Cold Woods vs Warm Range

 This Sunday morning a couple of airgun buddies, Mark, Rick and myself headed out to try Michigan's mid-winter squirrel hunting. Temperatures in the single digits allowed the squirrels to use more common sense then us, as they stayed in their nice warm homes, while we on the other hand roamed the woods, freezing our tails off and did not see a single squirrel.  Oh well, you never know unless you try.

Back at the Shop on the indoor range, Mark and I set up to do some indoor bench rest. This gave me the opportunity to test the latest batch of JSB 18G pellets that just arrived.  Using a Daystate Air Wolf with Huggett system installed, Burris 4.5-14, I shot a perfect 250 13X, well almost...  My shooting buddy Mark needed air for his 40FPE Huntsman XL .22cal, so on shot 18, called a Cold Line while Mark was filling his rifle.

Daystate Air Wolf MCT .22

It was at this point that my attention was drawn to the tv which was airing the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader tryouts.  By the time Mark came back to his bench and the shooting commenced, the visual distraction had caused me to forgot I was using one dot down on the Burris reticle as an aim point   Using the center of the reticle shot number 18 of course hit low.  Firing a second shot and using the proper aim point  I was back on target.  Proving, it was my lack of concentration and not the  Daystate/JSB combination that caused the miss. "Dang those Cheerleaders".   In relaying this story to my wife Nancy, she showed no compassion for the situation and simply said "Good for ya"

Honesty, based on how this rifle/pellet combination performed, I think I'll try using this at our next indoor bench rest.  We will keep you posted on the date of the next event.

Holiday Shooting with JSB's

We hope you enjoyed your Holidays.  With unusually nice weather here in Michigan, fairly clam with a light mist of rain and very light winds.  I wanted to fire a couple of groups to test out the new shipment of JSB 18 grains .22cal.  

Royale 400 on the Left, Theoben Rapid on Right
5 Shot Groups

First group shot with my tried and true Royale 400 with smooth twist barrel.

Second group with my out of the box Theoben MKII.

Shot only one group with each rifle, @ 50 yards,  with 9x Leupold and Weaver Scopes.

Both groups basically dime size or better.

Here is a group I shot with the FX Gladiator with 12x Busy Trophy XLT

Now time my Daystate Air Wolf

Rifle was left on high power, unbeknownst to me after demonstrating to a customer, found out it shoots good at high power also. I believe this was 6 shots.  

 So I decided to push it out to 60 yards
The rain got a little heavier, and the winds picked up.
Still very happy with the groups
High Power and Low Power Air Wolf Groups

Theoben Rapid MKII

Shooting @ 30 ft/lb with JSB 18g9x Scope

Thrilled that the snow wasn't blowing in December, It was nice to get outside and let the airguns stretch their legs a little bit.  60 yards 10 shot dime size groups, shows the JSB's are still the Hot Ticket! 

Airgunners Dream Weekend-Part 2 FT Competition

Sunday morning I was off to the WWCCA (Western Wayne County Conservation Association) in Plymouth, Michigan for the last Field Target Competition of the 2011 Season.  I'm lucky to be only 1 hour away from this great facility. I would suggest anyone else who  is in close proximity to check out the WWCCA take advantage of all that they have to offer, especially for the Airgun Community.

I was anxious to take my AZ tuned Steyr 110 to the match.  Had not touched the gun since the Great Lakes 100 which was held at this same place.  Steyr's are usually tanks and very stable, once they are set up.  A few test shots at the test range show'd wind was going to be an issue, but everything else seemed good for the gun.  The  Leupold Competition with 3/8" target dot compliments this rifle well.  JSB Heavies were the pellet of choice for today. My wind guesstimates were all pretty good, did miss one 55 yard sitting target.  Wind blew the pellet a full inch or more out of the kill zone.  I aced the off hand with was 6 for 6 which is always a relief, but the kneelers killed me dropping 3 out of 6 including two at 35 yards.  As far as I know that 35 yard target still had shiny paint on it at the end of the event.  Scoring a 56 out of 60 proved to be a top score for the day.



The matches are scheduled for 60 shots over the course of fire.  The match is typically held on the Air Gun Walk through range.  A 20 FPE limit is imposed on their field target events, and WWCCA and AAFTA rules apply to all of the scheduled field target events.  A $10.00 entry fee also includes a hot lunch.

Click Here to see all of the pictures from the Field Target Match

To learn more about WWCCA check out:
http://wwcca.com/wp/airgun/

Pellet Testing Time

The "Lou Gun"

Tested out some of the new JSB Pellets. In .22cal I usually shoot the 18G out of most mid or high power guns. But tonight I decided to test the 16G, as I had not shot them in some time. Shot one group at 50 yards, and was pleased - Good Quality Pellets. Not Bad group considering I was only using a 9X Weaver Classic Rim Fire Scope on a stock Theoben MKII, shooting low 30 ft/lbs. 

Next I grabbed some new .22cal 18G JSB's. They are as Good as they have ever been! Picture shows the group I shot with them. Actually, one of the BEST Groups I have ever shot. When you can barely drop a pellet through the hole that you just shot 5 through, you have to call it quits. These pellets are truly amazing...

Now I moved on to the  JSB's .177 Heavies, they actually weight out @ 10.4 on my scale and are spec'd as a 4.52 head size. Shot one group with three different guns. One shot down the barrel to warm her up and go. Groups Shown in Right Picture Above.

First Group shot with a freshly gone through ZM 2002 shooting 12ft/lb, hence the left and right spread from the slight breeze that was prevalent at that time.

Second group shot with another AZ Tuned Gun, one which I affectionately call the "Lou Gun" because this gun was formally owned by Lou Ferrigno. Lou is one heck of nice guy and an avid AirGunner. This gun shoots much hotter, closer to 19ft/lb. Actually showed slightly more left/right deviation, maybe I was just Luckier with the wind on the first one.

Third Group shot with a Theoben MFR, in a S Type Stock, with a 24" HW Barrel. Who knows how these things happen, they just do...Build this gun to take to the Good Ole Boys Shoot, but it was too hot, and never enough time to mess with it, so I ended up taking a 12ft/lb P70 instead. In calculating the power of this Customized Theoben the 10.4 pellet weight @ 1000 fps, it puts it at 23ft/lbs and gun is still a real tack driver, and capable of one hole 5 shot groups @ 50 yards when I'm able to do my part. Picture above left shows additional groups shot with this gun one evening.  All of them pretty good groups, dime size or smaller.

Groups are shot at 50 yards, 5 shots, aspirin used for size reference. Looking forward to some more nice cool and hopefully calm end of summer days to continue paper punching and preping for squirrel season.

ZM 2002