I brought Timmy up to Gary's place for a visit and shoot. We started the day with a great breakfast of bacon and eggs thanks to Kelly, and then did some prep work in the shop. Timmy got the full tour and he thinks the shop is really big! In between text messages to his girlfriend, he managed to clean some slugs... He also got to see one of the milling machines in action as Gary fitted the stock to the Dragon and the whole pre-shoot routine.

We made it out to the range in the afternoon and thought we might get lucky with an overcast day but halfway into set-up it started to rain and we had light rain for the entire day. No bother! Gary and I have had range days in blazing heat, in mud, in cold and snow and on days that ended with storms. What's a little drizzle? We went pretty light on the set-up this time, just shooting from the trailer and setting up a "porch" for a dry area.



As you can see, the crop was a good bit higher than the last time out and we couldn't just set the targets on the ground and still see them. Fortunately, there was a tree branch down about 88 yards out and we could put some knock-down targets on that. We set the target "box" at 75-76 with a couple targets and also placed steel plates with legs that drive into the ground at 50 and 104 yards. We didn't set out any really long range stuff as we weren't interested in really long walks in the rain.


In this shot, Timmy has already downed a couple of the targets at 88 yards and the 50 yard box has a board set up for the Dragon gun sight-in.


This was the initial set-up with the Dragon and the Prairie III. I love the view of the .87 muzzle!


Timmy got right to shooting while Gary made some adjustments.


I made them stop and pose just like Mom would have...

Timmy had no problem transitioning to longer range shooting.


It is near impossible to see the target drop in this video but it did. In fact, Timmy cleared the 88 yard targets with no problem at all while Gary and I watched. The generator noise is ever-present but you can hear the target get hit.


That was Gary shooting his trophy buck at 50 yards with the new Dragon. There are a lot of tales out in cyber-space about really big bore airguns but very few are ever backed up with targets or video of anything getting shot. This was a lot of fun to capture. We had to decide on high speed or HD for this video as we were confident that a solid hit was coming and the first shot on a wood target can't be re-done! We wen't with the high speed to watch the slug's path. The 420 frames per second make it seem too sedate. The whole thing is over in an instant and the board is falling in two pieces. Note that the target is hit while the vapor cloud is still dissapating.


How's that for a smoothbore at 50 yards? I'd say that hitting the kill zone is not a problem! Of course, even if this gun wasn't laser guided as it appears, the kill zone gets bigger with an .87!


The poor pine board couldn't take the shock...


There's a good bit of wood missing.



It all looks normal enough until you realize that the small side of those holes are .87" in diameter!


The Dragon gun.


Up close.


Naturally, we had to try the big .87 smothy at 104 yards. This is the first ever shot of the Drgaon at a hundred plus yard target. There were no sighters and we just took an estimate of the hold-over and gave it a go...


Another shot of the big slug going 104 yards. We never fiddled with the scope and just guesstimated the hold over. This was a little low but a good hit on steel none-the-less.



We did a lot of shooting at a pretty good pace. Note that the Dragon barrel is covered in condensation because the expanding air has cooled it and the humidity was roughly 8700%! The Prairie III was soaking wet as well and it is shrouded.

I never captured the change in set-up to the Grizzly and Woodsman but that might have been due to heat exhaustion... Only Timmy dealt with the heat and humidity well and rubbed it in mentioning that it was not hot out and refusing to break a sweat even when I made him run out alone to reset targets...

Anyhow, we did change to the other guns and Timmy blasted a bunch of targets with the Woodsman and a bunch more with the Grizzly. Gary and I were a bit concerned that he might "scope" himself with the Grizzly or the Dragon but he did well. He actually shot the big guns very well and took down a bunch of the long range targets and could hit the 104 yard plate consistently.

The Grizzly continues to amaze me with the delivered power. Timmy shot the 104 yard plate with it and laid it back about 40 degrees. That target had withstood a bunch of .32 shots and several .87 shots and was still verticle. After Timmy hit it with the Grizzly it was bent back pretty bad. The next hit laid it back about 60 degrees and we stopped shooting at it because we were sure the next hit would deflect off the steel and into the next county!

I didn't get the 100 yard shots on video but I did get a couple at 75 yards. I think these actually lasered out at 76-78 yards but that's a detail...


We thought before this shot that a clean hit might knock both targets down because they were perched on a stack of wood that wasn't real stable. Hence, the comment about picking him off clean... I love how the hit lifts the target right up into the air. That's not a light target there!


That was the final shot we video'd. You can see that the .62 slug hit down on the 1/4" steel angle that supports the target and violently explodes while tossing the target in the air. I don't care who you are, that's fun stuff right there!

We had a great time and the "range" even though it rained the whole day and we got soaked during tear-down. Timmy got to see and shoot some incredibly powerful airguns and get an idea how and certainly where, they are made. We had a lot of laughs and ate cookies and pudding and drank coffee in-between setting up targets and knocking them down. We made some memories you just can't substitute with online blogs or watching someone else do it on TV. Great time.

Once we dragged our soggy butts back to Gary's house, we we're in for another treat. Kelly had prepared a feast! We all got showered and became human again and we were just in time for dinner. Thanks so much Kelly! We had a great dinner and enjoyed it like you only can after a full day. And, on top of it all, I took home some of the world's best maccaroni salad and just finished it!

Love the post Jerry!
It shows you took a lot of time to get and edit the videos. I've got to get me one of those high speed cameras. It's amazing how much you miss when the knockdowns go flying.

Kent

Great videos Jerry! I really enloyed it. It's great that Timmy had fun and got to tried out all the nice bigbores, especially the Dragon "The Ultimate Bigbore". Not too many kids or adults are fortunate enough to get to hold and shoot it, in my opinion, probably the greatest bigbore of all time! It's great that you and your son had fun and enjoying the hobby together.

That "Deer" target was a 2 by 10 plank (like your home's floor joists) about 40 inches long. The single shot split it like an axe from the punched hole in the center. Effortless to place the shot @ 50 yards ('cause the deer wasn't real ... haha).

This being the biggest buck I've ever shot ... I'm thinking about having it mounted for the office. Can't decide upon gloss or semi-gloss though!

I'm pretty sure Jerry worked to get those camera angles on me. Man ... WHAT did I ever do to you Bro! hahah. Those are some "ruff" pics. So - don't everybody call at once. I'm not really dying - though the pics would appear so. Evidently I don't wear "wet" well. haha.

Oh ... Jerry never told you, but his fancy new scope mounts on the Priarie 3 were just the ticket. The 100-120 yard stuff is now comfortably in the middle of his scope elevation. He's also got a bunch of slugs that fly perfectly, and ... even set on med. power ... it slams those 177 grain slugs out there with authority. I can't get him to turn it up. I think he's saving it for later.

Great post Jerry. Thanks.

Gary

I'm glad you all are enjoying the post.

Gary,
I'm very sorry about the camera work. Richard Gere gave me 100 pieces of silver to catch the worst angles and do a hatchet job on the editing. I couldn't refuse as back to school supplies had to be paid for. On the plus side, you should remain grateful as not everyone is blessed with a good angle!

The scope mounts really did work out great. I might actually be below center at 100 yards! I didn't go to high power as that requires incrementally more technique and I wanted Timmy to hear more targets hit than try to master the gun. We'll crank it to max next time out.

Jerry, what a range session that was! I never get sick of those slomo videos of huge pieces of lead travelling towards the target like cruise missiles. And of course the guns are pretty neat too!
Looks like you're breeding a new generation of big bore shooters there, did Timmy have a bruised shoulder handling the Grizzly and the Dragon?
Great post
Cheers
Neil

Hi Neil,

No Timmy suffered no ill effects. Now, for the Dragon shots, he had that "lead sled" helping with the recoil and for most of the Grizzly shots too IIRC. But he did do some shooting with the grizzly without the sled and all of his shooting with the Woodsman without any aids. We did make sure he had a firm pull into his shoulder for all shots and he paid attention to the instruction and heeded directions. Chris had a bruise when he shot the Grizzly mostly because of an awkward hold and the set-up at the time. I should note that while the big guns kick, they don't produce the harsh recoil of some guns and under normal circumstances you won't be getting bruises! I shot both the big guns without using the sled and my tender shoulder is bruise free...