The anticipation grows within the hunter as he steers his Jeep off the gravel road and onto the pasture he has received permission to de-gopher. The Jeep travels for a few minutes over the rough ground, the hunter’s eyes keenly scanning the ground ahead for the furtive movements of the vermin which infest this area. The gophers are apprehensive of this strange moving object, but it’s far enough away that it doesn’t present an immediate danger. The hunter, spotting a target-rich area a few hundred yards ahead, stops the Jeep and gets out. He walks around the jeep, opens the tail gate up, and reaches in and grabs his rifle case and ammo box.
A few yards away, he puts the cases down, and sits down on the ground. As he is extracting his rifle – his favourite rifle, a Savage model 12BVSS – he pauses a moment to appreciate it – its shape, its attractive, its smooth brown laminate stock, its stainless steel action & fluted barrel. He runs his hand down the length of the gun, experiencing a pseudo-###ual excitement. He holds this rifle up near his eyes, and peers through the action, down the rifled bore of the barrel. The bore is bright and shiny in the light, the rifling sharp and well defined.
He extends the legs of the Harris bipod, and assumes a prone shooting position. As he grasps the gun, it fits effortlessly into position – the butt of the stock fitting perfectly against his shoulder, the cheekpiece exactly meets his cheek, the palm swell naturally fitting into his hand, and the scope positioned exactly the right distance and angle from his eye – a perfect, comfortable, relaxed shooting posture. Both gun and man have done this many times before, and now fit together with a practiced ease.
The hunter reaches over and opens up his ammo box and withdraws the rifle’s bolt from the box, fitting it into the action of his Savage. He works the action a few times – it slides along the raceways inside the rifle’s action as smooth as glass, closing with a satisfying ‘snick’ as the sear engages the firing pin. Satisfied that everything is in order, he inserts loads the blind magazine with five exactingly handloaded 22-250 cartridge into the action, and chambers the cartridge.
The rifle is once again brought effortlessly into firing position, becoming a living organic extension of the hunter’s body, no longer a separate object. The hunter scans the landscape through his 24 power mil-dot scope, looking for his first victim of the day.
The hunter spots a gopher in the distance, and centres the mil-dot reticle on the creature. Estimating the size of the critter, the hunter is able to calculate the distance, with the aid of the range-estimating mil dots at about 170 yards. The hunter knows that light – the image of the gopher – travels in straight lines. The bullets, however, do not. There are a myriad of forces acting on a flying bullet, turning its flight path into an arc. Having fired countless rounds through this rifle, the hunter knows - to a surprising degree of precision – the expected position of the bullet relative to the sight line at any given distance out to a few hundred yards. At 170 yards, the hunter knows that the bullet will be about .75 inches above the centre ‘+’ in his scope – dead on, for all practical intents.
The hunter holds the reticle directly over the gopher’s chest, and takes 3 slow, deep breaths. He holds the last breath in for a short time, wills his entire body to relax, and slowly exhales the breath. During the brief moment before his body starts asking for more oxygen, he enters a Zen-like state. His conscious mind lets go, and his muscles – trained over and over and over for this moment – take over the familiar motions. His index finger closes on the trigger, pressing the ‘AccuRelease’ safety mechanism in, and gradually applying pressure to the trigger. The pressure builds to a precise 1.5 lbs. At this instant, there is an extremely gratifying ‘click’ Over the next few milliseconds a complex series of events to takes place. The hunter’s body is still in a Zen state, his body still relaxed. During the next few microseconds, it is critical that the rifle is held precisely on target.
The sear releases its grip on the hammer, which is under considerable pressure from the spring. Without the sear to hold the hammer back, the main spring uncompresses, accelerating the firing pin forward into the cartridge base. The firing pin makes contact with the primer in the base of the chambered cartridge, transferring its kinetic energy into deforming the outer shell of the primer. Inside the primer, between the outer shell and the anvil, there is a quantity of lead staphnate - a sensitive explosive compound. This compound is crushed by the outer shell of the primer against the anvil. This de-stabilizes the compound, causing it to revert to a series of simpler compounds. The reaction, which chemists label as ‘highly exothermic’ generates a small amount of extremely hot gasses under pressure – known to the layman as a ‘flame.’
This flame shoots up into the body of the cartridge through the flash hole, igniting some of the nitrocellulose/nitroglycerin mixture “gunpowder” inside. As the gunpowder burns, it too starts to revert to simpler gaseous compounds. The burned gunpowder produces four hundred times as much volume as in its unburned state. As the gas is produced, the pressure builds within the enclosed space within the cartridge. As the pressure builds, the temperature also builds, and the powder starts to burn faster. Once the pressure is built to a sufficient level, the bullet and remaining unburned & burning powder is pushed out of the cartridge and into the throat of the rifle. The 52 grain hollow point bullet engages the rifling inside the bore, and begins to spin. The powder continues to burn, producing gas, and keeping the pressure level high, accelerating the bullet down the bore.
By the time the bullet reaches the end of its 26” trip down the barrel, most of the powder is at least partially burned, and there is a large volume of hot, pressurized gas in the barrel. As the bullet exits the barrel, it passes the crown in the muzzle. This crown is precision cut, and allows the pressurized gasses to exit evenly around the bullet, so as not to de-stabilize it, and thereby degrade accuracy. Without the barrel to keep the bullet pointed straight ahead, it will ‘want’ to flip around in flight so the heavy end of the bullet – the base – is flying forward. The spin imparted by the rifling in the bore keeps the bullet flying right-side around.
At this point, the bullet is moving nearly four thousand feet per second towards the target. Without the barrel to guide it, a number of forces are now working on the bullet. Gravity, pulling the bullet down. Wind, resisting the forward motion of the bullet. Momentum, keeping the bullet moving. Fluid dynamics – the shape of the bullet moving through a fluid (ie air) medium. Not all the forces are well understood, but their effects can usually be predicted with a great deal of precision. The bullet starts out below the sight line, and climbs to a maximum of 1.0 inches above, by the time it gets to 125 yards.
The recoil is mild from this gun, but it is important the hunter not move or flinch until after the bullet has exited the muzzle and after the recoil hits. Anticipating the recoil (‘flinching’) is a major cause of inaccuracy amongst novice shooters. Now that the bullet is out of the gun, the hunter is free to move, and breathe again. But before he finishes, the bullet arrives on target, after a brief 148ms flight. It flew true to aim, and hits the gopher, having lost 800fps over its journey, arriving on target with 1100 ft-lbs of energy. This energy causes the bullet to deform on impact with the little rodent, and the hollow point causes the thin copper jacket to split. The rotational energy of several hundred thousand revolutions per minute has built up considerable centrifugal force in the jacket, and the bullet rapidly fragments within the gopher. The massive transfer of energies into the gopher’s body lifts it into the air, and spectacularly tears it apart. The gopher is dead by the time the sound from the muzzle report - moving along at a leisurely 1100 fps – reaches the site, 1/3rd of a second after the bullet does.
Before the hunter is able to re-acquire the target in his scope, he knows it was a hit. He can recall the exact moment when the gun fired, and what the image in the scope looked like during that slice of time. There were no gusts of wind to blow the bullet off course, so he knows he should have scored a hit.
The hunter grins a small grin, and works the bolt – pulling the spend cartridge out of the chamber, and ejecting it. Closing the bolt strips a cartridge out of the magazine, and pushes it into the chamber. Lastly, it re-compresses the main spring, catching the sear and priming the trigger for the next shot, with a distinctive clink-click-thunk series of sounds.
One down, several hundred to go.
A few yards away, he puts the cases down, and sits down on the ground. As he is extracting his rifle – his favourite rifle, a Savage model 12BVSS – he pauses a moment to appreciate it – its shape, its attractive, its smooth brown laminate stock, its stainless steel action & fluted barrel. He runs his hand down the length of the gun, experiencing a pseudo-###ual excitement. He holds this rifle up near his eyes, and peers through the action, down the rifled bore of the barrel. The bore is bright and shiny in the light, the rifling sharp and well defined.
He extends the legs of the Harris bipod, and assumes a prone shooting position. As he grasps the gun, it fits effortlessly into position – the butt of the stock fitting perfectly against his shoulder, the cheekpiece exactly meets his cheek, the palm swell naturally fitting into his hand, and the scope positioned exactly the right distance and angle from his eye – a perfect, comfortable, relaxed shooting posture. Both gun and man have done this many times before, and now fit together with a practiced ease.
The hunter reaches over and opens up his ammo box and withdraws the rifle’s bolt from the box, fitting it into the action of his Savage. He works the action a few times – it slides along the raceways inside the rifle’s action as smooth as glass, closing with a satisfying ‘snick’ as the sear engages the firing pin. Satisfied that everything is in order, he inserts loads the blind magazine with five exactingly handloaded 22-250 cartridge into the action, and chambers the cartridge.
The rifle is once again brought effortlessly into firing position, becoming a living organic extension of the hunter’s body, no longer a separate object. The hunter scans the landscape through his 24 power mil-dot scope, looking for his first victim of the day.
The hunter spots a gopher in the distance, and centres the mil-dot reticle on the creature. Estimating the size of the critter, the hunter is able to calculate the distance, with the aid of the range-estimating mil dots at about 170 yards. The hunter knows that light – the image of the gopher – travels in straight lines. The bullets, however, do not. There are a myriad of forces acting on a flying bullet, turning its flight path into an arc. Having fired countless rounds through this rifle, the hunter knows - to a surprising degree of precision – the expected position of the bullet relative to the sight line at any given distance out to a few hundred yards. At 170 yards, the hunter knows that the bullet will be about .75 inches above the centre ‘+’ in his scope – dead on, for all practical intents.
The hunter holds the reticle directly over the gopher’s chest, and takes 3 slow, deep breaths. He holds the last breath in for a short time, wills his entire body to relax, and slowly exhales the breath. During the brief moment before his body starts asking for more oxygen, he enters a Zen-like state. His conscious mind lets go, and his muscles – trained over and over and over for this moment – take over the familiar motions. His index finger closes on the trigger, pressing the ‘AccuRelease’ safety mechanism in, and gradually applying pressure to the trigger. The pressure builds to a precise 1.5 lbs. At this instant, there is an extremely gratifying ‘click’ Over the next few milliseconds a complex series of events to takes place. The hunter’s body is still in a Zen state, his body still relaxed. During the next few microseconds, it is critical that the rifle is held precisely on target.
The sear releases its grip on the hammer, which is under considerable pressure from the spring. Without the sear to hold the hammer back, the main spring uncompresses, accelerating the firing pin forward into the cartridge base. The firing pin makes contact with the primer in the base of the chambered cartridge, transferring its kinetic energy into deforming the outer shell of the primer. Inside the primer, between the outer shell and the anvil, there is a quantity of lead staphnate - a sensitive explosive compound. This compound is crushed by the outer shell of the primer against the anvil. This de-stabilizes the compound, causing it to revert to a series of simpler compounds. The reaction, which chemists label as ‘highly exothermic’ generates a small amount of extremely hot gasses under pressure – known to the layman as a ‘flame.’
This flame shoots up into the body of the cartridge through the flash hole, igniting some of the nitrocellulose/nitroglycerin mixture “gunpowder” inside. As the gunpowder burns, it too starts to revert to simpler gaseous compounds. The burned gunpowder produces four hundred times as much volume as in its unburned state. As the gas is produced, the pressure builds within the enclosed space within the cartridge. As the pressure builds, the temperature also builds, and the powder starts to burn faster. Once the pressure is built to a sufficient level, the bullet and remaining unburned & burning powder is pushed out of the cartridge and into the throat of the rifle. The 52 grain hollow point bullet engages the rifling inside the bore, and begins to spin. The powder continues to burn, producing gas, and keeping the pressure level high, accelerating the bullet down the bore.
By the time the bullet reaches the end of its 26” trip down the barrel, most of the powder is at least partially burned, and there is a large volume of hot, pressurized gas in the barrel. As the bullet exits the barrel, it passes the crown in the muzzle. This crown is precision cut, and allows the pressurized gasses to exit evenly around the bullet, so as not to de-stabilize it, and thereby degrade accuracy. Without the barrel to keep the bullet pointed straight ahead, it will ‘want’ to flip around in flight so the heavy end of the bullet – the base – is flying forward. The spin imparted by the rifling in the bore keeps the bullet flying right-side around.
At this point, the bullet is moving nearly four thousand feet per second towards the target. Without the barrel to guide it, a number of forces are now working on the bullet. Gravity, pulling the bullet down. Wind, resisting the forward motion of the bullet. Momentum, keeping the bullet moving. Fluid dynamics – the shape of the bullet moving through a fluid (ie air) medium. Not all the forces are well understood, but their effects can usually be predicted with a great deal of precision. The bullet starts out below the sight line, and climbs to a maximum of 1.0 inches above, by the time it gets to 125 yards.
The recoil is mild from this gun, but it is important the hunter not move or flinch until after the bullet has exited the muzzle and after the recoil hits. Anticipating the recoil (‘flinching’) is a major cause of inaccuracy amongst novice shooters. Now that the bullet is out of the gun, the hunter is free to move, and breathe again. But before he finishes, the bullet arrives on target, after a brief 148ms flight. It flew true to aim, and hits the gopher, having lost 800fps over its journey, arriving on target with 1100 ft-lbs of energy. This energy causes the bullet to deform on impact with the little rodent, and the hollow point causes the thin copper jacket to split. The rotational energy of several hundred thousand revolutions per minute has built up considerable centrifugal force in the jacket, and the bullet rapidly fragments within the gopher. The massive transfer of energies into the gopher’s body lifts it into the air, and spectacularly tears it apart. The gopher is dead by the time the sound from the muzzle report - moving along at a leisurely 1100 fps – reaches the site, 1/3rd of a second after the bullet does.
Before the hunter is able to re-acquire the target in his scope, he knows it was a hit. He can recall the exact moment when the gun fired, and what the image in the scope looked like during that slice of time. There were no gusts of wind to blow the bullet off course, so he knows he should have scored a hit.
The hunter grins a small grin, and works the bolt – pulling the spend cartridge out of the chamber, and ejecting it. Closing the bolt strips a cartridge out of the magazine, and pushes it into the chamber. Lastly, it re-compresses the main spring, catching the sear and priming the trigger for the next shot, with a distinctive clink-click-thunk series of sounds.
One down, several hundred to go.
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