SmallCaliberCentral

A farming friend was very keen for me to have a go at the rabbits around some disused buildings on his property. The plan was to check it out during the day, find a good spot to set up and come back that evening with the Tikka. It was late November and very hot so I didn't expect to see any bunny's, but fortunately I took my Winchester 9422 with me because they were out sleeping under the saltbush (probably trying to catch some breeze rather than sweating it out underground). After dropping about a dozen with the subsonic hollow points I was cursing myself for being underprepared and not bringing more ammo. But at least I had found a good hunting ground. There was about 20 warrens and fresh rabbit sign everywhere.

I found a great place to set up on a 5 m high granite boulder but it was a long way from the warrens. A good chance to test the legs of the 204.

At sunset I got out there and got comfortable. Next challenge was to work out how far away the warren was without a range finder (Santa has since let me down again!). I cranked the Bushnell 4200 up to 24x and measured up a rabbit with the Mil Dot reticle, looked at my range card and the answer was 250 m. I scratched my head and did the measurement again, it looked heaps further away. Same result. Oh well, guestimate the wind value, back to the range card and chamber a round.

I squeezed the shot off and looked for the splash. Nothing. Oh well forget the fancy reticle, it looks about 400 m, lets try that. I see the splash about 100 m short. Next round and aim up again and the splash is closer but still miles away. The bullet was dropping about 4 Mil short and about 2 Mil wide with a wind that I estimated should have only been 1 Mil. By this time the bunny's had taken cover and it was getting dark.

As a consolation prize, on the way home I caught 5 sets of eyes at the base of a granite outcrop with the spotlight. By the time I got the Tikka out and loaded, the fox cubs were making a run for it trying to scramble up the steep face of the outcrop. Balancing the rifle on the car door, with the spotlight in the left hand I managed to deliver the good news to 2 of them before they got over the top.

Just before I fell asleep that night I had the eureka moment. The Bushnell Mil Dot reticle is calibrated to the 12 x magnification setting and I was using 24x. Schoolboy error!

Next day I went out with the Winchester for some more walk around fun and while I was there, measured the height of a fence post in front of the warren and paced the distance to the warren from that.

Back onto my boulder that evening I did the measurement with the Mil Dot reticle using the fence post and came up with 520 m. Wind directly behind me, three rabbits sitting on the warren, range card said 2.1 Mil of hold over, so double that and lets go.

40 gr vmax loaded, 4th Mil Dot resting just over a rabbit and squeeze the trigger. I watched Buggs jump a meter into the air and run off. A hit! and I started giggling like a maniac . The next round went over the top of another rabbit (the oversized grin on my face probably affected my cheek weld!) and his mate darted back underground.

Back home (still grinning like an idiot) the wife nodded her head politely as I tried to explain how proud I was of myself (she doesn't care about guns, and certainly can't appreciate just how far away that hit was). So I walked over to the pub and the reaction from the boys ranged from "bull#@%t" to "get your hand off it". Only one thing for it, I'll go back tomorrow with the camera. I need evidence.

Buggs had expired about 20 m from where the vmax hit his chest so I put him back where I hit him for illustrative purposes on the warren. No exit wound and the amount of internal damage was about the same as a 22LR. Looks like I have found the maximum range for this round.


The set up.


The warren is under the dead tree.


The result. You can just see the boulders in the background.

Lessons learnt, fun had!

Nice!

Excellent story! Great pictures too!

Sounds like a lot of fun. I hoped to reach the 500 yard mark last summer but the factory barrel began to loose accuracy and I replaced in the last month of my varminting season. I developed a load that is running around 3" to 3-1/2" at 500 yards so I am confident next spring to break into the 500 yard club

What is your load?? Or are you lucky to have factory ammo shoot really well?? When new, my factory Savage barrel would put Hornady 32 grain vmax factory ammo into 1/2 inch after checking run out, (using the wobbly ones for shorter shots)

As for living without a range finder I am forced to do the same, it seems like you have a decent system worked out using the mildots. I have a regular fine duplex reticle so don't have that option but like you I often will walk out over my target area with my .22 at some point. While out walking I use the GPS on my iPhone and set up a couple push in electric fence posts with flagging on them to mark distance and act as wind indicators.

The GPS app for the iPhone was only $5.99 and plastic electric fence posts are cheap as well so it helps me live without a range finder. I borrowed one once, a Bushnell 1500 but our ground squirrels are to small and unreflective so I would walk out anyways and range back to my vehicle.

If I had the approx $900 for a Leica 1200 I would get another rifle instead. Especially with the success you have had sans range finder

Great story and even better shooting .Fair play .

Factory ammo here costs AU$1.50 per round so I only bought a couple of boxes when I picked up the rifle. I reload the Hornady brass. 27.5 gr AR2206H 40 gr Vmax COAL=2.288" This load groups around .4 to .5".

The iPhone app sounds useful, except a lot of the places I shoot have limited mobile phone (you guys call them cell phones?) coverage and, I may be wrong here, the app calculates location by triangulating between towers.

I have heard of a ballistics calculator being available for the iPhone. Any experience with that?

I agree with you about a good range finder. If I could afford that I would spend it on something else! I've got a mate who earns a big salary, I should try and get him into varminting so that he buys all the nice-to-have toys and I can borrow them.

I just googled Alberta to see where it was and, dang it looks cold! I don't mean to brag (well I do actually), but today in Perth it is going to be a mild (for this time of year) 28 C. Which I think is around 80 F. I'm off down the range this morning for a fullbore competition and looking forward to sweating a lot less than I did last week when it hit 39 C. Of course I can't go skiing, and I never will in this part of the world!

Thanks all for the comments.

Sam, great story! I love the part about your wife and the boys at the pub! Thanks goodness we have this forum where people understand the joy of a long shot. Thanks for sharing. Gary

great shooting

I have just ordered a cooper model 21 phoenix in 204 what will i sight it in at for a zero at 300m using hornedy 39 gr factory rounds till i get brass to reload

Nice shooting Sam! It is so satisfying making those long shots, especially when it is it is $1.50 a shot. Keep the stories and pictures coming, we appreciate the good things in life!

Sam in Perth--Thanks for the great write-up and photos. That 520m shot was fantastic!!! I enjoyed your detailed report and felt like I was right there with you. Keep the stories coming.

Nice shooting Sam. I wish I was beside you, spotting for you. I really love the long distance shots. Is that a dope chart under that shell box? I enjoy the excitement of spotting sometimes more that pulling the trigger my self.

Sand rat

Great shooting nothing like making the long shot. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing the story its good to here from down under.

g'day mate, good story, good shooting. which range or club do you shoot at here? cool to see some aussie stories on this site, i need to post some pics myself. steve

Sam in Perth wrote:I have heard of a ballistics calculator being available for the iPhone. Any experience with that?

Do a search in the App Store for "Let Fly." You can input all the variables (elevation, temperature, scope height, velocity, B/C, etc) and the results coincide with those on Hornady's website. It's worth a buck to me to have that at my fingertips out in the field. I have it on an iPod Touch.