• Please consider adding your "Event" to the Calendar located on our Home page!

At 30 yards what should my grouping be?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Matthew454

Matthew454

Member
Apr 27, 2016
3
0
W.V.
All my pellet rifles are .177 caliber. I have a Swiss Army TG-1 1400fps pellet rifle with a 4x40 scope along with a Ruger Blackhawk Elite 1200fps and a 3-9x32 scope and a Gamo Silent Cat 1250fps with a 3-9x32 scope. I'm shooting 30 yards with hollow point Premier 7.9 grain .177 pellets. Can someone please tell me what group I should be able to stay in at 30yards and 50 yards? Silent Cat at 30 yards 5 shots...5 inch group. Ruger same. Swiss Army is grouping better though in alittle over 3 inch group. So...does that sound right? Can the guns do better?
 
Your group should be an inch or less using .177 pellets. The problem as I see it is in your fps. 1400 and 1200 fps is way too powerful for a .177. The pellets are probably going supersonic and therefore your groups are wider. Try using a heavier pellet. Try the JSB 10.34 grain pellets. If you keep your pellet speed between 900 to 980 fps, your groups should get tighter. 
 
Upvote 0
Matt, first every gun is different the rule of thumb is once you can shoot 1" groups or lower you are ready to move further out. Most guns will out shoot there shooters, so it will be you more than likely the gun that is at fault for poor groups. Usually the hold of that rifle, the lack of follow thru, trigger control or breathing. Springer's require more love and dedication to these rules. On average understand you get what you pay for, a $100 gun can shoot fine but it will not have all the bells and whistles and the potiential accuracy as a $1000 gun. I would expect your groups to be 1" or less if you get the right pellets for that gun, and do all your parts correctly. I also would tell you at the speeds you put out there, they are too fast (FPS). pellets TEND to become unstable in flight at 1050 or greater FPS. Good luck and happy shooting.
 
Upvote 0
Matthew I would not expect your lower end springers to necessarily keep up accuracy wise with the higher end pellet rifles and PCP's. No disrespect intended just a fact of life. It does seem you are getting pretty good accuracy with your rifles at 30 yards. As Ginuwine mentioned keeping your pellets from going super sonic by using heavier pellets particularly using domed pellets would be the way to go. The main thing with all rifles is finding the particular pellet that shoots best in the particular rifle. That same pellet that shoots great at 30 yards may not do so at 50 yards. Therefore if your goal is ultimately shooting accurately at 50 yards test your different pellet types at 50 yards. In the end springer pellet rifles can be harder to shoot accurately. In your situation I would think accuracy at 50 yards in the range of 1 1/2 to 2" plus would be good. Bill
PS I would be looking at trying dome pellets by Air Arms, Beeman, Crosman, H&N and JSB's
 
Upvote 0
OK thanks to everyone who replied. I will try heavier pellets and I know my springers aren't as accurate as the others all mine were under 200$. But for squirrels and shooting for fun I like them I just didn't know what they where capable of. If I can get a 3inch group at 50 yards I'll be happy as I can be! Also one more question... Lets say I had 500$ and wanted buy a .22 caliber pellet rifle what should it be? I was thinking a gas Benjamin Trail or a Stoeger ATAC? Thoughts n comments?
 
Upvote 0
"Matthew454"OK thanks to everyone who replied. I will try heavier pellets and I know my springers aren't as accurate as the others all mine were under 200$. But for squirrels and shooting for fun I like them I just didn't know what they where capable of. If I can get a 3inch group at 50 yards I'll be happy as I can be! Also one more question... Lets say I had 500$ and wanted buy a .22 caliber pellet rifle what should it be? I was thinking a gas Benjamin Trail or a Stoeger ATAC? Thoughts n comments?


Click to expand...
for $500 and spring piston I'd go with a RWS model 48 . A much better made gun than the Chinese made stoeger and benjamin trail .
 
Upvote 0
Depends on what you want to do-check out Joe Wayne's posts about his FWB 300S, not a powerhouse, but will literally shoot pellet on pellet. They are no longer made, but can be had used for 500-650 or so. Jim E. on the American Airguns classifieds is a reputable dealer who often has FWB 300s and other match guns. The Weihrauch/HW springers are also fine guns, Airguns of Arizona has the HW95 on special, great hunting/target rifle with plenty of power and not too heavy. HW30 is a lower powered but very accurate and easy to shoot rifle. Do you want to hunt or shoot targets? My advice would be to go with a German rifle like the Weihrauch, or RWS/Diana.
 
Upvote 0
I have a Silent Cat also and is the fastest airgun I have. Mine likes JSB Exact Diablo in 8.44 and their heavy 10.34 even better. As you know it is super light and mine groups very well with very relaxed artillery hold. I recently tried shooting it from a rest and that was bad. I did well after placing my hand on the rest the letting the rifle sit on my hand. Pull to your shoulder then relax and hold lightly with your trigger hand and keep your thumb on the side of the grip. The only bad thing about mine is the trigger pull is too heavy.
 
Upvote 0
If your rifle is a springer and it shoots under a 3/4 of an inch at 30 yards it is doing very well If It is a PCP doing the same, you might consider a different pellet. A very well tuned springer with a well chosen pellet at 50 yards can shoot under a dime. Say 3/4 of an inch. A very well tuned PCP at the same range with a well chosen pellet might do half an inch.
 
Upvote 0
With $500 to spend and wanting a .22? I can say what I did. I bought a Walther LGU from Airguns of Arizona and couldn't be happier with it. The .22 caliber only is on special right now for $389, which is a steal. Everywhere else I looked had them in the $550-575 range. 
http://www.airgunsofarizona.com

I read every review and watched every video I could find, and all were positive. The only complaints I saw were little things like thinking the two rubber O-rings on the cocking lever were unattractive. There were complaints about the trigger, but I think that must be coming from people used to shooting really high end stuff because this Smallbore/Highpower/F-Class Shooter is more than happy with the trigger on mine. 

It is heavy, at something like 9.25 lbs without a scope, so if that matters to you there it is. I threw a 16X scope on mine as a temporary scope because it was lying around awaiting a rifle build to finish, thinking it would be way too much for standing. Nope, the weight of the rifle makes it easy to use. I'm going to leave it on there.
 
Upvote 0
I got into (I mean really got into) air guns about 2 years ago. I kept trying to get as much power/accuracy as I could for as little $$ as I could find, and focused on springers. It was slow going - I could shoot powder burners OK, so why wasn't it just as easy for a spring gun? Then I went to pcp's. Again, much easier to shoot well, but because I was trying the least expensive version, I was being frustrated. Bought my first (used) FX.
Boom! Now I'm working on my shooting, not the gun's.
I enjoy my low dollar springers, but I love developing and growing with the capabilities that a good PCP provides. My lesson, summed up- don' t go too cheap; quality shines through particularly in this sport!
Group size? Record your efforts ( use your camera on your phone) make notes of what works and what doesn't and review them when making changes. You may have a gem of a springer already and you might just need the pellet and correct hold to squeeze the diamond out of the coal.
 
Upvote 0
Gamos and other such guns advertise speeds that are absurd. I don't know what it's shooting, but it ain't 1400 fps. I had a Gamo big cat and found out immediately that it wasn't going to make me happy accuracy wise. I despise Gamo because of the way they advertise and convince the uninformed to pick an air rifle based on getting the highest fps possible. I have some very expensive air rifles and not one of them shoots 1000 fps. 

Shooting technique with the artillery hold will help your groups, but none of those guns will make sub half inch groups on a consistent basis. Gamo almost killed the hobby for me. My advise, sell all three and spend $299 plus shipping for an hw95 from airguns of Arizona. It will easily make quarter inch groups at 30 yards when you do your part.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu