I’ll start with, Anyone else have frustrating shooting days like this and what did you do to get past the issues?
OK, so I bit the bullet and bought an Impact. It's a used gun, but good price and such convinced me it was the right one for me.
After waiting nearly 10 days, it arrived. AoA test fired it and it looks really good at 20 yards.
And remember, while I’m doing all this, I don’t have a chrony to really dial in the speeds. Chrony should arrive today, and I’ll be doing chrony work this weekend to get the gun to shoot down to 830 fps or so. I think it’s shooting at 900 or so now, so any accuracy work I do will have to be redone after I get the gun setup.
Took it to the back yard and fired a few rounds to get the scope close. Appeared to be stacking pellets at 48 yards. I'm not that good of a shot. so I used a Lead Sled for initial sighting. Scope Rings are adjustable, so wanted to keep the scope as optically centered as possible.
Now for the real test. Out to the outdoor range with real benches and real targets at 50 and 75 yards.
Here’s where I probably started making mistakes.
I usually shoot at Lee Kay Range in the North end of Salt Lake. Nice thing is that the 75-yard range has a berm just a few feet behind the 75 yard markers, so I start by shooting dirt clods and watching for dust, and adjusting the scope mounts to get proper range without doing much to the Scope itself.
Then I find I’m not used to the new bipod I just bought and installed. Gun won’t sit level. Spend 15 minutes futzing with the bipod to get the gun relatively level.
Gun relatively level now, but how do I actually hold this thing? Never really worked with a bullpup style gun before I tried several holds, and really haven’t found one I like yet. That’s probably part of my accuracy problem. I’ll get to accuracy in a minute.
Now that I’ve got it level, and kind of have a hold, that is only sort of OK, I start on the scope. Shooting dirt clods so I can see the puff of smoke. I futz around with this thing enough it falls off the regulator before I really think it’s dialed in. I begin to wonder how many shots ago it fell off the reg because the shots were all over the place and after I aired it back up, POI moved up like a foot. Back to adjusting the rings.
Speaking of airing it up, once you get a hose on an Impact, you can’t get it off without a pry bar like a small screw driver. On the plus side, I figured out that with my Air Venturi bottle regulated at 3000, and the gun regulated, and the gun’s top pressure of 3600 PSI, I can shoot tethered and go for several hundred shots without stopping. Next time I guess.
Finally got rings adjusted, gun seems to be shooting high at 75 yards, so I fugure, heck, this thing has a power wheel. I’m on 3, maybe put it on 2? Wouldn’t you know, that’s one of the few things I did that really worked. Scope is now dead on.
Now moving to reactive targets so I can see exactly where it hits. Remember, I really don’t have a hold for it that works yet. So, my accuracy is, well, not that good. Most shots are hitting a 3-inch bull, but quite a few are hitting elsewhere. At one point, I had a really good group going, though I was aiming at the bull below where the gun was grouping. Back to adjusting the scope again.
In the end, I was able to get about a 3-inch group going. I believe the bulk of the problems are related to my hold, and just learning the gun. When I was on, I was consistently hitting and grouping well. When I was off, I was consistently getting a 3 to 5-inch group.
Though I made quite a bit of progress on the learning curve, it was a very frustrating day. After about 10 magazines, I’d just decided to pack it in due to frustration and generally getting tired. Only 160 or so rounds down range, but I learned a lot as I tried to place each shot carefully.
What did I learn?
Tominco’s series on the Speed Silhouette may be a life saver (thanks!). I intend to try his hold next time I shoot. Maybe that’ll help.
So to repeat, Anyone else have frustrating shooting days like this and what did you do to get past the issues?
OK, so I bit the bullet and bought an Impact. It's a used gun, but good price and such convinced me it was the right one for me.
After waiting nearly 10 days, it arrived. AoA test fired it and it looks really good at 20 yards.
And remember, while I’m doing all this, I don’t have a chrony to really dial in the speeds. Chrony should arrive today, and I’ll be doing chrony work this weekend to get the gun to shoot down to 830 fps or so. I think it’s shooting at 900 or so now, so any accuracy work I do will have to be redone after I get the gun setup.
Took it to the back yard and fired a few rounds to get the scope close. Appeared to be stacking pellets at 48 yards. I'm not that good of a shot. so I used a Lead Sled for initial sighting. Scope Rings are adjustable, so wanted to keep the scope as optically centered as possible.
Now for the real test. Out to the outdoor range with real benches and real targets at 50 and 75 yards.
Here’s where I probably started making mistakes.
I usually shoot at Lee Kay Range in the North end of Salt Lake. Nice thing is that the 75-yard range has a berm just a few feet behind the 75 yard markers, so I start by shooting dirt clods and watching for dust, and adjusting the scope mounts to get proper range without doing much to the Scope itself.
Then I find I’m not used to the new bipod I just bought and installed. Gun won’t sit level. Spend 15 minutes futzing with the bipod to get the gun relatively level.
Gun relatively level now, but how do I actually hold this thing? Never really worked with a bullpup style gun before I tried several holds, and really haven’t found one I like yet. That’s probably part of my accuracy problem. I’ll get to accuracy in a minute.
Now that I’ve got it level, and kind of have a hold, that is only sort of OK, I start on the scope. Shooting dirt clods so I can see the puff of smoke. I futz around with this thing enough it falls off the regulator before I really think it’s dialed in. I begin to wonder how many shots ago it fell off the reg because the shots were all over the place and after I aired it back up, POI moved up like a foot. Back to adjusting the rings.
Speaking of airing it up, once you get a hose on an Impact, you can’t get it off without a pry bar like a small screw driver. On the plus side, I figured out that with my Air Venturi bottle regulated at 3000, and the gun regulated, and the gun’s top pressure of 3600 PSI, I can shoot tethered and go for several hundred shots without stopping. Next time I guess.
Finally got rings adjusted, gun seems to be shooting high at 75 yards, so I fugure, heck, this thing has a power wheel. I’m on 3, maybe put it on 2? Wouldn’t you know, that’s one of the few things I did that really worked. Scope is now dead on.
Now moving to reactive targets so I can see exactly where it hits. Remember, I really don’t have a hold for it that works yet. So, my accuracy is, well, not that good. Most shots are hitting a 3-inch bull, but quite a few are hitting elsewhere. At one point, I had a really good group going, though I was aiming at the bull below where the gun was grouping. Back to adjusting the scope again.
In the end, I was able to get about a 3-inch group going. I believe the bulk of the problems are related to my hold, and just learning the gun. When I was on, I was consistently hitting and grouping well. When I was off, I was consistently getting a 3 to 5-inch group.
Though I made quite a bit of progress on the learning curve, it was a very frustrating day. After about 10 magazines, I’d just decided to pack it in due to frustration and generally getting tired. Only 160 or so rounds down range, but I learned a lot as I tried to place each shot carefully.
What did I learn?
- Bipods can really foul you up if you don’t have a clue how an Atlas style bipod works.
- Start with the Chronograph before trying to site it in (Should be here today, so this weekend’s project)
- New guns of different styles require research on the hold. Holding the gun is really important. I have a long way to go
- Learn the shot string characteristics as accidentally falling off the reg really fouls up sighting scopes
- Don't expect perfection first day out
- And more!
Tominco’s series on the Speed Silhouette may be a life saver (thanks!). I intend to try his hold next time I shoot. Maybe that’ll help.
So to repeat, Anyone else have frustrating shooting days like this and what did you do to get past the issues?
