A Calm Sunny Day For Testing The Springers

 

And Walking The Dog.

 

"Take some guns and that bloody dog and go down the woods, he needs some exercise", said the wife to me the other day. Well i didn't need telling twice that's for sure. 

Scatterbone never waits like this for a walk, as soon as i pick up a rifle and my camo jacket he starts bouncing around like a maniac.

So the s410 goes in one gun slip and and the Mercury and Hawk fit in another, pellets in one shoulder bag and target board and resettable rat target in another and of we go. Except no it's not as i just realised i hadn't cleaned the barrel of the Mercury, i did the Hawk the other day and it was gleaming now as it was in a right state before. They both needed a clean as i wanted to test for long range accuracy, so it's out the slip, given a good clean, re slipped grabbed my binoculars, and put the lead on Scatterbone.

Picture doesn't do it justice as the cloths were much dirtier than they look here.

After a 15 minute walk with a fair weight of air rifles over my shoulder most of which Scats was off the lead and sniffing about, 

Walkies.

we get to the bottom woods where i unload the rifles and threw some stuff for the dog.

Kit unloaded and the dog retrieving a stick or something.

I found a nice spot with a good 30 yards clear between two large trees with the land sloping down from my right, 

Have to be careful of cant when shooting across a slope like this. oh, and the rifle was empty when i took this picture.

i walked over to the far tree and erected the resettable target and the thick hardboard target only to realise i'd forgotten the paper, pen, and tape. Oh well i suppose i could use the AA s410 to mark an aim point an see how the springers would do, this was just to get a rough idea of their accuracy and suss out the best hold for these rifles.

This needs a repaint as i can't see the circle that easily at distances beyond 25 yards, in fact it's easier to hit the reset bar.

.

First up was the .22 BSA Mercury with a Nikko Sterling 3-9x40 AO scope with off set mounts, 

.22 BSA Mercury in need of a polish and the stock sanding and oiling.

i chose to use RWS Superdomes as they had given the best results in the past.

Superdomes do well in the majority of air rifles, so do Crosman Premier but i ran out of those.

After lining the barrel by shooting at the resettable target quite successfully as it happens, i took 8 shots at the board from 30 yards.

A pretty good group from 8 pellets and i could most likely do better, the pellet on the left was my point of aim.

I used a kneeling stance with my fore arm resting on my forward facing knee allowing me to support the rifle in front of the trigger guard with the fleshy part of my palm, the butt rested in my shoulder lightly and the pistol grip was held gently as i squeezed the trigger. This way i was completely relaxed as i exhaled and the crosshairs lowered to the point of aim, which showed that this old British springer was very accurate if handled right with the right pellet. I tried using Eley Wasps No 2 but they just went every where but the point of aim, I suppose they're alright for helping me run the piston O ring seal in.

Don't think i'll be getting these again.

Now it was time to try the .177 Webley Hawk with a Range Right 4x32 and Hawke medium double screw mounts and i had got some .177 superdomes for it also as Wadcutters are a bit naff past 25 yards, the first shot sounded like a bloody rimfire going off as there was most likely a spot of cleaning oil left around the breech.

.177 Webley Hawk Mk II looks promising, but only time will tell.

A wipe and a few shots and the dieseling had abated, she was looking tidier as i found a hood for the front sight off an Innova which fitted just peachy. But what an idiot i was as i had forgotten about the scope creep and hadn't remedied the problem, however the first few shots grouped well then the pellets started to rise up the board as the scope started to shift once more. Mind you they did it in a straight line which looked promising , but i felt the scope didn't have enough magnification for this test so next time i'll use AGS 3-9x40 with the one piece mounts.

What to do now i thought, i think i'll put half a tin of pellets through the Mercury at the resettable target from standing, kneeling, and prone at different ranges.

Scope on x9 mag and sighting on the resettable target.

This proved very satisfactory, of course not every shot was successful but the practice sure helped and i could see i was improving. The s410 carbine was fully charged at 180 bar so i did the same with this to a much more successful result, i used three magazines worth of AA Diabolos then tried another two with Falcon Accuracy Plus.

Out came the Falcons for a test.

The Falcons dropped into the mag easily as the Diabolos were5,52 mm and sometimes needed seating, the idea was to have a pellet that at 13.4 gr would have slightly flatter trajectory than the Diabolos which are 16 gr. But the jury is still out an that one as pellets in the field don't always cut the mustard like they would punching paper, besides as accurate as they maybe the Diabolos and N&N Fields are definately more accurate but they still performed well on the resettable target.

 By now the target board was riddled with holes and it was impossible to show any interesting groupings, though what i did notice was that the .22 PCP had a lot more down range power as any pellet that hit it just ripped through leaving a massive exit hole.

Time flies when your having fun and after four hours it was time to head back, so i loaded up my rifles and kit and taking my rubbish with us we took the longer route back. 

The walk back looking remarkably similar to the walk there, seen one Cotwolds green lane, you've seen them all.

I would have been even longer if i had set up the Webley Hawk properly in the first place. Any way there's plenty of time to to do that again and when i get my chronoscope fixed i can test the springers and see what figures the s410 is giving.

TTFN

Wing Commander Sir Nigel Tetlington-Smythe