My ThomasAir HPX I named SURELY + swaged 42gr slugs

[steve123]

It was actually a frustrating morning, lol. 25 degrees but warming fast, ground frozen and the piece of brick broke that I was using when I was pounding in the stake for my wind flag, kinda lost the ooomph to drive it deep enough, so the flag fell over when the wind started kicking up. Wind came up quick and got worse in short order. Kept dropping slugs because they are so slippery as well as my fingers were frozen, lol. 

Just an anecdotal impression but there might be a level in fill that the gun likes better because the other groups weren't too good. I think I'll shelve the idea of groups at 200Y until it warms up this spring and the wind is ideal.

 

[steve123]

I got to try out all the new targets yesterday. Sorry no pics because I didn't feel like making the arduous hike up there.

Hoping not to run out of ammo I put about 150 slugs through the sizer for the shooting out at John's range, well I ran out anyway, lol, but regardless I was about done shooting when I ran out. I'll know better next time and bring more.

Again the wind was not cooperating, breezy from 5-10 mph with plenty of switching and let offs. I would make hit after hit then all of a sudden the slugs were hitting a mil to 1.5 mil off to the side. The problem with shooting way up a hill is it's almost impossible to know what the wind is doing unless you have a flag high up in the air which we do not have. From close to around 150Y getting the wind right isn't too difficult because we do have some streamers out and the hill hasn't risen more than 10 degrees or so but the farther away the targets get the less wind feedback we get and more so shooting at the 210-300Y targets which is more like 15 degrees up.

Except for the popper at 225Y I was able to repeatedly connect on the steel. Left - right - left - right - and repeat, no hits is the story on the popper. In other words way too small to shoot at in the wind with this gun.

Next in difficulty was the ass. Might have been vertical due to wind but it seems at 250Y my vertical is about the height from its belly to back, at least in yesterdays winds. I think I'll move it to 225 and put it next to the popper. The chicken at 210Y is almost too easy because I could hit it in the head often??? It's surprising that the donkey only 40 more yards out was as hard as it was??? I can't move the chicken because it's meant to stay there for offhand silhouette practice with centerfires so....

T-rex at 125Y was easy-ish though when I tried to hit on the tail or the head of it I got humbled but it makes a neat ding sound which makes it more fun to shoot, crowzy at 150Y was easy, triangle at 175Y a little harder but was doable, these targets make more of a thud sound when hit. I didn't even shoot at the 190Y square because I've shot at it hundreds of times before and was excited to try the new targets instead.

Much easier to hit the 7" diamond at 250Y than where it was before at 290Y, rabbit at 275Y provided plenty of challenge but I still hit it 2-3 times in a row before the wind changed then readjusted and did the same thing. LOVED the bobcat!!!, it makes a wonderful ding and a very obvious and unmistakable sound, at 300Y it was relatively easy to hit. It's the perfect target for 300Y for me and SURELY which provides challenge but at the same time isn't hard to hit either.

Definitely worth the money for these Xsteel targets, they were a lot of fun!!!

I should try shooting tethered to see if the vertical can be tightened up some???

 

[steve123]

Weekly Wednesday shooting report/blog.

I changed my zero to 50Y last week and the zero was still right on yesterday.

Weird day because the wind was light to medium when I started shooting but then very shortly after..... Main thing I noticed was that the donkey at 250Y which I started on wasn't as hard to hit as last time but hard enough because I only connected maybe 40% of the time. I still need to move it closer. It wasn't 20 minutes later until the expected storm started blowing in but I was able to connect on the rabbit a few times at 275Y and the bobcat quite a bit at 300Y with 2-3 mil holdoffs.

I shot the T-rex and the crow a few times then stopped. Wind was 15 mph plus by then.

Hoping for a calm day out there at John's range to see if the vertical tightens up.

I find myself wishing for a couple hundred more fps for SURELY. Due to wanting to shoot SURELY as much as I can I haven't tried out my 22rf yet on the new steel so I need to get that experiment done. I also want to bring out a reduced load for my 5mmFBI centerfire which sends 32's at 2330 fps.

Contemplating on getting the 1/4" thick Xtarget coyote or buffalo for 250Y. The 1/4" targets seem to make a much louder and more resounding ding and the extra girth and length would change the hit ratio to 60% or more.

Warmth, I'll be happy when spring has sprung!!!

 

[steve123]

It was decent weather yesterday during our Wednesday shoot fest with nice light winds and as well I have some interesting observations to report!

First off I borrowed my March scope that usually is on SURELY and put it onto my new Thomas FT rifle for this weekend so I didn't even bring SURELY out.

Here's my new Thomas I named Purple Reign. It shoots better than it looks!!! LOVE THIS GUN!

I did however shoot both my Anschutz 1827F rimfire with two types of ammo, and my AGT Uragan King in 25 cal using 29gr NSA slugs going 922 fps.

With the 22rf I went straight to the donkey, man it's crazy how hard this is to hit! I used $9 a box of 50 ammo and the general vertical was a couple inches larger than the height of it from belly to back which is about 5", not including big flyers from shots that were on each end of the ES of this ammo. There was probably a good 14" of total vertical and sometimes I still had to holdoff as much as 1.5 mil windage but about half that much normally. Keep in mind that at 50Y I often shoot half inch groups with this gun and this ammo, so low ES at long range is a HUGE thing and goes a long way in predicting how well one can do even with the higher BC and velocity involved using a 22rf. I shot at all the new animal targets, 125Y T-rex super easy, 150Y crowzy super easy, 175Y triangle medium difficulty, 190Y square not difficult, 225Y popper difficult but doable, 250Y donkey harder than I would have thought, 275Y rabbit medium difficulty, 300Y bobcat medium difficulty. The main problem with the bobcat and rabbit was vertical but the bobcat due to being wider was easier to hit. Then I tried some $17 a box ammo at both longer targets with a slightly higher hit ratio. It was a fun experiment and my suspicion all along was correct which is that 22rf with its 40-50 fps ES doesn't do as well as it could if it had lower ES at long range.

The BIG surprise of the day. I hadn't shot my Uragan in months because I've been shooting SURELY whenever I could. It went like this. Uh, this gun must have really low ES??? because I could consistently hit almost everything. I didn't engage the popper but the T-rex was easy, crow - easy, triangle medium difficulty, square not hard to hit, donkey was kinda hard to hit but I connected more than with the 22rf, rabbit medium difficulty, and the bobcat I literally hit 8 times in a row!!! I shot about 30 times at it and hit it more often than not and with more success than the 22rf!

A fun day!!! And to top it off we did some 10M offhand. Here's 10 shots out of Purple reign using a shooting coat and sling and the next pic is from the Anschutz without coat and sling.

 

[qball]

WOW!!!! Crazy nice stash of toys! I give up, you win!!!



btw, really awesome offhand shooting skills. 

 

[steve123]

WOW!!!! Crazy nice stash of toys! I give up, you win!!!



btw, really awesome offhand shooting skills.

Ha, I know what you mean kiddingly by the term 'you win' (not that its a competition, lol) but you should see the stash of some of the people I know that are actually wealthy. One guy couldn't get homeowners insurance except through Lloyd's of London because he had over 1000 guns, not exaggerating either. Another guy has a hidden room in his house with 300,000 + worth of rare collector guns including rare machine guns and a cannon. Another guy had a BIG room full of VERY RARE antique low serial numbers guns = (literally museum quality) and other antiquities along with a indoor shooting range. Any of those guys have one gun worth more than all the guns I own put together.

Thanks for the compliment for the offhand shooting. That sling and coat helps some but compared to a decade ago I'm not very steady anymore, I really have to try hard to time the shot well because the wobble zone is a good inch or more at 10M now.

Later this year Mike N is going to do some more work on SURELY to bring the velocity up a lot. He also gave me some tips to try for now. So hopefully these will make SURLEY even better in the pursuit of long range.

 

[qball]

@steve123: yes there is always someone more wealthy and better off, if we start comparing there is no end and we will never be happy. Like the the song, it’s not having what you want but wanting what you have. Some of us are lucky enough to enjoy some very nice toys and at I am very thankful and happy for mine. I know a lot of MUCH better off people also but I am fortunate enough to have zero envy towards them nor any desire for the things I don’t have. At the end of the day we all leave naked and penny-less so enjoy the blessing of today, that’s why it’s call present.




HOWEVER, I am envious of your offhand shooting skills but I haven’t found a website that sells that yet.

 

[steve123]

Yeah envy is ugly (I mean REAL ENVY, not the way you meant) but it interests me how much buying power truly wealthy people have. Thanks for the compliment BTW, offhand has been a work in progress my whole life.



It was windy yesterday when I arrived at the weekly shootfest, like 12-18 mph full value. We didn't bother getting out the airguns this time. Instead I decided I'd try my custom CZ27 5mmFBI that sends 32gr vmax at 3750 fps and Randy shot his 223 AR with 73gr at 2700 fps or so.

It was EASY for both of us beginning from 225Y on the new steel, on out to the 421Y/full sized turkey, even in these very windy conditions. We worked our way out taking one shot on the popper, and multiples on the donkey, triangle, rabbit, bobcat, and 421Y turkey. I missed once.

I hit the turkey until bored then tried one shot in offhand position at the turkey with 1.5 mil holdoff and nailed it, man that felt good!

Sorry for this boring report, and that its OT, but its nice to have heavy duty steel that can handle abuse when needed. I also love that the donkey and bobcat make such a nice resounding DIIINNNGG when hit with this class of power!!!

Higher BC bullet shaped projectile, really high FPS, definitely and HUGELY extends distance, as well the hit ratios !!!

 

[steve123]

I bought two new 1/4" thick Xsteel targets, a buffalo and a coyote! So I went and climbed the steep hill today to set them up.

Then did some rearranging and repainting. Still have the bobcat at 300Y, but put buffalo at 275Y, put coyote at 250Y, put rabbit at 225Y, and put donkey at 200Y. Before when the donkey was at 250Y it was difficult to hit but now its at an appropriate distance. When the rabbit was at 275Y it was also pretty hard to hit. The sizes are much much better as in more fun for SURELY and also my Anschutz 22rf.

I had a brief window of opportunity with medium winds and hit the new targets with halfway decent success but with up to 2.5 mils of correction needed it wasn't a good day for shooting long range with the airgun so I put SURELY back in the truck. It was way easier with the 22rf partly because I could shoot it much faster and not as much correction was needed.

Both the new targets make a great sounding DIIINNGG!!!

12x15"

10.5x21"

Here's some of the other steel.

7" diamond at 250Y.

5" square at 190Y

5" triangle at 175Y

Managed a personal best in off hand using my Anschutz with 12 in a row at 100Y on a 5" square so that made my day.

 

[steve123]

SURE WISH I COULD CATCH A CALM DAY!!!

Nope, no such luck. Really breezy yesterday but in spite of it I tagged the steel out to the 250Y Coyote with SLUGSURELY though sometimes using 3 mils of holdoff. Worse wind when I engaged the 200Y Donkey which became the hardest to hit and the vertical was definitely affected.

Seemed like the 5" square at 190Y was easier to hit but I think why is the wind was more cooperative during the time I shot at it, and well also I was using my Uragan Kind 25 with slugs which enabled quick follow up shots.

We finished the afternoon shooting flies at 10M. I shot the head off one which Randy brought back to me as a trophy. Randy shot most of them with his Daystate Regal .177 using 16gr JSB which made the most prominent splats on the paper. We love fly season and seeing who can get to the fly the fastest !!!!!!!

C'mon Bobby we miss you, its time to bring your new friends and come up.

 

[Flintsack]

Shooting at all those different distances at the different metal targets looks really cool.

mike

 

[steve123]

Shooting at all those different distances at the different metal targets looks really cool.

mike

It really is rewarding to hear that nice DIINNGGG.

If you ever get to AZ again I'd like you to come visit us here!

 

[Flintsack]

That would be awesome!

mike

 

[woogie_man]

Thats one heck of a range you have. Wish there was something like that around here, though sadly there isn't anything like that within a 3 hour drive.

Love the Anschutz as well, they are a blast to shoot, and look right at home with the thomas as well

 

[steve123]

It's awesome knowing someone like my friend John that has a property like this! He has a funny personality, is a dyed in the wool single 71 year old, with vintage motorcycles in his bedroom, RC drones on the bar, and all kinds of male oriented objects everywhere. In other words its a girls worst nightmare there, LOL, so we rarely see a female around!

My place only goes out to 140Y or so but I can stretch it out to 200Y without too much difficulty by shooting from the forest service.

Thanks, yeah that biathlon rifle has been a fun gun.

 

[steve123]

Yesterdays shootfest was a lot of fun! I had a small window of medium winds when I first arrived at John's place. Weird??? it was hard to hit the 275Y Buffalo and the 300Y Bobcat this time with SLUGSURELY. But pretty easy to hit the 250Y Coyote which I hit a lot and during that session managed 7 times in a row. Tagged the 200Y Donkey many times. Anywhere from no wind hold to 1.5 mils holdoff. So odd that every different shooting session I shoot at these longer animals that I can have such different results??!! What I mean is that the farthest targets were not hard to hit in what seems like similar conditions before when I shot at them but yesterday they were harder to connect on. Then the 200Y and 250Y animals were easier to hit than last time. Seemed like I had larger vertical on the farther animals than last time out. Wind, tune, lube, these and more, don't know???

Still easy to hit the 125Y T-rex and 150Y Crow. Had a nice 3/4" splat for 3 shots on the 3" round spinner at 160Y, 4th shot opened the group to 1.75" but the vertical was an inch.

It's fly season! Spent the rest of the afternoon shooting flies at 10M. At times we shot as fast as we could because there were so many! John cleared off a metal door that's laid down flat that's used as a table, pored beer on it, which is our bait of choice, and I went through almost a whole tin of 34.9 JSB's in my Uragan King (yep overkill LOL) but I forgot my .177. John uses a CZ200 .177 and Perry uses a Shinsung 22 cal. We shot maybe 150 flies between the 3 of us??? My neck was getting cricked from shooting so much so when I got home I took some Ibuprofen and got on the neck massager.

Nasty huh?! fly splats all over. The more flies we shoot the more that come to feast on what's left. Aren't you glad I took this pic to gross you out - grin? Though most of the hits were from off the table I mentioned earlier, no doubt that hitting them on the paper is more fun.

 

[RandallD]

You're killing me Steve, it's not your fault that I gotta work every now and then. STOP HAVING FUN WITHOUT ME! I'll be back. 

 

[RandallD]

Also I'm sure you have a ....rifle that could be a dedicated fly killer. 22 Royal?

 

[steve123]

Also I'm sure you have a ....rifle that could be a dedicated fly killer. 22 Royal?

Well if you'd quit working so much

You're killing me Steve, it's not your fault that I gotta work every now and then. STOP HAVING FUN WITHOUT ME! I'll be back.

Hopefully you can make it out next Wednesday! Yep you missed out on this fly hatch but hopefully it'll be just as good next week.

Poor ole Royale has a leak and I need to rebuild it. I should put a scope back on my Steyr LGB1 biathlon trainer.

 

[steve123]

Wow, its been the windiest springtime/early summer I can remember here where I live and that's been 4 decades! So much so that I just had to pretty much refrain from shooting long range with SLUGSURELY since my last post in April.

But I had a small window on Wednesday. The wind wasn't calm but it was consistent for a time. Worked my way up the hill. I didn't miss the 125Y T-rex or the 150Y Crow. My friend Kent hit the 175Y triangle on the first shot and the 190Y square on the 2nd shot both with my gun. I decided to go straight to the 250Y Coyote. This time that target was downright easy to hit. I only missed it a few times out of many shots. The wind picked up and it turned out the 275Y Buffalo and the 300Y Bobcat were the opposite - kinda hard to hit, like once in 3-4 shots only.

I finally got that long range itch scratched though and it was a fun afternoon.