I finally got around to unloading the pics from my camera and editing them into forum-friendly formats. Here are some of the highlights.



The "new" mount point on Jerry's Prairie III. Hey . . . is that some faux carbon fiber I see around the intake?

Here's a view of Jerry's rifle with the new scope attached. No excuses, Jerry.



Gary and I set up in the War Wagon. The Hoss is at left, and my Delta 45 Custom is at the right of the pic. I shot mostly Barnes Shrikes and Hornady .454 roundball.



I shot a few five shot groups with the Shrikes at 50 yards. Nothing *really* serious, and I know I can do better. Gary also says that Barnes Bishops will tighten these groups up right away, but I didn't have any in the proper size.



They hit hard! This is all that's left of the Shrikes and roundball when they meet a steel plate target. Sometimes you find the "hubcap" of a slug, but usually just flakes or completely flattened roundball like this.



Any last words?



I love being out in the farm country . . . it's a nice change of pace from suburbia where we live. This is a shot of the field in which we shoot. As you can see, it's currently got a nice crop of clover.



The .45 Shrikes just ripped right through the poor duct seal critter. Here's a "core sample" which we found about four feet behind the target.



I shot him in the head, T-1000 style . . . but he just kept coming!



Gary was rather upset with me.



Here's the 130 yard undead groundhog who absolutely refused to go down. You can see the many times I hit him with my Shrikes, much to the amusement of Gary and Jerry. I'm glad I could provide them with such quality entertainment.



As usual, thanks guys for another great day of shooting!

-- Jim

Looks like far too much fun to me......

Great post Jim. I wish I had known you were going to post such fine close ups of the P3, I would have done a better job wiping my greasy prints off the gun! Isn't that bipod mount great?! It's like its own little piece of sculpture.

You're right, I've got no excuses left. With the gun on the bipod and great glass, no excuses will do. Fortunately, none are needed! BTW, did you note that I never needed to put the long sun shade on that scope? The conditions were much better this time out but we still had the majority of the light coming from in front of us, the big Nikko scope never washed out though and I never even thought abought screwing in the sun shade I had with me. It's a great scope and we were using it at a full 50X...

Hey, are those lead smears a little green? Looks to me like some "custom color" got wiped off the slugs at impact.

That groundhog at 130 was a really tough target. I was watching through the scope when you hit it right in the eye. I saw the impact and when THAT didn't knock it down, I knew that nothing was going to knock it down except maybe the Woodsman with the big slug. If Gary hadn't hit it good with the big slug, we'd still be shooting and I'd be calling emergency babysitters!

I am happy with the big Tasco sidewheeler. It's probably not as clear as your Nikko or the hi-end Leupold that's earmarked for the Alpine, but it's reasonably clear when zoomed in to 30x and higher. And -- most importantly -- it just looks too cool when mounted on a big bench rifle with both sunshades screwed in.

That is indeed yellowish-green dust and color marks from the Shrikes all over the 130 yard groundhog. As you saw, you can see them on the lead smears on my five shot groups too.

-- Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2009 01:34AM by Jim.

Jerry,
That Nikko sounds like a great scope. I have problems with mine washing out if the sun is too directly in front of me. Thats at x24-32, even with the shade on

May I enquire as to the model and cost?

Hi Paul,

That is a really superb scope. I sat down to shoot the 130 yd. critter, at first with Jerry's Prairie 3. I looked thru the scope, and figured I must have mistakenly choosen a 30 yard target. Looked again ... it was amazing. Crystal clarity, at 50X, looking toward the sun. That's the first expensive scope I've seen that I felt so obviously showed it's worth ($800). It's the magnification and clarity in the sun that shows it. You know ... if you're comparing 12X scopes ... and they both look clear, but one costs ten times more ... it's harder to see the money, for me. When you blow right on thru 30X, and keep on going; that's amazing.

I have found the Pentax scopes (around $150) to also show clarity in the sun. In Mississippi last time, one of my simple scopes was whiting out, and trying Kent's Pentax, it was very clear in the same conditon. Seemed a good value too.

Gary

Paul,

The scope is the Nikko Diamond Sportsman 10-50x60 and I got it from AoA for $799 IIRC (+tax and shipping...).

Great post Jim,

I never get tired of the detail pics of Gary's guns. I know the colors are never done justice with a pic as compared to in person but, the details of the metal and woodwork really "pops". I like to rotate such pics as my desktop background. Does anyone else do this, I wonder, or am I the worst Dad ever? Previous favs have been Hoss 45, Bison steel carving close up, Alpine 45, and currently Rondezvous 45/58 2008 with Gary's fox.

Looks like Jerry has the Prarie III setup tuned to the max. Always a blast to shoot a gun that combines power, pleasurable shooting and accuracy. Can't find that anywhere except bigbore Barnes airguns!!!

Thanks for the fun guys,

Kent

I agree Kent. I like taking those kind of pics too. Sometimes (like this one), you end up with something that looks almost abstract, and then (when you zoom out a bit), it's like, "Oh! THAT's what that is."

Is it just me, or does that mount point look like a V8 engine block?

-- Jim

Hey Jim,

The funny thing was .... wasn't it "you" who set up the 130 yard groundhog ... and put the long heavy leg back? ... hehehe.

Yeahhhhh . . . nahhhhh . . . conspiracy. I'm adjusting my tinfoil hat right now!

-- Jim

Ewwww, Ahhhhhh!

Nikko scopes are ver nice. I have one to Evanix AR4, its AG 10-50x60. I like it. very nice to hunting with this scope.

AHHHHH, nothing like shooting with buds. That was a great post and looks like you guys had a blast.....NO PUN INTENDED. Love those pics.

And that duct seal gopher is just too funny. The new garn barnes mascot.

Yup, you'd better get that gopher off the cigarettes. Those things are gonna kill him some day.

Right Sean,

The subtle coaching didn't work. Drastic measures were taken ... unfortunately .....