Air Pistol for Bullseye SF practice....

[Cousin Jack]

I'm an older rifle shooter trying to switch over to Bullseye Pistol after our club lost its rifle segment because of lack of participants (smallbore rifle is too expensive, most newbies believe....). I currently shoot a Ruger 22/45 with VQ mods and a Millet Red-Dot, and I'm thinking of a Marvel Conversion for the used Wadcutter .45 with Clark Slide and a Ultra-Dot I acquired for the coming outdoor season. I'm currently carrying only a 255 average and need a lot of help!

I also practice SF a lot at home with an older RWS Model 5g recoiless air pistol, but the trigger reach is too long for my hand, it can't be scoped, and I'm looking for a replacement. Any suggestions on using airguns for Bullseye practice? Which pistol? How to practice?

[marvelshooter]

Welcome to the forum and Bullseye shooting. I can't help you on the air pistol but I will be watching others respond to your question. As long as your Ruger has a good trigger and is reliable it will take you as far as you want to go in this game. Having said that - I love my Marvel. Good luck.

[Rover]

I can tell you that the International Pistol shooters have long known how good a training tool air pistol is since it's one of their (and Olympic) events.

For some reason it's difficult to convince the Bullseye (2700) shooters how good it IS. I think they like the bigger bang of their firearms.

I got into AP for the same reason you are interested and it got me started in International to the point I rarely shoot Bullseye anymore.

Anyway, do a search in the Olympic Pistol forum and you'll find a mass of info on the subject and the pistols used. This is also a good source of info:

http://www.nygordprecision.com/notes.htm

and here:

http://www.scatt.com/articles.htm#Dynamic

[solomon grundy]

There are a variety of options for pistols, across a range of prices.

such as the ...

IZH 46M - a popular and reasonably priced SSP that will accept optics.

Drulov DU-10 - a C02 autoloader w/ an integrated mounting rail.

Daisy 747/717 - inexpensive SSP pistols w/ good accuracy, but no mounting options.

Steyr LP 5 / 50 - PCP 'repeaters' that can accept optics using an aftermarket scope rail.

What's your budget? - that's a significant factor, because the prices for the above range from about $150 to over $2000.

[Isabel1130]

about 80% of my training time is spent at home with my air pistol or just dry firing my bigger guns. At the Winter Air I was shooting pretty consistently but not as well as I felt I could. This last week or two I really worked at applying my air pistol technique to the 45 for slow fire. I keep the trigger on my air pistol at around 650 grams so I actually have to pull the trigger to get the shot off, as I find that shooting with too light a trigger tends to give me chicken finger when I pick up the 22 and the 45 with the heavier legal trigger weights. At the 2700 I shot yesterday, it was going pretty well and my slow fire scores started out at about 87 and got progressively better. I shot a 93 and a 94 in the 45 Cal slow fire match to finish with a 187. It would have been a match winner on most days but one of my better friends also had a very good slow fire day and won the match with a 190. He also shoots Air pistol for practice at home. I think a lot of training with iron sights will make you a better shooter with the dot but I can't say I really think it goes the other way. Shooting the dot exclusively will hinder your results when you pick up a gun with iron sights. If I wanted an AP just for training that was also suitable for a high level match and not too expensive I would probably go with the IZH although I have heard it is heavy compared to the Olympic guns. The best AP for simulating a standard gun would probably be the Morini or Styer shorts as those two guns have a balance similar to a traditional handgun and don't have the muzzle heavy balance and very long sight radius that can be disconcerting to those who shoot bullseye. Good luck, Kate

[Guest]

Thanks so much, everyone, for your replies.... I'm learning..... I doubt I'll ever be a competitive or even mediocre International shooter, although I once shot pretty fair high power military rifle scores (iron sights) while in the National Guard. And with a little Knoblock help, I'm shooting irons now with my RWS air pistol.... But I'm sixty eight, with horrible astigmatism, and I think red dots are definitely my only option! My eyes are so bad that I even use a Knobloch adjustable iris to clear up the red dot! Lol..... When and if I get cataracts, I might ask the eye docs to whittle me up some 20-20s again.

Also, most of the pistol game here is NRA Bullseye. So, a cheaper gun that can be mounted with optics is probably my best bet..... the Russian seems the safest bet. If I could mount some optics, I'd be satisfied with my old RWS......

None of you mentioned the Beeman P-1. Why not? Not accurate enough?

[Cousin Jack]

My apologies: That was me, above.... I forgot to log in!

[montster]

I thought it was very grip sensitive. Much more so than my 1911. I had to hold it with top top finger and thump pinching the grip to get accuracy. So with a grip much different than a 1911 it just wasn't working for me. I shoot a nice matchquality precharged air pistol now with the trigger weight turned up. I mainly work on shot process consistency. I really like AP. Maybe more than bullseye. Just wish there were more match opportunities.

The 46m is a great pistol. Had one. Liked it but thought it was a bit nose heavy. I also liked the gamo compact but trigger is not near the match quality of the 46M. Had a 747 too. Never liked the grip. Upgraded to a wider wood grip and like it better but still not great. Daisy trigger is not as good as the 46m and about the same as the gamo.

[zoned]

> Any suggestions on using airguns for Bullseye practice?

If the price won't spoil your day, consider the FAS 604. It's close to the size of a bullseye cartridge pistol and handles about the same. Airguns of Arizona offers the 604 with ambi or match grip.

http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/FAS.htm

I can email you the manual and some info about seal maintenance.

[yana]

The Beeman isnt a matchgun by far. Thats the reason probably.
the IZH is very good, but we cant feel for you what suits yóu best.
By the w, with good shooting glasses, I doubt you'd need a red dot.

[Cousin Jack]

Thank you very much, everyone..... good forum, this. I've gone with the IZH, and ordered an optics mount with it just in case I can't get my eyes dialed in. I figure I won't be out that much, and if I can get my slow fire scores up above 80, it will be more than worth it! Thanks again