Mauser M03 - Perfect First Shot After Barrel Change

The animals around here are funny. They work in shifts. The foxes clock-on at 7pm, work briskly for a few hours, then have a siesta until the last dark before dawn. The pigs turn up at work just as the foxes are finishing their shift. They plough the fields for six hours then sneak away as soon as the light starts to come up. They're very humble workers and don't enjoy having their good work acknowledged. It's weird how predictable they are and last night was no exception.

By midnight I'd given 10 foxes their notice of termination. They haven't had anyone supervising their work over the summer months and on this first tour of inspection for the year I saw that there was a lot of sitting around on the job. For the most part it was my Sako 17 Remington that did the firing. However, at 10.45 I found a fox that was settling down for a snooze on a rocky slope above a long, sloping paddock. I'd just zocked a workmate with the 17 at 130 metres in the bottom corner and picked up the eyes of the sleepy fox at the other end. I drove up and parked the Landcruiser side-on when I was about 200 metres from where I thought the eye had been and scanned with the spotlight. It took a minute before 'ping', eyes still in the same spot. Hasn't moved and probably won't now. I decided to lift my Mauser M03 with the 243 Winchester barrel from the rifle box in the back of the 'cruiser.

Before leaving home in the afternoon I'd replaced the 6.5x55 Match barrel on my M03 Deluxe stock with the standard profile 243 barrel. Then I put the Kahles K624i back on top. I checked my notes and adjusted the turrets to 109 Up and 8 Right, which should be zero at 200m with the hand-loads I've settled on, made with Berger 68gn Flat Base bullets and 40gn of 2208. I mentioned to the farmer that he might hear me fire a sighting shot soon after driving into the paddocks, but I went for a dusk sneak-about with the 30-06 first and then decided that I wouldn't give the workers a heads-up that their inspector was on duty tonight. My shot with the 243 at the fox that was curling up for a snooze amongst the rocks would be the first since that barrel change.

I settled the rifle on the sandbags I'd put on the Landcruiser's bonnet and adjusted the angle up to the rocky slope. Then I switched the spotlight back on and tweaked its aim. No eyes at all this time. Looking through the Kahles set on 16x made it possible to pick out the fluffed-up fox that was getting itself comfortable. It was quite easy really; the lack of vegetation meant there was less shadow effect from the point source artificial light and so the scene was more three dimensional and easier to interpret than usual. I expected the bullet's trajectory to be cutting through the line of sight at the distance and so rested the central floating dot of the MSR reticle right on the middle of the furry ball. The scene was well lit so I didn't bother with switching the illumination on. Push the set trigger forward, final adjustment, flick-bang - - whop. You're fired!

I was very satisfied with how my Mauser M03 with its 243 Winchester barrel had performed with this first shot. It proved that my faith in the system, at first on a promise but then verified with my own testing in this short video, was well founded. I enjoyed that feeling that comes when we choose a complex, technical and high quality system and it turns out to be every bit as good as we'd hoped it would be. Nice.

These were the next two foxes to be dismissed from their employment last night. They were getting to know each other ahead of the mating season in June/July.



 I dealt with three more foxes in the paddock I found these two in, just before midnight, when, right on cue, all of the others turned into pumpkins. I didn't see anything after that until 2.30am and sure enough, it was a pig and a bigger monster boar than the one of two posts ago. It was so big and slow moving, as solitary boars can be when lit up, I studied it for a while, in the dim, distant beam, a dark form on the dappled black and grey of the tussocks, ferns and shadows. I used my binoculars at first and then the Zeiss 3-12x56mm scope mounted on my Mauser M03 in 30-06. It was so big I was concerned it might be an Angus steer. I was glad for the de-cocking system on the Mauser's bolt while I was trying to figure out cow vs pig. Imagine explaining how the pig you accidentally shot with your old rifle, because you forgot to switch the safety on, turned into a cow by morning. Another Easter miracle! Then the dark shape turned sideways and looked and walked all piggy like, straight out of the edge of the tightened beam of my Lightforce lamp. All the better for seeing you with! Try as I might for the next hour or so I couldn't get a bead on this monster of monsters. I eventually had him lined up again, even further away, but with sheep immediately behind him. A clever pig, who still has a job.

Update: I went back very early two mornings later, on Easter Monday. He wasn't in exactly the same spot; a bit further down the paddock and just beyond a crest. By the time I'd driven over the rise and spotted him he was in a steady but gentle trot through the tussocks, heading left along a fence line and for the forest 500 metres away. However, a stand of young trees that would obscure my view was only 200 metres in front of him. I drove another 100 metres and spun the 'cruiser side-on. It took about 30 seconds to kill the engine, pull on the handbrake, set up the spotlight with a sandbag on the roof and then put my M03 on sandbags over the bonnet. I'd positioned the light so he'd trot into the beam and settled to aim, for a shot of 200 metres. As he reached the right hand edge of the light I put my cheek to the Mauser, to find myself wondering why the scope was completely dark. By the time I'd discovered and removed the very nice elasticised Zeiss scope caps, he was departing the beam. I checked that the Mauser would not flop sideways off the sandbags and let it go so I could stand up in the doorway and adjust the light again. I'm sure I swore a few times. With the light turned to put the beam in front of him once more I quickly got behind the rifle and had only a second to line up the shot. The trigger was so crisp I didn't even notice it. After the boom I heard a solid 'Whump' come back from the 180gn Core Lokt projectile, just before the boar reached the trees. Where he went after that is a mystery, but most likely he found a deep channel between the tussocks, in which the pigs of the district famously hide. Perhaps I should get that Dachshund my daughter keeps asking for?