This is a hunt report of the blooding of the Mauser Type B in 7x57 I’ve been building for the last four years. It’s loaded with 154gr RN to 2550 fps - very low pressure but no point in squeezing fps with iron sights.
So I went down to the river yesterday spraying weeds and seeing as I would be going in to a goaty area decided to grab the Mauser.
Eventually I caught a glimpse of white up a steep gulley off the river. Glassing I could see a good sized mob of goats. The wind said I had to cross the river and climb the hill downstream of them and approach on the contour. River’s down a bit and there were some convenient stepping stones.
I headed for a patch of cashier’s trees to cover my approach- fairly steep going and I had to use both hands to climb up.
Looking back the way I came
Unfortunately, skirting this thicket on the top side I failed to notice a small mob of goats in the trees who burst out in front of me and barrelled down the hill. I was still a few hundred meters off my target mob but was worried they’d spook them. I watched them trotting off through the next gulley and over the hill.
Continuing on round the contour I could see some of my mob were alert, but many hadn’t even got off their arses yet.
Stalking in, the going was tricky as it got very steep again and was clinging to dried grass/rocks with both hands to stop myself sliding down the slope. Should’ve worn my Miendls… but I made it round to where I could see a black and a white goat with their heads down about 100m away. I reckoned I could shimmy through the grass to a log a bit closer that would give me cover and something to shoot off. I was partway there when this black and tan billy came trotting over the ridge in front of me 30m off. We both saw each other at the same time and he stopped dead. I already had the rifle in hand so took an off hand shot and hit him in the brisket. Rolled 20m down the slope and stopped.
But I didn’t have time to have a look yet (apart from that he was clearly dead) as I made a rush for the log.
The two I’d marked moved round the contour a bit but weren’t in a rush and after a while went back to feeding. Setting the trigger I drew a bead and hit the white one in the neck at 80m.
Things got moving a bit then and a light brown billy ran over to check out the white one. I hit him in the rib cage. Decided that was enough as it was quite a few legs to carry and a long walk back to the ute.
![img]](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2F%5BURL%3D%27https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FQf5YzvW.jpeg%27%5D+https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FQf5YzvWl.jpeg%5B%5B%2FURL%5D%2Fimg%5D&hash=0d94932759b79eabeb6b83f171d870b6)
So I went down to the river yesterday spraying weeds and seeing as I would be going in to a goaty area decided to grab the Mauser.
Eventually I caught a glimpse of white up a steep gulley off the river. Glassing I could see a good sized mob of goats. The wind said I had to cross the river and climb the hill downstream of them and approach on the contour. River’s down a bit and there were some convenient stepping stones.
I headed for a patch of cashier’s trees to cover my approach- fairly steep going and I had to use both hands to climb up.
Looking back the way I came
Unfortunately, skirting this thicket on the top side I failed to notice a small mob of goats in the trees who burst out in front of me and barrelled down the hill. I was still a few hundred meters off my target mob but was worried they’d spook them. I watched them trotting off through the next gulley and over the hill.
Continuing on round the contour I could see some of my mob were alert, but many hadn’t even got off their arses yet.
Stalking in, the going was tricky as it got very steep again and was clinging to dried grass/rocks with both hands to stop myself sliding down the slope. Should’ve worn my Miendls… but I made it round to where I could see a black and a white goat with their heads down about 100m away. I reckoned I could shimmy through the grass to a log a bit closer that would give me cover and something to shoot off. I was partway there when this black and tan billy came trotting over the ridge in front of me 30m off. We both saw each other at the same time and he stopped dead. I already had the rifle in hand so took an off hand shot and hit him in the brisket. Rolled 20m down the slope and stopped.
But I didn’t have time to have a look yet (apart from that he was clearly dead) as I made a rush for the log.
The two I’d marked moved round the contour a bit but weren’t in a rush and after a while went back to feeding. Setting the trigger I drew a bead and hit the white one in the neck at 80m.
Things got moving a bit then and a light brown billy ran over to check out the white one. I hit him in the rib cage. Decided that was enough as it was quite a few legs to carry and a long walk back to the ute.
