JSB Diabolo Exact .20

The .20 caliber pellet is becoming less available and pellet manufactures are dropping them.  Without someone like Robert Beeman pushing the caliber and influencing manufactures to  add them in their line, I'm afraid the caliber may go the way of the dodo.  Since my over decade long hiatus from airgun shooting, my favorite .20 caliber pellet, the Crosman Premier, has been discontinued.  I have have a few boxes left but I was concerned what I'd do when my stockpile ran out.  My RX is very pellet sensitive and I've tried just about every .20 cal available at the time I bought it.  None grouped as well as the Premier.  So when I read just a couple weeks ago that the .20 Premiers were no longer available, I started looking online for a source for them.  I couldn't find any so I looked of an alternative.  After some researching I looked into these Czech made JSB pellets. 

JSB to my recollection were not available in the US when I was active in the scene.  I believe these Diabolo Exacts are a fairly new pellet.  From what I have read they are consistent and of good quality.  Coming in 500 count, the tins are lined with foam to help prevent deformation. 

Listed at 13.73 gr, they are lighter than the 14.3 gr Premiers my RX favors.  The pellet itself looks similar to the Crosmans.  So I hoped they would make a good alternative.  I bought one tin to test how the RX like them. 

High winds blew most of last week and I could only test them in the wind.  This was the best I could do with a five shot group at 25 yards with a left to right wind.  I think I can tighten these groups up in calmer conditions.  So I think I've found my substitute and intend on buying more. 

Not With A Bang But A Whimper

General season for turkey ends this weekend so this was my last chance until fall for my first gobbler.  We arrived Friday afternoon in the hopes of climbing the ridge and glassing the meadows to scout the birds going to roost for the night.  As with most of our plans, we managed to muck that up by driving around endlessly trying to find an easier way into one of the meadows.

After unknowingly driving past our destination, we made it to a section of road where according to my maps would take us to the meadow.  After bumbling around we realized this way in was not going to happen so we continued to drive on this loop to get us back to where we needed to go.

That was the plan at least.  With only about a quarter of the loop left to drive, we were stopped in our tracks.  High winds blew earlier this week and while we drove into the mountain we only saw small signs of it we finally drove upon evidence of it.  A fallen tree blocked our way and we had to backtrack costing us more time.

After backtracking we decided to quit wasting time trying to find a way into a new meadow and go enter in the area we were familiar.  We had about an hour of light left when we dropped our packs and started to look for signs of birds.  We found a highway of tracks and headed to the new meadow.  In the darkness of night we set up our decoys among the highway of tracks and left them there so we wouldn't have to bother in the morning.

To our surprise when we awoke at 5:20 am it was already starting to light up.  That was a mistake.  We raced to our decoys and setup into the woods to hide ourselves.  We waited patiently, calling sporadically. Given all the tracks, we figured this was a good spot but it proved unfruitful.  We moved on looking at other meadows without any sign of birds.

Eventually after glassing, Chul with eagle like eyes spotted two turkeys on the far end of the meadow. Having an additional 2X power with my 10X binoculars I checked to see if I see any beards on them.  Once they gave us a profile view of them I noticed thy were both hens.  Though we weren't able to take these birds this season we decided to test our fieldcraft and see how close we could get to them.  We would try and flank them to the left using the taller vegetation to hide our movements.

On our way to them we would flush valley quail and cottontails.  Too bad its not season for them.  It's been years since I've seen so many rabbits.  One rabbit (not the one pictured above) I initially thought was a jackrabbit given its size but I doubt it as I believe jacks don't live in this habitat.  It was a beast of a cottontail. We managed to get less than 100 yards to the birds.  There we sat glassing them for about twenty minutes until we decided to see if the we could get closer.

We backtracked and would try to flank them again.  We managed to get to about 50 yards of them only  to be spooked by two numbnuts that decided to blast through the meadow.

With that we thought it wise to end this hunt and head back to camp.  After packing up we decided to check out some other areas.

One area was an archery only section so I left my airgun in the truck and act as spotter.  By this time it was getting hot and the meadow was busy with hikers so we knew hunting would be pointless.  So we called it a day and headed out for lunch.  So our turkey season ends without a bird, we'll have to wait until fall to try again.

Having not eaten other than a handful of nuts, we were starving and BBQ was in order.  We both chose pulled pork sandwiches.

Chul has been raving about these apple pies ever since we started hunting the surrounding area.  With our stomachs full, we ordered our apple pies to go.

Getting It Ready, The BSA Supersport Magnum .22

The Supersport now all dressed up

Back while in college I bought my first airgun, a Beeman RX.  I kept it at home though as the community I lived in was a little sketchy, not with crime so much but rather with drunken fools.  But while away from home I missed shooting it so I bought a "lesser" gun that I could get my shooting fix.  Since it was meant to be somewhat replaceable, I wouldn't care as much if it were stolen or abused to some degree. 

The gun as it was for years

I bought a BSA Supersport Magnum in .22 left it with open sights.  I would practice in our apartment shooting into a duct taped phone book at about 10 feet. On weekends my roommate and neighbors would head out to the mountains of Santa Barbara and go shooting.  The neighbors, who were Marines, would be shooting my airgun and piece of shit .22 rimfire AR-7 while I'd be shooting their AR15 and Glock pistols.

When I left college and returned home I for the most part put away my airguns and my interest in them waned.  Years later I pulled out my two pellet rifles, the RX still pristine as the day I bought it but the BSA on the other hand was a mess.  Rust had now formed all over the barrel.  I cleaned it off but it only came back.  I eventually cleaned the rust and stripped the blueing off and reblued it with Birthwood Casey Perma Blue Gun Paste.  It did not look professional at all.  The gun would return back in the closet not to be touch for years later.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I pulled the Supersport out once again as I wanted to perhaps use it on my next turkey hunt if I had to trek back into the steep mountains with my backpack.  I wanted to carry a lighter gun.  Unfortunately the rust returned but not as bad but bad enough.  So pulled out the ultra fine steel wool and started removing oxidation.

I'm debating whether to send this gun in to get properly reblued but I'm not sure if it is worth it.  The gun was always meant to be a field beater. Also the replacement cost of this gun (albeit the new version is a bit different) is about $300.  The cost to have Dave Slade of Airgunwerks to reblue is $155. 

After backpacking a 30 plus pound pack into one of our valleys with a roughly 11 pound Beeman RX, it became evident that a lighter gun would be nice for steep climbs.  I believe the Supersport weighs roughly seven pounds and after adding the mount, scope and slings the gun probably weighs just about eight.  For a mountain hunting gun, I'll definitely want to sling it. Humping a gun that heavy for long distances is a pain.  Back in the day Uncle Mike's used to make sling sets for break barrel airguns, I believe this was in most part from the urging of Bob Beeman who rebadged them and sold them under his name.  Now that Beeman, (the man not the company) is no longer active in the scene, it looks like Uncle Mike's has discontinued the item.

I don't think many airgunners sling their airguns anyways so it made sense for Uncle Mike's to stop producing the set.  But unfortunately for those that wish to use them, finding these barrel band sets is now quite a task. After some internet searching I did manage to find a source who still carried a few.   

Instructions for these sets are good but one aspect they fail to address is how to find the center of the bottom of the stock.  I searched youtube to no avail.  There are plenty of videos on how to install sling swivels but none go into detail how to find the center of the bottom of the stock.  After contacting blog reader Brad, he let me know, this step is easily overlooked and easily screwed up.  I emailed  him as I knew he has skills with steel and wood as evident by his latest rifle build seen here.   After his instruction I think I found the center or at least center enough (though the picture is somewhat deceiving).

The BSA is a nice mid level airgun but it's iron sights are absolute garbage.  To harness the true potential of the rifle it needs to be scoped.  And for hunting purposes, it's mandatory particularly with turkey.  I have no experience with Hawke Optics but I decided to buy the HD IR Series 2-7x32 AO Rifle Scope.  We'll see if this scope is truly airgun rated and how it holds up.  This scope has a luminated Mil-Dot reticle in both red and green.  I think for this gun it was the right choice.  One thing I did not like about the scope is that my one piece Beeman scope mount did not fit.  Luckily my old man had a old pair of Beeman two piece mounts that he took off his R10 years ago.  So I commandeered it as it did no good sitting in a gun closet.  It did save me a trip to Air Venture though I wouldn't have minded a visit.

This was the best I could do with the rifle today with 22 mph winds blowing.  This is a five shot group at 25 yards using an 80's era tin of H&N Field Target pellets.  Once these winds pass these groups should tighten up even more.

Scouting For The End Of The Season

Word has it that this area was a great go-to spots for turkey so we decided to investigate.  We only had this morning to check it out so we woke up early and headed south.  When we arrived we overshot our destination, and after some backtracking we managed to find the trail.  It quickly lead us to a small meadow but not the meadow we were looking for.  After some serious bushwhacking we managed climb over a hill to give us a look of our destination.  Without any game trails in sight nor any easy way to the field we decided to forgo more bushwhacking and look for another meadow.  Other than some old scat we found no signs of turkey despite the overall birdiness of this place.  Though this may be due to the fact that the recent rains most likely washed away any sign.    Next weekend is my last shot to try and bag one of these birds this season, so we have some decisions to make on where we want to hunt.

The Beeman RX is running out of time for a her first Turkey.  After this year she will unlikely be used as nontox .20 cal is almost nonexistent.   Even if it did exist this gun is very pellet sensitive so there is little chance of it shooting it well.

One of many fresh deer tracks of the day.

Looks like a predator kill.  Most likely a turkey that met its fate.

More deer tracks.

A flower, the name escapes me now, with medicinal properties. *EDIT* The plant is Yarrow

A Red Tail giving us an aerial display. 

Lunch at Roberto's.  California Burrito...

and a cheese quesadilla.

Last Day. Strutting Their Stuff On Private Property

With the valley now all to ourselves, Chul and I awoke early and made our way to the meadow we heard the Tom.  Unlike the previous night I actually had a great night's sleep.  Thankfully as we had quite a hike ahead of us to get out of here.  We slept in our hunting clothes so we were ready to go and geared up light.  Bypassing breakfast we headed to the meadow as quietly as possible.

 

When we arrived to our decoys we hid behind our natural blinds, I set up my shooting monopod and laid my Beeman RX on it as Chul made calls.  But this time the calls though went unreciprocated.  Waiting we eventually gave up and started to head toward another meadow.  Dead leaves litter this area and there was absolutely no way of making a quiet stalk.  We hid in the outer edges of the meadow behind several oak trees and random brush.  Only a few lanes gave us a view to the field any attempt to come closer would likely spook anything in that meadow.  Chul had a greater field of view from his spot.  My view was obstructed so I could not see the buck and a doe feeding on grass.  Since I was the one with the binoculars Chul could only tell me it was a "pretty big" buck.  It eventually passed his viewing lane and disappeared.  At this point we decided it was time to get out of this canyon before the heat arrived. 

It was going to be hot so we wanted to be backpacking in tolerable weather.  We managed to breakdown camp and head out by 7:30ish.  Chul estimated a 2 hour hike out and we still needed to find my torn up Lowa boots we cached on Friday.

A stronger hiker than I, Chul managed to be about ten minutes ahead of me and found my boots strapped on his pack and waited until I caught up.  On the way out we ran into this snake which I believe is a California Striped Racer (Chaparral Whipsnake) on the trail trying to sun himself.  By 7:20 we were by the truck, ten minutes earlier than his estimation and just before the temperature began to rise considerably.

On the way home, since we did not see any turkeys on this trip, we decided to drive by the lake to get some food and check out them out on private property.  In on field we saw two hens, in another a lone Jake strutting his stuff.  The field next to the diner had at least seven birds we glassed.  One of them was a monster Tom with a beard that was dragging the ground.

We sat in the enclosed patio area so I could glass the birds while we waited for out food.  I had the heart attack special- country fried steak, scrambled eggs and taters.  I'm sure any calories I used up on the hike was now going to be replenished and some.  For me a gun hunter I only have two weekends left to take Tom this spring season.  I'll see if I can make it back before it closes on me.  As a bow hunter Chul has an additional two weeks.  Hopefully one of us can bag one of these prehistoric looking animals.

Day 2 Looking For Tom

Having tossed and turned all night, I managed only a couple hours sleep when we awoke the camper armed with a shotgun across from us was making his way to the meadow we had scouted the night before.  With that plan canceled we regrouped and decided to see if there was a way above the ridge to the other side where we knew had a meadow interlaced with public and private land.

After several summit attempts we made it about three quarters of the way up before we were stopped in our tracks with an impenetrable wall of thickets.  We would try four or five different game trails only to be met by the same result.  Demoralized we stopped for breakfast and formulated our next plan.

Back when I backpacked more often I tried several freeze dried "backpacking" food and everyone tasted like ass.  I've been reluctant ever since to buy any and bring them with me.  Chul has always told me that Mountain House made the most edible and should stick with those.  I do trust Chul's palate but I was still skeptical.  Mountain House breakfast skillet was on the menu and I will have to say it was much better than I expected. 

We decided to forgo our attempt to summit and headed down back into the meadows.  There by the creek we began to see some sign including this not-too-old track of a big Tom. 

Despite being late in the morning we set up some decoys and hoped for the best.  We made our calls but to no avail.  I was hoping to see the real deal through my scope but I could only put my reticle on the foam version (of course I wouldn't be shooting a hen). 

By late morning it was time to head back to camp and take a siesta.  It was hot and we moved our sleeping pads under a tree for shade and a cat nap until we got hungry.

Laziness and hunger caused me to eat my SpaghettiOs-wannabe without heating it.  I really did not want to clean my cooking mug again.  It was actually quite good cold.  By this time the hunter who camped across from us was back and preparing to head home.  We chatted him up and he gave us the best lead of the trip.  He had not gone to the meadow we wanted to hunt but in another direction.  He was able hear a Tom gobble but not able to make him respond to his calls or  could get him to come in.

We followed his directions and headed to that area.  On the way we found more sign including new tracks and turkey scat from both hens and toms.  Chul gave a hen call and he heard the Tom respond with a gobble.  He set up where we were and Chul set up the decoys.  This ended up our fatal mistake.  Chul later believed he saw the turkey in between the brush while setting up the dekes, thus spooking it away.  At the time he didn't realize it. and we set up our ambush. Moments later Chul called again but it went silent.

We decide to leave this area and save it for the next morning leaving the dekes as they laid.  At this moment it dawned on Chul that he may had been seen by the gobbler.  Looking for other areas we headed toward the meadows we initially wanted to hunt in the morning.  We tried climbing over the hills but they were impenetrable fortresses.

Eventually we found some other meadows and found more evidence of Toms.  It looked like a smaller track than the one we found earlier but nonetheless a good sign.

Exhausted we headed back to camp to rest up for the next day in the hope to meet that Tom that teased both the shotgun hunter and ourselves.

Earlier in the trip I lost my boots as the soles fell apart, now it was Chul's turn to have his gear break.  His GSI spork broke leaving him with no eating utensil.  This piece of shit gear is the worst piece of gear I've ever seen.  I tried to booty fab it by melting it trying fuse it back together but the plastic was having none of that.

Trying to be the Last Boy Scout tried fabricating his own spoon.  One of Marines' mountain survival school tests is to make wooden spoon, I could say neither Chul nor I would have passed. 

For dinner I brought along Mountain House Pasta Primavera and Chul brought Beef Stroganoff.  Both were half way decent and pretty good for backpacking food.  One suggestion Chul gave me though was to not follow the manufacture's direction and add less water.  I loaded mine with one and three quarter cups of boiling water (directions say two cups) and it was still too runny.  Not long after our meal it was time for bed and I slept much better this night.