16ga.com ~ View topic - Ranger report

Member Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 128 Location: NE

Didn't have much time for hunting, spent most of the weekend working around the house, raking the yard. Wound up with two trailer loads of leaves I had to get rid of out at the farm. Since it was late afternoon I thought I just might catch a rooster if I walked one of the fencelines. Grabbed my Sears Ranger Precision Grade (Hunter Arms) when I took the second load out. I bought this gun last June and only ran box of shells through it at some rocks the day after I got it. Hadn't shot it since then.

The farm that I was at has a 1/4 mile long row of cedars along the fenceline by the road, and then another about 100 yards in, alfalfa in between and corn on the south side. Soybean field west of it and CRP roosting cover across the road to the north of that. The rows of cedars are good loafing cover, but it is tough to get a bird when you are by yourself since they run to the end and then flush out the side opposite the one you are on.

About halfway down the first row, one bird flushed about 75 yards out, at a gap in the trees, and then when I got to the end and went around it, a small covey of quail flushed. Probably could have got one, but I didn't shoot. Not too many quail on the property and I would like to give them a chance. Went down the second row along the corn and when I stepped into the tall grass at a large gap in the trees where an old harrow is parked, three birds, two hens and a rooster came up. One shot, one dead rooster.

That gun comes up so nice, no fuss, no fumbling, no rush, no thought, just watch the bird and the next thing I knew the gun was at my shoulder, swinging through the bird and it is falling out of the sky. Felt like I had been shooting this gun forever it was so natural. Yeah, it was only one bird and I might have just been lucky, but it felt good. Hope to give it a more thorough workout next week.

Somebody ought to pick up the Hunter Arms Fulton that is posted down in the for sale section, pretty much the same gun.

berg

berg - I too have a sears gun (LB used to own but was nice enough to trade up) - I like it better than the Fultons due to the cap on the grip and mid bead but yeah, no way I'm gonna let that gun go from collection. OK so it weighs about 8lbs but so what, hits like a truck when I'm driving well...

Member Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 128 Location: NE

Went out for a short hunt after work today with one of the guys that I work with. He is also a PF member (pres. of our chapter) and he took me out to a property that the chapter had funded (and he did most of ) some work on. 1/4 section CRP field that was lightly disced and interseeded with a grass and legume mixture.
I haven't seen this many pheasants in one field in several years. As soon as we parked the truck and were getting the guns out and letting out his GSP, birds started flushing. At least two dozen came up within 50 yards of where we were standing. As we started into the field, you could see pheasants almost constantly. We both had a limit in less than 20 minutes, and that includes spending almost 5 minutes looking for one that I dropped.
It looked like it was hit pretty hard and we thought we both had it well marked, I started toward it, at least 4 more birds came up right in the area the rooster had fallen. Scott hit one of them and his dog went after it. When they got it and came over to look for mine, it had managed to crawl off about 15 feet before it died, but there was so much scent in the area that it took a while to find it. Jack (the GSP) is only in his second year and not real good at finding dead birds yet.
I was using the Ranger, and shooting some PMC 1 1/8 oz, #5. Supposed to 1295 fps. They seem to work pretty well. So far I am 4 birds in five shots with the Ranger and these shells, I did miss one bird that came up behind and to my right, that would have been a double if I had connected.
Anyway, we saw at least 200 birds in about 40 minutes and could hear roosters crowing all around us as we stood back up by the truck and watched birds flying in from surrounding cornfields. It was great, and that is the way a lot of the fields around here used to be. Now what hasn't come out of the CRP program is mostly overgrown, solid stands of brome, a monoculture wastland that offers very little to wildlife.

sprocket, I don't think my Ranger weighs anywhere near 8 pounds, I would guess right around 7. It feels lighter than my other 16's, a 311, a M24, standard A5, and a Remington made "American Browning". If I can find my wife's old kitchen scale (it got packed away somewhere in the basement when I remodeled the kitchen las spring) I will weigh them all and post the results in that thread.

berg

Berg - you are correct - 7lbs - Its been too long since I've hefted it too!

Been on the road for 2 weeks - home tomorrow!