100 yard Air Rifle Standing

[alpineboard]

I accidentally discovered Long Distance air rifles. Got an FX Crown and am doing 50 yard, 100 yard, with future 200 yard in the works.
Having had lots of experience with 10 m Air Standing, this 100 yard proves to be very challenging, using a 22 caliber 700 mm/ 28 inch barrel, 25.4 grain slug at 850 feet per second.
Have added weights for total equaling 12 pounds. Having thoughts of trying this with iron/ aperture sights.
Barrel time is the same as FWB 800x 16 inch barrel at 540 fps. Am doing 18 per target because that is what the magazine holds.

Have been on other website forums, speaking

with FX company, etc, and am not seeing any one else doing this, in USA or elsewhere.
Am not sure if posting this non issf is appropriate here.

Husky cordless rechargeable lights

[acorneau]

Not many folks want to stand up and shoot. I compete in Metallic Silhouette and we shoot air rifles at up to 45 yards, smallbore rifles at 100 meters, and high power rifles out to 500 meters... all standing/off-hand.

More powerful air rifles are becoming fairly popular, so I've been waiting for someone to show up to one of our smallbore matches wanting to shoot their 22 or 25 caliber air rifle.

As long as you're having fun, then carry on!

[Richard144]

Just because long range air rifle is not my thing or some other peoples' does not mean that you should not post about it here. We don't all like the same stuff but it is still shooting. I personally shoot air field target, 10 meter, and silo but there is some interest in longer range air rifle shooting, bench rest in particular. Check out some of the airgun forums like airgunnation. The bench rest guys have some pretty big matches with serious prizes.
Rick b

[KDZ]

One issue is at that distance air rifle pellets are displaced a lot by wind, and your groups may be more a function of wind than your hold and execution. Mike Niksch, who makes the Thomas air rifles, has commented on this extensively. He doesn't believe 100yd benchrest competitions are anything more than luck, and advocates 50yd or less. In fact he helped form the new N50 50yd benchrest competition format.

I used to compete in USARB 25M benchrest, shooting heavy varmint and open class. Even at that distance wind effects are significant, and most matches are won or lost on reading and holding for wind.

More info here: https://www.airgunnation.com/forums/benchrest.558872/

[PeeWeeDaddy]

Try your hand at high power silhouette:

Chickens 200 meters
Pigs 300 meters
Turkeys 385 meters
Rams at 500 meters

Yes that is standing, unsupported, offhand..

[Ade C]

That's some great shooting at 100 yards. I'd be happy with that at 50!
I'd love to get into this if I had the facilities.
It's the same over here in the UK. People just don't want to get up off the bench to shoot.

[PeeWeeDaddy]

Not many serving or have served in the fighting military anymore.

[alpineboard]

Circumstances all lined up for me to do this. Having a lifetime of smallbore position , and 10 m ISSF Air experience. Came in contact with a local air bench shooter, and thought , I could do this long distance air rifle in position style/standing. After much research , got the FX Crown GRS with a 20x Simmons on it.
Am planning a method of sling attachment for the FX Crown, so I can at least try prone and kneeling.
It is a difficult situation, the "FX Dreamline', has a full extended fore end stock, but does not have the air adjustability that the FX MKII Crown has. One solution would be to get a smaller diameter Dreamline bottle and fabricate my own stock to suit my needs.
My method is similar to silhouette, but with incremental scoring. I do 2 targets each eve, with 18 on each, re: 18 is what the mag holds. The 850 fps, has an increased recoil, compared to 10 m 540 fps, that needs to be controlled very carefully, this is the tricky part. One fun part of this, is occasionally I see the slug and its arc going down range thru the scope.
My goal is to keep them all within the 9 ring.
It is tough to get folk into Standing, it is much work, for beginners as well as the experienced, but the rewards are worth it.
I practice/train 5 to 7 evenings a week, more than a year now, even if tired at the end of day, I get set up and start, and am always glad I did.
Also thinking that this outdoor 100 yd, will help me with indoor 10 m.

[alpineboard]

Replaced the 700mm barrel with a 380mm barrel. Went from 850 fps to 760 fps, less recoil. Slug in barrel time is noticeably less. Much better feel.
Looking into silhouette with this FX Crown 22, either air rifle or smallbore distance, maybe air rifle silhouette targets at smallbore distances. 8 inch drop for 100 yards.

[alpineboard]

Still at it every evening, making good progress. Trying to eliminate wild flyer shots, that is not me. Doing warm up slug shots before the record shots is helping, on this target, the 7 was #4 record, and the 6 was 18th shot.
Cleaned and lightly greased the hammer spring, and hammer spring shuttle.
Silicone greased a few slugs and cycled 10 shots, these changes went from 764 fps max to 780 fps max, fps variation is less than 1%
Definitely getting the hang of this, relaxing and seeing the entire shot.

[Oldnslow]

As someone who shoots an air rifle only while standing (admittedly, only at 10m, and rather poorly at that) I am impressed! Please continue to update us on your efforts!

[Overthahill]

Nice work alpineboard. I'm sure that few can really appreciate what it takes to do that well. Are you using wind flags? Didn't see any in your pics.

[alpineboard]

No wind flags are in use, as I shoot in the evening and there is not any wind at all.
Had been doing lots of Standing at 100 yards for the past month and getting infrequent flyers that I have recently discovered is due to spin rotation vs velocity ratio with Slugs. The spin of 20,000 to 30,000 rpm interaction with the Slugs velocity, 984 fps muzzle reduces to approx 733 fps(bc=.05 pellet) to 808 fps (bc=.08 slug) at 80 to 100 or so yards and sends the slug flying off at an angle= flyer at 100 yards. This condition would thus be "understabilzed", because the recommended barrel for heavy slugs is 18:1 twist and I am presently using a 24:1 pellet/light slug barrel. Am in the process of figuring out the correct slug weight to velocity, barrel twist rate. Pellet vs Slug, to reduce this.
But needed to see some positive progress, so I moved back to 50 yards Standing last night, all is good.
the fun part was the second bull, first 2 shots were X's, really need to keep it cool to finish it ok.

Bottom line from info that I have found is, 50 yards pretty much all is good for tight grouping approx 1/2"to 3/4", 75 yards opens up a bit to 3/4" to 1", but go out to 100 yards and things start opening up for weird flyers developing. It is all about understableized, or overstabilized, due to spin rotation vs slug velocity ratio.
So my task is to find the correct recipe for 100 yard tight grouping, possible 1 inch or less. Slug vs Pellet, correct velocity , and correct twist rate for the barrel.
Slug BC= 0.08, Pellet BC= 0.05
Presently shooting 984 feet/second, with either a 25.4 grain slug or pellet. 140 Bar

[alpineboard]

Shooting is sometimes surprising. 5 shot groups Standing @ 50 yards.

[alpineboard]

Installed a 1:16 twist 700m barrel with carbon sleeve, meant for 23 grain or greater slugs. Still testing for flyers, presently using H+N 27 gr slugs, at 140 bar, 950 fps. , with much better results.
Moved from 50 yards back to 100 yds, 1 st shot was the 7 at 5 oclock, moved the sights and got right on it. 93 % Standing, end of season high point.
Very steady now, as am holding within the ten ring. The trick is releasing the trigger. On the FX Boss trigger install, I had to shorten 2 grub screws, and dremel disc cut the end flat, I think the small amount of trigger creep is due to that flat on flat lever movement , and will try to small flat point sharpen said grub screws, hopefully eliminate the creep, I still got the trigger down to 2.5 ounces.

[Oldnslow]

1 to 1.5 MOA at 50 yards, standing, is...outstanding.

[alpineboard]

Over the summer , shooting the outdoor 50 yd, 100 yd with the FX Crown, I picked up some bad habits. I estimated 2 weeks of indoor 10 meter to break those bad habits, it actually took 2 months to get back to my normal 10 meter. No regrets, summer outdoor is fun.

[matorre]

[quote=alpineboard post_id=327409 time=1689084716 user_id=11777..... I see the slug and its arc going down range thru the scope.
My goal is to keep them all within the 9 ring.
It is tough to....
.
[/quote]

please work on your mental game too. this statement will kill your progress.
M

[Oldnslow]

Which statement, exactly, do you think will kill his progress?

[matorre]

" my goal is....."