Reply With QuoteWhen lm in a rest position ie sitting/lying down on a good day hitting a group of around 1" is not uncommon, l find this gun to be very accurate, my lad is probably more accurate but l wont tell him that!
Registered User
It is possible to hit skull and miss brain, but to do it twice in a row seems unlucky.....
What kind of accuracy do you acheive at this range on paper ?
Always looking for any cheap, interesting, knackered "project" guns. Thanks, JB.
When lm in a rest position ie sitting/lying down on a good day hitting a group of around 1" is not uncommon, l find this gun to be very accurate, my lad is probably more accurate but l wont tell him that!
Registered User
Sorry mate, but 1" really should be the worst from such an ideal position, under "range" conditions....
Think of it this way, rabit brain is about 3/4" ? Thats your target.
Under ideal condition you shoot average 1.5" groups say - that about's 1/2 to 2/3rd of the shots landing in the brain...
Than add the "pressure" of hunting, slight range estimation errors, a bit of wind, whatever, and you are probably down to about 1/3 or less of shots in the brain....
I may of course be wrong, but that's my immediate thoughts...
Personally, I expect to shoot 1/2" to 3/4" groups under ideal range conditions at whatever distance I intend to hunt at. FAC rifles have a greater leaway, as bodyshots and just the sheer damage they inflict effectively increase the kill zone size...
HTH - JB
Last edited by Shed tuner; 28-05-2004 at 10:45 PM.
Always looking for any cheap, interesting, knackered "project" guns. Thanks, JB.
With regards to hitting those rabbits, I get that experience now and again, thinking that I've hit them then seeing them run off. Used to get it more often when I started hunting, and again the other night when I just couldn't get it together for the first hour. I have often been absolutely sure that I'd hit them. Now I have to concede that, while it may have looked a dead cert through the scope, that in fact I missed. Whether I missed altogether or missed the vital spot makes no difference; it's a miss. A near miss is as bad as a miss.
Go for headshots always (you may already be doing that) and reduce the range that you take the shot at. Define your boundaries and push them out slowly from there. As stated, there's all sorts of reasons why accuracy in the field may be less than during practice. Don't try to emulate John Darling or the airgun mags straight away. Find your level, then work up.
With regards to new shoot preparations, do you have a map made out of your shoot that you can mark warrens, kills, likely feeding areas on? Better still, go to www.multimap.com and print out an aerial photo of your hunting ground. I've found this invaluable for planning my shoots and assessing how I'm doing.
As an aside, I have to agree with Buddy boy. You need to achieve 1/2 inch groups on the range. If you can only achieve that at 15-20 yards at the moment, then only take 20yd shots at live quarry. This is quite literally what i had to do when I started. It's harder work getting that close, but it's also bl00dy good practice for your fieldcraft. When you get those one shot one kills time after time at that range then the reward is worth it. Hunting's 50% accuracy and 50% fieldcraft. If one side of that equation fails then the whole thing falls apart.
That's been my experience anyway. Hope that helps and congrats on getting the shoot.
Crack or Thwock...
Hi Duggie,
We have on a few occaisions hit rabbits and heard a loud "crack" only for them to run off, very occaisionally one of the other shooters has then hit them with a "thwock" and they've gone down. When we inspected them they had been hit once in the ear/s and once properly in the brain....
We reckon the loud "crack" is the ears htting each other if you miss over. (though some people will probably disagree!!)
Is it possible that in the excitement of early hunting trips you've snatched the trigger and shot "over" very slightly?
Everyone has been giving you excellent advice so far, I'd just like to add, before taking the shot try to take a steady breath fully in then half out and try to remember all your normal target shooting drills as you squeeze the trigger. The emptation is to see the sight picture and shoot asap which then results in many misses!!
Apologies if you knew all this(!)
Good luck,
Smudge
Hi Smudge, lm still confident that the shot was good, it certainly wasn't a rushed shot, l was in an ideal position, had plenty of time to line up and take the shot. l had a few shots in the garden this morning, the rifle is very accurate and tighter grouping than the 1" l said earlier, guess l was being too hard on myself. Thanks for the advice, its all apreciated.
Duggie
Trying to think what else could cause it...
I've seen rabbits with mixy take a head shot (witnessed by two other shooters through high mag scopes!) and still run off,
Otherwise... the shots weren't taken up or downhill were they? That could cause them to go high... and finally were you "resting" the rifle? If it is a recoiling type that will affect the point of aim/impact.
apart from that, dunno... the rabbits weren't wearing kevlar were they?
Posting Permissions