UKV Challenge Shoot 2010

kip270 · April 13, 2010

I had arranged with Graham to go up on the Saturday to help with the layout for the course of fire, and while we were there setting things out Graham's mind was ticking and you could see the look in his eye that he had something up his sleeve.

To make things more interesting we had decided that for the 100 yard shoot we would use a bale of straw to shoot off instead of the bench, to simulate summer bunny bashing.

So the 100yard & 200 yard was sorted, so now to see about the 300-400 and undisclosed range.

On the other side of the farm we had a look about and I had the leica rangefinder to suss things out, but I could have saved a lot of time as Graham certainly knows his ground.

Everything we looked at he was no more than 8 yards out with the naked eye (I'm sure he's related to Steve Austin the Bionic Man)……

The benches were in place and we had the 300,400 and the undisclosed ranges from the same firing point, so it was looking good for the Sunday.

While we were there looking over the ranges there were several crows in a wheat field, so Graham and myself looked at each other and grinned, so off I went to grab the .222.

We got back to the field and settled down on the bench, there was a crow at 267 yards so I settled for the shot and squeezed off my shot, the bullet just over the top.

Then Graham spotted a crow at just over 700 yards, so I said to Graham to have a go with my rifle, he settled down for the shot, and aimed with the thick part of the cross-hairs, "crack" the dust flew up just over the crow, the windage was spot on, that was the luckiest crow I have known for a while.

Then a magpie decided to sit in the hedgerow at 530 yards, so Graham settled down again and took the shot, the magpie looked as if it just fell off the small branch it was sat on, but as time was getting on we decided to take a look when we set out the gongs.

We looked to our left and a hare was running down the hill towards a hedgerow, then we spotted another one sat in the field. Now these were going to be taken on a PURE VERMIN CONTROL, as they will strip a wheat field in a night, and they can also spread liver fluke to the cattle, so I pinged it at 297 yards, so down on the bi-pod and squeezed off my shot, it jumped up in the air as my bullet struck. I was very happy with that shot, so another scan of the field and there was another hare, I pinged it at 360 yards so now it was Grahams turn.

He got set up on the bipod, and got ready for the shot, "crack" the shot was just over the head of the hare, so Graham reloaded and got ready again, the hare making off further down the field, so I pinged it when it stopped at 398 yards, Graham was on it and squeezed off his shot, the hare slumped. I asked if he had hit it and then it started kicking its back legs……the .222 certainly opened my eyes this evening.

So I just sat there shaking my head, this being Graham's four shot with a rifle he had never shot before, the 52gn Berger's suit my rifle very well.

We headed back to the farm to take a look at Graham's rifle's and reloading set up, and it's just what I would like if I had the room, a roomy sturdy bench. And while were there I spotted some load development targets…….to say he has them shooting to their full potential would be an understatement…

Then it was onto Graham's armoury, a lovely .22 Ruger, .223, a Howa .243 (mmmm I want one), and then the .308.

After much chatting we then had a cup of tea and waited for it to get dark so we could take a look about with the lamp & the Howa .243 (now I was glad I asked if I could come up on the day before to help)

We headed off in the truck and were using a Light force with an amber filter; we saw a few hares, and a bunny, which I missed!!!!!! So we carried on and then in a tussocky field Graham spotted some eyes, so we drove into that field and just behind a telegraph pole there was a fox, but we had had to make our way just a bit further out into the field to get he shot. The fox wasn't paying us any attention at all, so I got out of the truck and turned on the illuminated dot on the scope, Graham said nothing fancy, put the dot on the kill zone and squeeze, "Thwack" the fox dropped in its track's the 87gn Vmax doing its job.

Graham was pleased as he had been after this one for a while, and Vixen not in cub.

Driving around a bit more we didn't see anything else so it was time for something to eat and off to bed as we had a long day ahead of us the next day………