{"id":1094,"date":"2011-01-03T01:50:10","date_gmt":"2011-01-03T08:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/?p=1094"},"modified":"2011-01-17T08:21:47","modified_gmt":"2011-01-17T15:21:47","slug":"fun-on-a-sunday-afternoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/fun-on-a-sunday-afternoon.html","title":{"rendered":"Fun on a Sunday afternoon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On a warm Sunday afternoon back in October, 2010, back when there weren\u2019t large white bears roaming my yard (well, maybe that\u2019s a teeny bit of an exaggeration, but it was 8.8 degrees F. just the other morning), I got to do something that is becoming increasing rare for me: I got to shoot my own<\/span> guns.<\/p>\n

Now, I realize that this might be kind of a cheesy thing to say, but I spend so much time reviewing various airguns for this blog that it has become really uncommon for me to drag out a bunch of my own guns and shoot them just for the sheer joy of sending a few shots down range.<\/p>\n

But it happened that a warm, fairly calm afternoon popped up one Sunday afternoon in late October, so I began pulling a few of my favorites out of their gun cabinets to see how they are behaving.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Quigley Sheridan<\/p><\/div>\n

The first gun I decided to try is my \u201cQuigley\u201d Sheridan<\/a>. This is a modern Sheridan that Larry Durham very kindly fitted with a globe front sight and a tang vernier rear sight. Shooting .20 caliber JSB Exact pellets off a casual rest, I managed to put three shots in a group that measured only 5\/8 inch edge to edge at 35 yards, but the next two shots expanded the group to nearly 2.5 inches. The problem with shooting an air rifle with non-glass, non-magnifying sights is an optical one. It\u2019s simply hard to see the target. Perhaps I\u2019ll start experimenting with shooting with my left eye in the future.<\/p>\n

The second air rifle to come out of the closet was a modern \u201cSteroid\u201d Sheridan with a 10X scope. At 35 yards, 5 JSB Exact pellets landed in a group that measured 1-1\/8 inch from edge to edge. Four of the shots measured only \u00be inch edge to edge, certainly good enough for defending the garden or the bird feeder.<\/p>\n

I then decided to give my scoped Beeman R7<\/a> a try. At 35 yards, shooting Crosman Premier Light .177 pellets, I could only squeeze out a 1.5 inch edge to edge 5 shot group. Clearly I was not having my best luck with a spring-piston air rifle that day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

My scoped FWB150<\/p><\/div>\n

Then the guys who inhabit the back room of my brain handed me an idea: why not try a recoilless springer? Once again, I dove into the basement and emerged, this time, with my trusty FWB150. This time I put all 5 JSB Exact pellets into a group that measured just \u00be inch edge to edge. This was clearly more like it!<\/p>\n

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A target like this always puts a smile on my face!<\/p><\/div>\n

My final candidate for the day was the always reliable Benjamin Marauder<\/a>. Shooting again from the same casual rest, I began launching Crosman Premier Heavy pellets at the target 35 yards away. After 5 shots, I strolled down to the pellet trap to admire my work. The group (seen above) measured just 3\/8 inch edge to edge. That works out to about 2\/10 inch center to center.<\/p>\n

So what did I learn from all this? First, that it\u2019s always fun to put a few shots downrange on a nice afternoon. Second, there\u2019s a reason why people use scopes on rifles (so they can see better!), and third, for wicked consistent accuracy, it\u2019s hard to beat a precharged pneumatic shooting the right pellet.<\/p>\n

May you soon find a nice afternoon to enjoy a little casual shooting. In the meantime, there\u2019s this big white bear in my yard . . .<\/p>\n

Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jock Elliott<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a warm Sunday afternoon back in October, 2010, back when there weren\u2019t large white bears roaming my yard (well, maybe that\u2019s a teeny bit of an exaggeration, but it was 8.8 degrees F. just the other morning), I got to do something that is becoming increasing rare for me: I got to shoot my…»<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,211,11,29],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1094"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1109,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1094\/revisions\/1109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}