30-Yard Challenge

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Nice card Florida_Man !

I’m jealous. The weather is darn cold here, and the change to colder temps has brought a lot of wind with it.

I got back from the Texas shore Sunday and shot two 30 Masters cards late Sunday with the .177 Prophet using 13.4g FX.

Scores were 181 7X and then a nice 189 8X despite low 40s and significan wind.

Today I shot one 30 Masters - same rifle and pellet. It was so windy the it blew my entire target off the stand - and it was double clamped. I shot 184 4X with only 3 eights. One of the 8s was a borderline 9. The vertical dispersion was really good considering the conditions - basically the wind pushing them just left or right was the only issue.

I’d like to think this shooting in the wind is making me a better shooter, but it doesn’t feel that way - feels like I’m just guessing. I do better if I don’t hold outside the 9-ring lately.

-Ed
 
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197 is a very good card Florida_Man.

I do think shooting in the wind does make us better shooters, but only to a certain degree. For me personally, I seldom will bother with a 30 or 40Y challenge card session if the wind is greater than 4 mph. So, I cherry pick my range days.

I just can’t seem to hold accurately enough ( or more to the point, ‘guess’ my ring hold). I do better with predicting horizontal holds, terrible at vertical.
 
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If I get bored enough I shoot in wind too but I'm trying to shoot less to not scare the squirrels away. I've never shot a respectible score in windy weather.

I think any target above 195 makes 200 a very definite possibility. I shot 3 199s with my P35-22 before I finally got a 200, however. At least in my case, there is some luck involved. But your skill has to get you to the point you don't need too much luck. A 197 certainly shows good skills.
 
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JimD said:
I think any target above 195 makes 200 a very definite possibility. I shot 3 199s with my P35-22 before I finally got a 200, however. At least in my case, there is some luck involved. But your skill has to get you to the point you don't need too much luck. A 197 certainly shows good skills.
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I agree JimmyD, once you have the rifle getting to 195+ - then a 200 is definitely always a possibility. (always a bit of luck involved in a 200 – especially if shooting pellets straight from the tin).

Florida_Man definitely has the skills to get that Daystate with Lothar Walther ART barrel to 200 – most barrels seem to take at least a tin a pellets (500 shots) to really break in – but that could just be my imagination.

Another thing that helps is to keep shooting the same rifle. I tend to keep switching rifles, and it takes a while to get back to the “feel” where you are shooting it well…

….for example, earlier this summer I had a streak of 10 or 11 straight 30-Yard Challenge cards of 196 or better with the Daystate Wolverine. I doubt that I could pick it up today and immediately shoot 195 with it – heck I’d hope for low 190s – because I have not shot that rifle much in the past few months, and have not shot 30 yards with it probably since late August.

-Ed
 
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Florida_Man said:
I’m not in the mood to sort pellets for awhile, so I’m going with luck of the draw.
I tried some 13.43 gr JSB’s to see what they had. I turned the hammer spring up 1/2 a turn. It was a 195, but I thought it was better. I felt the consistency was a little better. I’ll post a picture of the target later.
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Hi Guys,
Florida Man hit on one of the things I have been trying to sort out for myself - is it worth it to sort pellets? After weighing, sorting by head size, shooting, recording muzzle velocity and point of impact for about 500 pellets I can say that I found no indication that head size or weight made any noticeable difference in POI. I have a bunch of graphs from my data I could show, but it would be kind of boring as there are no trends to be seen. I tried sorting by pellet score and there was no real trend. I just watch a video by "HFT Shooter" in the UK (below) who did something similar and came to the same conclusion.
So this past season in Field Target - Hunter I did not sort pellets. I loaded the pellets into my Stud Loader spare mags where I could see the skirts, got rid of the badly damage ones (very few) and then I dumped them into my pellet pouch as I use a single shot loader. I did really well this season and I can say that all of my misses were on me, not on any pellets.

Food for thought.

Cheers,
Greg



 
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beerthief said:
I have noticed IF i sort i am more conscious in my shooting . SO i don't know if it is the sorting or the conscious shooting . scores are not far enough apart to see a difference .
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Hi Beerthief,

Perhaps you are on to something – anything that gets you to concentrate more may have a positive impact on score…

As an example, attached is my best 40-Yard Masters card of the season – with any of my rifles – it is a 193 11X (could even be higher – look at the last three 9s I shot – all are darn close to a 10 if not actually a 10, lol).

Note that I shot a bunch of sighters. Those that know me are aware that I don’t usually allow myself ANY sighters once I start the card. So, it appears that I was really concentrating on this card – likely I could tell it was going to be a good score – and I even started shooting a few sighters mid-card to stay zoned in.

193 is my high score on either 40-Masters or 40-Challenge cards – except for that 197 amazing freak 40-Challenge card with the Wolverine. That 197 had to be so lucky as I had all my “bad” shots on the two target pairs that I crossed off.

So, I think that staying focused is the key – whether you gain it by sorting pellets, shooting more sighters, or any other means (bourbon, coffee…lol).

-Ed

PP 193 40-Masters.jpeg
 
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NAProf said:
Hi Guys,
Florida Man hit on one of the things I have been trying to sort out for myself - is it worth it to sort pellets? After weighing, sorting by head size, shooting, recording muzzle velocity and point of impact for about 500 pellets I can say that I found no indication that head size or weight made any noticeable difference in POI. I have a bunch of graphs from my data I could show, but it would be kind of boring as there are no trends to be seen. I tried sorting by pellet score and there was no real trend. I just watch a video by "HFT Shooter" in the UK (below) who did something similar and came to the same conclusion.
So this past season in Field Target - Hunter I did not sort pellets. I loaded the pellets into my Stud Loader spare mags where I could see the skirts, got rid of the badly damage ones (very few) and then I dumped them into my pellet pouch as I use a single shot loader. I did really well this season and I can say that all of my misses were on me, not on any pellets.

Food for thought.

Cheers,
Greg



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Hello @NAProf

This is good information from you and appreciate all the various test that you do.

ThomasT
 
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I tried sorting 177 and 22 grain pellets for weight and could not see any difference in my scores. I also tried single loading my 25 caliber versus using a stock SPA magazine and couldn't see a difference either - but that gun is not very accurate. On my better scores with the P35-22 I was using pellets straight from the tin into a Carm magazine and then out the gun. I also tried head size sorting on the P35-177 and couldn't improve scores. I did find that two tins of Crosman 10.5 grain pellets with very inconsistent head sizes shot much worse than a tin of Crosman 10.5s that had consistent head size (or my preferred H&N Baracuda Match). So I sorted the "bad" tins. Didn't help. My conclusion is that the "bad" tins have other flaws in manufacture that are not easily visible.

I also agree that shooting is at least as much mental as it is physical. If you think something helps it may very well help - you. Maybe sorting pellets would help more if I liked doing it.
 
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For you Southern TYC Shooters,

It was 32F here in Connecticut today…and breezy.

As it was cold, I figured I’d only shoot one card… it was a 180 3X 30-Masters with the Prophet .177… worried about my hands freezing…

…my hands and mind were numb when I scored the 1st card – I actually wrote 40 yards on it initially – felt like a 40-Yard score.

…then I said to myself “what kind of sissy TYC Shooter are ya – toughen up!”

… so I put up another 30-Masters card and came back with a 190 7X. That’s what I’m talkin’ about !! (I was amped enough I even talked my girl into coming outside to take my picture).


…”Ya Gotta Wanna”…

-Ed

GottaWanna.jpeg


Freezing Cards.jpeg
 
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EPG said:
For you Southern TYC Shooters,

It was 32F here in Connecticut today…and breezy.

As it was cold, I figured I’d only shoot one card… it was a 180 3X 30-Masters with the Prophet .177… worried about my hands freezing…

…my hands and mind were numb when I scored the 1st card – I actually wrote 40 yards on it initially – felt like a 40-Yard score.

…then I said to myself “what kind of sissy TYC Shooter are ya – toughen up!”

… so I put up another 30-Masters card and came back with a 190 7X. That’s what I’m talkin’ about !! (I was amped enough I even talked my girl into coming outside to take my picture).


…”Ya Gotta Wanna”…

-Ed

View attachment 410895

View attachment 410896
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Hello @EPG

Well that is just too cold for me. However that is good shooting under the conditions (y)

ThomasT
 
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It was in the 30s this morning when I went out to try and figure out what pellet I want to shoot in my re-tuned P35-25. I shot at least half a dozen 5 shot groups but it was unpleasant and windy so it was hard to tell much. I did figure out that my new tripod chrony matches my barrel mount exactly. Late this afternoon it was in the 50s and I shot some pretty good groups for that gun with JSB 33.95s. But repeatedly a single flier would open things up. More testing to come. If I could eliminate the fliers it has potential. Could be me, of course.
 
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JimD said:
It was in the 30s this morning when I went out to try and figure out what pellet I want to shoot in my re-tuned P35-25. I shot at least half a dozen 5 shot groups but it was unpleasant and windy so it was hard to tell much. I did figure out that my new tripod chrony matches my barrel mount exactly. Late this afternoon it was in the 50s and I shot some pretty good groups for that gun with JSB 33.95s. But repeatedly a single flier would open things up. More testing to come. If I could eliminate the fliers it has potential. Could be me, of course.
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Give yourself some credit! It’s the pellets! Haha. Both my P35 and Cricket liked the FX 34 grains more than the JSB MkI and MkII
 
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EPG said:
Hi Beerthief,

Perhaps you are on to something – anything that gets you to concentrate more may have a positive impact on score…

As an example, attached is my best 40-Yard Masters card of the season – with any of my rifles – it is a 193 11X (could even be higher – look at the last three 9s I shot – all are darn close to a 10 if not actually a 10, lol).

Note that I shot a bunch of sighters. Those that know me are aware that I don’t usually allow myself ANY sighters once I start the card. So, it appears that I was really concentrating on this card – likely I could tell it was going to be a good score – and I even started shooting a few sighters mid-card to stay zoned in.

193 is my high score on either 40-Masters or 40-Challenge cards – except for that 197 amazing freak 40-Challenge card with the Wolverine. That 197 had to be so lucky as I had all my “bad” shots on the two target pairs that I crossed off.

So, I think that staying focused is the key – whether you gain it by sorting pellets, shooting more sighters, or any other means (bourbon, coffee…lol).

-Ed

View attachment 410567
Click to expand...


Ed

A 193-11x is a great 30y “normal” card. At 40y, with no mulligans, out of sight!
 
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