I had a few hours to spare and the sun was shining (no it wasn’t this is the uk but at least it wasn’t raining) so I decided to go to my local range and do a head to head with my oldest (23+ years) and favourite, heavily modified rapid 12/200 and my newest bullpup the fx impact in .177.
when I arrived I had the entire range to myself
so which of the 30 lanes should I choose? Well the wind as blowing at 11mph from my 4 o’clock, but it was steady in both speed and direction ( note the wind sock) so I thought about giving the 100mts range a go. Now if it was perfect conditions I would have had a go at some paper targets but giving the wind I opted for more realistic targets. These were steel spinners from 40mm down to 15mm, and if they were too easy I placed some small pieces of chalk on top of a brick. Now 100mts it a long way for a sub12fpe airgun to lob a pellet, given the conditions his was not going to be easy.
First up was my trusty old rapid, this is my most consistently accurate gun although my .177 has printed my tightest 5 shot group at 100mts that being 15mm CtC. So the new pup is going to have its work cut out beating the old dog.
it took about a dozen shots to zero the gun but after that the rapid was hitting spinners with a regularity. After 40 or so shots on the spinners my attention was drawn to the little pieces of chalk, Let me tell you, at 100mts they look mighty small even with the scope set at its max of 16x The first 3 shots saw 3 colourful puffs as the chalk exploded into dust. The next ten or so had turned the rest into small fragments that lay scattered on the sand. Even these were no match for the rapid as over the next few mags these were hit and vaporised to nothing.
So next up is the FX impact.
The smaller lighter.177 pellets fly faster and flatter, it took less shots to zero the gun and it was nailing the 40mm spinner with ease, the success rate started to fall as I had a go at the smaller spinners, the wind was blowing the little pellets around. I had a go at the chalk but success was limited only hitting one or maybe twice.
So the winner today was the old dog, not just because it out shot the impact but because it makes me smile every time I pull the trigger, I love this gun.
Make no mistake, my impact is a seriously accurate gun, but today it was always going to struggle, not just because of the wind but because it is new and unfamiliar to me, however i have had the rapid so long and shot so many thousands of pellets through it, it like a pair of old comfy slipper,
Bb
when I arrived I had the entire range to myself
so which of the 30 lanes should I choose? Well the wind as blowing at 11mph from my 4 o’clock, but it was steady in both speed and direction ( note the wind sock) so I thought about giving the 100mts range a go. Now if it was perfect conditions I would have had a go at some paper targets but giving the wind I opted for more realistic targets. These were steel spinners from 40mm down to 15mm, and if they were too easy I placed some small pieces of chalk on top of a brick. Now 100mts it a long way for a sub12fpe airgun to lob a pellet, given the conditions his was not going to be easy.
First up was my trusty old rapid, this is my most consistently accurate gun although my .177 has printed my tightest 5 shot group at 100mts that being 15mm CtC. So the new pup is going to have its work cut out beating the old dog.
it took about a dozen shots to zero the gun but after that the rapid was hitting spinners with a regularity. After 40 or so shots on the spinners my attention was drawn to the little pieces of chalk, Let me tell you, at 100mts they look mighty small even with the scope set at its max of 16x The first 3 shots saw 3 colourful puffs as the chalk exploded into dust. The next ten or so had turned the rest into small fragments that lay scattered on the sand. Even these were no match for the rapid as over the next few mags these were hit and vaporised to nothing.
So next up is the FX impact.
The smaller lighter.177 pellets fly faster and flatter, it took less shots to zero the gun and it was nailing the 40mm spinner with ease, the success rate started to fall as I had a go at the smaller spinners, the wind was blowing the little pellets around. I had a go at the chalk but success was limited only hitting one or maybe twice.
So the winner today was the old dog, not just because it out shot the impact but because it makes me smile every time I pull the trigger, I love this gun.
Make no mistake, my impact is a seriously accurate gun, but today it was always going to struggle, not just because of the wind but because it is new and unfamiliar to me, however i have had the rapid so long and shot so many thousands of pellets through it, it like a pair of old comfy slipper,
Bb