So yesterday I picked up my PS1 from the post office and paid some money to the customs people!! I left work at 3pm and drove down to the farm where I run my gun club, stopping at the gun shop to pick up some .44 cal lead balls. Whilst in the shop choosing my ammo, I saw that they had .361 cal (9.19mm) balls at £7.75 for 100, so I grabbed some. I like the way 3/8 steel flies (fast and flat) and have killed plenty with it, but you have to take headshots and it doesn't reach out as far as lead. Lead retains energy far better than steel and kills at a lot further range but has a far loopier trajectory and has a slower velocity. I have thought for a while about trying to find a compromise between the two, fast flying, flat and hard hitting. I tried some .32 cal lead a few years ago but was using tubes at the time and they didn't seem to be any improvement.
I arrived at the farm and pulled into the drive, to my left was an ash pile left by a fire and sitting in the centre of it at about ten yards was a charred block from a wooden pallet. I took aim with a .361 ball and let it fly. It hit the block dead centre and spun it round! Two more shots and the block had moved about three feet. As a comparison I shot a .44 cal ball and hit the block, it didn't seem to move it any further and I didn't notice any difference in the time it took to get there. I could, however, see the larger ball in flight.
My mate arrived and I jumped in to his Range Rover and we set off into the back field. The fields are set aside and the grass and shrubs are quite high now. It's a case of driving slowly along and examining every tussock and bush for bunnies. At the moment there are a lot of starters and 3/4 grown bunnies about and they tend to sit tight as you drive past. Even the adults only move away slowly or move behind a tussock. It requires a bit of creeping forward and then reversing up to get a shot sometimes.
The first rabbit that presented itself was full grown and partially obscured behind a tussock of grass at about 9 yards. My first shot missed and kicked up the grass about 2 inches to the right of his nose. He trotted further away and stopped at 15 yards and started to eat! My second shot sailed about 3 foot over his head, I don't know what happened there!?! My third shot connected between his shoulder blades and he rolled over. I jumped out of the car and ran over to him, he made an attempt to get away and I managed to catch him in some brambles after a short chase. He only had partial use of his back legs and on later inspection my ball had hit him in the spine and ruptured one of his lungs and the heart was loosely attached.
I hit another in the side of his chest at about 10 yards, but he flipped into thick thorn bushes and slipped down into the ditch that runs through them, not having a dog with us there was no chance of recovery.
About 30 yards further on driving through thick scrub rabbits started running from under the car to the bushes on the field boundary. we were about 15 yards out into the field. A couple of rabbits stopped at the bush edge and paused. I hit the small bunny, I couldn't tell where because I didn't see the shot, only heard the impact, and it staggered into the bush it was sitting by. I walked over to where it went and and could see it in the bush about 10 feet away rocking from side to side. I shot it in the head and reached in to grab it. The damage done at such close range meant that it's skull was crushed and there was massive blood loss from the wound. We drove round for another half an hour and had a few shots, some near misses but no more kills.
I'm going to continue using the small calibre lead balls. Over longer ranges I noticed an increase in velocity and accuracy was fine. The hitting power and knockdown ability was on a par with .44 cal lead from what I saw but further experimentation is required.
The PS1 shoots really nice. I'm going to try some .361 through my Hunter tonight.
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I arrived at the farm and pulled into the drive, to my left was an ash pile left by a fire and sitting in the centre of it at about ten yards was a charred block from a wooden pallet. I took aim with a .361 ball and let it fly. It hit the block dead centre and spun it round! Two more shots and the block had moved about three feet. As a comparison I shot a .44 cal ball and hit the block, it didn't seem to move it any further and I didn't notice any difference in the time it took to get there. I could, however, see the larger ball in flight.
My mate arrived and I jumped in to his Range Rover and we set off into the back field. The fields are set aside and the grass and shrubs are quite high now. It's a case of driving slowly along and examining every tussock and bush for bunnies. At the moment there are a lot of starters and 3/4 grown bunnies about and they tend to sit tight as you drive past. Even the adults only move away slowly or move behind a tussock. It requires a bit of creeping forward and then reversing up to get a shot sometimes.
The first rabbit that presented itself was full grown and partially obscured behind a tussock of grass at about 9 yards. My first shot missed and kicked up the grass about 2 inches to the right of his nose. He trotted further away and stopped at 15 yards and started to eat! My second shot sailed about 3 foot over his head, I don't know what happened there!?! My third shot connected between his shoulder blades and he rolled over. I jumped out of the car and ran over to him, he made an attempt to get away and I managed to catch him in some brambles after a short chase. He only had partial use of his back legs and on later inspection my ball had hit him in the spine and ruptured one of his lungs and the heart was loosely attached.
I hit another in the side of his chest at about 10 yards, but he flipped into thick thorn bushes and slipped down into the ditch that runs through them, not having a dog with us there was no chance of recovery.
About 30 yards further on driving through thick scrub rabbits started running from under the car to the bushes on the field boundary. we were about 15 yards out into the field. A couple of rabbits stopped at the bush edge and paused. I hit the small bunny, I couldn't tell where because I didn't see the shot, only heard the impact, and it staggered into the bush it was sitting by. I walked over to where it went and and could see it in the bush about 10 feet away rocking from side to side. I shot it in the head and reached in to grab it. The damage done at such close range meant that it's skull was crushed and there was massive blood loss from the wound. We drove round for another half an hour and had a few shots, some near misses but no more kills.
I'm going to continue using the small calibre lead balls. Over longer ranges I noticed an increase in velocity and accuracy was fine. The hitting power and knockdown ability was on a par with .44 cal lead from what I saw but further experimentation is required.
The PS1 shoots really nice. I'm going to try some .361 through my Hunter tonight.
