I have seen this debate before and have thought about it myself. I started shooting PB’s long range in the early 80’s. My dad would take me to abandoned strip mines and we would spend the day shooting between 400 and 1,000yrds. For the last 10 years I spend a bunch of time shooting airguns between 50 and 100yrds. Sometimes stretching my better guns out to 150yrds. The problem that nobody has mentioned is the ability to first establish CONSISTENT sub moa accuracy with an airgun at 100yrds. With a real gun it’s easy. I don’t own a PB that won’t shoot at least a nickel size group every time I take it to the range. When you have that kind of baseline accuracy, wind doping and calculating drop is easy. If your airgun won’t produce that kind of accuracy every time you squeeze the trigger, then that’s where the comparison ends. Airguns are a whole different animal and should only be compared to other airguns. Will my FX or RTI out shoot a 22lr at 100yrds? On a good day, yes. But the 22lr has many more good days than an airgun and that’s the difference.
Just mentioning this - you can choose a different sized steel for the PB and for the AG. Like a 3 moa size for the AG and a 1.5 moa sized steel for the PB. This compensates for less precision in the AG in most cases. So for example you had a 3 moa steel at 50Y which is approx 1.5" for the AG and a 1.5 moa steel at 200Y for the PB which is 3" approx. Or a 3 moa steel at 75Y which is approx 2.25" for the AG and a 1.5 moa steel at 300Y which is 4.5". And so on. Or calculate moa sized steel for both relative to distance and drops.
Here's typical elevation required for a 308 load with 175gr going 2670 fps. Elevation required for my AG, the Vulcan2 30 cal I used in my previous post.
200Y for PB is .4 mil, AG is .4 mil at 47Y
300Y for PB is 1.1 mil, AG is 1.1 mil at 59Y
400Y for PB is 1.9 mil, AG is 1.9 mil at 71Y or 6" sized steel for the PB and a 2.2 sized steel for the AG"
I like this. You are keeping the airgun distances in a range where it’s accuracy is generally consistent with what a good PB can match out to 400yrds. This is realistic. Like I said before, if your airgun won’t produce almost pellet on pellet accuracy at the distance you want to shoot, how can you make accurate and ethical adjustments for windage and elevation. For example, if your airgun struggles to get 1.5” groups at 100yrds, when you make an adjustment for a 125yrd shot, you are possibly already at least 1.5 inches off because of your guns loose groups. Most good airguns can keep things very tight out to 70yrds. Yeah, that’s not bragging distances or worth a glory topic but it is realistic for comparing an airgun to a PB for practicing purposes.
Yep, just look at the EBR 9.5 thread and compare the 75 yard targets to the 100Y targets. In most cases the precision is getting a bit dull at 100Y vs 75Y. Only 25Y farther????!!!!
I've shot friends AG's that do very well at 100Y with pellets but even then a precise PB is levels above those AG's. In just about every 600Y BR match there's a few groups in the 1" area, yes that's 1 inch, if there's decent conditions. The record is a 5 shot .282" group at 600Y!!!!
The best 22rf BR rifles with expensive ammo in indoor test centers can do 1/2" or a little less for 10 shots.
Even though it's much harder, my friends and I will shoot long range with pellets past 100Y. It's cheap to plink with pellets and fun to land one on the steel here and there.
Those 22 caliber 25gr RD pellets seem to do very well past 100Y in the ART barrels going 980 fps.
