My Field History: Hunting with Daystate and Brocock Rifles

Posted on August 18, 2020 by Jim Chapman

One of the questions I’m asked a lot, is what is my favorite hunting air rifle?

To be honest, I hate this question because there is not an easy answer. There are a group of rifles at the top of my personal list, that come from several different manufacturers. I could base the answer on pure performance related to accuracy, power, ergonomics, practicality or aesthetic appeal, and could come up with different answers based on each.

One of the manufacturers that has most consistently produced rifles that fall into my top category for high quality hunting rifles is Daystate. And with the addition of Brocock as a sibling company, this is truer than ever. I was thinking back recently, about the hunts I’ve been on and went back into my photo vault to pull out some photos (and the memories that go along with them) of past hunts. These photos are only in rough chronological order, and by no means represent anything more than a brief snapshot of more than 15 years of hunting with these rifles. They do however represent some fond memories in the field with some great rifles. My first PCP was an original Huntsman that I’d bought on a whim and filled with a hand-pump. Unfortunately, it was before I was photographing or recording my airgunning journey.

  • Taking aim whilst hunting jackrabbits
  • One for the bag
A bobcat and pair of raccoons that came into a call…and the Wolverine .308!

Several years ago I had a call from the guys at Airguns of Arizona to join them on a hunt in North Arizona, so I flew into Phoenix, jumped into a truck with Robert, Greg, and Kip for a drive up north. We had several rifles with us but the one I selected was one of the first Daystate Wolverine .308 rifles built. The four of us spent a couple days working the high desert chasing jackrabbits cottontails, and ground squirrels. The power and accuracy of the Wolverine blew me away, this was early in the development of the .30 caliber guns and ammo, and stretching out for 100 yard shots that slapped a big jackrabbit right off its feet was really impressive. The other thing that impressed me was the build quality of this gun, it was a large gun but so well designed it fit well and carried like a smaller gun. I think this is the rifle that launched the rise of the .30’s we see today.

Another gun I was using a lot at that time, was the one I still consider the zenith of air rifle design aesthetics, the Huntsman. I’ve used this gun for rabbits in AZ, prairie dogs in South Dakota, Midwestern squirrels, quail in California, and many other hunts over the years. It is a very accurate rifle, moderately powerful, a great trigger…. But it is the graceful line, beautiful wood, cut checkering….it is really a perfect feast for the eyes! This is one of those rare and special guns for me, one that will never leave my collection!

  • The Huntsman was equally adept on long range rabbit hunts
  • As it was in the thick early fasll woods hunting squirrels!
It’s subjective, but to my eye, the most beautiful production airgun ever made.

The airgun market has been gravitating towards bullpups and more tactical designs. Daystate was right there with the Pulsar, a bullpup design with an electronically controlled firing cycle that is self-regulated and has an electronic trigger. It also includes a built-in laser for target acquisition and range estimation, and though I loved shooting this gun on the range, because performance wise it was outstanding, I’ve never been a fan of electronics on my field guns. Probably more in my mind than based on fact, I want my field guns to be free of any dependencies other than air to run! Then came the Renegade, essentially a Pulsar without the electronics and I was a happy camper! This compact bullpup was a treat to carry in the field, one of my first trips was the wide-open Texas deserts after jackrabbits followed by a visit to a feed yard for some pigeon pest control. The long-range accuracy and power let me reach out for those long shots on jacks, but I could also finesse the shots on pigeons around equipment. buildings, and livestock.

  • I stacked them up on a pest hunt on a friends ranch
  • A compact and ergonomic design
  • Pest birds at a local feedlot
  • This bullpup shoots very well offhand, pulling the COG into the shooter.

When Daystates parent company acquired Brocock, I was interested to see where it would go. I’d used the Brocock Enigma, Specialist, Super 6, and Concept, and thought the performance was generally good, and absolutely loved the compact dimensions and feather weight of their rifles/carbines. The stocks were workmanlike, in the case of the concept quite nice really, but for the most part they lacked the attention to detail of the Daystate rifles. But once the companies started to share engineering resources and technology, the Brocock line took a major step forward.

First with the Compatto, then the Bantam (and most recently the Commander XR) they have turned out rifles that are among my favorite hunting guns. I’ve used the Compatto and then the Bantam more than almost any other single rifle I have. My first hunt with the Bantam on its release was back out to the West Texas desert, where I had an awesome few days of rabbit hunting. The great field performance, shootability, compact carry matched that of my Compatto, but the air-bottle in place of the Compatto’s reservoir tube gave a high shot count, which was much appreciated as I wandered over the rugged landscape.

  • When the Daystate technology started to merge with Brocock designs
  • A great field gun, accurate, powerful, compact, reliable, fast and smooth cycling, reliable… ticks all the boxes!

The highest praise I can give a gun, is that it’s one I keep in my collection and one I continue to use. That’s rarefied air when you consider I shoot around 100 new rifles per year, and only about a dozen (collected over 25 years) stay in my “never-to-be-let-go collection. The Huntsman, the Compatto, and the Bantam are three of these guns…….. unless maybe they get upgraded with a newer version 😉

If you are looking for that “Grail” airgun, this is a line I’d check out. I know I am looking forward to trying the Revere…… which could be the only means of persuading me to part with my Huntsman …… though more likely it would be adding to….

Change of topic: How many of you are getting ready for hunting season? I’ve already been out for a couple small game hunts in Nebraska, and looking forward to much more action in the coming year! As a matter of fact, thinking about using a couple vacation days and heading back down to Nebraska tomorrow to take advantage of their early squirrel season!

Categories: bantam, Brocock, bullpup, Daystate | Tags: | 1 Comment

The Brocock Commander XR .25

Posted on August 16, 2020 by Jim Chapman

From the first shot, I knew this was a gun that I wanted to shoot more! I’ve always been a big fan of Brococks rifles, but the Commander XR exceeded my expectations on our initial shooting session. My testing is ongoing, but here I’ll give you a brief status report

It doesn’t happen often, but I would be buying this gun after the first shot! I have a lot of guns that cycle across my desk, and to be honest I like most of them. It’s not that I would want them for my own collection, I have very specific things that I want in my personal guns, that are subjective. But when I evaluate a hunting rifle, I try to place myself in the mindset of the targeted customer segment. Is this a gun designed for a new shooter, a long-time shooter, somebody that needs a gun for close range pest control, or larger game at greater distances? Is this a rifle designed to appeal to a segment with specific budget requirements, such as inexpensive or entry level guns, etc.?

  • A sleek and minimalist design, but ergonomic and feature rich with what you need.
  • For this initial testing I was using the JSB Exacts and JSB Hades pellets.

Actually, there is not even a straightforward answer about my own shooting requirements, because I hunt so many different game species, under so many different conditions, it’s not a one-gun-fits-all solution for me. However, in general I am concerned about accuracy, ergonomics, power, reliability, adjustability, cocking/cycling action, trigger, reliability, reliable magazine feeding, ease of field carry…. and I want these things in any rifle that I’ll take on the hunt.So when I received the Brocock Commander XR I expected a quality air rifle, I think Brocock make some of the best hunting rifles on the market, and I have said many times that the Compatto and Bantam are two of my all-time favorites…. they tick all the boxes for me when it comes to a small/medium game rifle. So, I set out to test the Commander XR for an upcoming hunt, with a certain expectation that the rifle had to live up to.

  • Shooting groups with both Exacts and Hades.
  • 30 shot 50 yard group with Exacts
  • 30 shot 50 yard group with Hades
  • Shooting off rifle mounted bipods
  • I refilled after every three magazines.

I sat at my little portable table shooting the Commander off of an attached bipod at 35 yards to check zero of the factory installed scope (the brilliant MTC Cobra F1 FFP scope), and put my first 3 shots into a single hole. It was high and about 2” to the left, so I made the horizontal adjustments and left it shooting high. I then moved the target to 50 yards and proceeded to shoot 30 pellets with the JSB Exact King Heavy Diabolo 33.95 gr pellets and 30 with the JSB Hades Diabolo 26.5 gr pellet. The gun gave me 40 or so shots before dropping into the yellow, but I was refilling the tank after ever three magazines cycled.

,I found this air rifle very shootable, it fit me perfectly the trigger and the cocking action were both smooth as silk, and I felt like I could have gone the whole day dropping pellets into the kill zone of a squirrel. I was getting velocities around 930 fps with the Exacts, and 870 fps with the Hades, which is generating around the 54 fpe mark.

  • shooting across the chrony
  • I got around 930 fps with the Exacts and 870 with the Hades.

My next step is some long-range shooting, and this may be the rifle I take out on my squirrel opener in Michigan before heading off for some major hunts in Texas later next month. So, I seem to be falling in love with this rifle, and if things keep going the way we’re currently headed, I’m going to be writing the check to add this one to my private collection!

Categories: adjustable buttstock, Airguns of Arizona, Brocock, compact guns, Long Range shooting, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Squirrel Hunting with the Prophet

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Jim Chapman

I’m getting ready for my first squirrel hunt of the 20-21 season, traveling to Nebraska to take advantage of their early August 1 opener as I write this. It got me to thinking about the guns I used last season and the hunts I took them on, and I started thinking about a tough one!

It was late in the winter and the squirrels had been pretty well hammered in many of my local haunts, but I decided to go out for a morning hunt in the snow. I decided that the snow was packed enough that I didn’t need snowshoes, on the other hand I expected it to be tough going and didn’t want to carry a lot of excess weight.

  • The Prophet is compact, but performs big!
  • I really like the attention to detail that goes into this bullpup design!

I’d been shooting the RTI Arms Prophet for a few months and had taken it out to Texas on a couple jackrabbit hunts and South Dakota for long range prairie dogs, and the gun had done a good job for me on all these excursions. This seemed like a hunt that was well suited to a compact arm that I knew had the accuracy and power to get the job done. The gun had also proven very reliable, which is important to me when driving and hour to hunt and another hour to hike across snow covered fields.

  • Just stuck the de-mounted scope back on to see where it was hitting.
  • A little low, 6 clicks up and I was ready to go!

This might also be my last chance to use the gun for awhile as it was a loaner gun from Airguns of Arizona that needed to be returned, and though I’d placed an order for one of my own in .30 caliber, it might be awhile before the new gun arrived. I’d taken the scope off the rifle in preparation to ship it out, so need to quickly mount another scope and zero it in.

I’d had the scope that had been mounted still sitting on my workbench, so remounted it and quickly checked to see where it was hitting …. still pretty much on at 50 yards but a little low, 6 clicks up and I was ready to go!

I hiked in on the crusty snow in the frozen over corn fields, every once in a while falling through up to my knees. Finally I reached the woods and headed in. I sat and scanned the area but there was nothing happening, so I got up and moved on.

  • Hiking into the woods
  • Finally spot a squirrel chattering away
  • I dropped to the deck, lined up the shot, and had a squirrel in the bag

After about 15 minutes I heard chattering and spotted a fox squirrel sitting on a broken off branch about 30 yards away and 20 feet up a tree. I sat on the spot and pulled out my Bog sticks, resting the rifle and lining up my shot. I aimed low on the squirrels head and squeezed the flay blade of the Prophets 2 stage trigger, and as it broke I watched the squirrel drop out of the tree anchored to the spot he hit the ground.

I spent another hour searching the 40 acre plot of WMA woods without spotting another squirrel, so saddled up and headed back to the car. I quickly cleaned the bushytail using a set of shears and threw 5 chunks of nice meat into a plastic bag then exchanged it for a Coke Zero in the small ice box.

It was my only squirrel of the day… but it was a monster!

Even though I’d only bagged one squirrel on this short trip, it had gotten me out of the house and into the outdoors for a couple hours, and I was still home in time to join my family for brunch at a local eatery.

I’m a big fan of the Prophet, and think RTI Arms has hit it out of the park with this one! The only difference I’d make is that I want my personal gun to be in .30 caliber, and have the option for the adjustable regulator. When my gun arrives for next season, I will use it for some predator hunting as well as small game, and am anticipating some great trigger time with it!

Categories: adjustable buttstock, Airguns of Arizona, camo clothing, cold weather hunting, compact guns, Small Game Hunting, Small game in winter, Squirrels, Winter hunts | Leave a comment

Going for the Squirrel Grand Slam: Get that Black Squirrel First!

Posted on July 20, 2020 by Jim Chapman

I’ve been going after this small game challenge for several years now, and my strategy is get the most difficult one out of the way first!

I’ve written quite a bit About the squirrel grand slam, which I coined to describe taking the four most common types of tree squirrels in the USA: the fox squirrel, the gray squirrel being the most available, the Aberts squirrel of the western mountains, and the black color phase squirrel.

With one in hand, I line up a shot on another

This last squirrel is not a specific species, because all the species mentioned will occasionally throw off the genome for a black color phase. And there are also hybrids of the fox and gray squirrel, which can express this color variation. With all squirrels having a black variation you might think it would be relatively easy to find, but my experience is that it is in fact the most difficult.

This is because it is only occasionally, even rarely, occurring and it is therefore difficult to come across the variation except by luck. However, there are locales where this variation is frequently occurring, and if you can zero in on one of these spots, your odds go way up.

The first spot I found that had a relatively high ratio of the black color phase occurring in fox, gray, and hybrid squirrels was in the upper part of Michigan’s lower peninsula. I’d heard rumors from some guys I know that hunted deer up there that black tree squirrels were a common sight. I didn’t fully believe this, people may see a couple or few black squirrels over years of hunting an area, and say they’ve seen a lot of them. But still, when I was invited to a deer lodge to do an interview for Sports Afield on airgun hunting, I brought along my PCP handgun to slip away for some squirrel hunting.

This is very telling as top how I perceive small game hunting, I was going to a premier deer lodge that costs big bucks, and was more excited about the possibility of a new squirrel than a big buck….. As it turns out, there were a lot of black squirrels running through the woods when we arrived. I took a nice whitetail buck on the first day, then spent the next couple days going after (and bagging a few) black squirrels.

I went back up to this area a couple times over the years, and always had some success. The only problem is that it’s a 12 hour drive from where I live. Still last year I was going to do the drive, when out of the blue one of my readers sent me a message saying he lived in an area with a high population of black squirrels, and it was only a three hour drive.

I went up there to hunt a couple times last year, and in fact did have some luck. The whole trip was fun, I drove into a national forest, set up a camp, and traveled from there to hunt returning to camp nightly. I was roughing it under a small awning and crashing in the back of my Outback. But this year I’ve not wanted to stay in motels due to the pandemic, so I invested in a good tent, camp furniture, etc, and this year will set up a right proper camp and maybe stay out for a week, before heading to Arizona for Abert’s squirrel. By the way, it was Airguns of Arizona resident hunting guru Kip, that pointed me in the right direction for the Aberts squirrel, no beating local knowledge!! And since I’ll be set up for winter camping, will probably bring my gear and stay up there for a week.

As an aside, many of you know that I have a professional life and work in clinical research, but my organization has just change policy about how much vacation we can carry over. I have over 8 weeks to use before the end of the year, so plan on a lot of extended hunting trips this year. I’m considering moving down to Texas for 2-3 weeks…… if my wife will let me.

But I digress, my post was about black color phase squirrels. It takes a bit of work, and a bit of travel, but if you want a really great small game hunting experience, go for the squirrel grandslam. My advice though, try to get that black squirrel in the bag first, then go after the Aberts, then the fox and gray should pose no problem.

If you want to see videos or read more about these hunts, stop by my website and YouTube channel, www.americanairgunhunter.com. I don’t yet know what the plans are for EBR, but I’ll be in Arizona in the fall for squirrels if nothing else!

Categories: air pistols, Airgun Expedition, Airguns of Arizona, Camping with Airgun, Destinations, Small Game Hunting, Small game in winter, squirrel hunting grand slam, Squirrels | 1 Comment

Javalina: On My Airgunning Bucket List!

Posted on July 13, 2020 by Jim Chapman

There was nowhere to legally hunt javalina in the States for many years, but the laws have changed and there are now a couple destinations!

Sometimes they come down to the roads, but generally you have to go into the desert to find them.

If I was asked to list my five favorite things to hunt with an airgun, javalina would certainly be in the mix. Part of the reason is I wanted to take one with an airgun for years, and I’d see them all the time when I was in Texas and sometimes in Arizona, but I could never pull the trigger….. there was no place in the US to hunt them legally. Then after years of not being able to take the shot, I went down to old Mexico where I score my first one. But that was a long, expensive, and hard to organize trip….. and I’m saying this for someone that’s traveled in Mexico and likes it a lot.

Then a few years ago Arizona opened their seasons for everything (except elk) to airgun hunters. I went down that first season and hunted with my friend and Airguns of Arizona resident hunt Kip Perow, and we scored in that first season. I’ve been back a couple of times, but you need to draw a tag for the best untis, though over the counter tags for some areas are available.

Then Texas changed their laws for airgunners, allowing anything to be taken with a an airgun over 215 fpe and .30 caliber. And Texas has becoup javalina! I see them just about every time I go down to my friend’s ranches in West and SW Texas. But the great thing is that you can take 3 per year, and its covered under your base licenses. The only downside is I’d like to use a sub 215 fpe gun for this light bodied little desert boar, but the law in Texas is a blanket for all game animals.

I was using a .357 doing almost 300 fpe, which is overkill for these little 45 lb game animals. You want to make sure you’re comfortable shooting offhand in this environment.
I was pleased to no end with this javalina, also called the collared peccary.

The reason I like javalina is that they are fun to glass for in the wide-open spaces, and a lot of fun to stalk. There sense of small is good, hearing is good, eyesight is so-so. So play the wind and watch where you step it’s doable to close into airgun range most of the time.

A couple of buddies and I were going to guide a hunt on a private ranch for airgun hunters earlier in the year, but the pandemic shut us down. Hope fully next year, but if you get a chance to go after javalina do it, you now have Texas and Arizona as destination hunts!

Categories: Big Bore Airguns, Big Game, Destinations, Hog hunting, javalina hunting | Leave a comment

I took the LCS SK-19 out on a Jackrabbit hunt…. Great Experience!

Posted on July 6, 2020 by Jim Chapman

I got out on my first hunt of the summer a couple weeks ago, and with a week off work loaded up my gear and headed down to a friends ranch in West Texas. With the LCS SK-19 calling for me to get it into the field, and jackrabbits everywhere, it was a good week!

Hello everyone, I haven’t posted for awhile, been laid up with a back injury but I’m finally back on my feet and getting stronger every day. I’d received the LCS SK-19 from my friends at Airguns of Arizona to use on a hunt that had been canceled due to the pandemic restrictions, and then the aforementioned back issue. But with restrictions being relaxed, I felt it was time to get this innovative Semi/Full-auto into the field and get some hunting in!

I won’t go into all the specifications, because unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you probably know about this American assembled bullpup. A couple key items, the gun I’m shooting is a .25 caliber and is set up for the JSB Kings. It’s a semi-auto hammer-less design with a select-fire function allowing semi-auto or full-auto fire. The integrated magazine provides 19 shots and will chamber the longer pellets or slugs. A Lother-Walther barrel and a highly tunable regulated action produce accuracy and great shot to shot consistency . The regulator is adjustable from an easy-to-access external knob positioned in front of the air fill. A power wheel at the back of the action gives the shooter additional control of the air delivery. The barrel uses a carbon fiber style shroud and silencer for very quiet shooting. The 480cc removable carbon bottle and dual pressure gauges provide both tank pressure and regulator pressure.

I find the LCS SK-19 light and compact, but what really impressed me are the ergonomics: the gun mounts quickly and consistently, and all controls are easily accessed. To be honest, I questioned the choice of an integrated magazine, but it is accessible and easy to load, and was very reliable over the couple of tins of pellets I’ve fed it so far. Time will tell, but I feel confident in the design based on my experience to date.

Over my week in the field, I carried this gun over long distances in fairly rough terrain.I shot the LCS well offhand, but it really shined when I’d sit and shoot of sticks, easily reaching out for those 75 yards rabbits and bowling them over before they spooked. And the terminal performance achieved with this gun and the 25.39 grain JSB Exact Kings was really outstanding. A hit from this combo sent big jackrabbits flipping head over heel!

I have to admit that I shot a couple of rabbits with full auto, to address my curiosity, but for the most part I hunted with the semi-auto selected. Several times I encountered multiple rabbits and was able to double up due to the rapid semi auto fire. And I hate to admit my bad shots, but they happen, on a couple occasions I fired 3 or 4 followup on a running rabbit that I’d wounded, putting them down with the fast follow up. I’ve never used an airgun that allowed such rapid and reliable second or third shots.

I’ll have more coming at you with this rifle, but I have to say it is amazing. Besides the power and accuracy, besides the semi/auto capabilities, the reliability and overall consistency is more than what I expected. This really is a superb hunting rifle in a class of its own!

Categories: .25 caliber, adjustable buttstock, Airguns of Arizona, compact guns, Jackrabbits, Long Range shooting | Leave a comment

A Prophecy Fulfilled

Posted on November 30, 2019 by Jim Chapman

Based on the RTI Priest, expectations were high for their next product release. I get a first view setting up the new Prophet for hunting season!

Jim’s initial experience with the RTI Prophet

A gun I’ve been shooting and hunting with since EBR, is the RTI Prophet, which is an evolutionary step from the companies Priest model of PCP Airgun. I saw this gun being shot at EBR, and was immediately drawn to the streamline design. A lot of readers know that I’ve always gravitated toward tradition sporter/carbine styling in my hunting guns, but of the last few years have been shooting more of the bullpup and “tactical” designs, and have also said there is a reason these guns are popular. Ergonomics, adjustability, easily changed barrels, all inherently easier to achieve with these type of designs.

The Prophet is a minimalist compact bullpup design, that is multi-caliber with .177, .22, .25, .30, and arrow barrel available.

RTI Arms is based in Slovenia, this company has been building a distribution network globally and their first offering, the Priest, has been gaining a following. After shooting and hunting with this compact and lightweight tactical bullpup, I can understand why.

The regulator is a component that sits between the bottle and the one piece breech block, and can be retrofitted to other models with the appropriate connector threading.

At one of the premier airgunning event in North America, the Airgun of Arizona Extreme Benchrest simply called EBR, the RTI factory team was shooting the Prophet, which is based on the Priest design, however where the Priest uses a straight pullback bolt action, the Prophet implements a sidelever action with the handle just forward of the trigger guard on the left side of the gun.

The trigger is set light and crisp, at about 18 oz, and breaks like the proverbial glass rod. The straight trigger blade provides an excellent tactile response, and allows the intrinsic accuracy of the gun to be realized in the field. To me the change from a bolt to a sidelever and the positioning on the left side and just forward of the trigger guard is a game changer in the way a gun handles, allowing the shooter to cycle the gun without coming off target is a very nice capability!

I sat at a bench for some quick setup work before taking the gun out on my first hunt.
I shot two 12 round magazines into a nice little 50 yard group on a fairly windy day….it made me smile!

The 12 round multi-shot rotary magazine cassette is auto indexed by the sidelever, and performed without a hitch in my experience so far. I also think they have come up with a very neat setup on the regulator, which is screwed into the gun and the bottle, and can be retrofitted to the Priest. As a matter of fact, and gun that uses a M18x1.5 / G 1/2 -14 thread to mount a bottle can use this system.

The bottle used on the gun is 320 cc carbon fiber with a 300 BAR fill pressure. The pre-production Prophet that I am shooting does not have the regulator pressure gauge installed, but my under standing is that it was set at 130 BAR at the factory for use in the Extreme Benchrest event.

The build quality of this gun is outstanding, and the control layout very ergonomic. Because of the positioning of the cocking handle, the trigger hand does not have to move.

I will be releasing a series of blog posts , magazine articles, and videos on this gun and my experience hunting with it as the season rolls along, but I just wanted to share some of my enthusiasm for what I’ve seen so far. The gun is generating about 34 fpe with a Exact JSB Heavy moving at 920 fps, and I can easily keep the shots in the kill zone of a jackrabbit at 75 yards off sticks. As a matter of fact my only real complaint so far, is not directly attributable to the gun. The MTC scope that was mounted on it used low profile mounts which I found very awkward to shoot, I just could not get a comfortable cheekweld. But changing to a set of high profile mounts went far to correct this.

I’ll bring you more on this very cool little bullpup later, keep an eye out, this is a product to watch.

Categories: .22 caliber, adjustable buttstock, Airguns of Arizona, bullpup, Extreme Benchrest, Long Range shooting, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Texas Aoudad Hunt

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Jim Chapman

I’d been down in Texas hunting deer and javalina for 9 days and was on my way back from a friends ranch when I got a call. It was an invitation to delay my return home a few days to hunt aoudad, also known as Barbary sheep. The hunt was in conjunction with a group called Operation Pay It Forward, that organizes hunts for active military and veterans on properties owned by TM Exotics and Whitetail Hunts.

I was in the process of being busted!

I used to hunt exotics quite a bit with big bore rifles, back in the early days of big bore airgun hunting in the early 2000’s, this was one of the only hunts we could do for larger game with an airgun. In more recent years I started going after deer, javalina, and of course hogs…… I’d not done much hunting for other exotics, and had lost interest in most. There are a few exotics that I do gravitate towards, often ones that are hard or impossible to hunt in the original range. For me the trifecta of exotic hunting in Texas comes down to three species, the fallow deer, the blackbuck, and the aoudad. I’d actually been on aoudad hunts in the past, but had only managed to bag one small ram several years ago.

I’d planned to use a .457 custom prototype gun I’d been testing but ran into an issue preventing me using it on this hunt. The other gun I had along with me was my Texan in .308, which is light for these heavy body sheep. Aoudads can stand 3.5 feet at the shoulder and weigh up to 350 lb. Because of the caliber and the ability of this animal to carry a lot of lead, I decided on a head shot.

As he turned to bolt, I lined up the shot aiming at the back of the head.

After striking out in a blind, we drove and glassed until we spotted a ram bedded down. As we moved in he stood up and looked around. I could see a second ram still laying down. I sat down and lined up the shot, as the ram looked in my direction. I’d been worried about a frontal shot as I reckoned that since these animals smash their heads together when sparring, the skull was probably very thick up front and I wanted a side shot…or maybe the back of the head.

I dropped the ram hard, he dropped like a rock and that was it.

As I watched through the scope he started to bolt as three more sheep, two of which I’d not seen, jumped up. As the ram started to move away he stopped and I sent the 109 grain hp at the back of the head and dropped him on the spot. It was a very exciting hunt, and I was really happy with this nice representative ram, beautiful chaps and sweeping horns with a lot of mass.

Next hunt I’m out with the RTI Prophet for predators, and will be back with you all soon!

Categories: Big Bore Airguns, shot placement | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Back from a great week in Arizona for EBR……. and some hunting!!

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Jim Chapman

Today was my first day back at work, and it was hectic trying to catch up after a week away. But that week was worth it! I had the chance to do a squirrel hunt up in the mountains, then I came down to a dairy farm to shoot pest birds, then I spent the rest of the week at the 2019 EBR at the Rio Salado shooting range right outside of Mesa.

The Brocock Bantam Sniper .25…. love the stock!

The gun I used for both was the Brocock Bantam Sniper in .25 caliber. The rifle had been give a custom tune and sported a very cool red diamondback dip. I used this gun to shoot birds at the dairy farm, and therefor had time to get a bit of shooting in with it before the EBR. I was hunting with my buddies Scott and Chuck, who I hadn’t seen in a year, and was looking forward to meeting up for breakfast before the birds started to fall.

I put my drone up, you can see the general layout.

I spent a decent amount of time on my birding day at the farm, arriving a 9:30 and shooting until 1:00, shooting about 150 doves, pigeons, starlings, and black birds. The gun hit hard and dropped these birds at a distance. I am always careful; on these shoots, but especially on this one. Many of the dairies are closing to airgunners because they have been inundated with, I am sorry to say, shooters they claim have been rude, damage their property, and basically wearing out the welcome for all airgunners. This place still lets a few of us on, and I want to be very protective of that. It may all end soon anyways, as the land these dairies sits on is becoming valuable for development so many are selling out and moving.

I walked the building, staying under shade and shooting out into feed areas.
Hauling one of the doves back in, we collect them up and give them to the hands. When possible it’s nice to keep a few to wrap in bacon and stuff with jalapeno and creme cheese….. but didn’t know how that would go over at my Tempe Airbnb.

We walked the roads and took birds off the roofs, the ground, fences, and trees scattered around the property. I started off with a few blackbirds grackles, then started in on the doves and pigeons. I have to say the Brocock was a pleasure to shoot, ergonomic, compact and light, cycled smoothly, was accurate and hit like a sledge hammer.

Afterwards I went over to AOA and registered for the competition. It was a packed house with guys coming in from as far as Patagonia and Europe, not to mention a contingent from several clubs and individual shooters from around the states. I’m not a competition shooter, and the level of precision these guys chase is mind blowing!

Lining up a shot on the range while practicing before the competition….. No, it didn’t help.

I won’t write a lot about the event, because there are several reports already coming out. I will say that this event is a blast, is very well organized and runs smoothly! If you ever get a chance, I would encourage you to attend whether you want to shoot or move the the group watching and talking to some great shooters.

As I expected, I did better with the birds than I did with the targets. But watching these competitors using wind flags, weighing and sorting pellets, timing shots, using rests and rifles that have evolved into paper punching machines (in the pro class) is something to see.

I’ll spend this week around my business hours catching up: might get a squirrel hunt in Friday morning before work, get some target shooting in and catch up on some airgun maintenance and setup chores. The it’s off for several days in Texas to hunt deer, hogs, predators, and small game.

BTW: for those of you following my YouTube channel, I got my Abert’s squirrel at the beginning of the week, with the fastest completion of the grand slam I’ve done…. less than four weeks to get the gray, fox, black, and Abert’s!

Categories: .25 caliber, Airguns of Arizona, Brocock, compatto, Extreme Benchrest, pest birds, Small Game Hunting, where to hunt | Tags: , | Leave a comment

After my Squirrel Grand Slam…..Again!!!

Posted on October 4, 2019 by Jim Chapman

Several years ago I proposed a small game hunting challenge I called the North American Squirrel Hunters Grand Slam. This was intended to be an activity that took effort, but was within reach of most people willing to work at it. It is tough to do every year, but as a one time mission the travel not that bad or cost too high, though both are factors to consider.

Lining up the shot, note the SideMount camera I’ll be usibng this season.
I’ve got a car camping rig that can be taken along when I fly to distant locals for hunts. In my car I make a bed in the back, but have a small bivvy bag to use when renting.

The idea was to take the 3 primary tree squirrel game species (gray, fox, Abert’s), plus a black color phase (could be of any species) in one season. That first year I took the fox in Indiana, the gray in Kentucky, the black in Michigan, and the Abert’s in Arizona. I tried to replicate this a couple more times, but fell short; one year I got everything but a black, and one everything but an Abert’s.

Fox squirrels
Gray squirrels
black squirrel….. only the Abert’s left

I am after this goal again this year; and in the first week took a gray and fox in Minnesota, a black in Wisconsin, and I leave for Arizona in a couple days where I will be heading up into the ponderosa pines to try to complete my mission, and even though I’ll be using a rental car have packed my car camping gear and plan to stay in the mountains as long as it takes. I am feeling good about the trip, the weather looks good and I’m going to a place I know. If I get this done in the first day or two, I’ve got other hunting adventures to do on this trip.

BTW: If you don’t subscribe to an airgunning magazine, one that I can recommend (not least of which because I have a monthly column) is the British publication AIR GUNNER, and this month I’m sharing this challenge with our fellow shooters across the pond.

Along with my hunting trip, I’ll be stopping by the Extreme Bench Rest, and if you see me there stop by and say hello. I like to meet my fellow airgunners when the chance arises, and am looking forward to this important airgunning event!

Categories: Airgun Expedition, Airguns of Arizona, fall hunts, Hunting Guns, Small Game Hunting, Squirrels | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment