30-Yard Challenge

[TheAirgunnero]

Tom and Ed,

Don’t stick to one batch of pellets. Try to find different pellet tins that don’t have the same batch number (found underneath the can). If you both find the pellet batch that matches your barrels, HOARD them.

-Ricky

 

[tommyb]

Ricky

Here’s the situation in the U.S.

If you order pellets from any of the online ammo providers, my experience is that you cannot request different batch numbers. You get what they give you!

For my .22LRs , I can request different “lots” for the same ammo. Cannot do this with pellets.

So…..very hard to select batch / lot#’s for pellets.

 

[beerthief]

Ricky

Here’s the situation in the U.S.

If you order pellets from any of the online ammo providers, my experience is that you cannot request different batch numbers. You get what they give you!

For my .22LRs , I can request different “lots” for the same ammo. Cannot do this with pellets.

So…..very hard to select batch / lot#’s for pel

try calling AOA and talk to sales , might work ?

 

[TheAirgunnero]

Ricky

Here’s the situation in the U.S.

If you order pellets from any of the online ammo providers, my experience is that you cannot request different batch numbers. You get what they give you!

For my .22LRs , I can request different “lots” for the same ammo. Cannot do this with pellets.

So…..very hard to select batch / lot#’s for pellets.

Tom,

Same here in my country and that’s why we now have local individuals who make pellets that are much better and cheaper than JSB.

 

[EPG]

Awesome shoot’ TommyB !

It had some fun shooting my PowerPup today, but didn’t shoot any cards. It was shooting great at 40 yards, but wind was crazy and shifting.

Well, since Ricky gave me a sad face for not shooting the Challenges in gusty wind the other day, today I got in a 40-Masters in the gusty wind with the FX PowerPup.

Shot a 190 - and the wind was gusting to 19mph and switching directions.

As you can see, I got more comfortable understanding what the wind flags were saying as I worked down the card. I don’t think I ever held off the same for two consecutive shots, lol.

Ricky is right - can’t improve in gusty wind if you avoid it.

-Ed

 

[TheAirgunnero]

Well, since Ricky gave me a sad face for not shooting the Challenges in gusty wind the other day, today I got in a 40-Masters in the gusty wind with the FX PowerPup.

Shot a 190 - and the wind was gusting to 19mph and switching directions.

As you can see, I got more comfortable understanding what the wind flags were saying as I worked down the card. I don’t think I ever held off the same for two consecutive shots, lol.

Ricky is right - can’t improve in gusty wind if you avoid it.

-Ed

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Ed, don’t worry about the sad face I gave you since I get that all the time during competitions.

Always use wind flags, never trust the weather app since it is not accurate and invest in a KESTREL anemometer to get actual/real time wind readings.

Kestrel anemometer demo right before my relay started on one of my tournaments…

 

[beerthief]

Well, since Ricky gave me a sad face for not shooting the Challenges in gusty wind the other day, today I got in a 40-Masters in the gusty wind with the FX PowerPup.

Shot a 190 - and the wind was gusting to 19mph and switching directions.

As you can see, I got more comfortable understanding what the wind flags were saying as I worked down the card. I don’t think I ever held off the same for two consecutive shots, lol.

Ricky is right - can’t improve in gusty wind if you avoid it.

-Ed

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nice shooting under rough conditions , really kind of fun isn't it ? and again you did great !

 

[JimD]

I shot this 9 days ago and am just getting around to sharing it. I think it is my best with this gun so I am submitting it for the Masters 30 yard leadership board. I think its 1 194 11X shot with my P35-22 using it's Veyron 6-24X scope set on 24X. It is shooting H&N Baracuda Match pellets (straight from the tin through a Carm magazine) at about 810 fps (I have not measured it recently). I shot another target a few minutes ago and hoped to do better but it was, of course, much worse. A 187. I had to reassemble my wind flag (it was windy here yesterday) and then proceeded to ignore it. So I had a 15 cell. Lots of 9s and an 8 too. I adjusted the scope slightly so that the 10 ring should be between the dot and the hash mark right above the dot when there is no wind. I also do this with my Arken EPL4 6-24. I think it helps a little since the dot is hard to see against the 10 ring. But when you ignore fact that the wind is now blowing towards you so you need to aim above the 10 ring and not below it... Still fun.

I decided to give myself a birthday present which should arrive in the next week or so. I ordered an Athlon Argos 10-40x56 SFP MOA scope from Camera Land. They have them for $299 which seemed like a good price. I really wanted a Falcon t50i 5-50 but couldn't convince myself to spend about twice as much. I do not think this is going to dramatically affect my scores but I shoot most of my pellets at targets these days and decided to try a dedicated target scope. I think mainly it will just make it easier to place my shots. My 6-24s work well (especially the Arken) but I do have to be pretty focused on what they are aimed at.

 

[EPG]

I shot this 9 days ago and am just getting around to sharing it. I think it is my best with this gun so I am submitting it for the Masters 30 yard leadership board. I think its 1 194 11X shot with my P35-22 using it's Veyron 6-24X scope set on 24X. It is shooting H&N Baracuda Match pellets (straight from the tin through a Carm magazine) at about 810 fps (I have not measured it recently). I shot another target a few minutes ago and hoped to do better but it was, of course, much worse. A 187. I had to reassemble my wind flag (it was windy here yesterday) and then proceeded to ignore it. So I had a 15 cell. Lots of 9s and an 8 too. I adjusted the scope slightly so that the 10 ring should be between the dot and the hash mark right above the dot when there is no wind. I also do this with my Arken EPL4 6-24. I think it helps a little since the dot is hard to see against the 10 ring. But when you ignore fact that the wind is now blowing towards you so you need to aim above the 10 ring and not below it... Still fun.

I decided to give myself a birthday present which should arrive in the next week or so. I ordered an Athlon Argos 10-40x56 SFP MOA scope from Camera Land. They have them for $299 which seemed like a good price. I really wanted a Falcon t50i 5-50 but couldn't convince myself to spend about twice as much. I do not think this is going to dramatically affect my scores but I shoot most of my pellets at targets these days and decided to try a dedicated target scope. I think mainly it will just make it easier to place my shots. My 6-24s work well (especially the Arken) but I do have to be pretty focused on what they are aimed at.

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Great shooting JimmyD!

I have bought three Athlon Argos 10-40x56 scopes recently. I’m really liking them. I find the glass clear even at 40x - and the reticle is very fine so it does not obscure target. You found a better deal than I did - I’ve been paying about $330 for mine.

Let me know your thoughts on the scope once you’ve had some time with it.

-Ed

 

[JimD]

Ed, I will provide comments. I saw you liked them during a search before buying mine. I also like my Athlon Talos a lot. Worst comment I saw on the 10-40 was that it wasn't as clear as much more expensive scopes. Duh.

 

[EPG]

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Leaderboard Update - through 11/10/24​

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Hi Challenge Shooters,

Below are our leaderboards with submissions through 11/10/24.

Notable Submissions:

30-Challenge:

200 16X by EPG with his Reximex Daystar .177 (Post# 2765)

199 12X by NaProf with his FX Crown Mk2 .177 Green Mountain (Post# 2766)

198 14X by TommyB with his Weihrauch HW100 .22 (Post# 2753)

193 9X by RCope as he is getting the hang of the trigger on his Daystate Redwolf .22 HP (Post# 2778)


30-Masters:

200 20X by The Airgunnero with his GCMAG Magnum Gen2 .22 (Post# 2757)

200 20X by The Airgunnero with his GCMAG Magnum Gen2 .177 (Post# 2784)

198 15X by EPG with his Reximex Daystar .177 (Post# 2764)

198 12X by TommyB with his FX Royale 400 .22 (Post# 2792)

195 16X by JimD with his AirMaks Caiman X .22 (Post# 2771)


40-Challenge:

197 14X by TommyB with his RAW HM1000X .22 (Post# 2744)


40-Masters:

199 11X by EPG with his FX Crown Mk2 .22 (Post# 2754)

198 16X by The Airgunnero with his GCMAG Magnum Gen2 .177 (Post# 2785)


It’s getting late in the year, but as you can see, we still have great scores being submitted – and rifles climbing up our leaderboards as you folks keep topping previous highs.

Keep getting lead downrange, keep improving and most important – keep having fun !

-Ed

 

[JimD]

This isn't for the leader board but I tried something and got OK results. My P35s are light and I like that but I don't think it helps from the bench. I took my first home made stock and screwed two one lb blocks of recycled pellets to it. The first several targets I was adjusting the scope. I got fooled by one decent shot on a sight in target. But I only lost 3 points on the last 7 blocks once the scope was adjusted. My weighting method is very crude but I think it helped a little.

 

[tommyb]

Try shooting the 18’s at around 890 to 940fps

Hi Ricky

Had the Royale out to the range this past Monday.

Have the JSB 18.1’s now around 910 fps. This is a big jump from 860-870 range. I need to shoot some groups at 30, 40 and 50 yards and see how they look. The ST barrel is pretty forgiving with a variety of pellets and velocities, so we’ll see how she does

I did manage one 30Y Masters at 910 fps and it was good, not great.

 

[EPG]

Hi Ricky

Had the Royale out to the range this past Monday.

Have the JSB 18.1’s now around 910 fps. This is a big jump from 860-870 range. I need to shoot some groups at 30, 40 and 50 yards and see how they look. The ST barrel is pretty forgiving with a variety of pellets and velocities, so we’ll see how she does

I did manage one 30Y Masters at 910 fps and it was good, not great.

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Your vertical spread on that card looks excellent Tommy.

 

[tommyb]

Your vertical spread on that card looks excellent Tommy.

Thanks Ed. I hadn’t looked at the vertical spread, but you’re right. I did not have any big drops or high shots on the card.

Went to range this morning, but way too windy so I just shot 5-shot groups at 40y with the Royale. Was 44 degrees and velocity dropped to 890 FPS because of temp. The 18.1 g groups were much tighter than the JSB 22.83 “Lights.” The wind was blowing pellets around, so I’ll try this again on a light wind day.

 

[tommyb]

Good start to the week, as I went to the range this morning. I had the 8-bench 50-100y Sight in range all to myself.

Still fine tuning the Royale, but I am having excellent results in the 890-910 fps range.

Shot some 30 and 40y cards, nothing for the Leaderboard. I did tie my best 40 Y Challenge card with a 192-11X.

The highlight was the 30y Zero group before I left.

 

[EPG]

Hi Challenge Shooters…

Sharing what I’ve been up to the past few days…

I was considering buying a 2nd FX Crown, but the seller wouldn’t budge – so I looked at my barrel inventory and realized that I had a 700mm .22 barrel for my existing Crown – that had never been shot or mounted.

The AGN member that I bought my Crown from sold it to me with 3 .22 barrels: 380, 500 and 700mm. He told me that it was originally a Continuum, and that he had never even mounted the 700mm barrel.

I’ve had great results with the 380 and 500 barrels - the 380 shooting 15.89g and the 500 shooting 18.13g. The cool thing is that I can keep the same reg and hammer spring when swapping from 380 to 500mm and the pellet speed remains virtually the same: 895fps for the 380 with 15.89g and 895fps for the 500mm with 18.13g.

Could I get lucky and have the 700mm shoot the 25.4g at 895 without changing the hammer spring wheel…? Almost…

Results: (Day 1)
500mm – PW=15 – 902-910fps with 18.13g
700mm – PW=15 – 970-978fps with 18.13g (65fps increase by going from 500mm to 700mm – wow)
700mm – PW=17 – 935-943 fps with 20.83g (shot a ¼” 5-shot group at 40 yards immediately !)

(Day 2)
700mm – PW=15 – 820fps with 25.4g
700mm – PW=21 – 880-888 with 25.4g
700mm – PW=15 – 882-891 with 20.83g
700mm – PW=17 – 902-919 with 20.83g
700mm – PW=17 – 964-975 with 18.13g (same as PW=15 on Day 1 test)
700mm – PW=12 – 885-895 with 18.13g

I just shot 5-shot 40 yard groups on Day 1 (Nov 15) – and they were all really good – ½” @ 40 yards – regardless of speed.

The 700mm barrel is really long on the Crown, but not a problem on the bench. It seems to flex a bit more downward on the 700mm than the 500mm when I clamped the Chinese chrony on the end of the moderator – but it shot damn well with the chrony clamped on.

I love rifles where its easy to swap barrels and calibers – its like getting a new rifle for the price of a barrel kit.

I shot some 40-Masters cards with the 700mm barrel on Nov 16th and 17th – I’ll share the results in my next post. Pretty darn good – despite a LOT of wind.

Paper Plate shows some 700mm groups I shot on Nov 17 - these were also good - can’t locate the Nov 15 initial groups - that plate had the 1/4” 20.83g group - stunned me.

-Ed

 

[EPG]

So how did the 700mm barrel on the Crown Mk2 shoot:

Pretty darn good – all results are 40-Masters cards:

Nov 17th:

195 12X – with 25.4g @ 890fps (really good wind conditions)
192 8X – with 20.83g @895 fps (breezier than 195 conditions) PW=16
193 8X – with 18.13g @ 905fps (breezy Left to Right) (PW=14)

Nov 18th (insane wind – gusting to 30mph – Ricky would approve, lol)

191 11X – with 18.13g @ 880-890fps (PW=12) (I’m thinking I’m a great wind reader, lol!)
183 5X – with 18.13g @ 885fps PW=12 (wind slapped me back to reality)

I think I’m getting better at “reading” the wind flags – and I’m willing to hold off much further than I used to (I’ve hit 10s where I was holding slightly outside of the 8-ring today). The 183 card does not really look bad – you can see that I’m just missing Left or Right but vertical looks pretty good. A couple months ago, I’d never have gone outside to shoot in such windy conditions – today’s 40-Masters cards were likely the windiest that I’ve ever shot.

Hope you guys are having as much fun as me. Now I’m thinking of mounting some of my Dreamline barrels on my Crown, lol. Love these “Lego” rifles.

-Ed

 

[EPG]

Good start to the week, as I went to the range this morning. I had the 8-bench 50-100y Sight in range all to myself.

Still fine tuning the Royale, but I am having excellent results in the 890-910 fps range.

Shot some 30 and 40y cards, nothing for the Leaderboard. I did tie my best 40 Y Challenge card with a 192-11X.

The highlight was the 30y Zero group before I left.

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Great shooting Tommy - wish I could have joined you at your empty range - it looks really nice !

 

[tommyb]

So how did the 700mm barrel on the Crown Mk2 shoot:

Pretty darn good – all results are 40-Masters cards:

Nov 17th:

195 12X – with 25.4g @ 890fps (really good wind conditions)
192 8X – with 20.83g @895 fps (breezier than 195 conditions) PW=16
193 8X – with 18.13g @ 905fps (breezy Left to Right) (PW=14)

Nov 18th (insane wind – gusting to 30mph – Ricky would approve, lol)

191 11X – with 18.13g @ 880-890fps (PW=12) (I’m thinking I’m a great wind reader, lol!)
183 5X – with 18.13g @ 885fps PW=12 (wind slapped me back to reality)

I think I’m getting better at “reading” the wind flags – and I’m willing to hold off much further than I used to (I’ve hit 10s where I was holding slightly outside of the 8-ring today). The 183 card does not really look bad – you can see that I’m just missing Left or Right but vertical looks pretty good. A couple months ago, I’d never have gone outside to shoot in such windy conditions – today’s 40-Masters cards were likely the windiest that I’ve ever shot.

Hope you guys are having as much fun as me. Now I’m thinking of mounting some of my Dreamline barrels on my Crown, lol. Love these “Lego” rifles.

-Ed

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Ed,

Solid 40y Masters cards here. 195 on a 40y Masters is spectacular, to me anyway. Your Crown likes the FX 25.39g pellets, but all of them did well.