So I commented on a post a few days back about "Hole in Hole" accuracy. And so now I'll add this... not looking for arguments against my terminology, just looking for understanding at how I get to these conclusions. so agreements, and arguments can be applied here.
I've only been an airgun fan for a few years, I'm by no means an expert with airgun and pellets or slugs. I do have lots of experience with centerfire and rimfire Bench Rest at various ranges and I'll attempt to explain and show how I've come to my conclusions. firstoff, In the past, I've competed and won, at state, regional and nationals levels with .22 rimfire BR, and various classes of centerfire rifles, from 50 yards to 1000 yards. there are different cartridges, different bullets, different scopes, different barrel twist rates and designs, different targets, and different techniques to win with those changes in distance. Each yardage that you compete in requires a different platform and technique to be competitive. Also note that we call 100, 200, and 300 yards point blank, while 600 yards and mid range, and 1000 yards is long range. History lesson over.
When I first started becoming an airgun fan I was watching videos... mostly european, of guys with PCP airguns with suppressors, and night vision shooting rats and pigeons in barns. This was cool, as I am on my second Jack Russell terrier, and he loves going after rats. The more I looked for Airgun shooting videos, the more intrigued I became. Ted's Holdover popped up. Great guns, great shooting, great camera work, all in all I enjoy most those videos. Ted seemed to be showcasing different rifles on different outings and that's cool, so I started looking up these rifles. I then found Airguns of Arizona, and I found their bit at the EBR matches. What I saw was a spray and prey method that was disguised as extreme accuracy when actually the only thing this showed me was that the distance itself is more extreme than the rifles being used. I found that there are rifles meant only for offhand iron sighted rifles, low power 7 Joules at 10 meters. I vowed that since I am a union iron worker and I carry a 35 foot tape, I would never compete with any rifle at a range that can be measured by one pull of the tape... 32.8 feet is a little close for any rifle even an air rifle. I found that PCP guns go from .177 to .458 and larger, I believe a guy here in Michigan makes some .750 bore rifles. I found that there was Air rifle BR and that mostly as far as sanctioned matches go it's shot at 25 meters. I also found that on occasion they do a 50 yards match. knowing that the air rifle that is used at 25 meters runs about 890 fps, and that pellet weighs between 10 and 16 grains I started looking at power, speed trajectory and bullet wind drift. I realized that these are powered well below that of a .22 rimfire being used for BR at 50 yards. So you might say I'm getting picky but 10 meters as discussed is too close... yet 50 yards is too far unless a different rifle or different "set of standards" is adopted. Hole in Hole accuracy is not common at 50 yards, and is hard even outdoors at 25 meters. So lets say as in centerfire, we leave the "point blank" game once we exceed 25 meters, which is to say that 50 yards becomes "midrange", and this might include 75 yard unsanctioned matches too. In centerfire, at point blank you can see every bullet hole perfectly , you can use your sighter shots and feel the wind drift and test the effects of mirage. A drag stabilized pellet at 1/3 the weight and 1/4 the speed does not have the repeatable consistent "Precision accuracy" that a centerfire bullet has. So once we get to mid range shooting, we can fire a few rounds at the sighter and try to find a cluster of bullets that seem to act similar in similar wind and mirage conditions. So what the shooter does is then waits for that condition to appear and shoots the required amount of pellets or bullets to satisfy his targets needs. That basically sums up all pellet rifle matches beyond 50 yards and in centerfire that would cover 600 and 100 yards.
There are people that like and strive for ultimate accuracy at the point blank ranges, and there are people that need to see "ok" accuracy at mid and long distance ranges I need precision pinpoint accuracy that is repeatable day in and day out... I choose 25 meter BR. It's all in what mentality you have at the firing line and what type of "accuracy standards" you wish to set your sights on. either way, when you get to the end of the day its the other guys on the line, and the scores they posted.
