Jim and Jerry came up Saturday. It's been a few months since Jim was up. We packed up the War Wagon and headed out to the field we've been allowed to shoot in.



I took the Hoss pistol along. This is a 200 fpe 45 PCP. It's in the shop for normal maintenance, and a clean up. It's tap breech is set up for .454" round ball. I was able to sit and shoot the steel critters out to about 80 yards with pretty good accuracy with the ball.

The duct seal Gopher had been held in the War Wagon for some time.



The trial was brief. It was unamious.



Jim REALLY hates smoking! hahah. He had his Barnes Delta 45 along. He has several slugs that the gun loves. He probably shot 200-300 rounds yesterday. He had it dialed in.



I patched up the Gopher ... but Jim was merciless. This crator reminded us of the "liquid metal man" in "Terminator". Guess that makes this ... "the Gophinator!" heheh



Well, it was time for a head transplant. Here's Gopher2.0



And, he had a rough day too. As it was warmer, the slugs were ripping clear thru the beastie. Leaving daylight ... which we found comical. We got into a quite sick humor out there. Must have been the sun ....



"You'll Shoot Yer Eye Out!". Ya see ... the Gopher should have listened!!! Jim's round ball is in the bottom of the crator. He seemed to like to keep me employed sculpting heads yesterday. haha.



This was a good story. Jim was in the War Wagon, pounding away at this 130 yard steel groundhog. This one has a larger heavy base ... and one leg of the angle iron is longer than the other. This is now shown backwards from the way it was set out at 130 yards. The longer heavy leg was facing away from us ... and up hill too. Therefore, the energy needed to knock it down was waaaaay more than when set the other way round. The impact would need to lever the thing back on it's long leg, in order to fold it over backwards.



As you see, Jim hit it quite a few times. The 45 slugs burst on the plate. There was hardly anything to retrieve when we went up there. Well, some good natured bantering gets started. I sat down with Jerry's Prairie 3, and shattered a few 32's on it too. Then, I swaggered that I'd just knock it over with the Woodsman. Well, as you recall ... that's a SMOOTH bore 62. The slug we like most, is the 550 grain Barnes slug. I lined up, and ... I think I actually nicked it the first shot! A few near misses, and hit the base another time. And, within about 6-8 shots, I slammed the thing and drove it over backwards!! 130 yard smooth bore shot! A hearthy cheer went up from the ...... two guys. hehe.

Had a nice early lunch Kelly made for us before we left for the range. Had a couple of pizzas around 9pm. Full day. Good time. Lot's and lots of lead downrange.

Gary

The "War Wagon" huh? he..he. That's some incredible shooting guys. Nothing is like to get a couple of good buddies together for a nice target shoot.

. . . Gary?



BTW . . . duct seal gopher shots were all @ 50 yards. I remember reading a story that Roy, the Delta 45's previous owner, posted about how he shot the eye out of a rabbit target at his local shooting range at distance in front of a group of impressed onlookers. I'm happy to report that everything I've seen from this rifle corroberates that tale.

More pics and narrative soon.

-- Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2009 05:28PM by Jim.

Jim!

Please. I look like Einstein's Grandfather. hahah,

Gary

It's a good look for you Gary.

-- Jim

There's something wrong there...

Jim, I've been thinking that is your Delta that "Baby" of Roy and Merle -- yes it is, unless there is another Delta there, and Roy too.

Yep . . . same Roy. Same rifle. Unfortunately Roy passed away last year and the Delta 45 Custom found its way to me. It's a shooter.

-- Jim