Joel Russo
Well-Known Member
Jumped on a bird, headed south, and my business partner Chase Curtis picked me up in Dallas. Kudos to US Airways for giving my bags and gear a free ride by honoring their Military! After a couple hour ride, we pulled into the ranch for a few days of business and pleasure.
With business out of the way, our plan was to shoot some steel and chase coyotes until we were tired…
The following day we set up steel and played at various ranges out to 1,450 yards. The gusting winds made it somewhat difficult, but hey, who wants to shoot when it's easy..
Chase drove his 6.5x47 Lapua to some mind blowing groups at 1,450 yards, see attached steel plate picture. That particular rifle has always shot exceptionally well, and Chase is no slouch either. We also punished that steel plate steel with both of our .338-.408's which proved to be a bit easier in the wind.
This ranch is covered with coyotes…and we were intent to do our part in the full interest of wildlife management.
We made a few daytime sets and they proved to be difficult at best due to the high winds. Time to re-group and figure out how to accomplish our mission...... With thermal imaging, suppression, and NV at hand, we decided on switching to nighttime operations… No worries on that end, it's more desirable to run night ops..
Temps were hanging around 20* which made it quite comfortable. We decided to ditch the NV as it became problematic identifying targets at a distance. Weapon of choice was Chase's 6.5x47 topped with SB 5x25 PMII because I made the lame excuse that I didn't want to bang up my pretty stock on my .243 AI… FLIR thermal device, FoxPro remote call, and a SAS suppressor rounded out the equipment list.
After a few sets, it became quite apparent that we couldn't engage all the coyotes we were calling in. Now that's a good problem to have. We managed to shoot one double, but could have had triples and quads if we had another body behind a second rifle.
Talk about a sight to see.... two adrenaline junkies running night ops in a target rich environment… a blast from the past
For your viewing pleasure…
With business out of the way, our plan was to shoot some steel and chase coyotes until we were tired…
The following day we set up steel and played at various ranges out to 1,450 yards. The gusting winds made it somewhat difficult, but hey, who wants to shoot when it's easy..
Chase drove his 6.5x47 Lapua to some mind blowing groups at 1,450 yards, see attached steel plate picture. That particular rifle has always shot exceptionally well, and Chase is no slouch either. We also punished that steel plate steel with both of our .338-.408's which proved to be a bit easier in the wind.
This ranch is covered with coyotes…and we were intent to do our part in the full interest of wildlife management.
We made a few daytime sets and they proved to be difficult at best due to the high winds. Time to re-group and figure out how to accomplish our mission...... With thermal imaging, suppression, and NV at hand, we decided on switching to nighttime operations… No worries on that end, it's more desirable to run night ops..Temps were hanging around 20* which made it quite comfortable. We decided to ditch the NV as it became problematic identifying targets at a distance. Weapon of choice was Chase's 6.5x47 topped with SB 5x25 PMII because I made the lame excuse that I didn't want to bang up my pretty stock on my .243 AI…
FLIR thermal device, FoxPro remote call, and a SAS suppressor rounded out the equipment list.After a few sets, it became quite apparent that we couldn't engage all the coyotes we were calling in. Now that's a good problem to have. We managed to shoot one double, but could have had triples and quads if we had another body behind a second rifle.
Talk about a sight to see.... two adrenaline junkies running night ops in a target rich environment… a blast from the past
For your viewing pleasure…
