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Caught up with this Dog Fox on the third outing. He couldn't get into the run, but he'd stir the hens up till one stuck its head through the mesh, then he'd bite it off. 
A 50 grain Nosler BT at about 50yds sorted him out. A high price to pay when your only getting Chicken heads for dinner.
I'm glad it wasn't a Tawny Owl doing it, as that's often one of their trademarks. Especially with Pheasant Poult's in a pen.

Thought it was maybe time I set about the Fox's on a farm Ive shooting permission over.

Its not a big farm, but seems to have more than its fair share of vermin.

As its a dairy farm, most fields are set to pasture. Easy walking !.

Id seen two Fox's, an hour apart, on a 20 acre field a few weeks before, but shots at either weren't safe to take from where I was hiding. Tried to call them in, but the first one stopped, took one look, and carried on Mousing & marking Its territory. The 2nd Fox, I presumed was female, as it totally ignored me. .

Id been back to the field three times since then, but until this visit, the wind had always been wrong.

This time the wind was right, but now there was 70 odd Cows in the field, just to make a shot interesting, if a Fox presented its self.


Sunset was about 19.45, so I was in position & set up by 18.00.
Not very comfortably I should add, as I was hiding in some low & very thorny Blackthorn bushes. ( Prunus Spinosa ).

Anyway, true to form, a small Fox appeared about 150 yds away to my left, and for maybe 10 mins, wandered about among the herd of Cows.



Very inconsiderate I thought, as it eventually disappeared, unmolested, through the opposite hedge.  


Not to be outdone, I thought Id try & second guess where it was going. So I grabbed my gear & headed for a gateway into the field Id hoped it was making for.  Got down behind the rifle, in the gateway, on the bi pod, & within 30 seconds it popped out of the hedge. I gave a squeak & it stopped side on, long enough for the 52g A-Max put it down. I ranged it at 79 yds. Turns out it was a small Dog Fox, not the Vixen I was expecting.
The other Fox, is maybe for another day.

Been getting a lot of them in the garden this year.
Been doing a bit of an oriental theme with the garden, & put in a little stream, so maybe that's why.

Not sure if this post should be here or in Hunters Gear review.
Anyway, picked up a 10/22 AR type chassis off epay recently.

They were made by, or for, a UK company who have stopped supplying them for a while now.
It came to me with the folding stock, but I added the pistol grip & barrel nut.

My question is, how do I fit a free float hand guard to it ?.

Rifle has a heavy fluted Green Mountain barrel, so I guess I cant fit a normal hand guard as there's no foresight with gas block.
Also, Id like to fit a fixed stock, as the folder's as wobbly as a jelly.
I guess Id need a buffer tube for the fixed stock to slide over and fix to ?.

As I mentioned in my Small Game post, my new farmer friend had two .17 HMR rifles "blow up" on him.

The first was a Ruger 77/17.

He was shooting Crow's from his bedroom window. He'd taken a couple of shots, apparently with no problem, but when he fired another round, there was an almighty explosion, the magazine blew out of the mag well, and as he put it, "Hit him in the Crown Jewels".

He was unhurt, apart from being slightly deaf & requiring a change of underwear.
 The gun went back to the importers, & they said the problem was ammo related. Due to a bullet stuck in the barrel. The case head had ruptured & combustion gas's had vented down through the magazine & mag well setting off the remaining rounds in the mag. I dont know the ammo brand or the cause of the problem. It may be he was still using old ammo that was suffering from the split case necks that we had a few years ago.

The second gun was a Anschutz he bought to replace the Ruger.
I think it was a Match 64 1517-U2 G Thumbhole.
It wasn't the first time he'd used the gun, he was out on his quad, with a bale of straw on the handle bars as a rifle rest, he's shot a couple of Rabbits & the same thing happened as with the Ruger.  This time the bale of straw took the brunt of the blast, though he said it blew the side out of the action. Again he was unhurt.
That's about as much as I know at present. The gun went back the the shop & then to the importers, & hes waiting to hear the verdict.

Got a call from a farmer the other day, his wife had seen a Fox eyeing up her Chicken run a couple of times as she was about to lock the Chooks up for the night. The farmer himself was without a rifle, & didn't have time to deal with the problem himself anyway.
(He was without a rifle because he'd had 2 ( Yes two !) .17 HMR's "blow up" on him. More about that in a different thread).
Anyway, as there was now a contract out on this Fox, I thought Id do my best to nail it ASAP, & maybe accumulate some "Brownie points". Which would maybe go towards further invites.
I knew the time's this Fox had been seen, & being creatures of habit, I was expecting it to show up at a similar time & place every evening.
I got set up with my .22-250 on a hay bail, overlooking a small 2 acre pasture. I was almost regretting not bringing a .22 rim fire, as there was 8 or 9 Rabbits taunting me from between 5 to 50 yds out. I could almost taste Rabbit fried in bread crumbs !.
It was getting dark & I was about to mount the lamp on my rifle, when something considerably bigger than a Rabbit passed about 50yds in front of me. I couldn't tell if it was a Fox or a Muntjack, I couldn't see a Brush, & It didnt stop when I tried to call it in. It just kept going & passed through a closed 5 bar gate into the next field.
I mounted my lamp on the rifle as quick as I could, gathered up my gear, and after (carefully) negotiating an electric fence, I glassed the field through the gate. Nothing. Not a sign. It was still light enough to scan through Bino's. & I managed to open & shut the gate without too much noise, & crept down the nearest hedge with the wind in my favor. Still nothing. After creeping maybe 3/4's of the way down the field ( about 220/230 yds). I noticed the flock of about 30 yews looking at something, & it wasn't me.  I got down behind the rifle, (not sure what I was laying in, but it didnt smell too savory), switched on the lamp & started calling. It didnt take long for Mr Fox's stomach to over rule his head & he came running in. He was looking big in the scope, but I couldn't shoot till he was clear of the sheep. When he was, I shouted to make him stop, He was almost broad side to me & ready to bolt, but I was a bit quicker than he was & a 52g A-Max put him down. Mr Fox turned out to be Mrs Fox, or rather Miss Fox, as I think she was this years cub.
Rifles a Sako 75 stainless synthetic in .22-250, load is 52g A-Max over 40g 0f H380, doing 3,717 fps over the chronograph, loaded in RP brass. Scopes a Sig Sauer Whisky 5, 5 to 25 x 52. Lamp is by Laser Genetics.

Found 50rds of SSS lurking in the back of the ammo safe, & having  never ever fired a round of the stuff before, I thought Id see what all  the fuss was about.

Used my 30 odd yo 10/22, with its original 1 in 16 twist factory barrel,  so wasn't expecting great things with such a slow twist. So I was  surprised to see that the bullets seem to have stabilized  & flew  straight & true.

Group sizes were just measured with a ruler, & while the target  background grid should be 1cm squares, it actually printed them slightly  bigger at 13mm.

I also fired off 10 rounds of SSS at 50yds the other day. The group was  4" below poa, with 7 rounds into 1 1/2", 2 rounds hit 2" lower with 1  round 1/2" below that. Dunno what caused the flyers, though maybe I  rushed the shots as it was near the end of the detail. Will post a pic  if I can find the target.

There's also 2 targets shot with CCI Subs, & CCI Segmented Subs.











Maybe I'm just lucky & my 10/22 with its 1 in 16 twist just likes the SSS ?.

Or maybe, & I suspect the truth of the matter is, that the barrel  was shortened to 13", threaded, & crowned, by that Maestro of the  machine tool !, Guru of the Gun !, Artist at Arms !, that Legend of the  Lathe !, none other than...................................Mr j0e_bl0ggs  !.

What other "Demon tweek,s" he may have done, I shall probably never know.

Nuff said.

Was a lovely evening, so thought I would see if I could catch up with a Fox cub or two, before they get too savvy.

Was reaching in the safe for the SM .222 Rem, but for some reason Ive taken the bi pod off it, so took the CG 2000 6.5 X 55 instead.

Well I saw no cubs, but managed to knock over this feller, who was out for his evening constitution.

I shot him as he stopped briefly below the small Oak tree on the far right.








The 85g Sierra Varminter made a bit of a mess at 115 yds, but did the job.

A customer brought 12 shotguns in for storage the other week.

He stored them in his basement, in his gun safes.

But.........his wife also had her tumble drier in the basement, without an outlet for the hose.

Well the upshot is he hadn't looked at the guns for over a year, & when he did, he found they were v-e-r-y s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y tarnished.


Rusty barrels.


Close up of barrels.


Least damaged gun is the Beretta o/u on the right.


Can you guess what the Side lock in the middle with no fore grip is ?. Yup its a Holland & Holland !. Bordering on Sacrilege !.


Out of 12 guns, 8 of them fairly cheap ones & not worth trying to save, so are pretty much scrap & will go to auction. The bores weren't effected too much on any of them, but as for the locks ?. Who knows.

Well the other day, I caved in & picked up another of the rifles that "everyone in the UK hates", but probably out sells all other makes of .22lr self loaders over here, combined.

Yes, its another Ruger 10/22.

It was a used rifle with a Green Mountain 16.5" barrel, so I was pretty certain it was gonna be accurate.

It came with a Hogue over moulded stock, which I swapped out for an old Fajen laminated TH stock I had spare, but didn't like the colour.

Id only intended to spray it matt black, but got a bit carried away & put some Khaki stripes on it.
I was going for "camo", but think its maybe turned out bordering on the "tactical".

Topped it off with an Optimate 10 x 42 scope.

Took it to the range last night, & after zeroing, I put in some 25yd groups, with SK Standard Plus, RWS Auto, Lapua Center X, Win Sub 42g HP's & Lapua Midas.

The Midas produced the best 10 round 5/16" group. As I should hope it would at nearly 15 quid for 50 rounds !. ( The Win Sub group is 20 rds ).

All "flyers", are no doubt down to a "nut loose behind the trigger".

Yesterday evening was nice, so thought Id maybe try my luck for another Fox.

It  was  pretty windy so decided to give the 6.5 X 55 an airing, as the 85g  .264 Sierra Varminter's would hopefully work in my favor, as opposed to  the 50g & 52g bullets out of my .222 or .22-250.

Or in other words they may compensate a little for my lousy & futile attempt at doping any cross wind.

Well after Dr4Body's epic Canadian Wolf adventure, I'm not even gonna attempt to make a story out of this !.

Suffice it to say, I spent 2 hours sitting in the bottom of a ditch till it was almost too dark to shoot, when Mr Fox appeared 50yds to my left. I gave him a squeak,  he stopped to look & paid the price. I paced the shot out at only 57yds.

So thats 3 this year so far.

[Jaguar XJ13]

This car, is, in my humble, personal & honest opinion, among the most beautiful car's I have ever seen.

Its the only one ever built by Jaguar, though there are some replicas built now.

Here's some history.

Jaguar XJ13

The  Jaguar XJ13 was a prototype racing car developed by Jaguar to challenge  at Le Mans in the mid-1960s. It never raced, and only one was ever  produced.
Jaguar had considered the manufacture of a V12 engine as  far back as 1955, initially for racing purposes, and then developing a  road going version, unlike the XK which was designed as a production  engine and later pressed into service for racing. The engine design was  essentially two XK 6-cylinder engines on a common crankshaft with an  aluminium cylinder block, although there were differences in the inlet  porting, valve angles and combustion chamber shape. The first engine ran  in July of 1964.
The idea of a mid-engine prototype was first  mooted in 1960, but it was not until 1965 that construction began, with  the first car running by March 1966. The aluminium body was designed by  Malcolm Sayer, the aerodynamicist responsible for the Jaguar C-Type, D-Type, E-Type and XJ-S, who used his Bristol Aeroplane Company background to build it using techniques borrowed from the aircraft industry.
The  Jaguar XJ13 had mid-engine format with the 5.0 liter V12 engine mounted  behind the driver, used as a stressed chassis member together with the  five-speed manual ZF Trans-axle driving the rear wheels.
The front  suspension wishbones were similar to that of the E-Type, however where  the E-Type used longitudinal torsion bars, the Jaguar XJ13 had more  conventional coil spring/damper units. At the rear there again remained  similarities with the E-Type - the use of driveshafts as upper  transverse links - however the rest was quite different, with two long  radius arms per side angling back from the central body tub together  with lower links.
The development of the Jaguar XJ13, although  treated seriously by the designers, was never a priority for company  management (despite assistant MD Lofty England's Le Mans success in the  1950s), and became less so following the 1966 merger with BMC. By that  time Ford had developed the 7.0 liter GT40,  and so the Jaguar XJ13 was considered obsolete by the time the  prototype was complete. The prototype was tested at MIRA and at  Silverstone, which confirmed that it would have required considerable  development to make it competitive. The prototype was put into storage  and no further examples were made.

Well I finally finished j0e_bl0ggs Muntie knife.

Steel is type 0-2, & hilt is Buffalo horn & Moose bone.

Heat treat & final polish is by j0e_bl0ggs, with a coat or two of Renaissance wax.

Sheath could be loosely described as "serviceable". ( I dont do leather ).

Cornered this monster going through our snack box in the workshop this morning.

It was him or me, but a well placed shot ruined his day.

Well Friday just gone, I managed to obtain a "pass" from "Swmbo", to go out shooting for the afternoon.

There posed a dilemma, should I take a shotgun, & batter a few Woodies ?, or a .22 & go for Squirrels ?.

So  I did both, took my 10-22, which is pretty stripped down & light,  & my little Leeson s/s 28g which weighs next to nothing. Plus a belt  full of 15 gram 6's.

Neither of them being my Loxodonta Africana guns of choice, but I thought what the hell.

I  parked at the farm, got geared up & started walking, as I have to, since my current  means of transport is probably the least "off road" vehicle there is  short of a London bus.

At least I get plenty of exercise, which is no bad thing.

Id  gone maybe half a mile & reached the corner of the nearest wood, where 2 tracks cross. I looked up one track &  spotted something on the skyline. Had a look through the Bino's & it  was a Fox heading down the track to the side of the hedge towards me.  It was maybe 150 yards away.

I go down behind the .22 where the  hedge met the main track, & waited, & waited, & ..........waited, for what seemed  eternity, but was maybe 5 mins.

I could only see 30 yds of the  track due to a bend, so thought Id best have a peek & see where he'd got to.  Just as I  got up onto my knees for a better look, Monsieur Renard popped out of  the hedge about 7 to 8 yards away, obviously hadn't seen me & walked  back in. Cursing myself for having the .22 in hand & and not the  shotgun, I put the Ruger down & picked up the 28g.  

He was  so close I could smell him, but couldn't see him, & was thinking Id  have to take a snap shot if he showed up close.

Well he'd  gone through the hedge, out the other (left hand) side, through 20 yds  of game cover & stood on the drilling looking at me.
I couldn't shoot as there was an Elder bush between us.
Id  frozen with the gun to shoulder & waited for him to bolt, but he  didn't, he looked away & casually walked out into the open.

Fleetingly  wishing I got my 20g with some heavy loads in I squeaked to make him  stop, & let fly with the full might of 15 grams of 6's out of the choke barrel. He fell over on the spot, but was wriggling a bit, so I  gave him the other barrel for good measure.
I paced the shot out at 25 yds, & honestly hadn't expected the little 28g to be that lethal at that range on a Fox.

A  lot of people discard the 28g thinking its not much bigger than a  .410, where in fact its not really much smaller than a 20g.

Pic 1 is where I first saw him at the top of the hill.
Pic 2 is looking from my firing position to where he lays.
Pic 3 & 4 speak for them selves.

As this no longer falls under the PH/BSA banner, I thought it best to open a new thread.

Attached are some pics of the Winchester1890 .22 Gallery Rifle from my boss's  collection.

It may have been re-finished, but to a fairly high standard I think.

Also, it looks like the barrel may have been sleeved as the top of the barrel near the action is stamped ".22 SHORT", but to the side of the barrel above the proof marks its stamped ".22 LONG RIFLE".

Also a quick look at the muzzle shows an inner "ring", that looks like a sleeve to me.

Thanks for the link to the gunsinternational web site Paul, they certainly do fetch some high prices in the US.

Unfortunately US values for guns like this, aren't generally reflected in UK values.  Maybe they just dont hold quite the same cultural interest/history, as they do in their home country.  

Anyway, that's all to the good for me !, as I'm seriously considering "liberating", this from my boss, & actually shooting the thing, as it wont have been fired since he bought it back in 2005.  

I guess Id best put a few rounds through it first though to make sure its a shooter.




























.

A guy came in the shop on Saturday & brought in an old rifle he  wanted to get rid of as he was giving up shooting. It was an immaculate  .22lr BSA Supersport 5.

We said we could sell it for him, but he said no, just take it.

We didn't argue too much.

Unfortunately  the boss was in the shop at the time, so before I could get my grubby  paws on it, he had a different idea about "getting rid of it", which was  to grab it quick, & bung it into his collection !. :frown

We  had a look on line, and it turns out BSA only made 7197 Supersports 5's, between 1955 & 1967, so it seems its quite a rare beast, especially  in this condition.

The Pecar 3 to 9 scope & Kozap (I think) rings/mounts didn't come with it, but it was the closest "period" scope  we could find.

My Ruger 10-22 I bought some 30 years ago, has gone through numerous configurations.

It  started life as the Deluxe model with the Walnut stock and no barrel  band. Topped off with a Leupold 3 to 9 x 40 Compact scope, & the  barrel threaded for a sound moderator.

I soon changed the stock  for a camo Ramline synthetic, & swapped out some of the trigger  components for Volquartson stuff. Plus a synthetic recoil buffer &  an auto bolt release.  

The unmarked Walnut stock vanished into the loft for safe keeping.

Next  came a Choate Dragunov stock, which I really liked, as it made it much  more controllable one handed, while hanging on for dear life to the back  of the truck while lamping !.  

I then went for a change of  direction with a Fajen laminated wood thumb hole stock from Midway, with  a Green mountain, stainless fluted .920 barrel. (Had that threaded a  well).

Found I needed something ambidextrous,
so next up was  an ATI Strikeforce folding stock in "Flat Dark Earth". Which in my  eyes, may be "Flat", but it aint "Dark", & it aint "Earth" in  colour.
Just looks like "sand" to me !.

Well with this stock, things were getting a bit too "Gung Ho", looking for my taste.
So  I invested in a Green, Po-Mag Archangel target stock. This  configuration with the GM heavy barrel, was without doubt the most  accurate it had ever been, & would print 50 meter 1/2" groups with  SK Subsonic Hollow Points.  

By now though, things were getting  pretty weighty to lug about, & getting a bit un-wealdy for "fast  target acquisition", when lamping Rabbits off the back of the truck. (  And hanging on for dear life one handed ).

So off came the heavy barrel and Pro-Mag stock, and its back to a short Ruger barrel and Dragunov stock config.

While  I miss the accuracy of the Green Mountain barrel, it will still knock  over Rabbits and Squirrels out to 100m + with Win Subs, if I do my job  right.

Maybe an 18" sporter weight Green Mountain barrel would get me some of that accuracy back ?.
 
Hmm ?.

Then there's that new Hogue 10-22 Tactical Thumbhole .920 stock.

Now there's a thought ?.

Went out Foxing Sunday evening, but all I saw was a piece of aviation history, in the shape of the only (original) flying example of a de Havilland DH88 Comet.

This aeroplane, G-ACSS, Grosvenor House, won the MacRobertson Trophy, the 1934 air race from England to Melbourne, Australia.
A race to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the State of Victoria.

G-ACSS;s official race winning time was 71 hours & 18 seconds, 8 hours quicker than a new DC-2 airliner.

The pics unfortunately aren't mine, she was too far away for my iPhone camera to be of any use.

We lost a beast the other evening, that left a decent spoor, but as it  was evening and we were loosing the light, & though we had  flashlights, we lost the trail.

Found the beast fairly easily the next morning, & lucky for us the likes of Brock etc, hadn't found it first.

So  was wondering if a UV light would have been any use, do they work ?,  will they pick out blood spots on the ground among other organic matter  ?, or are they only any use for detecting pet Urine on carpets &  nasty stains on hotel room beds ?.

I  know the likes of the rich & famous, ( Mr bl0ggs ), will probably  say "get an IR devise", or "get a dog", but the bank manager says I cant  have one, & the wife says I cant have the other. :cens: ( No, divorce is not an option ).
A UV LED flashlight from Amazooon, is setting me back the princely sum of £7.99.

A bargain if it works, but no great financial loss if it doesn't.