Went out the other day for a little shooting, finally supposed to be sunny with light winds.
I guess 20 mph is now considered light......
Loaded up the truck with steel plates and a few milk jugs.
Heading west for my annual deer hunt in a couple weeks, so I needed to check zeros on the two guns I generally take. My "light gun' is a 6.5x47 Lapua, shooting 130 VLD's at 2820, the LR gun is a 6.5-284 shooting the same bullet at 3150. The others came along for play time.
Earlier this year I built target stands out of treated 2x4's that I could just leave out there, so I didn't have to haul my rebar stands back & forth.
Four of them like this:
I had stashed the 1K stand over the fence on the field side of the pasture, so I picked it up on my way by. Got it set up at 900 yards, set out a few jugs, then drove down the hill to the 800 mark. It was too far from anywhere to hide it this past spring, so I just left it out there, thinking the cattle would consider it part of the landscape. I should have know better. I finally found it a little over 100 yards away with two busted legs, and the two lower hooks gone.
So I drove down the hill to get the third stand I had hung up in an apple tree. That f'cker was gone too. Found it in the spring/creek/swamp, muddy, but still intact. Drove back up the hill to set it at 800, then had to run the bastards off, as they were camping out, slobbering all over the first target, & knocking over the jugs:
So I drove back up the hill to set that target at 800, stuck a rod in the ground with surveyors tape for a wind flag, then set more jugs out in a line heading up the hill. By the time I had the last jug set, the GD cattle were already at the 800 target and one had pulled the tape off and ate it. I tied on another piece, got in the truck, then finally got them all pushed down the hill out of the way.
Finally drove down to the 500 yard mark where I had stashed the last frame in a wood pile/tree top......gone. Found that one down the hill in the creek, intact but the two hooks were missing too.I thought I had pinched them tight enough that they wouldn't come off from shooting, but the f'ing cattle must have channel locks too. Luckily I had some spare bungees I borrowed the hooks off of.
Of course my earlier cattle drive set them all down to my shooting point, so as I was trying to get set up to shoot, I had to keep shooing them away. This was the theme for the next couple hours. Surprised I could shoot as well as I did, as I kept the heart rate up the whole time. Every gun, I shot the first clean/cold shot at the 500 yard steel, and got 1st round hits on all except the last gun. After chasing the bovine away for the umpteenth time I forgot to shoot it.
So I shot one gun at a time at all 3 targets, 1 at 500, 1 at 800, 1 at 900. The little 47 missed at 900, but with the mirage & tall grass, I missed the impact. So I moved to a jug, and just missed hitting the cap, going just over. The next went a RCH to the right due to the wind picking up. That one's ready, so I put it away.
Next up was the 6.5-284. I only shot this one 3 times. All three were first round hits. This gun is a hammer, and & I don't plan on wearing it out. They might make barrels every day, but there's no guarantee that it'll shoot like this one.
The last four guns all had first round hits at 800, but only two of those at 900 with 1st shot hits. Wind and mirage started kicking in, and it was tough to tell if I hit with the 22's. Didn't help my electronic muff's battery died too. After that, I spent the rest of the time on the milk jugs.
And the f'ing cattle had finally had enough harassing for one day
800 yard steel. One shot ticked the upper left corner just missing the hook:(that counts)
These cows were likely protesting the content in the jugs not being milk...Thanks for bringing out the collection for us to see, again. Great shooting, too. 😎
Last edited by Beaver10; 10/30/18.
Curiosity Killed the Cat & The Prairie Dog “Molon Labe”
That's one thing about dairy cows, they are like big pets. My cows spend plenty of time trying to tear things up, but at least when I go shooting I can unload the guns where I shoot, drive out and set up targets as fast as i can, then park the truck wherever I want the cows to gather. They think that truck has grain in it all the time, especially winter, which is when i shoot the most because the grass is short.
Nice shooting. The targets I use for 600 plus are wood, 24x36 and it's not uncommon for me to take 2-3 swings at 800-1000 before I even hit paper. I need a lot more practice in the wind.