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Large air reservoirs in Competition - unfair advantage?

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Lots of good input here. But here is my two cents worth...Tethering should NEVER be allow in competition. It's great for setting up a rifle and establishing working pressures and velocities while figuring out your rifle, ie., development... In a competition shoot it's you and your rifle against your competition period. With tethering you introduce two very important variables, vast amounts of air and an extra air regular much better than the small ones build into our rifles. Thus completely changing the nature of your tethered versus non-tethered rifle, creating a big advantage to the tethered rifle. In competition shooting either tethering for all competitors or no tethering allowed for anyone. Just my two cents worth...
 
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I'm not a competition shooter but I agree with what Mike is saying. Lol I realize I tend to side with him on his many posts lately on different topics. What I think there should be is like your basic stock class. These guns are the same way they came from factory meaning no mods or upgrades nothing. Just tuning the gun. Then the unlimited class where all goes.

I also agree with Derrick about increasing efficiency. If you want power then you have to live with the loss of efficiency. That would push others to increase the efficiency. What I think is STOCK air capacity should be the restriction not necessarily a certain amount but air capacity as it came from the factory with.
 
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Good point. I agree. I shot in the Saguaro Classic this year near Tucson, AZ. The main event was 100 yards when I signed up and paid my entry fee. There was supposed to be a 75 yard qualification round and the top ten were to shoot in the 100 yard final. On the day of the tournaments 75 yard qualifier, minutes before the start, the rules committee decided to change the rules and count the total of the 75 yard and 100 yard for the overall winner. And not only that, they decided to weigh the 75 yard qualifier more heavily in the overall score! Totally unprofessional and not really ethical. 
 
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Can we just have an OPEN class and be done with it? 

I’m all for innovation and there are certainly innovative minds in this sport! BUT, I see techno-contraptions taking over benchrest. These are guns you’d never carry in the field, and can’t buy in stores anyway. Also, enough of the ridiculous power levels, save that for OPEN class if we ever have one. 

OPEN: Pellets up to .35cal, 140fpe, etc etc TBD

Factory: Pellets up to .30cal, 100fpe. Bipods and bags only - no mechanical rests. Rifle can be “tuned” but not modified. 15lb weight limit with bipod. This is the class where all the MFG’s fight for bragging rights with essentially stock rifles. The real “win on sunday, sell on Monday” class

Small bore slug: As it was intended.. Basically Factory rifles shooting slugs, same rules otherwise.

Until there’s an OPEN class, the tricked out boobie guns will only benefit shooters who have them, not the sport. I also believe the sport could grow tremendously at the grass roots level if people knew their conventional pcp hunter is also a competitive bench gun. 

Thoughts?


 
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Can we just have an OPEN class and be done with it? 

I’m all for innovation and there are certainly innovative minds in this sport! BUT, I see techno-contraptions taking over benchrest. These are guns you’d never carry in the field, and can’t buy in stores anyway. Also, enough of the ridiculous power levels, save that for OPEN class if we ever have one. 

OPEN: Pellets up to .35cal, 140fpe, etc etc TBD

Factory: Pellets up to .30cal, 100fpe. Bipods and bags only - no mechanical rests. Rifle can be “tuned” but not modified. 15lb weight limit with bipod. This is the class where all the MFG’s fight for bragging rights with essentially stock rifles. The real “win on sunday, sell on Monday” class

Small bore slug: As it was intended.. Basically Factory rifles shooting slugs, same rules otherwise.

Until there’s an OPEN class, the tricked out boobie guns will only benefit shooters who have them, not the sport. I also believe the sport could grow tremendously at the grass roots level if people knew their conventional pcp hunter is also a competitive bench gun. 

Thoughts?
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I'm with you on this, all very good suggestions...

@crosman999, I'm OK with longer and longer barrels, since barrel length has nothing to do with accuracy. Take a look at any slo-mo of the 700mm STX barrel and watch just how much it wobbles, bounces, and flexes when shooting. It'll be fun to watch that barrel when they come out with .35 caliber... Probably look like a garden hose. ;)
 
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I think what everyone is trying to convey is the rules should not be written to favor one manufacturer or gun but rather the rules should be written to give as many guns as possible a level playing field. My answer would be to limit each firing segment to 5 or 10 rounds. That would give everyone the time to refill their cylinders and negate any benefit to having a large cylinder. The contest would then become about how good you can shoot which is what I always thought the contest was suppose to be about.
 
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I think what everyone is trying to convey is the rules should not be written to favor one manufacturer or gun but rather the rules should be written to give as many guns as possible a level playing field. My answer would be to limit each firing segment to 5 or 10 rounds. That would give everyone the time to refill their cylinders and negate any benefit to having a large cylinder. The contest would then become about how good you can shoot which is what I always thought the contest was suppose to be about.
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I get your point, but when shooters are shooting well over 100 sighters, and as much as 150, in addition to the 25 target shots, that just wouldn't work... Look at the winning target posted from the PAC. There are at LEAST 150 if not more sighters on that target...
 
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Not a competitor in this world but while I agree that one gun having to fill and/or reload more often than another is disadvantage, I also don't think (or have seen) any one suggestion that would solve the problem beyond something close to standardizing the gun used.

Why would anyone care if another takes 200 sighters *within the rules"... Yeah - air capacity AND mag capacity. So how does anything discussed make an AA .25 (35 shot MAX on a 280cc fill with a 10 shot mag) competitive with ANYTHING with a bottle. I know that's a wide open comparison but still... If you want to level the playing field it becomes a combination of air volume and mag capacity AND time. (The AA .25 will need more time to refill and reload compared to most of the popular stuff these days.)

So what is the right suggestion? I don't know and I won't REALLY make one. But, like xindaris suggests (I think) if you had something like 5 min to shoot your choice of sighter or target, reloading as needed, but have an enforced 2 minute pause to fill/reload /res. If that pushes the timing of the event, shorten the allotted time to finish. tt seems like it would really level the playing field more then than anything I've seen mentioned. Also makes time more of an component, still finish with the time allotted.




 
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Good input JCD.

I actually think there is no reason that the time shouldn't be 20 minutes, just like every other Benchrest Target competition, whether its 25M or 50Y. Also, I think that the 100 should be standardized so that you can't fill your gun in the middle of a card. You can't fill your gun in 25M or 50Y BR, why 100Y?

I probably sound like a broken record, but lets put some strategy and thought into the 100Y competitions. Its a fairly new area of airgun competition that has recently really taken off in popularity, so its not too late to standardize the rules. If you make it a 20 minute card with no refills, shooters will actually have to plan and strategize their shooting.

Is it windy? They may want to shoot a lot more sighters, so they go with a .22 or .25 so they can do so. Is it calm? Maybe they shoot a .30 since they only will need 5 or 6 sighters. Did the wind pick up in the middle of their card? Too bad, just like a race driver that goes out with slicks and then it rains - poor tire choice, or poor guess factor, or not anticipating the weather report. I personally shoot a lot of sighters at 100Y because I can. Maybe 50 on a card. 

But lets face it, shooting a hundred sighters is not "reading the wind"... Reading the wind is spotting a ground squirrel at 116 yards in breezy conditions, and hitting the target on the first shot - not taking ten shots first to see how much windage and elevation is necessary. Nuff said.
 
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Bench rest has nothing to do with pesting. It has everything to do with putting a hole in the middle of the target. That's why you see all the weird looking guns and rests on the line. Shooters are going to do everything legal to hit the center dot at 100 yards. Hardly any of these airguns would be used in the field hunting. Look at the speed shoot. Good luck at hitting birds on a wire offhand using the techniques you see on the line. I watched a good shooter try once and he gave up pretty fast. 

I am very impressed with all the bench rest and speed shooters but these types of shooting are specialized. This is one reason I just set targets now at the matches. After the match is over I go to a dairy and shoot 250 birds. Have fun and I'll be resetting your target at the EBR. Scott
 
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