Well that was an interesting trip, I rolled up around 5.30pm to roll a few bunnies and foxes, after speaking to the property owner I was on my way up the hill to a spot that has plenty of bunnies, no sooner had I arrived and I spotted my first victim at 258m away, I positioned the BT side on to the rabbits, got the sandbags and rifle/ammo ready, double checked the range and scanned around to see what else was there, all clear so chambered a round in the Howa 204, lined up the bunnie and sent one on its way, WHOOMP! bunny down
I opened the bolt and nothing! I thought what the fook just happened there
I closed the bolt and tried again Nothing, I'm thinking to myself this is going to be a short trip
one shot and its all done and dusted.
Anyway after several more tries with the bolt and no luck I packed up and made the 20min drive home to get a cleaning rod to knock the case out and see if I could find the reason as to why the case wouldn't extract/eject, I knocked the case out easily, I'm standing there scratching my head wondering why it wouldn't extract, I tried the case again and same thing, I thought that's bloody weird, I pulled the bolt out and put the case in it and noticed it was real loose, then it dawned on me f*** I used the 250 bolt in the 204
(hey at least it still shoots fine)
(I'd given them all a clean after last weekends shooting trip and obviously put them back in the wrong bolt holders)
Anyway problem solved so back in the BT and back out to the property to sort out more of these bunnies - the sun was well over the hill and I set about cleaning up bunnies from ranges of 70m out to 260m (they were bloody everywhere) I shot up until I couldn't really see well enough without the use of a spotlight (8.30pm) then it was time to switch the spotlight on and smash em from there.
FMD the barrel was hot after that little session on em - I cleaned up 30 or 40 in the end in that spot and could have keep going if I wanted too but I wanted to see if I could find a few foxes to roll so headed out of that paddock and started the search for the little red dogs, it wasn't looking real promising at first with nothing seen in the 30mins since I ceased shooting the bunnies.
I went into another paddock which holds plenty of bunnies most times and within 5mins I'd spotted the tell tail fox eye shine, so I swung the BT around so I could shoot out of the passenger side window, I got organised and made the kissing sound, ol foxy looks up and I let him have it, FOX DOWN! :boogie: you beauty I've opened up the fox count, I tossed it in the back with some of the bunnies I collected earlier, headed off in search for more red dogs, meanwhile rabbits are darting around in all directions (I've never seen so many in this place
seriously I reckon I could have shot a good 100 or more if I'd wanted too, they were darting around in every direction I went.
Anyway it wasn't long before I spotted another set of fox eyes, so I swung the BT around so I could have a crack at it out of the passenger window again, I could hardly make it out it was that far away, anyway I lined it up and sent one on its way, I hit it but it wasn't good enough as it did the "Winged Dance" spinning around and carrying on like a pork chop, I headed on down to see if I could locate it but no luck (I wouldn't have lived to long I'm sure) anyway its around 11pm at this stage so though I might start heading back down the property in preparation for heading home, I had the fox pro playing as I went and managed to find another 2 foxes, nailed one right in the chest and the other one was around 300m away and unwilling to present a decent shot so I let it be.
As I was heading down the long paddock I spotted another one walking along the track, so spun the BT around again and got in position and FMD the little bugger and disappeared not to be seen again.
I thought well that will do it so I cleared the rifle and disconnected the spotty, locked up the ammo and headed home from another successful little trip on the bunnies and foxes.
A big thanks to Troutie (AHN Member) who suggested I use a piece of timber across the passenger seat/dash, it worked a treat, I will make up a better version but the one I knocked up quickly did the job well but will find a longer piece of timber as this one was a bit short and would fall down when on angles
I never got to test my little spotlight/tripod setup but I will when I get out there next time to dust up some more bunnies.
Anyway here's a few more pics of the action.