Sunday, December 18, 2016

Epox Badger RMF stock....The Beginning

Ok, so RMF, what does it mean?  RMF stands for Richards MicroFit gunstocks.  The have an awesome collection of laminate stocks.  From Rifles to shotguns.  From blanks to ones for select rifles.  And in all sorts of colors and styles.  So when I purchased the Epox Badger 40 cal, it was automatic that I would buy a RMF gun stock.  Not just because I like RMF but also because I mod everything I own.  Another reason I chose RMF is because they offer any color/style stock the make for QB actioned guns.  And the Badger is one such Air Rifle.  Its based off of the QB action.  Here is a quote right from the webpage showing what they are all about:
"Richards Microfit Stocks, Inc.
Semi-Custom Gunstocks Since 1948
Gunstocks for Over 100 Bolt Actions, Air Rifles, & Muzzleloaders in 25 Different Sporter, Standard & Target Stock Designs!
20 Laminated Colors & 8 Grades of 7 Different Species of Hardwoods! 
Our Gunstocks are Custom Made.... You Choose the Style, Wood Type & Action Inlet
FREE Rosewood Tip & Cap Installed on Sporter Stock Styles"


The Epox Badger 40 cal:

After sorting through many pages, I decided to go with the WOLVERINE style and the IMPERIAL color scheme.  Complete with Rose Wood end caps on both the pistol grip and the for-end.  The one thing about ordering a stock for the QB action is that RMF cuts off the fore end rosewood end cap which makes the stock overall length shorter.  You don't want this as the Big Bore conversions based off the QB action tend to be much longer than an actual QB airgun itself.  So IMO, it makes the gun look a little weird.  So with this order, I made sure I enforced the "do not cut off the endcap" rule.  And RMF complied.

The RMF stock (in the raw):

 The RMF stocks come to you unfinished bye the way so you can either do it yourself or send it off to your favorite gunsmith.  I choose to tackle mine myself and also add a Morgan Butt Pad.  I'm not going to get into "how to finish a gun stock" but here is the final SANDED gun stock ready for coats of preferred finish:

So as you can see, the stock project is coming along quite nicely and will be done very soon.  More update on this project coming soon so make sure your in the know!

Tofazfou





Friday, December 9, 2016

Long Range Ground Squirrel Hunting-TD257 Style!

Recently, I managed to get out with a couple of local YouTube hunting buddies.  BWalton and HunterOne.  I've posted and hunted with BWalton (Baxter) before but had never met HunterOne (Toby).......TILL NOW!  On this adventure, we head to a local area in the mountains that Baxter managed to receive permission to hunt on years ago.  Toby's and I are 1st time visitors there and the farm did not disappoint.  Watching previous videos from BWalton, I had loned to shoot this property with him.  The location and property are breathtaking.
  
As usual, we start off sighting in and it didn't take very many shots to get to center.  This was a good thing as the morning temperature was roughly 34+ degrees.  California has a way of being beautiful and HOT looking when its actually cold.  After all its the desert.  After sight-in, we all pick our spots that we wanted to occupy in the field. The field is roughly 300+ yards by 600 yards.  The draw for me coming to this local is that it would offer me long distance shots.  200+ yards and further.

The action proved to constant despite the cold weather.  Ground Squirrels in California don't necessarily hibernate and will sunbath and feed year round long as the sun is out and it feel moderately warm to them.  I was having slight issues with the guns performance due to the cold weather.  My Air Rifle is custom and the tolerances are close.  Many parts of the rifle are aluminum and some are steel.  This means the gun gets either very cold (winter months) or very warm (summer months).  The orings in the breech tend to drag along the barrel when its cold.  And this was the primary issue of the morning.  With a few short and long distance practice shots, I got a feel for the performance.  The 1st squirrel was at 60 yards and I missed slightly left of the squirrels noggin.  The next shot was dead on.  Ground Squirrel 1....down!  The next GS was 139 yards away but despite my gun shooting slightly lower speeds than normal, my mil-radian scopes hash marks still hold true for 12 yards each mark.  So it was still easy figuring out which hash mark was dead on at 139 yards.  At the shot, it dropped slightly to the right of the squirrel but dead on vertically.  A minute hold left on the 2nd shot provided a square upper torso hit which DRT'd the squirrel in its hole. The gun was becoming better and the morning was starting to heat up slightly.  The next bunch of shots down range found their marks with no follow up shots necessary.  My furthest shot was well over 200 yards but unfortunately, because of the dead/brown alphalpha stalks, distances over or near 200 yards became very hard to range accurately.  So i don't have an EXACT range number but trust me, it was well over 200 yards.  Our pesting session ended on a high note with BWalton and HunterOne shooting my TD257.  BWalton was up first and made a very near miss on a GS at over 210 yards.  He gave the gun over to Hunter1 and he managed to tag a GS at a lasered 194 yards.  His response was music to my ears.  He simply said, "WOW, THAT WAS EASY".  BWalton and HunterOne were very extactic to shoot the 257 that they have heard a lot about.  It lives up to the hype.
These are only a handful of pest that we took that day.  The rifles are from left to right: HunterOne's Hatsan Carnivore .30 cal tuned by BWalton.  Another Hatsan Carnivore 30 cal that BWalton was testing for 1 of his customers.  Tofazfou's TD257.

Left to Right: HunterOne, Tofazfou, BWalton

Tofazfou YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/tofazfou/videos
BWalton YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgeuw4_-CMvgevEFLGMFSFA/videos
HunterOne YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtWPWVSfSgJR0Z_zoLfrBmQ/videos

Stay Tuned for more HPA Adventures!
Tofazfou