TargetTalk

hello,

i have shot air guns casually over the past fifteen years or so, but never put any thought into taking it to the next level. after finding out a bit about 10m shooting, i've started shooting paper targets from 33 feet, and am enjoying it.

my question at this point has to do with my equipment - or lack thereof. i own two break barrel air rifles, both of which are the kind you can find at your local sporting good shop. i have no jacket, shoes, diopter sights, etc. and at this point i really can not afford to spend the money on a nice rifle or other equipment.

is it possible for me to make any type of appreciable progress in 10m shooting with the equipment i have? has anybody else begun their 10m career in this type of position?

thanks

Well, it's nice that you have an interest - that is the most important thing!

You are at some disadvantage, equipment-wise, but you can slowly build up your gear with used stuff, as you see fit. the biggest hindrance is probably the sights on your rifles, most likely they are open (notch) sights, whereas a peep would give you an easier time aiming. Otherwise, get a heavy sweatshirt (or two) in place of a jacket for now, a winter glove, and some flat shoes like the skateboarding kids wear. Shoot and have fun!

If you are somewhere close to a club, visit them, maybe even join them, especially if they have equipment you can borrow!

You need to upgrade the rifle at this point more than you need to purchase expensive clothing. Though some breakbarrels are very accurate, you need to have very good skills to get the most out of them, and they aren't really the skills you need for 10m competition when you do get a better rifle.
Shoes, gloves, glasses, etc are easily going to set you back a few hundred dollars.
No more than the price of the Daisy Avanti 853 (which dominates the junior sporting divisions in the NRA) or the new Crosman Challenger.
It will be quite a while before you get to the point where you can outshoot either of these rifles...by then you'll know if you want to spend big coin on the sport.

The problem with your rifles is that they probably have significant recoil/vibration when you fire them. That makes accurate target shooting difficult.

You do what you can with what you can afford.
If you can spend about $200, you can get a decent starter sportster rifle.

You can get the Daisy 953.
http://www.pyramydair.com/cgi-bin/model.pl?model_id=585
Replace the std open sight with match diopters. This is what I put on my 953
http://www.pyramydair.com/s/a/Crosman_P ... Sights/608

An alternative is to watch this site or other sites for a used Daisy 853.

Find a ski glove or similar glove with THICK padding for your support hand.
A couple layers of sweat shirt and
A shoe with a decently flat bottom (heel needs to be not worn, so the heel is able to sit flat on the ground, so you won't rock)

And you really need to fix the trigger of any of the Daisy x53 rifles.

Get this $2 booklet. It tells you how to fix the trigger and maintain the rifle.
http://estore.odcmp.com/store/catalog/c ... ote5=&max=

gud luk

Book-ways of the rifle 2009 about $60
fwb300s used around $400-$500, a guy named Jim E. always seems to have fine specimens up on the boards, usually with sights.

You don't really need anything else to get started. I am not sure you will get your money back out of a daisy/crossman if/when you upgrade. The fwb you will probably get back what you paid if you take care of the rifle. The fwb300s has an amazing trigger and accuracy.

That was my set up, nothing more than a gardening glove. The first month or so I was all over the place, not even keeping all shots in the black. Second month I started keeping 4 of 5 shots in the black. Slowly the groups tightened. About month 3 or so I bought adjustable front and rear iris for the sights, about $200. But you can also just get plastic inserts. Now maybe six months or so later, I am pretty much holding the 7.5 ring consistently and producing the occasional target with all 9's. Just a few weeks ago I upgraded my glove from a gardening glove to a used gehman glove another shooter was getting rid of. I picked up a used jacket and have not really started using it yet.

The point is, with minimal equipment you can make progress, which is what you asked. You can slowly add things as "needed." Oh yeah, I added a $4 pellet tin holder and $10 shaker box.

Donpop, where are you located?

The CMP has used Daisy 853s available for $75 plus shipping. They are usually in decent shape, and come with diopter sights. They are an underlever cocker, and qualify for sporter class.

Why type or class of shooting would you like to persue?