Bob57

Went to deal with some more rabbits,on a wheat field last night on a different farm, and the 17 fireball performed well again, couldn't believe it, another 3 foxes turned up, 2 more dogs and a barren vixen.

Well done mate, nice shot,good that it ended well😃, funny you should bring up this post as i was shooting the farm this post is about last night, also for rabbits and took the 17fireball with drone aboard, I shot 3 dog foxes, 245 / 190 / 125 yds, the 245yarder was a side on heart shot, straight down all 4 legs up in air for a few secs then ran about 10 yds before dropping dead, paced him 255😃. The one sitting at 190,i called in from about 300 and suddenly he decided to sit down and look at me,hit him same place as yours,didn't even twitch, 125 couple kicks and dead, brilliant little round the fireball, almost as good as when it was a 17rem😃. the fox talley was up on this farm a couple of weeks ago at 45 for year, down a bit from normal considering there seemed to be never ending foxes at one point, but last night kicked off the new year well with 4, as my lad had another dog fox off the high seat he was on , while I had fun a few fields away. Nice to hear the lapwings on the setaside where I was parked last night, they usually nest on there, so removing those foxes will help them a bit😃, they've just got the magpies,crows, gulls, buzzards,kites and dog walkers to watch out for now, aswell as the next fox along!!

Just read on another forum, you can also anneal with molten lead, Anyone tried that yet??

Shot another magpie this evening, absolutely love shooting this rifle, it weighs 18lb and doesn't move on firing so you see everything when then bullet hits😀, and the 32grn Vmax doing nearly 4000fps on magpies are just so explosive😱😂😂

Ok, thanks fizz, if you get there please let me know.

Thanks chaps, it'll probably stay in black primer for awhile, as I'm enjoying shooting it so much i can't bring myself to pull it apart yet😀

Nice job fizz👍, I like the look of that,and sounds a better way of annealing than with a gas flame, you ought to put it into production as a complete kit, I'd be interested in buying one😃

Well I got her shooting good, 25grns Vn133 behind both 32grn Vmax and 32grn sbk's HBN coated,3960fps,both shooting to same point of magpie😀. Within the last week I've shot 5 rabbits, 1 crow, 5 magpies and 2 foxes and both bullets have performed great, but the Vmax is my favourite 😃, just like my 204, it's a cracking round for vermin, as you all say😋

Cheers gunner, yep i did think it should be Matt lacquered to keep the pattern from wearing off, but hadn't thought about the beads for grip? I'll have to look into that. Thanks👍

Yep I've been having a dabble☺

Hi gunner, the stock is just black primer at the moment. I did phone dave and ask if he would paint it (or cerakoting it, if I remember rightly) but he declined because I said it had a few dinks in it which had gone through the top coat, not sure what the problem with that would be if it was prepped properly again ?? But im sure dave knows best!! So i just put a little bit of car filler in the odd spot, flatted them off and sprayed it with black primer that was recommended by my local auto paint sellers,and sent it to Steve for the build, thinking when it comes back I'll paint it myself or find someone else to do it, any recommendations??.

Oh yeah, I should have said a special thanks to Dave for lending Steve the reamer and cerakoting the action, cheers baldie 👍 , nice paint job.

Here's a couple of pics😃

Hi GT3, Steve kershaw

Yeah it really does all look in proportion, nice. I love the look of a heavy barell so I went for a 23" T1 sassen, prob similar to yours, chunky,stocks just black primer at the moment so needs a nice paint job!! and now it's together it's bloody heavy but I like it, will post pic one day☺.

Oi, this threads about pratical,get that tat ical off 😂. Seriously though mate,that is one sexy looking rifle, almost as good looking as mine😆, I was in two minds about getting my barrel fluted and never really liked straight fluting but that looks bloody good on that chunky barrel,oh well, I still like my plain Jane. I presume that stock came ready painted like that or did you have it done?? Looks good.

Hi Clive, i've had quite a few foxes spook now with my ir, I've also had lots of foxes come in with the ir smack on them and needed a shout, whistle or whatever the stop them,so I think it's mainly what they've been spooked with in the past or where you're parked, standing, sitting etc, foxes see movement more than anything. I remember a night a couple of years ago I was sitting in a high seat on the side of a grass field in the edge of a wood, I was looking up the side of wood to my left ,when a fox suddenly walked into the bottom of my spotter view about 30yds away, waited for it to get up the field a bit more then quietly fired up drone and got on it watching it walk away, thinking as soon as it smells my bait at 120 yds and turns on it, i'll wack it, well as soon as it turned and before I had chance to squeeze the trigger,in a split second it's head spun my way and it bolted like I've never seen a fox bolt before!! It was pitch black that night and I had a part of the wood to my right as background, I'm convinced they see more than just a dull grey/brown glow, it was a though it had turned into sunlight, that fox definately didn't suss me, it was the ir. **Foxes have eyes like a cat(vertical pupil) which open wider in the dark than dogs eyes, they also see the earth's magnetic field and have eyesight designed to see movement better than colour, apparently they see yellow and blue best and I wonder if the way that fox reacted they see red as more distinguishable than dull grey/brown, which may seem odd as lots of people use red filters on their lamps!! ** Anyway I suppose that doesn't matter to much now with thermal being available, just means we will all have to spend a load more money😓 ** Not from me, but a man with a degree 😋😁

Good one,😂

True😀, I bet everyone seeing this with a 20 practical will be looking at their barells now lol.

My exact thoughts. Still, I suppose I was lucky the prat stamped it 20

Picked up my .20 practical a few days ago, resized all my cases again as the bolt wouldn't close,made up some rounds today with 32grn Vmax and 32grn sbks, *HBN coated*. Managed to shoot 7 rounds running barrel in through the crony before the light went for a readout. Went up in .5 of a grn from 24.5grns vn133 to 26.0grns vn133, which gave me 3946 fps to 4169 fps😃10 thou jump. Im pretty sure this is going to be a really accurate rifle,Without trying for a group it put 7 bullets into 3/4" which were all different loads 24.5 to 26.0grns of powder and two different bullets and blowing a strong wind. well pleased and can't wait to try for "the load". BUT one thing p###@#g me off, what kind of idiot stamps a .20 practical barrel with PRATICAL !!!😤😤

+ 1

My mate uses one with a nitesite viper add on, seems to work ok on his.

Hi Steve, yes I'm sure they'll see led or laser but it sounds like laser might not stand out quite so much, they definately notice the ir when being tracked,that's why when tracking one before the shot I often keep it just in show at bottom of screen,seems to take the ir off them just enough so they tend to not look at you as much, but yep I'm sure there'll always be the odd smarter fox, I've allways said the more technology we have to shoot them with, the smarter they'll get to avoid it!! I'm sure cubs are born lampshy now, but I suppose it's what makes it more of a challenge 😀.