HW95K Mooch

Tuesday 17th July 2012

Weather, cloudy but warm, time, 17:00 hours.

I decided to try and get a green flag from Mrs Mawders to go for a mooch at one of my permissions. She agreed so I placed the newly acquired HW95K in the boot of the car and drove the 10 or so miles to airgun heaven.

I arrived at the perm and went about checking the zero in the barn. The range was 30 yards. So after using PCP's to date and getting lazy with my hold technique a return to springer heaven has meant that I need to loose my habits and start learning all over again. I kept telling myself, "dont hold it to tight, stop gripping it like that". After a few minutes I was pleased to see that the zero was still bang on and after 30 or so shots getting back into the swing of things I then went about producing 5p piece eshots through a piece of ply wood. every time I fired a marker shot and then sat with my mouth open when I was banging further pellets through the same hole. A really satisfying feeling as anyone that has done this will know. Whats more I was using a springer!!!! yeah that type of rifle that cant hit a barn door at 20 yards if not held correctly. But this time I was in the zone. Then towards the end of the zeroing shot I got complacent and the springer kicked me in the backside and woke me up. Its so easy to not give the rifle the correct hold and BAM, shots flying everywhere. But this is whats great about the simple springer, you win some you lose some.

I will say though that the accuracy on this rifle is nothing short of amazing provided I do my part.



So, I thought I would have a quick mooch around the fields. I crossed the gate into the field and could immediately see rabbits everywhere but no where near me, the closest I guestimated at 200 yards. The mooch was on, I stalked up the field and aimed for the nearest rabbit, I walked crouched down for what felt like an eternity and managed to get within 40 yards, "hmm" I thought. Do I take the shot or do I wait to see if bugsy comes closer. Well Bugsy made his mind up first and flippantly hopped away to safety completely unaware of my presence.

"grrr", by this time the local cows and 2 Bulls on the field had taken a shine to my ninja like appearance and decided to come over, I was hanging around. The big bull is exactly that and ive seen him tossing other cows around when the get to close so I decided to walk slowly towards the barbed wire fence and hop through into the next field to stalk further up towards the hedgerow. Knowing the cows would leave me alone if I walked on the other side of the barbed wire fence.

I got approximately 60 yards towards the hedges and spotted two rabbits out munching the grass. "perfect" I could use the long grass and barbed wire fence in my field to block their view as I mooched towards them on my belly dragging myself and the HW95K towards my prize.

I reached a small shrub and could see the rabbits still feeding in the field to my left but needed to get closer so put my head down, hood up on my Jack Pyke smock and belly crawled further forward.

This is my view looking back, you can see the small shrub about 10 yards away that I first stopped at but continued on my way.



This next picture shows the view from my position. The rabbits sat munching at what I thought was about 30 yards away.





I raised my head, aimed the rifle and steadied my breath, the wind had picked up by this point and changed direction gusting from behind me towards their direction. Both of them sat up on their back legs looking around, noses twitching. They knew I was near but couldnt see me as I lay covered by the Jack Pyke clothing and tall grass around me. They started hopping around towards the hedgerow moving slightly further away from me and not wishing to stay still for to long. One of the pair, a fully grown, stopped, I had been tracking her in my scope. She turned side on and sat upright sniffing the air. I took steady aim just below the ear with the Hawke Panorama, crystal clear optics in the fading light. I held my breath, took up stage 1 of the trigger and then squeezed stage 2 maintaining my view down the scope.

A dull thud from the HW and the pellet made its impact with a crack. The bunny bowled over onto its side and with an outstretched back leg waved goodbye to this life. the other rabbits ran for cover. I sat and waited for a few minutes but nothing came back. 

I walked towards my prize and paced out the distance which I thought was 30 yards. I got to 30 yards and kept on counting. "oh no" I thought. I got to 45 yards and realised my head shot was in fact a clean heart and lung shot through one shoulder and out the other, blood trickling from the rabbits nose and mouth signifying the heart shot. I felt angry with myself. It could have gone so horribly wrong but as luck would have it on this occasion the pellet did its thing and the vital organs had been hit. 



We all want those perfect kills and we owe it to our chosen target to dispatch them as humane as possible. On this occasion it had been but what made me angry was the fact I didn't aim for that region and it could have gone as stated wrong.

I placed my prize on the side and continued my mooch. The cows had started showing interest by this point and I decided to call it a night with just the one kill. So I headed back over to the shrub I left my rabbit at to see a poacher on my permission, I waved my arms and shouted but Mr Fox showed me his middle finger and beat a hasty retreat across the field with MY rabbit in its mouth!

Oh well, a most excellent adventure out practising my shooting and a good stalk to top of the night. My next purchase may just have to be a laser range finder!

All The Best

Mawders