Look closely at the light colored spot way out in front of the rifle, and you'll see the dust signature of his bullet impact: (The irrigation pivot pipe is just over 300 yards away.)
Out near some of the well drilling equipment was a bunch of drill and irrigation pipe. I saw a squirrel at just over 150 yards next to a pipe sitting upright. I pivoted my bench, turned down my scope and shot the rat. The 32gr Nosler BT completely disintigrated on the rat, and no damage to the (surplus) pipe at all. We're talking EXPANSION here! (I'm now a "pipe painter"
)
A while later Captqc (Gary) told me to look at the little weasel hunting squirrels out by the drill rig. As the weasel came near the open end of a steel well casing laying on the ground, a squirrel stood up inside the end of the pipe. Seeing the weasel coming, he ducked and the weasel didn't see him. Once the weasel was gone, the squirrel stood up......right into the crosshairs of my Leupold 6.5-20X LR. The "terminal effect" can be seen in a 360 degree arc inside the pipe. (There were 'remains' at the other end of the pipe too......12' away!)
The scene at the drill rig as seen from my bench. The pipe in question is at the extreme left side, barely visible here:
A closer view of "the pipe":
Skippy ("The Pipe Squirrel" as he will forever be known) in his hiding place, safe from the weasel, but NOT from the 32 grainer:
Talking about different things, ever seen a cow bit by a rattlesnake? Here's a momma cow that got snake-bit in the neck last fall while out on the open range feeding. She still has a growth that the vet removes, then grows back in a month or so at the bite location. No explanation from the vet, just 'wierd stuff' that happens. She would not hold still for a better view: (The reason we all carry .45 snake loads as the first two rounds in our pistols while at the ranch.)
Speaking of .45's, we usually do some pistol practice in the evenings while at the ranch. Here's Dan with Garth getting ready for the steel:
Look closely and you can see both the muzzle flash and the pistol in full recoil with the slide back in this blurred shot of Dan's Kimber Ultra Carry .45:
Setting back up on the semi trailers for another go of it the next day. My Cooper M38 Vartarg and M700 11 twist 204 Ruger were my rifles of choice for this trip, along with the usual "truck gun", my carbon fiber barreled Lam stocked 10-22 for the "drive-by" stuff:
Captqc warming up the barrel of his Cooper M21 Phoenix in 204 Ruger:
Another 32gr Ballistic Tip victim. This is typical terminal performance all the way out to as far as we shoot. This fellow had his last meal of alfalfa at 328 yards:
Parting shot of my Cooper 20VT on the bench on my favorite hillside looking north out into the alfalfa fields. For perspective, the white tank at the wellhead is just a tad over 300 yards. The crop is so long right now, all we could see of the squirrels was heads most of the time. A rat head at 300+ yards gets very interesting; even more so when the wind puffs at all......
Last pic of our 'cooperative' squirrel' pups....the one on the right is scolding me and telling me to "buzz-off":
Despite rain, hail, snow and the ever-present wind, it was a great Rat Season for 2011. Now the alfalfa is too long to see the little buggers, and by the time it's First Cut time, it's usually too hot for both us and the squrrels, so now it's time for summer rock chucks and more .20 caliber fun. Man I love this stuff! Hope you enjoyed the ride.
I have been trying to get to Idaho for some sage rats but rain has kept us away so far. I will try to get some pictures but not sure they will turn out as well as yours. Keep them coming for us trigger deprived soles!