OneEye

Some rozzer with a gun challenges me, I'm in more danger from him than anyone is from my rifle, loaded and laid down or not.

Heh - need some 17HMR or .22lr tracers first John I notice you pass on down to Cornwall - Ladd's of Crediton aren't that far off the motorway and I'm sure I saw some .22 LR tracer in their ammo cupboard not so long ago.

The sight of bunnies tearing lumps of fur and skin off each other is a good cure for the 'how can you eat them they're so cute' brigade. Vicious little devils.

I think the question is the other way around - why would anyone want to eat meat that they hadn't killed themselves? It's not always possible, but it's surely the ideal - you then know that the contents of your dinner plate had either a free life or a good life on a farm, and died swiftly and without unnecessary stress. Even a wounded pigeon that has to wait a minute or so to get its neck wrung has a better end than even a free range chicken, trucked to slaughter in a wagon, then taken and processed in an industrial slaughterhouse.

Just found a Logun S-16 for £500 incl. a 12-litre bottle and a Stirling scope. It seems more or less like my 10/22 but with a straight pull bolt. Any opinions?

129grn in the 6.5, and 165 grn in the .308. I was using 150s in the .308 before, but wanted something to use against boar too. These give very good groups, 3/4 at 100, 1.5 at 200, but don't take the mick with meat damage the way the Nosler ballistics do. The SSTs have a nice boat tail which makes them easier to load than some of the flat-based heads.

I thnk it would be a good idea to get established as a helpful pest controller first, offer the farmer a hand hanging gates etc. Then after a bit, ask if he's got a use for that fallen tree, or minds you picking those blackberries. If you're doing professional pest control, then you ought to agree a proper price and stick to it. I think gleaning rights really is taking the p***. If I was the farmer I'd invite you to pop in and then set the dog on you :angry:

Not according to my firearms dept. I think they all have their own policies - as well to check with the field officer.

Hi - I cut my teeth on air rifles, on a BSA Super Meteor, and my only experience since then was with a BSA Ultra which I hated as I couldn't stand the spindly little barrel which seems designed to be flimsy and inaccurate. Half of my business is pest control, and I find myself with some fields sandwiched between the Motorway and some dwellings, totally unsuitable for my normal .22 Ruger rimfire. I need an air rifle, non-FAC rated but up to the power limit, for bunnies and occasionally rats. I may also get a contract for feral pigeons in a shopping centre. I'm at a bit of a loss. The Air Arms 200 seems a good buy, so do the Weirauch break barrel guns. Not sure about the PCP guns with the need for air bottles, though a magazine would be useful. I need to decide by Monday. Any advice much appreciated. Xost is an issue but not an absolute issue. Certainly nothing abouve £500, including any extra bits. If anyone has anything suitable for sale in the Devon area, I would be interested, especially if I could try it for a day first.

I've recently tried some Hornady SST bullet heads in my .308 and 6.5x55 rifles, on the advice of Brian at The Sportsman, and am very pleased with the result. There's one area where I shoot reds at up to 300 yards on a regular basis, and tend to favour the .308 for it. In the Summer I shot a roebuck that came diddy-bopping across my sights, with a Nosler 150gr ballistic tip. Lovely engine room shot, but the exit wound, although it missed the meat areas, was in the ribcage and the size of a football, taking a fair bit of the gralloch with it, presumably from a large splinter that deflected off a rib into the guts. Same thing happened later with the SSTs, and this time the exit was the size of a tangerine and the gralloch untouched.

Sorry, accidental double post. Where's the delete button?

Typos are allowed on the interweb. It's the law.

They don't really care what mods you buy, it's just the authority to buy them that matters. Once you own them you can attach them to what rifles you please. I always apply for one for each firearm, I applied for 3 centrefires and 3 mods, bought 2 T8s and have a slot on my ticket for another if I want one. Same with rimfires really. When your field officer comes to check your security, he or she will decide how many guns you can keep in your house - normally five is the limit unless you fit an alarm - the Yale wireless ones usually will do. Get a bloody great gun cabinet - you will always run out of room in your cabinet, ideally with a lockable top, and a small safe too, as you'll run out of bolt and ammo storage space too. Plus it's one more bit of security. If the field officer OKs, say, five guns in your home, and you've got, say, four firearms on your FAC, then you can have those four plus one shotgun. If you're OK'd for ten guns, you could have the four firearms and six shotguns. Whatever shotguns you like, as long as no more than three rounds in mag+chamber, and no rifled 'slug' barrels. These variants are classed as firearms. As long as they're buyable on a SGC, you could have all calibres from a punt gun to a 9mm garden gun, or for that matter five 12-bore Silver Pigeons if you like.

I've never known a proper-copper, with a couple of pints in him and unofficially of course, who thought specials were worth a tuppeny damn.

Nothing but a bunch of flaming walts. I've been out stalking before now, had a .308 over my shoulder, saw an old bobby leaning over the gate and waving, all friendly. Strolled over and he said as he hadn't seen me before, could he see my permission. That done, offered him a cup of tea and he told me where the best spots were for the deer. That's the way to do policing, not shouting orders over the hedge like flaming Rambo. You ought to have taken his pretend-rozzer number and reported him to your Chief Constable for discourtesy.

Not my suggestion at all. My point was not recklessness or malice, but that an accident could leave you open to a whacking bill for compensation or the loss of your own sight. If you think it's worth the risk, be my guest.

Just a word on IR lasers - they are very dodgy legally as well as technically. I don't sell them myself, for several reasons. Firstly, there is a question of how legal they are - they seem legal to sell, but it may be a case that there just hasn't been a prosecution over them yet in actual use. They're a very powerful, invisible light, as dangerous as any laser to sight but invisible too. Shine one in your eyes carelessly or negligently, perhaps after forgetting it's on, or of the switch has rubbed against clothing or the door of your truck, and that's it, you're blind. Or someone else is - put your rifle down after forgetting to switch off the laser, or again if the switch was accidentally triggered, and they wouldn't even know it was in their eyes. Technically, what you are doing with an IR laser is pushing the intensifier tube to handle a level of light it was never designed to handle - this will affect longevity of the tube. Also, people usually focus the laser in to the middle half of the field of view, so that their tubes burn out even faster, and in the centre.

Are armoured cars listed on the general licence with DEFRA?

That's curious - I wonder where you read that. I always thought that, by and large, both sides were using 7.62 rather than 5.56 in the Falklands conflict. The Brits all had the FN SLR in 7.62. The reasons for changing to 5.56 was that it was the new standard NATO calibre (the Yanks having led the way with the M-16), that the British Army needed an assault rifle rather than a semi-auto, and that the 7.62 was too heavy a round for 'peacekeeping' and 'aid to the civil power' operations, This last was based on experience in the Province, where Provos had been shot, the bullet exiting them (or misses), passing through walls of houses, and endangering their occupants. The reason the SA80 was ordered was that Royal Ordnance had a design lying on the shelves and Thatcher wanted them to get the order, to increase the value of RO with a new big contract before flogging it off.

I put 'vermin destruction' on mine for the .22CF and the .22LR and D&C seemed happy enough. They also weren't specific about species on the conditions, just referring to 'animals'. They were also happy to put '.22 centrefire' on what I might acquire, on the grounds that I hadn't made my mindd up between .223 and 22-250. In fact, it was the Field Officer who suggested I had a .22CF as well, as at first I was just applying for .22RF, .243 and .308.

Are you serious? Down here they take about a fortnight for a variation. They did my last one inside a working week.

Sakos are good - the build quality on the Tikka is nothing much to write home about. Remember Sakos don't come threaded as a rule.

It's the one I use, it's got the usual Steyr Safe Bolt System, spare 5-round mag in the stock, it's a bit heavy but the weight of the reciever means you don't need a varmint barrel. After tuning the ammo to the rifle, I get a 1.5 inch group at 200 yards. For a scope I use the Leupold VXIII Long Range and add a Gen2 monocular when necessary.

I used to have a varmint, and wish I'd kept it rather than (stupidly) changing to a Browning T-bolt. Regularly took bunnies with a head shot at 100 yards, with a bipod. I painstakingly got the bullet drop at five-yard intervals on the range, from 50 to 100, and used a Bushnell rangefinder. Never found anything to match it since. When I can find the time to organise it, I shall be changing back to the Varmint. Best .22 I ever owned (though the blueing is rubbish and needs redoing, and a trigger kit is worth the effort).

I use a Mossberg 500 pump as I got sick of having to pick out jammed spent cartridges from my single barrel gun. Lovely little thing, light and accurate, it's a pleasure to use. Fairly cheap, too.