Jack-foo : The way of the ever hitting pellet……. On Jack

•April 11, 2007 • Leave a Comment

 
| View Show | Create Your Own Now, I know a lot of you may disagree with me but when it comes to shooting and hunting, I believe they are both an art form. Just like any martial art, you have to practice and learn …and one day put your little spin on it to make it your style. What I mean is in shooting .For example, you may hold the rifle a little different or when you go hunting, you may walk faster or slower. Now, don’t get me wrong. I know there are people out there that can pick up a gun for the first time and hit the “X” or, have never been hunting before , go out and score more game than you, ( That happens, trust me, I know) but over all, it’s an art.

The person that can just pick up a rifle and shoot it well may one day become what I call a Jack- foo Grand Master ( That’s someone that has scored 50 or more jacks using both air pistol or air rifle) and can seem to hit jacks with ease. (Jim Chapman and Ron Robinson comes to mind when I think of someone at that level) .Now don’t get me wrong, with enough practice I believe most people can get to that level, it may just take you longer. I also believe that there are a lot of people out there that are Jack- foo Black Belts ( that’s someone that has scored 30-49 jacks with an airgun pistol or rifle.) ( but a grand master should be able to score with both)

Now as you know, some areas are harder to hunt than others so you could have someone that has only scored 20 jacks and have the mind of a black belt in jack- foo ( meaning they know what to look for, They can spot jack before he spots you which is hard to do at times) so, never underestimate any one’s jack- foo, you may end up getting your feeling’s hurt.

Case in point, This past weekend, The wife and I ( yeah, we’re trying to work thing’s out) decided to go to Las Vegas to see the family and talk to old friends. We packed up the car with kids and everything and we were just getting ready to go when the wife forgot something and went back into the house . Her purse was setting on the seat ,open and I just happen to look down and was shocked!, In disbelief, I leaned closer and saw that my eyes did not deceive me. She had one of my Jack- Foo books ( written by Jim Chapman) and the I could tell that she had been reading it by the lip stick on some of the pages ( she has a habit of doing that sometimes) I didn’t say anything. She came back to the car and we were off to Vegas.

I did notice, that she did ask me a lot of questions about hunting, and how to hunt jacks .And that she thinks that she can score more than me. I said to her “ You’ve been hunting with me before, why don’t you come with me. I see you are studying the works of one of the Grand Masters, so do you think you’re ready?”. She looked at me and said “ What?! , what’s wrong with you?, what Grand Master are you talking about?” I pointed at the book in her purse and her face turned beet red and said “ I didn’t have anything to read one day so just picked this old book up, I don’t believe anything in there I just needed something to read that’s all. Here, you can have it” ( reaching for her purse) I said “ No, go ahead and read it, I’m glad you’re reading it, you know, I brought two rifles the Career .25 cal 707 and Sam Yang Super Gun 909 in .22 cal. The Super Gun is a lot lighter and very powerful ,it’s pushing a little bit over 80 fpe in 22cal. As far as I know, it’s the only one made so be careful. I’ll let you use that one if you like.” she said “ Master, I’ll make sure nothing happens to your baby, you care more for your Quackenbush & this gun than you do about me”. I just looked at her.

We made it to Vegas. Went over and talked to the family spoke to our friends for a while then it off to the desert. As she was putting on her snake boots she said “ I’m going to show you how it’s done today.” I said “Ok, careful, Jim has been hunting for years and he makes it seem easy, but as you know already, it’s not. I’ll be happy if you just get a jack in your cross hairs. You have to crawl before you can walk.” ( she has a hard time getting the cross hairs on target sometimes) She fired back “ I know a lot more now than I did then , I may just show you a thing or two” “Ok!”. I filled the guns, Made sure we had water, and pellets and it was off into the desert.

I was a nice day. The sun was out, it was around 75 degrees and no wind. We got out there around 10:00 am. For the first two hours we saw nothing then all of a sudden she saw a jack. She said “ 2 o’clock” and raised her rifle I raised mine too and saw the jack bolt and not stop. She looked at me and I could tell by looking at her that she really wanted to pull the trigger on that jack. I said “ Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance”. She put the rifle back on safe and were off hunting again. I told her that the next one we see we will go after it and try and get closer and that they are tricky sometimes. You may think that they ran and hid behind a bush and you didn’t see them move from there but when you stalk up to the bush , they’re gone, just vanished into thin air. We kept going, ( she likes to hunt by herself) we went maybe 100 yards away from each other and we were getting ready to make this turn around this hill where I told her that there would be a lot of jacks, and as soon as I said that a jack bolted. She didn’t see it but I said 11oclock and raised my rifle. She raised hers and said “ I can’t see him, go for it, let’s see if you have any jack- foo left.” I saw him behind this bush at about 150 yards out ( all I could see was his ears through the scope) so I told her to keep going and that I’ll be back in 15 mins. I got to within maybe 70 yards but it was to much brush in the way and as I was trying to get a better angle. The jack said “he had enough” and bolted down into this wash about 100 yards ahead of me. Now, I know that for some reason jacks feel safe on the other side of a wash so, if I scare him when I get close to the wash he may stop on the other side and give me a good shot maybe 50 yards are so. As I got to the edge of the wash , sure enough, I could hear his feet pushing against rocks making his way up the other side of the wash. As he got to the top he paused . My scope was already on him. ( I know that when they pause like that, it only last for 5-10 seconds then they are off on another 100-250 yards dash , and if you shoot at them during this time, it will be 300 are so yards if you miss) I took a deep breath, let half of it out the range was about 50-55 yards no more , I put the cross hairs right on his chest and slowly pulled the trigger ( the chest was the only thing I could see clearly) with the Boom, a 34 grain 25 cal pellet hit the jack and you could hear the “thoowack” of the pellet hitting. The jack jumped a little and stood there ( maybe in shock) so I cocked the career and with another Boom sent another 34 grainer on top on the first ( man, some jacks are hard to kill) and with that, he hit the canvas.

I picked up the jack and went and showed the wife. She said “ Wow, and that’s with a 25 cal, I didn’t know they could be so tough.” I said with your gun we pushing about the same fpe, but if you hit them in the head they will be a lot easier to go down,” I took a few pics and then it was off to find another one.

The next hour, nothing then I heard “ 9:oclock I looked over and saw this jack. It was at full tilt. Then all of a sudden it disappeared . The wife was so out done that she started to cry tears “I can’t do this! Why do they always stop for you and not for me.” I came over to her and said “ Sweetheart it takes time. Don’t worry it took me over a year to get my first jack but I tell you what, your jack is not to far away” she said wiping her eyes “ A year is too long” I said “No not that, your jackrabbit, he’s in that wash up ahead, dry your eyes now, and stay hooked, if you do this right you will get another chance” so she wiped her face again and took the gun half way put it on her shoulder and she went towards the wash. ( I followed , maybe 3 steps behind her) we were maybe 30 yards from the wash when all of a sudden, the jack bolted she took a quick deep breath and put the gun fully to her shoulder and said “12 o’clock” I said now wait till he stops. She said as she looked through the scope “ He’s not stopping!,” I said “Don’t worry, he will” and as soon as I said that , he stopped. As soon as he stopped , I heard Boom! And the thoowacking sound. I said oh babe, you hit him, you hit him! I was looking though my scope to and I saw the pellet hit too. It was right in the chest area. The jack jumped up and bolted off. Man, we were so happy, giving each other high five’s and hugs and then I said let’s go get jack and see what kind of damage you did to him. Got you there and couldn’t find him anywhere!. ( unbelievable) but she was still happy non the less, and she is on her way to becoming a jack- foo black belt and who knows, maybe one day a grand master .

Sniper99

Posted in airgun hunting, airguns

Welcome To Jurassic Park- Texas Four Horn 2007

•March 30, 2007 • Leave a Comment

 
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Changing our clothes after the buffalo hunt and saying our goodbye’s to the guide, it was off to the Wild Life Ranch in the hopes of getting a Four Horn Ram and Eric Henderson wanted to get a Black Hawaiian Ram. As we left, we followed behind the truck that had the buffalo in the back and for a few mins , I replayed the whole buffalo hunt in my mind. I found myself staring at the truck, not believing what just happened. Then Eric said “ Dude, are you ready?” I said “ Yeah” he said “Let’s get us some rams” and with that, we pulled out onto the black top road and turned right and you could hear the big V8 start to rumble louder as Eric gave it more gas.

The first ten mins or so, not a word was spoken. It was almost as though we were trying to shift gears in our mind to get ready for the ram hunt.. Then Eric said “Hey, I know this place up the road a ways named Cooper’s. They have the best bar-b que on the planet”. He was right. They some of the best bar-b-que I can remember having. A real nice place, If you’re ever around those parts and hungry, you can do a lot worse. The rest of the ride down there was uneventful.

We made it to the ranch and it almost felt like going back home because I knew some of the people there from the last time I was there.( a little bit over a year ago). We said our hello’s and Eric didn’t want to waste any time. He wanted to go out and shoot a few targets to make sure his rifle was still on target before the hunt.

Eric had made these bullets that had a very deep hollow point ( a little bit more than 1/3 of the bullet) with 372 grains soft lead cal 457. When we got to the shooting area it was in the same area where Eric had shot a nice Catalina ram last year. We wasted no time. We got out and set up a target at 65 yards. First Eric grabbed the Destroyer then changed his mind and brought out his (new baby) Quackenbush .375 cal long action. ( let me tell you right now, it is beautiful.) The guide’s were standing around I guess looking to see if we could shoot or not. When Eric pulled this rifle out, you could hear everyone take a deep breath. He didn’t notice though. All he wanted to do was to get on target and be ready for the hunt tomorrow. He also had a nice size bullet to go with that gun too. It was very accurate, hitting the target on the first shot. ( yeah, I know, it’s a Quackenbush what do you expect) he shot it a few more times ( hitting the same spot as before) then he asked me if I wanted to shoot it I said “ No, that’s ok, I may scratch something”. He said “This gun is made to go hunting, so it will get scratched up”. So, with that I took a shot. It was very smooth, The trigger must be no more than 3 pounds if that.

After that, I wanted to get my rifle sighted in with the new bullets that Eric had made. It took me a few shots but I finally got it sighted in. I must say, those bullets are very accurate in this rifle. I was shocked. Eric said “ you know, I think I’ll take the Destroyer and try those same bullets. He took out his chrony and the bullet’s were pushing 347 fpe out of a rifle that weigh around 5lbs. The Destroyer is a dump gun. Meaning that , when you shoot it, it dumps all the air out of it on each shot but with a pony bottle, you’re set. After a few shots,. Eric was on with this rifle too.( he’s a great shot and can do it off hand too. I’m glad he was my back up on the hog hunt I went on).

Once we were sighted in we went to the house where all the hunter’s stayed and Eric met a friend he hasn’t seen in 6 years. They worked together in Wisconsin , his name is Brandon.

The next day, We get up nice and early, get some breakfast and headed out to meet our guide for today . His name is Tanner. His brother wanted to come along so we all headed out. We went to a different ranch today. I’m telling you , It looked like something you would see in Jurassic Park. It look like it was all man made but it wasn’t. You would be walking along in grass then you would come to this big out crop of rocks. ( some as large as cars and houses.) I’m sure if you look fast enough, you would see a Raptor or a T REX bolt by. It was about 50 degrees and the wind was blowing so I thought it would be an easy hunt. (wrong) This was a very hard hunt for me. When we first got out there I saw a nice four horn but he saw me to and headed for the rocks at about 30 mph. The area we hunted in was 400 acres of going up and down hill, over huge rocks, and though water. After about 2 hours I was tired, about ready to pass out and not a ram in sight. We took a break behind this big boulder and all of a sudden we saw this beautiful black Hawaiian ram. He was about 75 yards away. I looked at Eric and handed him my rifle. He said “ No, this is your hunt. I’ll get mine.” and with that, we just watched. After the break, we went over a few more hills nothing. About an hour later the guide said “ LOOK!” he pointed to this super nice Catalina ram all black.

I said “ oh yeah!” and kneeled down behind this rock. He stepped out and I put him in my cross hairs. He was about 50 yards out, but he wouldn’t stop. The guide tried to make him stop by making some kind of sound. I kept saying to myself “ come on, stop, stop, stop” all of a sudden he slowed down right as he was making this turn to go behind this boulder but he was about 80 yards out and I said “ He’s to far and took pressure off the trigger.

Another 2 hours go by and nothing! I was beginning to think that I may never get a Four horn, then about an hour later we saw a group of rams all walking in a line. I looked through the binoculars and my heart almost stopped when I saw this nice four horn. I looked back at Eric who was up on this really big boulder. ( You know, I think that Eric has some mountain goat in him or something, he was climbing all over everything and didn’t break a sweat. Unbelievable). The guide said “ We can head them off but we have to move fast and you will only have about a good 10 seconds to make your shot, ready?” I said “Yeah” I was already tired, but I sucked it up and made it over the last hill to get ready for my shot when the rams come but they were already there.

The guide said “Ok Stephan, you maybe have 5 seconds before you see him so get ready”. Breathing heavy, and trying to find a rest, I turned to the guide’s brother and said “ Do me a favor, put your fingers in your ears and don’t more for 10 seconds“. Right then Eric said “He’s 60 yards out”. He put his fingers in his ears just then , the four horn came into view. ( I already had one of Eric’s bullets in the gun) I cocked the rifle, put my right elbow on the brother’s shoulder, put the cross hairs on the four horn’s upper neck area and pulled the trigger BOOM!

The ram went down so fast that I thought I missed him. The only clue that I hit him was the sound of the bullet hitting him. I reloaded, and went up there to see what happen and he was gone. We looked a little closer and found out that he fell in between two big boulders dead. When we pulled him out, the bullet had hit his spine and when we got the bullet out it was in three pieces and the spine in that area was just mush.

By this time, we had been out there for 5 hours and when we got back to the truck, I was ready for a break But Eric was ready to go. ( oh, let me warn you right now, if you ever hunt with Eric, you will always be on the move and he never get tired…… never!)

Eric went to his truck and got the destroyer and the pony bottle and said “Let’s go” The guides looked at him like he was crazy but they went along ( I say that because I wimped out, sorry Eric but 5 hours on those hills is enough for me). (As told by the guides) Eric was everywhere, up and over big boulders down in ravens, in between rocks they said that he ran them hard. He was trying to get a good Hawaiian ram but after an hour he still didn’t have a clear shot. He had chance but another ram got in the way so he couldn’t take the shot.

He kept looking then all of a sudden he saw this white Catalina . He got to within 50 yards and slowly cocked the rifle and put it to his shoulder, he was aiming 2” behind the left shoulder and BOOM!. The bullet past right through taking out both lungs ( from one side of his chest to the other right to left) but the bullet did mushroom because the hole on the other side is larger than the entrance. The bullet ricocheted and went off into the woods near by.

Eric charged the gun again, and the Catalina was off at about 150 yards. Eric ran close to 100 yards full sprint and made a “ Texas Heart Shot on him. At 55 yards, Eric took aim and slowly pulled the trigger…BOOM! . The bullet hit the Catalina on his right hip about 1 ½” from his butt and past all the up to his chest cavity. It too mushroomed. ( Eric has the bullet from that shot)

All in all, it was a good hunt. I didn’t see a Raptor or a T-REX but that doesn’t mean they are not out there.

Posted in air rifle, airgun hunting

American Bison Hunt: A hunt to remember (story with pics)

•March 28, 2007 • 1 Comment


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You know, before I go into the hunt, I would like to share with you a few things that has crossed my mind here lately. For some reason, as I get older my own mortality comes to mind. In the beginning, I would think of being put in this pine box and laid down in this deep dark hole and the sound of dirt being thrown on me. ( that always scared me the most, being in the dark alone forever)
Then , one day it came to me. That I would not be down in that hole, that I would be in spirit with all the memories of my life. Some say that when you pass on, that your life flashes before your eyes . Kinda like a snap shot of things that have happened to you throughout your life and maybe, those are the memories that you take with you ( hey, who knows) .
Well, a few of the memories that I would love to take with me would be( just a few) watching my little girl open her eyes to the world for the first time and smile. Next, watching and hearing my best friend tell me that he loved me said “ good bye my friend” as he takes his last breath.
Another one would be talking to Dennis Quackenbush at the airgun show in Virginia when he told me “I build my guns for people to shoot, To go hunting with and just have fun and who knows, hopefully make a few good memories, so Stephan, get out there and make a few”.
For Dennis, saying that, was not a big event . In fact, right after that someone else got his ear and he was off doing whatever a master airgun maker does at an airgun show .But it hit me like a lightning bolt! I said to myself “ Just what if I can make so many good memories (big and small) that whenever I leave this earth I’m bound to take a few good ones with me”.
And that’s how it started. On Eric Henderson’s table was one of the tools I needed to make a huge memory .(but as you know, sometimes memories don’t come cheap) I had to dig deep down in the pocket to get this gun ( the Quackenbush / Big Bore Bob 457 Safari gun) I’m talking all the way down to the lint of the pocket. Like Dennis said “ It’s not the gun. It’s what you do with it that counts”. This gun has already made a few memories for Eric, and I wanted it to make a few for me too.
Ok, Ok, enough about that. Time to get out of my head and get on with the task at hand, telling you guys what happen in the big state of TEXAS!.
I knew it was going to be a fun time when Eric Henderson picked me up from the airport. He told me to open the back door of the ( BIG BORE AIRGUN ADVENTURE) truck and for some reason I didn’t hear him. I was doing something to my gun case or something and didn’t hear him . He came around and opened the door and all of the bullets came out all over the ground. ( people were looking at us like we were crazy) As we picked up the bullets, I said “ I’m glad I didn’t open the door, you would have talked about me all the way to the ranch.
After picking up all the ammo, we got in the truck and headed down to the ranch. It took about 6 hours but we had fun the whole way . 90% of the time , we talked about ( what else) airguns and the hunts we done. By nightfall, we had made it to Kerrville and right out side of the hotel about 50 to 70 yards from our room door were about 20 deer (white tails) were running around eating and having a good ole time. We watched them for about 15 mins (Eric took a few camera shots and then we called it a night)
The next morning, we went and got my 5 day hunting license from Walmart, and off we went to the ranch ( about 20 miles away) The ranch was really nice with about a half a mile long winding gravel road that lead up to this big white house and one other smaller house. Our guide Walt was there waiting for us. As soon as we pulled up he came over and said “Welcome to the ranch” and shook our hands and said you can change in there (pointing to the smaller house ) the house was nice inside . We changed and got in the white truck and we were off to hunt Buffalo.
Man, at this point I was so nervous. There was a lot of brush and small trees. We went right through the brush and over hills and rocks .We did this for about and hour. Then all of a sudden the truck stopped. The guide (Walt) got out of the truck and said “ I thought I saw your buffalo in here (pointing to a clump of trees and brush) I said to myself “ There’s no way he’s in there. Then all of a sudden Walt came running back to the truck and closed the door and started looking over to the right and I kinda followed his eyes and about 10 seconds later I saw this giant buffalo come out of no where. ( have you ever seen that cartoon where the hunter points his gun at the really big elephant and all of a sudden his gun goes limp? That’s how I felt at that moment) after getting over the shock of how big he was I couldn’t get over how quite he was walking along and him taking off with his buddy ( another big buffalo) .
By now, my heart was beating out of my chest and to be honest I wanted to back out of the deal saying to myself “There is no way the this slug (looking at the slug) is going to take down the beast I just seen”. I looked up, and Eric was looking at me and said “ Are you ok?” sensing what I was thinking, he said “You can do this” Then Walt said “ You better be on target with your shots or run faster than me or Eric” we all kinda laughed to shake off being so nervous. I took a few deep breaths, put a 510 grain slug in the 457 and said “let’s go hunting”.
All of my senses were on overdrive. I heard everything (clear too) I saw everything the same way. I think the buffalo knew they were being hunted because they were out of site a few times (and that really made me nervous because I thought they may lay in ambush in the tall brush. A few times I got within range but each time I didn’t have a clear shot. We must have hunted him for about an hour even one time having him in me cross hairs but, there were trees in the way and when I tried to move to get a better shot they would thunder off.
After playing this cat and mouse game a few times . The buffalo came to this small clearing. Walt said “ Ok Stephan, here’s your chance, now put a bullet right where I told you” Eric said “Remember in the crease, if you find yourself shaking, stop and count to 10 and start over he’s 53 yards out now, put a slug in him and make history”.
I looked back at the buffalo and for some reason I was calm I had tunnel vision but that was it. I leaned next to this tree, made sure that the bolt was down ,pulled back and cocked the rifle, I brought the rifle to my shoulder and put the cross hairs right in it’s shoulder, right by the crease and pulled the trigger…BOOM!! The buffalo jumped a little and then moved to the side. Walt and Eric at the same time said “hit him again!” with that, I loaded another slug , cocked the rifle and put him in my cross hairs. He’s now quartering away from me so I put the cross hairs right in the crease and pulled the trigger.. BOOM! ( with each shot , you could hear the bullet hit and hit hard) with that shot, he jumped up and went down on that right leg. Then he stood up and became stiff legged.
Walt and Eric said “ Nice shot, both of those were right on top of each other” . We kept looking at the buffalo and Walt said “This is normal, A lot of times I have had them stand like that for 20-30 mins before they go down” After about 15min the buffalo fell.
I didn’t know how big he was until I got up there on him. After all the high fives and hand shakes. I thought back and smiled to myself hoping that this will be one of the memories that I take with me when I leave this earth.
Until next time, keep your tank filled and a pellet loaded!
Sniper99

Posted in 2000 lb buffalo, airgun hunting, buffalo hunt

American Bison Hunt: Moments before the fall (video)

•March 27, 2007 • 3 Comments

<http://www.moneytube.com/video.php?v=11296&m=97129

I wanted to write my full story, but I am so tired. Here’s a small clip. Full story in coming in the morning. I am so exhausted and glad to be home.

Posted in airgun hunting, buffalo hunt, video

American Bison Hunt: A picture is worth a thousand words

•March 26, 2007 • 5 Comments

Sniper99 and buffalo

I can’t believe it! It all happened so fast,  Here’s just one of the many pics I took. Let me tell right now. It was a hunt I will never forget!. I will go into more details later on. ( so much happened that I have to collect my thoughts and but it all together.) I will make sure that I will give a blow by blow account of everything that happen.
I will be home Tuesday….full story then.
Until then, keep your tank filled and a pellet loaded

Posted in 2000 lb buffalo, buffalo hunt, sniper99

American Bison: Four Horn Hunting in Jurassic Park

•March 25, 2007 • Leave a Comment

I dont have time to go into detail right now. I thouroughly xhausted with every fiber in my being. I will promise that I will write more upon my return.

This by far is one of the hardest hunts I’ve been on.

Posted in Uncategorized

American Bison: The night before the hunt

•March 23, 2007 • 2 Comments

It is now 11:40pm on Thursday night Kerryville, TX and I am very nervous to say the least. To go after an animal  that weighs 2,000 lbs or more with an air rifle (almost as much as my car) sounds crazy! But I am up for this challenge. I have a lot of faith in my DAQ and Big Bore Bobs modifications that I feel as though I can accomplish my goal: airgun assault on buffalo with an airgun. My aim must be straight and I must focus harder than I’ve ever focused before. Maybe the jack rabbit hunting will come in handy..hahaha. I will get up tomorrow at 8:00 am. We will sight in my rifle, do some target shooting in the hopes that by 10 am I will be on quest to hunt and take down my beast.

The air around here is full of excitement. Eric is almost more excited than me. From the time he picked me up from the Dallas airport we have been riding in the truck non-stop for over 6 hours (with the exception of gas breaks)  to get to this ranch area. We are staying overnight about 20 miles out. We talked non-stop about airgun and hunting big game animals with pure compressed air. Eric is very knowledgeable about air rifles and hunting big game. So no matter what, tomorrow will be a great challenge and an awesome learning experience.

Until then, good night ladies and gentleman. I hope to write to guys really soon. If I survive.

Posted in Uncategorized

Sniper99 & the Mariner airgun

•February 20, 2007 • 4 Comments

Posted in Chronograph results

It’s time for airgun hunters to be recognized…..

•February 5, 2007 • 2 Comments

 
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I’ve decided to put together a professionally printed airgun hunting calender. I am excited because every month will feature a airgun and results of the hunt (i.e. kills)

I think this will be good for the airgun community and that it will be a great conversation piece to expose airgunning to those who only think that they are toys and cannot hold it’s own in real life hunting.

What people don’t know about me is that I also use regular “powder guns” as well. I’ve been an avid collector of those firearms for many years. I have successfully hunted with them as well. Firearms are great, however, there is nothing like pushing a piece of lead with nothing but air. This technology has been around since the early 1500’s. When you hunt with an airgun and successfully take down your quarry, I feel as though this is as natural as using a bow and arrow because the lead is naturally found in the earth and so is air (just compressed).

When I think back on my airgun hunts, I imagine how it must have been on Lewis and Clark expedition where the first well known historic case or effective use of air rifle. It’s so simple, that its amazing.

So, the first airgun hunting calender will run from March 2007 to March 2008. I am getting an overwhelming response from airgunners and its exciting.

I have lots more in store….stay posted.

Sniper99

Posted in calender

TEXAS RHINO HUNT pt 2 (long with high res pics)

•January 30, 2007 • 3 Comments


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After the morning hunt in the blinds . ( what I forgot to tell you was , I did get out of the blind after I heard the shot that  Leroy took and I saw a group of hogs coming in so, I got down on one knee and aimed the rifle at one that later became Gimpy .I had a nice head shot, the cross hairs were right between the eyes. I was pulling the trigger when the hog moved and the shot hit him in the left shoulder breaking his left shoulder. These hogs are so tough, he just ran off with out a word. I followed him but they were long gone. When I made it back to my blind. Eric and Leroy were standing there waiting for me.) I told them what happen and We decided to do some still hunting .( meaning stalk and shoot method) Texas Charles decided to give the blind another try, and with that, we were off to hunt these big rhinos. Leroy went one way and Eric and I went the other. As we started off on the stalk, for some reason ,my mind went back to the day before, when Allen had us sign this wavier, and the thought of me running from 4 or 5 hogs, and falling down ,and having all 5 hogs slicing me up, while Eric’s standing over me filming saying ” this is great!.” with that, I looked down and cocked the 505.After about 20 minutes of walking, we saw a few hogs bolt about 200 yards away. Eric said ” dude, with those pants making all that noise, we will never get close enough to hit a pig” . I said “really?, Are they that loud?” That’s when Eric stopped and I knew I was getting ready to go to Eric Henderson’s TEXAS RHINO SCHOOL. He said ” rule one, hogs have very good hearing and there sense of smell is 10x better than a dogs” I said ” how can that be when they root around in all of this stuff all day?” He said ” why do you think they are rooting for?, there’s something that they smell under ground”. I said ” then, I need to go back and change” he said ” well, let’s wait till lunch who knows you may be able to catch one off guard”. With that, we went into the woods.

We saw a few hogs, but none in range. Texas Charles kept us informed of the hogs he saw and which way they were heading. Leroy saw a few hogs. He almost got another one but they heard the radio and took off.

After lunch, I changed and it was back out there to get one. ( you know, when you see them walking , they look like baby Rhinos for real and as tough as one too) Eric went with me again. ( I’m sure he knew I needed the help) He told me ,” rule #2 . Hogs are very smart, the only things smarter are Dolphins and Man.

Rule #3 there eye sight is not that good but they can detect movement very well. So, move slowly and be very quite, now, let’s go get your pig.” With this new info, I thought I was ready. Let me tell you, you have to be in shape to hunt hogs. Eric ran me all over the place. I tried to keep up but man! .

It was very hard, and no shot at one hog. Then we were walking by this creek when Eric saw this hog laying down by the water. He was about 50 yards out. We slowly got to within 35 yards and Eric said can you hit him off hand from here? I said It’s only one way to find out. I brought the 505 up to my shoulder ( trying not to think of missing) Took a deep breath, let half out, put the cross hairs on his head between his ear and eye and pulled the trigger . The rifle went BOOM! The rifle recoiled and when the scope came back down. The hog was still there. (I don’t know but, it was like I was shell shocked , I could see that Eric was saying something but couldn’t hear him. 3 seconds later I heard him,) “LOAD UP AGAIN!, HIT HIM AGAIN , NOW !!!!” I put another bullet in the rifle and walked around the bend in the creek closer, the hog had moved about 20 yards away and I put the cross hairs on the spine right behind the head and pulled the trigger . The hog fell again. I loaded up again and looked down the hill we were on and the hog was snapping his teeth together. Eric said go ahead and take him out of his misery so, I went down there and put one right in the ear BOOM!

It was over, and I felt GREAT!

The next day. At 06:30 hours, we were back out in the blinds, but this time I saw no pigs. Leroy and Texas Charles saw a few but they were moving so fast and so far out that that they couldn’t get a good shot off. We stayed in our blind till around 9:30 when the new guide ( Bo) came by to pick us up. Texas Charles and I decided to do a stalk through the woods, by the creek. We both spaced out about 75 yards, and in line, walked the woods and creek. ( did I tell you guys that everything in the Texas woods either Bites, stings or stick you with it’s thorns. ) While walking, I tried to imagine how this area must look like in the summer time. I’m sure, it would be worst than any jungle out there with snakes and hogs right at your feet. (for me , not good) We walked about a half mile seem like and only saw five hogs running off about 100 yards to the right. We ended up down at Eric’s and Leroy’s blind. We all got together for a moment and decided to go our own way with each taking a section of the area and hopefully one of us would get lucky, Texas Charles decided to go in the blind up on this hill and take his chances. This time Eric went with me. We took the creek area and we went up and down, over hills, low crawled, ( on one little low crawl, we almost got ran over by a group of about 30 hogs. Trust me, when you see those big rhinos from the front with those large tusk less than 40 yards away running full speed toward you, your heart will stop beating for a few seconds) but could not get a good shot. Nobody got a good shot ( this is not easy, you have to really hunt them and hard to get anywhere close to getting a shot and that’s for real)

After lunch, we decided to try again in the same area. After about an hour Eric and I saw a troop of hogs about 400 yards away kind of running and would cross our path at about 300 yards away. To get closer , we would have to run a good 200 and something yards then try and stalk the rest trying not to breath hard and put a bullet in one of there skulls. Eric all of a sudden said ” hey! Is that the hog you shot yesterday? , is that Gimpy?” I looked a little closer and sure enough it was. I said ” oh yea!” Eric said ” don’t you think it’s about time for you to close the deal on him?” I just looked at him and smiled, stood up and put the 505 in my right hand. Eric stood up and said with a low voice ” ok, when I say go we will head up that hill about 100 yards away. Up and over the hill ,then we will see what happen from there”. Eric kept looking then I heard “GO” .

We ran all the way up the hill ( man, I was so tired) the hogs were right where we thought they would be. We took about a min then I had to suck it up and start the stalk trying to control my breathing. We got to within 60 yards when the hogs knew something was wrong, they started to move faster . We were after gimpy and there were so many hogs that we had time to get closer before gimpy came into view.

All of a sudden, there he was. My heart started to race and all I could see was this brownish black hog. I heard Eric whisper ” take your time, but not to much NOW NAIL HIM!” I looked down to make sure the rifle was cocked. When I looked up, gimpy was looking right at me and started to pick up his pace. I was so focused, I could just hear Eric saying NOW!, NOW!!!!. I put the cross hairs right behind the shoulder and all I heard was BOOM! The hog fell right there. Eric said ” good shot, now reload , hogs are tough” as I reloaded, the hog got back up and started to walk off. I heard Eric say HIT HIM AGAIN!, HARD!” ( meaning put the bullet where it counts the most. He didn’t tell me this, I just knew what he meant) I put the cross hairs on his spine right above his shoulders in line and pulled the trigger- BOOM! The hog staggered and went and laid next to the nearest tree. The only shot I had was another spine shot or in the neck. Thank god that Eric brought his pony bottle. He filled my gun and said ” hit him in the neck and that should do it” the hog started making this real deep grunting sound . I put the cross hairs on his neck almost by the back of the head and spine and pulled the trigger . With that shot, 450 fpe went right into spine. After that shot, I knew he wasn’t going anywhere and Eric said “now go up there and put his lights out” I put another bullet in the 505 and went up to him( it seem like it took forever for me to get to him) he started snapping his teeth, and I unloaded another 275 grain maxi hunter into the head. END OF MISSION. Le Roy  said “what the heck was going on with all of those shots”, he wanted to get in on the action. He said ” man, how many did you take? You must have shot 100 times.” I laugh and asked Eric ” man, are they always this tough?” he said “every hog is different, but a lot of them are, that’s why you have to bring enough gun for the real big ones”.

After this, Eric, Leroy and I went off on a whole new stalk. We went down by the creek again and After about 20 minutes , we came to a sharp bend in the creek, with open ground all the way around. We decided to split up. Eric went to the left, I went to the right and Leroy went right down the middle. As we stalk closer , I put my finger to my ear letting Leroy know I heard something. Then, all of a sudden, about 20 quail bolted out of this tree. Leroy laugh ,I put my finger to my ear again, I made two more steps and looked back at Leroy and knew he saw something. His eyes were focus on something. All of a sudden, he raised his Gargoyle and within a split second of doing that _ BOOM! . I looked, Eric looked at me, we both looked at Leroy who by now had both hands in the air with his gargoyle in his left hand saying “YEAH,YEAH!!!!” I said to myself ” man,he’s  that happy blasting a quail?” but when we had a chance to get over there ( the brush was so thick) we saw that Leroy had made the best shot of the whole trip. There was a big hog laying about 40 yards away, shot right between the eyes. ( awesome shot, you know, if I were running from Leroy for some reason and he had the Gargoyle and told me to stop even at 200 yards I would stop and say , ok, you got me)

This have been a awesome hunt. Texas Charles didn’t get a hog this time around though he did shoot  one but, couldn’t find him anywhere. But, that’s how hunting goes sometime. Texas Charles, keep your head up. And keep the rifle fully charged. That hog will  be just over the next hill.
 

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