Using an airgun at the 22 long rifle range.

Iowa Airgunner said:

I have an airgun field target and bench rest range set up at the local rifle club. And I am always trying to “advertise” and recruit new people into the airgun community. Seems the guys in the club know about it but haven’t come out. So I decided to join them and show how an airgun does.


The big 100 yard rifle range has a separate 22lr section.
They have a bunch of big metal reactive targets set out to 100 yards. Using my HFT-500 at 16 ft lb I can hit them. But knocking them down is another thing. And I can’t reset them. And when the wind starts. I can’t see what I’m hitting out at 100 yards so I can’t adjust. So I need something bigger.

I found a used FX Crown with a wood stock. I really don’t want synthetic. Just me but I like wood and the adjustable cheek piece.
It’s chambered in .30 cal. shooting 44.5 gr at 900 fps. That is comparable to a 22lr for target work I and I should be able to see it hit.

It has a small leak and I want to rebuild it all eventually anyway so I am waiting for some seals to arrive . I excited this should be a fun winter project.

The idea is to show the gun club guys that it is not a Red Ryder that we are shooting down there.

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awesome gun

Oh yeah that Crown will show them how it's done

wish my local had a seperate range. I am going out to shoot today and main reason why i bought the m4 over the drs.

Iowa,

" So I decided to join them and show how an airgun does".

Good decision.

Ron

With forty years experience using improbable equipment to beat the most superfluously-equipped competitors at their own games I've found it is one thing to beat them, altogether another thing for them to acknowledge it.

Still beating the best to this day, in capturing 3 National and 3 State Champion titles with this 1960s vintage Crosman Co2 rifle converted to air pistol I've had a total of just three defeated competitors ask "what kind of pistol is that?"





And had similar (lack of) curiosity and acknowledgement about my 1950s vintage .22 Crosman Co2 rifle while I was beating the best .177 Euro-springer shooters in NRA Silhouette competition about Y2K to capture State Champion titles and National Record certificates.




In similar displays at gun clubs I've found the only acknowledgement has been becoming known as "that airgun guy".

.

MY range has a 50 yard .22 bench rest and 100 yard also . this is a .22 only range separated by 300 yards from the rifle range .
I have shot the 50 yard bench meets with air guns and stayed in the top 8 everyone is curious even the multi thousand $$ bench rifle guys
TILL THEY LEARN THE COST of the compressors and tanks and 00.054 cents per pellet . So far i have only shot using the Daystate Pulsar as it is a more normal looking rifle with the special black and brown Laminate stock . next meet i will shoot the S510 in .22 for the first round .
Second round will shoot TM1000 in .20 ,

Iowa Airgunner said:

But my interest is to convert them.

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'Tis a noble, but thankless, mission. In a half-century as tireless airgun ambassador, I've converted very few.
.

I'm one to share the news about how wonderful airguns are as well.

Locally, most shooters consider all airguns to be Red Rider BB-gun quality, power, accuracy and range so a modern PCP is a real shock to them.

Before the sandpits were closed to the public (due to the garbage being left there) I used to go there to just before the deer hunting season to do some long range shooting and pick up empty brass for a friend who reloads.

My PCPs attracted a lot of attention from the guys sighting in their rifles. Me setting up empty shotgun shells at 50 yards and tins at 100 yards were viewed with disbelief and frequently wagers were made. Unfortunately, it didn't take people long to realize that betting against me was expensive and that source of funding my pellet stocks dried up. To help dispel the Red Rider perspective, I always made a point of letting people try my airguns. It was fun to watch them out-shoot their own deer rifles with a "BB-gun".

Everybody was very impressed with everything about the PCPs EXCEPT the price of the rifles and the support equipment. Cost of entry level PCPs has since come way down and reasonably priced compressors are now readily available but it's still expensive to get into airgunning. The rapidly increasing cost of pellets is not helping either.

When talking about a source of HPA I point out that one good compressor will service a lot of PCPs and sharing one between a couple of friends is practical. Used SCUBA tanks are also an economical solution, especially for the more casual shooters.

Considering other forms of entertainment, personally, (in spite of having too many airguns) I think that airgunning is a relatively inexpensive hobby... Especially if I look at what I've invested in fishing gear.

Good luck in converting those PB guys to airgunners. If you succeed, some of them will thank you, others will curse you for leading them down this rabbit hole!

Cheers!

Iowa Airgunner said:

Here’s the thing. I have been in Iowa for ten years. These guys are very smart. Either university or farmers. But not a bunch of yahoos that’s for sure. They like to fiddle and fuss with machinery. The RC car group and the RC airplane club is full of these guys. The outdoors the hunting is a big part of life here. Winter is long and hard and indoor stuff is import. Then outdoor stuff takes over. Once these guys discover real airguns it will spread like wildfire. If I had money to loose I would open an airgun store. Do repairs and sell ammo and targets. Sponsor a comp on weekend and charge to fill tanks.

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and your enjoyable shooting time would diminish to maybe an hour or so .a week

I have done it. The Ouachita Parish range, operated by the sheriffs dept. They have a 200 yard rifle range then a pistol range that goes out to 50 yards. Rimfire rifles and rifles of pistol calibers are allowed on the rifle range as well as air guns. Last time I was there I had an air rifle and my FWB 65 pistol. The range officer had never seen one so I showed him how to cock and load the pistol with instructions to never fire without a pellet as it would cause damage, handed him the gun and a tin of pellets and he came back a few minutes grinning,.

I took my Crown to the range to use as a spotter, but never fired it. I got quite a bit of curious traffic in pearl River, St Tammany Parish.
Mine is a .30 cal and I do need to shoot it at the range but there is no facility for a compressor, and don't have a tank.

Iowa Airgunner said:

That’s a beauty. The tank makes life so easy . It’s worth it.

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I never paid any thought about it until I read this post.