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Mac 1 USFT ???

Richard,
I am not a serious Field Target competitor. In fact, when I bought the USFT Hunter, I never planned on shooting FT. I have never sorted pellets. I am not steady enough for it to improve my shooting. The main challenge to shooting Hunter Class FT is ranging. That is especially true with my 20 caliber. In Hunter Class you can only run your scope at 12X and at that setting I cannot range with the AO past 35 yards. But there is 2 3/4" inches of drop between 35 yards and 55 yards with a 35 yard zero.

David Enoch
 
David.... I'm like you have trouble ranging. When I was in 3d archery I had the same problem. I shot well but the range finding end of it hurt my score. I got into target archery and that was where i did well. I didn't have to range find or like others.... use there scopes to bracket the targets to learn the ranges. Bracketing was ...kind of a grey area that was illegal but was used.
Thanks I like hearing about other people shooting tips and interesting stories.
Richard
 
Richard i decided to dig out the regulated USFT i have setup for my son to shoot benchrest and shot a target in my yard yesterday

pellets unsorted out of a newly opened tin wind very light left to right here is the gun,

sorry for the camera cord hanging the pict



and here is the target i shot with it, i think my son will be happy with it



Dick
 
Hi John,

Good to hear from you again. The USFT that I had and that you have pictures of was very accurate. I let it go a while back. Wish I had kept it. It was black and Coca Cola red. I think it was #214. It was made in the second batch that Tim made. It was not regulated and in order to kept the fpe up, I had to start with a full tank and refill after about 4 lanes for about 16 shots. I used JSB 10.3's and it shot them at around 885 fps. I took a small tank of air with me. I think now that you can get a regulator and larger bottle and get many more shots. It was a well made rifle and easy to work on.

I remember at the last nationals held in Texas(The one that got rained out Sunday), I watched a shooter completely break a USFT rifle down and replace all the O-rings in about 1/2 hour prior to the match being called. What shame. But, the rain was coming down hard and the lightning was bad.

I've just found my way to this forum and it looks like one that I can enjoy. I'm now using a TM1000 that I got from Martin (RAW) and it shoots much better than I can. Also, I picked up an EV-2 that I use as a backup. It was setup by David Slade for WFTF and shoots at around 11 &1/2 fpe. Unless the wind is up, it is as accurate as the TM1000. Face it, all of them shoot much better that I do.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Pat

FireMarshal
 
Glad to see some current discussion of the Mac-1. It checks a number of boxes for me and I’ve wanted one since I became interested in air guns. Well I finally called Tim about a month ago and we talked about the gun, field target and other things for over an hour. Despite what I’ve read about him on other forums, I found him to be very friendly, communicative and open to answering all of my questions. We discussed my particular wants and I decided place an order for a new un-reg Hunter with a few USFT features. I’m really excited about getting and trying this new gun! It’s quiet a departure from the more traditional stuff in my arsenal, but like I said - I’ve always wanted one. Uj
 
Hi Pat,

I remember you from a while back. Honestly if your Mac1 rifle only got 16 shots there was either truly something out of tune, or you were given bad advice on how to charge the gun! I designed that rifle to deliver (in un-regulated condition) around 50-55 shots per fill, and when painstakingly tuned (they WERE custom guns, after all) they usually did just that, going from 1450psi down to around 1200psi. I personally have tuned some to give up to 65 good shots at around 18fpe, but normally I'll settle for 50. That said, most folks tend to "top up" pretty much ALL ft guns at least once during a match "just in case". In one extreme version I built about five yrs ago, equipped with fatter air tank, I was getting over 90 extremely well controlled shots (+/- 5fps) at 19fpe ... but I mostly used the gun for benchrest matches. Lots of new owners didn't truly know how to find the perfect charge and recharge pressures, which is extremely critical on un-regulated guns, since they will not deliver consistent velocity even when very slightly over-charged.

Seems strange to be replying in such an old post, but perhaps the knowledge will be useful to you or others. As you may kn ow, even thogh Ui deisgned that gun in the 1900s, its still competitive in the right hands today, as evidenced by Bobby Corcorran's recent FT National title with his ancient model, as well as many others over the last couple decades, even though there were never more than a hundred or so of these guns ever used in competition.

Of course the main reason the guns can work well at such low pressure is the large reservoir, but the valve design is also very efficient and the barrels were un-stylish long for the day.


 
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Hi LD

Thanks for chiming in here! As a soon to be new un-reg Mac-1 owner your above response is important to me and I read it over a few times. I plan to use the gun in HFT(US) 60 shots,13.4gr at 19 FPE. If I fill the gun to 1450psi as you stated and top it off after say 40 shots, will FPE be consistent for a 60 shot match? My old CRX needs a mid-match top off so I’m used to toting a guppy bottle anyway. Thanks again. Uj
 
Hi UJ,

I'm assuming some things about your gun, but if its pretty close to the standard model, you should get the sort of results you expect. I am not a .20 cal fan, and so have little time with that size on the USFT, but with respect to shot count you should be fine. Interestingly, though the larger cal might use a little more air than the same weight .177, this may equal out because most use the 10.3gr .177, and generally, heavier ammo gives more shots at the same fpe than those from lighter pellets.

In general, as you shoot the gun from the correct charge level, velocity should creep up a little, peak, than begin to fall off. If most shots are falling when you start, the charge start pressure was too low, and if shot velocity is a *consistantly a bit low then climbs rapidly, it likely was initially too high.

When you get your gun, just start with the 1450 psi (on the gun's gage) and check the chrono readings .... I normally set the charge limit by using a pressure that, IF exceeded, would begin to drastically slow initial velocity down .... meaning if 1450 gives a small increase in speed for the first 10 shots, you are likely ok, but try 1500psi and see if there is a large drop (more than 20fps) in velocity compared to the 1450 setting. I would set the recharge pressure to just above where there is a fairly sudden trend in velocity fall 0ff. Generally the highest velocity shots will at the point just a bit lower than the apparent middle of the charge settings you establish.

A cold gun will show less pressure than a warm one, so its good to consider it and maybe stick a reptile temp strip on the airtube. Also, the pressure drops in the tube right after filling a bit, generally around 50psig so develop a method to allow for this.



*surprisingly, these guns can often produce many, many very consistent shots of greatly reduced velocity when overcharged, but then of course the velocity suddenly rises once a point in the pressure curve is reached, ruining accuracy.