Gary and I had a bit of a redneck Saturday. Gary had just finished painting the war wagon interior and after a fine breakfast courtesy of the lovely Kelly (thank you!) we installed some shelving and did some set-up so we would have all we could need while at the range. First we went mud bogging to get to the muddy field, then we did us some shootin' and then we 4 wheeled through the mud to get home. Our normal parking spots were pretty much liquid so we set-up where we thought we might not sink up to the axles.


Gary in the nice bright war wagon.


The Woodsman takes up the back shelf this day. You can just see the edge of the coffee pot on the right. Yes, we need coffee while we're shooting!

To demonstrate that the field was a soft sticky mess I asked gary to shoot this target right on the edge so it would spin instead of just slap down backwards.

Was that a perfect shot or what? Just what I asked for.

Having demonstrated the mud issue, it was time for a couple simple shots on target...




A couple of splats were recovered. All that is left is about the size of a nickel.

Gary drew up a fearsome looking critter to test shot shells on. The shells I had prepared were each 20 or 24 .25 balls with just enough #5 shot in them to fill the gaps. They were about 600gr. I took the movies and Gary did the shooting for these shots. We didn't have a good feel for where to aim for this particular load and distance. The first shot sent most of the load high I think but still put several balls through the critter.




The second shot put 27 holes in the critter, about half of them the .25 balls. This shot was a little low but still put a lot of damage on the target.


Gary shows off the hapless critter and Woodsman.

Well, we couldn't leave it there! Another Barnes critter needed to be shot. For the next two shots Gary filmed and I shot. The shells for these were made from just #5 birdshot. The first shot was with a shell that had no "choke" (tape on the inside to keep it together longer), the second shot had a "full choke."


We were only about 20 yards out for this shot and I put the shot too low as I over-compensated for the range.


I don't think this poor fellow is happy with our experiments. You can see that at 20 yards this shell had a tight pattern.


This video showed something very useful. The full choke treatment works. It looks like the shell is still intact as it rips his ear off but in frame by frame view you can see that the shell has started to open a couple of feet in front of the target.


Most of the shot went through or past his left ear but a few still got him. In a terrible instance of poor timing I shot this guy later hith a slug but did not have the camera rolling. He blew up into 4 big chunks and would have mad a great movie...

What else can we shoot?


Paint of course! I just nicked this almost empty can but still got a nice reaction.

We can shoot concrete too!





When shooting the blocks we had one neat thing happen. We had a shot that went into the block but did not exit or break the back side. Usually when I shoot cinder blocks (not often, rest easy) I use the 545gr slugs and they blow apart the block with pass through shots. For some of the shots this weekend though I was using a 420gr slug.


Nice clean entry.


Its hard to see but the back of the hole was spalled out huge. Despite not going out the back of the block, we could not find this slug. Apparently it made a 90 degree turn and kept on going!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2009 07:45PM by Jerry.

It's pretty neat see all that slow-motioned energy: collapsing and breaking of the slug when hitting the target, and of course that spinning of the target i the first movie.

Cool videos Jerry! You and Gary had some evil lead flying for sure

A veritable Cornucopia of delight!

I'd also like to note that Jerry was making these shots (with a smoothbore gun), standing/leaning against my truck. From 40-50 yards. Nice shooting Tex! Nice energy retention. Nice accuracy.

Gary

Great job guys!!! Nothing like putting the lead slap down on some reactive targets. It's neat to see it live but even better when you can replay the mayhem slow mo.

The full choke wrap is the reason I now muzzle load exclusively, I've had the ultimate full choke, a 2oz paper rapped slug strike a pine tree and wouldn't want that to go down range with others in the field. Yes, we do shoot toward each other in some of the hunting situations. It's not a problem with 6 shot until it's wrapped tight in paper. It would make a great in flight Osama stopper, but no good for dove.

Loved the camera work Jerry. That Woodsman is the Inspector Gadget of airguns, 32 tack driver, 20 ga shotgun and 62 cal brute.

BTW Kelli agrees to get the next digital camera with some slow mo capability. Has anyone else noticed how fast we go through cameras these days? Used to be only the film was considered a consumable.

Kent

Hey Kent,

Did you see ... I got that RED fox too? haha. Nice "heel/toe" work on the pose in my boots too I thought!

That slow-mo is great fun.

Gary

Hi Kent,

I actually like the fact that I've got a way to delay the shot spreading out and I now have visual proof that the method works. I wouldn't be using it in the scenario you describe of course. But the lower power of the Woodsman vs. the Justice can be slightly offset by using the "choke." Especially since I never see any critter I want to shoot inside 20 yards! Unless he's wood....

Looks great guys . . . sorry I missed it.

-- Jim

You missed out on putting up the shelves too! haha. But, I'm sure you didn't mind missing out on the MUD!! Great sucking globs of mud - 20 pound boots of it. Getting stuck in place if you took more than two pics from one position MUD. Wore us both out.

Got some neat footage though.

Gary

I missed the most important part, too -- how did you end up powering up the coffee maker?

-- Jim

Power Inverter run off the monster batteries in Jerry's truck.

Simple.

Gary

And that inverter also powered the 110 volt light that allowed us to get all our stuff ready for the transit home! When you see the light you'll realize what masters of design we are!

Do you have a 110 volt hot dog cooker? We're good for coffee but we really need some hot food...

And, I think a pressure washer would be a good choice too! Clean the boots and "stuff" when we leave.

I can't understand why more people don't go shooting .... it's very little trouble.

Gary

Jim,
I think we may have enough power to set up a wi-fi site and maybe do some pod casting from the next trip. Can you set that up? After the espresso of course!

Good stuff as usual

What a great shooting trip, the slow-mo video was really cool to watch.

The way you just tagged the side of the paint can was especially masterful, getting it to spin like that. ; )

Which camera does the 1000 frame/per/second trick? That seems really fast for a consumer digital rig.

Yes, it was a tough shot to just nick the can but that's what the fans wanted...

The camera is a Casio Exilim EX-FH20. That's the budget version of their high speed video capable cameras. They have a F-1 model that does high speed with better resolution but costs about twice as much.

now aside from the shooting , mud seems to run as a common denomonator through this thread . wagon is looking the part though.hope the health is holding up well .

Dyson ...

Now, I must assume the "health holding up" comment is not concerning the wagon ... but perhaps it's broken down old owner. It's time to go back to the pain specialist up here - over due (but there's some insurance "cycle" issue that's being reset. They actually called me and cancelled my appointment ..., saying they'd call me when it was sorted out. And, they have not yet.) Both legs/hips hurt quite a bit. One needs a bullet.

Eating pills and complaining loudly.

Gary

Has anyone noticed that in the second video: you can see the "coin" drop after the rest of the slug splatters off out of frame? Try hitting the rewind button repeatedly while the video is playing and watch the base of the target. The part of the slug that drops is about the size of a nickel. The rest is just splattered out never to be seen again.