There has always been an old Stirling model 14 in 22lr sitting in my grandads safe. I had never touched it before because I had always used his cz 452. Recently when me and my mate where flicking through some shooting magazines I realised one of the rifles was an old Stirling model 14. As the bloke said "it was topped with a budget tasco scope and the whole outfit was probably only worth 100 bucks second hand but boy could it shoot well". This inspired me to take the stirling out for a shot.
I had a dead steady rest on a large hail bale yet with open sights and power points I could barely hit a target at 30 metres away. The sights were way out of wack and the front post was threaded and seized up. I gave up quickly.
Later on I was sitting around annoyed that I couldnt get the stirling to shoot well when I decided I should try the crappy sabre 4 x 32 air rifle scope on it. I took it back out but couldn't be bothered walking to the hay bale so I decided to just lay prone and shoot into a large slope as a backstop. To cut the story shot it ended up shooting a very respectable group for my ability without a rest at 75 yards. I was pleased with this and decided to go back and grab some more bullets and go out for a hunt.
- Stirling model 14 topped with sabre 4 x 32 : 3 shot group @ 75 yards nothing special I know, but not bad for an old neglected rifle wih cheap optics and an average shooter pulling the trigger. (lip balm for size comparasion, about the size of a 20 cent piece)
- 3 shot group.jpg (42.64 KiB) Viewed 860 times
I managed to bag myself 3 bunnies from 3 shots the best one beeing a 90 odd metre (yes i had a rest for this shot) neck shot dropping him on the spot. I couldn't find any more rabbits around and as light was fading I decided to head back to the house.
- The first two rabbits taken with the Stirling
- 1st 2 rabi.jpg (77.28 KiB) Viewed 860 times
- 3rd rabbit.jpg
- Taken at around 90 metres
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I later went spotlighting with the Stirling and my new Lightforce walkabout kit. We didn't find much as the rabbits have been thinned out up there courtesy of my cousins and granddad's mates who have been shooting a fair bit up there lately. However we managed to spot a few out in the middle of the paddock and to my delight a fox was sneaking around behind them. The fox didn'y seem too botherd by the light and casually slinked away. It then dipped down into a dry dam and I though the sneaky bugger had got away, but a bit more scanning of the empty dam with the spotty revealed it's only its head presenting the perfect headshot albeit in windy conditions at 75 metres. Still the 40 grain hollow point did its job and it was lights out for the fox caused by a well placed headshot. I was wrapt with the rifles accuracy but unfortunantly we only saw one more bunny that night, he was taken easily at 40 odd metres.
- the fox taken with a headshot a tad below the eye just before and under its ears
- The rabbit taken under the spotlight
The stirling will now be a regular addition on my hunting trips and now me and my mate will have two 22's to shoot so we can both be carrying one at the same time.
Thanks for reading!
James
