Spent most of the day; visit by a mate and Dad and older 2 brothers.
I had set up the safari rig on the back of the Landcruiser ute, which includes a Rhino Rack on the cab roof with a bench mounted atop it, so you have a nice big platform to pokk from while standing up in the back.
Safari setup can seat 3 up on a padded bench seat on the back; under shade, and with unrestricted acces & field of view.
Pete & his 2 brothers rode up on back and shared the pokk, while Brian (father) rode in front with me.
For Pokking, we took the Ruger Precision Rifle (.308) loaded with 125Gn SST's, and the Tikka T3 in 7mm-08; loaded with 120gn Vmax.
The wind was pretty gusty late this morning, so after about 30 rounds (and a few misses) through the RPR, I suggested we move to the T3, as the longer pill on the 7mm should cope with the blustery conditions a bit better. I prefer the trigger on the RPR, but the T3 can certainly reach out and touch things..
Anyway, the changeover worked well, until just after lunch. One of Pete's brothers went to pick the rifle up off the cab-top bench to move it, and the whole scope and rail came away in his hand. Looking at it, all 4 of the mounting screws holding the rail to the T3 have sheared off. The rail is still firmly attached to the Nightforce scope, but the rail and rifle have parted company. All 4 of the screws had been originally mounted with Loctite, and torqued to recommended, but until this, I had NO idea it was anything other than firmly affixed.
Looks like Roddy will be doing a little extracting work in the next few days...sigh.
By then, the wind had dropped to about half, and we pokked on for another hour with the RPR, so the day wasnt wasted. Pete and family had a really good day, and enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
Annoying, but not crippling.
Pokk on...