I had the desire to send it long this afternoon so packed up the long gun, grabbed my culling loadout and headed to the farm to do exactly that. I hoped to grab a couple decent long shots to satisfy that urge and hopefully eliminate the fox the farmer had been whining to me about for a couple of weeks at the same time.
I hiked up to one of my favourite spots feeling the weight of my long-gun, much heavier than my culling rifle, and got set up. The process of ranging the terrain is something I can usually forego as I shoot from this spot so often but with this rifle I had the ability to shoot so much farther so I ranged out to 900 metres; A long shot on a fox, but achievable.
You see, with kangaroo culling I'm obliged to take the animal in the head, it's a legal requirement. This means I don't take shots at much over 400-450 metres as a kangaroos's head isn't actually very big of a target - Besides, at that range with flight time considered it's not worth risking a shot as a miss could be inhumane and kangaroos move around a little when grazing. On a fox though, it doesn't matter. They are a feral animal, an introduced species to Australia, and are universally despised by farmers and the government both. So, head shots are not required.
Further to this, with this particular rifle, my 6.5mm Creedmoor, the energy imparted into the target when struck is so great that the kill happens instantaneously, or thereabouts, anyway. It's really too much for the job I was there to do, but I wanted a long range shot tonight and when dispatching things at longer range have the need for a humane kill; This gun is capable of both accuracy and in delivering a lot of energy, so I left my culling rifle home.
I waited, sent a few comments on Discord to some hivers I communicate with, read the Rudyard Kipling poem If a couple times pondering it's message and generally just contemplated life a little.
In case you're not familiar with the poem here it is...It's one of my all time favourites and there's so many messages and lessons here:
If
By Rudyard Kipling (written around 1895)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
And then Mr.Fox came into view in my binoculars, just on dusk.
I took a quick weather reading and got a Density Altitude reading of 650 metres, checked the slope angle of the shot which was minus 16 degrees, called the wind at 6 mp/h from 117 degrees and ranged the target, all in the space of about 15 seconds, all the while watching the sly fox. He was at 685 metres from my hide, a long shot on a fox sized target, but I was confident and so dialled in the dope, 4.6 MRAD elevation and 0.6 MRAD right windage, entered my firing process, checked the rifle was level with my Accuracy 1st bubble scope-level and...Breathe out...Stop at my natural stopping point and squeeze...
I was slightly low and to the left but the animal died.
I was annoyed as my wind call was what threw my shot out. I'd called 6 mp/h when I should have called 7.5 I think. The additional wind I hadn't accounted for pushed the bullet slightly left. A kill, but only just.
Below you can see the dope chart I generated on my StrelokPro ballistics app (available on AppleStore and Android PlayStore.)
I used the 700 metre dope for the 485 metre shot. Flight time was 1 second and what I haven't shown here is the energy imparted at the target. At 700 metres it was 1077 ft-lbf (foot-pound) of energy which gets imparted into the target and does the killing almost instantly.
Job done and at a reasonable range too. I can shoot at much greater distance but at a small fox target, when looking for a humane kill, I want to make sure I do the job rather than show-boat.
I stayed for a while longer, took three kangaroos then packed it up and hiked back to my 4x4 in the dark. Expedition over.
I came home a little annoyed with myself for getting that wind wrong. Had that been a 1000+ metre shot it may have meant a miss which is not acceptable to me and it indicates I'm not been practising enough. So I know what I'll be doing for a while now...Wind calling.
I had a nice time this evening though; I feel I needed the quiet, the solitude and focus that being out in the middle of nowhere brings me. Sure I was there to do a job but it also helps to centre me - No, not the killing, that's the job, the peace and quiet and the way being so close to nature is what centres me.
Anyway, that was my evening...We're in the back of the week now, the downhill run, as tomorrow is Thursday. I hope y'all are having a good one. I'll catch you later.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
Discord: galenkp#9209