Went out and had a pleasant morning watching this recently mowed hay field
and some piles of rocks from this setup (farmer left his mowing equipment in the field - I hid the ATV behind it). The red arrow points to the rock/rubble pile where 'Ol #26 (for this year) took his last sun bath on the flat piece of gravel embedded concrete rubble right above him.
This was my setup:
I brought along my RASS arm adapted to a survey tripod because I was hoping for some 300 yard plus shots and the field of fire was close to 180 degrees wide. Sitting in the folding chair using sticks makes moving to cover the angles more difficult, I could haul it there on the ATV, so it worked. Alas, this guy sunning himself was only 127 yards away:
I saw him on about my second scan with the binoculars after doing the normal routine of laser ranging likely locations. Anything within 250 yards is within the point blank range of the CZ527 shooting 40g NBT bullets.
While I was sitting there the rest of the morning, it occurred to me that there might be an easy fix for the problem I've had with the RASS arm on the tripod. As you can see in the setup picture, and this picture,
the elevation pivot is quite far back under the stock of the rifle which places the rifle's CG way forward - that makes the rig unstable with a bull barrel varmint rifle which is what I'd most like to use it for. That's necessary on the RASS since the user is sitting on a seat and isn't free to move up and down as the rifle is moved in elevation. However, I'm using this standing up so I hypothesized that if the pivot was moved forward, it would still work, and might make it possible for me to use it with my LRPV which has the long heavy bull barrel.
So when I got home, I disassembled the thing, stuck it in my milling machine and drilled a new pivot hole 5.4" forward of the existing middle hole. Well, to make a long story short, it works! I'll make an aluminum block to keep the front bolt that secures the elevation mechanism in place, but as you can see in this picture,
there is no problem holding the LRPV, all 13.8 lbs of it, and the mechanisms still work just fine. As a bouns it moves me back from the center of the tripod which makes it easier to use with out tripping over the legs.
A bonus feature, the modification in only one extra hole through the boom so it can be re-configured in about 5 minutes with hand tools to the original pivot point to use the boom on the RASS base.
Fitch
. Way to get after them guys and gals. I need to get out after them myself now that some of the fields are cut. Hopefully these rains stop soon, it's hard to shoot from a canoe in the middle of a field
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