My inlaws have a pice of property that is sizeable. Forty acres of which something like thirty five of it is farmed. The land around the house is treed. One little woods is maple and oak and another is a confer "forest" of maybe a few acres. It crosses onto the neighbor's land so they maintain it together.

If you've ever taken a walk under a mature pine forest or wood you know the smells and the softness of the needle carpet under your feet. In summer it can feel cool yet muggy underneath those spiny branches. As the trees reach toward the skies their lower branches whither and die. The taller the trees grow and their proximity to one another means less sunlight gets to the lower branches.

I've seen wild turkey, fox and coyote in these woods over the years. In winter I like to put on a pair of modern snowshoes and walk the pines' perimeter. I've slogged along with my old Fast Deer, about the cheapest rifle you can buy that's still reasonably accurate. I'll plink pine cones with this old sidelever and just have a blast.

Its here on the edge of this wood that the chipmunks reside. They zip across the lawn to the bird feeders my inlaws keep filled, then tear back to the trees at the slightest unnatural sound. Fun to watch, they raise their tails straight up when they pile on the horsepower to get out of Dodge. I swear, this just has to be where the phrase "hightailing it.." came from. Watching critters like these chipmunks.

I sight my rifles in along side this house. Gives me a long lane to work with. A rest and the incredibly accurate R11 topped with a Bushy 5-15 is the tool. I have a range finder. This scope is set at five yard increments. With the mildots the range finder does the work and I line up to the right dot and the pellet Will find its mark as long as I commit to my follow through.

I sight the rifle in and move the picnic table until I'm just in view of the bird feeder area. The birds take off. But they'll return. They always do. I'm forty yards away and this rifle is good for better than fifty on sparrows. I mean that's how accurate this R11 is.

So I wait.

I set the Caldwell rest on its side and put the rifle across it with the butt pad on the table. I keep myself from facing directly at the feeder area. Instead I turn slightly and look with my eyes to the left. The range finder tells me exactly forty one yards to one point and forty five to the second.

I wish I had a giant piece of cardboard in front of me. I could be lazy about my movements if I had a giant piece of something in front of my silhouette...

The birds return. I take down a sparrow. They take off. A little later a tail zips and zags just over the blades of grass from the shadow of the pines. Little guy is smart... just a hint of a rise in the manicured lawn is all he needs to shield himself. I watch that tail. Zip...stop. Zag...stop.

Finally he pokes up to check me out. CHOCK goes the R11 and whack goes the pellet into his little chest. Wrong kinda medecine ball buddy. Sorry 'bout that. Now all I see are one leg and a paw, I think. He went down quick. No movement. That's good. I hate making any animal suffer even when I have to cull it.

So it went for a while that afternoon. Shoot, wait. Shoot and wait some more. But it was worth the wait every time.

Harv

Forgot to say "G'nite Kids" though . Goin to bed with visions of chippy's dancin in my head now ...

Another Jack London? Keep up the good work!

story.

Nobody but nobody can make a story like Harvey and you can take that to the BANK of America.

The flow of the story makes your imagination follow the path of the writer.

Now Harv, I read and re-read the stories all over and get from the tunnel vision to the BIG picture after the 2nd or 3rd time of reading.

I have been in those woods and feel the crunch of the pine needles and the smell of the trees.

Then the opportunity of the target when it presents itself, the range and aim and pull of the trigger, the follow thru and the hit and MISSES.

The senses are at a maximun in this chase.

Harv, you did it again.

warren

and remember "it's 30% the gun and 70% the shooter"

Ya Harv, LOVE those R-11's!

 I spent last Summer learning how to "drive" the pellet hole around the paper at 20-50 yards. It's almost Scientific how you move it back and forth! Mine prefers the 4.53 AofA Field Target Pellet. Using either the Target Knobs or the Magnification or in a very minor movement,the Focus I can vary the POI of the pellet all over the paper.

 Now this proves that you MUST sight-in centered and focused at your desired range to get pinpoint accuracy, but it also shows just how repetive the  HW Powerplant of the R-11 is once you get her broken-in... Variatable Scopes are almost a curse because one wants to use all the settings but for the sake of accuracy at the ranges we shoot you can't. I know they're NOT supposed to move but they do...

 I haven't Chronied my R-11 but feel that it's near the advertized 900 fps mark with the AofA (JSB) by the pellet drop. This would make it a formidable Hunter (Kinda heavyto pack all day). I usually shoot off the bench but I've considered having the BBL Weight removed by Beeman's (It requires Heat to break the Epoxy loose) to lighten the gun up for offhand use. Probablly won't tho, cause the Bluing on the Sleeve is so BEAUTIFULL!

 Have fun Harv!

 ZVP

Thanks guys. I really appreciate it. Keeps me writing and that's a big part of the fun for me.

ZVP, what I do with my scopes is keep them at a given setting and use the mil dots to find the point of aim. That way I don't have to think about much of the other stuff. Anything above five power gives me a clear enough view that I can hit a lot of pretty small critters at some of the longish ranges. I prefer to leave the scope alone and use the dots once I know what ranges each dot represents.

Harv