Hunting With New Rifle Using Nosler BT's.

kjd

Beginner
Mar 23, 2005
12
0
Gday guys,

Tuesday morning saw me hopping in my 93 Camry and heading down near Yass (NSW Aus) for a bit of shooting and to get away!

After stuffing around all day and going for a walk in the arvo which saw nothing being shot I waited till the night and mounted my Lightforce SL140 to the Leupold 3-9x40mm scope on my CZ 452 22lr and go for a stroll!

Shot one bunny on the hop straight in the chest... "beauty one for the pot" I thought..

Then went for a walk down to one of the only known warren's on the place and found a nice big tussock to use as a rest whacked on the light knocked over one bunny then they all went into hiding for a few mins.. I sat there for 5 mins and then turned on the light again shot at another bunny hit him in the back legs then gave him another shot to the chest "oops that ones dog meat" I thought!
So that was enough for me for one night and I went back and cleaned the 3 I had shot!

Next day saw me sleep in to 8:30am get up and plod around for a bit and the bloke I was staying with had to go into the ACT and pick up some tree's from Greening Australia... I stayed at the farm went and checked the sighting on my new 222rem and it was out... 15 shots later was spot on and ready for action later on in the day!

I passed the time by plinking with my 22cal pcp air rifle (RWS Rapier) and 22lr waiting for it to get a bit later for the bunnies to come out so I can test my new (bought 2nd hand) Winchester Model 70 Heavy Varmint in 222rem.... It's just a heap of fun plinking a great way to pass by a few hours when the hunting is off!

4:30pm came and I thought alrighty I'll take a stroll down at about 120m -150m away from the warren and sat there with the 222 waiting for some foolish bunnies to come out... Was probably a bit early and not much happened so I went back up and watched some tele for an hour or so!

5:20pm came so I went back down to the same spot and bingo one lone bunny chewing some grass.
Here was the result:
normal_1strabbit222.jpg

Was extremely happy first shot at any game and nailed it from 120-150m away!

A Close up:
normal_222bunny1.jpg


Waited around a bit more nothing else was game to come out so Pete (the farmer) arrived back home and I went up and had a yack to him for about 30mins and decided to go back down for another look with the 222...

Same spot as before setup and now with a bit of confidence in the 222 I wanted to attempt a headshot on a bunny so I could use him for meat....One rabbit looking at me straight on just outside his hole, I waited for about 15 minutes to see if he would come out and give me a side on shot no avail... I then lost my patience and blew him away not worrying about keeping him for meat.

I waited for another 5 mins or so and no more action so I decided to go take a photo of the bunny to show you guys what damage the 50gr Nosler BT behind 24.5gns of ADI BM2 does but then I see a fox coming straight for the warrens which was like the last time I was there but this time I had decided to take my rifle with me and not leave it at my sniping spot... he looked straight at me and I only had a chance at an offhand shot which proved a failure with the big Heavy Varmint rifle and he took off and dissapeared into the tussocks I whistled a bit and he eventually came back climbed through a fence and was in a nice big open paddock with short grass...
He was walking slowly as if he didnt know I was there and wasn't just shot at... This gave me a chance to get into prone position and load the last round I had in the mag! I whistled and yelled and he just seemed to ignore me but he was walking slowly I lined the crosshairs up on his chest and pulled the trigger.. He dropped I stooped up and yelled "YES" as I had just shot my first ever fox.

To get over to the fox I had to climb a fence and avoid the electric fence. So I placed my rifle over the fence and got thru it without being Zapped!

I found the little bugger... I had done him a favour I think he was riddled with mange and didn't even have a tail worth keeping! Nonetheless I wanted to get a photo of my first fox no matter how scummy he looked so I set it up with my rifle and a round infront of the dead fox, turned the camera on then it switched itself off before I could get a shot! Bloody dead batteries. So I went and checked out the rabbit I shot before I headed back to the house for more batteries! He was a mess shot him just in the chest and blew out from his neck to the middle of his back, those Nosler BT's are destructive buggers!

I walked up to the house and got some fresh ones but didn't bother taking my rifle back down to the fox!
Anyways after all that yarning here is the pictures of the bloody thing!
Entry side:
normal_fox.jpg


Exit side:
normal_foxexit.jpg


Then later on that night I went out and shot another bunny with my mounted spotlight and 22lr to seal off quite a fun 2 day trip!

The total was:
6 Rabbits
1 Fox!

Then I left Thursday morning to enter the real world again!

Cheers Fella's!
 
Sounds like a fun trip. Do you hunt anything else besides bunnies and fox. Any larger game?

Long
 
Occasionally a bit of roo population control but thats about it...

I am chomping at the bit to do some pig, goat and deer shooting!

Will be Great!
 
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