GTA
General Discussion To Gateway To Airguns => Hunting Gate => : only1harry October 09, 2008, 11:27:20 AM
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Sorry Jeff! I had to try out the Predators on the Condor. I 've been practicing with them and I 'm surprised they are very close to the Kodiaks' accuracy up to 30yds. At 40yds the groups start opening up more than the Kodiaks but still not bad. I 've been target practicing shooting up at a ~40-45deg angle at marks or rings on tree trunks & branches at 30 & 40yds. That's where I shoot most of the crows & squirrels, not on the ground.
Had a fresh 2500psi fill on the Condor this afternoon and chronied first 2 shots with 16.5gr Predators. 1,045 & 1,042fps. Shot about another 20 Predators to zero them in at 30yds shooting upwards until I was getting same-hole shots & tight clovers. I 'm guessing the Condor was shooting them somewhere in the mid-900's, or low 30's (fpe) when I was done with the first 22 shots.
I did not see a single squirrel on my property during the 1hr I spent looking for them in the early afternoon but it was a little windy. I then resumed hunting after I finished work around 5:30pm. At 6pm I see a squirrel on the ground at the base of a tree about 25yds out. Oh great and I just zeroed the gun to shoot at the clouds and he 's on the ground! I had him in my crosshairs but he kept on the move. After a couple of minutes up he goes and starts climbing. He finally settled down behind a lot of leaves some 35-40ft up. Perfect, that's what I was target shooting, and he was only a few feet away from the holes in the tree the Predators made and about 2ft lower! I spot a tail, then his body.. he kept moving around back there and I could only see some partial "gray" through the leaves. Finally he comes towards me and gets on top of the leaves.
It's about time. He was facing me and put something in his mouth. I could only shoot his nose or mouth. I could not see the top of this head very well but had a very clear shot of his upper chest and neck. I then decided, what the hek, let me save some meat (like a couple of grams, hehe) and go for a mouth/nose shot to see if the pellet exits out the back of the skull, being the sadist that I am :-) Lets really put these Predators to the test. Adjust A/O one more time, which later read ~26-27yds, and take the shot. The nutter drops hitting a lot of branches on the way down, bounces off them, and hits the ground with no further movement.
Unfortunately I had just missed his "chin" by maybe 2 milimeters and had hit the base of the neck severing a major artery because there was massive blood loss. Pool of blood by the time I walked over and kept coming out later during the pics. Exit point did not have much blood at all but looked like it had also broken the spine going through the neck. It was all pouring out the front and no other head cavities either. I know what happened. I had closed the gap by a few yards and the pellet striked slightly lower as I should have guessed but was too excited to think about it. So the Predators passed the test, but I think any pellet that is propelled from a Condor that finds its target, will do a number on whatever it hits...
Dropped off the big male nutter at the neighbor's and he said to come over tomorrow afternoon as he was putting him in salt water. We are going to feast on 2 squirrels because the one I took on 10/5 remains to be eaten! I 'm going to try and get off work early and have a few beers with my good neighbor who will eat almost anything :)
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is it just me or is the tail on this nutter seem extra long?? great hunt and story and pics and lol hes defiantly a bleeder.
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Great,,, more pictures of that beautiful Condor and dead nutters !! All I can say is "you're killin me Harry :) "
You were huntin with a springer again and my ordering finger quieted down,,,,, now you've hauled out the Condor again and my finger is twitchin again.... where's my credit card :)
Jeff
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Like I said sorry Jeff! Give the credit card to your wife and you 'll never see it again :-) Problem sovled, hehe
John:
This is a good size squirrel, probably the biggest I 've taken this season. Their tail is usually at least as long as their body and longer. My Condor is 45" long and this guy covered almost half the length.
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J0HN - 10/9/2008 6:33 PM
is it just me or is the tail on this nutter seem extra long?? great hunt and story and pics and lol hes defiantly a bleeder.
remember, that's not a tail. that's a sun-berella.
lol
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Thats one bloody rat Harry... Way ta cream em... I sure wish I would have practiced some game management so I could do that... lol
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Fine shot and pics Harry and I can attest to the Predators lack of damage control hehe. If you want to put the hurtin on a harvest, the Predator will do it.:) Ed
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Thanks guys.
Randall: You are not the only one. I exterminated all the groundhogs :( and I a'm very close to exterminating the squirrels now. I just can't help myself :( It's rare I see one now. I was good all spring & summer though during the off-season and gave them a chance to breed and multiply but some times the damage we incur is not repairable for another 2-3yrs.. I used to see 4-5 at a time a couple of months ago runing around playing or at least 2 together during September. But now it's gotten very quiet since I took 10 of them. Oh I forgot to mention I took 21 during the last season which really hurt their #'s. So that's over 30 squirrels in 9-10 months. Not too many left for sure. I definitely have a lot less nutters this year than I did last year. Half of them usually come over from neighboring properties and across the street. They weren't residents on my property.
I can't wait for the crows to get here so I can concentrate on them and ease off the squirrels (if there are any left).
Ed:
I never had any doubts that the Predators are an excellent choice for hunting. From all your stories I 've been reading, I think I was brainwashed or hypnotized to believe that the Predator is the best hunting pellet out there :)
One thing I noticed though as I was shooting into a tree up high while practicing yesterday.. At 40yds I could see the shiny pellet inside the tree (maybe 1/4" in..hard to tell through the scope) and that surprised me. I had expected it to still penetrate well at >1,000fps. At 30yds however I could not see them which means they were a good 1/2" deep probably.
Now it's a different story with the Kodiaks. No matter how far I shoot into a 2x4" or a tree (even @ 50yds) the Kodiaks penetrate deep and I can never see them through the scope, as the equally shine as the Predators. Even when I walk up to examine the log or 2x4 (2x8", etc.) I 've been using.. the Kodiaks are always way in and never visible. I also shot a couple of Kodiaks next to the same mark up at the tree where I was shooting the Predators to see what the POI difference was, and the Kodiaks would get buried deep in the tree trunk (no bark, just nice smooth surface) where I could not see them. Shot a few more Predators and they were visible inside the tree trunk when looking through the scope at 14X. This tells me their great expansion prevents them from penetrating as deep as the Kodiaks but that's not to say they don't penetrate enough to kill the prey. Besides, wood is a lot different than fur & bone. The predator went right through this squirrel which is more than you can ask. I then shot 1 Crow Magnum at 40yds next to the Predator and I could see that too inside the hole it made. I guess with wood the hollow-points expand quickly on impact because of the extra hard surface which is very different than shooting a squirrel or other critters.
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That one`s a bleeder that`s for sure!!! Good shooting.