VarmintAir's Airgun Hunting Blog

Got The .20 Cal - Logun MK II - Out For A Little Ground Squirrel Hunting

Logun Mk II .20 cal.

The Logun MK II is a British made PCP.  Unfortunately, they were discontinued a few years ago.   If you ever come across a used one, it would be worth a look.  They are very nice airguns.  The only regret I have is that when I bought it new, I didn't get it in .22 instead of .20 cal.

It's a repeater, but instead of a removable magazine, it has an inline magazine that is machined as part of the receiver.  I actually like that feature a lot.  Instead of changing out a magazine every 10 shots, I just pull back the follower and drop in a few more pellets when I need to add more ammo.

Logun Mk II inline magazine.

The above picture shows a close up of the inline mag.  You can see the pellets sitting head to skirt, head to skirt, with the spring tensioned follower holding them in place. When you rack the bolt back to cock the rifle, a shuttle slides over and picks up a pellet. When you close the bolt, the shuttle carries the pellet over and lines it up with the bore.  The final action of pushing the bolt forward and down, chambers the pellet into the barrel.  The operation of the bolt, and cam system that drives the shuttle, is butter smooth.

I was hoping that the gun would shoot non-lead tin pellets, for use in California on ground squirrels, but no such luck.  When it comes to .20 caliber non-lead tin pellets, there is only one, and that is the DYNAMIC SPC-5.  Most of my guns shoot tin really well, but not this one.  A couple of inches at 50 yards, is about as good as this rifle will do with them, and that's just not good enough for my application.

I decided to switch back to shooting lead pellets in her, and checking my notes found that she shoots the .20 cal JSB Exacts really well.  She launches the 13.6 grain JSB's at an average of 930 fps, and generates 26 fpe at the muzzle.  I sighted her in a half inch high at 50 yards, and we headed out into the forest for a ground squirrel hunt.

Ground squirrel taken at 43 yards.

The very first shot opportunity I had with her, I had to make a decision. There was a ground squirrel sitting on a stump at 43 yards, and right next to it on a rock, at the same distance, was a chipper.  I opted to take the squirrel.  

I caught the shot on video, and it is included in the clips that accompany this story. At about 9 ounces, these ground squirrels are quite small, and at 3 ounces the chippers are even smaller.  Both critters make for challenging targets.

Unlike California Ground Squirrels, who many times will colonize an area, and you can sometimes set up in one place and shoot from the same spot for quite awhile, these guys are more scattered.  I rarely find two in the same den area.  They get together for mating, but after that, are pretty much loners.

There are plenty of them out there in the forest, but you have to get out, put some boot leather on the ground, and hunt them individually.  Much like hunting tree squirrels in these same forests.

Ground squirrel taken at just over 40 yards.

The areas of the forest that I hunt are also loaded with chipmunks. I probably see five times more chippers than I do ground squirrels.  I don't head out targeting them specifically, because I am primarily focused on hunting the ground squirrels. However, I do consider them a bonus critter that inhabits the same habitat that the ground squirrels do. They are much smaller than the ground squirrels, and are a much tougher target to hit at long range, especially in the wind.  I walk up on a lot of them at 20 or 30 yards, and those get a free pass, but if I find a specific shot opportunity particularly interesting, or challenging distance wise, I will take the chippers as well.  

Here's a pair that I took at 37 and 48 yards respectively.  When the shot broke on the chipper at 37 yards, another behind it, and out at 48 yards ran up on a log.  I quickly racked the bolt and dropped that one also. Those are the kinds of chipper shots that I find challenging and interesting.

A pair of chipmunks dropped at 37 and 48 yards. 

Hunting with this gun is a ton of fun.  The action is butter smooth, the trigger is flawless, and the accuracy is excellent, which is a must have for taking these small critters out to 60 plus yards.

The following, are some of the video clips that I shot while hunting. They run about 4 minutes and 40 seconds, and depending upon the speed of your system, may take 20 to 30 seconds to load.  Thanks for watching.

  

LOGUN MKII - 35 Shot String - With .20 Caliber - 13.6 Grain JSB EXACT Pellets

The LOGUN MKII is interesting, in that it doesn't have a removable magazine. Instead, it has an inline magazine, that is part of the action itself.  There is a spring loaded follower that keeps tension on the column of pellets, and feeds them into the loading shuttle one at a time.

Inline mag empty, with spring loaded follower all the way down.

Inline mag, with follower pulled back and locked in place, ready to load.

Inline mag loaded, with follower released, ready to feed pellets into the shuttle.

When I pull the bolt back, that shiny metal square with the notch in it, (shuttle) will move to the left, and pick up the next pellet in line.  When I move the bolt forward, the shuttle will move to the right, and put the pellet it has picked up, in line with the bore. The last motion of closing the bolt chambers the pellet.

Because of the way the inline mag and shuttle work, it's like having a 35 round magazine.  Every few shots, I simply pull back the follower, drop in a few pellets, release the follower, and keep on hunting.  Pretty slick really.

Unfortunately, these guns are no longer produced.  This is the only .20 caliber PCP in my collection.  I sometimes wish that I had picked up a MKII in .22 also.  I like thumbhole stocks, and the one on the MKII is well designed, and very comfortable to carry and shoot with.

The accuracy is what you would expect from a quality PCP, top notch. It shoots several pellets really well.  The Logun Penetrators, Beeman Kodiaks, Beeman FTS, and JSB Exact's, all perform about the same in this rifle.  I use the JSB Exacts in it, because they also shoot really well in my .20 cal Springers, so I buy them a sleeve at a time.

One of the really nice features of this gun, is the rotating sleeve that covers the fill port on the air tube.  My other PCP's have either a plug, that you remove from the fill port, or screw on, or snap on covers.  They all work, but the removable ones are easily misplaced, and/or lost. (don't ask how I know that)  On the MKII, you simply rotate the sleeve until a hole in it lines up with the fill port.  Then rotate it 180 degrees, covering the fill port hole, when through filling.  Very convenient, and no chance of losing it.

The knurled sleeve that protects the fill port from dirt.

Knurled sleeve rotated 180 degrees, exposing the fill port. 

It's been almost a year since I've used this gun, so I thought I would run her over the chrony for some fresh numbers.

LOGUN MKII, 35 shot string with 13.6 grain .20 cal. JSB Exact's, on a 3000 psi fill.

1 - 919     10 - 918     19 - 937     28 - 934

2 - 920    11 - 924     20 - 940     29 - 928

3 - 918     12 - 929     21 - 937     30 - 925

4 - 919     13 - 927     22 - 939     31 - 921

5 - 921     14 - 931     23 - 929     32 - 922

6 - 924    15 - 935     24 - 935     33 - 920

7 - 918     16 - 937     25 - 940     34 - 919

8 - 921     17 - 937     26 - 941     35 - 918

9 - 922     18 - 936    27 - 937

AVG - 930 fps

ES - 22 fps

FPE - 26

I was primarily using this rifle to hunt California Ground Squirrels with, until the lead ammo ban came along.  Unfortunately, this one does not shoot the DYNAMIC tin pellets well at all.  The good news is, it's the only PCP of mine that doesn't.

A bunch of ground squirrels taken with my LOGUN MKII 20 cal.

 

The Logun Mk II - .20 Caliber PCP

This is my only .20 caliber PCP at the moment. I purchased her new, 5 or 6 years ago from the folks at Straight Shooters up in Minnesota.

The gun is a bit different, in that it does not have a removable magazine. It has an inline mag that runs down the left side of the receiver.  The overall fit and finish are superb.

Because the pellets sit nose to tail in the mag, this design does limit a person to using dome head, or semi-dome head pellets. Pointed head pellets tend to sit to deeply into the base of the pellet in front of it, and jam up the feed mechanism.  This is a non-issue for me, because the dome head pellets are generally more accurate at the ranges that I shoot, so they are pretty much all that I shoot.

The bolt actuates a shuttle mechanism that moves over to the magazine, picks up the next pellet in line, and when you move the bolt forward, moves the shuttle back over, lining up the pellet with the bore.  The final motion of closing the bolt, chambers the pellet.  The bolt action itself is very smooth.

Her favorite pellet is the 13.6 grain JSB Exact, followed closely by the 13.8 grain Beeman Kodiak. In decent conditions, half inch or better groups at 50 yards, are the norm.

She launches the JSB's at an average of 924 feet per second, for a muzzle energy of 26 foot pounds, and the extreme spread is only 19 fps for 35 shots.

With the thumbhole stock, she is very well balanced, and a pleasure to carry in the field.  I like hunting with her in areas that aren't overly windy.  The 13.6 grain pellets aren't impervious to the wind for sure.  In windy conditions, I'll normally grab one of my .22 caliber PCP's, shooting the 18.1 grain JSB Exact Jumbo Heavy pellets.

The rifle was also offered in a non-thumbhole stock configuration, and it was also offered in the .22 caliber.

The accuracy is on a par with some of the most accurate PCP's that I own, and she is a deadly hunter. If you can find one in good condition, you really can't go wrong picking it up.

The result of a short morning's hunt for California Ground Squirrels.

 

Logun Mk II .20 caliber - Sighted Her In At 55 Yards and Went Prairie Dog Hunting

Well, as happens in life, stuff came up and I didn't get a chance to get out and sight-in the Logun MK II before today's  prairie dog hunt. Since plan "A" didn't happen, I decided to go to plan "B", and do the final sight-in when I arrived at the hunt area.

I was on the road at 5:00 AM, and pulled through the gate on the ranch I have permission to hunt on, at 6:15 AM exactly. Another fifteen minutes and I was on the edge of the dog town I was going to hunt.

The first thing I did, was to put my target frame out at 55 yards and set up my Caldwell shooter's bag on the hood. The Mk II was already filled with air, so the only thing I had to do was to drop some pellets in the magazine and start shooting.

The first JSB 13.6 grain .20 caliber pellet printed low right, at 4 o'clock. I made a scope adjustment and fired the second pellet, it impacted low left at about 7 o'clock. I came back right a few clicks, added some elevation clicks and fired the third pellet. There was no wind. The third shot center punched the number 10 in the middle of the bull. I fired three more shots that landed in a nice tight cluster around the third shot. The group looked to be around .5 to .6 of an inch. For shooting off the hood at 55 yards, I was satisfied....it was time to hunt.

I got out the rest of my gear..... binoculars, range finder, Wilkins pellet pouch, camera, and Stoney point telescoping bipod. I loaded 10 rounds into the rifle's magazine, and counted out another 30 pellets into the Wilkins pellet pouch, that I wear around my neck. I always take a few more pellets than necessary, because I invariably drop one or two along the way, when loading the magazine on the fly.

The .20 cal JSB pellet is fairly light, so my plan for the day was to hunt the .20 in the early morning while the air was relatively still, and switch to a .22 when the wind picked up.

I charged the MK II with air, checked my gear to make sure I had everything, and headed out into the sage flats in pursuit of the wily prairie dog.

Hunting these guys in Arizona is very different from the hunts I've done in eastern Wyoming. There, the dogs are in the grassy prairies, sitting up on very visible mounds. Here, they have mounds, but the mounds and the prairie dogs, are mostly obscured by the surrounding vegetation.

I spend a lot of time in my binoculars, glassing for heads and shoulders sticking out of the grass, cactus, sage, and other types of local vegetation.

I was a couple of hundred yards out into the sage flat when I spotted the first dog. It was popping up and down, obviously feeding on something. The laser range finder said 68 yards. I put the crosshair on the top of its head, steadied my hold on the bipod, took up the trigger slack, and touched off the shot. I saw dust kick up behind, and just to the left of the dog. I also noticed that the dust drifted away to the left on a light breeze.

I adjusted my hold. The horizontal crosshair remained on the dogs head, but the vertical crosshair was moved to the right side of the dogs body. When the second shot broke I heard that satisfying "THWACK", and saw the dog drop out of sight.

When I got over to his location, I found one very dead prairie dog. It had slid down into the burrow, and almost out of sight. Because they are almost always sitting on the edge of a funnel shaped burrow, they do that a lot. Sometimes, when checking out your shot, the only indication that you are at the right location, will be blood stains in the dirt. 

I had been hunting for about an hour and a half when the inevitable wind started blowing pretty steadily. I decided to hunt my way back to my vehicle and make the switch to a .22 caliber rifle. Along the way, I dropped five more dogs from 53 to 60 yards.

I was almost back to my rig, when a large prairie dog appeared on the edge of a mound 59 yards away. He was down on all fours quartering slightly to the right away from me. The wind was directly at my back. Since I was sighted in at 55 yards, I put the crosshairs on the rear edge of the right side ribcage and squeezed off the shot.

At pellet impact, the dog just folded and rolled off the mound. The pellet entered at the back edge of the ribcage and exited just forward of the left side shoulder. Instant lights out.

When I got back to my vehicle I put the MK II away and got out my FX 2000 in .22. She's shooting the 18 grain JSB Jumbo Heavy pellets, and she shoots them extremely well. I hunted for almost four hours with her, but that's another story.

I like the .20 caliber for hunting tree squirrels in the Fall, but for prairie dogs on the open plains and sage flats, the .22 bucks the wind better, and is my preferred caliber.

A quick aside. The Cholla cactus are in bloom, and are all over the place. While hunting, you need to pay close attention to where you are going, because you do not want an up close and personal encounter with these things. They are very nasty.

 

 

 

 

      

Logun MK II .20 caliber. Setting Her Up To Hunt Prairie Dogs. To Bad They Are No Longer Made.

The Logun MK II is an exceptional PCP. This one is a .20 cal that I purchased new about four years ago. The design is a little different in that it doesn't have a removable magazine. Instead it has an inline magazine that is an integral part of the receiver. No magazines to remove and reload, just pull back the spring loaded follower, drop in some more pellets, release the follower and keep on shooting. It's kind of like having a 35 round magazine.

The bolt action on this gun is as smooth as silk. On some bolt guns the action can be a bit hard to cycle. Not on the MK II, she's as smooth as can be. 

I've killed a truck load of California Ground Squirrels with it. It loves 13.6 grain .20 cal JSB Exact pellets. It shoots them at an average of 925 fps with an extreme spread of only 26 fps over a 35 shot string. The rifle is a fantastic hunter, and I love the thumbhole stock for field use. 

Unfortunately, about a year and a half ago I ran out of the JSB's, and they were not available anywhere, so she has been quietly sitting in her case, in the closet, waiting for them to become available again. She shoots the 11.2 grain .20 cal Beeman FTS right at 1000 fps, but this particular rifle does not shoot them well at all. It may be driving them too fast, I don't know. 

The good news is the .20 cal JSB's recently became available again, and I laid in a substantial supply. Today I cleaned the barrel, and in anticipation of hunting prairie dogs with the rifle this coming Wednesday, I did a quick and dirty sight in at 20 yards indoors. On Tuesday, I'll get her out to the National Forest and do a final sight in at 55 yards. I shot both five shot groups standing off of my Stoney Point telescoping bipod. After shooting the top group I did a scope tweak and fired the bottom group. 

Its been a while since I've had the opportunity to hunt with this rifle, and I'm really excited about hunting prairie dogs with her on Wednesday. 

 

My First PCP Air Rifle, and It's First Hunt

This is a story about my first Pre-Charged Pneumatic air rifle and the first time I took it hunting.

I had been shooting and hunting with spring powered airguns for close to 30 years, when I decided that I wanted to venture into the world of the Pre-Charged Pneumatic (PCP) air rifles. PCP's run off of high pressure air. (HPA) The air reservoir on the rifle is filled from an external air source. That source can be a hand operated pump, a SCUBA tank, or better yet, a 4500 psi carbon fiber tank.

I knew that the guns I was looking at all ran off of 3000 psi "High Pressure Air". I decided early on to go with the 4500 psi carbon fiber tank as the method that I would use to fill the gun.

After much research, I decided on a .20 caliber LOGUN MK II PCP with thumbhole stock. The rifle has a ten round in-line magazine, and gets 35/40 shots on one fill of air. It had a reputation for being quiet, and very accurate. I wasn't disappointed. It shoots the 13.6 grain JSB .20 cal. Exacts at an average velocity of 925 feet per second, and would put 5 of them into a half inch at 50 yards. 

After a bit of searching, I finally located a Dive Shop that would fill my carbon fiber tank to 4500 psi for me, and they only charged $6 to do it.

I took her out today to see what she could do. I did a quick and dirty sight in over the hood. I put her a 1/2 inch high at 35 yards, figuring I could hold pretty much dead on out to about 45 yards.

What a hoot this thing is to shoot. I don't know how loud it sounds out where the squirrels are, but at my end it is very quiet. The "THWOCK" of the pellet going through a squirrels head seems louder to me than the sound of the gun going off. 

It certainly didn't spook them at all. I had a bunch of fun with it. The second shot out of it at a squirrel was very memorable. I was in the field early, almost too early, but I knew it was going to be really hot today.

I had been hunting for almost half an hour before I saw my first squirrel. He was sitting on a stump at 45 yards. I put the crosshairs on his head and squeezed off a round. It's an interesting sensation as the gun fires. There was no recoil at all, and not much sound. I had the scope set at 14 power, and saw the pellet hole appear in the squirrel's head. I was elated. My first shot at a squirrel with this new rig, and it was a bullseye.

It was the second shot though, that was really pretty cool. I had a squirrel sitting on a limb at  50 yards. He was west of me, and the morning sun was low in the eastern sky. It was shining over my right shoulder, and when the shot broke, I saw the shiny pellet twinkle through the air all the way into the squirrels head.  Not something you'll see every day.

I took a couple dozen squirrels with the new gun that morning, and for sure, I was forever hooked on PCP airguns.