Diana 350 Magnum vs bunnies
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:30 pm
Just for a change from rimfire nimroddery I thought I'd pack the big Diana 350 Magnum .22 air rifle for a bunny hunt, instead of the .22 Ruger. My fellow nimrod Troy and a new chum, Shane, who is learning the ropes, packed their .22's - Troy his CZ Aussie Edition and Shane his nice early Brno Model 2.
The big German maiden Diana dwarfed the slender Czech ladies. :)
The plan was to shoot bunnies for the last 90 minutes of daylight then go back to the car and grab the HMR's for some fox action. This is a smaller holding and we haven't shot it since last April when we knocked half a dozen or so over one night.
I have not hunted with an air rifle for a long time, and the Diana 350 is not easy to shoot well - it's long and moderately heavy and needs to be held gently or the jerking recoil will throw your shots all over the place. It is capable of top accuracy with technique is good. I was packing it's favoured RWS Superpoints and some Super H Points to try also. The rimfire boys were to take one side of the long camel hump hill and I the other. Right off the bat I shot a bunny and down it went, so I was off to a good start.
There's no casual shooting at the midriff of a bunny with an air rifle - brain shots are best even with a powerful rifle but I was also able to kill many with shots into the heart / lung area.
This was one of my first kills with the big 350 and the bunny was taken at a mere 30 feet or so as I peered over a boulder.
Stalking is much more important, normally I'm pretty confident with the .22 out to about 100m with a rest, or 50m or so offhand. Range estimation is critical with the air rifle - this rifle should be launching the average weight (14.5gr) RWS pellets at around 850fps. Either way it will go right though a full 500g tin of baked beans with a wadcutter at 20m or more. :)
Not many of my shots were close - this one was around the 40m mark and the mildot scope came in handy on these sorts of shots.
It soon became evident that the Superpoints were ice picking bunnies with chest shots - I'd hit them good and solid with a "whump" and get crawl offs from time to time. The Super H Points gave better results - a "whack" sound and no exit. Here's one I found under the skin on the opposite side of the chest cavity.
The close shots around this granite country where bunnies can be approach closely are ideal for the air rifle. I shot this pair at about 30 feet, both with head shots. The second one sat there while I reloaded and despatched it too.
Troy and Shane were doing OK with the .22's and we met up at the end of the camel hump granite hill and reversed course. It was getting towards dark so near the end I was using the Solarforce L2 on the barrel to pick up eyeshine in the failing light. Troy had managed to bag a cat and a fox with this CZ so he was a happy camper too and Shane had knocked some bunnies with the Brno and having a good time. I was happy to account for 13 bunnies with the Diana. :)
Back at the car Troy and I tooled up with the HMR's and off we went again. To our surprise there wasn't much going on. :(
Around the back of the hill I whistled a fox in and it ran closer to Troy, who killed it with his HMR. He also called another in and shot that while I managed to bag two more cats that were prowling together near a den made of jumbled boulders.
In all, not a stellar night on the foxes but we had fun on the bunnies and I really enjoyed the air rifle in the field.
The big German maiden Diana dwarfed the slender Czech ladies. :)
The plan was to shoot bunnies for the last 90 minutes of daylight then go back to the car and grab the HMR's for some fox action. This is a smaller holding and we haven't shot it since last April when we knocked half a dozen or so over one night.
I have not hunted with an air rifle for a long time, and the Diana 350 is not easy to shoot well - it's long and moderately heavy and needs to be held gently or the jerking recoil will throw your shots all over the place. It is capable of top accuracy with technique is good. I was packing it's favoured RWS Superpoints and some Super H Points to try also. The rimfire boys were to take one side of the long camel hump hill and I the other. Right off the bat I shot a bunny and down it went, so I was off to a good start.
There's no casual shooting at the midriff of a bunny with an air rifle - brain shots are best even with a powerful rifle but I was also able to kill many with shots into the heart / lung area.
This was one of my first kills with the big 350 and the bunny was taken at a mere 30 feet or so as I peered over a boulder.
Stalking is much more important, normally I'm pretty confident with the .22 out to about 100m with a rest, or 50m or so offhand. Range estimation is critical with the air rifle - this rifle should be launching the average weight (14.5gr) RWS pellets at around 850fps. Either way it will go right though a full 500g tin of baked beans with a wadcutter at 20m or more. :)
Not many of my shots were close - this one was around the 40m mark and the mildot scope came in handy on these sorts of shots.
It soon became evident that the Superpoints were ice picking bunnies with chest shots - I'd hit them good and solid with a "whump" and get crawl offs from time to time. The Super H Points gave better results - a "whack" sound and no exit. Here's one I found under the skin on the opposite side of the chest cavity.
The close shots around this granite country where bunnies can be approach closely are ideal for the air rifle. I shot this pair at about 30 feet, both with head shots. The second one sat there while I reloaded and despatched it too.
Troy and Shane were doing OK with the .22's and we met up at the end of the camel hump granite hill and reversed course. It was getting towards dark so near the end I was using the Solarforce L2 on the barrel to pick up eyeshine in the failing light. Troy had managed to bag a cat and a fox with this CZ so he was a happy camper too and Shane had knocked some bunnies with the Brno and having a good time. I was happy to account for 13 bunnies with the Diana. :)
Back at the car Troy and I tooled up with the HMR's and off we went again. To our surprise there wasn't much going on. :(
Around the back of the hill I whistled a fox in and it ran closer to Troy, who killed it with his HMR. He also called another in and shot that while I managed to bag two more cats that were prowling together near a den made of jumbled boulders.
In all, not a stellar night on the foxes but we had fun on the bunnies and I really enjoyed the air rifle in the field.
