jcf1

Forget that - just read the ad properly!

Got to wonder how the photo came to light, during an "unrelated raid on one of the officers homes". Sounds like someone was being naughty in other ways too.... I know 3 people from my younger years who have gone into police firearms - 2 in the MET. Two I would trust with guns, one I wouldn't give scissors and had a reputation as a raging nutjob at uni with a penchant for naughty activities and really hasn't changed a great deal. From my albeit limited experience and anecdotal info, police firearms training doesn't do enough to instill discipline, weed out the weirdos or actually develop proficiency under pressure. These guys were dicking around with firearms in a position of significant responsibility, and they got caught and rightly sacked. Doesn't surprise me, but its the nature of the training and screening that needs to be looked at IMO. Examples of poor practice are all over the place and it looks awful. 2006 - 2008: 46 public negligent discharges, 18 rounds fired in real threats. Says it all really.

Well - mine arrived today, pretty swift service. On the face of it it is very very well put together, build quality is very impressive indeed. I expected sprung steel, but its poles on central hubs. The fabric is nice and thick, each panel can move so I could make one triangular hide, a massive square one, or a longer thin hide. Its blacked out on the inside so very low visibility looking in, but the mesh is great for looking out. Takes quite literally about 5 seconds to put up. I need to see how it will fare in a breeze as it would be more of a kite than just a net being solid fabric. It does come with guy ropes/pegs so I'll see. My only other concern is it is quite high (1.5m) and I'm not the tallest, whereas a normal hide would have that adjustment. Seems fine in the lounge but a proper field test is needed to be sure. As soon as I've had it out in the field and given it a proper trial I'll follow up with a review.

Thanks for the replies. I have the usual hide poles, stealth net, camo net etc so can set up something pretty versatile. However, I hate dragging all that out for a few hours shooting. I also like the idea of a 20 second setup. I know this won't be any good for ditches/awkward corners, but apparently it is modular and you can move each panel, so should be fine for most of my rape fields. I dunno, probably regret it, but I think I'll give it a punt and stick up a review. If it is useless I'll say so!! I have had a couple of pop ups before, most don't offer the right shooting angle, or aren't durable enough. I did try a hay-house hide once (not mine) that was very impressive and the pigeons seemed to ignore perfectly, despite being fairly conspicuous. Trouble is it was very, very expensive.

Cranfield - have to ask, why did you remove the weblink? No-one will have a clue what hide I am talking about unless they see the thing. Anyway - in the meantime, if you google riverside outdoor concealer hide then you'll find it. I'm not advertising the thing - just want to know if its **** or not before I spend any money. Seems a bit pointless to have an equipment section if we can only link to equipment sold by the site sponsors.... Edit: just read this in the house rules which I guess answers my question (sadly): "Members are not permitted to post links to sites and facilities that compete directly with our Advertisers."

Not normally one to fall for the lure of pop-up hides, but this one looked better than most: concealer_3_camo_pop_up_hide. Anyone ever used one of these? Got a pretty good write up in sporting gun (for what that's worth ) Would appreciate any feedback from someone who has actually seen or used one, personally I don't generally rate pop-ups as they tend to promise so much and deliver so little!

These are what they are, and will produce rounds of a 'decent' consistency despite other assertions. I have had these as well as much more expensive lyman kit. I used it for a while years ago and then moved on. The main issue is time and speed, if you want to reload any serious quantity then steer clear. Its a PITA, especially if you want to make up the numbers you'll need to develop a decent load for your rifle. My last setup was hugely expensive (don't even want to think about it), and the chrono would show that my rounds were more consistent. When I say decent - this kit will churn out stuff of consistency somewhere between factory ammo and good quality handloads using better kit, but takes ages to do it. Nickel plated brass resizes just fine. It does however have a tendency to be a bit stickier in the resizer and it is true that non plated stuff seems to last a bit longer. Binning it would be just silly mind you. As for breaking - I would seriously struggle to see how you could have broken the one I used to use, unless you were a little bit "special". In my mind - if you are serious about reloading, don't bother you'll end up spending more anyway. If you just want to try it and don't fire many rounds, why not.

Cobblers, sorry. It was invented by hasbro for flips sake. No scarier than monopoly. Although I did see a funny shadow in a mirror last time I passed go..... Edit: FWIW - I did try one once, in a supposedly haunted house in canterbury when I was at uni. Some of the more suggestible types got very scared when the pointer wheeled around a bit. Sadly no-one climbing the ceilings, spinning heads or spewing pea soup mores the pity.

they certainly are ivy berries

I'm not a particularly good shooter, but did set up some 300yd targets with the hmr once for a laugh. Zeroed out to 150 and used an old car bonnet as a target, moved out to 200 and it had dropped about 12". By the time I'd got out to 300yd the only way I could see the centre of the paper plate I was aiming at was by shimming the scope mounts with a coke can. It'll do it, but setting up an hmr for shots like this renders it useless for anything else I reckon. I know that my hmr was zeroed at 90yds for field use, but a rabbit at around 300yds would probably be about a 3ft+ hold over which makes it a practical round out to 180 yards maximum in the field. Anyway, I shoot .22lr for bunnies now - hope you guys earn mored than me as a day plinking with those is going to cost you! My .17 fireball however was a different story

I dunno - it is very dependent on whether it hits soft tissue/blood or bone and in what sequence. As well as the nature of the head. Although of course a bigger cal carries more energy - I've shot a pigeon with .308 and it zipped right through. If you were so inclined there are rather nasty images of some .50 injuries that are almost as spectacular as that crow about.

Nice that you have done all that maths - but size/mass of the projectile has precious little to do with damage.

I've had HMR for years before recently getting rid due to stupid ammo costs. I shoot a LOT (and I really do mean that) of bunnies, so .22lr has to be the way forward if I want to afford my nice deer rifles. I have to say that having shot and zeroed both in middling to stronger crosswinds the .22lr is absolutely definately a ****** to zero if its is breezy whereas it never seemed to make a massive distance for the hmr. Bearing in mind the .22 was zeroed closer in too that pretty much says it all to me. And that's lots of experience, NOT charts I think someone should volunteer to do a field test here...

sorry folks - thanks for the (huge amount of) interest - but it looks like its all sold pending usual...

Am out and about on the phone at the moment chaps so can't make head nor tail of peoples locations or post times etc- will pm phone numbers etc when I get home to the laptop.