Chapter 178 Little Eagle, Death Claw

“Xiao Tao, you go first. Xiao Wen is second, and Xiao Wu is third! Everyone lie down, and each of you fire five bullets to get a feel for it. Be careful not to let the muzzle of the gun touch the snow!”

The barrel of a gun has a firing life, so the guns that Yue Feng took people out to practice shooting today were borrowed from the forest farm, and he did not bring his own 56 and a half rifle.

The gun borrowed from the government should not be used in vain.

The three brothers followed the order arranged by Yue Feng, took turns lying on the shooting position made of snow, aimed at the poplar tree that Yue Feng had shot before, and started pulling the trigger.

There were three people, each firing five bullets, and the result could only be described as horrific.

Xiao Tao, who was the loudest and most excited, only shot one of his five bullets hit the target, and the other four flew to Java.

Xiaowen was better than Xiaotao. Three out of five bullets hit the target, and these three bullets were hit in the later shots. Yue Feng felt that Xiaowen was relatively better. At least after gradually getting used to the firearm, he was getting better and better at shooting.

In contrast, among the three, the one with the best shooting performance was Xiaowu, who was ranked last.

Out of five bullets, the first one hit the target. Although one of the subsequent ones missed the target, the final result was four out of five hits.

What made Yue Feng feel that he had potential in particular was that this guy’s last three bullets all hit the target, and the distribution of the impact points was relatively concentrated.

After seeing the results of the three brothers, Yue Feng curled his lips and glanced at them: “You are still shouting that I can do it, but now it’s time to take a look at the mules and horses, and we can see how capable each one is!

Think carefully about the key points of aiming and firing that I just mentioned. Align the front sight with the center of the rear sight, three points in a straight line, aim intentionally, fire unintentionally, and the accuracy of this 56-and-a-half rifle is quite high!”

Xiao Tao had the worst score. He scratched his head, unwilling to accept the reality: “I clearly aimed just now! I aimed just as you said, why couldn’t I hit the target?”

“What the hell are you aiming for! Just now all your bullets hit the ground. After you fired your gun, there were a bunch of holes on the snow! The front sight and rear sight are in a straight line. The extended line should be used to aim at the target. If you only use the front sight to aim at the target, the gun body will not be flat!” Yue Feng said unhappily.

“Um, okay, I’ll try again later!” Xiao Tao felt that he was in the wrong and stopped showing off.

“Brother Feng, what about me? I think I’ve found the trick to aiming. Can I fire a few more shots?” Xiaowu said confidently.

Yue Feng: “Okay, load the bullets with the clips, and everyone fire ten more rounds!

Let’s make it clear first, you three brothers are starting at the same point, and we will each give each of you fifty rounds of bullets to practice with for now.

After the training, there will be a fair assessment. Whoever has the best performance will get the position of deputy attacker who goes up the mountain to get the second gun!”

There are fewer guns than people, so it is impossible for everyone to have a gun. Even if everyone can get a gun and go hunting in the mountains together, it is impossible to see prey. Everyone shoots together. Hunting is a very serious matter. It requires teamwork and every detail of using the gun may affect everyone’s safety and the final harvest.

Most of the time, what is needed is not overflowing firepower, but to maximize the killing of prey while ensuring the safety of everyone as much as possible.

From this perspective, a hunting team of four people, with two five- or six-and-a-half rifles that can fire ten rounds in a row, already has very strong firepower output. As long as the main attacker and the secondary attacker have strong psychological qualities and tacit cooperation, and there is a certain strategic buffer distance, they will not be at a disadvantage even if they are facing the tiger’s big claws head-on.

When Xiao Tao heard Yue Feng say that the three of them would decide who would use the second gun based on the final result, he immediately became nervous.

In Xiao Tao’s heart, he felt that his relationship with Yue Feng must be closer than that with the brothers Xiaowen and Xiaowu. He thought that the second gun would be given to him, but he did not expect Yue Feng to give him a fair competition.

It’s no wonder that Yue Feng can’t tell the difference between near and far. A gun is a powerful weapon. Going hunting in the mountains is not just a game. Since he has formed a hunting team, he is naturally responsible for everyone.

“Brother, can you teach me how to aim again? I feel a little weak!”

Xiao Tao felt a little uncomfortable, but he didn’t feel awkward. When he heard the captain announce the rules, his first reaction was to ask Yue Feng for help and study them carefully again, instead of questioning Yue Feng’s decision.

In this regard, Yue Feng was very satisfied with Xiao Tao’s performance. His half-brother was kind-hearted and acted uprightly without any petty tricks.

Yue Feng explained to the three brothers again the details of how to align the front sight with the rear sight and extend the line to aim at the target position. Then he loaded the bullets again and continued to fire ten shots each.

With the previous experience and the detailed explanation just now, the shooting results in the second round were obviously much better than the first round. At least, most of the bullets hit the target. Even Xiao Tao, who had the worst result, hit the target with six out of ten bullets.

The one with the best performance was still Xiaowu. This guy seemed to have some talent in shooting. He hit the target nine out of ten times, and the distribution of the bullet impact points was very concentrated.

After waiting for the barrel to cool down, the three brothers conducted the third, fourth, and fifth rounds of live-fire shooting training.

It is said that good marksmanship is developed through bullets, and this is indeed true. In the subsequent rounds of shooting training, the target hit rate and shooting accuracy have increased to a certain extent.

However, among the three, Xiaowu was still the most accurate shooter. In the last round of shooting, the distribution of Xiaowu’s bullet impact points was already quite concentrated.

If there was a regular target paper, Yue Feng estimated that after Xiaowu shot ten bullets, he would get a minimum score of 80 rings. This score was already considered an upper-middle level even in militia training.

Since the rules were stated before the test, Xiao Tao and Xiao Wen accepted the loss, and the position of deputy attacker with the second gun was given to Xiao Wu. The structure of the hunting team was temporarily fixed.

The bullets obtained from the forest farm are limited for now, so this kind of shooting training cannot be carried out frequently and intensively for the time being. However, Yue Feng’s training of team members is only temporarily limited. When the conditions are better in the future, the shooting skills of the four people will definitely be polished to above the average level. By then, no matter who holds the gun, they will be able to stand on their own when they go out.

The four brothers spent half the afternoon in the grove by the river until it was almost dark, then they packed their guns and went home.

Over the next few days, the hunting team returned to their previous rhythm. Team members would go hunting and release hawks in the mountains when the weather was good, and rest every other day. Black Wolf’s face was scratched, so he went home to ask Wang Da Nao to get stitches, so he didn’t take the dog to the mountains for dog hunting in recent days.

Yue Feng’s life was more tiring. He took over the shift with his father in the middle of the night, went out with the Big Black Hawk for intensive training in the morning, and rode his bicycle into the city to deliver game in the evening. His life was tiring but steady. In this way, by the seventh day of staying up all night, the Little Big Hawk that was in training was already in full condition.

Its feathers were fluffy and its eagle eyes were murderous. The weight loss plus the feathers Yue Feng fed it every day made it feel hungry. When it was set up as a hawk in the yard, even if there was a sparrow flying through the sky, the little eagle would stare at it for a long time as if by reflex, eager to try.

Seeing this scene, Yue Feng knew that the time was almost right, so he made an appointment with Xiao Tao in the evening to go out to become an eagle early the next morning.

This small eagle weighed 1.9 kilograms when it was caught in the net. Yue Feng controlled the weight of the adult eagle to 1.55 kilograms, which is about % fat.

Objectively speaking, it may be a little difficult to catch rabbits due to its small weight, but Yue Feng is quite confident in the muscles and bones of this small eagle, so he decided to wait until it actually lands on the ground and becomes an eagle, and then make corresponding adjustments based on its performance.

The next morning, after Yue Feng and Xiao Tao had breakfast, they left the house early with the hawk and headed straight for the small vegetable garden outside the village, a classic place for releasing hawks in the fall.

Recently, Yue Feng has focused most of his energy on tinkering with the big black hawk, so he hasn’t used the hawk to catch rabbits in the small vegetable garden for a long time. Only occasionally, Xiao Tao will come over for a stroll with the big iron-backed red hawk.

As the temperature drops and the snow thickens, a good terrain environment for spending the night in the wild becomes more important. This also leads to a slight increase in the absolute density of hares in good places with suitable conditions.

Therefore, Yue Feng was very confident that Cheng Ying could drive out the rabbits in the small vegetable garden today.

The fields looked white after the heavy snow, with only a few bushes or straw stacks at the edge of the field still retaining their original color. Yue Feng was holding the small eagle and Xiao Tao was holding a thin stick in his hand, knocking as they walked, while looking around for rabbit footprints left on the snow.

The snow crust was frozen hard, so the rabbit’s footprints were not so obvious, but this method was better than searching aimlessly.

Look, Xiao Tao soon found the rabbit’s fresh footprints.

“Brother, over here, these footprints should have been left last night! Let’s follow them!” Xiao Tao called out and took Yue Feng to change direction.

This method of releasing the hawk with some psychological preparation time has a higher success rate in raising the hawk. Yue Feng was very calm, he followed Xiao Tao with the hawk and watched every move around him.

Xiao Tao followed the rabbit’s trail for about a few hundred meters and soon found that the footprints in front of him had disappeared. Xiao Tao stopped, pointed at the ground towards Yue Feng, and made a preparation.

As mentioned before, rabbit footprints are quite interesting, especially after leaving footprints in the snow. Before returning to the place where they are hiding, they like to take a step, and lie down less than one meter away from the last footprint.

At this moment, this unfortunate rabbit was lying on the ground, blending perfectly with the surrounding weeds, snow, etc.

Yue Feng held the eagle and got ready. Xiao Tao immediately took the pole and knocked towards the area where the rabbit was.

Whoosh! The rabbit, unable to squat any longer, immediately stood up and ran away!

“Cat!” Yue Feng growled, and the little eagle in his hand flew out immediately.

At the moment the eagle attacked, Yue Feng was slightly stunned. His first feeling was, this damn eagle was so fast.

The absolute speed of this little Eagle seems to be almost as good as that of the Iron-backed Red Eagle at home. This is the performance of an Eagle that has been kept in a warehouse for several months without stretching its muscles or going out to move around.

It immediately spotted the rabbit that jumped up and fled in panic from a few meters away. It flew out of Yue Feng’s hand and chased it. It took less than two breaths to catch up with the rabbit’s head.

The next second, he swooped down from mid-air and smashed the pile, kicking the rabbit directly like a falcon hunting its prey.

The running rabbit lost its balance and fell to the ground due to the interference of external force. Before it could turn over, the little eagle fell down again and grabbed the rabbit’s throat with its strong right claw.

Wow wow wow wow…

The rabbit let out a desperate cry at the spot. The speed was so fast and the fight was so short that even Xiao Tao, who was standing next to him, only felt his eyes blurry before the eagle pressed the rabbit there.

Yue Feng saw clearly what was going on, and his heart immediately relaxed.

Although this eagle is smaller in size and weight, its catching method is not inferior to the slow-moving peach-pointed eagle that I gave to Uncle Chen before and liked to plant two flags.

Many eagles and raptors can use this attack method of diving, accelerating, and then subduing their prey. Even kites and pine cones can do it, but there are certain differences in the specific subsequent catching methods.

Take the several eagles in Yue Feng’s family this autumn as an example. The Iron-backed Red Eagle is the clumsiest when it comes to catching rabbits. Lacking practical experience, it relied on brute force to subdue its prey in the early stages, and only later learned to pinch the waist and hold the head, etc.

The slow-moving peach tip has the typical hunting habit of smashing the rabbit’s post, but the position of its claws is also mainly to land on the rabbit’s buttocks first, and then hold the head.

In contrast, the way this little eagle grabbed the rabbit today was more vicious. When it swooped down to smash the pile, it did not grab the rabbit’s butt with its claws, but made a false grab in order to destroy the rabbit’s balance while running.

When the rabbit lost its balance and fell, the little eagle turned sideways and attacked the rabbit’s neck and trachea with its claws. The angle and method of the attack were extremely tricky and vicious.

Whether it is a human or an animal, the neck is the most vital part of the body. The arteries and trachea are located at this position. If an eagle grabs and holds the rabbit tightly, the rabbit may die in less than half a minute.

Yue Feng had rarely seen an eagle using this method of grasping in his previous life. He had only heard of it from his grandfather. It was called the Death Claw.

The work of this kind of eagle is a bit similar to that of falcons and they rarely leave any rabbits alive. If the eagle had been a little slower, the rabbit might have died.

Chapter 3, 10,000 words more completed!

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(End of this chapter)