Springer Holdem 🖤

[intenseaty22]

Sighting in today and decided to try the old hold challenge again. Walther LGV Master Pro in .177, 25 yards, 3 shot group x 2, JSB 10.34 gr. 

Top group holding onto gun’s fore end medium hold. Bottom group artillery hold, just resting on bag. Pinky for reference. 

 

[ahnlaashock]

If you have a sling on it, try this. Grab the sling below the stock and place the gun on the side of the fist grabbing it. Curl your fingers at the wrist, but keep your thumb straight up or at least center line, not wrapped on around.

The Trail sling mount works perfectly for this, and you wind up with a woods hold that works, even if the fist is against the side of a tree to steady the shot.

With the Trail, if I put my thumb through the hole and around, forget anything consistent. If i leave the thumb straight up, the trigger finger moves to a much easier position to pull straight back. You wind up with your head more upright, and the tip of the buttplate near the top of the shoulder. I threatened to put an adjustable butt plate on mine because of it.

You can also grab it and pull it into your shoulder, if you hold it the same way each time. 

The strap method with the thumb straight up on the trigger hand is the way that produces the most shots on the bench where the gun recoils right straight back and you find the pellet dead center.

If i use the place molded for the hand, it doesn't shoot as well for me. If I place my thuinb into the thuimbhole and grip the pistol grip at all, forget any kind of consistency. Some stocks fit better than others!

 

[Windmill01]

Good to see you removed the dust from the Lgv. If I rest mine on a bag I get about the same as your bottom group but if I rest the stock on the palm of my hand different story. 

Gary

 

[Springrrrr]

The artillery hold does not always do the best for all spring guns. I have a sister to the LGV, it is an LGU and I find resting it at the gun's balance point on my rest and putting a slightly firm push against my shoulder does best.

Try different holds and positions, one will work best. Repeat.

 

[bandg]

The artillery hold does not always do the best for all spring guns. I have a sister to the LGV, it is an LGU and I find resting it at the gun's balance point on my rest and putting a slightly firm push against my shoulder does best.

Try different holds and positions, one will work best. Repeat.

Agree completely. It seems that the artillery hold is a method, not a generic end all solution. Might solve accuracy problems for some guns but not all.

 

[intenseaty22]

None of my Springers has ever shot very good with artillery hold. 

 

[2manyAirGunz]

None of my Springers has ever shot very good with artillery hold.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Your experience seems to mirror mine.

In fact, I have decided that the "artillery hold" is bogus.

However, I was wrong once before.

 

[r1lover]

These are all great posts and the takeaway should be...listen up new shooters....that we all need to shoot our guns more, experiment with different holds and pellets and not take everything we hear or see as gospel. "Experts" no doubt deserve that title because of the time they spend experimenting, learning and refining their skills and I am all ears when they speak. But we should not become so focused on going with the grain that we fail to seek alternatives that work best for us or a particular air arm we own. It's part of what makes this sport so enjoyable (and addicting!)

 

[Windmill01]

Experimentation is the key. I own an Lgv, Benjamin Trail, Hw77 and just recently I traded a 177 cal Benjamin Trail for a Hw30. Initially I was lightly gripping the balance point of the stock on the Hw30 useing H&N Hunter Extremes with imo good results. I recently changed to JSB 8.44 on the advice of several on this forum including old Intenseaty22. I found that for bench shooting I had better results with the Hw30 by resting the balance point on my open palm. In fact all my rifles are at their most accurate when resting them on my open palm.

In the bush I can get the same results with all rifles as on the bench by either resting my index finger in the cocking slot whilst holding onto a tree or resting the rifle on my wrist whilst holding onto the tree.

Three different techniques are for me are achieving the end result, accuracy. For me consistency is the key to achieving accuracy with these springers.

Gary

 

[josh3rd]

Dude I try soooo many different holds and do them in 1in increments. Ex: say at trigger guard 1st I'll try open palm with all 4 fingers underneath then I'll stay and move pinky outside then pinky and ring finger. After all 4 fingers are done then I'll move ahead a inch...i love it

 

[shawnlyndy]

I get my best results when resting on the balance point. Both hand and bag.

 

[Greenarrow]

I find similar results with my spring guns. For me it’s more pronounced when I am simply rest right on the bags vs. having my hand between the bag and the gun. All of my spring guns shoot tighter with a loose hold except for the 97. That one likes to be held “normal” and my trigger hand strangled around the grip (thumb around the grip) and a solid (not target shooting solid) cheek weld. It took me forever to figure this out since I had been conditioned to hold springers gently. My HW97K is the only HW springer I have that likes the JSB heavies. It’s the anomaly of spring guns!

 

[DesertSilver]

When I first started shooting springers I had never heard of the artillery hold. 30 years later I find out about it and try like heck to use it but gave up after half a tin or pellets and went back to the way I had been doing it for the preceding 3 decades. I guess I'm to old to teach new tricks to. lol 

 

[intenseaty22]

I did a little shooting today with both LGSs and got some interesting results. Tried different holds and most shots were very consistent across the board. Will try to repeat and record results later. Busy day, last day off before heading out to AZ.