Back To Basics - Iron Sights On An Air Pistol

[Nicepix 5,650]

Can you use archery equipment to hunt?

 

Any hunting requires a Permis de Chasse. To get that involves sitting a theory exam, attending a practical course and joining a local chasse group. For archery I understand that you also have to do another course.

[Nicepix 5,650]

Progressing slowly. I'm managing to get around 70% of the shots in a tight group. The odd flyers are down to my technique and lack of consistency, usually with the trigger finger position. That will get better with practice.

 

Initially the groups were around 3cm high and 1cm to the left. There is no further vertical adjustment downwards on the back sight and so I followed a tip I found online and added height to the front sight. The recommendation was for 2mm to be added, but my reasoning is if you add more you can always adjust the rear sight up to fine tune the range. As a temporary fix I used superglue to put a short piece of strimmer line vertically up the edge of the front blade sight. This sight is under a shroud and so the plastic line is protected. That resulted in shooting around 1cm low which was easily adjusted by lifting the back sight one full turn of the screw.

 

For some reason though the gun is now shooting to the right of the bull and I can't seem to adjust the rear sight for windage at all. There is a larger screw to the right of the blade and a smaller cross headed screw to the left. Neither seem to have any effect on the position of the sight blade and I can't seem to move it by hand. I'm thinking that some component inside the rear sight adjustment is knackered.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Nicepix

[Underdog 2,337]

Are they jam screws?

One has to be undone to allow the other to shift across!!

[treecreeper 1,136]

If it hasnt been moved for donkeys it could have corroded inside and locked it up the threads are tiny so it wouldn't take much.

Edited June 16, 2016 by treecreeper

[Nicepix 5,650]

Are they jam screws?

One has to be undone to allow the other to shift across!!

 

It would appear that the smaller cross headed screw on the left is the securing screw and the larger flat head screw on the right is the adjustment. But when I loosen the securing screw the sight doesn't move when I turn the other screw. And I can't move it by hand.

[Underdog 2,337]

Photo would be good.

 

Sounds seized.

[Nicepix 5,650]

WD40 to the rescue. A quick squirt has freed the sight. It doesn't move with the screw but at least I can manually adjust the windage to suit. In practice once I've got it set to suit me I can't see my needing to adjust it again for 10 metre shooting.

[Nicepix 5,650]

Getting better. I'm putting a suspended ceiling in the basement and whenever I have to put the drill batteries on charge I nip out and plink.

 

The super glued strimmer line in front of the front sight took a bit of getting used to. It is translucent yellow, almost fluorescent and it sits just below the target level with the top of the back sight. The windage sight has been sorted and now the majority of pellets are grouping nicely around 2cm horizontally and half that vertically. The odd flyers are down to me, not the pistol. I picked up a tin of RWS Match pellets yesterday and I've no complaints with them. Saves me using the less easily available AA Express pellets that I use in the Pro Sport.

 

Can't think why I haven't had a pistol before now.

[Coypu Hunter 486]

Can't think why I haven't had a pistol before now.

 

I have four CO2 pistols and three powder-burning pistols. What on earth were you waiting for?

[Nicepix 5,650]

Never been interested in target shooting, or clays for that matter. I always prefer to hunt and have always had good opportunities to do so. I could regularly have three pigeons dead in the air with the semi and using the same gun come back with 7 out of 20 on the sporting clays. My heart was never in it. Same with guns really. I only bought guns for hunting, not collecting or winking over. I don't think I've held a pistol since I was in my teens. But now, with no hunting opportunities and the weather not conducive for fishing I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and get a pistol I could use for work and do a bit of garden or indoor plinking. It doesn't help that my air rifle is still at my neighbour's due to their rat problem in the chicken coop. I needed a pellet fix!

[Underdog 2,337]

I often fancy a co2 automatic BB thing for some shot shell fun.

[Underdog 2,337]

Not air pistol but how is this 200yd group?

 

http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=66286&sid=d073349a75ce82c55a86d63e69a8cc28

[Nicepix 5,650]

Not air pistol but how is this 200yd group?

 

http://www.levergunscommunity.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=66286&sid=d073349a75ce82c55a86d63e69a8cc28

 

I'd be happy with that.

 

I've never used a CO2 pistol. But I have had a few CO2 rifles including a 1077 that was a repeater. The problem I had with CO2 guns is that the power level varied to a great degree and that made judging the range a lottery. Probably wouldn't be a big issue on a 10m pistol range or if the gun was regulated (if there is such a thing), but for normal air rifle hunting I found it frustrating.

 

With the 1077 the first two or three shots sent the pellet at the speed of light then it would be fairly regular for a dozen or so shots and then drop off considerably. If I fired five of six shots quickly the power just faded to next to nothing by the last shot. It would recover after a while, but made shooting a lottery.