30-Yard Challenge

[tommyb]

A 197 is the best I've done so far this year! Really good.

For those of you starting, I would also add that most of my scores the first year were in the 180s and some were in the 170s or worse. It took me a good year to start getting fairly routine 190 or better scores. I still shoot some in the 180s. And that is in my best guns. I've shot one 200 and there was definitely some luck involved (but I shot three 199s first). The advantage I see from all the pellets I've expended at this is I am pretty confident in using one or at most two 5 shot groups to screen pellets for a new gun. My shooting is much more consistent, in other words. I do not think I will ever shoot 200s consistently but I shoot a lot more often over 190 than I did at first. The big issue I have is not stringing together 4 or 5 or 6 10s, it is stringing together 20. And if the wind kicks up a little...

To those shooting springers and less expensive guns (like most of mine) I think we all understand you have a bigger challenge. One of my 5 less expensive PCPs gave me my one 200 but the best the others have done is a 194. I am terrible with a springer. I don't own one but set one up for my son and couldn't shoot a respectable group.

I think this game works best when we look for little improvements and not compare ourselves to others who have been doing it a lot longer and are possibly less limited by their equipment. But I also have experience suggesting that even under $500 PCPs can compete - but I don't think all are at that level, at least mine are not. But a major re-tune took my P35-25 from a 177 to a 194.

I reread your last paragraph Jim.

I have been shooting the challenge since it’s origin in February 2022. As I reflect back and consider your words, I think you hit the nail on the head. Looking for little improvements and experimenting with different pellets, velocities and tunes; is rewarding in and of itself. It is easy to get caught up in the high scores and trying to achieve them, but equally rewarding is coming back from the range knowing your “rifle and you” are steadily improving. In other words, if I shoot a 185-190 at 40 yards, but my rifle is very accurate at 30y; I know it’s my wind reading or technique that needs more work.

But, I sure wouldn’t complain if I shot a friggin’ 200-20x either. See what I did there?



Tom

 

[EPG]

I reread your last paragraph Jim.

I have been shooting the challenge since it’s origin in February 2022. As I reflect back and consider your words, I think you hit the nail on the head. Looking for little improvements and experimenting with different pellets, velocities and tunes; is rewarding in and of itself. It is easy to get caught up in the high scores and trying to achieve them, but equally rewarding is coming back from the range knowing your “rifle and you” are steadily improving. In other words, if I shoot a 185-190 at 40 yards, but my rifle is very accurate at 30y; I know it’s my wind reading or technique that needs more work.

But, I sure wouldn’t complain if I shot a friggin’ 200-20x either. See what I did there?



Tom

Its fun to try to get your name up high on our leaderboards with a great score…

… but what I’m always trying to do is find a tune / setup / pellet for each rifle that gets me a consistent high score.

My best shooting rifles can shoot consistently around 195 at 30 yards with decent wind conditions.

If you really wanted to go after 200 scores then it would be beneficial to weigh and sort your pellets - something I find very tedious.

So, a rifle that can consistently shoot 190+ 30-Challenge cards with pellets straight from the tin is a darn good shootin’ rifle.

Even more challenging is getting your technique consistent enough so that you can shoot the 190+ that the rifle is capable of..

 

[EPG]

Got two cards in with my new to me Taipan Veteran 2 .22 (550mm CZ).

Threw a 45X Sightron on it and zeroed quickly… light was fading after work…

30-Masters: 193 9X
30-Masters: 196 10X

Shooting conditions were finally mild tonight.

-Ed

 

[mreynolds]

The storms finally moved out of the area last night and today brought the first good shooting conditions we have had in weeks. Spent the first two hours trying to find which tin of pellets were the ones that shot extremely well in USFT #85 for me last year and am still looking. I did manage a 199-15X with two different lots and am submitting one for the leader board.

As the afternoon wore on the mild wind conditions slowed to 3 mph or less so, I decided to try the 40 yd challenge with my Thomas using different pellet lots. The third card proved to be the best with a 199-15X which improves on my previously submitted entry for the 40yd challenge by 3 X's. Just have to figure out how to get over the 199-15 hump I hit today.

 

[tommyb]

Truly phenomenal marksmanship, especially with two different rifles and at 40 yards! It’s amazing how precise the accuracy is here at 40y.

Marvin, next time you get a chance, can you take a couple of pics of your setup and rifles? I am not familiar with the USFT.

Given the wind was 3 mph or less, can you recall where you were holding for most of your bulls? I really can’t tell exactly from looking at your cards.

Thanks
Tom

 

[tommyb]

Today I ordered a new Benchrest Scope from Athlon.

15-60X56mm Athlon Heras 2FP BLR2 MOA reticle. I can use this for the 30-40y challenges, N50 50y targets or even at 100y.

First time ordering from Sheels, but they get them direct from Athlon.

I would love a Delta Stryker or Vortex Golden Eagle, but $599 is easier on the wallet.

 

[Headshots]

Today I ordered a new Benchrest Scope from Athlon.

15-60X56mm Athlon Heras 2FP BLR2 MOA reticle. I can use this for the 30-40y challenges, N50 50y targets or even at 100y.

First time ordering from Sheels, but they get them direct from Athlon.

I would love a Delta Stryker or Vortex Golden Eagle, but $599 is easier on the wallet.

View attachment 460492

I'm looking for something around 6-24 .I'm using a 12x scope and something w more magnification would sure help . I have one Athlon and it's nice for the price.

A 60x magnification scope, wow. Looking forward to hearing how you like it .

 

[tommyb]

I'm looking for something around 6-24 .I'm using a 12x scope and something w more magnification would sure help . I have one Athlon and it's nice for the price.

A 60x magnification scope, wow. Looking forward to hearing how you like it .

Ken

PM me if you have interest in a used Votex Diamondback 6-24x50 FFP or an Athlon Argos 6-24X50 FFP scope. I bought too many FFP scopes and I am using only 2FP for BR target shooting.

Tom

 

[JimD]

Well my growth seems to be very slow but I did do very slightly better today. This is the third 197 I've shot with my Caiman X but it has the highest X count, 16. Still using my Arken EPL-4 6-24 set on 24X and H&N Baracuda 18s straight from the tin through the magazine. I was really hoping for better on this one, I was doing great through block 6. Then I shot three 18s and a 19 on the final 6 blocks. Oh well. Could have been worse too. I shot this around 6:30p so there was essentially no wind. I think my issue in the second half of this target was 4 bad trigger pulls. But if it keeps happening I may have to get a head size gauge and sort some pellets. My velocity was a little slower on this than I wanted and slower than it was shooting when I left it yesterday. I had it tuned to shoot 875-880 but today it shot as slow as 845 and no higher than 870. It was filled to a higher pressure, I don't know if that is affecting it or not - still learning a new rifle. I would not think it would make that much difference. I'm down to about 200 bar now and will just shoot it some more down to close to the regulator setting of 100 bar. If it does not go up I will increase the hammer a tiny amount.

 

[EPG]

16X ! Awesome shooting Jimmy D, I have not had a 16X card in some time.

I’ve continued to work with my new-to-me Taipan Vet2 .22.

I shot three 196 30-Masters cards with it yesterday. This makes four straight 196 30-Masters cards with it!

I submit card 3 from yesterday as it has 14X. Note that I shot 18 on the last target pair (#10). I was testing shooting below the Taipan’s reg set point - but it could have just been me getting tired and missing. Would have been nice to get at least 197 on that card.

Then as a tribute to Marvin - our awesome .177 shooter, I grabbed one of my best .177s - FX Dreamline Classic and shot a card at dusk. Alas, not a Marvin-like score - 189 7X 30-Challenge card. I had not shot a card with it since September, so I was not used to how to shoot it - especially the trigger.

-Ed

 

[tommyb]

This must be the day everyone is shooting.

Had the HW100 .22 Carbine out today. Started at 40Y and could not score, and shot 2 cards. A 183 and a 186.

The difference in 10y between 30-40y is massive for me at this distance. I think the new Athlon Heras scope will help with my holds. 16X Mag doesn't cut it for me trying to hold correctly on this miniscule 10 ring.

Moved up to 30 yards and shot a 192-11X and a 195-11X 30Y Masters cards. Also shot a 195-9x 30y Challenge card.

The 195-11X beats my prior 194 Masters Card, so I will submit that one.

 

[EPG]

This must be the day everyone is shooting.

Had the HW100 .22 Carbine out today. Started at 40Y and could not score, and shot 2 cards. A 183 and a 186.

The difference in 10y between 30-40y is massive for me at this distance. I think the new Athlon Heras scope will help with my holds. 16X Mag doesn't cut it for me trying to hold correctly on this miniscule 10 ring.

Moved up to 30 yards and shot a 192-11X and a 195-11X 30Y Masters cards. Also shot a 195-9x 30y Challenge card.

The 195-11X beats my prior 194 Masters Card, so I will submit that one.

Nice shooting Tommy. We notice that your two sighters on that 195 11X card were also 10s… awesome.

Who was that guy who told you about those FX Atomic (JSB Hades) pellets being good enough for precision target work, lol.

That HW is climbing towards 200…

Btw 183 and 185 at 40 yards are good scores - amazing actually with a 16X scope!

I “CHALLENGE” anyone shooting our challenge to set their scope at 16X and try to beat your 185 score at 40 yards - double dare… except Marvin - he’s in another league, lol.

 

[tommyb]

Nice shooting Tommy. We notice that your two sighters on that 195 11X card were also 10s… awesome.

Who was that guy who told you about those FX Atomic (JSB Hades) pellets being good enough for precision target work, lol.

That HW is climbing towards 200…

Btw 183 and 185 at 40 yards are good scores - amazing actually with a 16X scope!

I “CHALLENGE” anyone shooting our challenge to set their scope at 16X and try to beat your 185 score at 40 yards - double dare… except Marvin - he’s in another league, lol.

Thanks Ed. Actually, the guy who told me the Hades (FX Atomic) would work for targets was ‘you.’ I was pleasantly surprised, but the JSBs, Rangemaster 15.89’s are vg also. Just not as tight as the Atomics.

It will be interesting to see if/how the new scope will help with the challenge. Pretty sure it will help.



.

 

[EPG]

Thanks Ed. Actually, the guy who told me the Hades (FX Atomic) would work for targets was ‘you.’ I was pleasantly surprised, but the JSBs, Rangemaster 15.89’s are vg also. Just not as tight as the Atomics.

It will be interesting to see if/how the new scope will help with the challenge. Pretty sure it will help.

I anxiously await your review of the Athlon Heras. The 15-60 magnification range would be awesome for our Challenge target at 30 & 40 yards. Its much more cost effective than a SIII 36x or 45x Sightron. The $500 SII 36x Sightron is the best for your dollar target scope that I’ve found to date.

I shot a 190 with my Benjamin Akela .177 the other day using an Athlon Talos BTR 4-14 scope at 14x. The glass is amazingly bright and clear, but 14x at 30 yards after using 36X+ scopes … I was like - are you kidding me, where the heck did the 10-ring go? Lol. Also that version of the Talos is FFP, so the reticle is too thick at 14x for our target.

I don’t own an SFP scope (except for fixed focal scopes) so that will be interesting.

At NAC in the Speed Shooting, FFP scopes were critical. You were swinging from 25 to 85 yards and with FFP, your holdovers were always constant. I could use 16x, zoom to 24x, drop to 10x on some courses - doesn’t matter with FFP cause my 2 mil holdover at 85 yards was always 2 mil - regardless of magnification.

But SFP for a benchrest scope should work well - as the distance is fixed and the reticle will be thin regardless of the magnification setting.

 

[tommyb]

Back at it today, could not resist. Can honestly say for one of the very rare times, there was no perceivable wind. I did not even deploy flags.

Shot my FX Royale 400 .22 caliber using Rangemaster and JSB 18.1g pellets. Average velocity was about 877-880 FPS
Shot the RAW HM1000X .22 HP using JTS 25.39 pellets. I forgot my shallows, which did shoot very well on some recent N50 cards. **Martin did indicate they shoot well for him also.** Average velocity was about 950 FPS with JTS pellets, which might be a bit hot. But, I am leaving HS right where it is!

Shot a total of "five" 30Y Masters Cards. Two with the RAW, three with the Royale. I consciously 'slowed myself down' today between shots and worked on trigger follow through. My holds were mostly on various points on the 10 ring, but with the RAW many of my 10's came from a 4 O'Clock hold between the 8 and nine ring. Strange, because I could not detect much wind, but it was there. If you look closely on the two RAW cards, you can see pellet holes going slightly left.

I will submit the RAW 195-13X for the leaderboard
I will also submit the Royale 196-11X for the leaderboard

Both of these beat my prior leaderboard entries for these two rifles.

 

[tommyb]

I anxiously await your review of the Athlon Heras. The 15-60 magnification range would be awesome for our Challenge target at 30 & 40 yards. Its much more cost effective than a SIII 36x or 45x Sightron. The $500 SII 36x Sightron is the best for your dollar target scope that I’ve found to date.

I shot a 190 with my Benjamin Akela .177 the other day using an Athlon Talos BTR 4-14 scope at 14x. The glass is amazingly bright and clear, but 14x at 30 yards after using 36X+ scopes … I was like - are you kidding me, where the heck did the 10-ring go? Lol. Also that version of the Talos is FFP, so the reticle is too thick at 14x for our target.

I don’t own an SFP scope (except for fixed focal scopes) so that will be interesting.

At NAC in the Speed Shooting, FFP scopes were critical. You were swinging from 25 to 85 yards and with FFP, your holdovers were always constant. I could use 16x, zoom to 24x, drop to 10x on some courses - doesn’t matter with FFP cause my 2 mil holdover at 85 yards was always 2 mil - regardless of magnification.

But SFP for a benchrest scope should work well - as the distance is fixed and the reticle will be thin regardless of the magnification setting.

Yeah, one of the reasons I am trying the Athlon 15-60 magnification, is because I need more magnification on my RAW for N50 and 100Y EBR practice cards. I will take the Midas TAC 6-24X50MM FFP scope off the RAW and put that on either the Revere or HW100. I also have a 36X Sightron fixed I can use for either of those also.

The SFP scopes are really better for benchrest because they tend to have 'thinner' reticles and since you are shooting at fixed distances, the magnification setting doesn't matter as you point out. Some of the Athlon brand FFP scopes have really thick reticles at 24X and bury the 10 ring at 30 and 40Yards.

 

[JimD]

I waited until the wind died down this evening and shot another 197 with my Caiman. Only 11Xs. I had 3 or 4 9s that I thought might be 10s. Oh well. Then I tried my P35-177 and couldn't do anything. No consistency. Zero was way off, was shooting it in a little wind when I last used it. But I got that fixed but I just couldn't consistent find the 10 ring. Didn't finish the target, pulled out the P35-25. I hadn't shot it in a month or more. First shot was a bit off but then I started getting 9s. But I had a heck of a time adjusting the scope to hit the 10 ring. Still not sure I got it. It started getting dark and the Vector Sentinel 8-32 is not very bright, especially at 32X.

I shot my one 200 last year with the 32X Sentinel but I've mainly been using 6-24s in 2024 and I don't think they hurt my scores. My Arken is better glass and brighter so a little less magnification is offset by those features. My Athlon Talos isn't quite as good as the Arken but it seems better than the Sentinel. The Vector Veyron on my P35-22 isn't as good as the other two, it doesn't seem like it is really quite 24X but I still shot a 196 with it so I think it's OK. The glass seems fine but it just seems like the magnification is a bit less. I haven't really tried my 16X scopes but I shot a target or two with a FFP Primary Arms 4-14 and I think the best was a 177. I think it would be possible to do better but with less magnification I have to try and center the target in the reticle, I can't really see the 10 ring. The reticle on the PA 4-14 is really thick but that means it is visible at 4X (its FFP). I did manage to put 5 shots in a row into the 10 ring with a bullshark I was working on with it's 12X magnification Hawke Vantage. Lower power scopes seem like a handicap, at least with my 68 year old eyes, but they can work for some, I guess.

 

[NAProf]

Hi Guys!
It has been a while since I shot a card with my HFT rig, so I thought I would see how it is doing. I have done really well in HFT so far this season (better than 90% hit rate, except for offhand where last time out I did 25% of those). Anyway shot two cards and the better one is below - 196-14X. Wait, that sounds familiar. Oh yah, it seemed like every time Ed shot a card for a while that was his score. Puts me in good company. Still trying to catch Marvin though not sure anyone can.
I am also including a photo of the wind flag right after I shot that card. The big problem was not the horizontal nature of the flag, but that this only happened on occasion (

perhaps on the second bull in group 4???).

 

[EPG]

Hi Guys!
It has been a while since I shot a card with my HFT rig, so I thought I would see how it is doing. I have done really well in HFT so far this season (better than 90% hit rate, except for offhand where last time out I did 25% of those). Anyway shot two cards and the better one is below - 196-14X. Wait, that sounds familiar. Oh yah, it seemed like every time Ed shot a card for a while that was his score. Puts me in good company. Still trying to catch Marvin though not sure anyone can.
I am also including a photo of the wind flag right after I shot that card. The big problem was not the horizontal nature of the flag, but that this only happened on occasion (View attachment 461327View attachment 461328perhaps on the second bull in group 4???).

Great shooting Greg. Yeah, a little gust will get ya a result like 4b…

I shot 4 straight 196 30-Masters cards with the Taipan… then this 197 15X - which I’ll submit.

Then I went out to 40-Challenge. Oh wow, I forgot how far 40 is.

I shot a 186 9X and then this 190 8X at 40-Challenge. (I shot 175 and 180 40-Masters with Taipan - which I won’t submit - I was tired and it got windier)

I’m thinking of tearing down the Taipan and dropping reg pressure from 150 to 120bar. I’m not sure why, lol - its shooting well - but I gotta see how its put together.

 

[tommyb]

Is it my imagination, or is everyone shooting higher scores and shooting more accurately? I remember a time when a 185-190 was a good score for the 30 yard challenge.

The best part of this challenge for me is the ‘sharing’ of information between the participants. I look forward to hearing the background behind the various guns, pellets, tunes, shooting environments, frustrations, new learnings, et. Al.