Kelly and I host a block party at our place each summer. We eat too much and work out the world's issues while the yard torches burn. Always a great time. Since Jim and Jerry are close enough to come up occasionally to shoot, we included them in our "block". Unfortunately, Jim couldn't make it. However; we were real glad Jerry was able to attend. Nothing like having a Navy pilot to spice up the conversations with stories!

We were then able to get in a good range day Sunday. Beautiful weather. Breakfast out ... we were spoiled rotten. Then we began to set up our base camp for shooting. The field is planted in quality hay ... so we can't just drive around or stomp it down. We were able to tuck the trailer into an isolated corner and walk along the woods to the targets. We sat the targets up on about 18" lengths of 6 by 6 so they were visible over the hay - and were not lost. No steel groundhogs this time (didn't want to have the farmer run one thru his machines! Oooops). However; we'd brought a dozen or more, gallon and half gallon milk jugs full of water. We made quite a splash and got some amazing video! Jerry has those.



I started out by making a new clay gopher. The old guy was pretty beat up - and I wanted to make a slightly bigger one for the huge slugs I was gonna put out there for him to "catch". I started by seperating the body into parts to be remolded. Looked down ... and got this comical expression looking back at me .... hahaha



Quickly got the new gopher pounded out.



Jerry set up his camera for some neat video. He'd trip it and then move to the other side of the field under cover. I looked thru the scope this time ... and there was smoke curling up from a cig in the gopher's mouth! It's a wonder I could shoot from laughing! However; I had a strict rule about gopher smoking ... so I had to put it out from 100 yards with the 62 Grizzly (still no farther along ... but shootable in it's rough assembly).



Hey - it worked! I held my pocket digital camera up to my spotting scope. Got a pic of the 100 yard clay gopher. Look at the three shot group on the belly. Jerry laid those three in there with his Prairie 3 in 32 caliber from 100 yards. Not too shabby!



I decided we needed some light competition. I prepared a proper dual target. One shot each for a sighter. Then a five shot group. This was a 100 yard target. Jerry shooting his 32 caliber Prairie III with his cast slugs, me shooting the 62 Grizzly with my cast slugs. Curious to see the results between a precision bench sniper gun, and a precision cannon.





The last shot of my group gave it to Jerry. Those were all some fine 100 yard airgun shots. We commented that out expectations have gotten quite high. We didn't even shoot anything closer than 100 yards for the last couple of outings.

Oh ... my excuse ... I was holding 2 mil-dots high for this target. I think I probably forgot that on the last shot. How's that for shooting 566 grain slugs at over 700 foot pounds though?



And ... the hydroshock tore up those milk jugs. Wait until you see the videos!

Great weekend. Enjoyed it very much.

Gary

Nice shooting guys!

Now I under stand you could get your hands on 700 ft/lbs airguns, belching hundreds of grains of lead with each pull of the trigger, but where did you ever find a cigarette? Weren't you worried about second hand smoke?

Great to see you smoking another ballistic gopher. I need to get the bear out of hibernation for some shooting.

Can't wait to see the vids

Kent

Hi Kent,

Ya know ... Jerry has an uncanny ability to come up with those cigarette butts. I don't know how he does it ...

Yes .. that lead target backer you poured should have cooled by now, as well. hehe. Don't lick 'yer fingers after you set it out. ;?)

Gary

Gary,

Do you use the same slugs as in the Woodsmen? Looks like you got 100yds sited in good. Now for 150 yds. nice shooting. Dory



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2009 09:42PM by Dory.

Different slug. (Besides ... you know that's highly classified ...

What happened to 101 yards?

Gary

Gary,

After what Jerry just said. Make that 200 yds. And go buy an ATV that fits in the war wagon.

Secret slugs for a one of a kind rifled gun/caliber. Nice.

So if their not the same, would the Woodsman slugs fly true it. Just curious if you tried a couple. Dory

Ah ... Dory, Dory, Dory ....

If an elephant walked west at 3 pm, how many legs would a duck have?

It's a secret. Very hush hush ... wish I could tell ya ....

A nice sniper cannon is a handy thing to have .... haha

Gary

Gary,

I guess he would have the same 2 legs, when the elephant came back from the water hole at 8pm walking East.. Dory



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2009 01:56PM by Dory.

Dory,
The Grizzly makes 100 yard shots so easy that 150 will be about the same level of effort as the best commercial gun you ever saw at 75. Only the Grizzly will deliver the power to take down Elk at 150 compared to squirrels at 75! Really. The Grizzly is that good.

Unfortunately the extra precision the Grizzly delivers with all that power requires some silly spiral cut grooves in the barrel which just ruins the ability to use the gun as a proper shotgun! As the videos will soon attest, 100 yard milk jug kills are well within the reach of the Woodsman (even without changing the scope one click from the 50 yard sight-in!).

I just got home from work a little bit ago and down-loaded the 1.2 gig from the camera. I'm starting to edit video now...

Jerry,


After Gary called yours a sniper and his a cannon. I think they would both be under the sniper category. Just a matter how much power they carry at the end. Dory

Very impressive shootings! All this this talk about the super accurate and powerful Grizzly makes me drooling for one so bad. Good post!

Guys,

I don't think I couls have bested Jerry's group with a .308 Remington. Nice!

Nice shooting guys! I loved that shoot-off between the big and the little...there's not too much in it!
More, more, more, more
OK, I'll settle down now
Regards
Neil

HI Neil,

Yeah - I thought that might be fun. After I've shot for an hour ... I start making a game/competition out of it.

If you recall - Jerry's Prairie III is very adjustable. He had it set somewhere in the medium range ... which was probably putting him in the 180 fpe range. I believe it will run up around 280 fpe ... but he didn't have those slugs .... and has found the thing shoots as mild as a BB gun at around the 180 mark. Now ... that's most likely why he won ... hehe ... I had to deal with a broken shoulder, bloody nose, trailer recoil (bent the tow hitch) ... and the sun was in my eyes ...

Note that little 3 shot cloverleaf as part of my group. Would have been four if Jerry hadn't been staring so loud, thru his scope, at my target!



I also made up a duct seal "loaf" which I laid on a post @ 100 yards. You note the thumbed in indentation for a sighter.



And, I missed it by a half a slug diameter! Boy ... Jerry really ribbed me for THAT flier .....



Hey - old Doc Marino made it to our block party too! It was great to see him. You remember Doc from many pages of my website. He has the Prairie Classic and a couple of other Barnes'. Here, he's trying to think of an appropriate responce to my shirt!



And ... Jerry seated at the bench in the War Wagon.



Gary

Ahh ... there's a pic. If you look close, you can see the bias cut laminate on the pistol grips, and note the bookmatched pattern right to left.

Gary

Sunday was a fun shoot...like all the rest!
Here was our set-up:




We set this up at 50 to get started. A couple shots to get on paper/check sighting and kill 2 jugs was it. The rest of the day was spent shooting 100 yard targets. In the video note the dirt plume that rises behind the water filled jug that has been shot, it happens at 100 yards too. We never found a Grizzly slug that had passed though one of the milk jugs, they just didn't slow down enough...



These jugs were shot with the Grizzly.

First 100 yard shot.


Turn up the volume to hear Gary's narration. Sorry about the background noise, the generator was making coffee...
Here's the same video without the stop action:


The Woodsman was able to kill a jug at 100 yards also.

Not quite the violence of the Grizzly but not bad for a smoothbore shooting well beyond the design parameters!


Before.


That was the first shot on gopher with the Grizzly. The slug passed all the way through the thickest part of that duct seal critter and left the area!


ouch!

I took some videos of gopher shots from down range. While I was a good 20 yards at least from the goper at the time of the shot, I was very impressed by the sound the slug made at impact. The video does not do the "smack!!" justice.

Cool.

Gary has a zero tolerance policy regarding gophers smoking.

This guy just didn't get the memo.


That'll teach ya!

Here's a couple views of Grizzly shots just for perspective...

Is that slug leaving a vapor trail?

This view is from the side to show the trajectory (the previous video had the gun shooting over the camera).

Oh, those heavy slugs are just loopy!

Some additional pictures from Sunday's shoot...

The 3 in the chest were Rooks, the 3 down low were Cans. I put the quarter there after the shots for a visual...

Then, decided to shoot it...

Got it on the edge with a Rook.


Autopsy.


Pretty good deformation at 100 yards.

Gary decided to check his 566gr slug for penetration and deformation at 100 yards.

So he took one shot at this putty loaf and hit it darn near dead center...from 100 yards. The slug got a lot shorter...

We got a little bored with those huge jugs so we decided to shoot the yote. This is a called shot with the Prairie 3, the old shot was the aimpoint.


For the next set, I told Gary to shoot the yote in the head as that was a clean spot on the target. He nailed it dead center. I called his slug hole as my aimpoint....

Well, there you have it, just what I expected. OK, I wanted a clean pass through but Gary kept jumping up and down in the trailer...


Gary eyes his last shot.


Being a good sport, Gary preserves the evidence of my whiping him in our contest.


Air sniper kit.

Excellent Job Jerry! Thank you very much. I know that took hours of processing and posting. I hope everyone appreciates the time.

It was an enjoyable range session. However; if you don't do it, you can't imagine the work. You can't just stroll out there and shoot. You must have a decent platform to shoot from, or you will never get decent results. That means a bench. You either buy or build one. And, you have to haul it - then assemble it. The road isn't paved ... so you have to clean the vehicle you drove. You can sit there and be miserible sweating, or you can arrange for a fan (and the power to drive it). It's too much work to go for an hour ... so you go for 5-6 hours. That means you have to take drinks ... and keep them cold. Nobody sets up the range for you ... so you have to take the materials, and haul them to the appropriate sites. You don't usually own the land, so you are a guest. You can't stomp down the farmer's crops, so you take the long way around the edge of the field, each of fifty times you go to service the targets. You want to share the experience ... so you need to photograph the results. That means cameras. To record the fast footage ... that means expensive cameras ... and ... many more extra trips to the targets to take pics. If you don't want to spend all day recharging the guns ... then you need regulators, and bench lines. You need a place to lay out everything. That means several tables, or ... as I've done ... a dedicated box trailer. When you are through ... you have to tear down all your gear ... and carefully stow it away. Bring it home, and clean and store it.

We understand, completely, why more people don't go shooting. It's a heck of a lot of work. And, you all probably don't realize it ... but Jerry is a pretty busy guy too. He's responsible for the test programs of those military aircraft that keep us free. He has scores of people from quite a few time zones reporting to him daily. And, he's managed to raise four sons too. So ... he knows busy. When I know he's taken all the time evidenced here ... to share our little range day ... I'm glad he enjoys it ... and I certainly appreciate all the extra time he's spent to share it with us.



Gary

Great job Jerry. That Grizzly is something else. Good thing you brought your sniper gun to keep Gary on his toes.You guys were having to much fun. What kind of coffee was Gary brewing? Dory



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2009 07:08AM by Dory.

Maxwell House Master Blend 1/2 decaff. Ahhh ... just typing the words makes me happy .....



Gary

Thanks for the kind comments guys.

Dory, I just found out the brand of coffee too, even though I've made a few pots there in the wagon...

It is really remarkable all the stuff that we take to set up the range. Sometimes we just take a look around and chuckle at the apparent absurdity of it all. Everything there is in response to a need or desire to make it a more enjoyable experience though. We've gotten really good at the routine and it doesn't take all that long to get to shooting or to pack up anymore. That leaves more time to shoot or just watch for a while and enjoy a cup...

Guys, you know, they now, make a small scale camping micro wave. You could make bacon and not have to worry about lubing your slugs.

Just think, fresh coffee and bacon and shooting big bore airguns, could it get any better. Dory

Bacon? on the range? Dory's observation of the microwave reminded me of the small electric stove tops for small apartments.....

get one of the cast iron griddles, chuck it on the two burners and do breakfast up right! griddle cakes, eggs (over well of course) and bacon, or maybe sausage.......ham!! Yer gonna be there all day, so you need to eat.

Later in the morning or early afternoon, the griddle could be used to make hamburgers (you do have a fridge, right?)....... and if you stay allllll dayyyyy, turn the griddle over, off the smooth side and drop a couple of steaks on.....

Enjoyed those videos Jerry, especially the sight of a huge slug wending its way towards the target, and annihilating it! More great pics too of a fun session.
Just as well Gary jumped around in the trailer when you took that shot at the coyotes head, otherwise, how could you prove the clean pass through?
Regards
Neil

Oh yeah Jerry ...

Just a comment regarding the deformation of your 32 slugs. None of them was a hollow point either. They collapsed upon themselves by telescoping downwards against the clay's resistance.

We have to turn your gun up and shoot some totem poles at high power. Should get some "flat lead" from that too!

Also ... that "does" look like a vapor trail from the big slug. Hummmm.

Also interesting that the fragmenting clay looks like water showering off the critter. It wasn't wet at all - nor was the cardboard. That's evidently shattered clay.

Gary

Well, I know you guys mean well ... but what's this about "small" microwaves and stoves??? Small? Heck .... we've got 4,000 watts purring along there. That's more than the total production of a fifty million dollar solar array roof on a government building!!!

You're encouraging us though ... so; we appreciate the thoughts. The diner did a pretty good job of getting us started for the day. And block party left overs fed us well when we got home. See ... choosing your day is an art form too.

Gary

Mmmmm.... bacon!

Awesome videos!! I really enjoyed it, a lot of fun. Thanks for posting the pictures and videos Gary and Jerry!

That Gopher smoking video should get a prize. Love the slow-mo section with the streaked slug and the strike expanding the clay!

When I looked thru the scope and saw that smoke curling up ... I got a good laugh.

OK ... dinner over ... back to the shop.

Gary

Gary...we've seen how it shoots, now when are we going to see what the Grizzly looks like? Huh? Huh?

About a thousand pounds ... longish brown hair ... six inch claws ...

(space here for Lon's photoshopped pic .....

It's not ready for pics.

Trying to get a couple things out the door. Getting there. Wish I were three people.

Gary

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2009 09:33PM by barnespneumatic.

Gary,
I caught your last before the edit. I share the frustration (as you know all too well (given my propensity for understatement ))

I take heart in the fact that several actual shooters have posted and others that may remain silent have seen and probably spread the word regarding the art of the possible...

Meanwhile, I'll just keep editing here in the dark!

Yeah ... I know ...

Well ... since you've pointed out that I must have sounded frustrated ...

Point was: I came and noted a huge number of reads on this thread ... then counted just 6 individuals who'd posted anything beside you and I (who went shooting and made the post).

I've got 72 hours in a 24 hour bag each day. I drop in here for a few minutes of distraction just like every other reader. Especially when I know there's been a ton of fresh material posted; and I come see a string of names logged in over a day's time who read ... I just never understand that there's so little dialog or comments generated. It's no break to come read my own materials and comments. Takes a minute to leave a note. And, I know from experience that ... those who post and find no feedback .. lose interest in posting again.

But ... it's obvious and everyone already knows all that ... so I just dumped it.

Gary

Gary,

Yeah, I notice it's getting slow this summer, even on the other forums seem to have slowed down some. Must be the nice weather we have been having. Neil posting a lot, of course it's raining and winter there. Neil, are the possums easier to hunt in the winter/

Just had 2 " of rain here. Boy, If you were making hay this summer it would be hard to find a week of dry weather. Dory

Dory, I only hunt possums in winter, as it stays light too late in summer for me as an early riser. Had hoped to have some hunting pics long ago but there are very few possums around this winter, due mainly to a poisoning operation in the hills above my place. I'll keep trying though....
Cheers
Neil

Great post guys, one of the best yet, thumbs WAY up.

Jerry seems to have his video technique dialed in; the shots were well framed and in good focus, excellent editing work too to capture the best footage without running overly-long (those of us with slow connections thank you for that!).

The shots with the projectiles dropping in from above prior to impact are eerily reminiscent of Hellfire missile video as seen through the TADS on an AH-64 Apache...you sure those things aren't laser-guided Gary?

That view from the side really points out how little trajectory there is even on the long shots, from the closeups you'd think it was dropping in from orbit. It does seem to take FOREVER for the slug to get all the way out there, you lose sight of it for a while and you wonder where it's gone and then it finally hits.

Thanks for posting, though of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how VERY interested I am in actually seeing one of these "Grizzlie" things.

Thanks for that very entertaining thread! Those videos and pics are awesome.

Just came to my mind to ask about the video of the first 100 yards shot to a jug. I mean, do everybody see the same as I do??? There is something (is it perhaps the slug?) which goes straight up when the jug blows up, and then there's something (perhaps the same slug) coming down right in the very end of that video...

And, all those exploding jugs, flying slugs and that special vapor trail of one slug is really cool to watch...

Sepeteus,

Good eye. That's the jug cap that was blasted upwards, and did indeed fall back down at the end. I hadn't noticed that.

It's always amazed me how the hydroshock rips the jugs apart side to side. Takes alot of internal pressure, built up instantly, to do that.

Glad you enjoyed the post - thanks for commenting.

Gary

I was wondering when someone would catch the cap blasting off. I always enjoy repeating the videos to see stuff that wasn't obvious the first time. I wish there was a way to post them so folks could do a frame by frame "click through." I can do that with the raw footage and that's how I capture the frame freezes in some of the videos. A lot of times the close up videos of the impact site reveals things that are not common knowledge. For instance; the videos of the ballistic gel getting shot clearly showed huge temporary wound cavities that some "experts" on the net would have you believe are impossible at our low velocities... Of course, posting video proof doesn't convince them of anything but that's another story!

Great Post Guys.

Question, how BIG/Fast? does the slug have be /or going to leave a vapor trail? Is that called 'shearing' the air?

Rick

That's a good question Rick. I could swear I've seen the effect before but I don't know if it's captured on any of the videos posted here. I suspect it has to be a pretty high humidity day and the slugs need to be going a right good clip but I've got no specifics. I think it must be caused by the air abeing accelerated around the nose of the slug leading to a rapid pressure drop and condensation. Sure looks like "shearing the air!"

Yes, kind of reminds me what you coming off of a jet fighters wings during hi-g maneuvers..At any point, it COOL!!

Rick G.