Tag: pellet rifle

April 14, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

April 14, 2022 /

What’s new, well nothing really. I should have plenty of stuff in this arena with trap going in full swing. But, today I am going to talk pellet rifles again today. My new spring piston rifle has in fact settled down and is shooting pretty consistently. I will show some groups below.

Shooting with a pellet rifle is a really good idea. It is a way to work away all the bad habits that develop when you only shoot high powered rifles. You can work on sight picture, trigger control (and not flinching). I noticed when I was shooting slugs at the range a couple of weeks ago that I would tense up in anticipation of the shot, which is a form of flinching.

There are numerous other reasons to shoot pellets. They can be done safely and discreetly at home as well as economical. I am seeing pellets go for $8-$14/ 250. That sure beats $34 / 50 (9mm) or $60 / 500 (22LR) or even worse $50 / 20 (30-06). Now that the business is done, we can start to have some fun and play around. I have a couple examples of the pellets that I have here.

It seems like the two on the left are the same weight, 7.6 grains. The container for the third one is not marked, so I do not know. I saw some for sale that were up to 16.2 grains and I think that those would make better varmint stopper, but then I also some that were 5.4 grains. What I am saying is that now it is time to see how different ammunition will perform.

Here I am showing my target with different groups. I generally shoot five at a time off of a rest at ten yards. Notice the bottom right target there are two distinct groups. The ones all grouped around the center of the bullseye are with the scope cover off. The group that is above to the right is with the scope cover on.

The scope cover has two clear lenses in it so you can see through it without removing the covers. Clearly, it makes a difference with the performance. It is something to note that I should remove the covers when shooting or sight it in with the covers on.

This has even got me looking into a chronograph. I have never been too concerned with how fast bullets travel as most loads have nominal or published velocities. However, I have started to become curious how consistent my handloads are or how do different weight pellets change in velocity, which I cant find published. I checked into the price and it is much more affordable than I thought it would be (at around $100) for an entry level setup. I see a chronograph coming in the future.

End Your Programming Routine: I have some new pellets coming, so I will soon be able to answer a few questions. Mostly, it is just fun. As a youth, I would spend hours shooting BB’s and I attribute that time to my marksmanship capabilities. I think as I have gotten older and mostly fired high power, I have lost some of my skills or more likely acquired bad habits. I think this is one way to help correct that.

April 7, 2022 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

April 7, 2022 /

A few years ago, I had a varmint problem. I will be vague because what I did was technically not legal. Nevertheless, a few years before that I had purchased an inexpensive Crossman bb/pellet rifle. That rifle did the job. The only complaint that I had was a followup shot took ten additional pumps to get the right pressure.

I have used that rifle for the same purpose several times since. However, I am always extremely leary of doing so because if the first shot doesn’t do the job, there is a wounded animal on the loose and I really don’t want that. I also bought some subsonic 22LR and those were very quiet. I have never used those because I haven’t had the opportunity since I purchased them

A word about urban shooting. This needs to be done with extreme caution. It is illegal to discharge an air rifle (and 22LR for that matter) in the city limits. A person needs to be extremely cautious about where that shot is going if you miss. I don’t worry much about BB’s, they can bounce off hard surfaces and tend to be very inaccurate. But, pellets can penetrate fencing, 3/4 plywood and even be fatal.

I have had my eye on a spring piston pellet gun. With one pump, there is more energy than that ten pump combo rifle. Of course it is also four times as expensive. I recently purchased a Crossman Optimus to do this job (on the left).

One thing to note is these rifles need some break in. You will see in my target the progression of the days. The center target was my first day, then I moved to upper right, lower right, upper left and then finally lower left. I only messed with the scope on the center target. Right now, I am shooting until the groups become consistent, which I think they are after 50 shots. Then I will sight the scope in.

I read that older rifles needed more in the range of hundreds to thousands of pellets to become consistent. I have also read that the break in time has gotten much shorter. I am still function firing right now. I have my pellet trap setup at 10 yards in the basement and I fire a few rounds during the day. It is a nice stress reliever.

This rifle is in 0.177” bore diameter There are 0.22” and 0.25” which are technically much better at pest removal. Remember that energy is mass * velocity * velocity. That means a bigger pellet is going to have more energy at the same velocity. The good news is that smaller pellets are easier to deliver faster. And you can see by the equation that velocity has a much bigger effect on energy than mass.

My decision to go to the 0.177 was to share pellets between the two rifles. I don’t like stocking multiple calibers if I don’t need to. The one downside to the rifle is that it is very loud when it fires. The spring mechanism is unexpectedly noisy. Since air rifles are not firearms, there are many models that have integrated suppressors, mine does not have that and the pellets are firing supersonic anyway which significantly reduces the efficacy of such a device.

End Your Programming Routine: If you read the journals of Lewis and Clark, you would know that they used a pre-charged pneumatic air rifle to kill all kinds of game including bear and elk. Those are making a comeback as well but they require a SCUBA tank to fill the reservoir. I wanted something simpler and less dependent on another input. I am rather enjoying my mid-day marksmanship sessions.