My roommate from the Naval Academy came to visit this weekend and I finally had the chance to introduce him to high power airgunning. We've talked about it before but you just can't get the message across without some hands on shooting.

For backgound, Paul is a shooter and was on the Academy pistol team that competed for and won some national chamionships while we were at school. He shot air pistols, .22s and 45s in competition and in the past delighted in kicking my butt in those informal competitions that make life and shooting fun. Ha! Payback!

He was a little late getting here and I needed to get some chrony numbers with the latest Yukon set-up so I was all ready when he showed up. His first shot with a high power airgun was with the Yukon shooting a 602gr slug across a chrony at a target (after all the crossman pistol beatdowns, he was getting no mercy!). So, his first shot was at over 680 FPE from a kneeling position. That was fun! He was amazed at the power and sound and wondered why I told him he couldn't bring his little Glock to shoot...

I do have a little respect for the neighbors sensitivities so we only shot about half a dozen shots with the Yukon. Sadly I could only get good chrony data on 4.


This picture shows Paul's shots on the right and mine on the left. I took the first shot before he got here and hit low and let him take the next two...I think I gave him good gouge on ehere to put the dot... HaHa! My last shot is the one that hit the bull, naturally!

That pretty much wrapped up Saturday's shooting but we managed to do some more on Sunday. For Sunday, I figured we would have some competition with the P3. I set it up for low power so we could shoot as much as we wanted and nobody would hear. Besides, Timmy had made a bunch of practice rounds for me so I had all the ammo I needed for this. Wer actually learned a few things! Paul's experience is almost entirly with open sights and shooting through a scope I had set at 42X was really messing with him (no sympathy from me of course!). In order to hit the bull, Paul had to aim about 2" high while I was aiming dead on and just destroying him as far as group sizes go. At first we foucused on sight pictures or tired eyeballs but then we settled on technique and follow-through as a cause. It wasn't long and his POIs started coming towards mine and his groups started getting pretty good. Given that we were both shooting off a table that wobble like a board on a marble and were sitting an a rocking chair, I wasn't expecting any trophy groups...but we both had the same set-up so our informal competition was fair.


This picture shows our final groups. We had used up all the Bishops by then and swithed to Cans. Paul is a quick study and despite having little experience with shooting through a scope, figured out that parallax or different eyeballs were not the main reason his groups were not as good as mine (up to the final few). It occured to him that follow-through was an issue and he also finally changed his hold to mimic mine. All of a sudden, the competition got close! The second to last groups were the ones in the green bull, I might have beat him by a smidge but we decided to press... yeah, I was a charitable host! (my target on the left) The final group, I had to lay the smackdown on and secure drinks the next time out! The rickety set-up meant no trophys but it was fair.

Despite having to time shots against a wobbly table, Paul was surprised at the accuracy of the P3. Pretty high praise from a competive shooter who shared some national records. Between the P3 and the massive power of the Yukon, I think we have one more guy that has an appreciation of serious air guns.

About the time we finished our competition, Timmy got home. He deserved some shooting time and had some fun...



I didn't get pictures of his groups but those of you going to the next shoot better not take him for granted. He's serious and he can put them in the same hole!

Awesome Awesome post Jerry. I mean........CHAMP....lol. Way to kick your buddies butt. I love a LITTLE friendly comp between 2 shooters. you and your buddy got skills for sure as those were some great groups.

Kudos to you also for showin your buddy some AIR power. I could only imagine his expression when he pulled the trigger on the BIG'UN...lol

Hi Jerry

Glad you tossed Paul in the deep end. Haha. I'm surprised you didn't have him kneel on a basketball too.

Lookin good. I see you keep back the dirty bird targets for your real buds. What do you think about that Cedric? What do I get? haha


Gary

Hehe Jerry, that's what they call home-game advantage...well done! And revenge was sweet...
cheers
Neil

Hi Jerry,

Great post and nice shooting! I have experienced in the past that part of “his groups started getting pretty good”. I believe that the Barnes air guns make shooting this type of groups sort of easy, even for the first time air gun shooter. The way I see it, it’s like a mechanic doing the job with the right tool compared to the other mechanic that it’s doing the same job without having the correct tool. Of course, the mechanic with the correct tool is going to charge you more.

I’m glad that you had a good time, especially you.

Julio

Thanks gents. It was a fun day even though we didn't have any snow to play with.

Gary,
I've had those targets in the back of the truck for months. I had them there when I came up for the snow storm and long before that. I just forgot about the darn things until last Saturday when I was preparing some card stock style targets. Personally, I'll take the exploding snowman over dirty birds everytime!

Hi Jerry,

Just for curiosity; What's behind the board that you place the targets for shooting?

Julio,

That is a target "wall." The very back is a sheet of 3/4" plywood, then pressure treated 4x4s, 2 sheets of 3/4" plywood in front of those and then a replaceable sheet of plywood to post the targets on. The replaceable sheet is mounted to 2x4 stand-offs from the main wall. I've replaced the face several times and harvested lots of lead for reuse.