400 + YARDS ! ! ! (pics)

[ImAfossil]

Saturday late afternoon, I went to my favorite hill, for some serious long range shooting at groundhogs. 'The Hill'. Sometimes I am watching 4 to 6 groundhogs working just outside the woods line, on late afternoons.

The way that Diary Man Jim plants his fields, I may get a total of 10 days to hunt 'the hill'. This little valley is bowl shaped. I sit uphill on the east side, glassing the woods line on the west side.
Jim heard me shooting on Saturday. I got 2 in the 250 / 270 yard range. I did have a crack at one out about 400 yards. A biggin'. Since it was overcast I had the scope full up to 24 X. With a 14 inch hold over center mass, I did scare the beejeeeeezus out of the porker. CLOSE ! ! !
Today Monday, partly sunny and looking dead west, the best I could get out of the scope was 14X. Higher power than that, everything looked like a vanilla milkshake in the scope tube.

There he is. Let's go 16 inches above center mass. A lot of luck is involved here. Both days 0 wind. That helped. And holding 16 inches up at 14X is far from precise. I took forever. Every time I exhaled, I swear the hairs moved 2 feet. Just maybe a case of the nerves. Ruger .204 and Hornady 32 grain Varmint Express, time to saddle up.

Give it a yank FOSSIL. Let 'er rip. The pics as follows:

Pic 1 & 2 are taken Saturday (panoramic) of 'the hill'.
Pic #3 is my pie shape safe shooting area. With yardage to the distant wood line. Upper right corner X marks the spot.. 3 feet from the woods line and a hit.
Pic #4 speaks for itself, Monday afternoon .. Dairy man Jim is going to come up with the exact yards. He left me smilin'-----"Hey old guy, I think the number is closer to 5 than 4. I gotta' get to the feeder. When I get the number, I will give you a ring. What kinda' beer do you drink".

I LUV Birch beer ! ! ! !
fossil
PS: The love of the chase. I could not pick up the Chuck with my binocs after the shot. Hand tremors or is it Buck Fever ???????? It was real ! ! !

[Clark Kent]

Nicely done.

[A-5]

Can't sleep so I looked up poofa. Great job and those are hand load hornadys right?

[GrumpyBear]

Just got up for work.

Great pictures and story.

Awesome shooting.

Thanks for starting my day out right.

[Jhaydeno]

Wow, impressive! And a nice view to boot!

[RockIsland]

Wow, impressive! And a nice view to boot!

You're the man Fossil! I wanna be just like you when I grow up.

[ImAfossil]

Can't sleep so I looked up poofa. Great job and those are hand load hornadys right?

To start----THANKS guys for the Kudos----The truth ; the equipment is much better than the SHOOTER !

A-5----This is the only round that I do not reload. Plain Jane factories from the get go. Typically I do not heat up reloads for me and my friends. I always use my manuals to make accuracy loads, I just tell them they are red-lined----They like that ! ! ! There is only one degree of dead and accuracy does equal dead.

The .204 Hornady Factory 32 grain Varmint Express. I have only run one box of 40 grainers through the shooter. 32grain claim 4225 ft/sec---I have doubts, but I have doubts about my doubts. The thingie sure flys and prints.

NOW a secret, I added a pic--Call in eccentric, illogical, what ???----I always say the .204 is sighted in for 200 yards. Actually 1 inch high at 200. I have always been an over the back misser. My logic. This sight picture forces me to pull down. My scores have gone up and the over the target misses have gone down. STOP LAUGHING___My hearing aid is on.

Any thoughts on this---I am toooooo old to have hurt feelins'---Fire when ready.

fossil

[Swamp Fox]

Great shooting!

[knight0334]

And people say that those H&R/NEF Handi Rifles dont shoot for shit....

[mosseater]

Hey, whatever works for you is what works for you. The key is to know where it's shooting. The rest don't matter. 4K fps is cooking! I'll bet you can pull a leg off and have lunch right on the spot when hit with one of those. They say groundhog is greasy....