TargetTalk

The gun club I belong to in Bremerton WA started up a Junior Small Bore program back in 2013. They were looking for help and I raised my hand. I had no experience with small bore competitive shooting so for the first several months I merely ran the line and watched the other coaches. Gradually I started training the newest shooters who started out in the prone position using a rest. These days I get the kids going in the kneeling and off hand positions while the better coaches keep an eye on me.

Anyway, I had to learn to shoot 3-position to better understand how to coach the kids so I put together a Savage MKI with a Boyd's stock, Anschutz rail, homemade palm rest and an aluminum butt hook for under $500. It's a rather primitive rifle but I can shoot 92/100 on the NRA 50 foot target. Since the price of the cheap target ammo (CCI Std Vel) is rather high, I bought an Anschutz 8001. With the butt plate most of the way out it fits me good enough, much better than the Savage. I'm able to do 96/100 with the NRA AR-5/10 target at 10 meters. Shooting 15,000 pellets will recoup the cost of the 8001 in 22lr savings alone; I'll do this in 2 years.

I got the 8001 when one of the coaches told me it would fit my 5'9" frame; and it does. It was also a bargain at $1450 At 7.9 pounds it is rather light though. But someday it will belong to my granddaughter and for now I let some of the kids use it to train with. Is there any way to add weight to it for when I use it?

One of the parents filled the cylinder for me while my scuba tank is getting a hydro/VIP. When the pressure dropped to the bottom of the green band I shot some pellets over my chronograph. I got 521 fps (from 30 feet) average with a 17 fps extreme spread and 5 fps standard deviation. If the 7 grain RWS pellets have a BC of .011 then my software says the actual muzzle velocity is 585 fps. When I get a full charge in the cylinder I'll see how/if these figures change. I read that the 8001 has a 540 fps muzzle velocity. Are my numbers good?

Ranb

Ranb wrote:I got the 8001 when one of the coaches told me it would fit my 5'9" frame; and it does. It was also a bargain at $1450 At 7.9 pounds it is rather light though. But someday it will belong to my granddaughter and for now I let some of the kids use it to train with. Is there any way to add weight to it for when I use it?

Stick-on lead wheel weights work nicely for that. That way you can add them in strategic locations and fine-tune the balance of the gun at the same time. When/if you pass the rifle off to someone else, they can easily remove/add/move the weights to suit their preferences.

Ranb wrote:One of the parents filled the cylinder for me while my scuba tank is getting a hydro/VIP. When the pressure dropped to the bottom of the green band I shot some pellets over my chronograph. I got 521 fps (from 30 feet) average with a 17 fps extreme spread and 5 fps standard deviation. If the 7 grain RWS pellets have a BC of .011 then my software says the actual muzzle velocity is 585 fps. When I get a full charge in the cylinder I'll see how/if these figures change. I read that the 8001 has a 540 fps muzzle velocity. Are my numbers good?

The better question is how does it group when shot from a machine rest? And your figures shouldn't change with a full cylinder, though they may change with different pellets.

I'm assuming they will not change with a full cylinder. I have a test target that came with the rifle I presume was shot from a rest, ten rounds at 10 meters. It was a single hole about 5 mm wide.

Ranb

just be aware that AIR RIFLE rules are entirely different than smallbore...

weighting an air rifle is limited to a certain degree (i dont recall offhand) but pretty much anything goes with smallbore..

The limit for air rifle is 12.125 pounds and smallbore is 14 (I think).

Andre wrote:The limit for air rifle is 12.125 pounds and smallbore is 14 (I think).

Depends on the rule set you're shooting under. ISSF Air Rifle is 5.5kg (rule 7.4.4.1), ISSF Men's Free Rifle is 8kg (7.4.5a), and ISSF Women's Sport Rifle is 6.5kg (7.4.5b). Other governing bodies (NRA, 4-H, CMP, American Legion, etc.) may or may not have different standards, and may or may not care where you can put the weights on the gun. When in doubt, check your respective rulebook. For example, ISSF Free Rifle is largely unrestricted in what you can do to the gun, right up until it's not. Weight locations are one of those areas that the ISSF actually expresses an opinion, as is how deep the dish on your buttplate can be. It always pays to check your rulebook when you're buying/setting up your equipment, to help avoid surprises when you show up for that major match where they check everything.

Been practicing; prone scores are about 95, kneeling 85, offhand is only 73 so far. Long way to go. Biggest problem offhand is taking the shot instead of resting before the wobble sets in. Only gone through one tin of R-10 match 7.0 grain so far. Also bought a scuba bottle so I could charge up. Some of the parents want to see me competing so I signed up for a local air rifle match. I expect to get creamed by the kids shooting. :)

With the last of the 7 grain pellets I shot them over the chronograph with a cylinder pressure of about 1600 psi. They went faster; 535 fps (601 at the muzzle ) with a 8 fps spread and a stdev of 1 fps at 30 feet. I was hoping there would be less of a difference in the average speed over ten shots.

The heavier 8.2 grain pellets were slower at 503 fps (565 at the muzzle) with a 5 fps spread and a stdev of 2 fps.

Ranb

Has anyone ever tried to change the cocking lever from the right side to the left? I have a left handed shooter who needs some practice and he has to take the rifle off of his shoulder to cock it.

I removed the pin from bolt that holds the lever, but when I tried to remove the phillips head screws, the first one broke when I applied a reasonable amount of torque to it. Are these screws fixed in place with thread locking compound? The owner's manual didn't say anything about it; just said to remove them.

I will probably have to bring it to a gunsmith to have the broken screw removed. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Randy

ETA; Got the screws out with a better fitting screwdriver tip.