Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Africa Poatal match May 1st deadline for targets.

I made mine with bamboo and a cut up bicycle innertube.

Recieved the first targets yesterday. Thanks Nick

Not only recieved them but every direction to the letter was followed!

Good job!

Does that mean I am in first place for once? Yahooo!!

Two weeks left folks, Hope your ranges clear up of snow and you get your targets in soon!

Heading North Saturday with guns in tow. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I have been practicing. Bad news is that I just cannot shoot a 375 Holland at the levels required for the DG class. I guess I'm just a wimp. So I have re-grouped and I'm getting one of my Sharps zeroed well to make plains game. If the 45mph winds will just lay down for a couple of hours my targets will be headed in. I am shooting African style, shorts sandals and my 50 yd. line has an ant bed to contend with. If I can stay centered jumping and scratching ants I think I can hunt Africa.

SS

An ant hill, now THAT adds some realism!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I was thinking that for the dangerous game competition we should have to shoot at a 4 inch kill switch on a 10,000 pound car headed our way at 35MPH.

I shot my 300 ULTRA yesterday for record, did OK but I do not excpect to win any prizes. Could not find my D^*# sling and had zero practice due to weather, got my first scope cut of the year on my Schnauze but... its all just for FUN! I was going to send the targets and the prizes I am donating back to JJ today but my gunsmith in Bremerton called and told me that there is a good chance I will have my 416 back by the weekend in which case I may be able to shoot dangerous game class after all. Again with no practice but thats OK. Great idea, JJ. Thanks for heading this up. Targets and prize donations will be en route soon.

For the record, it looks as if we will have more prizes then contestants. I have a Primo Alaskan Timberwolf skull completely finsihed by Custom Osteo, cleaned with beetles and snow white to donate for a prize. I will also provide a copy of my Book "Africa the first time" as a prize.

So I think as it stands now we have the following

a DVD from Peter V
The Africa items from Safariman
The wolf skull from JJHACK
The Book from JJHACK
An SCI membership from Stetson

I'm missing something here and just cannot recall it. I'm afraid my CRS has kicked in again for the moment.

I'm afraid I'm out of it.
I was out in the hills. Hopped into the SUV to drive over to the shooting spot - no startum. The rest of the day was spent dealing with that. I'm supposed to head out for bear this week, today was my only chance to shoot paper.

But thanks.

I've been trying to get a good load going with my 416 Rem over the last few weekends. I think I've finally found one with the 350grain Barnes TSX and 84 grains of RL15. About 1 inch, center to center for 3 shots. It was kind of tough this last weekend since it was snowing like crazy, but I got it done. I shoot at a place above 10,000 ft elevation, so snow this time of year isn't unusual. I haven't practiced at all on the sticks, so I'll just have to see how that goes and hope for the best. I will shoot for record this weekend and if I have the time, I'll shoot my 338 Win Mag for plains game and the 416 for dangerous game. Best of luck to everyone. JJ - I'm hoping that you receive a lot of entries after this weekend, since people like me are taking their sweet time!
Test

So I gather your book will be a consolation prize? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I'm going to try to get the target done up next week. Ready or not, the .270AI gets a crack at it, if I can.

Ok, my targets are shot. I caught an evening without 40mph winds so I just went out and got it done. I drove down on my range and used my Leica range finder to confirm the ranges were correct. The 50yd range was right in the middle of an ant bed and that particular part did not take long. I was also pretty much African style in that it was 101 degrees on my porch thermometer, late in the evening and I had put in a pretty stout day at work. Here are the targets:




I was pretty surprised that I couldn't do better with the sticks. I wasn't able to get the side to side wobble out . The rifle was my old stand by 40-70ss Shiloh. It was loaded with 300gr. Hornady bullets sized down to .408 and driven just over 2000fps. The load just barely makes the plains game minimum of 2500 foot pounds of energy.




Here is the picture of the sticks and my rifle. As you can see it is iron sighted and set up "Texas Style" with a semi-buckhorn and copper blade front sight. The sticks are just lashed together bamboo stakes that came from some trees in the yard.





This final picture is a couple of feral hogs that Goldielocks and I stumbled into after I shot the poatal targets. We had driven down to a wheat field to check the water for the cattle and I saw 10 or so ferals in the field. I circled behind them and caught them below me in some double thick brush. I could see the hump in a big one and shot it. It squealed for a while then crawled in the extra thick stuff and got quiet. The squealing busted the others out in the field and I rolled the larger one in the picture at about 90 yds. The smaller one was further out and he caught a round in the head at about 130yds. I was very surprised to hit two hogs running hard with the Sharps. That Sharps had pretty much gone full auto on me.

In all, the targets are probably just a tad better than I shoot in the field. I hate to admit that, I'd just as soon have everyone think that I can work magic with a Sharps but its not true. There is no magic, the decent shooting comes from something like 8000 rounds out of this rifle in the last 5 years.

Weird evening, take care.

SS

Well our snows gone but it rained cats & dogs all weekend. I'm already for next weekend rain or shine.

Fortunately the rain cleared here, so I was able to get to the range -- will mail my targets tomorrow.

They're too ugly to post here -- let's just say the 75 yd. offhand should bring the cream to the top!

John

I did not get my 416 back (sniff....) but I shot the 300Ultra for record and will mail my targets and the prizes I am donating tomorrow. I don't think I will win any prizes with my targets but it is a fun endeavor.

What a beautiful day on the East side today eh! I was over at Moses lake shooting carp for two days with my little boy. Windy Saturday but really warm. The water is still too cold for the masses of fish, only 53deg. But the sunshine over the next week should really change that for next weekend!

I'll bet shooting weather was as good down by you too.

I've never shot Carp with a bow but I'd guess I had just about as much fun bowhunting Suckers in the spring as a kid could have.

Hey JJ,

I was able to get out this weekend and shoot the match for both plains game and dangerous game. I shot my .338 Win Mag for plains game and my .416 Rem Mag for dangerous game. Just thought I'd post some observations that I made about myself during the shooting. First and probably most important, this match made me realize that I should be shooting alot more under these type of situations, i.e. offhand, off sticks, under some type of pressure. During the shooting I had to actually calm myself down and concentrate on the task at hand and getting everthing right, such as breathing, squeezing the trigger, pushing recoil out of my mind, etc. I learned that shooting off of sticks (Stoneypoint tripod type in my case) is not as easy as it sounds. Further practice is in my future! I also learned that while shooting offhand, it is actually much easier to control my heavy 416 than it is to hold my relatively lightweight 338. You were right, too, that offhand at 75 yards is much different than offhand at 100 yards. While I doubt that my shooting was good enough to win anything, the time spent preparing and then actually shooting the match was well worth the effort. It was a good excuse to get out early and start preparing for this years hunting season Thanks again for initiating the contest. I'll look forward to the next one.
Test

I'll second that--breathing was the tough part for me.

I'll also second the thanks to JJ for running this -- the best thing, but also the hardest, in any kind of sport or competition is that you have to get out there and expose your weaknesses. But I think it was Gen. Patton who said "Pressure makes diamonds"!