I don't shoot anymore, but I used to do Olympic style shooting in the German Shooting Club (DSB). That's .22 rifle at 50m, and air-pistol at 10m. I was semi-decent, considering it was just a pasttime and the level in Germany is rather high. Both were Feinwerkbau match guns, nice....don't remember the type though. Things like scopes aren't allowed in these disciplines though. Never heared of most brand rifles you folk talk about here.
The bag arrived, and it's *giant*. When it's on my back, the top is a good foot above my head. Still, it doesn't look like a rifle bag; it looks like I'm carrying hockey sticks, or a surprisingly tall musical instrument. The quality seems good, but (surprise, surprise) there are no pockets: you're supposed to spend a bunch of cash on molle-system pouches to extend the secondary partition. Seeing as I've splashed the last of me cash on the bag itself, it now has my cleaning kit and a neoprene lens pouch holding two tins of pellets attached via their belt loops to the molle system via reusable velcro cable-ties. Actually works pretty well! I'll let you know how many funny looks I get at the range for my tacticoolness. (In my defence, I wouldn't have bought it - my old rifle case was fine - if I were *driving* to or from the range!)
Gareth, and others here, how many of you use a chrono? My club (back when I was a member) checked every rifle that came into the club, and sadly for me my Daystate was at 14ft/lbs and I couldn't use it; had to send it back to Daystate to be tuned again. I had a Combro chrono which was a fantastic little gizmo, very accurate and allowed very quick calculation of muzzle energy. I'd strongly recommend it, especially when comparing different pellet types.
Funny you should mention that - I just got a Combro earlier this week. They're lovely, aren't they? Pleased to say I'm reading under the limit, too - although it does get close with heavier pellets and a failure to remove excess oil out of the barrel after cleaning... For those with a bit more cash, I spotted this rather lovely thing on eBay the other day. Starts at £10 more than a Combro, with a hardier aluminium casing. Then, while searching for that so I could put a link in this 'ere post, I discovered you can get an adapter to connect a Combro to your Android smartphone or tablet for £30, which I'm quite tempted by despite the high cost. Easier than lugging a laptop around if you want to graph a string of shots!
Oddly enough a Chronoscope is going to be my first purchase when I get back from work at the end of the month, as I'll be starting to load my own ammunition it's now becoming essential to have one. Its almost certainly going to be a Magnetospeed one from March scopes, I really don't fancy having to calibrate one of the optical ones every time I need to check a new load. Anyway I suppose I should list what I shoot below so here goes. 1, Accuracy International AXMC, .300 WM with a Nightforce ATACR 5-25X scope, 3rd eye tactical mounts and an Atlas Bipod. I do have a suppressor unfortunately on the first shot the baffles tried to follow the bullet down the range so its going back to the manufacturer. 2, Anschutz 1907 with a wooden stock and either open sights or an old BSA scope. 3, Bora Barak BR99 shotgun with a cheap and nasty red dot scope (Designed for air rifles) on top, this will be getting replaced when I find something I like in stock I like at a dealer. I will post a pic but that will have to wait until I get home from work. Mike
I have one of these fellas: A Chrony F1, pain in the rear to set up each time but great to use as it has such a wide open target area.
I used to shoot loads when I was young, being in quite a rural area it was one of the pastimes a few of us enjoyed in a small group. We mostly just plinked tins and stuff but I do remember having a little steel target holder which trapped pellets in the back, we were mostly skint so targets were a luxury lol. I think I was about 13 when my dad got me a .22 Webley Vulcan, I was instantly in love lol. He used to take a couple of us out shooting just to make sure we weren't being neds, we never got out without an adult. I've not been for over 20 years but now after reading this I'm starting to miss it, I still have the Vulcan but it developed barrel wobble which was one reason I gave up. I've always fancied a theoben or weirauch fixed barrel ......maybe Santa will be nice this year lol.
I'm rustier than I thought. Went to the rifle club last night to join, and popped a few targets on the range. (Interestingly, they make me play with the big boys: the air-weapon range is only for .177 calibre 6ft/lbs target stuff, not my .22 12ft/lbs hunting rifle. That also threw me off a bit, 'cos I had to wear ear defenders which kept getting in the way of a comfortable head position - I think I'm going to have to shift the scope a bit if I have to wear 'em all the time.) After an interminable time zeroing the scope, 'cos the rifle's been in storage a long time and I've switched pellets (from RWS Superpoint to RWS Superdome), this was the best I could do: That's a 20 yard pistol target, embarrassingly, from a standing unsupported position. The almost-acceptable grouping in the centre was with the first five shots, then I started to lose accuracy - mainly because my left arm began to get tired. Reckon I'm either going to have to switch to bench-rest or prone shooting or start throwing some weights around if I want to get decent groupings through the entire 10-shot magazine! EDIT: Having looked up some advice on the offhand position, I think I know where I was going wrong. Just had a play with pointing the unloaded rifle in a mirror (my rooms aren't very long, but the mirror 'doubles' the effective range!) and I'm seeing much-reduced wobble as a result of a couple of simple stance changes. I'll be going down to the range again on Thursday, so we'll see if it makes a difference!
Indoor shooters, especially those with powder-go-boom toys: what ear defenders do you use? One of the problems I had, as explained above, is with the ear defenders spoiling the normal way I hold my head on the stock of the rifle - the over-ear defenders kept hitting the cheek-piece of the stock, and I had to hold myself awkwardly to compensate. I don't really want to go deaf - I know they're only .22LRs, but they're right next to me in an enclosed space - so I've picked up a set of these from FleaBay: Strange design, but they claim to be good for indoor range use (unlike the Pro 9, which is apparently less effective) and full-bore shooting. The important thing is that they don't sit below the ear, so they shouldn't foul on my stock like the over-ear ones the range provides do. Anybody use anything similar?
I used to use those for clay shooting and they were fine, I found them just a little uncomfortable though as for some reason they didn't sit well in one of my ears....I switched over to some in ear ones and I find them a lot more comfortable. http://www.auritech.co.uk/universal-fit/shoot/ I've been using those for a few months and they are great.
I use Peltor Sport-Tac and find them to give excellent noise reduction without fouling on the stock IF I have them on in the right position. If I've not got them on in the right position the recoil will knock them out of position which isn't pleasant. I'm afraid the best option is to try as many different pairs as possible with your rifle and see which works for you. As for in the ear ones, having tried a few I wouldn't recommend this option unless you're prepared to go for the custom moulded ones. Another option that some of the club members use is wear both ear plugs and ear defenders when shooting the larger calibre rifles in the tunnels, this allows a slimmer design of ear defender to be used without sacrificing hearing protection. Mike
Cheers, guys. I'll see how I get on with the Napiers (which should arrive on Thursday, hopefully, meaning they'd be in time for my next visit) and if they prove uncomfortable have a look at other options. I'm avoiding in-ear options for now, because as wonderful as they are in terms of being light and discrete, I have really tiny ear canals which means they don't often fit properly - and I don't want 'em falling out half-way through a shoot!
The Napier Pro 10s arrived at lunchtime (I wasn't expecting them until tomorrow, so well done random shoe shop's eBay outlet). They seem to do the job just fine, as far as I can tell: got them on now while my music's playing, and I can hear the high-pitched ping of my Cherry MX Blues and the higher-pitched parts of the music, but while I can feel the bass through my foot resting on the subwoofer there's not much of it getting through the ear defenders. The proof, mind you, will be in how well they work tomorrow when I'm actually on the range, standing in a compact galley while a bunch of people go bang-bang with their proper guns as I'm going phht-phht with me air rifle. EDIT: It does seem to take me a couple of goes of the "stick on head, rotate 1/4 turn and back again" before they're working at their optimum, though. Can't tell if that's a flaw in the design or a symptom of my strangely-shaped ears.
I've been looking into getting hold of some of the ear plugs that Etymotic make as I have been all sorts of impressed with my ER-4s IEMs from them and hearing protection is what they started out with. Not going to be bothering with the electronic ones, just the standard £10 silicone tipped jobbies for use on site visits and maybe the odd clay shoot.
That's the problem I had, coupled with my massive barnet meant that it took 4/5 tries to get them in and as soon as they took a knock I had to reseat them . Once they're in though, they do work very well I found. Again, shotgunner's perspective, YMMV.
I'd love to get back into shooting again, I did a fair bit of .22 shooting at school and was a pretty good marksman by the time I stopped aged around 12. I took up full-bore (mostly.762) shooting at Bisley when I was a student at Reading, and although I wasn't anywhere near as proficient (let's face it, students, with guns?!?!) I still had a great time. Never owned a firearm/rifle though, but got to use a wide variety of hardware. It's something I'll seriously look in to when my kids are a bit older and/or we can stabilise our household finances a bit more though. Oh, and: Didn't we all
Disaster! My air bottle was down to about 150 bar and needed a refill, but was two years out-of-test. No problem, the local dive shop does a testing service and you can pay for a fast-track. Gave the rifle a last partial top-up for the next range visit then took an hour off work yesterday to drop the cylinder off. "No problem, it'll be ready Saturday." Call this morning: "We can't test it. It's got a conical thread, and we don't have the hose to pressurise it. You'll need to send it to Liverpool." So, I'm now left with a PCP rifle with no air, I need to go to the dive shop to collect my empty and still-out-of-test bottle (another £4 on the buses), then send it to Liverpool at great expense, wait however long it takes them to test it, pay to have it delivered back, then take it to the dive shop again so it can be filled ('cos couriers won't carry pressurised cylinders.) Wish I was shooting .22 rimfire like everyone else at the range. You don't have any of this messing about: buy ammo, insert ammo into rifle, shoot, repeat. Bah! <goes to ring the Liverpool testing site, find out what's what>
