G'day all.

Well today was the big day, after spending a few hours and a couple of packets of home loads on the weekend, teaching myself about the Baikal regulating system I was ready to put it to the ultimate field test. The rifle is a Baikal O & U in 9.3 x 74,having been pointed in that direction by a couple of members of this site. Being of that age (61) where the open sights start getting fuzzy, I fitted an older model Leupold Vari x2, 1-4pwr that I already had from a previous rifle. After playing with the regulating system I had the two barrels impacting about 1 inch to 1.5 inch apart, on a 10o/c 4o/c angle at 50mtrs. I then adjusted the scope to put the center of the points of impact about an inch high at that range. I am using Woodleigh 286gr Protected Point projectiles with a load that should be producing about 2330 fps, I can't swear to that as I haven't been able to chrony them yet.

Back to today: I had a few home duties to do this afternoon that kept me a little later than I had hoped getting to one of my favorite close in spots only half an hour from home. I had visited this spot a few times lately and there was plenty of Sambar sign, but no sign of the Sambar! When I got to the bush I parked my 4wd only about 250 mtrs the other side of a gentle rise from where I would be able to get a good view of the gully system. The method I usually use in this area, is to get into position a good couple of hours before dark, and wait for the deer to move down the mountain, hopefully into a position that I might get a shot. As I crested the rise I moved very slowly due to the dry litter on the forest floor, that had dropped since our bush fires earlier in the year. As I got within about 125 to 130mtrs of the gully I spotted 2 young hinds, about 3/4 grown and just perfect for the freezer. They noticed my movement and started to move off, but not yet in panic mode, moving at a quick walking pace. I normally like to use a tree for a rest, but this time I was caught with no rest available and had to go for the free standing shot. I swung the cross hairs onto the moving deer which is below me and by this time is slightly angled away. As the sight lined up behind the left upper front leg, just below the shoulder I completed the squeeze on the trigger and the hind dropped to her knees. The next moment she was up again and they were both going flat out down the gully and out of sight. Then I saw one of them had crossed to my side of the gully and was heading up the hill about 150 mtrs away. Then incredibly she stopped and looked back at me. I lined up with the second barrel and once again had a great sight picture on the shoulder, but then it struck me that I was certain I had had a good hit with the first shot so I lowered the rifle and let her go to grow some more and hopefully have a calf or 2. As they had started off running together I walked over to where she had been standing and followed her tracks back, there was the hind that I had shot about a total of 10 mtrs from were I had first seen her. The Woodleigh PP had entered behind the leg angling down slightly taking out the major blood vessels and smashing the right leg on the way out. The blood trail had been spraying out both wound sites, I think she ran most of that 10 mtrs on memory. Then the hard work started, doing a bush break down on the carcass and the carry back to the car, luckily only a few hundred mtrs away (but all uphill)

So in closing I can only say I am more than pleased with my entry level DR, it might not be very pretty but it certainly does the job, for $1250 AU it makes pretty good sense for anybody after an economical entry into the DR experience.

Good shooting to you all, Ian.