've been very busy as of late and just haven't had the time to go out and shoot like i love to do. So, what better time than to take a day off of work and get some shooting done (work sucks). I took off to one of my usual locals and the day seemed to just be the perfect day. Heck, any day in the field is a good day. I brought along my DS454 and my Ruger 10-22 and my Theoben Rapid 25 and my Logun Solo .20. After observing the weather report for that day, i knew it might be too windy for my .20 cal but decided to bring it anyway.
After arriving at my destination, i decided to start off with my Dragon Slayer 454 as i've made some changes to it and i had not had the scope on it in months, so i reinstalled the scope and began sighting in. My choice of bullets on this trip was some 175 gr S.W.C. 454 pure lead bullets and some 200 gr 454 R.E.A.L. bullets. After filling my gun up to 3100 i began to sight in. I was amazed that upon the first shot, the bullet had struck about 1 in high and right about 2 inches. It was so close to being dead center and i was simply happy that i did not have to shoot 100 times just to get it on paper. DON'T YOU GUYS HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS. I then made some adjustments to my scope knobs to move the group down and over to the left. I gave it 8 clicks down and 10 clicks left. The group then printed just to the right of the bulls eye but dead level vertically. So i then gave it another few clicks left and voila, the 141 gr 454 round balls were smacking the bulls eye. But unfortunately, i only had like 10 round balls and i just used those to sight in with. The target ended up looking like a 12 gauge with buckshot hit the target. But of course, ya'll must understand that that was a SIGHT IN target and that's exactly what it looked like....LOL. So now, i break out the 175 S.W.C. and the 200 gr R.E.A.L. bullets and i began to shoot the first groups with each just to see were the bullets not only impacted but what size group they printed as compared to the round balls. And this is what i got from a 3100 psi fill with 3 consecutive shots:
So now i begin to sight the gun in for the 175 gr SWC bullets and once i got the pattern centered, the wind began to pick up a bit, so i decide to put the Dragon Slayer away as i'm definitely not hunting with it, and pull out my Ruger 10-22 lr. Of course though, i don't have pics of the groups with my ruger 10-22 nor of the gun, so i won't talk too much more about it. Just the fact that i bought a new barrel some time ago that has a faster twist rate that was created to better stabilize the Sub Sonic 40 gr HP ammo better than the older 1-16" twist barrel i previously put on the gun. It was an instant success, the groups were roughly about 5/8" which is definitely tighter than what the older barrel could do.
So now i move on to pulling out the old RAPID 25 shooting JSB Kings. Needless to say as it always is, the gun put its first 3 shots dead center into the bulls eye. I just laughed and said to myself, "i wonder why i even bother sighting this gun in before a hunt...it's always on." But of course, i have no pics of that gun with groups either. But you guys have seen those pics before so, no need to keep posting whats already been seen. ITS JUST A RAPID...LOL
So now i pack up my junk and literally head for the hills. I was in search of some ground squirrels to pluck. After getting to one of my usual spots, i glassed the area and quickly spotted what i thought might be a Ground Squirrel. So i grab my gun to look through my much more powerful scope and surely it was a GS. But there darned thing was sitting there so still and was lumped over that i just looked like a tumor or knot on the tree branch that it was perched on. I then lasered the tree branch and it measured out to 131.5 yrds which was further than what i thought i could easily make. So know i think quickly to myself, well, you always want to do 100 yrds shots so, get off your duff and crawl to within that distance. So off i go a crawling away till i was exactly 100 yrds. I then set my gun up on its attached bipod and turn on my camera and get the zoom just right. Well, low and behold, as i move my right hand away from the camera, i somehow bumped my bolt handle which in turn opened up the bolt to the full REAR position. And with a RAPID, once you have already loaded a round and you knock open the bolt handle, you have to remove the magazine in order to close the bolt again to keep from DOUBLE CHARGING the chamber(2 pellets in the barrel). So now i remove the magazine and close the bolt and set the camera to record the action. The wind was blowing left to right steadily and i knew right off the bat to aim using the 4th lower mildot and to also use the 1st right mildot to compensate for the yardage and the windage. At the first shot, i could visibly see the impact of the pellet on the branches to the left of the squirrel and low. BUT, at the same time i could feel some BLOW BY from the breech cause i had removed the magazine. So instantly i knew that it wasn't a bad shot, it was because of the blow by that the pellet struck to the left and low. And the report from the chamber gave a pretty stout CRACK sound. So now i install the magazine and rack the bolt closed and prepared to take the second shot. I was very confident and knew that all i had to do was to keep the original Point Of Aim. I gently squeezed the trigger and all i could hear was....PWWWFFTTTTTTTTTT...plop.... and i could see in the scope that the squirrel had been hit and hit hard. After turning off the camera and hiking to the squirrel (the squirrel was up a pretty steep incline), i quickly found him and i wanted to know if i had hit him in the head. As the squirrel dropped like a rock. Well, the shot landed in his upper right shoulder and then penetrated his skull. Here is the VIDEO: