Quest of the .177 Caliber Benchrest PCP Rifle

[ThomasT]

Hello everyone,

I am looking for the most accurate .177 caliber PCP rifle for benchrest target shooting at 25 and 50 yards. My FX Crown MK II .177 shooting MRD 13.43gr will shoot MOA at both 25 and 50 yards. I am wondering if there is a rifle that will shoot a lighter pellet as well as the Crown.

Tell me what you have that meets these specifications:
1) You must now own the rifle
2) Shoots 10.5 gr pellets or lighter
3) Able to shoot 10 out of 10 shots MOA at either 25 yards or 50 yards ( see attached target )
4) The rifle must have a mechanical trigger and can be fired from the shoulder ( no electric triggers )
5) Is it factory stock with just regular adjustable tuning
6) If it has been modified please explain

If you have a rifle that meets all of the above I would appreciate you sharing the information and any photos.

ThomasT

View attachment MOA 25 and 50 Yard 10-Shot Target.pdf

 

[jps2486]

I don't own it any longer since there's no competitive events where I now live, but when I was shooting 25M BR, my TM1000 was hard to beat. Mine was set up to shoot 20 FPE by Martin Rutterford when he owned RAW. My best match score with this was 748-53X. Fellow competitors used Thomases as well . Right now, my Air Arms HFT500 could possibly be competitive at 25M. It's a 12 FPE rifle and would be a good choice for the Light Varmint class. It is however, not regulated, but is accurate amazingly. If you are serious about being a competitive BR shooter, then your choices are limited to what the big dogs shoot. No one shoots FXs. I recently saw a RAW BM1000 on this or maybe another forum for sale. That's the one I would choose.

 

[qball]

Why not just use your crown or get another crown in ST chassis? Granted the bag rider for the ST crown isnt to my liking but it’s 177 we are talking abo it. Or even get the “lowly” Dreamline!


MOA is easy with crown/Dreamline day in and out but I do make some minor mods to make it more consistent.
1. @Mrshosted power wheel with steel ramp for hammer preload (or get a Dreamline with out the wheel)
2. FX or ernest carbon liner sleeve epoxied on
3. Leave only 1 spacer at the very end of liner, no spacer between breach and muzzle


To make it even more consistent drill a new tiny TP on the brass breach piece opposit of the factory TP. Tune it to be a about 69fps higher with factory TP then drill out the TP till you reach your desired speed. Guarantee sub 10 ES and 2-3 SD then polish the barrel especially the choke for good measure.

I have said this before and I’ll say it again, FX 177 barrels in my hands or my point of view are about just as accurate as my Thomas with fancy 177 hand picked and finished barrel. The benefit of FX is your can tune it to shoot any ammo you want however you want and not break the bank. It’s a amazing platform you can do anything with including compete seriously if you put in some very minor work. You can even do a Dreamline classic so you don’t need to deal with the power wheel so one less moving parts plus it already has more then plenty of power. With FX guns the precision of the tune CAN be unbelievable and unparalleled!!!




HOWEVER!!!! If you got money burning a hole in your pocket then forget everything else and go straight to a Thomas, it can’ be beat in BR!!! It’s the cream of the crop with that chassis which can be customized to use all the specialized butt stocks(for offhand ergonomics) from Europe and that hand picked, lap and polished custom twist rate poly barrel designed to shoot the 10.3g. It just doesn’t get any better! Go big or go home…..I mean go Thomas or go Dreamline. Hahahaha



Edit: keep in mind Thomas is HEAVY especially with a heavy BR scope! If you get a Dreamline with ST chassis then you can bolt on some weight for BR to get that built like a tank feeling and stability then take it off with quick release for off hand. Very flexible!

 

[nomojo65]

12ftlb Thomas or RAW! Or even a 20ftlb just make sure it is truly under 20ftlbs for Hv if that’s the class you choose

 

[ThomasT]

Why not just use your crown or get another crown in ST chassis? Granted the bag rider for the ST crown isnt to my liking but it’s 177 we are talking abo it. Or even get the “lowly” Dreamline!


MOA is easy with crown/Dreamline day in and out but I do make some minor mods to make it more consistent.
1. @Mrshosted power wheel with steel ramp for hammer preload (or get a Dreamline with out the wheel)
2. FX or ernest carbon liner sleeve epoxied on
3. Leave only 1 spacer at the very end of liner, no spacer between breach and muzzle


To make it even more consistent drill a new tiny TP on the brass breach piece opposit of the current TP. Tune it to be a about 59fps higher with factory TP then drill out the TP till you reach your desired speed. Guarantee sub 10 ES and 2-3 SD then polish the barrel especially the choke for good measure.

I have said this before and I’ll say it again, FX 177 barrels in my hands or my point of view are about just as accurate as my Thomas with fancy 177 hand picked and finished barrel. The benefit of FX is your can tune it to shoot any ammo you want however you want and not break the bank. It’s a amazing platform you can do anything with including compete seriously if you put in some very minor work. You can even do a Dreamline classic so you don’t need to deal with the power wheel so one less moving parts plus it already has more then plenty of power.




HOWEVER!!!! If you got money burning a hole in your pocket then forget everything else and go straight to a Thomas, it can’ be beat in BR!!! It’s the cream of the crop with that chassis which can be customized to us all the specialized butt stocks from Europe and that hand picked, lap and polished custom twist rate poly barrel designed to shoot the 10.3g. It just doesn’t get any better! Go big or go home…..I mean go Thomas or go Dreamline. Hahahaha

Hello qball,
I don't want to change my Crown setup now it is shooting too good, so a second rifle just to shoot the lighter weight pellets is my simple answer. Thank you for this other information, very helpful to me.

ThomasT

 

[ThomasT]

12ftlb Thomas or RAW! Or even a 20ftlb just make sure it is truly under 20ftlbs for Hv if that’s the class you choose

Hello nomojo65,

I have my .22 caliber RAW for sale now and I have already spoke with Martin, but I would like a "full" overview of any other rifles.

ThomasT

 

[bfloyd1095]

Thomas

You can get that same rifle to do those requirements.

I have a Crown MKII in .177 doing it shooting 10.34's , now getting it there was a Long and Taxing path I will admit...

I tried Numerous barrels, in various lengths, spent countless hours shooting the damn thing over the chrony, god knows how many pellets i went through, but ultimately found the combination.

In my trials i found that .177 FX barrels are not all created equal, which in itself was frustrating enough for me to pull what little hair i have left out during the process.

Once i Finally found a decent shooting 600mm barrel i began the fine tuning, it only took 3 barrel's in just the 600mm to get there, and forget about using the 500mm for what you are wanting the gun to do
The 500 is great for general shooting but it would Never do what the 600 ended up doing accuracy wise, you have to push way too much air using the 500 and the lighter pellets get wonky.

My best advice is get the original set up specs for the pellet you want it to shoot from FX by calling them, Reset your gun back to those Baseline numbers and then start tweaking.

I will add i found the hammer spring setting is absolutely critical, it is Very easy to go down the rabbit hole of twisting the guts out of it, especially on the 500mm, which in turn binds the gun all up, sounds horrible and will frustrate the hell out of you number wise. The old saying too much is just too much comes to mind...

I'm not going to post up settings numbers, as any of us with any sense knows, no 2 guns are the same, and climate has input as well.

Last thing i found was if using a moderator, they Will affect accuracy. Different models, different brands, on any given gun will act differnet..

To summarize in general using the 10.34's

Good 600mm Barrel
Uber Fine Tune Hammer spring
Use stock probe and x-fer port
Double check moderator if in use for shift
My only post as far as numbers is mine is set up at 850-855
My Regulator is set at 110


Man i Know you are smart dude, and i am probably insulting you in some measure, but i have found it pretty damn easy to forget the Very basics sometimes so maybe this will help in some small way.

BTW i am a Crown guy, top is my .177
Bottem is my Beloved .22

 

[ThomasT]

Thomas

You can get that same rifle to do those requirements.

I have a Crown MKII in .177 doing it shooting 10.34's , now getting it there was a Long and Taxing path I will admit...

I tried Numerous barrels, in various lengths, spent countless hours shooting the damn thing over the chrony, god knows how many pellets i went through, but ultimately found the combination.

In my trials i found that .177 FX barrels are not all created equal, which in itself was frustrating enough for me to pull what little hair i have left out during the process.

Once i Finally found a decent shooting 600mm barrel i began the fine tuning, it only took 3 barrel's in just the 600mm to get there, and forget about using the 500mm for what you are wanting the gun to do
The 500 is great for general shooting but it would Never do what the 600 ended up doing accuracy wise, you have to push way too much air using the 500 and the lighter pellets get wonky.

My best advice is get the original set up specs for the pellet you want it to shoot from FX by calling them, Reset your gun back to those Baseline numbers and then start tweaking.

I will add i found the hammer spring setting is absolutely critical, it is Very easy to go down the rabbit hole of twisting the guts out of it, especially on the 500mm, which in turn binds the gun all up, sounds horrible and will frustrate the hell out of you number wise. The old saying too much is just too much comes to mind...

I'm not going to post up settings numbers, as any of us with any sense knows, no 2 guns are the same, and climate has input as well.

Last thing i found was if using a moderator, they Will affect accuracy. Different models, different brands, on any given gun will act differnet..

To summarize in general using the 10.34's

Good 600mm Barrel
Uber Fine Tune Hammer spring
Use stock probe and x-fer port
Double check moderator if in use for shift
My only post as far as numbers is mine is set up at 850-855
My Regulator is set at 110


Man i Know you are smart dude, and i am probably insulting you in some measure, but i have found it pretty damn easy to forget the Very basics sometimes so maybe this will help in some small way.

BTW i am a Crown guy, top is my .177
Bottem is my Beloved .22

View attachment 291729

View attachment 291734

Hello bfloyd1095'

Yep all good information and I too have raw fingers from pulling my hair out to get my Crown to shoot the 10.34. But the 13.43's do shoot a lot better with the 600 barrel with No Moderator, and at 868 fps. My Crown now is such a pleasure to shoot that I do not want to mess with it, as I told Qball it will be easier to have that second .177.

ThomasT

 

[airgunner1042]

Not cheap, but my FEB 800 is awesome at 12ft lbs.The Crown on the other hand, is hard to beat with both the 10.34 and 13.43. Originally purchased as a 22 with 600 mm barrel. shot amazingly accurate. Have shot several 250 scores with it. After a couple of years of looking, finally scored an original 500 mm FX barrel in 177 to use for FT. Screwed it on, set the hammer spring at #3 and it shot knot holes at 25 meters and almost as good at 50 yds. did not even have to touch the regulator which was factory set at 135. by FX for the 22

 

[shambozzie]

You shut me out with no electronic trigger. Lol

 

[ThomasT]

You shut me out with no electronic trigger. LolView attachment 291742

Hello shambozzie,

Sorry about that , I'm not only old but I am also old fashion. I want to come and spend at least a month with you and your absolutely beautiful shooting range.

ThomasT

 

[BigTinBoat]

Get a hold of @Scotay42

He's shooting an Akela .177 and says he's getting 1/2 MOA at 90yds with CPHP's (10.5g)

Akela .177 Shot String

Thanks for this, I was getting ready to do the deed tonight and thought one more search...

www.airgunnation.com

 

[airgunner1042]

Mr. Floyd,
That 500 mm .177 barrel i got from you is shooting lights out with both the 10.34's and 13.43's. As noted above. Did not touch the regulator set from FX at 135. All I did was change the hammer spring from the .22 setting of # 5 to the 177 setting of #3. Shooting the 10.34's at 18.7 ft lbs. perfect for FT. which i the reason I bought it.Also, not using the moderator. Guess I just got lucky!!
Take care

 

[bfloyd1095]

Mr. Floyd,
That 500 mm .177 barrel i got from you is shooting lights out with both the 10.34's and 13.43's. As noted above. Did not touch the regulator set from FX at 135. All I did was change the hammer spring from the .22 setting of # 5 to the 177 setting of #3. Shooting the 10.34's at 18.7 ft lbs. perfect for FT. which i the reason I bought it.Also, not using the moderator. Guess I just got lucky!!
Take care

Yeah that one is actually a damn good 500mm barrel, i should Not have let that one go, I'm glad it stayed down south, and went to Great guy though !
Good to hear from ya amigo, I need to come shoot with you guys sooner than later

 

[airgunner1042]

You are welcome anytime. Even have a place for you and the wife to stay here at the house with us. Only 15 minutes from the range. We shoot 50 yd. bench rest on the first Sat.of the month and 25 meters on the third Sat. Thanks for selling me that barrel!!!
Take care.

 

[Altair-uy]

If you are serious about BR, Thomas is the only real choice, perhaps a raw too but I love my thomas so a little biased there. That rifle just delivers, so dependable, a key feature for ft too

 

[nomojo65]

Thomas!, no need for full review, they are the best!

 

[airgunner1042]

Can't argue quality, Save your nickels if you are considering buying one!!

 

[Mg616]

I don't own it any longer since there's no competitive events where I now live, but when I was shooting 25M BR, my TM1000 was hard to beat. Mine was set up to shoot 20 FPE by Martin Rutterford when he owned RAW. My best match score with this was 748-53X. Fellow competitors used Thomases as well . Right now, my Air Arms HFT500 could possibly be competitive at 25M. It's a 12 FPE rifle and would be a good choice for the Light Varmint class. It is however, not regulated, but is accurate amazingly. If you are serious about being a competitive BR shooter, then your choices are limited to what the big dogs shoot. No one shoots FXs. I recently saw a RAW BM1000 on this or maybe another forum for sale. That's the one I would choose.

View attachment 291709View attachment 291710

+1 for the HFT 500. Very pleased with one I owned a year ago, shot well above its weight at local informal BR matches. Would not hesitate to buy another.

 

[ThomasT]

Good morning everyone,

Thanks to all who shared their information, my search is over.

I decided to send my .22 cal RAW to Martin and have him convert it to a .177 cal simply because I don't think there is a better rifle that meets all my expectations and requirements.

Thanks again and have a great day,
ThomasT