I take the Commander, which has established itself in my mind as a first rate small game gun, to a friends ranch in Texas as my small game gun.
Been down in Texas hunting with my good friend Chacho G! Had a great time, hunted four different ranches spread out over a couple hundred miles, sometimes staying in tents, sometimes in lodges, and a couple nights in hotels. I drove down from Minneapolis, and even slept one night in the car. I had so much expensive gear with me, I was worried about leaving it on its own. Even though my rental SUV (I almost never use my car on these trips) was packed to the roof, I could drop the driver seat almost flat, put up window screens, and get a good nights sleep. From a lifetime of traveling internationally on planes on at least a monthly basis, I’ve gotten good at sleeping in a reclining chair!
When I got to Texas, I met up with Chacho and we set up camp, we went out calling that night and had a couple coyotes come in, got a shot on one and hit him, but he scooted off and look as hard as we could, never turned him up. We left the next afternoon and made it down to the Huckaby Ranch, where we moved into a nice lodge. I’ll spend the rest of my post talking about this one, because when I had downtime from my ram hunt and predator calling at night, I took the Brocock Commander XR .25 out after rabbits……. And had a blast!
I started off dialing in the gun at 50 yards, with JSB Kings and with Hybrid Slugs. It shot a little high with the pellets and was pretty much dead on with the slugs, both shot a little to the right, but as there was a moderate crosswind blowing to the right I considered the gun on and made no further adjustments. What blew me away was the shot to shot consistency, I fired 20 consecutive shots and the variation was between 851 fps to 856 fps with the JSBs…… I mean the gun is regulated but still….. one of the most consistent strings I’ve shot, and it repeated this performance consistently!
The Commander caries well, I walked, crawled, climbed, and scratched my way through heavy brush and can honestly say this gun was a pleasure to carry. I also found it ergonomic and that I could shoot it particularly well offhand. I spent a morning and bagged about a half dozen jackrabbits that were still on the move from the night before. With both head and body shots, these big desert hares were smacked hard and generally anchored in place.
The things I liked about the Commander? Accuracy and power, fast smooth cycling, a brilliant trigger, high shot count, ergonomic and lightweight, this gun is one of the best small game guns that I’ve used in a long time, and rank it amongst the best of them. The things I was not as fond of? Well one of the reasons for my love affair with the Brocock rifles and carbines is how compact they are. The barrel is probably what most shooters want, but my preference would be for a carbine length……. Keeping my fingers crossed! I’ve become very selective (at my wife’s insistence) about the number of new rifles I add to my personal collection, but this is a gun I will make space in the permanent gun room for.
The next stop for this gun will be an out of state squirrel hunt, in either Nebraska or Wisconsin, I haven’t decided which but intend to do both in the near future. Hope your all off to a good hunting season, keep checking back and I’ll keep you updated with my hunts this year!
