About Jock Elliott
Located in upstate New York, I never met a projectile launcher I didn't like. Besides fooling around with airguns, bows, and blowguns, I pick banjo and guitar. I share my life with my wife, son, and a variety of furry creatures.
Posts by Jock Elliott
The Omega CTF75 carbon fiber tank.
Here at El Rancho Elliott, I probably have at least one example of every single type of airgun powerplant. There are things I like about each type of airgun powerplant, and some things that I’m not so crazy about.
For example, airguns that are powered by 12-gram CO2 cartridges are excellent for family shooting because the cocking effort is usually very low and are convenient because all you need to do is throw a handful of cartridges and a tin of pellets in your pockets, and you’re good to go. The downside of the CO2 powered guns is that their performance can suffer if the temperature drops below 50 degrees or rises well above 90.
Similarly, the good part about spring-piston airguns is that they deliver a fair amount of power for a single cocking stroke. The shortcoming is that you have to deal with the weird recoil of the springer powerplant. And so on.
When it comes to precharged pneumatic airguns, the big why-to-buy is that they are the accuracy champs and generally easy to shoot well. The disadvantage is that they have to be refilled periodically using a high pressure pump or SCUBA tank . . . which brings us to today’s subject.
For almost a decade now, I have had an 80 cubic foot aluminum SCUBA tank that I have used exclusively for filling and refilling precharged pneumatic air rifles and pistols. The guy at the SCUBA shop regards me with deep suspicion (even though I am a certified diver) because this tank has never been in the water and in fact has never been mounted in a dive harness. “It’s just not right,” he says.
I finally bought him around to my way of thinking by bringing in one of the precharged guns to show him. “At 50 yards, this gun will put pellet after pellet in a group you can cover with a nickel,” I said. He reckoned that was pretty neat (he shoots black powder), and I pointed out that, as the owner of a dive shop, he wouldn’t have to worry about a plentiful supply of air.
But I have a love/hate relationship with my insect green aluminum SCUBA tank. It seems like every time I turn around the thing needs to inspected or “hydroed,” which means an extra charge and delay in addition to the normal fill-up. Further, my aluminum tank can be charged only to 3,000 psi. Most precharged airguns take a standard fill of 3,000 psi. So that means as soon as you charge just one air rifle off the 3,000 psi aluminum tank, you will have knocked the pressure in the tank down some. The next gun that you need to fill you will not be able to fill all the way to 3,000 psi, and with each succeeding fill, the pressure will be a little bit less. This will continue until the pressure in the tank will get down to, say, 2,000 psi, at which point it will not be useful for filling precharged pneumatic airguns, unless you have to own a low-pressure gun, even though there is quite a lot of air left in the tank.
In addition, my aluminum tank has a standard SCUBA valve and filling yoke attached to it, which mean you need to have a safecracker’s touch to open the valve just a tiny bit so that you can fill the reservoir on your PCP airgun s-l-o-w-l-y.
The slow fill system makes it really easy to fill the reservoir on your airgun slowly, the way you are supposed to.
Not too long ago, the good folks at www.airgunsofarizona.com sent me an Omega CTF75 carbon fiber tank with a slow safe fill system, and I’ve got to say that it has changed my whole attitude about tanks. The tank is about two feet long and weighs 10 lbs empty. It can be filled to 4500 psi, which means that you can fill a lot of airgun reservoirs to 3,000 psi before you are not getting full-pressure fills. This means far fewer trips to the dive shop.
In addition, the slow safe fill system means that airflow into the airgun reservoir is automatically restricted, so you don’t have to worry about inadvertently opening the valve too far. It’s a lovely system, easy to use, and I am already addicted to it.
So, the bottom line for me is as follows: if you plan to shoot PCP air rifles or pistols and are thinking about getting a SCUBA tank for filling your PCP guns, if you have a shop or firehouse that can fill carbon fiber tanks to 4,500 psi, I would heartily recommend the Omega tank. Sure, it’s more money than an aluminum tank, but it is much more convenient and easier to use.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
The Crosman 1720T is the only air pistol that I am aware of that was purpose built for Pistol Field Target. It can be used for unlimited class air pistol silhouette as well.
One of the cool things about being an airgun writer is that occasionally you get to hear some background on a product that you probably might not have known about otherwise.
The Crosman 1720T Target PCP Pistol is a case in point. Russ Page, Crosman product design engineer, was sitting at his desk one day when he gets a call from Ray Apelles. Ray and his father Hans are enthusiastic field target competitors and represent Crosman Corporation at various FT events as “Team Crosman.” Crosman, in turn, supports Ray and Hans with parts, guns, and so forth.
“Pistol field target is growing in popularity,” Ray says, “and we would like a PCP pistol specifically designed for pistol FT. Ideally, it would have a little longer barrel and more air capacity than the Crosman 1701 silhouette pistol and would shooter faster too – over 700 fps with light pellets and over 600 fps with Crosman Premier Heavies.”
According to Page, “So we built a couple of prototypes using most of the lower from the Marauder and some parts from the silhouette pistol. We had to get a special barrel, a 12-inch choked Lothar Walther barrel, and the result, after some tweaks, is the 1720T.”
The 1720T is quite some air pistol. A single-shot, .177 caliber, precharged pneumatic, it stretches nearly 18 inches from end to end and weighs 2.8 pounds. It is the first pistol that I am aware of that is purpose built for pistol field target.
The 1720T can be set up with the bolt on the left or right hand side.
At the extreme aft end of the 1720T is the black metal bolt which can be set up for right or left hand usage. Below that is the pistol grip which is ambidextrous. Forward of the pistol grip is a push-button safety and a black metal trigger guard which surrounds a gold-colored metal trigger that is fully adjustable. Forward of that is a polymer forestock which has a circular pressure gauge set into the bottom.
The cap at the end of the air reservoir slips off to reveal a male foster fitting for filling the reservoir. The barrel above the reservoir is shrouded for a very neighbor-friendly report.
Above the forestock is air reservoir. At the end is a black plastic cap which slips off to reveal a male foster fitting for charging the 1720T. Above the air reservoir is a shrouded, choked Walther Lothar barrel. Moving back along the barrel, there is a band that connects the air reservoir with the barrel shroud. Moving back again, you’ll find the receiver, which has a dovetail in front of and behind the breech for mounting a scope. There are no sights on the 1720T, so you have to mount a scope or red dot for aiming.
To get the 1720T ready for shooting, charge it to 3,000 psi with a high pressure pump or SCUBA tank. Pull the bolt back, insert a pellet into the breech, and return the bolt to its original position. Click the safety off and squeeze the first stage out of the trigger. This took 1 lb 2.1 oz of effort on the sample I tested. At 2 lbs., 0.3 oz., the shot goes down range. With the shrouded barrel, the report is extremely muted – not dead quiet, but certainly quiet enough for suburban use.
In factory trim, the 1720T launches 7.9 grain pellets at 715-720 fps and will get about 30 shots per fill. It will send 10.5 grain pellets down range at 630-640 fps for the same number of shots. Page says, “You can play with the tuning to get 750 fps with light pellets, but you won’t get as many shots or as flat a shot string.”
The 1720T also comes with an additional transfer port that can be installed by an airgunsmith to lower the velocity to 550 fps with 7.9 grain pellets and about 70 shots per fill.
I shot this 5-shot group at 25 meters (27 yards) off a very casual rest with the 1720T.
In stock factory trim, shooting off a rest, I got a 5 shot group at 27 meters that measured 0.6 inches center to center, and Crosman claims they typically shoot 5 shot groups at 10 meters that measure .375 inches. Clearly, the 1720T has the accuracy necessary for field target and silhouette.
The plastic shoulder stock normally used on the Crosman 1377 pistol turns the 1720T into a very neat and handy ultracarbine. I used this rig to test the 1720T for accuracy.
To test the 1720T for accuracy, I mounted the shoulder stock that is often used on the 1377 pistol (it is not included with the pistol and is available at additional cost from Crosman), and I “discovered” that the 1720T makes a really cool ultracarbine, perfectly suited for defending the birdfeeder.
In short, I think Crosman has come up with a real winner in the 1720T – a pistol suitable for field target, unlimited class silhouette, plinking, or even close range small game hunting. What’s not to like?
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
Dan Brown shooting in the Quigley Bucket Challenge at the Northeast Regional Field Target Championship.
Before we get to our conversation with Dan Brown and Dan Finney, a brief reminder from the good folks who make this blog possible:
Don’t’ forget: the 2nd Annual EXTREME BENCHREST™ competition , being hosted by Quail Creek Gun Club in Green Valley, AZ (25 miles South of Tucson) and sponsored by www.airgunsofarizona.com will be held on the weekend of Nov. 10-11, 2012.
What makes it extreme benchrest? Well, here’s a quick summary of the rules:
- All targets will be placed at 75 yards
- There are 20 targets to be shot and scored
- 20 minute time limit for all 20 shots and all sighters
- Targets will be scored from 0 to 10x per target
- If a shot breaks the outline of a ring then the shot is scored up
- Highest shot per target is scored
- Any shots over 20 will have a 10 point penalty per shot
- There are 4 targets that are on the bottom of the target board designated for sighters only
- Shooters are allowed as many sighters as needed
- Any shot above the sighter line will be counted as a competitive shot
- Shooting the wrong target is an automatic disqualification
Registration will be limited to 120 shooters, and there will be prizes, lot of prizes, amounting to over $10,000 worth of merchandise to be given to match and raffle winners. For more information, and to register, click here: http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/ExtremeBenchrest.html
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming: At the Northeast Regional Field Target Championship, Dan Brown took third in the WFTF Division and won the Hunter Pistol match. His son, Dan Finney, won the Hunter PCP rifle match. I interviewed Dan Brown about what made him and his son so successful at field target.
JE: How did you get started in field target?
DB: When I was a kid, I was really big into airguns. I used to read about Rodney Boyce and American Airgun magazine. When I was in high school, I used to skip school and take off in the woods all day with an airgun. About two years ago, I bought an FX Independence and went to some field target shoots. That’s how I got involved.
JE: What’s your current competition rig?
DB: This year, I’m using an EV2, and I’m shooting in the World Field Target Federation (WFTF) Division, which is 12 foot-pounds. I have a Sightron 10-60 scope and I use it all the time at 50x, even shooting offhand. I’m shooting 7.9 grain JSB pellets.
Dan Finney shooting his highly modified Marauder on the B course at the Northeast Regional Field Target Championship.
JE: What about your son’s rig for PCP Hunter?
DB: That’s a Marauder. I’m an amateur machinist, and we heavily modified my son’s gun. It has a Lothar barrel with a 1/15 twist, a thimble on the end so we can index the barrel, a custom hammer with a debounce device that improves shot count by 25%, a custom regulator that delivers 1.5% consistency, and a special bolt lug that tightens the actions. It gets a lot of shots per fill and is shooting at 910 fps right now.
JE: What about the pistol rig that you won with?
DB: That’s a Crosman 1720T that we bought the day before the pistol match.
JE: The day before?!! You mean you had less than a day to practice?
DB: Yes, and I had to borrow a scope from Ray Apelles for the pistol match.
(An aside: at this point, Your Humble Blogger is sitting mute on the phone, shaking his head in disbelief.)
JE: How do you practice?
DB: Me and my kid are big into bench rest. We get the guns shooting as accurately as possible. We shoot indoor leagues in the winter and attend weekly silhouette shoots for our offhand skills. We also practice in the backyard. We can go out to 100 yards. So one of us will put out a target, and whoever it’s it first gets to put out the next target at whatever distance he chooses. We do a lot of long range shooting, measuring ballistic coefficients, and we have even done high speed video of pellets in flight. We experiment a lot with different barrels with custom rifling to try to maximize accuracy. I find shooting from a bench very valuable as well.
JE: What about your son’s practice routine?
DB: Well, he follows a very highly regimented discipline. He plays video games about 95% of the time when he isn’t working, and he usually sights in his gun the night before a match.
JE: Any advice for newbies?
DB: One of the best practice aids is to get involved with benchrest match shooting. You’ll learn how much the wind affects the flight of the pellet. At the last match, I was holding off two inches to make the shot. It’s especially important with a 12 foot-pound gun. I think benchrest helped my kid quite a bit. Benchrest is a different mindset. It’s more technical and it will help you to get your gun accurate in a hurry. The bottom line: you need an accurate gun, need to understand the wind, and need to get your positions down pat.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
The windicator stands out to one side while Kevin Yee takes a shot at the Northeast Regional Field Target Championship.
At the Northeast Regional Field Target Championship, Kevin Yee flew in from California and won the Open Piston Division with a score of 100, beating the highest score posted by an Open PCP shooter. Not only is that a very impressive achievement, but Yee was one of the few shooters to demonstrate remarkable consistency, shooting the same score (a 50) on each day. I interviewed Kevin by telephone to find out what makes him so successful as a field target competitor.
JE: How did you get started in field target?
KY: When I was a kid, I went to Boy Scout camp. We shot .22s, and I liked it! When I got home, I begged my parents for a .22, I wound up with a Red Ryder BB gun. I got hooked into the Beeman airguns stuff, and eventually ended up with an FWB124. I practiced with that gun till I wore out the seal in it. I’ve shot airguns ever since then. Fast forward a few years . . . when I got a new home, we had a lot of pigeons around and that rekindled my interest in airguns. Eventually I got an Air Force Condor – a .22 shooting 50 foot-pounds – which I modified heavily and started to shoot field target with it. I noticed though that my technique was messing up some shots, so I started to shoot spring guns to improve my technique. I think PCPs are rather sterile and boring. A springer has a lot more personality and life.
JE: What’s your current competition rig?
KY: The gun I shot at NERFTC is actually my backup rig. It’s an HW97 with Maccari internals and a Maccari stock that was tuned by Jan Kraner. It shoots JSB RS pellets at 840 fps, close to 11 foot-pounds. It has a straight bar that comes out of the butt pad that functions as a butt hook, an old Premier-Leupold Mark IV scope, and a custom scope focusing knob that is about five inches in length. I like it because I can move it with my thumb when I am shooting offhand. I also have a windicator that is a piece of Mylar. That’s pretty much it.
JE: What’s your practice routine?
KY: (He laughs.) I’m actually a casual shooter. I shot the Oregon match just before I flew to New York for the NERFTC, but I hadn’t shot for 2-3 months before that. I actually don’t spend a lot of time practicing. I live in the city, and it’s impossible to shoot at my house. When I make it to the range, I’ll sit there for eight hours and shoot targets and take Vicodin later for my back. I only shoot from a sitting position at targets anywhere from 65 yards to ten yards.
JE: If you don’t practice, how come you were so consistent? Most of the shooters were telling me that reading the wind on the B course at NERFTC was really difficult.
KY: In a sense, I got lucky. The B course is very similar to where I normally shoot – with gusty, variable winds, but you tend to have a quartering tail wind, and that’s what I was seeing and feeling on the B course. Most of the time, I was sitting there trying to find a predictable wind to shoot. I rarely held on the kill zone.
JE: Do you have any advice for newbies?
KY: You don’t need a full-blown race rig; you don’t have to have all the expensive stuff. I think the springer class is the most reasonable class that a person can get into and shoot without spending high dollars. You need to practice enough so that you know your gun and how it will behave and so that getting into a good, stable field target position becomes second nature to you.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
At the Northeast Regional Field Target Championship ( NERFTC), Greg Sauve won the WFTF Division after a shoot-off with Ray Apelles. Sauve also won the 2011 WFTF PCP National Championship. I interviewed Greg by phone to try to get an idea what makes him so successful at field target.
JE: How did you get started in field target?
GS: Well, to really understand, you have to go way back. When I was 11, my Dad gave me a break barrel air rifle. I had been on him to get me a BB gun, and he said, “I got you a gun you can hit something with.” So I’ve been target shooting for over 50 years! Around 2000 I inherited a Crosman air pistol from my Uncle, that lead me to an Izzy pistol. I started looking for matches, and I got involved with the Badgerland Airgun Association (BAGA). I shot my first field target match there with a TX, and I hit seven targets. That was the beginning. My first serious FT rifle was a 20 foot-pound Steyr prepared by Allan Zasadny.
JE: What’s your competition rig now?
GS: A Steyr FT modified and setup for 12 foot-pounds by Alan Zasadny. It’s fully tricked out by him with a knee rest, thigh rest, butt hook, adjustable weight, trigger job, and changed porting. On top is a March 8-80 scope, and I’m shooting JSB 7.9 grain pellets. I shoot in a Creedmore shooting jacket – I actually have three of them – and a David Tubb highpower hat that I can fold the sides down to keep the light out. I also have one of those rubberized eye cups on the eyepiece of my scope.
JE: What’s your practice routine?
GS: I can shoot 20 yards in my basement. Once a day, I practice for standing shots. I have a target with 25 bulls, and I start at the lower left and slowly track the crosshairs along the line of targets, trying to hold as steady as I can. I understand the 10 meter guys to do that, and I try to make sure I do it once a day.
JE: What about sitting?
GS: Mostly I just shoot. All winter I shoot International Field Position at BAGA. You’re shooting at half-inch kill zones at 30 yards, and it’s worst-edge scoring. IFP really keeps the juices sharp. It was ten years at BAGA before anyone cleaned the course. I shoot a reduced IFP target in my basement at 20 yards, and I try to shoot two of those targets a day – that’s 50 shots. Sometimes I’ll shoot three of those targets in a day. In all, I shoot 15,000 to 20,000 pellets a year in practice.
JE: Do you do anything to keep yourself fit for shooting?
GS: I do some jogging, biking, and elliptical machine for cardio. I have a multi-position weight machine for strength, and I do yoga about three times a week for flexibility.
JE: Are you doing anything special to get ready for the World’s Championship?
GS: I notice they have a lot of uphill and downhill shots, so I am practicing those. I made arrangement with an archery club to shoot from a treestand. The outdoor range that I practice is wide open and very windy. I kind of like it now. You have to go out there and shoot when it is windy. Start by shooting everything dead center to see where the shots are going and then try to make them hit on target by compensating for the wind. I have a windicator I made from fly fishing feathers from Gandor Mountain. If you see that feather moving at all, you have to honor it, particularly if you are shooting in the 12 foot-pound World Field Target Federation (WFTF) division.
JE: Do you have any advice for newbies?
GS: Sure. Get some decent equipment to start with . . . probably a PCP because it’s easier. You have to practice to learn a consistent and balanced hold. You need to work on your natural point of aim. Sit down, point your scope at the target, close your eyes, open them, and see if you are still pointed at the center of the target. If not, wiggle around until you are. Then repeat the process – close your eyes, relax, open your eyes, and check to see if you are pointed where you need to be. If not, adjust accordingly. If you shoot with tension in your body, you will tend to yank the shot off line when you pull the trigger.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
Wives . . . you gotta look out for them, ‘cause sometimes they will nail you with an insight that is just cosmic in its significance.
Here’s what happened, I was wandering through the house this am when I noticed the book my wife was reading. About two-thirds of the way down the front cover was a cloverleaf which, in this case, was a symbol for the Holy Trinity. For me, though, it brought something else to mind.
“You know,” I said, “just the other day when I was visiting with the airgun benchrest folks, I shot Todd Banks’ air rifle and produced a group just like that – a little tiny cloverleaf. It’s a really, really (I could have added a couple of more reallys) accurate gun.”
“Okay,” she said, “but weren’t you telling someone a story today about a day when you shot two air rifles, got the same crummy results, and concluded that you were the problem?”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, how do you know that you weren’t shooting extra good when you got that cloverleaf? How do you know if it’s you or the gun?” she asked.
All I could say was: “Wow, sweetie, that is a darn good question . . . a DARN good question . . . how DO you know if it is you or the gun?”
So, in this blog I am going to attempt to make some progress on answering that question, but bear in mind that I don’t claim to have all the answers. So if any of the good readers of this blog have their own methods of sorting out whether it is you or the gun, you are cordially invited to post in the comments section of this blog.
From a theoretical standpoint, I think there are two key concepts in figuring out whether it’s you or the gun: (1) look for common factors and (2) eliminate variables.
Look for common factors. The day on which I shot two guns and got crummy results with both is a classic example of spotting the common factor. I was shooting a springer in the side yard and could not get it to group better than 1.5 inches at 20 yards. I stormed into the house, muttering darkly under my breath: “those darned springers are soooo difficult to shoot well . . .” I then grabbed a precharged rifle which I knew was a tack-driving sonofagun, shot it at 20 yards, and got nearly identical results. What’s the common factor here? The guy behind the trigger.
But if you shoot two different guns and get a good result with one gun and a bad result with the other, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are not the cause of the bad result. I had a perfect example of that a few years back at a field target match. One of the fellows was shooting Hunter Division with a springer, and he beat me, fair and square, with a tuned springer. Afterwards, I asked if I could try his gun. I tried six times to drop a large target at close range and failed miserably, so much so that he thought maybe something had broken in his scope. He took the gun from me and promptly dropped the target. The problem was that I wasn’t holding his springer the way that he did. If I wanted to shoot his gun, I would probably have to re-zero it.
Here are some common factors you might look for: are you using the same scope on both guns? (A bad scope can really screw things up.) Are you shooting in conditions that are not typical of what you usually shoot in? (Wind from an unusual direction, even if it isn’t particularly strong, can wreak havoc with accuracy, just ask the benchrest shooters.) Are you using a particular tin of pellets with both guns? (Recently I talked with a shooter who has two “identical” tins of pellets – one shoots true, and the other habitually spirals the shot, and nobody can figure out why.) Have you recently changed your rests or shooting position? (That can mess things up in subtle ways. If you just changed rests and suddenly can’t shoot for beans, try reverting to your old rests and see if that doesn’t cure the problem.) Common factors will, in general, affect all guns that they touch. If it turns out that the common factor is simply that you are having a bad day, there’s hope that on another day things will be better.
The other thing that you have to do if you’re trying to figure out if it is you or the gun is to eliminate variables. With springers, in particular, you have to make sure that your scope mounts and stocks screws are snug. If any of those screws are loose, weird, erratic stuff can happen that can really affect accuracy. It should go without saying that, having made sure that none of the fasteners are rattling, you should test for best pellet by shooting groups off a rest. With precharged pneumatic airguns, make sure that you are charging to the correct pressure for that particular gun. If you are using a scope with a mil-dot reticle or any other reticle with multiple aiming points, make sure that you use those aiming points at the same power every time. If all else fails, try cleaning the barrel.
Every airgun sold by www.airgunsofarizona.com comes with a small pamphlet that I wrote on airgun maintenance. If you ask nicely, I bet they will send you a copy. The tips in there should prove pretty useful.
Okay, now, dear reader, it’s your turn: how do you tell if it is you or the gun?
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
The Rogue pushes into your shoulder and wants to lift the muzzle when the shot is triggered. I recommend shooting off a bipod.
To get the Benjamin Rogue ready for shooting, you first have to install batteries to power the electronics that control this air rifle. Lay the Rogue on its left side and remove the right side cover screws with a .0625 allen wrench. Install two AA batteries (the folks at Crosman recommend lithium batteries for long life) and replace the cover. Remove the cover on the foster fitting at the end of the air reservoir and charge the Rogue to 3,000 psi with a SCUBA tank or high pressure pump. The display on the left side of the receiver will tell you how much pressure is in the air tube.
The Rogue magazine holds six .357 caliber bullets.
Load the Rogue clip with six .357 bullets and slide it into the breech from the left-hand side until it clicks. Slide the bolt forward and down. This will push a bullet from the magazine into the barrel. Now, note this: the Rogue is designed with an extra position on the bolt. It has to be moved back about a quarter of an inch into the READY TO FIRE position before the electronic action can fire. To allow hunters to be able to walk around with the Rogue charged and loaded, there is a bolt activation lever just below the bolt that, when in the DISABLED position, prevents the bolt from inadvertently moving back into the READY TO FIRE position. The bolt activation lever enables and disables the bolt, and the push-button safety near the trigger enables and disables the trigger.
So, to fire the Rogue, flip the bolt activation lever to ACTIVE, pull the bolt back to READY TO FIRE, push the safety off, take the slack out of the first stage of the trigger, and squeeze the second stage.
A 145 grain Nosler Benjamin eXTREME Bullet next to a 7.9 grain Crosman Premier Pellet.
What happens next is really quite astonishing – the Rogue kicks. Ed Schultz says it has roughly the recoil of a 28-gauge automatic shotgun. (I’ve never shot a 28-gauge shotgun, but I’ll take his word for it.) The recoil is not punishing by any means, it doesn’t slam into your shoulder, but the Rogue definitely pushes back against you, and the muzzle tries to lift. When I first shot the Rogue at Crosman, I was using cushions for a rest, and it didn’t work very well. In fact, given the weight of the Rogue, and its propensity to recoil and lift, I consider that a bipod, which can be readily attached to the Picatinny rail under the forearm, is an essential accessory for this air rifle. A bipod makes the Rogue much easier to shoot well.
The report of the Rogue is about as loud as a subsonic .22 rimfire, but – thanks to the shrouded barrel – not nearly as loud as it might be. (The loudest precharged air rifle I ever shot was a Sumatra .22, which I thought sounded like a 12-gauge shotgun. I hated it.) The Rogue, considering the power it generates, is very modest in the sound it makes, but still it is not the air rifle for shooting in a suburban backyard . . . unless, of course, you have an urgent need to kill a coyote (even then, BE SURE to check with local authorities to make sure that shooting an airgun is legal where you are.).
I put six 145-grain Nosler bullets through the chronograph. Here are the velocities in order (fps): 783.2, 754.6, 750.9, 749.0, 741.3, and 739.1. (After six shots — a magazine-load — the air pressure drops to about 2,000 psi and the reservoir needs to be refilled.) That works out to 752.18 fps average and – drumroll please – 182.2 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle. That is one pot-load of power, roughly 50% more than a .22 rimfire. That’s about 10 times the power of most air rifles sold in the United States, power enough for hunting coyotes and hogs. That’s also enough power that you want to be extremely careful in choosing your backstop for target shooting with the Rogue.
Five shots at 50 yards with the Rogue.
Shooting the Rogue off its bipod at 50 yards, I put five Nosler bullets into a group that measured 1.4 inches from edge to edge. A number of bullets are available for the Rogue, including a 95 gr. hollow point, a 170 gr. flat nose, a 159 gr. round nose, and a 127 gr. flat nose.
The power with which it hits is impressive. I’m told that when Crosman brought out the Rogue at the Northeast Regional Field Target Championship in 2011, they put a target on a cinderblock at 50 yards, and the Rogue punched a hole in the cinderblock.
Bottom line: I think a lot of hunters and pest control professionals will find the Rogue an interesting and useful tool.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
The Benjamin Rogue is a big, powerful .357 caliber precharged pneumatic air rifle.
When I’m not writing this blog for www.airgunsofarizona.com, I occasionally have other writing assignments in the airgun field. For the past several years, for example, I have written the “airguns update” for the SHOT Show Daily newspaper that is handed out each day at the SHOT Show.
Now, there is too much going on at the SHOT Show to print each day’s edition of the newspaper fresh from scratch. That would be the road to madness. As a result, a considerable chunk of the SHOT Show Daily is pre-printed well ahead of the show. The article that I write about what’s new in the field of airguns is part of that preprinted material.
So here’s what happens: sometime in August (usually) my editor at the SHOT Show Daily will contact me and given me a deadline for my airgun article. The deadline is typically sometime in October. So I begin contacting all the airgun manufacturers and distributors who will be exhibiting at the SHOT Show and I tell them that I need the pertinent information about whatever new products they will be exhibiting at the SHOT Show by a date that is usually a week before the day I have to turn in my story to my editor.
As a result, I usually know about a lot – but not all – of the cool new airgun stuff that will be unveiled at the SHOT Show. I have to keep all of this information is strictest confidence until it is officially released at the show. I have also learned over the years that many of the new products that are announced at SHOT Show will not be commercially available until later – sometimes much later – in the year.
So I was talking with one of the nice marketing people at Crosman about some products that were announced at the SHOT Show 2012 when she asked, “Have you ever seen a Benjamin Rogue?” I had to admit that I had not and didn’t think anything more about it until three weeks later one arrived at my door.
Until the Rogue showed up, the largest bore airgun I had ever shot was a .25 caliber. Quarterbore, as it is sometimes called, is a nice fat caliber that serves very well for hunting small game, varminting, and pest control, but the pellets might weigh, say, 19 to 25 grains. The Rogue, though, is a .357 caliber precharged pneumatic air rifles that launches “bullets” that might weigh as much as 170 grains. You don’t have to be Einstein to figure out that if the Rogue could launch these pellets faster than I could throw them, it would be fairly easy to generate energy at the muzzle that would be in excess of a .22 rimfire cartridge. That’s a lot of power for an airgun. I didn’t think that the pellet trap I ordinarily use would be capable of stopping pellets from the Rogue.
Further, I figured any airgun capable of generating that kind of power was likely to be pretty loud. So immediately I had a problem: I needed to find a place where I could shoot the Rogue safely and where it wouldn’t disturb neighbors. I mentioned this to the folks at Crosman, and one of them suggested I bring the Rogue with me when I covered the Northeast Regional Field Target Championship. I did, and the first time that I got to shoot the Rogue was in the company of Ed Schultz, who is the head honcho for engineering at Crosman.
This display and these three buttons serve as the control center for the Rogue.
The Benjamin Rogue is a big, hairy-chested, powerful precharged pneumatic air rifle. It weighs 9.5 pounds before you mount a scope or bipod, stretches four feet long, and is a six-shot repeater. At the extreme aft end of the Rogue is an AR15 style buttstock that can be expanded or collapsed after squeezing a release lever. Forward of that is the receiver, which has a liquid crystal display on one side and three buttons for making various control selections. The Rogue is electronically controlled, including a digital pressure display and an electronic valve that precisely meters the amount of air that is used for each shot. The shooter can choose from two power settings and various bullet weights to custom-tailor the performance of the Rogue to their preference.
Crosman has recently simplified the software that controls the Rogue. “We realized the no one wants to shoot a big bore airgun on low power,” Schultz says, “so we eliminated that option.”
Below the left side of the receiver is an AR-style pistol grip and forward of that is the trigger and trigger guard, above which is a push-button safety. Ahead of the trigger guard, you’ll find the forestock, part of which is covered with a tan polymer guard that is textured for gripping. Beyond that, the rest of the forestock is black and has a Picatinny rail for attaching accessories.
Moving forward again, the air tube, finished in tan, has a screw-off cap at the end. Undo it, and there is a male foster fitting for filling the air reservoir. Above the air tube is the barrel, which is shrouded and has baffles to quiet the report. Moving rearward along the barrel, the receiver has a 3/8 inch dovetail for mounting a scope. In the middle of the receiver is the breech which has a slot large enough for accepting a 6-shot rotary magazine.
On the right side of the panel, you’ll find a removable panel, the bolt, and a small bolt activation lever. That’s it.
Next time, we’ll take a look at what’s it is like to shoot the Rogue.
Til then, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
If you see these guys, they are wanted for pursuit of accuracy in the first degree. They are, in fact, the fine air rifle benchrest competitors who showed up for the Northeast Regionals.
You want to know what it was like? Okay, I’ll tell you. It was a little like being the driver of a car, and you’re at an intersection, and you need to make a decision about which way to go, and the person on your right is yelling “Go right! Go right!” while somebody else in the back is screaming “Go left! Go left!”
. . . Except that I wasn’t driving a car, and no one was actually yelling at me. I was merely trying to put an air rifle pellet down range with high accuracy, and I was getting highly conflicting (HIGHLY conflicting, like two people yelling in your ear) information about what I needed to do. In short, I was trying to read the Salem Swirl.
What do these gentlemen all have in common besides air rifle benchrest? They’re trying to figure out what the wind will do to their pellets.
But I get ahead of myself. It all started back in May, 2012. I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when an email shows up from Rick Ingraham:
Re: Air Rifle Benchrest
Hi with the East coast and world postal being in your back yard (Salem NY) how about coming over and doing a write up on it? We will have the number 1 – 2 — and 4 world shooter there . 6 or more from the world team, People from 6–10 states and maybe from out of the USA. And a Pig roast. August 4-5 Salem N.Y. Email or call me if you like
Well, that sounded like fun. So after a preliminary visit to the Salem Pistol and Rifle Club to test the Benjamin Rogue, I showed up there on August 4, armed with a camera, to see what the fuss was all about. I had not been exposed to formal air rifle benchrest competition before, but I have to say that I came away impressed.
The bottom line is that the guys (I didn’t see any gals competing, although there certainly are no rules against it) who shoot air rifle benchrest are the accuracy “weenies” of the airgun world. They shoot air rifles off rests at targets 25 meters (roughly 27 yards) away. The target has 25 bullseyes that count for score and some additional bulls that you can shoot for sighters, which are simply shots that are used to make sure your rifle is shooting where it is pointed.
During a match, the shooter typically has 30 minutes to complete 25 shots — one at each of the 25 bulls that count for score. You can shoot .177, .20 or .22 caliber, and there are various classes – such as light varmint, heavy varmint, world postal, and open – for various weights and powers of air rifles. For a full explanation of the various classes, visit http://www.usairriflebenchrest.com/2594.html and http://www.wrabf.com/ .
With the ten ring just two millimeters across, accurate scoring is key. You get one shot at each of 25 bullseyes.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting: the 10-ring on the air rifle benchrest target measures just two (count ‘em!) millimeters across. If you nick the ten ring, you get a ten. If your shot obliterates the ten ring, you get an X. If you miss the ten ring and nick the next ring out, you get a nine, and so forth. The highest possible score for a single target is 250 with 25 Xs.
A purpose-built benchrest competition air rifle.
But wait – there’s more: at Salem, you’re shooting outside, so you have to deal with the vagaries of the local breezes. As a result, the vast majority of shooters involved in air rifle benchrest are absolutely fanatical about accuracy. They will do just about anything to get their rifles to put pellet after pellet through the same hole at 25 meters under dead calm conditions. Why? Because once you start dealing with the wind, which wreaks havoc with relatively slow-moving airgun pellets, you want to be certain that it is not your gun that is causing the pellets to go strange places.
The Salem Pistol and Rifle Club is in a picturesque setting.
So I show up at the Salem Pistol and Rifle Club and the first thing that catches my eye is that this is an absolutely beautiful facility. Clean, well-maintained, with 16 concrete shooting benches with an awning overhead. Twenty-five meters out on the grass is a line of target stands, and in between, each shooter had been putting up his own series of various colorful devices for indicating the strength and the direction of the wind between the shooting benches and the targets. With all the colorful wind pennants and gizmos bobbing and weaving in the air, the whole place reminds me of a county fair.
Dan Brown starting to set up his wind indication devices, with the windicators of some of the other competitors visible in the foreground.
A few yards behind the shooting benches are still more awnings and tables where shooters are prepping their guns, cleaning barrels, and doing the friendly shake-and-howdy that is typical of most shooting events I have attended. Presently, Todd Banks, president of the Salem Pistol and Rifle Club and world champion air rifle benchrest shooter, walks over, welcomes me to the match, and asks if I would maybe like to shoot some benchrest. Well, I just came to cover the match, I say, and I didn’t bring any equipment. Yeah, but you could borrow a gun and use my rests, he says. He continues to twist my arm (ever so gently) for about another nanosecond, and I cave in.
Daniel Finney cleaning a barrel before the match. The following day, he set a world record.
A little later that morning I find myself staring down a line of wind indicators between me and the target. I’m shooting Todd Banks super-gnarly multi-kilobuck benchrest air rifle which is resting on Mr. Banks’s ultra-smooth professional bench rests. I have at my disposal basically the best gear money can buy. I ought to have Buddha-like calm, but I don’t. The two windicators closest to me are saying the wind is coming from the right; the two closest to the target say — perversely – that it is coming from the left. And a couple of windicators in the middle haven’t made up their mind. I trigger the shot and it nicks the black six ring.
The view from the “driver’s seat” with Todd Banks’ heavy varmint benchrest rifle, rests, and windicators.
I later remark on this to Pete Robeson, a rimfire benchrest shooter who is helping to score the match. “Oh, that’s the Salem Swirl,” he says. “Wind comes down into the bowl where the targets are and does weird things. You have to learn to read the Swirl if you want to shoot well here.”
By the end of the weekend, it becomes pretty obvious that some of the shooters have figured it out. You can see all the results of the match here: http://benchrest.com/showthread.php?83804-East-Coast-Regional-World-Postal-Results-747-38X-agg-shot-with-a-Maruader!-Long-post
Daniel Finney used a modest setup for front and rear benchrests, but that didn’t stop him from achieving excellent results.
A lot of the shooters had done extremely well, but the highlight, I would say, was Daniel Finney setting a new worlds record for three targets in the postal match of 747-38X. That means, of 75 shots, he only had three that were not tens! Further, he was shooting a highly modified Benjamin Marauder off leather bags supported by wooden blocks. It just goes to show that you don’t have to have the most expensive gear to do well.
In the end, I think airgun benchrest is a whole lot of fun. You can get started with an unmodified Marauder and scope in production class for a few hundred dollars.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
