Few weeks ago I decided to head out to another remote location where I was able to film for a few videos. Terry, Marley and I loaded up the Jeep and headed several hours North where we planned to setup camp, do some hunting and scout a few new areas. The place we setup camp was a working cattle ranch during 1891 but years later was abandoned due to lack of water.
This location was one of few that offered some shade from the sun, with temperatures getting up over 110 degrees. This area does have a natural spring that we later found was a huge blessing to be able to cool off after a long day of hiking.
We did pack fairly minimal with each of us packing more as you would do for a backpacking trip, lightweight tents, dry foods and of coarse plenty of water. By 8:00am it was already into the high 80's with a nice breeze coming through the valley. For this trip I had brought the American Air Arms EVOL, the standard version in .22 caliber. To give some of you a backstory on this rifle it was part of the Airgun Survival Challenge where I took three high end Airguns and tortured them. This rifle had been drowned, dragged, run over and thrown off a cliff and survived with little more than cosmetic damage. The EVOL shoots the 20.3gr slugs at 980 producing just about 43FPE at the muzzle. I had been using the Redesigns but have found the slugs to be far superior with near twice the BC.
Terry brought both his Edgun Lieshy Classic as well as his Tikka TX1 chambered in 17hmr, an excellent varmint rifle that produces just about 222 FPE at the muzzle and very capable to ranges out around 200 yards. This area has vast open terrain with steep rolling hills with patches of dense sagebrush, a very difficult place to hunt. I figured it would be interesting to see how each rifle performs under the same hunting environment.
Terry, Marley and I set out on foot and headed North away from camp where we had encountered plenty of Jackrabbits in some past trips. This area has a ton of lava rock on the hillsides making it somewhat dangerous so much care needed to be taken while navigating this terrain.
I spotted my first Jackrabbit at 48 yards moving through some sagebrush where I was able to get a shot off, these jacks can be tough animals and will run up to 60 or so yards before expiring. Having a dog like Marley is imperative in this type of rugged environment and she's about as professional as they come with what she does.
*NOTE I was willing and ready to do a full write up of my adventure but this new forum format won't allow me to attach more than 10 files, without the pictures I don't feel as though my story will come across very entertaining. Hopefully this problem can be resolved as the new forum progresses.
Not to waste any time I will list a few things out of our experience and leave the
video link to check out for those interested to do so.
RIMFIRE PROS - Fairly inexpensive initial cost to purchase rifle
- Capable of ranges out around 200 yards fairly easily
- 200+ FPE
- Lightweight
- Excellent Durability
- Low Maintenance
- Higher velocity for moving targets
RIMFIRE CONS - Ammo can be limited, expensive and cannot be reloaded
- Loud
- Unreliable (rimfires prone to misfires) This happened several times on the trip
- Depending on how much ammo you carry it can get heavy
AIRRIFLE PROS (This may only apply to the rifle used) - Pellets/Slugs inexpensive and easier to find over rimfire and can be made by the user
- Capable of ranges out to 200+ yards
- Lightweight and Short
- Excellent Durability
- Excellent Reliability
- Quiet
AIRRIFLE CONS - Expensive Initial Cost
- Limited Air Capacity (Need a hand pump or other reliable air source to fill in field)
- Lower velocity requires a bit more leade ahead for moving targets
I'm sure I missed a few things, feel free to add to this list as I think it would be helpful. (Those of you wanting to bring politics or any of that into this thread please move along as I'm not interested)
Cheers,
Dana
