set your gun up

[ghillies 209]

use as sticky if its of any use admin.

 

 

two ways to do it, by ear as it were or get the most the Quickest.

 

important side note...wheres your pellet going? who or what will that buonncer/flyer hit? (find the other end basically lol).

 

 

By Ear. (developes intuision if you have it).

 

Literally get any old set, scope on gun, find a straight bit 60 yards long and set out markers every 5 yards. zero it any old where you think then shoot the markers randomly untill you find where you can hit better, or worse.. simply work on the bad area's and the good area's should improve.

If you want to find the hold over/under on your ret.......go from 5 yards out to the 60. the reason for 60 yards is to test your pellets, once your up and running you'll notice at 60 some pellets wont get any where near, trace it back untill you start hitting and you'll what range theyre good for.

 

Things to look at are the groups opening out, flyers, the'yre usualy obvious, you'll see a sort of pattern emerging, every so many shots you lift up and think/say.. what the!...

If theres a definate 3 bad and 1 near 4 bad 1 or 2 near where ever you shoot (bar below 15 yards) thats usualy a gun fault, or barrels mucked up proper or just plain old bad pellet match to the barrel, some just wont go weather you bed the barrel in or clean it like an obsessed mother.)

 

when all thats sorted enough to group at 30-40 yards find a patch of tree's, things like beech when the balls show up, them little catkin efferts, or pine cones etc (something you can nail with out leaving a trail of carnage for folks to moan at, like the land owners favourate tree).

This is where you'll notise that the tragectry changes shooting up tree's etc.. the more angle up or down the tragectry shoots higher..shooting a true verticle up or down you'll notise you cant hit anything in the scope, thats because the pellets flying out at barrel height. on the scope it's about a blimp out of sight below.(because gravity isnt pulling it down as it flies out like the horizontal shots, and travelling upwards to meet your cross hair, its going literally straight).

 

when you've sussed all that you might think you dont like where the dots fall at distances, like every 5 yards wont fall on 1 dot half a dot 2 dots etc.. then you have an option, change the scope mount for a higher or lower one if you can, or just change your zero distance (always use the same distance here once your sorted or you'll be pissing in the wind every time you go, if possable always use the secondry zero, the one furthest, like the 30 yard not the 10 yard).

 

A little p.s. to by ear.............you dont even need to know what a yard or meter is, Its literally there int it, if you look some where else, gues what? it's there, it's 'that far', and no matter where and when you shoot, that 'there' is always the same lol...and the other there is also always the same. (just gets imbarising when some sais ''how far you zero'd?' and you reply 'there' 'that far'..they then say what the f**k, you taking the piss?..).

 

 

 

And the Home work Way.(easier and quicker, half hour at home, half our on the range you know where its at, intuision comes with doing it).

 

apart from the gun theres four bits of kit you wont, a tape measure, a set of pouder or jewelers scales to at least 1000'th (yes one thousand'ths) of a gram, and chrono, and a balistic program to ponder you options.(yes theres real options, even if theyre limited to whats available in reality).

 

 

 

The scales...

 

Tip out a few of the pellets onto a peice of paper random like. Then weight 30-50 of them and right it down. there'll be a heaviest weight and a lightest weight.. your intrested in where the most weigh so you can posably sort the most out of a tin, and the diference between the heaviest and lightest, that way for legal purposes you use the heaviest weight, even if it's just one, (the law dont care they just take it off you). If the pellet weight goes up in tin the power (foot pounds) goes up..can put you over the legal limit.(thats why they say no more than 11.5 fp, leaves room for flyers.)

You can sort them into batch's if your really into it ..... it does make a difference to the range, or should i say if you want the full yardage shooting. (at 30 dunt make much difference..ish..depending on how bad they are, at 5-10 yards, well they''ll go backwards and still hit 'reasonably' constant lol).

 

If your seriously into it then you'll be buying tubes of ten tins or even box's of, then you can sort all those into 'batch's and get the most usage by having several diferent weight batchs that covers the most of the pellets.(theres always dud pellets, most are visable but some are not, you have to use them to see, they apear in the form of the majical what the foo-bar happened then???!!!.)

pellet diameters can be the diference between a bad and a good pellet..worth knowing!

 

cheaper chrono http://www.chronoscopes.com/ as long as your not a 11.9fp guy lol as you'll be illigal at some point lol...11.5 with a combro should see you legal, and be enough to get a set up going at some lower power setting.

 

There are pellet sizer's about that you punch the pellet through and it trims bigger, lets the right skirt and head diameter through or the little uns drop on through.. it's an option if your really going for gold, and your guns in the extremly constant velosity legue.(a pellet skirt is more important than the nose at legal limits).

 

it's well worth a few quid to get the full fill string over a chrono at a shop. well worth it. see where it's most consistant, or looking at it another way, see where to fill the gun too,and where to stop (the usuable shots), the wild n wanderfull parts like full or over full arnt alway where the stated fill too is laballed.

if you have say 100 shots to empty, you can work out how much per shot, 200 bar shoots down to say 40 bar, 200-40=160 bar. divide the 160 by the shots, in my rapids case call it 400, it's regged and tuned in .177,

160 bar divided by 400 = 0.4bar.

look at your list of shots on the paper, see where they arnt as consistant, count how many up to where it is consistant and times it by the 0.4bar.

so..15 shots were erratic at the start.

15 x 0,4 bar = 6..........take it off the mximum fill, so now fill to 194 bar. (saves waisting time and air out the diver bottle).

low look towards the empty shots.. say 20 were all over the place..

20 x 0.4 bar = 8 bar.......... the string was shot down to 40 bar, now add the 8bar, only shoot down to 48 bar and save some more air and waisted shot's..that's a miss the target.

 

if you only get a 100 shots, theres no point letting lose with 15 that will never hit.. so why waiste the air and time shooting it off.

 

 

 

The Chrono...

 

you need to know if the guns legal to start with, and how fast the pellets going, and what to set the gun to for a particular pellet so you plot it on paper or put the number in your balistics program (chairgun works well enough to get a set up going http://www.hawkeopti...airgun-pro.html ).

Next is shoot strings of 10 shots to 20 shots through, depends how many shots your mag hold's for convenience basicaly, right them down so when your dun you can look at them. notise the difference shot to shot, this is to see what your consistancy is like, the bigger the difference the worse it is. add up all the number and divide the total by how many shots were chrono'd thats an average, pop that in your software.(bare in mind for legality use the fastest one to set the gun legal, fastest and heaviest pellet, that way your covered).

if you can tune your gun turning the powwer up or down (or get a shop to do it, but make sure they have certificates for calibration for the year your in, as in today..) the chrono will show a slightly larger over all difference or a smaller diference shot to shot, your after the least you can tweek it to.(even at the cost a 5-10 shots on fill). Bare in mind if you change your pellet brand, the consistancy usualy changes a bit as well as the tragectory

some times dropping up to a foot pound hits a sweet spot.. but dont go over the legal limit. the diference between 10.5 FP's and 11.5 isnt that much at the 55 yard range, even for hunting it'll still drop stuff at the 50 yard mark (and/or more depending on the pellet) 10.5 fp's will work, espetialy if your acurate, in the head its dead.

For target shooting it's only got to drop the 55 yard plate.( the big bang boys should be on louder big boy's guns any way lol)

 

side note....pcps tend to like heavier pellets, springers light pellets..in general.

 

 

 

The Tape measure....

 

a big one mind, a 50 meter is well handy, preferably with yards on it for those who like yards. vital for a zero, particularly if your weighing tuning and using balistic charts to suss a ret pattern out, else it changes every time you zero..waists all the other efferts.(bare in mind one day you wont have the measure, like out hunting so the old by ear has it's value).

 

 

 

The Balistics Program......

 

i've already stated chairgun http://www.hawkeoptics.com/apps/chairgun-pro.html but theres a few more out there, chairguns free, some of the others arnt, but hey ho..spent enough already lol.

why use one? because you can see the tragectory, you can gauge what power to set to, see what pellet weight and velosity changes do, you can see how high you want the scope, where you want the zero to get the ret patern where you want it etc etc etc.. loads of reasons.

 

The major reason is where to zero, the preverbial 30 yard zero is ok for the most people to be able to pick up your gun and use it reasonably well, ish.... but, hold up? we not in the army and lets face it how many peeps are using your gun here? if you dont know where its going its in your posesion after int it? gues who gets it in the kneck? YOU DO. so.. it's not really relavent being set to 30.

 

heres the crack, you set up at 30 yards dead on, you even measure it... put a diferent pellet in and the whole tragectory changes from near to far, it may even be hi or low at the 30 mark, sometimes it'll even go left or right...once zero'd its accurate, but non the less it changes with diferent pellets. some do some dont, your lucky if they dont.

 

so you open up your balistics program, oh noooooooooooo! it want number in it!!.. yup, tape measure for accurate distance, pellet weight and velosity for power..

then it only want a bleeding BC! nuh..... now yu fubared int yu? neh its easy lol, follow the how to in to the tool bar, usualy theres two ways to do it, a chrono here, and a chrono out there, pop them numbers in, or enter you zero, your power and measure the drop at 50-60 yards away and itll give you a BC number.(balistic coifecient, its basicaly how fast the pellets drop, or how well it doesnt drop over distance).

With all the number's in the relavent box's it draws you a line so you can see where the hold over and hold unders should be. Then the dreaded scope height, sound complicated but hmmm, you measured out the distance with a tape measure, get a ruler and mesure the barrel width and half it, then add the height from top of the barrel to the middle ('ish) of the scope tube.. or, center of the bore to center of the scope, hey presto a scope height.

 

the reason for the program is so you can change the numbers, like power and or scope height etc and see what happens, from there a little tweek on the zero distance, posably a tweek on power (at a minor cost to consistancy) and see if you can get the dots on a yardage, i had a set up for 5 years that was literally half a dot space down was 40 yards, one dot down was 45, dot and half 45 up to 64 yards, nearly a 65 lol.. that made life so much easier, after tape measuring an yard strip i knew where and what exsactly verse doing it by ear usualy took a couple weeks to a month to tweek the zero distance, once found it was gues the 43 yards because i didnt know what a yard was......then tweek a couple clicks till it was perfick again. it's a ball ache but tis an option.

 

you can fine tune the figures on the program, but, there'll always be an anomaly some where, air presure, atmosferics, pellet manufacture, scope manufacture etc etc etc.. all adds up when you think about it, pellets, barrel, gun, scope, weather, wind...stock..how you hold it etc etc, all minor details on their own, untill you fine tune all of them then wooooooo what a diference! add on a shop and guy who can tune your gun, match a barrel up, and fit a stock for your size. (then some one who is used to that gun and can use it..du-dahhhh).

 

always check it out till you know, every 5 yards put a paper or something you can see where your hitting, sometimes the near too stuff in the 0-15 yard isnt quite so but the rest is spot on. again...just so YOU know.

 

 

 

Setting a Scope Up...

 

Putting on the gun, one small spirit bubble, one plumb bob or a long spirit leval., put the scope in and losly tighten the ring tops so the scope is held but still moveable (not sloppy loose, only just grips), look at a target, anything..a step a plant pot or what ever but near to horizontal, bring up the gun like you going to shoot it. If theres a black ring in veiw in the scope its to near or too far, move the scope while still poised at the target untill theres a full image there.

(depends what your majority shooting is to where you put the scope, but rabbits rarely go up tree's, and yes they do beleive it or not, and vice versa most pigions are up a tree, so some whrre between the pigion and rabbit is you shooting them..some where around the horizontals good lol).

Then rest the gun in a pillow,or some kind of chock or vice that wont brake anything, place the small bubble on a flat of the gun under the back end of the scope, set the gun so the bubbles leval, and look through at the plumb bob and line up the verticle cross hair with the string, or line the horizontal up with a spirit leval.

Tighten the rings, use the little end of the alen key, the loner end will allow enough leverage to crush the tube, the little end should hurt your finger or thumb before it does, careful eather way.

 

if the scopes on a 'cant' (twisted away from the bore), your zero will be bang on, but when you shoot further it'll go say left, the further away you shoot the more it will go left, when you shoot nearer than you zero it'll go the opisite way to the right, the nearer the further right it'll go.(or vicer verser..). loosen the rings just enough and twist to counter act, if you go the rong way it'll make it worse, do it the corect way it'll get less then stops.

 

Centering a Scope.

 

in short, wind the adjusters all the way out and all but all the way in, it'll get stiff then stop, i dont like fully crushing it in..on an old scope it may well brake, on a new, probably wares it prematurly, eather way count the clicks as you wind from fully out to fully in and halve it, theres a center. wind back out to the half number and its centered. do it for both adjusters.

(bare in mind some scopes need to be moved say a quarter turn on one adjuster then a quarter turn on the other or the prism effert with the etched ret on 'binses' slightly out of alignment. if it has done that then on a springer it'll usualy zero then go out but settles down, on a pcp with no kick its a case of wind out a couple turns on both, then quarter turn one then the other back to where it was (count the clicks) and re zero from there. (or wait till it settles...if it settles, but it'll keep losing zero sligtly untill it does).

 

most factry guns arnt exactly all there, dont panic!, i'm talking thousands of an inch or less here, but, sometimes dovetails dont always line up with a 'centered scope', tisnt worth a worry,the scope should just be a quarter turn or so at most untill the horizontal lines up on your bore center. or..(sorts the cant.)

 

Scope Height....

 

basically, if you have a 56 mm end on the scope a low mount wont let it sit on the gun because the barrel wont let it, it's physical thing you dont have any choise on, get bigger mounts so it fits on the gun, once it's on the gun, you then have two choises, the height and the angle it points at the upward tragectory from your barrel. (if the barrel pointed exsactly horizontal the tragectory would only drop, as in the instant the pellet came out it'd drop...try getting your cross hairs on that one lol).

first though the height, an open sight height to the barrel (as close as you get it) will be hot for closer distances but after say 20-25 yards its all drop adjustment.(eventualy it drops to far to see..thats why the old riffles had riser open sights, to lift the sight higher so they could see it).

slightly higher and you have more upward on the tragectory before it hits bang on the zero then it goes slightly above the zero and starts to drop back towards a second zero (the highest point is the zenith).

put the sight higher the 'middle' or zenith can be set so theres an eqaul amount of climb to the first zero and drop after the second zero (it's your choise here). Heres where your limited choises come in, where'd you want your zero, and where do you want the dots on your ret to coinside, the higher the scope the further the zero is, so it's sort of a case of if your ratting opens or a lower scope are better, or should i say easier to use, if your rabbiting to 50 yards then a higher hight puts it there a bit better. (yu get used to what ever you use, so its just a preference thing, or a matter of getting more light through a scope with a bigger end lens).

 

the angle the scope looks down at, well...standard mounts there's not much choise there bar backing the rings at one end, or packing under the ring mount on the dove tail, or buying adjustable mounts.

But, it makes a diference, again only slight.. but adds up. if theres a spot that you cant judge right when looking through the scope, say 45-50 yards you just cant seem to see it right to hit it, then thats probly because the 'centered scope' isnt looking in the right place (ideally at the zero distance).

i cant say wether its an up or down at the back or front, i've never had to use it, but i have had one pellet with a missing spot at 43-47 yards..couldnt hit any thing at that distance, i could out to yards like lol...so it's there, an option. (i changed the power and zero..then used a different pellet).

 

 

Parallex.....

 

most scopes are made for firearms, theyre parallexed at 100 yards as a standard for the fixed scopes. theyre still plenty adequte at 4x mag or 6x mag. but, asking the shop/manufacturer to paralex for 30-40 yards is another tweek, i think worth having.

adjustable parallex, basicaly if you look through your scope at some thing at 20 yards away and wiggle your head just enough so you eye moves side to side you may see the ret moved!.. if it did the paralex error is occuring(try it at 50 yards too, the more distance the more error), you'll miss atarget unless your heads dead on the same spot each time. With an adjustable parallex you eather set it then shoot for that distance, not really nessesary untill your magnificasion goes up a bit.. 10 mag and you'll start to notise you cant see at 15 yards when its set at 45 yards, or vice verser you cant see at 50 yards with a 15 yard paralex set. 20 mag you'll see theres not much in clear veiw, at 50 mag its that chronic you've only got a couple yards in clear veiw (hmmm a FT or HFT range finding paralex).

on 4 mag or less.. dont worry about it at all. set it roughly to 30 yards or there abouts, or nearer for rat blatting to get the scope in best focus for the ranges your doing.

 

 

a tip.. zoom scope with adjustable parralex, say 2.5-10 mag, a little tippex mark for set ups, 8 mag at 20-50 yard shooting, set the parralex to 35 ish and put two marks to lign up on.. 2.5 mag ratting, set the paralex and one mark to line up on ..it al helps lol.

 

 

 

now then, all the above pulava, weighed um measured it and chronoed, got the pc on the go... todays standard gun is good enough, out the tin pellets are good enough (bar the silly or shit ones) to shoot FT, but...you'll have more miss's on average, considering 100 shots, 3 miss's is a lost posision.. that one bad pellet could lose you a season.. etc etc. (its the odd rabbit less for the pot too).

for hunting to 30 yards (40 if you can) dont fret....... out the box it should do it, or try a diferent pellet. shooting out to the 60-70 yard, you'll have to be hot on to actualy kill it, after enough exsperience it isnt a case of can i hit it.. it's will it kill it, and i dont mean eventualy kill it here lol.

70 yard on a bunny is posable but its an extreme, and i mean extreme outsider, when was the last time you were on it for a solid week? days and nights in a tent week.

60 yards, yeh posable, often an oops a bit far that one but if you and your guns up to it..

50 tards/55 yards..yup well with in it's bounds, untill you start winging it.

40-45..head shotting pigions is marksman/sniper levals equivelent.

 

0-10 yards is actualy the hardest on 40 plus mm scope's because the climb on the ret is in feet apart and full dot spacing a foot sort of thing, its extreme so dont knock the ratting guys. (your right next to the rebound at them distances, best not to miss).

 

 

half hour a day gets you in touch with the gun, 20 shots gives you more learning than 3 hour sesh's and wanging 500 pellets through once a week...FACT.

 

the three hour only builds your stamina, or gets rid of bug thats hindering, but only because your atension span is about 30-45 minutes for concentrating continious on average, after all thats gone you 'just do it', if your just doing it rong your seriously imprinting it rong into the natural tendancy and your 'intuisions'.

 

 

Trigger..........

 

too lightly set and you'll get some one eventualy, just a matter of time. you have to find your own way on that one, come's with exsperience and preference, but a two stage usualy beats a one stage.(not all but most).

Nicely through like warm butter please, slight bit of weight to touch against to feel the second stage where it fires.

 

 

Trigger 'pulling'............Gently Squeeze please........

 

move a bit of fag ash without breaking it..finger tecnique.

(unles its a chinesed clamper trigger, cracks as the sear lets the piston goes then pellet flies with the third crack, euwwwww shudders at the thought then snatch away and enjoy the noise...binnit! lol).

 

Follow through.............

 

we're not talking fart n see here.. look at the target and fire, all the time keep your eye on the target through the scope and watch to see where the pellet hits, then you can take eye and mind of the target..NOT BEFORE.

 

 

 

 

 

if the gun, scope or pellets are pap...and you persist with them, your imprinting failure. if theyre all pap, fffffffffffffffffff! binnit!!!

 

have fun... but be safe.....................................................(you pulled the trigger its your fault).

Edited January 19, 2012 by ghillies

[19powell90 89]

Jesus man. U have some spare time! Lol

 

But thanks for using it to help others

 

Scott

[ghillies 209]

no problem lol

[robwelsh 354]

i had to stop half way through lol handy though..

Edited January 19, 2012 by robwelsh

[ghillies 209]

you should have tried spell checking it..arghhhh

[tonyponty 6]

very interesting read thx ,tony

[j j m 6,609]

good read mate

[ghillies 209]

tyty