Wasted trips

[bobkat98]

I havn't been able to shoot for a few weeks and was itching to try out my new NVS which I had zeroed up in the garden. Got all my gear ready the night before and set out for the ten mile trip to my rabbit shoot. Got there and started to unload the kit when I realised that I had left the bag containing, among other things, both of my AA magazines and pellets. Gutted ,I had to return home and I stayed there. Next night I decided to try ratting. loaded up all the gear and set out on the 15 mile trip to the farm.
Spent several hours wandering and waiting in the dark and in spite of the ultra clear view through the NVS, not a rat could be seen or heard. Normally there are dozens of the things around. Came home disgusted with myself. Just hope that tonights rabbiting goes a bit better.

[Taff Williams]

Bobkat,
I spent a few years near your location, nice part of the country.
Take your time to make sure you have everything and a big "Good Luck" for your trip to get the rabbits.

ATB

Ogri the trog

[cliveward]

Bobkat98,

Hunting with an NV scope is seriously addictive. You should have plenty of success.

I have mine fitted to an Anschutz .22 rimfire carbine with a Webley BBMF short silencer. The whole gun is only 36" long. Great fun blatting the bunnies in the head at 50 yards in complete darkness and with little noise

Good luck on your next outing and let us know how you get on.


Cheers





Clive

[Dave22]

I experienced similar disappointment the other evening when I set off with my new NV scope.

I walked all around my rabbit ground without so much as a sniff at a target. It was a full moon, cold with no wind, hardly ideal conditions. I decided to give up, got in my car and 50 yards down the lane nearly ran over a rabbit!

Is anybody else finding it hard going at the moment?

[Taff Williams]

Dave22,
Very hard going, only seen 1 rabbit (on my hunting grounds) since September Plenty around the general countryside though.
Been trying for crows & magpies recently but they're extreemly twitchy

Guess I'll have to hurry up & wait for springtime.

Ogri the trog

[FT Shooter]

Originally posted by bobkat98
Got there and started to unload the kit when I realised that I had left the bag containing, among other things, both of my AA magazines and pellets. .

Sounds like a serious CRAFT moment to me. Still you remembered your rifle.

[nealie]

The shoots i have still have the bunnies running about like loonies. Every sunday morning i bag 3 or 4 in 1.5-2hrs. take into accoutn the weather too....when it's cold they'll hide and night and come out early mornings

Neal

[Magsy]

It sucks when the kit is sitting there and you can't use it.

My divers bottle turns up today, after having one go missing the post (3 weeks ago) I've been gagging to have a play.

I unbox it all at lunch time, leg it over the (only) dive shop in town to find that they are closed mon and tues!

Argh!!

Have to spend all night staring at it now

[Rapid>>>]

Originally posted by Dave22
It was a full moon

And theres the reason why the NV is so clear, and theres no rabbits/rats to be seen.

They could see you coming for miles.

[bobkat98]

Originally posted by cliveward
Bobkat98,

Hunting with an NV scope is seriously addictive. You should have plenty of success.


Good luck on your next outing and let us know how you get on.


Cheers
Clive

I did go out with a friend who is very much more experienced than me. We went to a set of fields that are almost virgin territory regarding shooting and there were a lot of rabbits plus a few hare's that we didn't shoot at.

I now now that there is a bit more to using NVS than getting it zeroed at 30 metres. I didn't hit a single bunny with it and since I was putting several holes in a disk the size of a ten P piece when zeroing it, I assume? that they were a bit further away than I thought. How do you estimate the distance at night? I have assumed that I will have to set up a bunny sized target at different known distances and see what they look like so that I can learn to judge the distances a bit more accurately. Any advice is welcome. On the up-side, my friend who by then was using a rim fire, let me have a shot with it while he held a lamp on the bunnies and I got a clean head shot at a fair distance.

being a novice isn't easy especially when you are 69 and don't have too many years left to continue shooting

[cliveward]

Bobkat98,

Still sounds like it was a fun trip. The learning curve on NV shooting isn't too steep so dont worry. You probably thought the bunnies you missed were further away than they really were. I've done this myself. Got a bunny in the scope, placed the shot where I thought suitable for the range and sent the bullet an inch under the bunnies chin. Luckily it had been snowing so I could actually see the bullet graze in the snow right next to the rabbits front paw prints. The rabbit was only 18m away and I had guessed at nearer 30 so it's easy to be way off.

Like you said the best thing to do is practice and see what targets look like at different ranges. If you have some visual reference on your reticle then even better. Others use lasers for rangefinding but I find a bit of experience and eyeball work as well.

Another very easy way is to set your NV rig up on a proper dark night and zero at the range you can just make out the target using the illuminator. Then when out stalking the bunnies...as soon as you can make it out to place a shot then it should be right on your zero. This only works on very dark nights though with no real ambient light so you are just relying on the power of the illuminator.

Another factor is if your scope has a rear focused reticle (mainly red on green types) then these can be prone to paralax error if it is just the simple red dot type with nothing else to frame the reticle to get your cheek weld right.

What scope did you go for by the way?


Cheers





Clive

[bobkat98]

[
Another factor is if your scope has a rear focused reticle (mainly red on green types) then these can be prone to paralax error if it is just the simple red dot type with nothing else to frame the reticle to get your cheek weld right.

What scope did you go for by the way?


Cheers





Clive [/B][/QUOTE]

Hi Clive, Its a D141 upgraded to GenII by Sid. A very clear image and good magnification. It has got an adjustable rear focusing reticle which I thought should be focused so that the reticle is sharp and then left alone. is that not so? The front lense is adjustable to focus on objects in the field.

What do you mean by:nothing else to frame the reticle to get your cheek right? Do you mean getting the reticle horizontal & verticle? If so that's easy on this sight because it's the upturned V with a horizontal line type.

Thanks for your comments
Bob

[cliveward]

Bob,

You dont need to worry about the rear focus once it's set. When I say frame the reticle I mean getting your eye behind the scope dead central every time so you minimise paralax error. This will be easy on your scope as it has more reticle to centre up, rather than just a single dot. Also with that reticle you have some reference points for range estimation which is good news.

It's a good bit of kit that. Have fun.


Cheers





Clive