Interesting observation

[plinkster]

I have a fwb300s i've been shooting in my house range (10 meters)
that i shoot 9's and 10's consistentaly. Recently i purchased a 603 with much better ergonomics, sights , trigger, etc.. But would usually shoot 7,8,9 and ocassional 10's with it. i believe i figured out the problem, the 300 had a 4.0 insert and the 603 had a 2.9 (iirc) well as soon as i changed out to a 4.1 (iirc) scores improved dramatically! I guess my point is that if some of you are not improving maybe a simple fix is a larger (or smaller) front insert..

[RobStubbs]

I have a fwb300s i've been shooting in my house range (10 meters)
that i shoot 9's and 10's consistentaly. Recently i purchased a 603 with much better ergonomics, sights , trigger, etc.. But would usually shoot 7,8,9 and ocassional 10's with it. i believe i figured out the problem, the 300 had a 4.0 insert and the 603 had a 2.9 (iirc) well as soon as i changed out to a 4.1 (iirc) scores improved dramatically! I guess my point is that if some of you are not improving maybe a simple fix is a larger (or smaller) front insert..

It is a good point and one that people should consider when setting up their gun. It's worth taking the time to test what works for you. I did the same with my prone rifle which appeared too small. I moved from 3.4 to 3.6, to 3.8, tried 4.0 and went back to 3.8. I will reinvestigate a larger aperture again at the end of the season once I've finished my competitions.

The general principal is that a quite large amount of white around the black spot is much easier <for ourbrains> to center than a small amount of white space.

Rob.

[JSBmatch]

Robs right, changing insert sizes can make dramatic improvement to your scores. Its worth knowing that it is recommended to use a slightly bigger diameter insert for standing position because it has a better chance to contain your pattern of muzzle movement within the ring. In the prone position, muzzle movement is much reduced so you can afford to drop a size. However with either size, you must have a clear White ring around the black aiming mark. Eye sight also plays a part and shooting glasses may be needed to obtain a good 'Sight Picture'

JSB

[WRL]

I mainly shoot High Power, but shoot my air rifle a lot for offhand practice. Well, it is a little more than practice because I keep my scores and averages. I mainly use an NRA short range target reduced to 10 meters for my shooting. I also shoot the metric target. The difference between these two targets is the aiming black for the SR reduced target is considerably smaller than the aiming black on the metric target. I shoot much better using the NRA reduced target than on the metric target. I don't know if it is due to the "aim small, shoot small" adage. The NRA reduced target aiming black is much easier for me to keep centered in the aperture than the larger metric aiming black. I read an article on air rifle shooting, I think it was on the Pyramid site, that advised shooters to shoot a target with a smaller aiming black than the metric target. The article stated the metric target aiming black is too large. I find this to be true for me. I have wondered why the aiming black is so large on the metric target compared to some other targets. I think the CMP aiming black is smaller than than for the metric target. Not advocating a change. Know that will never happen. For me thought, I like shooting targets with a smaller aiming black.

[GeraldC]

I always thought that a small amount of white was better.
One day I did an experiment.With a 0.5 diopter in the front I shot a normal
English style (gallery?)target.
I then turned the target around so only the shot holes were showing.
At 20 yards and the shot holes just visible I shot them again.
Surprisingly the worst shot looked like a figure 8 and most were in the same hole and not much bigger.
Since than I have gone larger -4.2 mm for 50metre