Diablo Field pellets after trying two other types.

Happy with the accuracy it was time to venture out. When I eventually found where the rabbits live I managed to get one with a 25m standing shot.

You can see that I've 'camo taped' the moderator and some of the barrel, this is to hide it from the pigeon and it helps to soften the report.

Yes the sound moderator or silencer does make a huge difference on this rifle.

Other helpful accessories have to include a pair of homemade shooting sticks.

Full instructions on how to make them HERE.

The hits just keep on coming with this very useful little .177 rifle.

 I will discuss firing at different distances using the mil dot reticle in another post, but 45m kills are easily achievable and on one occasion under special circumstances a 63m one !
My current vermin totals so far...
 31 Feral Pigeon 5 Wood Pigeon 47 Rabbits 1 Corvids

After The Knee

So, I had severe knee pain last November after a run. Over several months and following two visits to two different Physiotherapists the verdict was degenerative cartilage damage. In other words, I'm old at 44 !

So I stopped running, hill walking and climbing and eased right off on the cycling which was also painful.

More or less sat out the first part of winter and to get me out and about in February, fate stepped in.

I have done a fair amount of shooting over the years, owned several air rifles or pistols and was in the Army Cadets and TA shooting everything from rimfire to 81mm Mortar. I got rid of the air rifles when the kids arrived.
At the start of 2011 my son found an air rifle in my sister in laws garage, one I had forgotten about. We put a service kit on it and played with it for a few weeks before returning it to my brother !
Then I purchased this:

BSA Ultra Multishot

Its the first PCP air rifle I have owned and I can highly recommend it, the beautiful stock isn't really bipod friendly though so I only use it on rare occasions and zeroing.

At the same time my son and I enrolled at the local Rifle and Pistol club, Tain RPC.

There's more pictures, videos and experiences to come, maybe even some helpful advice so stay tuned. Right now I have a bathroom to decorate :(

Spotted At Moy

Spotted some activity today at Moy, don't know who it was but well done.



The corner route being bolted looks really nice.

New Camera

Well, the camera hasn't turned up yet so had to bite the bullet and shell out for a new one.
It had to be a compact camera but this time I wasn't too bothered about it being waterproof, always mindful that the old waterproof one may still turn up at some point.

I decided on the Lumix TZ10.

Has a lovely lens and a decent array of features including the a GPS for on the spot geotagging.

I'm currently injured ( again ) with a torn cartilage so haven't ventured too far since the purchase. Here's some local pics.

I'm impressed with the results on the 'Intelligent Auto' setting.

These were taken with the aspect ratio set to 16:9 which records a  10.5M image, you can also set the aspect to 3:2 and for the full 12.1M image you use 4:3
Can't decide what ratio to use ? Then there's a multi aspect setting which which shoot all three with one press of the shutter.

The camera will also shoot 720p HD movies and can utilise the AVCHD lite compression format.
I haven't really had a decent play with this but will include a wee clip if I remember.

First impressions are good with the only niggle so far being the actual filing of the recorded images. They are all just piled into the same folder until theres 999, and then another folder is started. The old Pentax started a new folder every day and named the folder after the date. Oh, and my PC does not recognise the formatting of the SD card so using the USB cable is a must.

So set the below clip to 720p to see the HD movie capabilities of the camera. The clip was shot in the same lighting conditions as the first beach picture above.

Lost My Camera

I know it's in the house somewhere, but where ?

Latest news:

Sol climbs his first Munro, Ben Wyvis.

 We were lucky with the weather and Sol really enjoyed it, as did Cooky.

Well done Sol, only a few more to go :)

The local Academy gets a traversing wall, paid for by Skretting and built by Scott Muir of Extreme Dream .
It's open to the local community so the kids and I checked it out.

Good fun and those big yellow ones can be tricky without shoes and chalk.