ellebarto

My permission seems to be almost all rape this year and pickings are very slim as a result. Probably because all the spring drillings are going in everywhere else near me. Just noticed the rape starting to flower when I went out to lunch for a recce and I wondered if that was more or less attractive to the pigeons or do they just not care? Do they literally feed on whatever they see or if for instance nice fresh drillings are going in all around will rape be the last thing on the menu!

I've owned one and couldnt get to grips with it. Mechanically it was perfect and never ever jammed but it was very short in the stock and even after some expense custom stock work I could never get it to mount correctly. Loved the gun but couldnt hit anything with it!

Having asked for advice from guys on here I'm opting for a cobra merlin add on set up with a powerful IR light for my exepriment with night vision scopes. Its pretty much exclusively for bunny shooting and having ordered the kit I've started to think about identifying targets in the field in the first place. I mean I can scope the field but in ideal world I wouldnt be pointing my rifle unless I wanted to shoot and I'd rather quickly sweep a field to check for action rather than stop, set myself and then check metre by metre for bunnies. Currently I use a red lense lamp on low intensity to quickly sweep and look for the eyes and then I pick up the rifle with more powerful scope lamp and scope up where I saw the eyes reflecting back and that gives me good detail to take shot and its 50 50 as to whether the bunny scares. Is there an IR equivalent I could use to achieve this initial sweep stage? I was thinking a handhel IR light and NV binos but I'm lookng for a bargain basement solution really having spent on the scope side! Anyone have any ideas or no what the hell Im going on about?

Yep seen it but that doesn't give you proper accuracy at night at 100 yards! You can perhaps put it centre mass in a bunny but it will be a lucky head shot!

Not real ownership experience but I was seriously considering this and did quite a lot of research. All the reviews suggest that bang for buck its the best non GEN2 setup out there but it has a major drawback for me in that its magnification will only let you accurately take bunnies at say 60 yards. It will work day or night which is a bonus but for it to work for me I woul dhave to make head shots at up to 100 yards and it wont let you do that unless you are pretty skillfull. I've moved on to looking at add on NV scopes with IR light. Half the price and just as good if not better. At least my initial investigation is suggesting that!

Yeah I must admit I am quite taken with the one Ive ordered. Nice black hogue synthetic stock, feels sound and sturdy and has a target barrel already on. Just wanted to do some research so I can hit the ground running with it. It seems there is no set ammo for them though and its just suck it and see. Ive swapped it for a GSG which was proving only good fun in the range and Im hoping this will still be a fun range gun but useful in the field!

I'm always interested in customising. Can you just explain what those 3 things do for the gun?

I'm trading in my GSG 5 tomorrow for a Ruger 10/22. Got a bit bored with the GSG and wanted more accuracy and flexibility! Cant take the GSG out into the fieled with me. Would scare the farmer half to death. 2 questions. Did anyone on here trade a Ruger 10/22 into McAvoys in standish recently. One with a black hogue stock and a target barrel? Then anyone out there with a 10/22. What ammo do you feed it or does it prefer? Will it run subs OK? Ive got a pile of mini mags that I used in the GSG and was gonna chop them in with it unless I know the 10/22 is happy with them.

Well yeah, I wasnt going to go that far but the general principle saved me spending on something that doesn't work! I say Landy, its actually a range rover! Not a chance in hell of cutting anything in that!!!

Ah brilliant! Cheers chaps. Saved me some cash. I'll stick with my original plan which is pretty much what you are suggesting!

At the moment I lamp from the landy and because of the nature of my permission I end up broadside to my target area and then click on my scope mounted light and basically point the rifle where I'm scanning for targets. I decided I wanted a handheld lamp to scan before I stuck the rifle out of the window and I stumbled across magnetically mounted remote lamps. Bit more pricy but if they work that would seem a nice handy bit of kit. Anyone seen this and got any thoughts on there use or even better anyone got one and have some feedback?

Thats kinda where I'm coming from in a nutshell, although I'd be happy 'invisible lamping' if it worked. Lamping in itself is fine and I manage OK. My specific problem is the bunnies being lamp shy. If I'm lighting them in a spectrum they dont see so they arent startled and I need a £400 bit of kit to see that spectrum myself, I'd buy into that! I think its a given you need to spend big money for a standalone scope. Well at least I think it is. I mean there are some digital ones out there making big claims albeit with low mag

Cheers. Give's me a place to start. Any particular model of Cobra Merlin?

Periodically Ive thought about an NV scope for my .22 for bunny shooting. At present I use a decent scope mounted Deben Minilight, which works well enough but I probably half my bag each night because of lamp shy bunnies. I tried a laser light for a while but that beam was far to narrow to scan a field for targets. I've always been told in the shop, to get half decent NV you need to be spending £2.5K plus and go for generation 2 kit but then I've read numerous threads on here about bargain basement approaches that people claim to get good results from. To be honst if it works and works well, I'll happily spend the cash but some of the Gen 2 stuff is massive and I cant see it making shooting a .22 pleasurable! I'd also like to keep my scope and its zero so its flexible for day shooting as well. So then, anyone got any real life experience of an NV setup that works for them on bunnies up to say 100 yards? It would be helpful to have a list of the kit, roughly what you paid and what rifle you have it fitted to.

My pull through bore snake with bronze brush bristles built in cleans faster and better then any brush! Would use a brush again n low caliber rifles and shotguns for that matter!

I've got the Savage. Its by far my favourite rifle. Accuracy is scary and Ive had some of my biggest bags with it. The thing is whilst everytime I go out I reach for it, I almost always go a slot further an grab my .22 Annie. The HMR is just so damn loud. For some reason I really dislike the crack expecially at night when lamping. Thats another issue all together I know but just thought I'd share. I highly rate my Savage and love the thumbhole laminate. Bit marmite but I love it!

That sounds like the spring in the mag might be under too much or too little pressure and its pushing the round up to high. Annie's are finely tuned. Mine likes specific ammo and I have problems with my mags every now and again and have to strip them. Are the mags old or new? Have they been refurbed recently? If they are old its likely the spring is worn and there isn't much you can do other than replace it. If they are new or refurbed you can try storing them for a day or two fully loaded to take some tension off the spring. Guess work really!

Ive got a lovely little hawthorn bush smack in the middle of a rape field and Ive just watched 40 odd crows in groups of 4 to 6 flying over it for 20 minutes. Nothing coming into feed but they are definitely on there way to something. Light breeze but enough to make getting up easy for them. 400 yards behind this bush and down into a slight valley is a seam of oak trees along a stream, rape either side and the trees are full of pigeon with one particular copse of oak being packed. Again nothing on the ground feeding. I had limited time to observe so assuming this is at least a morning to afternoon pattern. What would you do? Is it even bother setting up? I like the hawthorn bush hide and popping crows and last time Iset up under the oak trees I failed to decoy hardly any in.

6 months ago, approximately. Bolt release was on the side. Strange thing was if I blasted all 8 shells out in quick sucession it was fine and cycled far more reliably. The moment I took my time, i.e normal shooting conditions it screwed up!

Thats an interesting poll result so far and not what I was expecting. I put down dissatisfied. Had an FAC Hatsan from new and it jammed and failed to cycle 1 in every 5 shots at least no matter what I did to it. It seems if your in the lucky 2/3rds you get a bargain auto though! Other than the jamming, I did like it!

I've owned a few FAC auto's but currently running a Benelli M2 8+1. If I'm honest I have it just for the hell of it. Ive put all 9 through it fast a few times and I can barely stand while doing so let alone aim. I dont find the weight a problem, in fact it balances out better for me and Ive done well on the clays of late with it. As I think someone has said on here, I cant ever recall getting 3 realisitc shots off at game or vermin so its definitiely just an extravagance but one I'm happy with. I just dont reload as often basically. (not really true, even if I fire off one I always top the mag up) I'm sure someone will correct me but I dont think you will get an FAC shotgun unless you have a reason, i.e you shoot vermin on land. I dont think they will let you have it for clays as strictly speaking almost all grounds will frown on you putting more than 2 in the pipe!

Is this practical shotgun and not clay shooting?

Had exactly the same issue with the same gun myself 2 weeks ago and opted for black. I wanted the camo but that kind of restricted me to rough shooting with it and the black finsih is nice and just more multi purpose!

Ive just picked up a benelli M2, which I love, and was fiddling with the chokes for clays and for rough shooting. Anyway, the manual refers to an extra full and a super full choke! Never heard of these before but I assume a super tight pattern and more range?? Anyone use these chokes or no more?

I had the 511. It was my first .22 rifle. Looks pretty horrible until you put the sight on and then its much the same as anything else! It was a novelty to me as a beginner but I found the ejecting brass was distracting and untidy and it encouraged wild double taps instead of one shot one kill. Changed it in favour of a bolt action in the end! In my opinion its a fun range gun but not the best field rifle!