I relearned a valueable lesson recently: when its windy, shooting at LR is tough. When its really, really windy, its really really tough!
My buddy Todd and I ran up to the edge of the panhandle for a few days of prarie dog shooting. I packed a BUNCH of gear planning on trying to extend my furthest dog yet. Didn't happen. In fact, bothe the 300WM and the 7mm never saw the light of day!
What did happen was we had a great time, and did some good scouting for the spring trip. Todd brought along a short barrel M4 to play with, and his Knight SR25MK11 for the more serious work. The M4 went both days without a kill, but several narrow misses out to 200yds or so. The SR made one kill between 350yds and 400yds, but dogs got to the body faster than we did.
On the second day Todd used my 243AI to wack a dog at 427yds (his longest 1shot kill). Pretty impressive considering we had sustained winds over 30mph, with gusts over 45!
And I managed a bit better that morning with one kill at 460.
As you can see, the 95gr Berger is a bad bullet to catch.
The terrain is low rolling hills and shots out to 700 are possible here without any difficulty.
The wind finially started to slack off on the evening of the second day, and I got to streach the legs on the 243. Late in the evening I killed one at 962yds, but due to failing light, and time crunch, we decided to skip the photos and pack up.
Heres the second location, more of an open valley, shots out to 1300 or so avalable here on this landowners property. Max ranges visible are probably 3 miles or so. The horizon at the right edge is actually in Texas... so im wondering if I need another nonresident lisence for those dogs... gotta ask my game wardon about that.
My portable benchrest passed the test with flying colors... this was its first outing away from the house. It was designed to fit in the trunk of the car, swivel, and be rock solid. Assembly takes about 5 minutes. While you can't see it in these pics, there is a fixture built into the back of the rest to allow me to change barrels in the field. That was the plan, but with the wind blowing how it was, I didn't think it was worth the extra recoil to swap them.
All in all a fun trip, despite the brutal wind. Spring won't come fast enough!
My buddy Todd and I ran up to the edge of the panhandle for a few days of prarie dog shooting. I packed a BUNCH of gear planning on trying to extend my furthest dog yet. Didn't happen. In fact, bothe the 300WM and the 7mm never saw the light of day!
What did happen was we had a great time, and did some good scouting for the spring trip. Todd brought along a short barrel M4 to play with, and his Knight SR25MK11 for the more serious work. The M4 went both days without a kill, but several narrow misses out to 200yds or so. The SR made one kill between 350yds and 400yds, but dogs got to the body faster than we did.
On the second day Todd used my 243AI to wack a dog at 427yds (his longest 1shot kill). Pretty impressive considering we had sustained winds over 30mph, with gusts over 45!
And I managed a bit better that morning with one kill at 460.
As you can see, the 95gr Berger is a bad bullet to catch.
The terrain is low rolling hills and shots out to 700 are possible here without any difficulty.
The wind finially started to slack off on the evening of the second day, and I got to streach the legs on the 243. Late in the evening I killed one at 962yds, but due to failing light, and time crunch, we decided to skip the photos and pack up.
Heres the second location, more of an open valley, shots out to 1300 or so avalable here on this landowners property. Max ranges visible are probably 3 miles or so. The horizon at the right edge is actually in Texas... so im wondering if I need another nonresident lisence for those dogs... gotta ask my game wardon about that.
My portable benchrest passed the test with flying colors... this was its first outing away from the house. It was designed to fit in the trunk of the car, swivel, and be rock solid. Assembly takes about 5 minutes. While you can't see it in these pics, there is a fixture built into the back of the rest to allow me to change barrels in the field. That was the plan, but with the wind blowing how it was, I didn't think it was worth the extra recoil to swap them.
All in all a fun trip, despite the brutal wind. Spring won't come fast enough!
