For nearly two decades, I have enjoyed shooting my Air Arms S-510 unregulated rifles. I have always been a proponent that regulated rifles are unnecessary and I feel like my Air Arms rifles are deadly. With the .177 I can typical shoot 50 shots or more, my .22 plus 30 shots, and my .25 plus 20 shots, without feeling like or perceiving that I am losing accuracy or POI.
As I have become a much better student of air rifles and ballistics over the last few years, I have come to realize that the consistency of not only pellet weights and head sizes, but air pressure as well, are really key if one wants to shoot really tight groups at all yards at all times. Understanding that some of you are saying "duh" about now, I recently did a quick but revealing experiment shooting 10 shots unregulated with my .177 Air Arms S-510, charged to what appeared to be 200 BAR based upon the gauge on my scuba tank, and then repeating the same exercise while connected to my Air Venturi carbon fiber fill bottle, regulated to 200 BAR, after shooting ten shots to be certain the rifle was not over charged and that the regulator was controlling the power.
The pellets used were JSB Exact Heavy 10.34 grains, hand weighed to be within a range of 10.29 to 10.39 grains. Shooting was done from my controlled indoor 18 yard range. Both resulting groups were nearly identical , with 10 shot groups measuring sub .375." So at 18 yards, no discernible difference was apparent, though this may not be the case at 50 yards or beyond. Also, with the unregulated group, the rifle was obviously overcharged, as the muzzle velocity of all 10 shots was above any of the chrono readings coming from the regulated group.
As I already own five of these rifles, and hunting accuracy is no problem, I may or may not be purchasing a new rifle in the near future, but based upon this exercise, when I do, it will be factory regulated. The results simply have to be better in terms of consistency and group size.
The chrono readings for the comparative groups were as follows:
10 shot unregulated group: 1030 fps, 1032 fps, 1028 fps, 1027 fps, 1027 fps, 1025 fps, 1023 fps, 1017 fps, 1016 fps, 1015 fps - extreme deviation after only 10 shots 17 fps.
10 shot regulated group: 995 fps, 995 fps, 997 fps, 1002 fps, 998 fps, 1001 fps, 997 fps, 998 fps, 999 fps, 998 fps - extreme deviation when regulated was only 7 fps.
As I have become a much better student of air rifles and ballistics over the last few years, I have come to realize that the consistency of not only pellet weights and head sizes, but air pressure as well, are really key if one wants to shoot really tight groups at all yards at all times. Understanding that some of you are saying "duh" about now, I recently did a quick but revealing experiment shooting 10 shots unregulated with my .177 Air Arms S-510, charged to what appeared to be 200 BAR based upon the gauge on my scuba tank, and then repeating the same exercise while connected to my Air Venturi carbon fiber fill bottle, regulated to 200 BAR, after shooting ten shots to be certain the rifle was not over charged and that the regulator was controlling the power.
The pellets used were JSB Exact Heavy 10.34 grains, hand weighed to be within a range of 10.29 to 10.39 grains. Shooting was done from my controlled indoor 18 yard range. Both resulting groups were nearly identical , with 10 shot groups measuring sub .375." So at 18 yards, no discernible difference was apparent, though this may not be the case at 50 yards or beyond. Also, with the unregulated group, the rifle was obviously overcharged, as the muzzle velocity of all 10 shots was above any of the chrono readings coming from the regulated group.
As I already own five of these rifles, and hunting accuracy is no problem, I may or may not be purchasing a new rifle in the near future, but based upon this exercise, when I do, it will be factory regulated. The results simply have to be better in terms of consistency and group size.
The chrono readings for the comparative groups were as follows:
10 shot unregulated group: 1030 fps, 1032 fps, 1028 fps, 1027 fps, 1027 fps, 1025 fps, 1023 fps, 1017 fps, 1016 fps, 1015 fps - extreme deviation after only 10 shots 17 fps.
10 shot regulated group: 995 fps, 995 fps, 997 fps, 1002 fps, 998 fps, 1001 fps, 997 fps, 998 fps, 999 fps, 998 fps - extreme deviation when regulated was only 7 fps.
