SmallCaliberCentral

By request, here's a few more shots from the 2007 Rat Rodeo, also known as the Modoc Varmint Relocation Program.

Garth preparing to launch Skippy into his new world:




My Sako 204 cooling down, preparing for the next session:



Dan is saying: "Gads! It seems like I just cleaned this a few minutes ago!" Gotta keep those babies clean for peak accuracy......Skippy deserves the best!



Gary (Captqc) with that little smirk. "Did you see that helicopter launch just now?"



One of the Blue Meanies ready to go up the spout to visit our little rodent buddy way out there in my 223 Ackley (50gr Barnes VLC over H335/Fed 205M at 3680fps):



The terminal results of such a meeting at 288 yards:



"Okay, now if I can just do that again and wack his buddy.....291 yards.....wind at 7 from two o-clock......easy on the trigger......."



Our rancher host has a pretty good sense of humor....one of our friends, Dick from California, used to have a history of bad luck hitting irrigation pipes. He's mended his ways, but the rancher adorned his trailer this year with memories from the past with a "special" set of wind chimes, just for Dick.....




Speaking of wind, here's my wind flag showing 8mph, typical for the afternoon here. It's amazing how much less wind deflection the 204 has over all the other varmint calibers at extended distance......even less drift with a 39BK than my 220 Swift shooting 55's! To me, that's impressive!



The wind flag is mounted on a video light stand, the flag is one of Russ Haydon's excellent designs...the weighted tip uses a .41 Mag 200gr bullet, it spins on a Delrin bearing, all anodized aluminum tubing....very cool and effective setup. (Russ Haydon's Shooting Supplies, Gig Harbor, WA)

Hope you all enjoy.....have a great summer with those chucks and PD's!

as always excellent pics!! I've seen another wind or weather gadget in your other pics, looks like half circles that spin on the top? what is that rick? keep the skippy killing pics comming!!!

those are some great pictures, let's see some of the damage that your sako .204 does on the varmints

Jason: You're referring to the "Wind-O-Matic", cooked up by Captqc (he's my favorite Techo-Geek) ...cool little wind/temp device to measure exact wind speed and temperature. Sort of a mini-weather station, tripod mounted.



It works excellent, in that you can check out actual wind speed, then see what the wind flag is doing. After a while, you can just glance out the corner of your eye at the flag, and know exactly how far off Skippy to hold in a full-value cross-wind, without checking the wind gauge all the time. Gary's always full of cool tech ideas.

huntnfool: Okay bud, here's some graphic 204 results on Skippy at various ranges. Not for the faint of heart......



"Oh, I've felt better......"



The Excedrin Rat Headace No. 204.......(note the twisted hide from the "helicopter effect".....love those launches!)



"Hey, my arse is on fire around here.......somewhere!"



Here's Skippy wondering what all the noise is about....(hijacked from a squirrel site...oops)



This is a re-run, but can you imagine getting hammered by a 32gr BK moving about 3900 fps, blowing Skippy to pieces, and he STILL is able to crawl down his hole, dragging some important items behind? THAT'S tenacity at the highest level!



Hard to believe all that death and destruction comes from something so beautiful, eh? Maybe to the man on the street, but not from anybody on this site!



Man, I love the 204!!

now that is carnage, those are some awsome pictures, thanks for sharing, I can't wait to get my .204

HA, thanks again for the pics rick, I love seeing how the 32 gr. blitzkings can give something as ugly as skippy such a beautiful new look!!!!!!!

Great pictures and shooting. So does the Captqc ever sell any of his gadgets? That wind meter looks pretty cool!

Hi Sidewinder, I don't market them but it's something you can do for youself with a little work. I bought the weather station at a store around here (Portland, OR) called Tuesday Morning for about $12.00 then I picked up and old camera at Goodwill and removed the tripod socket. A little drilling and epoxy later and you have yourself a "Wind-O-Matic" ! Gary

Captqc, I see that there is a store near me. I will check it out, thanks!

What are those stations your shooting from? do you have a good picture of the top? I need to get me one.

tkv000: That, my friend is the BR Pivot. You can see more at:

http://www.varmintmasters.net

Here's a shot of almost the entire bench top:



The tops are made from edge-glued (butcher block style) hardwood; ash, oak, maple. It is rumored that they come from Bend, Oregon......

We are going this weekend for our own Rat Rodeo I hope we dont get fried to much it is supposed to be a hot one in SE Oregon

Good luck with your rat rodeo macjcl5, every time we've gone over this late in the year, we swear we'll never do it again, as you only get about two hours max shooting, as it gets so hot so early, Skippy dives into his nice cool burrow, and you're left up top sweating in 95 deg + heat.

We've gone over twice in years past after July 1, no way will we ever do it again, but hey, you never know, you just might find some rats that like to sun bathe and get some decent shooting!

Unfortantly this was the only time we could get to go so well just make the best of it hopefully we will have some luck

Rick in Oregon wrote:tkv000: That, my friend is the BR Pivot. You can see more at:

http://www.varmintmasters.net

Here's a shot of almost the entire bench top:



The tops are made from edge-glued (butcher block style) hardwood; ash, oak, maple. It is rumored that they come from Bend, Oregon......

Hmmm, I can only imagine what the shipping on one of those to Canada would be Don't suppose someone with one could take a top measurement for me and some more pictures (that one of the top is excellent, thank you.)

Quick edit: Just got back from the website, that is a serious bench! looks like it could hold anything you could fit on the top.

And dimensions are on there website, thanks again.