VarmintAir's Airgun Hunting Blog

Celestron Ultima 100 Spotting Scope, Used To scout Potential Ground Squirrel Hunting Area - The Rest Of The Story

Celestron Ultima 100 spotting scope.

If you haven't read my last blog story, about the whys and wherefores that lead me to once again add a spotting scope to my hunting kit,  you might want to go to the sidebar and give that story a quick read.

As an initial test of the resolving power of this spotting scope, I put a target out at 300 yards that had .177, and .22 caliber pellet holes in it, and discovered that in decent conditions, the scope would indeed resolve .177, and .22 caliber pellet holes at that range.  Great, then I should have no difficulty at all seeing much larger items like stumps and ground squirrels at 400 to 500 yards. 

After I finished with that experiment, I headed a couple of miles away, to an area that I had seen on an earlier scouting trip.  It was an area that I wanted to check out from a distance, for ground squirrel habitat and squirrel sign.

This is the area that I was focused on.  The far tree line is 400+ yards away.

Once I had the scope set up, and started looking back into the trees, it wasn't long before I was seeing the all important old stumps.  There were also a lot of old blowdowns back in there.

I'm mostly interested in the area from the meadow's edge, back into the woods about 100 yards.  For some reason, that I haven't figured out yet, if ground squirrels are there, the greatest number will typically be found around the edge of the meadow, and back into the woods about a hundred yards or so.

I've got the spotting scope set at about 35 power, and I'm liking what I see.  As I'm slowly working the scope across the area, I spot a stump back in there, with a bright pile of debris sitting on the top of it.  I know from experience, that the debris is from the remains of seeds and pine cones that have been field stripped by a ground squirrel.

Stump spotted in scope, at about 400 yards, with pile of debris on it.

This is good stuff, and it's decision time.  This is our rainy season, and there are a bunch of thunderheads building in the distance.  I know that it won't be long before I will be getting rain, with thunder and lightening all around.  In looking at their size, speed, color, and direction of travel, I figure I've got an hour or so before I need to start getting to concerned.

Let's do it.  I've got my RWS, .22 cal Rapier along, with its new 4-12x40mm Hawke Panorama EV scope on it, and I'm anxious to drop some squirrels with the combo.  I get the Rapier out, along with my binos, range finder, pellets, pellet pouch, and bipod, get geared up and head out across the park, to the far tree line.

As I slip into the tree line, it definitely looks like ground squirrel paradise back in there.  I locate the stump with the debris on it, and go over to check it out and take a picture.  When I'm finished with that, I start looking the area over with my binos, and about 40 yards away, I spot another stump with debris on it also.

Second stump with squirrel debris.

Man, this is looking really good, but I have yet to see a squirrel.  About that time, out of the corner of my left eye, I see a flash of movement.  I put my binos on the area, and sure enough, a furball has jumped up onto the back of a stump, in the shadows, and is looking directly at me.  I zap it with my ranger finder, and get 46 yards.  I've got the rifle sighted in dead on at 40, so I just hold a little high on his head, and squeeze off the shot.

I'm shooting the 18 grain JSB's out of the Rapier, and the combo is just stupid accurate. This might just be the most accurate PCP I own.  For sure, it's a close tossup between this rifle and my FX 2000. Anyway, the pellet hit exactly where expected, and the squirrel was DRT.

First squirrel taken at 46 yards, with RWS Rapier, and new 4-12x40mm Hawke Panorama EV scope.

As I'm heading over to get a picture of the squirrel, with the rifle and new scope, I hear a loud clap of thunder, and see a bright flash of lightening off in the distance.  Hmm, go, stay, go, stay, I decide to stay for just a little while longer, and I decide to hunt in a way, that will take me back in the general direction of my vehicle.

It is absolutely beautiful back in there, and I'm really glad I decided to try the spotting scope method of scouting some of these kinds of areas. I'm very diligently using my binoculars as I hunt along.  Lot's of stumps and blowdowns to check out, and with their coloration, these guys can be hard to see with the naked eye, especially when they are sitting back in the shadows.

There's another loud clap of thunder, accompanied with a flash of lightening, and a few rain drops start to fall.  Nothing major, just a drop here and there, but an indication of what is on the way.

As I'm glassing the area ahead of me, I see a squirrel sitting on an old blowdown log. The R/F says 106 yards.  I want to close the range some, so using the pine trees, that are between myself and the squirrel, I start putting the sneak on him.

I finally reach the point where I've run out of trees to use for cover.  I very carefully stick my head around the side of the tree I'm behind, and shoot a range to the furball. It comes back as 61 yards.  This'll do.  Very slowly, I move my bipod into position, and while resting my rifle on it, I put my right shoulder against the tree and line up the shot.

At 61 yards, I know I'm going to need to show some daylight between the horizontal crosshair and the top of the squirrels head.  I decide to use the hash mark between the first and second mildots on the Hawke scope. Considering the thunder and lightening going on, there really isn't any wind.  One of those, "calm before the storm" scenarios.

I held on the spot between the eye and earhole, and launched the pellet. Because of the angle of lighting in the area, I was able to watch the pellet in flight, as it reached the apex of its flight path, and dropped, like a heat seeking missile, down onto the squirrels head.  Always amazing to see.

The furball dropped down onto the log for a few seconds, and then rolled off of it out of sight.  This is what I initially saw when I got up to the log.

Looking down, I found the squirrel on the ground, DRT.

By now, the thunder is getting louder, and the lightening flashes are getting closer, so I decided to get a quick picture of the squirrel and rifle, and get the heck out of there. 

I took a somewhat circuitous route getting back.  I Stayed tucked back in the trees, and followed the tree line back to the road I drove in on.  I then stayed inside the trees along the road, and hiked back to my vehicle.  No way did I want to walk 400 yards, in the open, across that meadow, with lightening strikes hitting all around the area.  On the way back, I saw several more squirrels, but not wanting to get caught in the deluge that I knew was coming, I gave them all a pass, but I will be back.  

The hunt was a lot of fun, even if it was cut short.  It's the first time I've used the spotting scope to locate ground squirrel habitat at relatively long distance, and it was the first hunt with the new Hawke scope on my Rapier.  Next time, I'm going to get out there a lot earlier in the day, before the thunder heads have a chance to build, and spend a few relaxing hours hunting more furballs.

Here's that last squirrel I dropped off of the log at 61 yards.

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of these park/meadow areas in the forest. Some large, and some small.  I've humped across many of them, only to find nothing, squirrel wise, in the forest on the other side. With others, I've hit the jackpot. I figured there had to be a more efficient way to check them out.  I think I have found it.  All in all, I'm very happy with the concept of using a spotting scope to optically recon some of these areas for squirrel habitat, and I'm sure she will earn her keep in no time at all. 

  

 

 

 

 

After About 10 Years Without One - I've Added A Spotting Scope - To My Hunting Kit Again

Up until about a decade ago, I had a spotting scope that I used when hunting rock chucks, at long range, in Montana and Wyoming.  A buddy and I, would stop on our way to hunt prairie dogs in eastern Wyoming, or South Dakota, and shoot rock chucks at 500/600 yards in the Absaroka-Beartooth mountains.  My spotting scope was an indispensable tool.

The model that I had at the time, was the Leica Televid 77, and as you would expect, coming from Leica, the optics were beyond excellent.   For a variety of reasons, we stopped making those trips, and about ten years ago, I sold off the spotting scope.

Fast forward to today, and now, living in Northern Arizona, I have found several reasons to need another spotting scope.  There is a lot of wildlife here available to view, but I mainly want to use it to optically recon potential ground squirrel hunting sites.

If you've been following my blog, you know that the ground squirrels that we have up here live in the surrounding Ponderosa Pine forest, and have a very specific set of habitat requirements for them to populate an area.

I've covered those requirements before, so won't go over all of it again, but will say, that the number one need, is a goodly number of 80 to 100 year old rotting stumps, left from when the area was logged, many decades ago.

The attraction to those old stumps, is the fact that they have started to rot in the centers, and around the edges, leaving openings that lead down into the ground under the stumps. That gives the ground squirrels the perfect place to build their underground dens. They climb up through the holes in the stumps, sit on the top viewing their territory, and/or eating seeds and nuts.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

The holes at nine o'clock, and eleven o'clock, drop straight down into chambers beneath the stump. The holes make great escape hatches for when danger is near. The ground squirrel that inhabits this particular stump, has been feeding on the readily available pine cones, and that pile of debris, is one of the things I'm looking for when glassing areas for squirrels.

I'm always searching for new squirrel habitat.  Because these guys do not populate any given area of the forest in great numbers, I prefer not to hunt the same spot more than twice in any given year.

Finding new spots involves covering a lot of ground.  Sometimes I drive right into an area that has ground squirrels.  Other times I see an area three or four hundred plus yards away, across a park/meadow, that looks like it might have potential, but my eight power binoculars just don't give me enough detail to really tell much.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

That far tree line is a good 400+ yards away.  There is no vehicle access to that area, and it is highly illegal to drive across that park.  The only option is to hike into the area, and check it out.  Not a big deal, unless it's the sixth hike that day, and when my squirrel habitat success rate is about one in every six hikes, then it gets old real quick. My solution to the issue, is to get a spotting scope, and where possible, recon the areas optically, from a distance.

The Leica scopes are first rate, but the reality is, I don't need a $3000 spotting scope to do what I want to do.  After spending some time researching spotting scopes, and talking to a few guys here locally, I settled on the Celestron Ultima 100 with the 45 degree viewing angle.  I picked it up from Amazon for $280 bucks.  I know, I know, it's made in China, so how good can this thing be for that kind of money.

Well, the guys that I talked to about them, were real happy with the performance, so I figured I would give one a shot.  First impression, it's big, well made, and heavy.  That 100mm objective lens, also helps to give nice bright images, and my aging eyes like bright images.

As I said, it's a big heavy scope.  It does need to be mounted on a good sturdy tripod.  I already have one of those, with ball head, for my DSLR camera. The Ultima 100 comes with a zoom eyepiece, that goes from 22 up to 66 power. For my application, I'm finding that from about 35 power to 40 power is the most useful.  At that power range I can readily see back into the trees, and it's easy to spot the types of stumps, and squirrel sign that I'm looking for, if it's there.  

Scope mounted on my tripod.

A closer view.

Sometimes, because of the high magnification, it can be a challenge to find, in the scope, what you want to look at.  This model has a clever fix for that problem.  There is a peep sight tube, moulded into the left side of the housing.  You look through that tube, move the scope until you locate your subject in it, and when you then look through the scope itself, you will be very close to being on.

Close up of peep sight tube.

Okay, so is this thing going to work for my application or not?  Well, for starters, on my way out to the area where I wanted to test it, I could see a large herd of three or four hundred elk, feeding in a very large open area.  They were a good 1000 yards away, so I decided to stop and check them out with the new scope.

A portion of the elk herd.  Photo taken with small point and shoot camera, at max zoom.

With the Ultima 100, set at 35 power, it was very easy to pick out the big bulls, small yearling bulls, and the cows with calves.  Geez, I would hope so.  Some of the big bulls are the size of a small car.  It was a fun stop, but didn't really tell me much about how the scope would work for my needs.

Next, I headed into the forest, so that I could set up my target frame, and view a target that had .177, and .22 caliber pellet holes in it.  I was curious if I would be able to see those holes at 300 yards.  I figured that If I could see those, I would be able to clearly see ground squirrels, and stumps at much, much greater ranges.

The target that was placed at 300 yards.

Truthfully, I didn't expect much, but when the air was calm, and the heat waves were quiet, I could see the .177 pellet holes.  The half inch orange dots were easy, and of course the Shoot-N-C targets looked huge in comparison.  

I'm very satisfied with the purchase.  If you want a scope where you can tell the 12 different shades of blue and grey, on a mountain bluebird, at 500 yards, I think you would be better served with the Leica, but for my purpose, this scope is going to work out great.

So how does it perform for my application?  Well, I took it back to that park/meadow area that I posted a picture of earlier, and used it to check out that spot.  So how did it work out?  It was great, that picture of the stump up above, with the squirrel cuttings on it, was one of the things I saw when I scoped the area back in the trees.

That's all I needed to know.  I got out my RWS Rapier, the rest of my hunting gear, and hiked on over there for a short hunt.  How did that go? Well, that's a different blog story, but below is a hint.

So, is the Ultima 100 the equivalent of, or even close to the current Leica Televid 82, or even the older Televid 77?  Well, no.  I was a Leica sporting optics dealer for ten years, and the tight tolerances held, materials used, and processes those folks apply in the manufacture of their optics are second to none, and are borderline fanatical.  All of that definitely shows up in their finished products.   

However, having said that, for my application, the Celestron Ultima 100, is going to work out great. Now, I'm going to head back out into the forest, and check out some of the likely looking areas that I originally let pass, because it was either to hot and humid, or I just didn't have the energy to get out and cover the ground, to see what those areas might have to offer.

Stay tuned, Lots more to come.

 

 

 

 

 

Google Maps - An Airgunner's Best Friend - Scouting For Prairie Dog Towns - In New Mexico

A pair of AZ prairie dogs.

I've been using Google Maps, as a pre-hunt scouting tool for many years. If you know what you are looking for, Google Maps can save a lot of random driving, and blind scouting.  At todays gas prices, any help I can get narrowing things down to a specific hunt area, is a good thing.

I was planning a prairie dog hunt up to Wyoming this year, but it's a long haul, and this summers gas prices, along the Interstate highways, will probably be close to $5.00 a gallon, if not more, so I've decided to head over to New Mexico, and see what I can do there.

Like Northern Arizona, New Mexico has populations of prairie dogs. They seem to be more widely spread across New Mexico, than here in Arizona, so with a hunt in mind, I fired up Google Maps and started to do some scouting. The first thing I did, was to locate a known to be active, dog town on one of the ranches I hunt here in Arizona, and use Google Maps to get a look at what an active dog town looks like, from a satellite's point view. 

Here's a picture of a prairie dog mound, up close and personal. This picture has been cropped, but if seen from above, this mound would look to be about fifteen, or so feet across. Now put one of these every 100 to 200 feet across the landscape, in every direction, and you end up with what is commonly called a prairie dog town. Some will be small, maybe an acre or so, and some will cover thousands of acres. 

Prairie dog mound on a ranch I hunt here in AZ.

Here's a satellite view of a small portion of the dog town, that the above mound is in, that covers thousands of acres.  This is on a cattle ranch, and the ranch owner isn't real happy to have these guys on his property. Especially in these numbers.

All of those little dots are prairie dog mounds. Now that I know what an active dog town looks like from a satellite view, I headed on over to New Mexico, and started spending time on the computer, looking for likely areas to hunt.

I picked up a map of New Mexico, that shows public, and private land ownership, and went to work. It took a bit of effort, but I have located some nice sized prairie dog towns on public land over there. Here's a satellite view of a small area in one of the towns I've found so far.

New Mexico prairie dog town, as seen from a satellite. 

Using Google Maps, I have located a half dozen dog towns on public land, in about a 100 square mile area, so instead of blindly searching for an area that holds prairie dog towns, I'll head straight to the areas I've pre-scouted using Google Maps, and have a look see. Should be a ton of fun.

I'll be hunting my AA 510 TC .22, and my Marauder .25. 

I've also used Google Maps to successfully scout for tree squirrel and cottontail rabbit habitats.  Nothing guarantees a successful hunt, but I'm a big believer in using Google Maps to try and stack the deck in my favor.  

 

Scopes For Airgun Hunting With PCP's - How Much Do You Really Need To Spend?

Above, are some of the scopes that I find work just great for the type of hunting that I do with my airguns. Top to Bottom.  MTC Viper 4-16x50mm, Leupold Vari X II 4-12x40mm, Bushnell Legend 5-15x40mm, and a Leupold 3-9x33mm EFR.  In addition to those shown, I have others from Crosman, Nikko Stirling, and Simmons that are mounted on various guns, and ready to hunt.

When talking about scopes and prices, the sky is the limit, $800, $1500, $2000+, Swarovski, Zeiss, Leupold are some examples, and there are others up there as well. For sure there are some differences in the mechanical build, and optical quality, between the premium priced scopes, and the value priced units, but do I really need that difference on guns that have no recoil, and rarely get shot past 100 yards.  I decided some time ago that the answer is no.

Up until four or five years ago, I had a couple of Leupold 6.5-20x40mm EFR models mounted on a couple of my air rifles, and they were really nice scopes.  Around that same time, I picked up a used FX 2000, and started looking for some glass to put on it. I settled on a Bushnell Elite 3200, 7-21x40mm with mildot reticle.  At the time, I think it was around $325 bucks.  It turned out to be a very nice scope mechanically, and optically, and the performance on various hunts, was everything I could ask for and then some.

I sold off the Leupolds, and bought myself a nice AA 410ERBSL .22 cal PCP with the money, and at the time, dropped a $200 dollar Bushnell Legend 5-15x40mm scope on it, and never looked back

I currently hunt with scopes by CenterPoint, MTC, Bushnell, Simmons, Nikko Stirling, and Leupold.  The price range is from $114 dollars, to around $400.  Some were picked up on sale, and others were purchased at the going price of the day.

The big CenterPoint, MTC, and Nikko Stirling 4-16x50/56mm scopes are all on my prairie dog rifles, and they work great when looking to put a pellet through a prairie dogs head at 100+ yards.  With these scopes, I can easily spot a prairie dogs head sticking up out of the prairie floor at 100 yards, and dropping a pellet onto it is not a problem.

A high dollar scope might also let me see the whiskers, on the prairie dogs nose, but do I really need to see the whiskers, to drop a pellet down a dogs ear hole, that I can plainly see with my value priced scopes?  Not really.  A nice clear image of the dogs head is all I need to get the job done, and all of these value priced scopes that I use, give me that.

Some of my hunting rigs, and the scopes I run on them.  All the scopes are variables, and set at 8X.

Leupold 3-9x33mm, on my FWB 300S .177, duplex crosshair.

Bushnell Legend 5-15x40mm, on my Benjamin Discovery .22, mildot reticle.

Leupold VariX II 4-12x40mm, on my RWS Rapier .22, duplex crosshair. 

Bushnell Elite 3200 7-21x40mm, on my FX 2000 .22, mildot reticle. 

Nikko Stirling Nighteater 4-16x50mm, on my AA 510 TC .22, mildot reticle.

Simmons Whitetail Classic 6.5-20x50mm, on my FX Whisper .22, mildot reticle. Thick crosshairs, but this is a dedicated cottontail rifle, so it's a non issue.

MTC Viper 4-16x50mm, on my AA 410ERBSL .22, SCB reticle.

CenterPoint 4-16x56mmAORG, on my Benjamin Marauder .25, mildot reticle.

CenterPoint 4-16x56mmAO, on my Benjamin Marauder .22, mildot reticle.

With just about any of these scopes, I can see the ticks in a jackrabbits ear at 90 yards. With a much more expensive scope, I might be able to tell the gender of the ticks in that jackrabbits ear, but I don't really need that capability to drop a pellet down that hares ear canal.

So like I tell folks all the time, when it comes to scopes for airguns that are recoilless, and rarely get shot past 100/120 yards, it's your dime, spend it how you want, but for what I do with my PCP's, these value priced scopes have all performed to perfection for me.  Never an issue of any kind with any of them, and I have never thought to myself, "man, I've got to get some better scopes."  YMMV.  

 

How Do I Clean My Airgun Barrels? - With A, J. Dewey Coated Rod - Pro-Shot Spear Tip Brass Jag - Pro-Shot Cotton Patches - and Beeman MP 5 - Rust Inhibiting Oil

Every once in awhile, somebody asks how I clean the barrels on my various airguns. Nothing particularly magic about it.

I've been using a J. Dewey, one piece nylon coated rod, with a Pro-Shot spear tip brass jag on it for many, many decades.  The J. Dewey rods are superb quality.  Ball bearings in the handle let the rod easily rotate as it pushes a brush or patch through the bore, and the nylon coating is first rate.

I was a Dealer of theirs for many, many years, and sold thousands of their cleaning rods. I never had a single rod returned for any reason whatsoever.  Really good stuff.

For cleaning PCP barrels with shrouds, I prefer the Pro-Shot spear tip jag, to the one that Dewey supplies with their rods.  When I am going through several baffles before coming to the barrel muzzle, the spear tip jag holds the patch better than the original jag, which has a tapered tip without the straight portion, that the Pro-Shot spear tip jag has.  There is a short female to female adapter that is required to allow the use of the spear tip jag on a Dewey rod.  The adapter is also made by Pro-Shot.

Pro-Shot spear tip jag, with adapter for use with the Dewey rod.

I clean from the muzzle, because when cleaning with a rod, that is typically the only option on most PCP's.  Once I start the patch into the end of the shroud, I do not change direction.  Not even a little bit. That will knock the patch off in the baffles.  Once I start, I just keep the forward motion going, and I haven't found hitting the bore to be difficult at all.  I haven't knocked a patch off in the baffles in years.

I use Beeman MP5 as a cleaning solution, and put a couple of drops on a proper size Pro-Shot cotton patch.  I run the patch down the barrel in a short back and forth scrubbing action, until it exits at the chamber end of the barrel.  

I will typically use four or five patches with MP5 on them, and then switch to clean dry patches, until one comes out clean enough that I'm satisfied.

Some barrels clean up really fast, and others take more scrubbing with MP5.  I just eyeball the patches, and decide by their appearance when the bore is clean.

Pro-Shot spear tip brass jag with patch.

I always laugh when I see the internet gurus telling folks that they will ruin their airgun's barrel if they use a cleaning rod on it.  Like these barrels are made from the same stuff that drinking straws are made of. I've checked all of mine with a magnet, and they are all made of some type of steel.  Much harder than the pellets I shoot in them, much harder than the brass jag I clean them with, and no, the barrel won't bend if you lean the gun against it in the corner. 

Use a quality one piece coated rod, with a brass jag, using quality patches, and the idea that you are somehow going to damage the barrel is total nonsense.  Myself, and several friends have been cleaning our airguns this way for decades.  Never an issue of any kind, and some of our guns are close to 40 years old, and shoot as good today as when they were new.

To hear the gurus tell it, these barrels are very delicate, and you have to pull the cleaning patch through from the chamber to muzzle, and you must use patches made from a 15 year old virgins belly button lint soaked in extra, extra virgin cleaning solution.

They seem to imply that just leaving your gun in the same room with a cleaning rod could do serious harm to your barrel.  Where do these guys come up with this stuff?

Anyway, I've been using this method successfully for many decades, on a lot of expensive and very accurate airguns, and don't see any reason to change, and not only that, but 15 year old virgins are getting harder, and harder to find.

 

 

Got Wind Flags?

A few days ago, I finally had a chance to get out and do some shooting and accuracy testing, and once again, I was reminded of why it is so important to use wind flags when doing serious testing of guns and pellets.

As usual, the day was breezy, with the wind constantly shifting and swirling. Trying to test a gun and pellets for accuracy in these conditions, without a way to manage the wind, is a complete waste of time and ammo.

I often wonder how many guns and pellets have been condemned as being inaccurate, when the real issue is the lack of wind management while testing.  Especially at longer ranges like 50 yards and beyond.

Anyone that has spent any time on the airgun forums, has seen the posts about the unexplained fliers, that inexplicably suddenly show up, and then disappear, or the unexplained reason for accuracy suddenly going away one day, but then returning the next.  

One possible cause, is that the shooter is completely ignoring the effects of the wind on a pellet, or explains the wind away by stating that it really didn't amount to very much, maybe just a few miles per hour or less, you know, barely detectible.  As though a few miles per hour of wind, or a barely detectible wind doesn't have any effect on airgun pellets. Believe me it does, and a lot more than the average guy would ever think.

Then throw in the fact that the wind isn't a constant velocity, nor is it always coming from the same direction, and it's no wonder so many guys have so much trouble shooting consistent groups with their guns.

Here's an example of what was going on the other day, when I was out to do some pellet testing, and re-sight-in my AA 410CRBSL carbine.

First thing I did, was to get my wind flags out, assemble them, and then just set them aside while I was getting out other gear.  While doing that, I would watch the set of flags to see if the wind was coming from a prevailing direction, this would help me decide where I would place my target frame when I was ready to start shooting. 

At one point, I took the above picture, waited a little bit, and then took the picture below.

The wind had shifted, and was coming from the opposite direction, and that was what was being indicated with the flags all grouped together in one place.  I know from experience, that once I get the flags dispersed down range, they will, more often than not, show that the wind is coming from several different directions simultaneously, over a fifty yard distance, and it gets even more complex as you extend the range to longer distances.

You cannot ignore what the wind is doing, or pretend that it really isn't all that much of a factor at your place, and expect to get any useful information about pellet accuracy from a specific gun.  There's a reason that benchrest shooters, and those boys are super serious about accuracy, have a sea of wind flags out when shooting matches, or practicing.  They know, what even a very slight puff of air does to a pellet in flight.

You cannot see that, with any degree of accuracy, with just the naked eye.  You need a way to see what the wind is doing along the pellets flight path, and wind flags will allow you to do that.  You still have to learn to read them, and use the information they provide correctly, but they are an amazing tool, and an item that anyone serious about learning how their guns are shooting, and shooting specific pellets, should have in their gear bag.

The below photos show a couple of targets that I shot as examples, a couple of years ago, to show precisely what reading a set of wind flags can bring to the party.  As I recall, the range was 50 yards.

On the first target, I used the flags to select the worst possible moment to fire the shot. My aim point, was the pellet hole in the middle of the head.  As you can see, the wind was running left to right, and back again. I fired each shot during the shifts.  Not pretty, but because I was reading the flags, I knew exactly what to expect, and I knew it wouldn't be pretty.

I could have just as easily been John Doe Shooter, pellet testing in those same conditions, without any flags, getting the same exact results, and then deciding that my gun is inaccurate, or the pellets stink, or both. 

On the second target, I read the flags, and fired each shot during a lull that was repeating, just before the wind changed direction again.  Same gun, same pellet, same conditions, completely different result.  All of a sudden, a pellet that shot lousy out of this rifle, a .25 cal Marauder, was incredibly accurate, but to discover the accuracy of this pellet in this rifle, I had to manage the wind factor.  A set of wind flags gave me the ability to do that.

You can still see some horizontal dispersion from the wind, but compared to the first target, it has all but been eliminated, and without the use of my flags, I wouldn't have come even close, to being able to see what this pellet, the Beeman Kodiak, was capable of out of this rifle.

Final sight-in target, shot on the same day at 65 yards.  With the flags indicating zero wind.

If you are really serious about testing for accuracy, get yourself a set of wind flags and learn to use them,  you'll be glad that you did.

 

A Winning Combination - Marauder PCP Pistol - Leica 8x32 BA Binoculars - Leica Rangemaster 1200 Range Finder - and The Stoney Point Telescoping Bipod

I just got back from another ground squirrel hunt with my Marauder PCP pistol/carbine.  What a hoot. The gun, in and of itself is fantastic, but I have to give credit to a few other pieces of gear, that allow me to use the P-Rod to its full potential.

First up, are my binoculars. They are the Leica 8x32 BA model.  I've had these things for more years than I can remember.  The clarity is superb. They're compact and light enough, that I can wear them around my neck all day without any strain, but more importantly to me, they do not cause me any eye strain either.  

When hunting, I spend a tremendous amount of time looking through my binoculars, hunting for ground squirrels that are hiding back in the shadows, and nooks and crannies where they build their dens and dig their burrows.  Many times all you will see is a head, or just a part of a head sneaking a peek over the edge of a burrow, or over the back of a log or stump.

At 40/50/60+ yards, you need a good pair of binoculars to pick them out. Especially when the squirrels are tucked back in the shadows.  I can spend hours looking through these binoculars, without feeling like my eyeballs are being sucked out of my head.

I've had my Leica Rangemaster 1200 range finder, since they first came on the market. The things I really like about it are, it's very accurate, it is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, the optics are crystal clear, and the reticle is lit.  

I had a model from a different manufacturer for awhile, and the problem I was having with it, was the fact that the reticle wasn't lit, and in some lighting situations, like when a squirrel was tucked back in deep shadows, my tired old eyes were having a hard time seeing the reticle. On the Leica's, the reticle is a brightly lit red box.  Even these old eyes can see that.

For me, the other indispensable piece of gear is my Stoney Point bipod. Without the use of my binoculars, to dig the squirrels out of their hidey holes, I wouldn't get half the number of shots that I do, and without the use of my bipod, I wouldn't make half the kill shots that I do.  Hitting small targets, at range, in the wind, is very challenging. I can use all of the help I can get, and my bipod makes all of the difference in the world.

Depending upon what, and where I'm hunting, the gun changes, but the other three pieces of gear stay the same, and are a huge part of my hunting success.

I shot a bunch of video during this hunt, so I'll have some more stories and video to share soon.  It was an awesome time to be in the field.  This years crop of mini vermin have come above ground, and were everywhere.  I saw multiple dozens of them, just in the area that I was hunting in.  

When they first emerge from below ground, they are about one third, to one fourth the size of the adults, with heads about the size of a quarter. Talk about challenging shooting.

Here's a picture looking across a field of wildflowers, that shows the type of terrain that I was hunting in.  When I took this picture, I was four wheeling my way up the side of a mountain, headed for a canyon that is very steep, but always produces good numbers of ground squirrels. I hunt the spot and stalk method, and because the area is so steep, I hunt up the side of the mountain in a zig zagging traverse fashion.  

I'm off to work on the stories and video.  Stay tuned, more to follow.     

                                                     

 

Hydro? - I Don't Need No Stinkin' Hydro...............Yet

I have two 88 cubic foot 4500 psi tanks, and just remembered, that April was the last month I could get one of them filled before it needed a fresh hydro test.  I forgot to do that, but that's okay, because I have a couple of guns that run on less than 3000 psi fills.

The tank is currently down to 3100 psi.  The good news is, my Marauder pistol runs on 2650 psi fills, and my Discovery rifle, runs on 2000 psi fills, so I'm just going to designate this tank for use with those two guns until it's down to 2000 psi, and then I'll jump through the hoops to get it hydro tested. 

My other tank still has about a year left on it before it needs to go in for hydro testing, so I'll designate that one for use only with my guns that run on 3000 psi fills.

So why not just run everything off of the tank with the current hydro, and get the other one in to be tested?  Because I just don't want to mess with it right now.  I'm having way too much fun hunting ground squirrels with my P-Rod, and I can still use the air left in the expired tank to fill the P-Rod dozens of times.  That equals a lot of shooting, and a bunch of ground squirrels that will now have something in common with this tank.  They'll all be expired.  Sorry couldn't resist.

And not only that, but I don't want to waste $5 bucks worth of air, when that $5 bucks could go for a Subway foot long sandwich.  Have I got my priorities straight or what? LOL.

When the tank gets down to 2650 psi left in it, I'll just switch to shooting my Discovery rifle, that runs on 2000 psi fills, and just keep on keeping on.  This winter, when there aren't a whole lot of hunting opportunities around here, I'll get it in for a fresh hydro test. 

In the meantime, let's go squirrel hunting.

 

  

California Ground Squirrels - Here We Come - Traveling Compact and Light - With The Marauder PCP Pistol

My first trip to California this year isn't going to be specifically to hunt ground squirrels.  Instead, it's going to be so that the wife and I can be present at the birth of our first grandchild, a boy.  We've been told, that he is going to be delivered via c-section on the 15th, and that mom and baby will spend a couple of days in the hospital after the delivery.

More than likely, on one of the days that we are there, I'll have some time to slip away for a few hours of ground squirrel hunting.

Normally, on a dedicated multiple day ground squirrel hunt, I would be taking at least three rifles, my 88 cubic foot AirHog carbon fiber tank, portable target frame, and portable shooting stand, along with my range bag, and other assorted goodies. 

This time, in the interest of keeping everything compact and convenient, I'm only going to take my Marauder Pistol, range bag with binoculars, range finder, non-lead ammo, magazines, and AirHog Pigmee tank.   The bag also contains an assortment of other items that I like to have along on my hunts.  The thing I like about it is, I only have this one bag to grab, and I know I have all of the small bits and pieces in one place, that I use when hunting.

AirHog Pigmee tank, with Dead Head mounted, showing 3800 psi.

I popped my Mac1 Dead Head onto the end of the Pigmee tank's fill hose, opened the main valve, and got a reading of 3800 psi remaining in the tank.  I fill the Marauder Pistol to 2600 psi, so I used one of the online fill calculators to determine, that with 3800 psi in my Pigmee, I'll be able to fill the Marauder pistol 19 times.  

I get 24 shots on a fill, so that's over 450 shots before the Pigmee needs to be refilled. No problem, I will not get anywhere near that many shot opportunities, while hunting for a few hours.

With the 14.5 grain, PCP-2's, my Marauder Pistol is generating 13.4 fpe at the muzzle, which is plenty of power to cleanly take ground squirrels out to 60+ yards.

The weather here locally is warming up a bunch over the next few days. Hopefully, most of the snow will melt off, and I'll be able to get out and get her sighted in at 40 yards.  I also want to shoot her at 50, and 60 yards, at some steel soup cans.  I'm curious to see the penetration of the DYNAMIC tin pellets at those ranges. 

I'm really looking forward to meeting our new grandson for the first time, and I'm also looking forward to putting my new Marauder pistol through her paces, while hunting with it for the first time.

This is going to be a very exciting trip in many ways. 

 

 

Dead Head - I Think I'll Check and See How Much Air Is Left - In My AirHog - Carbon Fiber Tank

Mac1, "Dead Head."   

Back in January, I wrote a blog story about carbon fiber tanks, hoses, fittings, and adapters.  That story got into the equipment, and some of the various pieces of gear involved with filling PCP (Pre-Charged Pneumatic) airguns.    

One other small piece of equipment, that I didn't mention in the previous story, but is very useful, is an item called a "Dead Head."  This is a small fitting with a male Foster on one end, and a plug on the other. (See above picture) It essentially seals the end of the fill hose, where either a fill adapter, or an airgun like the Marauder would normally connect.

(Shown below) "Dead Head" ready to snap onto the end of the fill hose. The main valve is closed, and the gauge reads zero.

(Shown below) "Dead Head" snapped onto the end of the fill hose.

Normally, when filling your PCP, the gauge on the tank is reading the pressure in the gun as you fill it. If we replace the PCP on the end of the fill hose, with a "Dead Head" and open the main valve,  the gauge will now be reading the pressure in the hose.  

Since the proper high pressure hose for this application, is rated for much higher operating pressures than a PCP's air tube, or even the 4500 psi in a full 4500 psi carbon fiber tank, we can now open the valve on the 4500 psi carbon fiber tank all of the way, it will fill the hose to the highest pressure left in the tank, and the gauge will indicate that pressure. You now know how much air pressure is left in your tank.

To safely remove the "Dead Head" from the fill hose, the hose must first be bled of the high pressure air that was left in it, when the main control valve was closed.  That is done by using the bleed valve that is located next to the main control valve.  It is now safe to remove the "Dead Head" from the end of the fill hose. 

(Shown below) "Dead Head" on the end of the hose, with the main valve opened all of the way, and the gauge reading the remaining tank pressure of 3300 psi.

The remaining pressure left in your carbon fiber tank, is very useful information to have at your finger tips. Nothing like getting into a lengthy pellet testing project for example, only to discover that all you have left air wise, is a couple of full pressure fills remaining in your tank.

As can be seen in the picture above, this tank's remaining pressure is down to 3300 psi.  Since I fill most of my guns to 3000 psi, or there about,  it's getting close to the time, to go and see my friendly neighborhood Dive Shop for a fresh 4500 psi fill.

I purchased my "Dead Head" from Mac1 Airguns for $14, a real bargain. It gives me a convenient, inexpensive way to quickly check the remaining air pressure in my carbon fiber tanks.