Field target on a budget

by Harley Ayre

If you are reading this blog, you're interested in precharged airguns. The three top reasons for this interest are:

1. Hunting
   
2. Long-range target shooting
   
3. Field target
   

If field target interests you, you must know about AAFTA - the American Airgun Field Target Association. Their website holds a lot of information about the sport. You will probably be most interested in the rules, which they have put in the handbook. Look under "Shoot Rules" for a description of how a match is run and scored.

Rifle choice
But you are also interested in the guns used for field target. A quick search of the internet and all available printed articles (there aren't many!) show shooters using exotic PCP rifles with expensive scopes, wind gauges and other equipment that looks pricey. That's just in the precharged class, but that's all we're looking at here. The truth about the equipment, however, is that it doesn't have to cost as much as you think. You do need a good PCP rifle in .177 caliber, and you need a good powerful scope mounted on it. A Falcon rifle makes one of the best field target rifles in the world, but if you're on a tighter budget, there's another rifle you'll want to look at - the Air Arms S200. It's a force to be reckoned with!

Target rifle to PCP
The S200 is an example of American hobbyist ingenuity taken to the world-class level. Back in the late 1990s, when some custom airgunsmiths were just beginning to modify 10-meter rifles for field target, several clever field target shooters wondered whether the inexpensive Tau 200 CO2 target rifle could be converted to a PCP. It could with a valve change and hammer/spring adjustments. Voila! The first Tau 200 PCPs were born. Since the rifle already has a fine Czech Republic barrel (they can really rifle a barrel!), it was accurate from the get-go. Air Arms wisely took note of what was happening in this country and quickly secured a deal to import the rifles for themselves - as a PCP field target model!

And, YOU are the winner!
You win because the price has been held in check (no pun intended). Air Arms knows the U.S. is an important market for them, so they do their best to hold prices low, despite the U.S. dollar's continual slip against the Euro. The result is a rifle that can take you to the national championships for way less than $500. Or, if you just want a good shooter - here you go!

Let's examine the gun
The S200 looks like the 10-meter rifle it descended from. But that isn't all bad. In the favored AAFTA sitting position, the short pull (distance from trigger to butt) and deep, flat forearm are exactly what you want. And, the trigger is great. It's not as nice as a world-class 10-meter rifle, of course, but you won't have many complaints. Let's take a look at the potential power. It says 9 to 20 foot-pounds. Note that this rifle comes in both .177 and .22. The .177-caliber model is the only one you want for field target, and its power range is up to a top of about 14 foot-pounds without modification. That would be a 10.6-grain Beeman Kodiak Match pellet moving at about 770 f.p.s. I've shot several matches with a PCP at that velocity and can tell you that it is possible to do very well. The British FT shooters, who are the best in the world generally speaking, shoot at slower speeds than this all the time without a problem! If you still want more speed, use a 7.9-grain Crosman Premier. It'll speed things up to about 830 to 850 f.p.s. Remember that speed, alone, is not the best criterion for pellet selection.

Pick a pellet
The ONLY way to select a good pellet for ANY airgun is to shoot it at the distances you plan on shooting. For 10-meter shooters, that means they only care what a pellet does at 10 meters. Who cares if it completely destabilizes at 60 feet and can't hold a group? As long as it prints the smallest groups at 10 meters, that's all that matters. Field target shooters have to worry about accuracy out to 55 yards, because that is the maximum distance they will encounter in a match. That's a long distance for a pellet to travel, so that's the distance you want to test pellets at. Closer shots will always be more accurate. Don't overlook JSB Exacts and Beeman Field Target Specials. Either one could turn out to be the best for a particular rifle.

Scopes
Most field target shooters want their scopes to have very high magnification, so they can see the target clearly when they adjust the parallax to determine the range. High magnification also helps the precision of your aim. I'm going to recommend the 8.5-25x50mm Mueller Eraticator as my first choice. This scope has a target reticle, which usually isn't good for field target. The thin crosshairs and tiny dot at the center can easily get lost when the sun is playing tricks with your eyes. However, this scope has an illuminated reticle that will make it stand out in situations like this. Leupold scopes had this problem a lot, until airgunners became sophisticated enough to start buying their scopes with visible reticles. With this Mueller scope, you get the precision of a Leupold at less than half the price! The 4-16x looks nice, as well, but I would go with the more powerful scope because it will stretch your precision rangefinding ability out to 35-40 yards. You'll still be able to rangefind at 55 yards, but the image will not be large enough to get an accuracy of less than one yard, which is what I am talking about.

The Swift scopes also represent good value for field target shooters - especially the 8-32x50mm. It's more expensive and it doesn't have an illuminated reticle, but it does have a fine duplex reticle that helps in those times of difficult visibility.

It's up to you
It takes an investment to get into field target shooting - no one denies that. With the S200 rifle, you can have a precision shooting machine for about the same cost as a good springer that could never keep up with this rifle. If field target has been your secret airgunning passion, here's a way to start enjoying it that much sooner!

More air, less filling - some thoughts about the PCP performance/power curve

by Harley Ayre

Your precharged airgun is a lot like a musical instrument. To a beginner, all musical instruments look and sound pretty much the same, just as similar models of precharged airguns look and feel similar to beginning shooters. After you spend some time with them, however, each gun begins to let you in on its secrets, one of which is that it might not operate exactly like you think it should! Let's consider some of the performance factors that aren't included in the manual!

Starting with max fill pressure
In the last post I told you that small pressure gauges are not always accurate - in fact they are rarely exactly on the money. So, it behooves you to learn the pressure your gun likes best according to the gauge you use. What if the max fill pressure turns out to be 300 psi below the recommended maximum in the manual? Use that figure as your stopping point, not the number in the book. You'll still get the same number of powerful shots as if you had filled the gun to the printed maximum WITH ONE DIFFERENCE: Your first shot will be right on the power curve instead of being weak and wimpy.

Okay, so that's a repeat of the last post, but here's a twist. It can also work the other way! Your gauge may read high and you may have to establish what the top filling pressure really is. Don't guess about this! Use a chronograph to determine the top and bottom pressures of your airgun's performance/power curve. Guessing gets you nowhere fast. If you don't have a chronograph, use the numbers given in the manual.

What do you mean, the BOTTOM of the performance/power curve?
We learned how to establish the TOP of the performance/power curve in the last post. Where the bottom of the curve is located is up to you. It's that point where the accuracy of your gun starts dropping below your standards of acceptability. That will be at a different pressure level for a guy who shoots bullseye targets at 50 yards and another guy who only hunts rats at the dump. But at some point, both shooters will notice they aren't getting the accuracy they want from their guns. If they then connect their fill device (scuba or pump) to the gun and start to fill, the point at which the gun starts accepting air defines the bottom of the performance/power curve. On some guns, you have to be very diligent to notice when the needle on the gauge slows down just a bit. Falcons are often very smooth at this point, while most Daystate rifles respond with an audible click and a big jump of the needle. You have to watch and learn each gun.

Is there only one power curve?
An airgun usually has more than one flat spot in its power curve, where velocity doesn't vary by much and accuracy will be optimum. The reason we speak of only one curve is because we are generally seeking the most power the gun can give with the best accuracy. Shooters who take the time to experiment with a chronograph can find all sorts of additional places the gun likes to shoot on the performance/power curve. After hearing about this from a Talon SS owner, I discovered three different places where my SS liked to operate. True, I didn't get the full power the gun had to give on the top curve, but I did get some spots that were useful for indoor target shooting. And, let me tell you, pumping a gun to 1,500 psi is a heck of a lot easier than going to 3,000!

A case where less was more
I knew a man who owned a big Korean Career 707 air rifle. Straight from the factory, those .22 caliber guns topped 50 and even 60 foot-pounds for the first couple of shots! But this guy didn't want that. He didn't want 15 to 20 shots from his Career, each of which would be at a lower velocity than the shot before, until shot 20 was shooting 100 f.p.s. slower than shot number one. He wanted a useful band of 20 to 25 shots that didn't vary by more than 30 f.p.s. so he could hunt squirrels and have some chance of hitting them. He got it, too, but not where most Career 707 owners would expect it to be. When he filled his rifle to 2,000 psi and shot until the gun had only 900 psi remaining, he got a nice group of 30 shots with .22 caliber Crosman Premiers in the 600 to 650 f.p.s. region. The Career will launch a .22 Premier at over 1,100 f.p.s. when the gun is filled all the way, but this guy was filling only to the point where most shooters stop shooting! He had good success dropping squirrels from the trees at pellet velocities most airgunners would laugh at. But, heck, we know the British airgun hunters have to shoot their .22 Premiers at 600 f.p.s. and less to stay within their law, and they do a lot more airgun hunting than we do.

Put that chrono to work. Even better, you don't need a chrono!
This time spent with your air rifle justifies the expense of that chrongraph a lot more than using it as a radar gun to see how fast you can shoot. And, don't despair if you don't own a chrono. There is a chrono-free method of doing this that just as good. Simply shoot at a distant target and see what kind of groups you can get on lower fill pressures. I like to place my target out at least 40 yards, because that really shows the accuracy potential. The aimpoint will not be in the same place that it is on a full fill, but that's a simple matter of a scope adjustment. Know what else? Your gun will be quieter and better behaved, too! All you Condor owners who brag that your rifle will shoot through a two-by-four can now enjoy 40 shots or more at reduced velocities. Yes, I am aware that you can do the same thing with your power adjustment wheel (don't those AirForce gun owners make you jealous?), but I'm talking about shooting with lower air pressure. If you are a pump user, I bet I have your attention now!

The top end of performance isn't the only place your PCP gun shines. With a little exploration, you might find that you own several wonderful airguns in one! While you're finding out, you'll be shooting! Nothing better than that!