Mmmmm.... deep fried mermaid.
I could eat one sashimi style. Maybe with a little lime juice and jalapeños.
I shoot targets rested. I'm shooting for a pattern or zeroing so it makes sense. The HW's will sure print a nice pattern off a rest.
The Hatsans will do better offhand than rested if I'm in the groove. 1"
@25 is about all you can expect. They jump around and twist off a rest. I know I could improve them with a little sandpaper and a washer behind the spring but I don't. They shoot as well as I do offhand so I don't bother with it.
I like to shoot tiny objects rather than paper. Once I establish a pattern and get it on center I don't shoot at dots anymore. If they made a paper target that would jump, scream or bleed when you hit it I might do it more often.
Until then it's shotgun shells and green army men. I just love to see them fly downrange and try to hit them again. Past 45 yards it's plastic toy dinosaurs and safari animals. They sound sweet when you hit and they collect pellets inside. They rattle. I dig that. I can set out 50 targets and never have one at the same range.
I'm not worried about misses. I learn from every one. It's true that we often learn more from our failures than our successes. So I always shoot at targets that are too small to hit easily. I'm happy missing at 70 yard shotgun shells as long as all my misses are close.
With tiny objects it's fun. If you miss its no big deal because the target is too small to hit anyway. If you hit one you feel like a pro. It's good either way.
I have those little green army men down out to 35 yards or so. And a shotgun shell out to 45. I can hit them nicely offhand. Even if they fall into a rut and are barely visible. I can almost hit them offhand as well as rested with a scope out to 45. At that point things get tough.
I shoot the same targets with a scope off a rest. Different guns. Shotgun shells at 80-90 is where things get tough. With wind it gets tough at 60. Green army men aren't much harder than shotgun shells. I can get regular hits out to 60 with no wind.
It's just more satisfying for me than paper. Targets have a place in perfecting your gun and getting a perfect zero. But after that they just bore me.
I can't improve much as a shooter sitting at a rest. I can shoot patterns near the limits of the hardware. To shoot better patterns I need to fiddle with the hardware. But every shooter can improve their offhand game.
Almost any cheap rifle will teach you form and trigger timing. If they will only shoot 2" patterns at 25 yards that's cool. Just get a plastic dinosaurs that big and start banging away at it. Before long you will be hitting it every shot and your skill is better. For me it's not about every shot being perfect. It's about being able to hold the rifle and time the trigger. Any rifle can teach you that.
When I realized I was shooting to the limits of the Hatsan I bought an HW95. It's a much tighter shooting rifle. I hit way better offhand with it. But I like to pump out 200-300 shots almost every afternoon.
I quickly realized I was going to shoot that sweet gun to death like a dozen Hatsans before. I put a scope on it and hardly ever shoot it now. My son loves it because he can sit at a tripod and outshoot me....if I'm standing like a Sandhill crane in the wind holding a Hatsan. So I did the logical thing and bought a 97k.
I still shoot the Hatsans daily. I love them in all their rough imperfection. If I'm in a slump I pick up an HW with a scope and change the game for a while. But it does not last long. I'll go back to the iron sights and stand there until my back freezes up and my legs are numb.