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Home of YouTube's Malc Barnard AKA The Ghost Maker.
Here you will find everything from Airgun "How to" tutorials and Airgun Hunting tips to Dog training, Fishing and Horse riding.
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I was at the range today with some pellets that I was given to try by PAX guns.
These new .177 Defiant Ogives are going to a real favorite with the guys hunting with .177 if they work like they did today in my John Bowkett Special Edition Hornet.
The ballistic coefficient of these pellets from PAX guns is incredible! They carry more down range punch than anything in it's class and over the scales they weigh up better than anything else I have tested. Weighing in at 11 grains these air bullet shaped pellets have the stopping power .177 hunters are going to love and I can really see these taking quite a chunk of the small caliber hunting pellet market if consistency and quality continue.
I have not tried them in any of the other guns I have here on test yet but one thing is for certain the Bowkett special edition Hornet I have just got absolutely loves them.
To get Defiant Ogives and other Pax Pellets Check - www.defiantpellets.com Forum board - Best Deals -
I was very lucky this week, I was invited to a small shooting club in Stevenage UK to meet up with 2012 Under 21 Sporter Air Rifle Champion Annabelle Bullock. She is charming and she is also a fantastic shot with her Air Arms MPR (Multi Purpose Rifle). I took an opportunity to ask her about the sport and I also take a look at the club she started shooting at just 18 months ago.
Hi all,
I have been looking for a rock solid bench test set up that I can use for testing these rifles on the indoor range at Pete's Airgun Farm.
While shooting with YouTube friend Gary (digifilmshooter) I discovered the MTM Predator Shooting Rest
Now don't get me wrong I had seen the MTM Shooting Rest before on channel's like the awesome and inspiring Ted's Holdover but I had never shot off of one. While Gary and I were shooting we swapped seats for a bit and I shot off it. That was that I had to have one!
I ordered it from Solware through Amazon and it was here within a couple of days GREAT! Tharek and I wanted to do a build video showing how easy and quickly this superb rest goes together.
So here it is....
This awesome rest is what I will be using indoors to bring you the bench results for all the rifles I will be testing on the channel.
All the items in yellow are links to the various sites I mention in this blog. The Predator Shooting Rest is just £49.95 and IMO for the money is the most stable of these types of rests on the market. Good job MTM!
This adventure starts with a phone call from a building site manager in London. He is put in touch with me through a friend of mine that works with him. He has been having trouble with the foxes defecating (having a poo) inside the prestigious venue that he is responsible for while the restoration is completed.
I was asked to arrive with a covert kit as this was a job on a building site bordered by a residential area. In this blog I will be talking about our third visit to the site where in just an hour and a half Dave Welham and I took two more of the defecating offenders out of the game.
Before we get on to that I guess I should take take us back to the beginning.
When we first heard about the job Dave suggested that we should use the .22 Walther Long that he has owned since 1976. This is a superbly accurate and lightweight stealthy hunting rifle capable of sub 1inch groups at 100yrds. I had recently bought the Pulsar N550 digisight and a cheap recording device purchased on eBay. As you can imagine I was keen to see this in action and capture some footage for the channel. Dave kindly mounted and zeroed the N550 on his 22 and the next night we were on our way to this strange venue for a night of pest control in London. In the first video link you will see Dave using the Pulsar N550 digisight to good affect. We shoot five fox over the space of two short evenings. It was great to shoot in such a different environment.
So we already knew that this venue had a fox problem and with little or no control of them in the local area we would have an endless supply of fox to shoot at. It went quiet there for a few weeks apparently but then the foxes started getting into the buildings again. We visited the site a few times taking out charlie with the Pulsar. This time though I had some new night vision kit that meant Dave did not have to dismantle is beloved Walther .22 and Zeiss 6 x40 scope combo. I had purchased the NiteSite NS200 night vision add on system. I had used it a couple of times with 100% success rate but was keen to see how it coped in this demanding situation. We arrived at the venue about 21.30hrs at took a little look at the shooting position as this had changed since we were last there. Once satisfied we had a safe position to shoot from Dave and I fitted the NiteSite NS200 to the .22 and got ourselves in position. It wasn't long before the first fox arrived and as you will see in the video things did not quite go as planned. A little while after shooting fox number one and being visited by a Tawny Owl we only had to wait about 40 mins for our second and final fox of the evening. This time all went like clockwork and another two of the local trouble makers had been taken out of play. In this entire video we did not use the Infra Red of the Nitesite as the ambient light was enough for the unit to work flawlessly.
Look at the difference in quality from video one (Pulsar N550) and video two (NiteSite NS200)
The footage in this video was recorded using the Lawmate PVR500 Evo
It is not the cheapest solution by a long chalk but it is worth the extra money. This thing is packed with goodies. Look out for a full review of the recorder coming up soon on the channel.
Have you seen or used the NiteSite NS50 or NS200 night vision units yet? If not look out for a demo evening at one of your local gun shops or clubs as they are holding these all across the UK. I will be attending the one being held at The Shooting Ground (formally known as Broomhills)
OK as some of you know I have been having a rifle made for me by John Bowkett. It arrived last week but I have only been out with it twice, once in my GINB custom stock and once in it's own original stock. I have had some issues with it in the GINB Custom stock which I believe to be harmonics related (I will do a video on this later) but in the standard stock it is a tack driver! Today it was hitting the 3x4 inch bell at 100yards time and time again with CPTV's driver/assistant Lisa Roberts behind the gun.
This .177 air rifle based on a BSA Hornet action (John Bowkett's design) features a custom regulator capable of incredible consistency.
Couple that with the new special edition non BSA barrels that John is importing and you have custom rifle that really is something else! I will of course be doing a full review of my new rifle once I have got to grips with it properly.
First indications are that John Bowkett when unencumbered by financial restraints can design and build a world class rifle that will stand side by side if not above any other air rifle in the world. I am honored to own such a superb example of his work.
Topping the rifle is the brilliant and hugely underestimated Hawke Optics Panorama 4-12 x50 EV AO and BKL single strap mounts. This version has the MAP 6A reticule which I was a little dubious about using. I have spent some time using this reticule now and feel we are going to get along just fine!
I popped over to Jack Pyke HQ to do some business last week and Glenn Lewis (sales and marketing manager for JP) asked me if I had tried the LLCS system? I had not had the opportunity to use this system yet and informed Glenn that I would be very grateful to be given the chance to check it out.
The suit is very light and packs away into a very small pouch that I have in my hunting bag. It also allows the air to circulate through it making it very cool in the warmer weather we're having. I am going to be wearing this suit a lot this summer! The pattern and leaf combo works better than any other LLCS suit I have ever used. I will be updating you all on this suits performance from time to time to let you know if there any issues.
Here is a short video showing the suit off in the field
The 25th March 2012 provided a great evenings shooting with my buddy Tharek. We met up at one of my permissions that has a few rabbits on that nobody can get near with lamping gear. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to give the NiteSite NS50 an outing. Tharek was quite eager to shoot the Daystate Air Wolfthat Country Pursuits TVhas on test too so I decided to marry them together.
Something dawned on me after fitting theNS50 to the Air Wolf This rifle and NV add on combo represents the absolute cutting edge of air rifle hunting technology. This really was going to be Rabbit Hunting in the 21st century.
It is difficult to explain the buzz you get from using a set up like this but I will try. The Rabbit population on this particular permission have seen it all. They have been lamped, stalked and ambushed. The younger Rabbits have the older wiser ones to look to for warning signals making them very hard to shoot. However with this Rifle/NV combo they do not know you are there. The Daystate Air Wolfwith it's shrouded barrel and optional mk5 Airstream silencer is so very quiet. The tactical version with it's rubberized matte black stock lends itself perfectly to this kind of task.
Tharek and I were only shooting for a couple of hours but having state of the art technology had paid off. On this difficult permission we had bagged 6 of it's wily inhabitants.
The Daystate Air Wolf& NiteSitecombo has proved itself to both Tharek and I on a number of occasions now being successful with Rat & Rabbit. The NiteSite has also accounted for four fox kills in three outings. Below you can see the NiteSite mounted to a Remington 700 .17 centerfire. This is the rifle I like to use for fox control when using the NiteSite NS200.
