The Hobbit Rifle

[ElPollo]

I really don’t need any more guns, but I can foresee an Encore-Hobbit being my next money pit. The folding stock with a short, threaded, fast-twist 223 barrel with a 1-6 or 1-8 scope, an iron-sighted muzzleloader barrel, and a 20 ga shotgun barrel with screw-ins for turkey all in a small case with tools and the extra barrels and forends just sounds like an appealing and compact set of kit that I could kill a lot of stuff with.

 

[SLDMTN]

After a gnarly stalk through deep, drifted snow I got to 430 yards on two bedded wolves. With the Hobbit resting securely on my tripod I gave myself time for my heart rate to settle. Squeezing the shot off, it felt solid. Both wolves sprung from their beds and took off down the ridge into thick brush. One of them was noticeably slower getting up and running out of sight. Reloading quickly, I stayed in my hide.

The weather was blowing in heavy and I had a feeling the wolves didn’t know where the shot had come from. My hunch turned out to be correct as one of the wolves blasted out of the brush quartering towards me. The Hobbit made quick work of him, this time dropping in sight.

Slogging through the drifted snow, I made my way over to where the wolves had been bedded. Fresh blood in the snow said my first shot had been on target. Calling in some family reinforcements, we tracked until late in the evening. Left with no other reasonable choice we had to retreat home for the night with one wolf.

Through the night, snow and wind persisted which made my job impossible the following day. This time with snowshoes, my Dad and I searched for most of the day to no avail. My hopes of doubling on wolves with a single shot rifle didn’t pan out. Regardless, I’m very happy with the one male I was able to recover.

The Hobbit strikes again

 

[coast2coast]

The Hobbit strikes again

Nice write-up. And cool pics.