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Very long shot .


Ultrastu
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So this is not a brag about how great i am (cos im not ) and its far from perfect in a few ways , but i thought id share .

I saw a rabbit the other day where i was shooting pigeons .and this eve i though i might see if there were a few about. 

So i grabbed the fx .25 airgun and drove to the cut strip of wheat .i parked in the gate in my van and poked the barrwl out the window .and waited . (Had a plink to check zero and all was good .) Had a nice pigeon at 65 yds off a wire. 

The rabbit showed up at 220 yds .then disapeared again .30 mins later he reappeared right next to a tree which i know and lazered the range .

I dialled my scope down to 9x mag from 24 x .to get a marker on my ret for the longer than usual range .using chairgun to predict the trajectory ..

I aimed a little to the right to allow for the wind and fired .the rabbit flipped and wiggled and stopped ......

I got out the van and retrieved the rabbit .to find id hit 2 inches left of the head and hit his spine severing it and cleanly killing the animal .i then re lazered back to my van to confirm the range at exactly 150 yds .

My officially longest kill shot ever .

Now it wasnt perfect. The poi was a bit lucky.as there was an incosistent breeze from right to left .but the fact that chairgun predicted the trajectory  perfectly and the fx did its job spot on .it was only my wind reading that could have been a touch better .

Im amazed at how good modern guns scopes .and software can be to be able to even contemplate  achieving a shot like this .

The tree is 150 yds from my van .

Now i know i might get some stick for this shot .( Obviously im not looking for praise) but the fact remains these guns are pushing the boundarys well into rimfire territory. 

Thanks 

 

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I did .

Ive consistently shot coke cans at 150 yds before .knowing the exact aim point to use and mag etc .

The shot taken above wasnt a guess in terms of trajectory .or the guns ability to hit the required kill zone group dispersion  .or in terms of enough  remaining energy .

The only element in question was my ability to  hold the gun steady enough  and for me to read the hold off for the wind .something i practice and am not too terrible at .

Yes there was an element of luck but there was the rabbit i came for at a range that i knew was possible and the conditions were acceptable .

I stand by my shot .its not every day a rabbit sits exactly by the tree you know is spot on 150 yds and youve been practicing 150 yds .

If it was 154 or 143 or something i dont think id have taken the shot .but a lot of time went into the shot. And it paid off .ps .a snap shot at a crossing pigeon at 45 yds with a 12 b is taking a MUCH  bigger risk imo.

To hunt is to try and stack the odds in your favour to get the kill .

Well this eve the odds were in my favour and it payed off 

 

Edited by Ultrastu
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Nicely done Stu, you are quite right in that things are really beginning to move fast in unchartered territories as far as air guns are concerned. I personally wouldn't fire at rabbits at these kinds of ranges but do so when requested to do vermin control on crows, magpies and coots etc, it really is surprising the distances you can accurately reach once you learn the drops of your combo. 

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I do not see a problem here. The rifle is more than capable and with the aid of a 'computer' the user was able to range the shot and then use his experience to call the wind, which if you use any air rifle or a 22RF/17HMR you have to learn to do.   We all do it a bit different and on that set up I would have had my 17HMR but even then I would have had to read the wind and that comes with experience.

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10 hours ago, Ultrastu said:

If it was 154 or 143 or something i dont think id have taken the shot

You should know what kind of response youre going to get when you start talking about 150 yd airgun shots 🤣

I remember the absolute poo storm when someone popped up and said theyd took a rabbit at 60 yards sub 12 ft lb on the BBS !

Do you feel that you could do the shot again, over and over ? If so crack on.

I am interested to know your zero ect , as Ive just run  a 22 gn pellet through chairgun at 900 fps (40 ft lbs) with a 50 yard zero, it has some extreme drop at 150 !

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The fact you've been practicing at that range, used chairgun to take the guess work out of the hold over, stable rest on a still day at a range you know shows it's not completely irresponsible, but a bit lucky like you say.

How often do you hit the can at that range in those conditions?

How much energy does the pellet still have at that range?

certainly interesting 👍 

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The irony in the shooting community is unreal. 

Personally I prefer to challenge myself and would rather shoot rabbits at the top end of my range than murder everything within a 50m radius. To me its fairer on the quarry as at close ranges it stands no chance. At long ranges skill comes into it and I need to be better to make a successful shot, consequently averages go down.

The irony is if you rocked up on a pheasant shoot and instead of shooting 'sporting' birds to be sure of clean kill you blasted all the low, but safe, birds, the same people would be complaining about how unsporting you had been.

My primary reason for controlling rabbits is crop protection. But the reason I go shooting isn't because I am particularly concerned about farmers profits. It's because I enjoy been out and the challenge. Blasting animals at 50m doesn't give me much enjoyment. Pulling off longer shots does.

Edited by zipdog
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1 hour ago, Mice! said:

How much energy does the pellet still have at that range?

Depends on what pellet used , weight , BC , MV ect.
More than enough to kill it with a vital area hit at that range, the problem is rarely energy, its accuracy.

 

19 minutes ago, zipdog said:

The irony in the shooting community is unreal. 

Personally I prefer to challenge myself and would rather shoot rabbits at the top end of my range than murder everything within a 50m radius. To me its fairer on the quarry as at close ranges it stands no chance. At long ranges skill comes into it and I need to be better to make a successful shot, consequently averages go down.

The irony is if you rocked up on a pheasant shoot and instead of shooting 'sporting' birds to be sure of clean kill you blasted all the low, but safe, birds, the same people would be complaining about how unsporting you had been.

My primary reason for controlling rabbits is crop protection. But the reason I go shooting isn't because I am particularly concerned about farmers profits. It's because I enjoy been out and the challenge. Blasting animals at 50m doesn't give me much enjoyment. Pulling off longer shots does.

By 'challenge' though, you define that as not being easily achievable, so sometimes you get it wrong/fail.
Thats all good if its a complete miss, but if it wounds ? Is that being 'fairer on the quarry' ?

Im not criticising you for what you choose to do, I just dont understand the logic.
Its like youre saying, 'As long as I get challenged, and get enjoyment, the odd wounding doesnt matter'
 

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35 minutes ago, zipdog said:

Blasting animals at 50m doesn't give me much enjoyment. Pulling off longer shots does

For me to shoot something at 50m I might as well close my eyes, I'd have just as much chance of hitting it.

I'm guessing your not shooting a sub 12 air rifle? So what are you shooting with?

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Personally I believe and accept every shot I take as a challenge as that makes me concentrate 100%.  Was recently sitting up in my Land Rover sorting magpies which were raiding the concentarte store on a dairy farm. One landed on the adjacent silagepit wall at about 25yrds and popped it's head round the corner and looked straight in my direction.AA S200  .22 Mosquito pellet and a good rest had that maggie history, hit right between the eyes  It was a challenge, I gave it my full concentration and knew just how my rifle was shooting at that range.

There again the pathetically stupid idea of only shooting at deer for instance at huge ranges ....1000yrds  is just that pathetically stupid.  These people should learn to stalk and hunt.  For me EGO does not come into it.

 

Edited by Walker570
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1 minute ago, Walker570 said:

Personally I believe and accept every shot I take as a challenge as that makes me concentrate 100%.  Was recently sitting up in my Land Rover sorting magpies which were raiding the concentarte store on a dairy farm. One landed on the adjacent silagepit wall at about 25yrds and popped it's head round the corner and looked straight in my direction.AA S200  .22 Mosquito pellet and a good rest had that maggie history, hit right between the eyes  It was a challenge, I gave it my full concentration and knew just how my rifle was shooting at that range.

 

Nothing wrong with that, I bet thats somewhere close to your zero range ?
But if it had been 50 yards, maybe a 10 mph wind ? You probably wouldnt have felt confident ?

Every shot requires concentration, or you risk becoming complacent, I could say you 'owe' it to the quarry to end its life as humanely as possible, but thats an ethical thing that is entirely up to the person pulling the trigger.

Like I said to Stu, if you think you can pull it off 9/10 times then dont let anyone put you off.
 

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Just curious how you got chairgun to work at 9X mag. Can you select that on the spot.

Only used chairgun a couple of times for range cards at 10X mag with half mildots.

Find it a pain on the phone trying to change the parameters to suit. Did it in past to show the four colour screens for different ranges with what I set. Now though I get the same on all four screens.

Looked line and hawke say they no longer support chairgun and recommend strelok, which I find is for centrefire ranges and bullets.

Well-done on your shooting, I've took some long shots in the past and some hit some don't just the same as at short range. A .25 has some stopping power so even a body shot should put it down.

Edited by figgy
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:good:Every shot has a risk element attached and you worked through the options to minimise the risk. 

I am watching some similar amazing air rifle shooting on air arms hunting south africa. As you say its amazing the quality of the kit now and the accompanying eye watering price tags on some of the gear (😆)

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1 hour ago, Mice! said:

For me to shoot something at 50m I might as well close my eyes, I'd have just as much chance of hitting it.

I'm guessing your not shooting a sub 12 air rifle? So what are you shooting with?

No Im not. Im guessing the OP wasn't shooting a sub 12ftlb air gun also

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