A new development has come to light: it turns out that some air rifles are suitable for long range pruning of trees intruding into shooting grounds. I think a list of names from the logging industry will need to be assembled....

I visited Gary this past Saturday to help with a bit of shop cooling renovation and we managed to sneak in some solid range time. After making sure we had tons of stuff packed yet lots of stuff forgotten, we got out to the field and found the crops high.


Is this how your 50 yard targets look? Well, if you need to test a bunch of slugs and you want something with a little color, this is one way to do it!

After verifying sight-ins (this would be the spot where I mention that Gary never turns a scope knob, he just looks where it shoots and holds off... I, on the other hand, re-mounted the EoTech and verified that the slug hits where the little red dot indicates it should.)

After destroying several picnic place settings, we decided to shoot more dramatic targets. At least, I got to; Gary still had about 20 slug variations to figure out... Anyhow, an empty MAP gas bottle got set up at 50 yards.


I was hoping for a quarter size group! Yes, the quarter will fall right through the front and back holes.

Yeah, yeah, I know; nobody cares about shooting anything at 50 yards anymore! So, despite Gray still having a couple dozen slugs to figure out... We set up some stuff at 100 yards. We would have gone out to some interesting range except doing that through 2 foot high crop was not in the cards. A few plates got stapled to trees at just over 100 yards and another MAP gas bottle got perched on a 8x8 that was towed out for the purpose.


Apparently 100 yards is not a safe distance for this target... The 575gr Yukon slug blew though like the bottle was butter instead of drawn steel.


The back of the bottle makes clear that the slug didn't "just barely" make it through! BTW, it takes real force to move that little flap the slug leaves. I couldn't bend it back by hand without having to stop because I figured I was about to slip and slice myself open. That is serious steel.

So, while Gary finds another slug he made but can't remember... I had a chance to try a 100 yard (it was actually about 102-105 but who's counting?) group.


I'm pretty proud of that one. The EoTech sight is a nice bit of gear but 0 power is 0 power no matter how nice the spot. The Yukon is a big and powerful gun and it recoils with purpose! After shooting a bunch of shots, it is difficult not to anticipate what is about to happen. Between the recoil and precisely placing that dot (1' across at 100 yards), I'm very happy with this group and it now hangs in the war wagon. Oh, why is the group way off to the left? My previous shot had been at a steel plate out at 100 and Gary thought I had it it to the right (correctly). I mistakenly thought I was hitting right at 100 when I was actually hitting a couple inches left (the shot Gary called was just a bad shot). Anyhow, my POA for the group was not the center of the ring but halfway between the ring and left edge of the plate. This group was actually shot before the 100 yard bottle and allowed a proper sight adjustment to be made.

So what about the lumberjack stuff? Check this out:


I was trying to sight-in the Nitro at 100 yards with some K-8s and I hit the tree just below the plate. We both wished the video had been running as the tree made that cracking noise and fell! Here, Gary reacts with dismay at my ecological misstep...


Yes, I see what I did! Well, what that K-8 from the Nitro did...

After setting up some other targets and working with some different ammo configurations in the Yukon.... I had another little accident...


Here Gary tries to fix my second tree strike...


These big guns are hard on trees!


..and branches.


Found the bottle in the carnage.


Looking back towards the shooting set-up.

If you aim at a hole, what do you do if you hit it?

We actually did this a couple times. Aimed at the existing hole and just hicked the edge...

So, another day at the range...

My "Trophy" pic wouldn't fit above...


We set this up to look like those pictures that are taken just so the 100 pound hog looks like a 400 pound hog.... or the 400 pound hog looks like 1000 pounds! So, do those look like serious trees or what?

hahaha ... oh ... that Trophy Pic is a keeper .... hahha.

I "hear" the theme from "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" .... hahahahah. That haunting whistle melody .... hehehehe/

Gary

Yeah ... as Jerry so elequently stated, I had a bunch of left over, picked thru, tins of slugs from the last five to ten years. I'd only made a minimum test casting with Hugh's molds. Thought I had more. Had some tins from other molds. Several different versions of the Bishop. What it amounted to was .... as fast as I found a like set of some sort of slugs .... JERRY managed to SHOOT them. By the time we left, the woods looked like that Comet strike over Russia in 1910. Trees laying waste for miles around ..... hahahahah. And, they weren't as you see on TV ... where they shoot fifty thousand rounds from a mini chain gun. These were single hits, at 100 yards .... CRACK!!! .... TIMBER!!! hehehe

I am reieved to see my Nitro will have multiple uses. Now I can sell my chainsaw. Back to the basement to cast up some more K8's.

Right! Perhaps the K-8 needs a sub-title .... "Paul Bunyan's Plinker" .... hahah.

Gary

Jerry and Gary,

You certainly had an excellent range time. Good for you!

Jerry, congratulations for your trophy group. It's so satisfying to accomplish a group like the one you shot.

Those air rifles are serious power houses. Ask the trees if you have any doubt.

Thanks for sharing.

Julio

Jerry,

That's an impressive group. That is one to hang in the wagon, for sure. Most shooters don't appreciate the added challenge a stiff recoil adds to getting a good group. It's also interesting to compare your 62 cal gun with the only other civilian guns of similar caliber, the shotguns and black powder muskets. A couple of targets do show up. When they do 4-5 inches is deeded the acceptable group size often at the Max desired yardage (most being around 80 yards).

Neat to see you chopping some wood with those big'ol slugs. Amazing how they make the wood fly!

Kent

So what kind of deal do you have with the farmer, thinning his trees for him. Dory

Hedge row junk species. No giant redwoods were harmed in the making of these flicks. More importantly ... no mahogany!

Jerry,

Nice post, great group. The enegy of those guns is impressives.

Lon

A great day at the range for sure! Those guns made by "Gray" (Jerry is this your new nickname for the old bloke?) seem to do the job. A nice group and shooting through the same hole in the canister is impressive, then of course there's the tree-felling
Wish I was there!
Cheers
Neil

Hi Neil,

Yeah ... I saw that. Clearly just being honest, with the slip of the tongue ... hahah.

He also did the "same hole" trick, several times. We'd set up the canister, previous hole forward ..... and he'd let go with another barrage. I'd spot thru my scope, since he can only afford that $600 dot scope thingie ... hahahah. Well, the canister would just take a mild "hop" ... and fall over. I was left to figure where the slug went. A slight double smear around the entry wound .... and we'd see why the canister just sort of hopped off the stump on the second and third times.

I was busy preparing ammo, from my collection of non-conforming multi-collaborative previously rejected slugs. I shot the Yukon a couple of times, but it brutalized my delicate state of being ... and I went back to sorting slugs.



Gary

Jerry :

What a great time you must have had. I wish you had a pic of Gary's face when the first tree fell. So, are you having your trophies mounted?

Karl

Hey,

Have any of you seen the new Discovery Channel series? : "American Loggers" & "Swamp Loggers"

Maybe we can start a new TV show named "Loggers by Accident" or "Slug Loggers"

Hi Karl,

Yeah ... that was great. The entire cast of characters in the trailer, burst into laughter and hi-fives! The tree (even from it's 100 yards away) made a classic KRAAAaaaaCCKKK!!!!! noise, and then fell over in an accelerating arc. Yeah!!!!!

When it happened again ... the looks were mostly of .... .... you've GOT to be kidding! Then ....

Great stuff. hahah

GAry

Karl,

I'm positive that Gray (LoL!) and I both had the same silly look when thosse trees fell! That was just one of those moments best enjoyed with silly wonderment and unencumbered by analysis joy!

Hey Neil, at least I didn't accuse him of having a "soft top."

if a tree falls in the forest.....

cool shots!

I once went shooting with my uncle and his son-in-law in the woods in PA. The Son-in-law had been a sniper in the military, and had a Barrett .50 that we shot some

He "chopped down" a 6" diameter tree with that thing !!!!

It was a beast to shoot - I did OK, but my uncle's first shot......raccoon eye from the scope

Hi Joebill,

Scoped by a Barrett 50. I'd think we'd be talking "skull plates, screws, and facial reconstruction". Nasty.

Shucks ... Jerry was chopping off 4" stuff with a little 46 BB gun ... hahaha.
We need a scope cam like Cedric has. Where is that guy when you need him .... ? hahah.

Gary

Whoa! were do i start?

1st, amazing group Jerry at 100 yrds. The groups GB's guns make at 100 yrds, folks are still hoping their big bores can do that at 50 yrds. Very accurate stuff and those groups speeks volumes on GB's guns and the quality of those slugs.

2nd, i'm simply in awe of those slugs PRUNING those tree limbs. Especially at that distance. GEEZ. Those branches are thick as heck but so are those slugs you are launching...lol. I definitely would have loved to see a video in slow motion of that slug racing towards that limb then seeing SAW DUST flying, then that limb breaking.......amazing.

This was another GREAT post of you and GB's outing. As usual, you guys have so much fun and it shows.

"slug loggers" eh? I like it! My son has been driving me crazy repeating the "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck..." song over and over.

I guess now we know.

very good , but you guys have all missed the point ,,, it looks like gary is loosing weight , are you feeding him properly.

Nice shooting! Keep it up guys . . . the bar has been set pretty high . . .

[www.civilwar.si.edu]



-- Jim