I finally made it to the firing range I mentioned above. I paid my fee, and got my target. Unfortunately I didn't know the fine details of how you do things, and laid out my pellet rifle, which I was told is a no-no. You lay out your gear after everyone has put up their targets, and only cross the red line after the SRO tells everyone the range is live. I crossed the red line again, but that was because the gentleman who was tutoring me stopped, and I failed to notice I was still within the red line. I didn't do that again. and made sure no one corralled me inside the line while talking.
I really did enjoy myself after I got a few pointers. Initially I was shooting at a paper target at 25 yards, and could not locate where my pellets were landing. The gentleman next to me said I was way low, almost off the cardboard backing, and a little left. He tole me to just shoot the same distance up and to the right. Once I understood his methodology, I started peppering the inner two target rings. I shot that way for a round and a half, about 20 shots.
On the last round I decided to play with the scope to try and figure out how adjustments affected where the bullet hit. I deliberately went the opposite way to see just how much difference there was from the previous shot. I then just cranked in enough over three shots to where I was basically even with the target height wise. I didn't have enough time to adjust for right and left, but managed to move it a little closer, nearly putting the last pellet in the first pellets hole. I was just 1/4 inch off. Tells me I need to crank in about a full half turn to the right to be hitting center.
Everyone there was wonderful. They knew from what I told them that I had been away from rifle shooting for 30 years, and all had wonderful suggestions to help me out not only shooting, but also with range safety. And they all said that I was doing very well hitting the target. I thought I was pretty bad, as my groups were about 4 inches in diameter, though half were inside the first ring. I got two in t he bull eye out of 40 shots I fired. Thew firs 10 were completely off the paper target. The rest at least hit somewhere on the target. Well, except one. The gentleman next to me said I hit the metal upright. Now I know I was aiming where he told me, so I am guessing I had a really bad pellet, though I cannot figure out how it got 15 inches to the right, when I had all the others missing slightly to the left. Guess I could have lost consciousness. LOL!!!!
Anyway, I am definitely hooked for doing at least another round next Friday. Hopefully I will zero in the scope, and start trying to hit the center, versus my struggles of just getting the pellets on the target.
I also discovered the GAMO Match Classic Training 7.56gr seems to make my rifle happy. One exception to that statement is that some pellets were more difficult to chamber than other. I think the pellet diameters might vary a tiny bit. But the rifle generally hit pretty close to where I aimed even with the pellet feeling a bit over sized.
