http://www.airgunshooting.co.uk AIRGUN WORLD 25ULTRA HI-TECH HUNTING GEAR
THE WRAITH HAS LANDED
The plan for the following day was to meet up,
go for a bite to eat and make our way to the
‘rabbit fields’. This permission had been
granted to us by Rab, a good friend of Paul’s,
and the owner of Solway Firth Firearms &
Ammunition, a relatively new business with a
good selection of various firearms, accessories
and, you guessed it, ammunition.
Rab is very knowledgeable on all aspects of
shooting and welcomed me like an old friend.
We discussed the land we were to shoot on,
and various other topics such as deerstalking,
thermal scopes and spotters and, of course, the
current situation with the general licences,
which doesn’t affect the Scots and I can tell you
they were keen to let me know about it, but it
was all in good humour and oh, how we did
laugh ... well, some did – others nearly cried!
It was at this stage I was presented with a
black box with familiar red logos on it –
Sightmark! The new Wraith had landed and I
had one for a review! I had played with one
previously and been impressed. It’s like an
X-Sight 2 in appearance, and I actually had an
X-Sight a while back, but sold it on to fund my
thermal addiction, but now it was time to mount
the Wraith on the FX, coupled with the A51IR
from Wicked Lights, and see what was what
with it. The zero process was one of the
quickest and simplest I have carried out, and
within five minutes I was happy with my
50-yard grouping. My shooting partner checked
his zero – again – his Hawke Optics 4-16
Airmax was still spot on and he’d be utilising
the A67IR red LED lamp from Wicked Lights. I
don’t think he doubted it, but just enjoys
shooting that much he’ll take any opportunity to
get behind the trigger ... and why not!PERFECT TRIGGER SET-UP
With all the preliminaries sorted, we were
almost ready to get on it with all the ‘top gear’.
We were given a short briefing from Rab about
the land and what to do with the shot rabbits- his mate kept snakes and they loved a bit of
rabbit. I could feel the breeze getting up and it
wasn’t in our favour. My .25 would deal with
the breeze better than the .177 sub-12 of my
partner, so we would have to select the shots
sensibly because we would rather not take the
shot than have a miss, or worse. The Versapod
300 bipod would assist with stability because
we had decided not to use the Rekon whilst
exposed on the hills, and the grass had been
kept short by the rabbits and sheep. A Magpul
single-point sling and attachments were also
taken, along with a hard case for the Cricket.
Paul was certainly getting into the swing of it.
This would be the first time for quite a while
that Paul had hunted, and I could feel his
excitement building.
I had shot the Warbaby a few times since
receiving it and the trigger was set up
perfectly for me; small first stage, followed by
a crisp ‘breaking glass’ second stage. A
single-point sling was taking most of the
weight of the FX, which is very little, and my
temporary bipod would suffice for the night
until I fitted the Deben 9-13 pod. I had been
quite happy with the performance of the FX,
taking a few pigeons, squirrels and the odd
magpie – all before the current GL malarkey
I hasten to add – and was really looking
forward to getting down to business with it
again. The time had come and we set off,
eager to make a dent in the rabbit
population.
Tune in next month to see how we fared
with all this hi-tech hardware; the Warbaby,
Donny FL silencer, Sightmark Wraith, Pulsar
Axion Key, Rekon tripod, Kalibrgun Cricket,
Versapod 300, the Wicked Lights A51IR and
the A67IR, on the ups and downs of the
Scottish hillside and how it works out back
home in Derbyshire.
The Rekon gives you
support when needed,
whether standing, kneeling
or sitting.The Axion Key is a
dream in the field.