Unique situation today...
I was flying my quadcopter this afternoon in the back and I got a little crazy with it and lost it in some tall firs that line our property and the neighbors. It was stuck on a limb 50-55 feet up and out about 8 feet from the trunk.
I grabbed a ladder and extendo stick and proceeded to climb it. I could get 30 feet up and got stuck. The limbs we getting smaller and closer together so I was having to snake through to make progress. I started thinking about the nursery song, Rock-a-Bye-Baby...
Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and all
I decided that it would be better to wait until the wind (it was blowing pretty good) blew it out OR I could get into work and get a BIG extendo stick and I could climb up and sit on the big limbs and knock the copter down.
Later I started to think about rain and I didn’t want the electronics to get ruined so I came up with another plan.... shoot it out of the tree. It was dark out by now and the colorful LEDs looked so pretty way up in that tree. Almost like Christmas again. I grabbed 4 loaded magazines and the .22 cal FX 400, a flashlight and three little boys. We were going on a mission!
We made our way out back like Seal Team 6, totally undetected by the neighbors. We ran across a new neighbor out smoking on his back porch (mother-in-law rental next door) and we were able to remain stealth as we watched him finish up his smoke and went back inside.
We made it to the target and I inserted a magazine and dialed the illuminated reticle to red. I dialed the mag power down to its lowest setting at 6.5x and focused the side parallax wheel to sharp. I was shooting nearly straight up so I took a shot to see where it would impact. It’s half a mil high so I compensated and proceeded to shoot at the same spot on the limb where the quad was hanging. Pffft, WHACK! Pffft, WHACK! Pffft, WHACK, that went on for 30 shots until the limb gave way and the quad fell to the ground. Only broke one prop! These things are tough. One of the boys hopped the fence and retrieved the drone from the neighbors yard and we triumphantly marched back to the house with our prize in our hands. It has been a good day.
Ha ha ha! No face paint or black clothes. That sure would have made it seem real. It was feeling real while we sat in the shadows and watched the neighbor smoke his cigarette. We even had a 4 man team assembled for the mission. It was a fun change of pace for shooting. We had a purpose for it.
