RIFLE

[JCA12]

Beretta make seriously good shotguns. That 1301 comp looks cool.

And the Silver Pigeon is a very nice shotgun. Won't go wrong with it.

[DJR]

.......................I think i might be falling in love with a Beretta silver pigeon 

You won't regret it, in 20 or 12 gauge. A good design, stylish, understated, built really well. From the oldest gunmaker in the world.

[johnson]

Nice, for 3 gun competition? I think i might be falling in love with a Beretta silver pigeon 

I Don't do any competition shooting. Mostly hunting and some clay's for fun. I Had the 686 White Onyx(sold it and bought the1301). It's based on the Silver Pigeon but a little more budget friendly. It was an awesome gun. One of my friends has the Silver Pigeon and I've shot with it plenty of times. It's an awesome gun as well and you won't go wrong should you decide to get one. 

[mon-goose]

very nice

 

I am looking for a good inexpensive secondhand .22 rifle if anyone have one available that they are keen to sell. Am looking in the R2500- R3000 bracket if possible and I stay in CT. PM details

[mon-goose]

anyone have recommendations for places close to cape town that I can hunt springbok at not ridiculous prices?

[PhilipV]

anyone have recommendations for places close to cape town that I can hunt springbok at not ridiculous prices?

Jis it's so dry in the Karoo that they are asking high prices to survive.

The farmers I know (Laingsburg, Beaufort-Wes and Oudtshoorn) have lost a lot of their game. The one farmer doesn't hunt on his own farm anymore, with the hope of keeping enough breeding stock if the drought ends.

Maybe you'll be lucky North of Cape Town, but the Swartland and Cederberg area is very dry as well.

Not the best time to start hunting.

[DJR]

anyone have recommendations for places close to cape town that I can hunt springbok at not ridiculous prices?

Most of the Karoo and Northern Cape has been a drought disaster fro the past few years. Our springbok herd (between Beaufort West and Prince Albert)  is basically no more and I don't think we will re-stock.

 

I would try the coastal areas between Mossel Bay and Bredasdorp, although it isn't real sprinbok country, there are many farms with good herds. After that I would try the Little Karoo, between Barrydale and Calitzdorp.

 

The Great Karoo and the Northern Cape I think will need a year or 2 to recover, but on some farms there may well be great opportunities later in the season because there has been good rains recently. 

Edited February 19, 2020 by DJR

[mon-goose]

Thanks

 

we've got a family farm in the karoo and apparently the springbok population is doing fairly well. I can hunt there but it's a bit of a drive.

[mon-goose]

super happy with todays shooting. Due to the lack of a great scope I pulled back to 50m. These were y two best groupings 

 

57.8 gr and 58 gr 

 

This was 4 shots at 50m

Edited February 24, 2020 by mon-goose

[mon-goose]

58gr

[DJR]

Don't be fooled into buying just a high magnification scope. The quality of the scope becomes even more critical the higher you go with magnification. Meaning that you should stretch your budget even further the higher power you go. If you want to shoot at targets a lot, then a pretty high power scope is always an advantage because the better you can see the better you can aim. But if you want to hunt with it, then a very high magnification can be a disadvantage. The width of field narrows seriously the higher you go and makes it difficult to find the target and especially track a moving target. If you are on the range and you have all the time in the world and a solid rest, then that is no problem. But if you are walking and stalking, then it is difficult. Personally I find that my magnifications stay on between 4x and 6x most of the time. For paper punching I turn them up to 9x or 12x. I have one 24x scope but I hardly ever use it. All my other scopes are 3 - 9x or 3 - 12x. Oh, and a 1.5 - 5x on the 375 H&H. The best all round, for a 270? I would guess a 3 - 12x. What make? There are so many good ones, you'll have to Google some reviews. I have over many years standardized on Zeiss, so i'm a bit of a one-horse guy when it comes to scopes and cannot give advice on any other makes. Even though the Zeiss' cost me a real chunk of bike-budget I never regretted it. I slowly got rid of anything else and found them just supremely reliable. 

[mon-goose]

thanks DJR. But at 100m I can't see the holes I've shot on the target:(

 

at 50m it's not great either

 

so I need something that allows me to see what I've shot and at least aim at the same spot.

[DJR]

thanks DJR. But at 100m I can't see the holes I've shot on the target:(

 

at 50m it's not great either

 

so I need something that allows me to see what I've shot and at least aim at the same spot.

Your groups are very promising. What kind of rest did you use? What scope and at what magnification? What cross-hairs in the scope?

 

Without changing the scope, what can you do? Change the target!

 

Some cross hairs are wider than the cross on the target at 100m and is near impossible to line up. I like cross hairs that are wide and then have a thin very fine section in the middle. Otherwise thin / fine cross hairs. Sometimes modifying the target by using a koki pen to widen the main horizontal and vertical lines can make aiming easier. Sometimes adding black marker lines at 45 degrees can give an additional cue on the target. Sometimes double lines that are far enough apart for your cross hair to fit in between them can give very good results. 

 

Just a note on shooting groups for testing. You should not try to see the holes and aim at them. You should keep aiming at your original aim point as accurately as you can. Make sense? That will give you a true reflection of how the rifle / load is performing.

[mon-goose]

there are a few other things I need to improve on. Trigger control etc

 

I'm using a standard rifle rest which isn't the most stable but it worked. Am considering a bipod soon.

 

The scope is a remington 4x40 wide angle and it's a fixed magnification scope. I'll get a pic of the cross hairs.

 

The target is a busy target and next time I'll use a simpler target with less on it. I like the idea of darkening the lines etc

 

I aim at the centre every time

[mon-goose]

anyone know where I can get a 50 calibre bullet? Just need a single bullet, no brass, no powder etc?

[DJR]

there are a few other things I need to improve on. Trigger control etc

 

I'm using a standard rifle rest which isn't the most stable but it worked. Am considering a bipod soon.

 

The scope is a remington 4x40 wide angle and it's a fixed magnification scope. I'll get a pic of the cross hairs.

 

The target is a busy target and next time I'll use a simpler target with less on it. I like the idea of darkening the lines etc

 

I aim at the centre every time

Yes, a 4 x 40 will limit your fine aiming accuracy. Others might disagree, but my feeling is that the approximately 1 inch groups that you got is perhaps not far from the limit with the scope.