TargetTalk

I am a very recent newcomer to air pistol (I have less than 30 days under my belt right now) although I am an experienced rifle shooter (air and smallbore). My pistol scores are not very good at this point (I have a high practice score of 515) but that is to be expected. My question is, does the weight of the pellet have a profound effect on performance. I have only been shooting rifle pellets with my air pistol. these pellets weight a couple of grams more than the respective air pistol pellets. Is this a problem?

On another note, what kind of drills can you recommend for pistol shooting in order to improve performance? When I practice rifle shooitng i do lots of dry firing, group shooting, etc. Does this work for pistol as well? Thaks in advance for all of your input. Good shooting.

Paul

Hello Paul,

Pellet weight, like the other factors of pellet dimension, really won't effect your performance until you get above mid-570's on a regular basis. Right now, I am shooting RWS Hobby Pellets (7 grain/.45 gram) in my Morini Pistol, and recently compared them (for entertainment only) to RWS R10 (an older lot of 7.7grain/.5g) an older lot of Meisterkugeln Blue (7.7grain/.5g) and Gamo match ( 7.7grain/.5g). Of course, I recorded not-so-surprising results: R10s averaged 7.4mm OTO, Meisterkugeln averaged 8.7mm OTO, Hobbys averaged 9.7mm OTO, and the Gamo Match pellets that I have (a relatively short pellet weighing 7.7grains/.5g) averaged 10.5mm OTO. None of the groups (5 each of 5 shot groups, all fired in the same conditions and session) measured over 12mm OTO. For perspective, a group measuring less than 13.6mm OTO is a group in which all pellets score 10.5 or above. As our host has suggested, buy as many name brand pellets as you can afford, whether R10 or Hobby, or the Vogel Practice or Match, or whatever H&N has to offer for practice or match. I have been shooting a lot of RWS Hobby (at $5 a tin) in our local league and shoot high 560s and low 570s with them. I doubt shooting the R10s would make any difference. Of course, your mileage may vary.

As for training, fundamentally the same as rifle; Dry Fire, non-aiming hold exercises, aiming hold exercises, blank target training, group training on targets with modified or no scoring rings, and match training with other shooters, and finals training, with and without other shooters. There are some very interesting threads here that offer some great information; try not to be overwelmed by them, as they can be gleaned for some great kernals of information.

toznerd