TargetTalk

Hello everyone! As you can see, I'm new to this sport. I have been a pretty competitive archer for the last several years. I blew out my bow shoulder at the end of November as I was preparing for my first money tournament which would have been in Vegas in Feb. Rather than go insane without shooting 3 hours per day I decided to pick up an pistol. Ill have a few questions im sure but the first one is, how do you get a clean hole in the target. I am using WC's at a regulation 10m pistol target and 90% of the wholes I make are tears. What am I doing wrong? I have mounted the target firmly agains a foam board, mounted it to a frame around the perimeter and hung it from a clip. No difference. Never had this problem with my 22. Thanks for any help and stay tuned as the stupid questions begin.

Sounds like your AP is not pushing the pellet at a fast enough rate, or the target is slightly damp from humid weather.
What make of Air Pistol are you using ?

Sounds like a combination of low velocity and poor targets. I haven't found any good 4 bull targets. National and American both tear badly if your velocity is low. Try some Edelman's, I know they are more expensive but you can shoot more shots on them and the cut incredibly clean holes. You can order them right here from pilkguns.
Scott

That's right! Buy a $2500 air pistol and imported European targets and you won't have this problem.

Actually, it sounds like a combination of both items mentioned above.

Cheapest fix is the targets.

Thanks guys, gun is a cheapy IZH46M 7.5gr pellet @ 440fps. Called Pilk today for targets but they are all out. Also ordered LP10 from them which should pick up the speed a little. Ill see if that helps. Difficult to score when you get an inch long tear trailing off every whole.

Problem is not the speed, it is the targets because of the lower speed of air pistols.

If you cannot get Edelmann then a real good alternative is Kruger.

In perspective they are cheap...

I dont know if they have them in stock but Neal Stepp at International Shooters Services has Edelman and so does Champions Choice.
Scott

Thanks for the fast responses. Went to Champions Choice and ordered the Edelmans. Thanks again.

You can get Kruger targets from www.kruger-us-targets.com. Prices are very reasonable and they ship pretty quick. They are the new NRA Kruger distributor in the US.

You can try some RWS Basic (cheap, but accurate) in your IZH. The lighter weight ups the velocity quite a bit. Also try two targets back to back.

I was just kidding; you don't have to buy a LP10.

As Rover mentions, 2 targets back to back will help until you get the better targets. I doubt the LP10 will help that aspect but it's undoubtedly a better gun than the IZH.

Rob.

No problem Rover, I didnt buy the LP10 to make clean holes. I just would like to take the gun out of the equation as much as possible. Plus I know with archery, the feel of the bow and your body's adaptation to it was very important and I would prefer not to have to switch guns later on as I progress.

I put a piece of tape in the backside of the target. Just cover the bull area not the whole target. Works well for practice. Accommodates a less than perfect backer. Holes are much cleaner. The paper based tape I am using now is 2 inches wide. I live in a humid area and shoot in my garage so my targets are exposed to plenty of humidity.

I use the Kruger targets at the club where they have to hang free, and see no tear-out from any pellet shot through my 46m. At home where I'm now having to shoot at 7 metres, I use a metal box with electrician's putty about 1cm thick and just press the plain white paper scaled targets onto that, cleaning out pellets and smoothing with a putty knife between targets. Plain office type paper wouldn't work at all hanging free, but against the putty the holes are perfectly round and the pellet skirts typically about flush with the paper, making scoring very easy. It's a bit more work levelling the putty every 10 shots, but with the very quiet impacts and clean holes for scoring it's worth the effort. Printing targets in the printer's draft mode makes for a black enough bull with clear lines, and uses less than half the ink of normal mode - and they dry a lot faster besides, usable within a few minutes of printing.

Before a Club Competition during damp/ humid times we usually place the targets in a microwave for a short burst. This generally cures the tearing problem. Assuming the pistol is propelling the pellet around 500 ft/sec.