30-Yard Challenge

Leaderboard submission:
30-Masters: 200 16X
FX Crown MK2 .22 – 500mm superlight barrel
FX 18.13g @ 882-895fps
Sightron SII 36x fixed power

Shot 3 cards with my Weihrauch HW110, then I swapped the scope back onto the Crown. Had not shot the Crown in a couple weeks, as I had no scope mounted.

The stars were aligned – checked cylinder pressure, 185 bar – perfect (reg pressure is 135bar). Outside temp 78F, inside temp 68F – perfect – no huge temperature change. Wind was almost still – extremely mild breeze. I used 4 or 5 shots to resight the Sightron on the Crown at 30 yards. I almost never shoot the Crown at 30, but since it was sighted… thought to myself, hey why not shoot a 30-Masters? Result was this 200 16X. This is my first 200 Masters card (either 30 or 40). I have many 199s.

It’s the details. The fill pressure was right. The conditions were right. I didn’t use a couple pellets with iffy skirts. I paid attention to eliminating stiction on my rear rest. I concentrated and didn’t put pressure on myself on the last row. I have a streak of 19 straight 190+ 40 yard cards with the Crown – so I am confident and trust the rifle. I believe I’m getting better. Of course, shooting pellets straight from the tin, I always feel there is a bit of luck involved with a 200.

I had a bourbon to celebrate.

-Ed

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Awesome card, Ed!
 
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Shot a few cards today of 40 Masters using a couple different pellets and comparing the two barrels I have for my Thomas. Shot this card and then realized it was pellets I had culled because of “dents” in the skirt of pellet body. So I’m hoping still better is possible.

Toward the end (I shot this card from bottom right, winding back and forth to finish top-left, the wind settled into a pattern where I could just eyeball the hold-off and drop bullseyes. Shooting in lighter, less consistent wind is harder IMHO.

Apologies for not marking which I scored with the plug - but I did plug these and confirm the super close ones with magnified photos from my phone.

View attachment 485277
Did Mike machine both barrels before he shipped the gun or after?
 
Hi Guys,
I haven't posted in a while as I have not been shooting as much as usual. Lots of company including kids and grand kids. Which is good of course! The only drawback is both daughters-in-law are adamant anti-gun (and don't know what an air-rifle is). So to keep the peace my wife asked me to put the rifles away while the visitors are here. I can do that.
So all left today and it was a pleasant evening with almost no breeze. Broke out the .177 Crown and decided to try one 40yd Masters Card before sunset. Perfect conditions ... except the deer flies from the marsh behind me decided it was a fine night also. Anyway, shot my best .177 40 yd Masters to date so I can't complain, a 193-12x. I think I got bit by a fly as I was pulling the trigger on the first shot on #9 - or that is the story i am going to tell.
Cheers,
Greg
GM 40 yd Masters in 177  8-11-24.jpg
 
Haven't shot a card in a while, been playing musical tables. My wife decided she needed the table I was using as a shooting bench inside the house, so I decided to build a bench. I think it'll be an improvement and was fun to put together with my kids as assistants :).






It came out great, now you can start building mine, lol.
 
Haven't shot a card in a while, been playing musical tables. My wife decided she needed the table I was using as a shooting bench inside the house, so I decided to build a bench. I think it'll be an improvement and was fun to put together with my kids as assistants :).






I like the bench. Very solid looking.

Cute pic with the two young kids helping Dad.
 
Hello shooters and fellow AGN members! My first posting of a 30y challenge "target". I couldn't tell you the last time I used a "paper" target, I usually used wood to catch my pellets. I usually shoot at a mark for groups....
not "at a mark to hit it"...so a little different for me. Used my Wolverine r .177 standard power with JSB 13.43 redesigns at 795fps...Last time I shot this Wolv was mid April at 52 yds...I just shot a few pellets to sight it in at 30, maybe 20 pellets and shot the card...first time no practice just did it. I didn't let the gun/scope temperature stabilize properly...from a cold ac house to 93* Florida heat and humidity...May have been the issue with #7. The scope is an Athlon Argos 6x30x56 used at 30x. Gun was bought new in May of '20....I did adjust the trigger and polished the bore...my way...but never shot it much over the yesrs...Bullpups hooked me. This Wolverine is a very accurate capable gun....and is capable of better than 193. I didn't know there was a 40 and 50 yard challenge also. Anxious to try my Veteran .22 and my Humtsman Regal .20 on a card,
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both are capable accurate guns.
 
Hello shooters and fellow AGN members! My first posting of a 30y challenge "target". I couldn't tell you the last time I used a "paper" target, I usually used wood to catch my pellets. I usually shoot at a mark for groups....
not "at a mark to hit it"...so a little different for me. Used my Wolverine r .177 standard power with JSB 13.43 redesigns at 795fps...Last time I shot this Wolv was mid April at 52 yds...I just shot a few pellets to sight it in at 30, maybe 20 pellets and shot the card...first time no practice just did it. I didn't let the gun/scope temperature stabilize properly...from a cold ac house to 93* Florida heat and humidity...May have been the issue with #7. The scope is an Athlon Argos 6x30x56 used at 30x. Gun was bought new in May of '20....I did adjust the trigger and polished the bore...my way...but never shot it much over the yesrs...Bullpups hooked me. This Wolverine is a very accurate capable gun....and is capable of better than 193. I didn't know there was a 40 and 50 yard challenge also. Anxious to try my Veteran .22 and my Humtsman Regal .20 on a card, View attachment 489305View attachment 489306both are capable accurate guns.

Awesome card RM100GUY.

That looks like it scores 197 with a .22 scoring plug. Do you have one?

-Ed
 
Windy today, so the notion of shooting 40y Challenge cards was put to bed. I had a pretty consistent head wind, and wind was 4-6 mph, but also 2-3 mph at times.

I brought the Royale 400 .22 caliber and some JSB 18.1 and JSB Lights 20.83g pellets. Never tried the ‘Lights’ with the Royale.

As you can see, the Lights did considerably better than the 18’s. I had large ES spreads, but they were clearly more accurate in wind than the 18’s.

No leaderboard submissions, but the Squirrels ( in my backyard woods) are going to test out the new Lights to see if they prefer being dispatched by the 18’s or the 21g Lights! 😊

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I shot another 199 with 17Xs with my Caiman but nothing new to post to the leader board. I tried sorting pellets and found that my Caiman does not seem to like H&N 18s weighing 18.3 grains. 18.0, 18.1, 18.2 and 18.4 delivered about 75% 10s in two tests while 18.3s were at 50% in two. Still may have been me, I may have enough 18.3s to shoot a card now. That versus the other weights would decide it. I also sorted the 18.1s for head size and saw no difference (only 5.49, 5.5 and 5.51 were present). Latest cards have not been too good, feels like I am trying too hard. May pull out a P35 today and give the Caiman a rest. It's windy today too.
 
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I shot another 199 with 17Xs with my Caiman but nothing new to post to the leader board. I tried sorting pellets and found that my Caiman does not seem to like H&N 18s weighing 18.3 grains. 18.0, 18.1, 18.2 and 18.4 delivered about 75% 10s in two tests while 18.3s were at 50% in two. Still may have been me, I may have enough 18.3s to shoot a card now. That versus the other weights would decide it. I also sorted the 18.1s for head size and saw no difference (only 5.49, 5.5 and 5.51 were present). Latest cards have not been too good, feels like I am trying too hard. May pull out a P35 today and give the Caiman a rest. It's windy today too.

Nothing too shabby about a 199-17x Jim. Shot two 198’s this morning and if wind was light, I think I could have had a couple of 200’s with the Royale. The 20.83g Lights were pretty solid today in the wind.

As an aside, I am hearing/seeing great results with both the JTS and AEA pellets in terms of good quality and alleged better accuracy than some of the JSB offerings. I have seen a couple of threads now, and I even posted my results with my RAW HM1000x .22 shooting the JTS 25.39 a year ago. At 50y, the JTS has “consistently” been more accurate than older MRDs. The exception being that the new Shallows are about as good as JTS.

Also, I began lightly lubing mine with WD40 Silicone, and the pellets chamber more smoothly and hopefully mitigate some slight skirt imperfections.

The combination of very light lubing and trying some good high quality non JSB pellets is working, or at least that’s been my experience. I need to try the AEA’s.

Tom
 
Thanks Tom. I tried JTS 18s in my Caiman when I had a tin here helping another forum member get his gun set up (he OK'd it). They were about as good as JSBs in my Caiman but not as good as H&Ns. If your Royale likes 20.83 grain JSBs you might want to try some H&N Baracuda Match 21 grain. That's what my P35-22 prefers, I will post todays target with them below.

I shot this a few minutes ago. Officially the wind is 6 mph and it might be that low between gusts but it must gust up to about twice that judging from my drift. When the wind was low it was at about 9 o'clock and I held at about the 8 ring level with the X dot. That worked most of the time. But when it gusted that hold put me to the right and low as illustrated in block 2 and several other places on the target. I'm guessing the gusts were at least 12 mph and possibly 15 mph at 10 or 11 o'clock. Considering the wind and my weak ability to judge it I was pretty happy with a 194 9X. I've shot better with this gun and it's Veyron 6-24 scope this year but only a couple points better. I was also using a very inexpensive UTG bipod I have on the gun giving it's new cherry stock a sun tan.

P35-22 in the wind.jpg
 
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Thanks Tom. I tried JTS 18s in my Caiman when I had a tin here helping another forum member get his gun set up (he OK'd it). They were about as good as JSBs in my Caiman but not as good as H&Ns. If your Royale likes 20.83 grain JSBs you might want to try some H&N Baracuda Match 21 grain. That's what my P35-22 prefers, I will post todays target with them below.

I shot this a few minutes ago. Officially the wind is 6 mph and it might be that low between gusts but it must gust up to about twice that judging from my drift. When the wind was low it was at about 9 o'clock and I held at about the 8 ring level with the X dot. That worked most of the time. But when it gusted that hold put me to the right and low as illustrated in block 2 and several other places on the target. I'm guessing the gusts were at least 12 mph and possibly 15 mph at 10 or 11 o'clock. Considering the wind and my weak ability to judge it I was pretty happy with a 194 9X. I've shot better with this gun and it's Veyron 6-24 scope this year but only a couple points better. I was also using a very inexpensive UTG bipod I have on the gun giving it's new cherry stock a sun tan.

View attachment 489935

I have never shot any H&N’s. Might try the 22g. Tx
 
There is a theory that some barrels like the "soft lead" JSBs while others like the "hard lead" H&N (and Crosman but I don't find those as dependably high in quality). I do not know if that is the case or not. I tend to think not. I have one P35 that likes the JSB Heavies (a 25 caliber) significantly better than any H&N I've tried. But the other two prefer H&N. Presumably the barrels all come from the same factory. I tend to think is is just a little different shape or something. I always test both and usually some others too. I think Ed is pretty much an "always JSB" guy and he and you certainly shoot very well with them but I wonder if you might gain a few points in some guns with a H&N. H&N Baracudas are OK but more variable in weight and head size than Baracuda Match (which cost a dollar or so more a tin). The relatively new Baracuda FT 177 pellet seems even more consistent than the Match and gave me 3 more points in my 177. I don't think H&N pellets are better than JSBs but I don't think they are worse either. Just a matter of what a gun wants. But some claim to have never found a gun that likes H&N. That is certainly not the case for me.

A tin of Baracudas would be a reasonable and inexpensive way to dip your toe in the H&N line. If you have a way to check pellet size you could sort out several head sizes too. I only found 3 in the 22 caliber 18s but have found more variability in the 21 grain and in 177 caliber baracudas. You can get different head sizes in several of the H&N pellets but it is not very dependably what is in the description. If it says "5.52" they will be bigger than those that say "5.51" but they may really be 5.53 or something.
 
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