CrosMods Discovery .22 hunting Jack Rabbits and Ground Squirrels

I only had about 5 hours to get out for a quick hunt on this particular day.  With the winds being air gun manageable, it was time for my new CrosMods Disco .22 to get in some shooting time.  I've finally settled on the JSB Exact 15.9 grain domes to be the guns pellet of choice.  There aren't very many airguns were the Exacts DON'T perform.  My CrosMods Discovery is no exception:

I wanted to get an early start to make the most of my short day.  When you beat the sun up and get on the road early enough, you will be fortunate to see sites like these.  Ahhhhh...the SUNRISE:

As usual upon arriving at one of my shooting locales, i recheck zero to make sure the gun is still sighted in from the last outing and to my pleasant surprise it still was very close to Point of Aim.  Gotta love quick sight in sessions.  I then grab a handful of JSB pellets and refilled my gun back to 2000 psi, locked my truck and began to scour the desert floor in search of some California Black Tailed Jack Rabbits.  It wasn't long until i ran across my first Jack sitting under a desert creosote shrub.  I lasered him at exactly 52 yards and surprisingly, i did not spook him.  I quickly set my CM22 (the air rifle) on my shooting mono-pod and set the video camera to record.  I calmly placed the cross hairs center mass on the rabbit head as he faced me and then I gently begun to squeeze the trigger, and VOILA...my first Jack of the day at 52 yards:

I then begin to hike in search for more jack rabbits.  Because of the hot weather, i did not see as many as i normally do nor did i want to walk too far from my truck.  So i searched for another 1/4 mile or so with no luck, and i decide to go back to my vehicle and drive to my Ground Squirrel location.  About 150 yards from my truck, i spot movement and it was another rabbit about to make his way up the side of a hill that i was walking alongside.  As he trotted off i thought, "hear he goes...up the side of the mountain and down the back side.....HE'S GONE!".  And to my surprise, he only sprinted off a couple of yards and stopped, and sat up on his hind legs to catch a glimpse of what i was.  That would be his mistake.  Again, i set up my shooting sticks and took aim all the while turning on my camera and hitting record again and placed the crosshairs center mass of the rabbits head.  Being as the rabbit was 64 yards away, i knew the shot would fall low and penetrate the chest cavity striking the heart region.  A gently squeeze of the trigger again and BOOM....rabbit number 2:

So now i head back to my truck to take a look at the time and i had decided that it was time to move on to hunting a couple of ground squirrels and try and get some video footage.  Off i go to my ground squirrel area and upon arriving, the wind had picked up just a little and i didn't have very much time to hunt.  I arrive and I quickly get out of the truck and grab all my necessities and refill the gun back up to 2000 psi again.  My first squirrel would come in at a lasered 41 yards and I did not have much time to set up on him as he was skiddish.  It was a cleanly placed head shot that would do that fellow in.  As i walked the area, i spot another squirrel at 79 yards but i did not want to make that kind of shot cause i'm still getting used to this gun.  So i stalked to right at 52 yards of the squirrel.  I sat on the ground and collapsed my shooting stick to where i could place the rifle on top of it while sitting and quickly started the camera rolling.  I then lasered the log the squirrel was sitting on just to verify the distance and it was again......54 yards.  The squirrel was looking at me with his head turned sideways giving me the perfect shot opportunity (between eye and ear) and i decided to place the JSB right down his ear canal.  Once i squeezed the trigger, i could very clearly hear the impact.  The CrosMods .22 had again, done her job:

Attached is a video of the above listed shots.  The video runs 2 minutes and 32 seconds.  In that video, i included the last 2 ground squirrels of the day.  Whats different about the shots in the video on the last squirrels is that.....I MISSED!  I included the misses cause missing is a very real part of hunting and or shooting.  And i'm not afraid to say or admit that i have enough video of misses that i could make a 2 hour video out of it......lol.  Ok, so not 2 hours worth but enough.  Whats kind of funny too is that the majority of the time that i miss, i miss very cleanly and the animals are not wounded and run down their holes to die and agonizing death.  The first ground squirrel i OVERCOMPENSATED by like 2 mil-dots and the shot was to the far right.  I missed the squirrel but i did manage to kill the log he was sitting on...lol.  The second squirrel again, was a clean miss as i simply did not ADD enough compensation for wind doping and the shot was close but, i got no cigar.  Both squirrels lived to see another day:

STAY TUNED!!

.308 Corsair Long Range Session (part 1 of a 4 part series)

Hey guys, and welcome to another one of my H.P.A. expeditions.  On this trip and in this series, i wanted to dwelve into some BASIC long range shooting with my airguns.  In this first installment, i opt to start with the .308 Corsair. A gun and bullet combo well suited for long range shooting.  The gun is making roughly 240+ ft lbs and has a true bore diameter of .308".  The bullets that i shoot through the gun are sized to .308" diameter and cast by myself.  I have found that in my particular gun, .308' works better than bullets sized to .309".  I start the day off with a simple sight in to zero the gun at 100 yards.  The gun proves to be plenty accurate at 100 yards as a few bullets that i used that day printed 2 shots touching each other.  The three bullets are the 135 grain Spitzer, the 148.5 gr RCBS HP and a 155 gr LEE mold Flat Point bullet.  Remember, this is an airgun and not a powder burner so shot count is limited per fill.  At 3600 psi, i get 4-5 shots but only the first couple are consistent in velocity and accuracy.  Its the nature of a big bore airgun.  You simply don't buy them to shoot 20-50+ shots off of 1 fill.  You buy them for all out POWER.  Lets take a look at a few targets from that day:

As you can see above, the accuracy is there.

After sighting in and getting the POI pretty close, i then set up some of the REACTIVE targets that i brought along.  REACTIVE targets are basically anything that you can shoot that simply lets you know you hit it.  Such as a can filled full of soda, or an aspirin tablet or a jug filled with water or even a metallic swinging target that GONGS when you hit it.  I set up 2 water bottles/jugs at 91 yards and hit one with the 308 Corsair and the other with the Jack Haley 457.  The targets fell easily at the shots.  I then move out to 100 then 150 then 200 yards with my steel swinging target that sways when its hit with something powerful enough to make it move upon impact.  At those distances i also managed to shoot a MELON and a couple of jugs filled with water.  The gun/bullet combo proves to be accurate and have plenty of potential all the way out to 200 yards.

During the session which you will see in the video, my rear scope ring is not tight and the clamp manages to come slightly out of the dovetail groove on the receiver.  My groups all of a sudden move upward and the gun continues to shoot a tad high for the remainder of the day.  It was not till i went home that i found the issue.  I reset the rear scope ring and also REPLACED the entire scope with another that i had on a gun that i don't shoot too often.  So that should resolve the POI issue on the following shoots with this gun.

All in all, i am very pleased with the gun as it performed very well at distance.  Probably better than i thought in the beginning even considering the scope malfunction during the making of this video.  Lets go ahead and review the video and it explains the story in more detail.  ENJOY:

STAY TUNED!!!