Last night I was thinking to myself - The State has closed down our big range, I don't normally have the 50 yard range in my backyard open (can't even see it from most shooting benches) and you haven't shot past 50 yards in the last 6 months. So why in H3LL do you have 3 .30 cal air rifles??? "I-want-itis" I guess. I wanted to keep one 'long range' rifle in the collection, especially if I find another local place to maybe shoot 100 yards. But somehow I ended up with 3. So I decide that this morning I would shoot all 3 back-to-back and just gauge my feelings about them. And that's what I did.
Just over 58 degF outside this morning when I started, and virtually no wind or even a breeze to speak of. The rifles include Daystate Red Wolf HP Safari, Brocock Sonoran with AoA Power Tune, BRK Ghost HP. I am shooting off a Caldwell Stable Table, with an Accu-Tac FC-4 at the front (wider than I am used to - nice) and a beanbag at the rear. I would fill each gun to 250 bar per my compressor's gauge, shoot 3 shots at the lowest (zeroing) target, make any scope adjustments I wanted, then shoot 2 each 5 shot groups starting at the top. The RW and Sonoran each have single shot loaders, so those got used for those guns. Don't yet have one for the Ghost, so its groups were shot with the OEM magazine. Pellets were basic FX 44.8, unwashed, unlubed, unsorted. (I have found in the past that Daystates can do just a little better with their own branded Rangemaster (by JSB) pellets. Maybe I'll have to repeat?) From my initial chrony testing with these guns, 44.8 gr pellets are flying at: RW (Hi)- 878 fps; Sonoran (TP full open)- 891; Ghost (power wheel turned down to 6)- 919 fps.
Now I'm much, much more of a plinker than any marksman, but here are my groups from this morning:
Just eyeballing it appears that groups #2 from the RW and the Ghost are the best, with maybe the Ghost's being slightly better. I have no clue as to why shots #3&4 from the RW's group #1 dropped in the 5:00 direction from the others. Shot #5 was back into the initial group. Likely operator error.
Thoughts after shooting all 3 back-to-back? The trigger on the RW was the best (no surprise there for me). Ghost was really good too, and the Sonoran came in last. RW and Sonoran big, long and heavy. Funny because the Sonoran is shorter than the RW due to its 'semi-bullpup' stock and shorter (?) barrel, but it felt just as long. Great for the bench, but boy the Ghost sure felt light and handy in comparison. And just fine on the bench too, except for my current set up (more on that later). Shot cycle was smoothest with the RW, and very nice with the Ghost. Once again the Sonoran came in 3rd place here. And for this shooter, today, and with these pellets, the outstanding SubMOA barrel of the Sonoran did not provide any magic benefit, as it came in 3rd place in the accuracy department. Of course that could be all on the shoulders of this shooter.
So I definitely like my set-ups with the RW and the Sonoran. I will see if I can adjust the Sonoran's trigger to be a little lighter.
I did determine that I did NOT like how I have the Ghost scoped. I will probably change out from the Mamba Pro 5-30 x 50 to something which has a reticle with a center dot instead of center crosshairs. And I definitely want to go to taller rings.
So... which one(s) am I going to part with? Definitely can't make that decision yet as I still have some configuring and testing to do. Fun times these! And anyway I really need to slow down on selling off my air guns - I'm running out of my best rifle shipping overboxes, and have already had to purchase bubble wrap for packing from Amazon!
The 'contestants' - all would win the swimsuit competition in my view:
Just over 58 degF outside this morning when I started, and virtually no wind or even a breeze to speak of. The rifles include Daystate Red Wolf HP Safari, Brocock Sonoran with AoA Power Tune, BRK Ghost HP. I am shooting off a Caldwell Stable Table, with an Accu-Tac FC-4 at the front (wider than I am used to - nice) and a beanbag at the rear. I would fill each gun to 250 bar per my compressor's gauge, shoot 3 shots at the lowest (zeroing) target, make any scope adjustments I wanted, then shoot 2 each 5 shot groups starting at the top. The RW and Sonoran each have single shot loaders, so those got used for those guns. Don't yet have one for the Ghost, so its groups were shot with the OEM magazine. Pellets were basic FX 44.8, unwashed, unlubed, unsorted. (I have found in the past that Daystates can do just a little better with their own branded Rangemaster (by JSB) pellets. Maybe I'll have to repeat?) From my initial chrony testing with these guns, 44.8 gr pellets are flying at: RW (Hi)- 878 fps; Sonoran (TP full open)- 891; Ghost (power wheel turned down to 6)- 919 fps.
Now I'm much, much more of a plinker than any marksman, but here are my groups from this morning:
Just eyeballing it appears that groups #2 from the RW and the Ghost are the best, with maybe the Ghost's being slightly better. I have no clue as to why shots #3&4 from the RW's group #1 dropped in the 5:00 direction from the others. Shot #5 was back into the initial group. Likely operator error.
Thoughts after shooting all 3 back-to-back? The trigger on the RW was the best (no surprise there for me). Ghost was really good too, and the Sonoran came in last. RW and Sonoran big, long and heavy. Funny because the Sonoran is shorter than the RW due to its 'semi-bullpup' stock and shorter (?) barrel, but it felt just as long. Great for the bench, but boy the Ghost sure felt light and handy in comparison. And just fine on the bench too, except for my current set up (more on that later). Shot cycle was smoothest with the RW, and very nice with the Ghost. Once again the Sonoran came in 3rd place here. And for this shooter, today, and with these pellets, the outstanding SubMOA barrel of the Sonoran did not provide any magic benefit, as it came in 3rd place in the accuracy department. Of course that could be all on the shoulders of this shooter.
So I definitely like my set-ups with the RW and the Sonoran. I will see if I can adjust the Sonoran's trigger to be a little lighter.
I did determine that I did NOT like how I have the Ghost scoped. I will probably change out from the Mamba Pro 5-30 x 50 to something which has a reticle with a center dot instead of center crosshairs. And I definitely want to go to taller rings.
So... which one(s) am I going to part with? Definitely can't make that decision yet as I still have some configuring and testing to do. Fun times these! And anyway I really need to slow down on selling off my air guns - I'm running out of my best rifle shipping overboxes, and have already had to purchase bubble wrap for packing from Amazon!
The 'contestants' - all would win the swimsuit competition in my view:
