Air rifle versus rimfire benchrest Hunter class comp ....

[Yrrah]

The Armidale Club competition last Saturday was a SSAA Benchrest rimfire Hunter round of 25 shots, five shots on each of five cards at 50 metres/ 55 yards.

I shot the John Bowkett OZ 1 BSA Hornet air rifle at 980 fps with 18.1 gr JSB .22 heavies; Bushnell Elite 6500 2.5-16X AO scope set at 16X.

My best card was in the D relay 50.2. The others were Relay A 47.1; B 49.1; C 49.0 and E 48 for 243.4/250 aggregate. Eighteen 10s and seven 9s for 25 shots. The breeze was constantly changing direction and from every direction so attention to the flag indicators was very necessary.

The BSA's best target Relay D: and Worst target Relay A.:

Best:



Worst:



To put it into context of the actual rimfire shoot John Harrison won the Heavy Rimfire with 250.9 / 250 . The Light Rimfire winner's score was 244.?.

I am very lucky to have an open invitation to shoot with this SSAA Branch Club whenever I am up at the farm. The range is an outdoor 50 metre (55 yards) free pistol range but with concrete benches for multi purpose use. It is a 40 minute drive each way from the farm.

Again there was a good deal of further interest shown in the air rifle and positive comment on how well it handled the conditions with such comparatively (to bullets) light projectiles. I am gradually gaining an understanding of their local wind patterns... Hope this is of some interest.

Kind regards, Yrrah.

[native hunter]

Good shootin Harry.
I reckon they scored you a bit tough,did they use a plug gauge.??
First target could have been 50.3 and second target 48.1.
I will have to give it a go with the AR here as I usually only use the rimfire on them shoots.
Keep up the good work and word on AR.
Regards
Native

[Yrrah]

Good shootin Harry.
I reckon they scored you a bit tough,did they use a plug gauge.??
First target could have been 50.3 and second target 48.1.
I will have to give it a go with the AR here as I usually only use the rimfire on them shoots.
Keep up the good work and word on AR.
Regards
Native

No plug Native, but you are right. If a normal rimfire plug was used on all .22 air pellet holes it would certainly increase the scores here and there as the pellets come out at 0.218" and the holes tend to close a little more. But it is a relaxed and fun day for me to be able to fit in with these great people who are fine shooters and also have the old style country values. ........ They really do appreciate the shooting I have managed so far in their company .... Kind regards, Harry.

[ogre6br]

great shooting again mate

is a PCP only type event or could it be shot with a powerfull gas ram as well

or would the time allowed per relay be too short to use a break barrel type AG??

thanks again for such a good write up

have you tried any lighter pellets in the John Bowkett OZ 1 BSA Hornet too see if you can break the sound barrier??
I ask just for shits and giggles reasons- I mean just to see it it can be done..
the hornet is doing 980 fps already thats not far off it already

thanks

P

[Yrrah]

great shooting again mate

is a PCP only type event or could it be shot with a powerfull gas ram as well

or would the time allowed per relay be too short to use a break barrel type AG??

thanks again for such a good write up

have you tried any lighter pellets in the John Bowkett OZ 1 BSA Hornet too see if you can break the sound barrier??
I ask just for shits and giggles reasons- I mean just to see it it can be done..
the hornet is doing 980 fps already thats not far off it already

thanks

P

Those Armidale shoots are rimfire benchrest etc shoots. I shoot my air rifles by invitation ( it is a SSAA club so as a member of SSAA I am sanctioned ). Any air rifle could be used as time is not a problem.

I have shot 14.3 gr JSB Express from that BSA at 1050 fps and they still group sub half inch at 50 yards. But the answer is no, I have not shot the lighter pellets and to be honest, because the sound barrier would be broken inside the barrel, I am not so keen to have that happening in my air rifle barrels. It seems like a lot of energy cracked off at one spot in a soft and lightly rifled perfect barrel for my liking. Maybe it doesn't matter but I won't be pushing it ...... Kind regards, Harry.