AEROMAGNUM BIG BORE HUNT

On Sept 17th Marley and I left the house at 3:00 am and headed 68 miles North to an area we have recently been frequenting. It was a fairly warm morning, enough so that we left the windows down in the Jeep. Marley is a 3yo Dachshund/Lab mix, the perfect little rabbit dog being she’s small enough to get under the brush but yet strong enough to get through the day of hunting. As we turned off the highway onto the long dirt road heading further North we could almost immediately see Cottontail rabbits grazing right next to the road. Marley was sitting up front with me glaring out the windows excited as she knew we were going hunting.

Several days before I had acquired some Aeromagnum .358 128gr HP Devastator’s made by Al Clark over at Aeromagnum  to try and to give some feedback on. The pellets are hand cast and very well packaged, too upon removal were noticeably uniform. These were obviously very well made and loaded very smoothly. These are among the best ammo I have seen in production cast pellets.  I tried the best I could to hurry up getting ready as Marley was very impatient and kept telling me to hurry up. 

After I loaded up my magazine it was barley becoming light out as I stood in front of my jeep having a smoke before venturing through the gate and out into the giant field. As I went through the gate I could see a Jackrabbit moving slowly out to my right at about 90 yards. I walked quietly trying to get up onto a small hill that I thought may give me a better shot over the brush and too for a better vantage point for a follow up shot. I got to the top of the hill and was able to take a kneeling shot that broadsided the Jackrabbit as he was hopping away. I have to say I have never heard a bone crack like that ever while hunting, It was loud. Marley and I  immediately ran over to the kill site only to see a big mess where I had to boot her away because she was trying to carry it as it was being pulled in half. Pretty gross. As the photograph shows these Aeromagnum hollow points do exactly what they were designed for and achieve maximum expansion.

Marley and I had one in the bag and continued to make our way up into a canyon crevice where I suspected many Jackrabbits were going to be heading through. I have found that crevices like in this photo make great hunting, especially when the sun is to your back.

We sat and  waited till the sun was just up over the hill behind us and soon Marley spotted a fairly large Jackrabbit moving down through the crevice just like I had imagined they would. This one was fairly close around 45 yards. I lined up for a headshot but he had moved behind a bush as I pulled the trigger sprinting his way up the hillside finally slowing down over 100 yards up near some rocks where I was able to connect. I’m still not sure if I hit him or if the shot ricochet off the rocks into him, either way he was down and Marley made sure of it.

By this time it was coming near 9:00 as we ventured up over the mountaintop and down over the other side where the brush was a little more scattered and in some cases easier to see movement. We sat and waited being shaded by a rather small bush but still better than nothing as it was getting hot.

We sat and waited near 30 minutes before I spotted a Jackrabbit hopping down a hillside at 85 yards, he was moving pretty slow and ended up stopping right behind a bush. It gets frustrating because when a Jackrabbit moves you never really know what direction. I had just hoped that he would move out and away from the bush just long enough to make a shot, usually it takes flushing them out that unfortunately leaves you with only a running shot.

I finally saw the top of his head that allowed me enough to take a shot,it looked as though I missed as it quickly moved behind a bush as Marley ran towards to retrieve. I guess its a good thing I had my little bunny Slayer to finish it off. She brought it back and it was clear that I had barley skimmed its shoulder.

By this time it was getting much hotter so I had decided we should head back as it was several hours home. The day turned out pretty good and I’m very pleased with how well we did considering its late Summer and this area is usually not very active for this time of year. I really want to thank Al from Aeromagnum for allowing me some pellets to do some hunting with and giving me something to post about. I would have posted much sooner but have been so busy with work and preparation for the Extreme Benchrest 2016.

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Hope to have more soon.