As I was considering FT to become a better shooter (hard discipline), I tossed around ideas of different rifles for Hunter, and then decided that I'm not sure I can be happy at 16x, so I decided to just keep my current scope and start with Open. There are so many capable rifles, but I have always been happy buying once crying once, so I called Mike N at Thomas. He told me that his wait was really long, but he was about to announce the group of gunsmiths across the country that would take his parts and finish up the gunsmithing and I could get it much quicker. I was considering a used one as well, but when he told me about some of the new design elements, it made sense to go new. To top it all off, one of the guys is fairly local (1.5 hours) in Will Piatt. Super gunsmith and shooter as well, who I had already heard great things about. It was a no brainer. Talked to him a bit, put down the deposit and a few weeks later, I got this beauty. Will has been amazing, and Mike was great and both have answered every question with the greatest professionalism. I couldn't be happier with the process.
I went all silver, because I couldn't find anyone else with all silver.
This has been the easiest rifle I have ever set up. The pellets just go in the same spot every time! Like the same spot, not just close. He sent me his testing targets, and 5, 10, and 20 shots were always in one tiny circle. It was almost hard to believe until I started shooting myself. I put the scope on, took two shots to test the scope height, and measured same exact distance. Score. Set up at 15 yards to zero the scope. Took two shots. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought the second shot missed the entire page, but it went through the same hole, and I didn't look any bigger at all! Dang! Scope is set up, so took it out to 30, to confirm scope is good and square. 2 shots, in the same tiny hole again! Holy moly!
I have owned very good shooters, and my Crown was the best I've owned yet. While groups would always be touching, there was always a little bit of something making the hole bigger, but not with this Thomas. 20 shots at 18 yards and the hole barely grew, but it was just as round as could be. Looked more like a .22 hole, but it was tight.
I am still waiting on a new pointer for my focus wheel, because the design of my previous one is not working with my current 1 piece mount (different from the pic I took a week before), but I took it out to my 50 yard range to shoot at some of the spinners between 18, 30, 45 yards. Strelok was perfect, and she is dialed in. Spinners spinning all day sitting on my butt.
My not hitting targets won't be the rifle's fault. It will be all shooter, and I know you can't buy hits. But I can at least rule out why I am missing. I still have to get used to sitting on the ground, versus sitting at the bench where the rifle does not move. It was definitely odd sitting there trying to keep the rifle steady. I am learning though. Standing and kneeling require practice too! I have a lot of work to put in as a shooter to get better (what I wanted), but I'm glad that I can focus on technique and not rifle tweaking.
To those curious, the hamster and butt hook came from SubMOA Systems out of Spain. Great guy. Great products. Found a little more about them on the UK forums, and people really liked them for the price. Found one guy making 3D printed parts who quit, because he said the SubMoa parts were so much better for the same price, that it didn't make any sense for him to keep going.
If you read all that, thanks! I am having so much fun. I hope my pointer gets here this week, so I can set up my focus wheel, so I can get to his weekend's match.
I went all silver, because I couldn't find anyone else with all silver.
This has been the easiest rifle I have ever set up. The pellets just go in the same spot every time! Like the same spot, not just close. He sent me his testing targets, and 5, 10, and 20 shots were always in one tiny circle. It was almost hard to believe until I started shooting myself. I put the scope on, took two shots to test the scope height, and measured same exact distance. Score. Set up at 15 yards to zero the scope. Took two shots. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought the second shot missed the entire page, but it went through the same hole, and I didn't look any bigger at all! Dang! Scope is set up, so took it out to 30, to confirm scope is good and square. 2 shots, in the same tiny hole again! Holy moly!
I have owned very good shooters, and my Crown was the best I've owned yet. While groups would always be touching, there was always a little bit of something making the hole bigger, but not with this Thomas. 20 shots at 18 yards and the hole barely grew, but it was just as round as could be. Looked more like a .22 hole, but it was tight.
I am still waiting on a new pointer for my focus wheel, because the design of my previous one is not working with my current 1 piece mount (different from the pic I took a week before), but I took it out to my 50 yard range to shoot at some of the spinners between 18, 30, 45 yards. Strelok was perfect, and she is dialed in. Spinners spinning all day sitting on my butt.
My not hitting targets won't be the rifle's fault. It will be all shooter, and I know you can't buy hits. But I can at least rule out why I am missing. I still have to get used to sitting on the ground, versus sitting at the bench where the rifle does not move. It was definitely odd sitting there trying to keep the rifle steady. I am learning though. Standing and kneeling require practice too! I have a lot of work to put in as a shooter to get better (what I wanted), but I'm glad that I can focus on technique and not rifle tweaking.
To those curious, the hamster and butt hook came from SubMOA Systems out of Spain. Great guy. Great products. Found a little more about them on the UK forums, and people really liked them for the price. Found one guy making 3D printed parts who quit, because he said the SubMoa parts were so much better for the same price, that it didn't make any sense for him to keep going.
If you read all that, thanks! I am having so much fun. I hope my pointer gets here this week, so I can set up my focus wheel, so I can get to his weekend's match.
