Back in the saddle at the dairy

Okay it has been SEVEN months since I shot a gun, of any kind and well, today it made a worth the wait. Also, this is the hunting section, so I won’t put a graphic warning, it has already been given.

@vitals2k and I left town and drove out to one of my permissions to introduce him to the owner, and do some pesting, and bring home some collar doves for the pot (@vitals2k’s pot). Yes the ugly one is @vitals2k 

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The day was sunny with NO wind and around 40s something F / 9 C, to me these are ideal conditions. When we arrived to the location the owner was there and he was very happy to let us do the “kill them all” approach. We only went to one of the two properties today, the main dairy.

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The guns we were using were my Taipan Vet Compact in 25 cal, @vitals2k Taipan Vet Long in 25 cal and Brocock Compatto Sniper XR in 177, I popped its cherry today. :). Pellets for the Taipans were Hades and King Heavies. Brocock was BHE and I tried out Mako slugs (no data) 10.4 grain slugs imported from UK’s Precision Ballistics.

Also, I brought my drone for some aerial footage, and eventual YouTube video on my new YouTube Channel Blackpaw Gunner. Just need to figure out what the hell I am doing in a hunting setting. I still need the scope cam set up, but otherwise I have everything else.

We started off walking as I normally do and noticed that the birds were very skittish, more than I encountered earlier in the year. After some walking @vitals2k decided to do the truck and shoot, I still prefer the stock. The dairy is in south east Idaho, about 30 minutes from Pocatello, and I got permission to go out there January 2021.

For most of the day the Taipans were center stage, but then I wanted to try my old Brocock Compatto out, which @vitals2k has, and I was impressed. There was a large barn that I knew had lots of sparrows so it perfect the 177 Brocock, and man it did well. Using the Barracuda Hunter Extremes I got 10 sparrows, and with the Mako slugs 3. The gun was not sighted in for the slugs, so I am happy with 3, and you can see the results of what they can do.

Mako Slug impact at I am guessing is around 16 ft/lbs. The sparrow was around 25 yards away and the impact was a hard pop, much more pronounced than the BHE, and it made icky. Literally there were guts hanging out the back side. The bird fell from the rafters next to the cows so I recovered it, while avoiding “cow stuff”, and as I recovered it the sparrow went into the hay. So I shook the sparrow and blood went everywhere, including on my face (so I laughed going icky) and had a lesson learned, don’t shake sparrow with its guts hanging out if you don’t want blood to go every where. Tomorrow I will chronograph the slugs and give an update on FPE. See results of the Makos: 

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The best shot I had with the Brocock though was a pigeon at 53 yards, my last kill of the day.

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Sum total for the day, I am guessing is around 15 Eurasian collar doves, some couldn’t be recovered, 6 pigeons, at combined 20 sparrows, so not bad numbers. And the Brocock is no longer a virgin :D Tomorrow we will go back, with hopefully even better results and I will do some more professional filming, or try at least.

What I can say for sure, was it was a great day, and I had a great time with my buddy @vitals2k.

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