Great Night Out

[Vermincinerator]

What more could ask for, a good night out with some good company and some top shooting.

Northernchris, his pal goose and myself met up with Alycidon at his ground for a lads night out on the stubble.

 

The idea was to tip some fox's before they had a chance to snaffle any more of Aly's pheasants so after a good cal we got underway.

Aly was kind enough to operate the lamp and transport us in the comfort of his disco.

This night would be a first trial of a green filter so it was decided to try it out on some rabbits that fell to the semi auto, seemingly unfased by the lamp.

 

Several dozen rabbits and a couple of hours later that tell tale reflection of a predators eyes was picked up in the beam, down a dip over a hedge and into the next field, about 200yds.

I readied the 6BR Cooper and steadied it on Aly's new window bag whilst one of the lads squeaked the fox's attention.

I knew that the bullet would drop about 2inches so i levelled the crosshairs just level with the top of its back and let the shot off, well bugger me if thats exactly where the bullet impacted, just above his back.

Charley promptly made his exit to the nearest cover.

That green filter seemed to working spot on again, not spooking the animal at all.

We left that area with the intention of returning a little later to see if we could tempt Charley to stand for us.

Alas Charley did not want to cooperate, one spotted, one missed.

 

We moved onto a large field of rape stubble that seemed to be almost lifeless, not so much as a rabbit.

The green filter scanned the fields and gullies again and on the second pass eyes reflected back at us about 30 yds from the edge of the field a tadge over 200yds to the left of us.

Chris jumped out of the disco and levelled his rifle across the bonnet, Charley looked back at us long enough for chris to put him down with excellent shot from his 22-250 Steyr.

Well done Chris.

 

What seemed like only a few minutes later the green filter illuminated another fox about 150yds to my left, Aly dropped the beam on him and i eyed him up through the scope while one of the lads again squeaked his attention

This guy was sitting quartering away slightly so i put the crosshair behind his right-hand front shoulder and squeezed the trigger, NO MISS this time, hit him exactly where i aimed with the bullet exiting infront of his left shoulder. BINGO!!

 

A good exit wound.

 

The Happy Shooter 6BR and a 65gr V-max do the biz

 

A couple hours more of searching did not illuminate any more fox's although a couple of munties almost fooled us but the yes werent quite right.

Then deciding to call it a night, we headed back to our vehicles.

Once again thanks Aly, Chris and Goose for a very enjoyable night out, great company and especially Aly for doing the driving and operating the lamp.

 

Ian.

[foxshot]

Dont think i have seen a green filter before,were you geting a good sight picture and what lamp was it on ,nice shooting by the way

[Guest northernchris]

Afternoon Ian

 

Was a cracking nite getting driven around with the aircon on and nice comfy leather seats, proper lamping Next time you come out onto my bit Ian dont forget the sea sick tablets!!!!! F~~KING ruff springs to mind. Anyway good shooting by all and an even better crack.

 

The green filter on the 240 Nightforce of Geoff's worked well with the charlie's over on my bit as they have never seen that colour before.

 

Chris

[varminter]

Good to hear you a great session with the boys ian - well done lads :D

Always great sharing hunting trips together!!!!!

All the best...............

RAY..................

[Alycidon]

Dont think i have seen a green filter before,were you geting a good sight picture and what lamp was it on ,nice shooting by the way

 

 

The lamp is a Lampforce 240 on the arm system with two suction pads so it just sticks to the roof and I can operate it from the drivers window and shoot as well if single handed. It plugs into a single pin socket in the nearside of the engine bay leaving the lighter socket free for a scope mounted 170. This also makes sure you do not hit the cable as it is well out of the way. The green lens was suggested to me by another lamping friend who reported good visability and a lack of fox spooking, this was only its second night out and anything I have yet seen with it fox wise was not disturbed by it and did not leg it.

 

Targets can be seen and easily identified at over 200 yards with the lens in place, I find it similar to amber in visabilty terms but for some reason things are not (yet!) spooked by it, probably because they have never seen it before. This is with a 240 though, I would expect this to be reduced with a 170 by about a third.

 

The two we had were nicely taken by Northern Chris and Vermincinerator, his 6BR Cooper does make a nice mess. The front shoulder is the impact point, the bullet then broke up with parts of it exiting that backbone shown at the end of the stock in the second piccy. They also shot some very testing rabbits with my .22LR semi, these lads can certainly shoot all right..

 

My lab pup got her first cold game retrieve the next morning on one of Vermincinertors rabbits, that for me topped off an excellent night and day. It was in some long grass, I walked her downwind of it to see what happened, she got a bit of scent at about 20 yards and worked up to it accross the wind like a good un, looked at it for a second as if to say well whats this then then uplifted it and brought it to hand.

 

Thanks guys for an excellent night out.

 

A

 

A

[charly hunter]

Nice going lads, also great to hear a young pup coming on well sounds like the making of a good team effort.

[col48]

What more could ask for, a good night out with some good company and some top shooting.

Northernchris, his pal goose and myself met up with Alycidon at his ground for a lads night out on the stubble.

 

The idea was to tip some fox's before they had a chance to snaffle any more of Aly's pheasants so after a good cal we got underway.

Aly was kind enough to operate the lamp and transport us in the comfort of his disco.

This night would be a first trial of a green filter so it was decided to try it out on some rabbits that fell to the semi auto, seemingly unfased by the lamp.

 

Several dozen rabbits and a couple of hours later that tell tale reflection of a predators eyes was picked up in the beam, down a dip over a hedge and into the next field, about 200yds.

I readied the 6BR Cooper and steadied it on Aly's new window bag whilst one of the lads squeaked the fox's attention.

I knew that the bullet would drop about 2inches so i levelled the crosshairs just level with the top of its back and let the shot off, well bugger me if thats exactly where the bullet impacted, just above his back.

Charley promptly made his exit to the nearest cover.

That green filter seemed to working spot on again, not spooking the animal at all.

We left that area with the intention of returning a little later to see if we could tempt Charley to stand for us.

Alas Charley did not want to cooperate, one spotted, one missed.

 

We moved onto a large field of rape stubble that seemed to be almost lifeless, not so much as a rabbit.

The green filter scanned the fields and gullies again and on the second pass eyes reflected back at us about 30 yds from the edge of the field a tadge over 200yds to the left of us.

Chris jumped out of the disco and levelled his rifle across the bonnet, Charley looked back at us long enough for chris to put him down with excellent shot from his 22-250 Steyr.

Well done Chris.

 

What seemed like only a few minutes later the green filter illuminated another fox about 150yds to my left, Aly dropped the beam on him and i eyed him up through the scope while one of the lads again squeaked his attention

This guy was sitting quartering away slightly so i put the crosshair behind his right-hand front shoulder and squeezed the trigger, NO MISS this time, hit him exactly where i aimed with the bullet exiting infront of his left shoulder. BINGO!!

 

A good exit wound.

 

The Happy Shooter 6BR and a 65gr V-max do the biz

 

A couple hours more of searching did not illuminate any more fox's although a couple of munties almost fooled us but the yes werent quite right.

Then deciding to call it a night, we headed back to our vehicles.

Once again thanks Aly, Chris and Goose for a very enjoyable night out, great company and especially Aly for doing the driving and operating the lamp.

 

Ian.

 

 

hi Ian

 

nice to see you up and about,

 

i have used red (crap) except for rabbit,and shooting rabbit on stubble. not enough light for me to shoot fox with and confirm a safe back stop.

 

blue not my cuppa ether, seems to leave a shimmer and a lot of over spill,

 

same for green but slightly better.

 

now i use a 240 no filter, but if it seems as the fox are getting jumpy,i have been known to put on the yellow filter.

i have the 140 striker 170 and the 240 blitz.the 140 is the only one i would not replace.

the 240 is the best

 

ATB

Colin

[Vermincinerator]

Chris,

Them ruts on your ground were more like canyons mate, i dont think sea sickness tablets would work ...............

 

Ian.

[Vermincinerator]

Thanks for that Colin,

I need to take up the opportunities when i am able, but without the support of good honest people it would not happen. Many thanks to all who help.

 

Ian.

[Alycidon]

I think the secret with lenses is to rotate them, my friend who recommended me to green is now switching back to no lens at all for a while. The only one I do not really like is red, it does not in my opinion allow positive target identification at much beyond 100 yards, so fine for a .22LR on rabbits but not a lot of good on foxes. Yet one of the most successful fox shooters I know is a keeper and he is out most nights of the week. He uses red all the while and has done for years and kills a lot of foxes with it.

 

Geoff

[6mmBR]

Sounds like you had a ball, its great fun when you can share your varminting with your mates and the crack makes it worth while.

Cheers

Dave

[Guest 308Panther]

Vermincinerator,

I can think of somethin more to ask for..... more Foxes.

And about that exit hole...plan on drivin a truck thru there??

Thats one nasty load you got.

Bonus Points for splatter factor

 

N Chris,

I liked to have seen what .22-250 does to a fox.

 

Alycidon,

Glad to hear the new pup is workin out,always fun watchin a good dog work,and after they get really good its like some one flicked a switch,you can just see the drive in their eyes.They just live for it.

 

308Panther

[Alycidon]

N Chris,

I liked to have seen what .22-250 does to a fox.

 

Alycidon,

Glad to hear the new pup is workin out,always fun watchin a good dog work,and after they get really good its like some one flicked a switch,you can just see the drive in their eyes.They just live for it.

 

308Panther

 

 

It is nice to see the penny drop, my last pups first runner was down a woodland glade about 50 yards tucked up under some felled firs. This little pup will be fine, probably better than the last two, I just know it, usually walks to heel better than my previous bitches at any age but she does have a Collie to show her.

 

I cannot speak for Chris but my 22.250 using 55gr NBTs fairly averagly loaded does not really damage them much at all, small hole in smallish hole out at over 100 yards. I shot one through the throat front on and struggled to find any sign at all of where I had hit it at all. Chris uses a 69 grain bullet normally, he will I am sure comment on the usual effect in due course.

 

A

[Guest northernchris]

308/Geoff

 

Mine with the 69 HPBT can make a real mess ;)

Top of his head went for a walk

[Alycidon]

Crickey my 22.250 does nothing like that chest shot, how far was it?.

 

A

[Guest 308Panther]

Makes me wonder what a 168 BTHP from my .308 would do.

 

308Panther

[foxshot]

so was it a leathal shot N Chris or did it run for a while

[Guest northernchris]

Aly

 

The 1 with the big hole was about 190 yrds ! The other with the top of his head missing was about 110 yrds.

 

 

 

Foxshot

 

None of the above ran

[Alycidon]

That is some wound for that distance, mind you we know it does depend exactly what you hit on way through, what make are your 69 grainers? and at about what velocity are you launching them?.

 

 

A

[Guest northernchris]

Aly

 

The 69 grainers are Sierra Matchking doing 3500 FPS a very warm load that eats brass

[Guest 308Panther]

Aly

 

The 69 grainers are Sierra Matchking doing 3500 FPS a very warm load that eats brass

 

 

The SMK's are/were the 168gr BTHP I was refering to for my 308...Hmmm,I wonder,I wonder....

Looks like I need to take a ride up to Cabelas over the weekend...

I think I need to get a few more boxes of the 168's....

As it looks like they would be just the thing to feed to some 'yotes

 

 

308Panther

[Alycidon]

That is a very hot load.

 

I ran it through Quickload, to get 3500 fps you would need 37.5gr of H380 given a 2.350 OAL. This generates a pressure of 67460 psi, well into what QL consider the danger zone for 22.250. Their optimum load with that bullet (kissing the pink band, ie 50,000 psi) is 34.2 grains of H380, this gives 3200fps.

 

QL are a bit conservative I know and moving the OAL out to 2.45 does drop the pressure a bit but not a lot.

 

You have said the load is hot, did you know how hot?, please be very carefull with it.

 

A

[Guest Hoot]

Aly

 

Where do you think they got the name for H380 from?

 

It was developed especially for the .22/250 and a 38grn recommended load.

 

If you ever get a chance get a look at some of the early Hodson reloading guides, written before the days when the USA went "Sue at the drop of a hat crazy".

 

You would be surprised at what max loads they contain. Often 15-17% higher than anything we see in print today.

[Redfox]

H380 was 38 grs behind a 55gr bullet not a 69 gr one and they now go for 37.5 as you suggest they have lowered recommended loads, litigation is the word.

I have used 380 and found it good, but Varget until it had a bad patch behind 55 gr Vmax at 37.5 grs was at a lower pressure and gave 3685 fps in a 26" barrel. I have certainly had lumps knocked out of foxes at over 200 yds similar to those shown. the 50 gr ones tended to blow up as they were around 4000fps, I did try gamekings in 50 gr and they held together better, but the heavier bullets drift less, so I have gone back to 55 gr and have no issues with them and the Varget seems ok again.

Redfox

[Guest northernchris]

I am running 41grn of N160 with isnt a run of the mill loading,plus i am running 78.75mm col on the stoney point comp.This load is around 101%-103% fill.