November 25th 2012 Shoot

I have recently, very kindly been allowed to shoot on 150 acres of fields, farms and forest. It's made my year because living in a City, I haven't always got access to places where I can shoot my rifle. So last Sunday (which also happened to be my 30th birthday) I went down to meet the farmer and introduce myself. Once I had pulled up in the car the Farmer came out of his house where I offered him a bottle of wine as a gift to say thank you for his kindness, a small price to pay for such a great place to shoot. We went across where he wanted me to go and where to avoid at which point his Son came outside. His Son lives in the Farm next to his Dad and soon said that I was fine to use his land too, I couldn't believe it. What a great family.

I got the Air Arms Pro Sport out of the car and set off down the path. It had been raining all week so there were big puddles and lots of boggy ground underfoot. This was the first time I had been out in the fields for a while and it felt good to be outside. I set a paper target next to some grass and had a few shots just to make sure the scope was still set up properly and then carried on across the fields.

I was walking along the treeline pictured above when I spotted a grey squirrel or should I say I heard one moving in the tree behind me. Once I had spotted it, I quickly aimed and took a shot. I knew as soon as I pulled the trigger that I had missed with the pellet flying high of its target. I followed it across two or three tree's but by then it had found its way to the tree in the middle which is covered in Ivy. I looked for a while but couldn't see the Squirrel or any movement, it had got away….. This time !

I carried on down the fields and came to some woods. Here I had a shot at one more Squirrel but missed again! I must be out of practice. There were a lot of Crows in one of the fields but I couldn't get anywhere near them because they are so wary.

I sat down very still in the woods and made sure there were no shadows or outlines of my body that would give me away to any incoming birds that were coming in to roost. I had my back against an old wall with old branches and leaves covering my shape.

I waited there a while and saw a couple of pigeons come and go but they were too far away and “the” squirrel made another appearance but I couldn't get a good shot off at that either. One of the highlights of the day was a Great Spotted Woodpecker that came very close, little did I know that just few yards from where I was sat, it had made his home in a Stump of an old Silver Birch Tree. It flew from tree to tree for a few minutes, holding on to the trunks while bobbing from side to side and singing. He then quickly flew into the hole in the Silver Birch. I didn't take this lovely piccy of a great spotted woodpecker but you get the idea.

Margaret J Walker's - Flickr

I didn't see much else that night. When I was walking back up towards the farm I couldn't help but think that I shouldn't have missed that first Squirrel, I really can’t complain though because it was absolutely brilliant to get out into the countryside for the day and stretch my legs. I can’t wait to do it again.

My Rifle - .22 Air Arms Pro Sport

Here is the tool of my trade, it's an Air Arms Pro Sport in .22 Caliber. It's a Rifle that I have wanted since I went to Scotland with my family about 17 years ago. I remember taking an Air Rifle Shooting Magazine with me and spending hours looking at and reading about the gun. Now I'm older and able to earn my own money, I was recently able to buy it.

Now after wanting this Rifle for 17 years it had to damn good to meet up with my expectations but thankfully, it's all that and more! I personally absolutely love the look of this Rifle and the quality of it's construction. The Air Arms Pro Sport is a Spring Powered Under Leaver Rifle with Synthetic Bearings and a fixed Barrel. It has a 2 stage Gold Plated adjustable Trigger and a beautiful Minelli Walnut Stock. This particular gun is right handed but Air Arms also cater for lefties. It has a nice Rubber Butt Plate and the designs around the Checkering on the Pistol Grip and on the main body of the wood is really classy and really well done.  Another plus point is that this Rifle is quiet, partly due to the precision of the moving parts but the sound is further reduced by a built in Moderator at the end of the barrel. (it looks like the whole barrel is the silencer but it's actually just the last few centimeters.

It amazes me, the Rifle looks so simple to look at but just look at the amount of parts that go in to it that all have to be specially made.

It's got a 3-9x40 Scope attached to it. It was included with the rifle but sadly I don't know what make or model it is because it was unboxed and unfortunately I never asked. The Scope itself isn't really very good, its not too bad down the ranges with no wind and set distances but it doesn't have any mil dots and I prefer these to aid in shooting different distances in the field.

So I think that about covers the .22 Air Arms Pro Sport. A great Air Rifle that is a pleasure to shoot. I've not covered any use of the Rifle in this post but look out for the next post covering its first use down the gun club. I will leave you with a few more pics. Thanks for reading.