30-Yard Challenge

Congratulations on your 200 15X Rick! Awesome shooting with that Red Wolf !

Your next challenge… print out the 30 Yard Masters card and start work on another 200.

Hey Rick,

Skip the 30y Masters and jump right in at 40Y. You’re ready. Great 200-15x with the RW!

I’m guessing you like the 25g at 970’ish.
 
Hey Rick,

Skip the 30y Masters and jump right in at 40Y. You’re ready. Great 200-15x with the RW!

I’m guessing you like the 25g at 970’ish.
Yes, it was your advice that led me down that road, thanks! On mid power, I can shoot two cards and some sighters without stopping to refill. And the trigger just takes some time to figure out. I don't even touch it until I'm settled. But, I'm going to shoot both the 40yds and the 30 Masters, I love the challenge that you guys deliver. My back yard range reaches 50 meters...
 
So what has Ed been up to…? Well, we had 14 people over yesterday for annual Christmas Chili (Texas chili - no beans) party. So I had to clean up my “Airgun Room” - 2nd living room over the garage. It took me hours to clean it up. I’m not saying I had more airgun parts and ammo and tools laying around than Ricky the Airgunnero’s garage… but I think there was.

Anyway, today it warmed up to 42 degrees, I had a bit of a hangover, figured I’d try these new JTS 22.07g pellets in the Crown Mk 2 with 700mm barrel. Fresh cold air felt good.

Check out these results - very breezy (note wind flags- at 40 and then 47 yards. I’m gonna get these JTS working on 40-Masters on the next nice day.

NAProf, you thought the JSB 18s were better than the JTS 18s in your Crowns. I’ve got a bunch of JTS 22g and JSB 20.83g - so I’ll do a comparison shoot off and let you know which pellet wins.

-Ed

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Ed,

Those are very tight groups at 40y in a ‘ no wind ‘ situation, so even better considering it was windy. I am surprised they were as tight as they were in wind. No fliers anywhere. Group #4 was amazing.

I do like the JTS pellets. Harder alloy than JSB, but something about them makes me smile.
 
Its a precision laboratory lift from AliExpress - extremely smooth adjustments:

US $52.80 45% Off | High Precise Manual Lift Z-axis Scissor Manual Lab Jack Elevator Optical Sliding Lift lifting platform Linear Stage 120x80x122mm
Great suggestion I got this one and it seems very solid with nice adjustments. Much better than the cheaper flimsy ones that would flex alot.
Be careful if order from this link, many different products listed you have to click on the right photo for the lift!

 
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Hi Guys,
Surprised to have a short period this morning with very little wind. Got out the trusty GM Crown Mk II with the .177 500 mm barrel. It has been shooting really well this whole fall using FX 13.4 gr pellets. But recently have had some accuracy issues. Turns out I ran out of my old batch of 4.52mm head pellets and all the new ones are 4.54mm or greater. The barrel doesn't seem to like them as much (little difference - low 190's instead of high 190's for a typical 30 yd Masters card).
So I checked the pellets over before loading my mags and went out to shoot. The 30 yd Masters was a 191-13X. Two bad flyers (one a 6 and one an 8) and a couple of 9's will do that. Just for grins I shot a 40yd Challenge. Much better. 197-13x. Still had one bad flyer for a 6, but got to x that out.
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I was puzzled about the flyers and just what was happening with these pellets. So, I broke out the used LabRadar I picked up on EBay for a steal. This is the first time I tried it with .177 pellets. I took me 1 mag to get the barrel and radar oriented well enough that it was picking up the pellets out to 50 yds. The second mag got pretty good consistent results. When analyzing the velocity vs time data for each shot it is obvious which pellet files true for the full distance, which starts out bad, and which ones start to spiral past 30 yards or so. Now I have to figure out how to correlate that info to what a pellet looks like before shooting or correlate it to wind gusts. Hmmm, more stuff to spend my retirement time doing :giggle: .

Cheers,
Greg
 
Hi Guys,
Surprised to have a short period this morning with very little wind. Got out the trusty GM Crown Mk II with the .177 500 mm barrel. It has been shooting really well this whole fall using FX 13.4 gr pellets. But recently have had some accuracy issues. Turns out I ran out of my old batch of 4.52mm head pellets and all the new ones are 4.54mm or greater. The barrel doesn't seem to like them as much (little difference - low 190's instead of high 190's for a typical 30 yd Masters card).
So I checked the pellets over before loading my mags and went out to shoot. The 30 yd Masters was a 191-13X. Two bad flyers (one a 6 and one an 8) and a couple of 9's will do that. Just for grins I shot a 40yd Challenge. Much better. 197-13x. Still had one bad flyer for a 6, but got to x that out.
View attachment 519409

I was puzzled about the flyers and just what was happening with these pellets. So, I broke out the used LabRadar I picked up on EBay for a steal. This is the first time I tried it with .177 pellets. I took me 1 mag to get the barrel and radar oriented well enough that it was picking up the pellets out to 50 yds. The second mag got pretty good consistent results. When analyzing the velocity vs time data for each shot it is obvious which pellet files true for the full distance, which starts out bad, and which ones start to spiral past 30 yards or so. Now I have to figure out how to correlate that info to what a pellet looks like before shooting or correlate it to wind gusts. Hmmm, more stuff to spend my retirement time doing :giggle: .

Cheers,
Greg

Hi Greg,

Nice cards, the 40 yard card is awesome in .177.

For me, it’s harder to spot bad pellets in .177 - simply because they are smaller. Often I’m shooting in dimming light, as that is when the wind dies down here - I need reading glasses in dim light, that makes it tough to see any pellet deformation.

Tommy and I have discussed a few times that a crazy flier could be from loading the pellet backward.

I‘m really susceptible to this as you know that I almost never use magazines, I load each pellet into the breech by hand. Sometimes I use a single shot tray. I prefer to use my left hand to load. I literally just grab pellets out of the tin - I’m amazed that we don’t get more fliers than we do.

I know that I’ve wrecked cards with my .177 Dreamline by loading pellets backwards. I use a CARM single shot mag that flips out - and it flips out on the right side, so I have to load with my right hand - and I’m sitting on the opposite side of the rifle, so my eyes are further away.

I’m thinking that I should start using magazines, to see if accuracy decreases - as I’ve likely got $1,000 worth of magazines laying around doing nothing, lol.

But I just kinda like loading by hand.
 
I often just shoot the way I like too. But I almost never single load. I have tried it but couldn't convince myself it helped. I like CARM magazines. But even SPA magazines with heavier springs and aluminum bodies do not seem to hurt my scores.

I am trying my Rock BR rest more currently. Still doesn't seem as natural as a bipod and my home made rear rest but it has a lot less backlash. The main reason to use it is I have a large lead piece, about 5 lbs, bolted in place of the Pic rail on my stock and the lead fits into the Calwell rest well. I shot a 195 on the 30 yard Masters target with it yesterday in low wind. My best is a 196 with the same gun without the weight, however. So the jury is still out.
.
My fliers seem to be me or the wind or possibly a pellet flaw.
 
Cold start this morning at the range. 36 degrees, but wind started out light.

Shot the RAW TM1000x .177 today with the FX 13.4g pellets. I shot four 40Y Challenge cards and my best was a 195-9X.

My very first shot was 764 FPS on the Garmin Chrono, and tried a few more and I knew I had to tweak the HS and increase velocity because of cold temps.

Martin puts a nice carve out behind the HS screw so you can adjust with the rifle in the stock and supported in your rests, so you don’t have to move the gun. Why oh why don’t all the AG manufacturers do the same? So simple and easy for bench tuning.

Not my best, and once wind picked up I had three or four different holds shooting each card so got some 7’s, 8,s and a lot of 9’s.

Nothing for the leaderboard. I had the range to myself.










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Temperature hit 45 here today, so I got out to shoot a card. Grabbed the trusty ole RTI Prophet Performance V1 with the .22 Long Range pellet barrel - slow 1:32 twist rate.

Breeze was moderate. Best shooting day in a while.

Used the JSB 20.83g that it seems to like as well as basic hollow FX moderator.

40-Masters: 194 12X - I’m happy with that.

I tried some groups with JTS 22.07g but they were not as tight. Velocity was only 850fps with the JTS - so maybe they will get better with some hammer spring tweaking with the Prophet.

Shot a 189 10X 40-Masters a few days ago with FX Crown with 700mm barrel. It was 29 degrees and I was getting PoI shifts. My experience with PCPs is that once temps are below freezing, the rifles and scopes show some shifting. My hands turned blue and went numb - so that was the last card till it warmed up today.

Hope you guys are staying warm and getting some lead downrange.

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Yesterday I did some airgunsmithing - which included installing an FX carbon fiber sleeve on my 700mm .22 Crown barrel.

Its above freezing today, so I wanted to try it out. It’s snowing, but wind conditions were mild.

The changes really moved my PoI, had to rezero scope as PoI was about 5 inches high and 3 inches left!

Dialed the Sightron to where the 1st sighter hit and immediately the Crown was hitting the white sighter dot.

20 shots later, 196 11X 40-Masters, can’t let a little snow stop ya from getting lead downrange, lol. Velocity was 890-900fps.

As I single load each shot into the barrel, I had to keep the lid on the pellets so that they stayed dry between shots.

Ya gotta wanna ! Winter shooting is lots of fun - just shorter sessions.

-Ed

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Yesterday I did some airgunsmithing - which included installing an FX carbon fiber sleeve on my 700mm .22 Crown barrel.

Its above freezing today, so I wanted to try it out. It’s snowing, but wind conditions were mild.

The changes really moved my PoI, had to rezero scope as PoI was about 5 inches high and 3 inches left!

Dialed the Sightron to where the 1st sighter hit and immediately the Crown was hitting the white sighter dot.

20 shots later, 196 11X 40-Masters, can’t let a little snow stop ya from getting lead downrange, lol. Velocity was 890-900fps.

As I single load each shot into the barrel, I had to keep the lid on the pellets so that they stayed dry between shots.

Ya gotta wanna ! Winter shooting is lots of fun - just shorter sessions.

-Ed

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Amazingly high score here Ed! Some day I want to post a 195 or better at 40Y Masters, but I get freaked out knowing I don’t have my two Mulligan pairs, so I just shoot the 40Y challenge cards. Ha ha..
 
Hi Guys,

Leaderboard Submission:
Target: 40-Masters
Score: 198 11X
Rifle: FX Crown MK2 Synthetic .25 (600mm Superlight barrel from NAProf)
Pellet: FX 25.4g @ 877fps
Scope: Sightron SII Fixed Power 36x

This is a new-to-me FX Crown Mk2 that I bought from an AGN member (Becky’s Christmas present to me). It had a 500mm .25 Superlight barrel when received, I swapped on the 600mm barrel I got from Greg – as I wanted the mildest .25 caliber tune possible. I shot about 5 shots – unscoped - when I first received the rifle just to chrono it and make sure that it was working.

Then I tore into it and polished up the barrel leads (both the 500mm and the 600mm), polished up the trigger components and guestimated adjusting the internal hammer spring. The hammer was slightly gouged where the trigger sear engages – original owner may have been shooting max velocity. I polished out that a bit as well. Once put back together, I have the trigger breaking at a consistent 6.5 ounces with 2 stages. It’s a little creaky in the 1st stage, but hey – that’s expected with the “pac man” FX trigger. I may work on it some more – but I’m really pleased with the consistent trigger pull readings that I’m getting.

I put on the Sightron last night and it took 6 shots to zero it today at 30 yards. I took some chrono readings while sighting the scope and adjusted the velocity with the wheel to 885fps. Then I shot a 40-Masters (quick 3 shot re-zero at 40 yards) – 184 7X – it was shifting winds. I looked at the card and it looked really nice – really good vertical dispersion. Then I had to go inside to do some work. I left the rifle outside. I came back out about 35 minutes later and re-chronoed – it was shooting 848fps after sitting in the cold. I turned up the hammer wheel a couple clicks and I was at 878fps. Then I immediately shot the 198 card before it got dark – better wind conditions helped improve the score.

The synthetic stock feels lighter than the laminate stock on my other Crown Mk2. However, I kind of like the texture on the synthetic – it’s a nicer feel to hold than the laminate. It has some sling studs that the original owner installed that I will likely remove. He also installed a larger 580cc bottle that I definitely appreciate.

Overall, I’m really impressed with the way it shot on its first time out. Conditions were not optimal with temperature at 35F – but I didn’t experience the PoI shifts that start when temps get below say 30F. I love the 25.4g pellet in .25 caliber (seems a better pellet than the 25.39g .22 caliber pellet). In the spring, I’m hoping to get my .25 calibers out to say 60 yards with this target – probably will try some of the .22 caliber rifles at 50+ yards as well.

I will do a leaderboard update before the end of the year… RCope and NAProf were the only 2 submissions since the last update - until this .25 Crown submission… its not to late to get on our leaderboards !!

-Ed

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Shot a couple cards today with .25 Crown Mk2. Wind conditions were good and mild - but slight drizzle rain @ 41 degrees.

40-Masters: 190 7X
40-Challenge: 195 8X

I’m getting used to the trigger. The Rifle and FX 25.4g pellet have been very consistent - only one “8” today across the 44 shots on these two cards.

Warm up 5-shot group just left of the 190 card measures .52” edge-to-edge (.27” c-t-c). That’s nice considering that I was changing hammer spring and transfer port during the group, lol. Velocities seem more consistent using Medium transfer port setting.

I’ll submit the 195 for the 40-Challenge leaderboard.

-Ed

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Leaderboard Submissions:

Date: 12/29/24
Target: 40-Challenge
Score: 196 9X
Rifle: FX Dreamline Classic .177
Pellet: FX 13.4g @ 818fps
Scope: Athlon Midas Tac 6x24 FFP @ 24X

Target: 40-Masters
Score: 194 10X
Rifle: FX Dreamline Classic .177
Pellet: FX 13.4g @ 818fps
Scope: Athlon Midas Tac 6x24 FFP @ 24X

We had some mild wind conditions yesterday – the best in quite some time. I thought I’d shoot some .177 with the Dreamline.

My first card was a 187 6X 40-Challenge. The last three rows looked great – I was still adapting to the trigger on the first 3 rows.

The second card was the 196 9X. I was surprised it scored so high – it felt like maybe a 192. I had been shooting .25 cal with the new Crown and forgot how much the scoring plug helps with the little .177 holes. With .25 caliber, the .22 plug still works, but you really don’t gain anything as the plug is about the size of the hole.

The 3rd card was a 194. Stunned me as it was my 3rd card on a single fill. I was close to reg pressure at the end of the card, but I made it. That’s why I shot a Masters on the last card - its only 20 shots.

I was feeling so good I shot a couple 40-Masters cards with the .22 Prophet. It shot a 192 with the 20.83g and a 185 with the 18.13g. The reg pressure is set too high right now for the 18.13g despite backing off the hammer spring.

I don’t think I caught TommyB and NAProf on the 40-Yard Leaderboards for .177 caliber, but I’m really happy with these scores.

We probably won’t get another good wind day here for weeks. Today was windy so I just shot some .25 caliber groups with different pellets with the Crown.

Hope you guys are ringing in the new year with some lead,

-Ed

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Leaderboard Update - through 12/30/24


Hi Shooters,

Our final Leaderboard Update for 2024, there were some great cards shot in December:

Leaderboard Notables:

30-Challenge: RCope shot an awesome 200 15X with his .22 Redwolf HP – slinging the MRDs at 973fps (post# 2841)

40-Challenge: NAProf shot a 197 13X with his .177 Green Mountain FX Crown Mk2 – that’s a 197 at 40 yards with .177! (post# 2848)

40-Masters: EPG shot a 198 11X with his “new” .25 FX Crown Mk2 Synthetic. Lovin’ .25 with the Crown (post# 2856)

40-Challenge: EPG shot a 195 8X with his .25 FX Crown Mk2 Synthetic (post# 2857)

40-Challenge: EPG shot a 196 9X with his .177 Dreamline Classic (post# 2858)

40-Masters: EPG shot a 194 10X with his .177 Dreamline (post# 2858)


It’s been a great year. Lots of new shooters and rifles. We collected lots of new data.

Today was my last full day of work – retiring after 41.5 straight years working in the Insurance industry. Now I’ll finally have time to rip apart my airguns and get them shooting as good as possible, lol.

Happy New Year to all,

-Ed

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Leaderboard Update - through 12/30/24


Hi Shooters,

Our final Leaderboard Update for 2024, there were some great cards shot in December:

Leaderboard Notables:

30-Challenge: RCope shot an awesome 200 15X with his .22 Redwolf HP – slinging the MRDs at 973fps (post# 2841)

40-Challenge: NAProf shot a 197 13X with his .177 Green Mountain FX Crown Mk2 – that’s a 197 at 40 yards with .177! (post# 2848)

40-Masters: EPG shot a 198 11X with his “new” .25 FX Crown Mk2 Synthetic. Lovin’ .25 with the Crown (post# 2856)

40-Challenge: EPG shot a 195 8X with his .25 FX Crown Mk2 Synthetic (post# 2857)

40-Challenge: EPG shot a 196 9X with his .177 Dreamline Classic (post# 2858)

40-Masters: EPG shot a 194 10X with his .177 Dreamline (post# 2858)


It’s been a great year. Lots of new shooters and rifles. We collected lots of new data.

Today was my last full day of work – retiring after 41.5 straight years working in the Insurance industry. Now I’ll finally have time to rip apart my airguns and get them shooting as good as possible, lol.

Happy New Year to all,

-Ed

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Hello @EPG

Congratulations on the retirement (y) :D

ThomasT
 
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Hello @EPG

Congratulations on the retirement (y) :D

ThomasT

Ed

You have the 40y Challenge and 40y Masters dialed in with some really high 195+ scores! Congrats on retirement!

Now that you now have all this free time, you can clean the house and make Becky a nice meal after she comes home each night from work supporting your expensive retirement hobbies.
 
Tried to get in a late December leaderboard entry, but will submit this for the January leaderboard.

I shot this yesterday with the FX Royale .22 shooting the JSB 20.83g “lights” at a very consistent 870 FPS. Ricky, I took your advice and adjusted HS to have it shoot the 18.1g at 905-910 fps. Both pellets shoot very accurately. I was going to shoot a couple of 40Y Challenge cards but I didn’t want to scare Ed with my scores!😃

First ‘200’ score for this rifle.

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Ed

You have the 40y Challenge and 40y Masters dialed in with some really high 195+ scores! Congrats on retirement!

Now that you now have all this free time, you can clean the house and make Becky a nice meal after she comes home each night from work supporting your expensive retirement hobbies.
Dang Tommy, you’re making retirement sound like work- before I even get started.

Actually a nice shooting day here today. I went into the office for 1/2 day, turned in my computer and headed home.

These are the first two cards I shot as a retiree. I used Greg’s 600mm .25 barrel (slightly tweaked by me) and even Greg’s JTS pellets that he sent me with the barrel. Love .25 caliber with 25g pellets. Super consistent. All 48 shots at 40 yards look good.

In fairness to the JTS, I shot that card second and I was not as steady. It’s hard to beat FX pellets using an FX barrel. Yesterday was windy so I just did a .25 cal pellet test on a paper plate and it seemed the JTS grouped slightly better (3-shot groups). Today the vertical spread on the FX pellet card was awesome. Not sure if the JTS vertical spread was mostly me moving or maybe the pellets move a bit more than the FX/JSB.

Then I shot a 191 30-Master with my unregulated Huntsman Regal, then took a 2-mile walk with Becky. When its 47F in Connecticut in mid-winter, you gotta take advantage of your first 1/2 day of retirement, lol.

Happy New Year,

-Ed

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