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Revisited an old haunt - crawling with rabbits.


Evilv
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Way back before the Foot and Mouth problem, I used to shoot sometimes on a farm up in the hills near Alston. It was quite a hike to get there and I haven't been back in five years. Got a call from a mate who said the place was crawling with rabbits, so I instigated contact and went up there today with my youngest son, his Chinese B3 air rifle and my TX. The place was crawling with rabbits. We'd look over a wall and there'd be half a dozen within range. Take a few shots and move on.

 

I had a nasty experience with the TX which necessitated about two hours of re - zeroing the scope, all to find it wasn't that at all. Problem started when I was trying to be clever with the noisy anti-beartrap mechanism. I pressed the button down so I could cock the thing without the noisy click - click - click business so I could take a second shot at some naive bunies that just glanced over when their brother dropped dead beside them. The temperature was about 30c today, and I was sweating like a dog. I just got the lever to the strongest part of the pull, when my fingers slipped off it, and it returned to its stowed position with a mighty SMACK. After that I was only hitting dust and feet from where I'd aimed. - 'Ah', says I. 'I've knocked the scope out. So I zeroed away for an hour getting nowhere. Then I noticed that the silencer was wobbling like a plate on a stick at the circus..... Yeah - I know..... I looked inside and the darned thing was full of lead. I just dumped it in my bag, but now the scope was a long mile out and took ages to get back on song....

 

In the end we did OK - a bag of 21, and do you know what? The place is still crawling with them. We had to stop because the lad was showing signs of sun stroke. He'd be no good in the Foreign Legion that one. Still, he put six to bed with his £35 B3 with its iron sights. Sets himslelf a limit of 60 feet and knocks them down like a good 'un. I'll buy him a cheap scope and he'll do as well as me - probably. If the wife realises my kit cost eight times as much as his and he does as well, I'll never hear the end of it.

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Nice one Evilv the your son is takeing to it like a duck to water by the sounds of it. I would certainly change the story to the wife though, sounds like your heading for an ear bashing... :thumbs:

 

Get ya son talking in code and hopefully it wont slip out that he's competeing admirably against dad with his much more expensive equipment.

 

A wise man once said......no point buying a Steve Davis snooker cue if you only have one arm... :) sorry couldnt resist.

 

Great story buddy, pat the boy on the back for me.

 

Regards,

 

Axe.

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Thanks all for your remarks. Actually Axe, there's a lot in that comment about spending money. That B3 rifle is certainly unpretentious, but for £35 it does a damned good job. The lad can easily get a one inch group at sixty feet with iron sights. I'll bet it will do a lot better with a cheapo scope stuck on top. It's fun to shoot as well, we plink way in the garden with it and it's amply repaid its cost in fun already. I had to refinish the stock though - covered in foul brown varnish and lumps of filler, I just hacked that out, rubbed it down, stained it darker and oiled it. Looks like a slightly battered old military thing now - very quaint, and atmospheric. I bought it at Superbows. Thirty five quid delivered to the house four days after ordering on the website - ya can't complain really...

 

Yeah - the missus will keep quiet as long as I don't try to make her cook all these rabbits. She won't go near 'em. I gave as many as I could away, but half of the ******* want 'em skinned and ready for the pot. I just say, 'Would you like me to cook it too? How much salt do you like?' LOL.

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If the lad is getting groups like that, I would suggest not bothering with scopes. I had a B3 donated to me as it could not be set up reliably with a scope.

 

After looking for various causes to the problem I noted the following. The dovetails were very poor, so much so, that you might rather refer to them as very straight scratches. The cheap scope and mounts had to be detailed to sharpen the blades, but, even with this amount of work the mounts would only clamp rather than seat nicely in a dovetail. Because of this the scope would move ever so slightly when the bucking bronco B3 was fired. Infact the B3 was kicking so hard that the scopes came off completey at one point. Decent dovetailing would have prevented this. The other thing I noted too, was that the front stock screws would not tighten in the mild steel which also left the rifle moving within the stock a little. Poor old thing it was.

 

So really, if the boy is doing well with it as it is, I should stick with it! Of course you could always get him a AA S200 or similar.... hehe .... but mind he doesnt out perform you.

 

Regards,

 

Axe.

Edited by Axe
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