.22 Henry - Card Cutting - Cool Toys

Typically Memorial Day is spent at the coast bathing a pent up saltwater addiction with sun and sand.  Fore casted 30 mph winds and overbearing grass in the surf re-directed us to the ranch.  Caleb turned 13 this month.  So we turned this opportunity a day of dad / son time before 5 of his buddies came along to celebrate his birthday and hunt hogs (come back for later posts for that).  

Despite the blowhard forecast - Thursday afternoon was a 95 degree pressure cooker in deep south Texas.  No wind to speak of. 

A particular habit the boy and I developed comes from my youth.  Hours and hours farting around with an old friend - Lance Fox.  As long as I can remember, if we read about it in a book or saw it on TV, we'd try it.  Hand tossed dimes, quarters, marbles, with BB guns and .22's we did it.  50 - 75 yard shots with multi-pump pellet guns, crappy scopes and some serious hold off - you bet!  Flying stuff with bow and arrows - no problem.  There are saltwater issues.  Kingfish, offshore, on medium action bass fishing gear and 12 pound line.  Done!  We never could stop blackfin tuna on 8 lb line though.   Tons of stuff people say can't be done - can....you just gotta try it. 

Caleb is a talented shot and kids think everything is possible.  Passing on the "can do" philosophy is easy.  Incoming clays with a pellet gun and .22 - he's done it.  Hell on wheels with a shotgun, blowgun, and very solid at 25 yards shooting 9mm brass with my RWS.  500 yards with a .223 or 30.06, trust me, you don't want to be on the receiving end!  So we're always pushing the limits because paper punching is boring.  So we decided to cut a playing card in half with a .22 since we'd seen some guy do it on TV.  A sawhorse, handy grooves - nice!

 

Your target awaits.

 

 

20 yards away - the cards view.  Do notice he is not pointing at me....just for artistic effect.

 

 

Well, it took 4 shots.

 

 

First of all, you gun guys and gals will notice the rifle.  It is a full sized Henry lever action .22 with a Truglo red dot sight on top.  This rifle is super accurate, including a silky smooth action - solid as a vault.  They ain't cheap, but nothing good is cheap, so don't skimp on your kids.  This gun will be around when I am laying under the daisy roots.

Now it's time for the old man -  5 shots.  Maybe we need to back it up!  Gotta tell you, it is very satisfying to hit something that small.

 

 

My more fastidious readers will notice all the scratches.  Well, yeah, uh, it slid off the roof of the ranch house and fell to the ground last November.  It was a much safer situation than it sounds - while sounding completely stupid.  Thus I am justifying the actions of a mismanaged situation.....on the upside we proved durability at a level you won't see on a comment or message board anywhere else! 

Dad and son, easy times, relaxing a bit and pushing the limits of marksmanship.  It is a great way to become a superb shot.  If you can hit the edge of a card, everything else is easier.

 

Take a kid outdoors, teach them to participate in the ecosystem because apex predators rock. 

Especially when they have cool toys.

 

Small Boy with Laugh Lines

A.D.D. is AWESOME

Airgun + Sexy = Accurate Cheek Pressure

I have an especially good wife.  She is “especially” because of many things not applicable to this niche forum on guns and such.   What is applicable?  This special lady bought me my first German Air Rifle – an RWS model 52.

I’ve managed to keep both happy for 20+ years now.

Here’s a sexy picture - applicable to this discourse.

 

A couple weeks ago I found my self alone, just me and her, at the ranch house.  Though it had been a few years, I remembered how to handle her.  Four shots resulted in nice performance.

The 9mm casing is there to show how tightly this gun shoots.  Trust me; high end airguns, much like those rifles we shoot, are way better than we are!  Empty rifle brass

on a saw horse make a good shooting gallery at 20 yards. 

CARNAGE!

  25-35, 7.62, three . 357 magnum casings....in that order.

Here is the shooter’s view through the 6X42 RWS scope (My camera didn’t like the magnification for some reason but you get the jist of it).   You can see the hold off required to hit the middle target (discussed below).

 One thing different about this kind of task, use heavy wood like a 2X4, the pellets stop on impact and you can see the misses in your scope.  This helps you to judge hold off.  In this case the wind was about 15 MPH in my face.  For some reason, despite earlier zero confirmation, to hit the brass, I had to hold off three vertical crosshair widths to the right.  Sure, I could have adjusted the scope, but fooey on that……..we were alone and I was in the mood for action!

For those of you obsessed with accuracy, I found out my RWS is quite responsive to cheek pressure.   Less is more with this gun.  If I barely placed my cheek on the stock I got better results.  That isn’t the kind of thing you figure out banging away with a .300.  But it could help you shoot your .300 better. 

The cheek pressure discovery made me push further; I stuck a 3” nail in the saw horse. Three shots later – a metallic thud resulted in a grey nail head……The pellet went into chunks on impact leaving enough evidence.  That is some tight shooting mister!

Man I love this gun.

Kid’s like her too.  It is a great way to teach new shooters to stay down and look through the scope while shooting.  Cheap ammo and lot’s of practice increases accuracy greatly.   The RWS Model 52 is about 11 pounds, adult length, has a crisp trigger, Monte Carlo, stock and a full size scope.  Which sounds like a marketing piece and it is.  If you teach a kid to shoot that gun well; they will succeed with that long, heavy, adult sized rifle you give them to pop deer with.  The only thing you need to fix about your deer rifle is recoil.  Look in my archive on this blog – there are many suggestions.  I am the sole person saying “recoil is bad” in the sporting world.  The rest of the party thinks recoil is “part of being a man”.   That train of though is stupid.  I would never ask you to kick me in the shoulder just to prove I am a man……why with rifles?

What is not stupid is buying a sexy, high end, Airgun.  Caress her slowly and learn about cheek pressure.  You think your wife will buy you one after reading that?  Good Gosh man, don’t tell her.

Small Boy with Laugh Lines

A.D.D. is AWESOME