I mentioned a while back that I had a few projects in the pipeline this summer. Well, truth be told, it’s taken me longer to get some of them going than I’d intended. I guess that’s a side effect of working for a living. I wish I could kick back and write about hogs and hunting all the time, but that hardly pays the bills.
Nevertheless, I’ve managed to get things going, and while I haven’t taken any of my projects to completion yet I do think it’s a good time to tip my hand a little.
The first project is building the budget hog rifle. I know everyone can’t go out and drop a couple of grand on a hunting rig, and you really don’t need to. With that in mind, and with the good fortune to win a Savage Axis 30-06 at a banquet this past winter, I thought I’d see how inexpensive a good, workable hog hunting rig could come together. You’ll get all the details later, as I’ve still got to take this thing to the range and I want to put some meat on the ground with it too. But it’s come along pretty well, and I believe I’ve got the whole thing ready to roll for under $400.
Along with the new rifle, I’ve got two new lead-free ammo offerings to put through the paces. As you can see in the photo (I hope), the good folks at Barnes sent me a couple of boxes of their new Vor-TX ammo. While the initial offerings are in the typical chamberings, the company does plan to start loading more calibers.
I also finally received a few boxes of the Winchester Power Core 95/5 ammo. The Power Core line is intended to offer an economical, lead-free option, and should be priced much lower than the currently available lead-free ammo. I’ll be taking some of this stuff to the range this weekend, and will be using it on my next depredation trip as well. I’m hoping that this will be the first step toward seeing some affordable, lead-free ammo on the market.
In addition to the hog rifle, I was able to convince the good folks at Crosman to let me try out the Benjamin Marauder, a PCP (Pre-Charged Pneumatic) air rifle in .25 caliber. They were even kind enough to include a Crosman, Centerpointe scope and 600 pellets.
I’ve got the whole thing assembled now, so I just need to get my SCUBA tanks over here and charge it up. I have a whole box of Shoot-n-See targets just waiting to show us all how sharp this thing shoots.
Stay tuned…
Phillip Loughlin
I have a Beeman RS2 break barrel. I actually returned it to Beeman’s main office in Rancho Santa Fe Springs because the rifle started to diesel after about 8 months of use and still under warranty.
Beeman has a nice office/ warehouse and reception. I was taken back to the workshop which was a small area in the shipping area with a small shooting range and shot chronograph. It turned out the guy who was servicing my rifle was their head engineer.
He told me he made regular trips to China and developed all their rifles. He shot my rifle a few times and told me it was ok. For some reason the dieseling stopped as soon as I walked into their building. He explained that my rifle needed heavier pellets as the piston needed more resistance. Before I left he check my .17 caliber barrel and discovered a bend in it which was why I had trouble sighting in for .17 pellets.
He gave me a new barrel, and took the receiver out of the stock and cleaned and adjusted the trigger and adjusted part of the piston with a mallet, then put everything back together with lock-tight on the screws, which fixed another problems as the screws loosening with use would affect accuracy. It was a really great experience.
After that visit my rifle was still not a tack driver, and at that point I knew it was not the rifle or my technique (cocky I know).
My rifle did not become a tack driver until I ditched the Beeman fixed scope that came with the rifle. I got a used like new Centerpoint 3x-9x scope and now I get consistent groups. I was actually amazed to see pellet entry wounds on squirrels exactly where I had aimed on every shot. The Centerpoint scopes are a really good value. Also, Beeman is an excellent company, and stands by their product.