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Jesse's Hunting > Hunting Articles > Hunting Articles Archives > Hunting Small Game in the Scottish Highlands
Hunting Small Game in the Scottish Highlands
Andy Moe - JHO ProStaff
- San Diego, CA
November 01, 2004
The last leg of our trip to Inverness was aboard a British Airways commuter jet that smelled distinctly of fried fish. It was a bouncy ride up from London. A storm front had moved into the Highlands and our flight was passing through its head. We’d been planning this trip with my good friend and Highland guide, John Blackman, for a year and a half now. With my son Andy, I’d had made the 6500 mile trip from southern California to visit John and do some small game hunting in the Highlands of Scotland.
Neither the rain nor the turbulence was going to dampen our spirits but we were both glad to step off the plane into the brisk, fresh air. John met us at the terminal gate and helped us gather our kit. Customs processing was simplified by the fact we’d elected not to bring our own firearms. John was going to introduce us to hunting Highland style.
Invershin House
A warm respite from the cold rain and bluster of the Highlands. Good food, a hot fire, and friendly folk... |
The bulk of our shooting was to be directed at rabbits, which are numerous to the point of pestilence in the Highlands. These rabbits are huge compared to our domestic cotton tail and looked as though they would require more than a little ballistic authority to put them down.
On the first outing –an overcast and rainy morning - John produced a CZ 452 “Classic” in 22LR. Our eyebrows started their climb northward when we spotted the Parker Hale silencer fitted to the end of the barrel, and completed their journey to the Pole when he handed us his rabbit ammo of choice: Eley Sub Sonic Hollow Points. When we questioned him about the silencer explained that using a “moderator” as they are called in the UK, was polite and in some areas, required by law. This was to be a new experience for us and we looked forward to shooting this exotic rig. Questioning his choice of ammo, I was told that the Sub Sonic rounds were all he used in this CZ. Secretly, I wished for a brick of CCI “Velocitors”.
The first pasture we set up in had us shooting at rabbits out to 60 yards, and more, over the hood of John’s venerated Land Rover. Sub-sonics at sixty yards. This would be good…
My son Andy was the first up to bat. John and I glassed the hedgerow with binoculars looking for the tawny rabbits to be sitting just inside the hedges and out of the light rain that was falling. Soon Andy’s young eyes spotted a rabbit hunkered down in the grass just inside the edge of the field. It was a good 60 yards away. John advised him to “just hold dead on” and he squeezed off a shot. There was a soft “click” followed closely by a “wop!”. If it hadn’t been for that unmistakable thud of the bullet hitting we’d have both thought the rifle hadn’t fired. The rabbit did a flip flop and lay still. John had us hold back and wait, not wanting to scare off any other rabbits by retrieving the one Andy had harvested. The rain intensified after a while and John pronounced the rabbits smarter than we were as they were staying inside and we were getting drenched. Andy fetched the rabbit and it was not only dead, but had a sizeable exit wound on the off side. We were impressed. The rabbit was gutted and skinned and taken along to be stewed for John’s dogs, Buster and Danny. The rain showed no signs of letting up so we decided to call the hunting done for the day and do some reloading that afternoon.
Taking Aim
Andy, the author's son, and guide John Blackman put the crosshairs on another Highland bunny. |
During the return trip to John’s house I remarked that I was surprised that the sub-sonic 22LR rounds had done such a good job on that rabbit. I asked what he did if the ranges were farther. He said that on a still day he has taken rabbits of that size and greater to 100 meters with the sub-sonics but in the past, he’d preferred his CZ 22 Magnum for the longer shots. He no longer owned that 22 magnum. The CZ had to be given up to make room for his Brno ZKW465 22 Hornet.
In a country where firearms ownership is strictly limited, a shooter must make hard decisions regarding what guns he will have and how he is going to utilize them. For my part, the thought of being limited to only four rifles brings about a mild wave of panic. In the United Kingdom it’s a way of life for hunters. These folks often make hard decisions as to which rifle to keep and which to sell. Making a rifle pull double or triple duty is a common goal. John had really loved the 22 magnum (indeed! He talked of it several times during our stay) but needed a .224 caliber gun with a little more reach for fox. When the deal on the ZKW came along he made the decision to trade the CZ 22 magnum in order to keep from going over his state mandated, four - rifle limit. If you ask me, he did OK.
The ZKW is a real treasure in the eyes of the Hornet shooters around the world. Classic double set triggers, and a miniature Mauser-98 style bolt with the twin front locking lugs make this gun a stand out. John’s is an exceptionally early gun carrying a 4-digit serial number and a 1949 production date. Someone in the rifle’s past had shortened the barrel to 20 inches but John figured he was still clocking near 3000 ft/sec with Hornady’s 35 grain V-Max bullet over a 12 grain charge of Hodgdon’s “Lil Gun” powder. The Hornet was a good substitute for the 22 magnum at extreme ranges but certainly too much firepower for the “in between” ranges... especially on game that was to be eaten.
John had an answer for that in the form of a Lyman #224-438 bullet mold casting a 44 grain gas check bullet. Loaded with light charges of RL-7 this would allow the Hornet to do the double duty required of it in the trade off with the 22 magnum. At 1600 to 1800 ft/sec this would be a great 22 WMR equivalent at a considerable reduction in shooting costs. We spent some time casting bullets for the Hornet but never got a chance to shoot them. Had we a few more days I can guarantee we’d have put them to the test. There's nothing I like better than hunting with cast bullets!
We loaded ammunition for the Hornet in preparation for the next day’s hunt but instead of the 35 grain bullets, opted for the 40 grain V-Max over a lesser charge of Lil Gun. Also, before the hunting began, John changed out the Hornets 6x42 Schmidt and Bender scope for a Leupold “Rifleman” 2-7X variable. The Leupold is not only a little more versatile but its compact size is more in scale to the rifle. We got the scope and load zeroed at John’s private range. The 40 grain V-Max proved to be a MOA load. We were ready for everything but the weather.
Our first outing with that lovely Hornet was disappointing. Since landing at Inverness the rains had been more or less continuous. It took me about half a soggy day to realize why the breakfasts that Vitoria served us at the Hotel every morning consisted of eggs, bacon, two kinds of sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and toast. You needed a robust meal to fend off the Highland’s rainy chill. On the day in question the rains ceased about noon but the sky remained dark and the wind, buffeting. We had driven to the neighboring town of Bonarbridge and from there, out across the countryside, to a valley that was well pastured and provided shots out past 200 yards.
Our presence was merely academic as a 10 – 25 mph shifting crosswind negated any chance of using the .22LR and made the pasture-length shots with the Hornet more than a little difficult. Still, we’d traveled many miles to shoot and felt obligated to give it a toss. My son Andy took to the task with the Hornet and had a few close misses but that was about it. We packed it in around sundown and headed back for a warm meal in front of the fire. Later that evening, feeding the data for the 40 grain V-max at 2750 ft/sec into John’s “Point Blank” ballistic software we found the load to have a six-inch drop at 200 but a whopping 12.6” deflection with a 10 mph cross wind. Kentucky Windage was poor tool that day.
On the next Hornet outing the wind was nil. We set up at exactly the same spot as the prevous day and Andy anchored a large rabbit with his first shot at 180 yards, quite near a hole that had generated a few shots on our previous visit. Needless to say, the Hornet dispatches rabbit sized game quite easily and this rabbit was hit squarely amidships. We were therefore surprised to see that there was a set of holes through both ears. It seems that one of the misses of the previous day was closer than we thought! The shot that took the rabbit this day proved a wee bit more damaging. The V-max bullets stood to their reputation as varmint killers.
We attempted some shots out past 200 yards but the shooting gods weren’t with us. I did manage to nail seven rabbits with the CZ 452. Most impressive was the effectiveness of the Eley Sub-Sonic round on these animals. Earlier range work with the rifle showed that the accuracy of the suppressed 452 was well under MOA at 50 meters. This accuracy, combined with the fine balance and trigger on this particular 452, made head shots easy when I used a fence post to lean on. Past 50 yards I took brisket shots off-hand. It’s remarkable that on one occasion I walked away from John and Andy to do a little off hand work. I shot two rabbits at a distance of 50 yards. Both fell some 80 yards from where the guys were set up shooting the Hornet and out of their line of sight. Though they didn’t hear the suppressed report from the rifle, both of my hunting partners heard the bullets impact the rabbits.
John has been using sub-sonic ammo on game for years and had been telling me of its killing power for some time now. Having now experienced it for myself first hand I’m just a little perplexed. I’m not saying the sub sonic rounds killed better than hi-velocity ammo but they certainly killed as fast, and seemed to hit with the same amount of authority. The late Earl Naramore, in his fine book The Principles and Practices of Handloading Ammunition, stated that the faster a bullet travels the more wind resistance acts upon it, citing that if it were possible to shoot two bullets of the same weight, configuration and caliber far enough, the velocities would eventually become equal regardless of any difference in initial velocities. He also states that the effect of air resistance is greater once you go beyond the speed of sound. Maybe Earl was on to something? These sub-sonic rounds are worthy of some experimentation. Certainly, out to 60 or 70 yards they will cleanly take a well-hit rabbit.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the use of shotguns for rabbit hunting. John favors hunting rabbit over his two finely trained dogs, Buster and Danny. The shotguns in John’s cabinet are both double barreled guns –One an A.Y.A. brand, made in Spain and the other a Gunmark, “Kestril”. Both are 12 gauges. The preferred field load is English #6 shot which John says is about equivalent to our #7. I’ll take his word on that one. While the A.Y.A. fit me quite well, I declined the offer to use it. I am not much of a shotgunner and have never hunted over dogs to any extent. With jet-lag lurking at the corners of my consciousness I didn’t want to risk any accidents. Dogs, by the way, aren’t the only animals sent to rout rabbits. John says that they often use trained ferrets, sending them into a rabbit warren and taking the fleeing bunnies with shotguns. If this seems unsporting, remember that rabbit hunting in Scotland often takes on the nature of a culling exercise. Trimming back the huge numbers of rabbits insures the continued health of the rabbit population in general.
A good day's shooting
The author and the spoils of a good day in the Highlands. |
John has a Brno 243 that he expressed an interest in using for fox hunting and to that end we made up some reduced loads tailored to his rifle. John had, in his stores of reloading equipment, a Lyman bullet mold #244-496 which casts a .245” diameter, 91 grain bullet. Loaded as-cast, over 16 grains of Reloader-7, this bullet and gun combo produced sub-MOA groups. Shooting over the hood of the Rover we even shot a few 5/16” groups at 50 meters. I’m guessing that the velocity is in the neighborhood of 1700 ft/sec.
Time, weather, and opportunity kept us from fox hunting but next year I’ll come earlier in the season and stay longer, just to be certain. John will have refined the load by then and has set his target velocity at 2400 feet per second to level out the trajectory for the longer shots, and give the bullet a comfortable energy margin for taking Sitka deer.
Crow is another varmint / pest hunted in Scotland. These birds are especially damaging to new born lambs and are shot with vigor during the lambing season. John has used whatever gun the circumstance dictated, in the past preferring his 22 Magnum for the task of dispatching these menacing birds. Now his Brno Hornet or the Brno .243 -using either jacketed or cast bullets- will take over that duty. I could see the 17HMR making an appearance on the Highland crow hunting scene. When I visited the local gun shop the rifles and ammo for the “Hummer” were just arriving on the shelves. Ammunition, as you can imagine, is quite expensive on that side of the Big Pond. A potential 17HMR shooter would have to be quite dedicated to that round to bear the expense, but for rabbit control and crow shooting it may otherwise be the ideal round for that country.
Our stay in Scotland flew by and soon it was time to leave. We made many friends and despite the lack of cooperation from the weather, did quite a bit of hunting and shooting. We boarded our plane to London with no little sense of regret.
The Highlands of Scotland are truly beautiful –a picture postcard around every bend of the road. The countryside is rich in game. Though there are no public hunting lands in Scotland, hunting privileges can be arranged. Big game hunting can be difficult to secure without an intermediary but permission to small game hunt is easier to obtain provided you are in the company of a guide.
If any reader has the inclination for a Highland hunt, for big game or small, you can start by contacting John Blackman. John, in conjunction with the Invershin House Hotel, is in the process of arranging tours and hunts for US visitors. He will be happy to answer any of your questions. You can contact him at the e-mail address below.
SmallGameShots@AOL.com
MORE ABOUT INVERSHIN HOUSE:
The author would like to thank Molly and Dave Grant, owners and operators of the Inverhin House, for their warm hospitality during his stay. Molly and the hotel staff did a great job of accommodating a hunter’s odd hours and the mud we tracked all about. It was never too early or too late to get a bite to eat or a cup of coffee. The food was excellent, the Pub warm and relaxing, and the beds more comfortable than home. If Scotland is in your future you’ll need to stop by and experience this kind of hospitality for yourself.
The Invershin House
Invershin
Sutherland
IV27 4ET
www.Invershin.com
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