Some thoughts on my first "serious" AirBenchrest experience

by Paul , Sunday, January 29, 2017, 21:12 (2792 days ago)

Well, this afternoon my wife and I headed out to the new gun club property to give AirBenchrest a whirl. ACTP (Asociación Colombiana de Tiro de Precisión) was doing their first "simultaneo", with folks participating in various departments around Colombia. I tried to get different people to come, but only one of the other members was able to come and participate.

My wife and I arrived and carried the equipment downhill about 100-150 yards or so to the space that eventually will become the 50 meter range. We set up a folding table, a couple of chairs, the chronograph and a couple of PVC target stands I built. I then proceeded to record info on my two rifles as I didn't know for sure which one I'd be shooting for record. Both are running in the sub-12 FPE category, the Hatsan Nova surprising me as I wasn't sure how much it had been turned down from the original factory tune that was above the speed of sound.

After some initial putzing around I put up some practice targets and proceeded to check them out. The Hatsan was not grouping well at all with the heavier pellets, but didn't improve very much with the lighter "standard weight" either... but the Air Arms did not take to shooting off the bags so the Hatsan was decided on. About that time Jaime showed up so we proceeded to check his rifle - and found that his fill station would NOT hook up to the SCUBA tank a friend had loaned me. So he ended up shooting the 2 year old air in his Hammerli AR20FT without topping up.

Once we got the preliminaries taken care of we settled down to business. After taping an official target apiece up on the frame my wife called "TIME!" and we were off with a "pfft". Well, the Hatsan sounds more like "boingfft" and his Hammerli had a bit more bite to it, but it's real fun to shoot without needing ear muffs or plugs.

By the time we'd run through all three cards for the match (25 rounds for score on each one) he was WAYdown into the yellow zone of his air tank - but the Hatsan still has another 100 or more shots in it, judging by the gauge.

Something's not right with my setup. In spite of a consistent sight picture, no flinching and fairly consistent trigger pull, this rifle was throwing some weird fliers. This cost me a lot of points as there was no way to judge when it would throw them nor in which direction. If I tried to compensate because it appeared to be walking in a certain direction and I'd hold off for the next anticipated change - it was sure to put the shot where the crosshairs were, not where it "should" have been according to the previous three or so shots. I soon learned to hold on and let 'er walk where she would.

Now to go over the rifle, check for any clipping in the QE guts, go over the pellets to see if there's inconsistencies in weight, pull the barrel, give it a good cleaning and then perhaps clean up the crown. This rifle's a HOOT to shoot at 12 FPE off the bags - but it'd be a lot more funner if it would shoot consistently in the accuracy department.

We had a great day at the range. Need to get out and relax like that more often.