A day in the woods…or…HW100 at 75 Yards

I had today all planned, weather forecast was perfect… Then I woke up and the wife said “hey, you know the easter stuff is going to sell out fast today” She was shopping for 7 hours yesterday, figured that’s what she was shopping for… guess not. Anyway, 5 kids takes a little work for a ‘holiday’.

Shopping done then off to the property where I can shoot at will. Main goal was a post-winter clean up and then maybe a few targets. I was expecting my lane to be cluttered with large branches and such from the rough winter but no the erosion around my shooting table took all the time to address. Couldn’t even get my ‘chair’ (5 gallon bucket with lid) to sit level until I moved dirt for an hour.

More tired and dirty than I expected I hiked back to the truck to grab the rifles (the HW and BSA today). Neighbor had company showing up. Decided to stick with the puft of the HW. Neigbor is fine, he shoots his .22 in his back yard (these are 10ish acre lots) but wanted to be nice. Also hauled the air tank down.

Open the bucket which doubles as my range storage, to discover that I hadn’t left my rest there, fuck!

I did have some foam I use to cushion my butt on the bucket and elbows on the table so i made a crappy rest out of those. Shot a ton at 30 and 40 yards where I have stands for targets. It was windy so I got frustrated not hitting bulls.

Pulled out the laser range finder and started marking ranges from different locations on the property. Still struggling to get one spot with a clear line of sight out to 100y. Plenty of room but also plenty of short rolling hills. I did find a 75y line that is clear from my bench, although the pellet path passes well within a foot of the ground as it crosses a rise about half way to the 75y tree. The target was 7 feet up the tree just get that good of an angle.

So nothing to brag about, just my first attempt with this rifle. Wind was gusty, had short breaks but got hard enough to make me reach for my hat a few times. My rest flat out sucked, pellet passed within a a foot of the ground (3 feet to under 1 foot to 7 feet in elevation) can’t be good for trajectory in that wind, and I was already tired.

Took a couple shots just to find the target, after the first one hit I took 10 more that counted, after a few adjustments.