30-Yard Challenge

[EPG]

FX Crown Mark 2 Barrel Swap – Tuning Info:

Today I removed 380mm barrel and installed 500mm.

How to do: Loosen 4 retaining screws, pull out barrel, install new barrel, tighten 4 screws – takes 2 minutes. No need to remove rifle from shooting bench.

Regulator Pressure = 140 bar.

380mm Barrel:
15.89g @ 885fps
18.13g @ 838fps

500mm Barrel:
18.13g @ 885-890fps

So, simply by swapping 380mm to 500mm – NO other adjustments, the velocity of the 380mm with 15.89s = the velocity of the 500mm with 18.13s. Isn’t that super convenient !? Use the 380mm to shoot 15.89s and the 500mm to shoot 18.13s.

See the paper plate for 40 Yard 5-shot groups. These 5-shot groups are the blue ½” circles. Note that both barrels can shoot ½” 40-yard groups (in breezy conditions!)

Note that the 500mm barrel shifted PoI 2.48 inches to the left from the 380mm barrel – but immediately shot a tiny sub-1/2’ group at 40 yards.

I did the barrel swap because I had the afternoon off and it seemed too breezy to target shoot.

Once I saw the groups, I shot two 40-Masters Cards (and one more late in the day):

Card #1: 186 5X (very breezy)
Card #2: 191 11X (less breezy – holy smokes, 11X – it felt like 30 yards I was hitting so many bulls)
Card #3: 187 7X (very breezy – shot late in the day in fading light)

This 500mm / 18.13g combination holds promise. The 191 11X card felt awesome as I was shooting it.

I believe the 18.13g are going to be better than the 15.89 at 40 yards with any wind. I did shoot 3 straight 190+ 40 Cards with the Crown and 15.89s in still conditions the other day – but any wind the the 15.89s move around more than the 18.13s do.

I hope this info is helpful to folks thinking about adding a barrel to their FX Crown. The 380mm with 15.89 and the 500mm with 18.13g seem an excellent setup. I’ll eventually do some testing with the 700mm barrel and 21g & 25g.

-Ed

 

[EPG]

I’ve got company coming. Had to work today also.

Conditions at 3pm were nearly still - so I jumped out and shot this with the FX Crown.

I’m stoked about this 197 13X at 40-Challenge!!

My 1st card of the day was a 187 in late morning - a bit hungover and it was breezy… so I wasn’t expecting this 197 - but I knew conditions were good !

-Ed

 

[tommyb]

FX Crown Mark 2 Barrel Swap – Tuning Info:

Today I removed 380mm barrel and installed 500mm.

How to do: Loosen 4 retaining screws, pull out barrel, install new barrel, tighten 4 screws – takes 2 minutes. No need to remove rifle from shooting bench.

Regulator Pressure = 140 bar.

380mm Barrel:
15.89g @ 885fps
18.13g @ 838fps

500mm Barrel:
18.13g @ 885-890fps

So, simply by swapping 380mm to 500mm – NO other adjustments, the velocity of the 380mm with 15.89s = the velocity of the 500mm with 18.13s. Isn’t that super convenient !? Use the 380mm to shoot 15.89s and the 500mm to shoot 18.13s.

See the paper plate for 40 Yard 5-shot groups. These 5-shot groups are the blue ½” circles. Note that both barrels can shoot ½” 40-yard groups (in breezy conditions!)

Note that the 500mm barrel shifted PoI 2.48 inches to the left from the 380mm barrel – but immediately shot a tiny sub-1/2’ group at 40 yards.

I did the barrel swap because I had the afternoon off and it seemed too breezy to target shoot.

Once I saw the groups, I shot two 40-Masters Cards (and one more late in the day):

Card #1: 186 5X (very breezy)
Card #2: 191 11X (less breezy – holy smokes, 11X – it felt like 30 yards I was hitting so many bulls)
Card #3: 187 7X (very breezy – shot late in the day in fading light)

This 500mm / 18.13g combination holds promise. The 191 11X card felt awesome as I was shooting it.

I believe the 18.13g are going to be better than the 15.89 at 40 yards with any wind. I did shoot 3 straight 190+ 40 Cards with the Crown and 15.89s in still conditions the other day – but any wind the the 15.89s move around more than the 18.13s do.

I hope this info is helpful to folks thinking about adding a barrel to their FX Crown. The 380mm with 15.89 and the 500mm with 18.13g seem an excellent setup. I’ll eventually do some testing with the 700mm barrel and 21g & 25g.

-Ed

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Ed,

Are you trying to get me all lathered up to buy yet another new Airgun? These MK2’s are shooting crazy accurately everywhere I look on AGN.

JK - I just bought a new .20 cal Marauder, with some tweaks from Rich at Airgun Revisions.

Great shooting…

 

[JimD]

This is a status update. I hoped to get a period with very low wind today to shoot a better target but it did not happen. I shot this target yesterday a bit early. I shot it about 3:30 and the wind died down after 4pm. Wind direction was changing but mostly 9-10. Towards me and left to right. A lot of my poor shots are low and right. So I think it was wind affected but I am undoubtedly a bit rusty too. I spent significant time earlier last week finishing this stock. It is mostly Luan from church pews. I rescued the wood from a dumpster at my church and planed it down flat, glued up a blank, and added the nose piece from my small stash of figured oak from my now deceased killing tree. The P35-25 has been retuned up about 50% in fpe which I did not expect to affect accuracy but it definitely has in a positive way. You may be able to detect the new larger plenum at the rear of the air tube. I also drilled out the transfer port, barrel port, pellet probe and the path in the block between the transfer port and the barrel port from 75% of bore diameter to 85%. I have some FX 33.95s on the way. This was shot by JSB 33.95 (MKII) going about 805 fps. I'm pretty sure I can get a 190+ out of this gun now if I can get the wind to cooperate. I need to determine if it shoots JSBs or FX better too. I don't expect there to be much difference but the FX are a couple dollars a tin cheaper so it would be nice if it likes them.

 

[EPG]

This is a status update. I hoped to get a period with very low wind today to shoot a better target but it did not happen. I shot this target yesterday a bit early. I shot it about 3:30 and the wind died down after 4pm. Wind direction was changing but mostly 9-10. Towards me and left to right. A lot of my poor shots are low and right. So I think it was wind affected but I am undoubtedly a bit rusty too. I spent significant time earlier last week finishing this stock. It is mostly Luan from church pews. I rescued the wood from a dumpster at my church and planed it down flat, glued up a blank, and added the nose piece from my small stash of figured oak from my now deceased killing tree. The P35-25 has been retuned up about 50% in fpe which I did not expect to affect accuracy but it definitely has in a positive way. You may be able to detect the new larger plenum at the rear of the air tube. I also drilled out the transfer port, barrel port, pellet probe and the path in the block between the transfer port and the barrel port from 75% of bore diameter to 85%. I have some FX 33.95s on the way. This was shot by JSB 33.95 (MKII) going about 805 fps. I'm pretty sure I can get a 190+ out of this gun now if I can get the wind to cooperate. I need to determine if it shoots JSBs or FX better too. I don't expect there to be much difference but the FX are a couple dollars a tin cheaper so it would be nice if it likes them.

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Church pew stock… that rifle has all kinds of good karma JimmyD - looks great too.

I definitely think its a 190+ shooter !!

 

[Florida_Man]

Nice Jim! It’s getting there. Mine likes the FX 34’s more than both JSB’s. But my pellet stock in 34’s is 2 years old.

Weather here is a no go this weekend. It’s been raining and windy all day. I was supposed to cut the grass today …

 

[Florida_Man]

And the morning update haha
20 mph minimum today, gusts into the upper 30’s. 3 in so far and still falling.

 

[tommyb]

This is a status update. I hoped to get a period with very low wind today to shoot a better target but it did not happen. I shot this target yesterday a bit early. I shot it about 3:30 and the wind died down after 4pm. Wind direction was changing but mostly 9-10. Towards me and left to right. A lot of my poor shots are low and right. So I think it was wind affected but I am undoubtedly a bit rusty too. I spent significant time earlier last week finishing this stock. It is mostly Luan from church pews. I rescued the wood from a dumpster at my church and planed it down flat, glued up a blank, and added the nose piece from my small stash of figured oak from my now deceased killing tree. The P35-25 has been retuned up about 50% in fpe which I did not expect to affect accuracy but it definitely has in a positive way. You may be able to detect the new larger plenum at the rear of the air tube. I also drilled out the transfer port, barrel port, pellet probe and the path in the block between the transfer port and the barrel port from 75% of bore diameter to 85%. I have some FX 33.95s on the way. This was shot by JSB 33.95 (MKII) going about 805 fps. I'm pretty sure I can get a 190+ out of this gun now if I can get the wind to cooperate. I need to determine if it shoots JSBs or FX better too. I don't expect there to be much difference but the FX are a couple dollars a tin cheaper so it would be nice if it likes them.

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Jim - get the FX branded JSB pellets. I can’t tell any difference and most can’t. Also, you can play with velocity for the MK2’s and try a ‘little’ faster. Mine shot pretty good at 840-860 in my .25 Taipan, but entirely different gun too. When I adjust HST, I normally go up/down in small increments. At 30y it may not affect accuracy much, but worth a shot.

Good luck, stay dry.

 

[EPG]

First card of today. Conditions not quite as good as yesterday - but still pretty good.

All misses on this card were me. Shot terrible on target pair #2.

Definitely think I can shoot 200 at 40 yards now with this Crown - vertical is super consistent.

For now, I wanna break 193 at 40-Masters, I’ve shot 193 at 40-Masters with at least 3 rifles now, but can’t seem to break through to 194.

Note my one sighter to the left on white dot was an X - wish I could use that for Target #2 , lol.

Its gonna rain - perhaps time for another 40-Masters…

 

[EPG]

2nd card of the day… fate is so cruel… I released a good last shot (I thought) - it was an 8 on Target 10b…

… then it scored another 193… argh !

Then again, since when did I start complaining about 193 on 40-Masters, lol.

Note my 2 sighters, circled faintly in orange on left of rows 1&2 were both Xs… dang.

 

[EPG]

To show I’m not a whiner about the 8 (probably tried too hard on that last target - I knew I had a chance to hit 194+), I had Bek take my picture with the cards.

I’m happy with 192 and 193 back-to-back 40-Masters cards. Note the smile, lol

Wind and rain coming in, off to watch my Patriots battle her Chiefs.

 

[JimD]

Those are great 40 yard scores, Ed. I can't do that at home, my maximum distance is 35 yards and that requires shooting from my side porch. First 7 yards or so is along the side of the house. My trap is normally on the portable stand at 30 yards these days.

Sunday was rain all day and it was dry but windy yesterday but the wind calmed down pretty well around 4pm today and I shot this target I am calling 192 with 10X. Check out cell 11 and the left target on 8, 9, and 10. Guns shoots well, I was not getting it lined up properly at first and have at least one bad trigger pull in there. I scored this target my normal way for a 25, I used my "pellet on a stick". I used epoxy to attach a large toothpick to a 25 caliber pellet and use it like a scoring gauge. I made this over a year ago. It is definitely not as nice as a scoring gauge but it works. I think Ed said something about using a 22 scoring gauge for 25, I could do that but with a little side pressure I can get the same score. The hole is bigger than the gauge, in other words. There are several close holes in this target.

The biggest reason I wanted to get a target like this shot is to make a decision on my order of a new barrel for this gun. I ordered one in April of this year from Krale who is trying to get it from SPA. I will call them in the morning to see if I can cancel the order. If not it isn't a big deal. I was comfortable that a new barrel was likely to be an improvement when I shot a 155 but once I shot the 177 at the new tune with the 4-14 scope I knew the barrel was not as bad as I thought it was. My tune was the bigger issue. The crown looks terrible but it seems to shoot pretty well. Probably at least as well as my P35-177 - but I need to spend some time tuning the 177. But with a 192 with 10Xs, including a few of what we used to call double Xs I think it is very questionable that a new barrel from SPA will shoot better.

This target is only the second with the 32X Vector Continental scope (first was a 185-5X) on this gun. I have FX 33.95 grain pellets on the way and need to try those. I still do not see this as another 200 shooter but Cell 11 and the left targets on 8, 9, and 10 look pretty good to me.

 

[EPG]

TYC Team,

I’m really excited about this…!

First card today was a 40-Masters - 184 7X with the Crown and 18.13g. It was very breezy.

Took the afternoon off from work. Wind died down to very mild breeze. Second card was this - 197 15X at 40-Masters !!!

I was misaligned on 2b and stupidly took shot (9). I felt myself pull down on 8b (9). I thought I released a good shot on 9a - this 9 could have been breeze or me.

Damn close to 16X - see closeup of 10b (10).

Note my 3 sighters (2 in one hole left of row 1 & one sighter right of row 1 were all bullseyes!

This rifle DEFINITELY can shoot a 200 at 40 yards. Now I believe it can shoot a 200 Masters at 40 yards - question is whether I can do it.

Pellets straight from the tin as always. No sighters once I started the card. Temperature was 39F.

Wow!

-Ed

 

[EPG]

They just keep coming today - next card - 40-Masters… 197 12X..

 

[EPG]

My only card today. Windy and cold.

I have to shoot the Crown with just wearing a shirt without a coat/vest - so it was pretty darn cold waiting out the wind as best I could on this card. Cold enough to require 3 clicks up on the Sightron.

193 11X - really happy with that score at 40-Yard Masters considering the conditions and that I started with a 17 for Target Pair #1.

Hope you guys are shooting regardless of weather…

-Ed

 

[tommyb]

You have this 40Y Master’s thing “down cold” Ed. The rifles are all good, but the shooter is getting much better.

Whatever you do, don’t create a 50Y Masters card and then go and shoot a 200!

Seriously, any 190 or better at 40Y is an accomplishment. I keep tryin.

 

[EPG]

Thanks TommyB, I do think I’m getting better as a shooter. This Challenge has been an IMMENSE help to improvement in 2023.

I’m gonna share some detailed info on what I’m using and what I’m doing…

… hoping it may help others.

-Ed

 

[tommyb]

Finally shot a decent 40Y Masters Card. 193-10X with FX Royale .22. Had I shot a normal 40Y card, would have been a 197 taking the two mulligans at the bottom.

I shoot from the bottom; right to left always for these targets. Took 4 bulls to get going and of course the last bull ( #1 bull, left target ) I said to myself, " you are going to choke."

I will submit this one for the leaderboard. Shot (5) 40Y Masters card in total, but struggled with the rest.

 

[EPG]

Finally shot a decent 40Y Masters Card. 193-10X with FX Royale .22. Had I shot a normal 40Y card, would have been a 197 taking the two mulligans at the bottom.

I shoot from the bottom; right to left always for these targets. Took 4 bulls to get going and of course the last bull ( #1 bull, left target ) I said to myself, " you are going to choke."

I will submit this one for the leaderboard. Shot (5) 40Y Masters card in total, but struggled with the rest.

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AWESOME!!

TommyB, you had a streak of 14 out of 15 with 10 or better - with the 9 during that streak pretty close!

So, now you agreed that a 200 at 40 yards is possible, if the stars (and wind) alight perfectly, lol.

Great shooting on that 193 10X !!

 

[JimD]

I am still shooting an occasional target but nothing great to report. I got the FX 34s for my P35-25 and shot two targets with them, a 187 and, today, a 181. The scope (Vector) was dialed in yesterday but off today. That and the wind dropped my score a little. I think the FX shoot about as well as the JSBs but would love to get a target over 190 to be sure. I called Krale about canceling the new barrel for this gun and I can't. It has finally shipped and would have been here by now but the ship had to go around the horn of Africa due to the fighting in the middle east. So sometime in January (maybe February) I should have it and will determine which I like better. Hopefully the new barrel is OK with the current tune. Maybe it will be a great one like my P35-22 has. At least I know the gun will not be worse than a high 180s to low 190s shooter.

I started exploring the P35-177 a little today. I bought some FX 13.4s for it in the same order as the FX 34s for the 25. The 177 doesn't care for them. I'm thinking my 177 might be shooting the 10.6 grain H&N Baracudas a little fast at about 900. But they are going slower these days due to the cool weather. So I'll probably put them over the chrony and if they are closer to 875 now, shoot a target with them. If they are still going too fast or the target isn't better I will probably turn the regulator down a small amount. Then retune the hammer spring and see what that does. The 25 experience has me thinking a new tune might help this gun.

Still fun to shoot when the weather cooperates and I have a little time. This week has been good for wind for significant periods of time but mornings are cold and wind picks up a little until shortly before dark. But afternoons are normally in the 50s so pretty nice for winter time.

I think I noticed something that might qualify as a "tip". It seems like I need to position my bipod to get the gun centered on the target instead of using the windage on my rear monopod to pivot the gun. It seems like if I move the gun a lot with the monopod I am kind of fighting the soft feet on the bipod and shots move around a little. If I took the cover off my bench it might help too (i.e. this may be worse with a rough surface under the bipod).