I'm temporarily out of action recovering from knee surgery, but before I went under the knife (actually, it's the "scope" these days) I got out to the range for some actual airgun shooting. I know, whoda thunk, on a forum like this. In any case, you should know that my Barnes Woodsman is a smoothbore in .62 (20 ga), with a rifled insert in .308 that slips down the barrel. It's one of the first of Garys "sliding breech" designs, where it's loaded through a port in the rear of the barrel rather than through a conventional bolt action. The breech cover just slips back into position, it's very slick, and means that you can use the same breech design for both calibers without changing out any parts other than the barrel insert.



Here's a closeup, before I mounted the scope. You can see the brass loading port of the .308 insert inside the .62 breech, the larger diameter knurled piece to the left of the open port is the sliding breech cover / seal.

I recently received a very heavy package from Surefire Casting (thanks, Tim and Jerry!) with three different weights of slugs, from custom molds that Gary made a while back. There are two weights of slugs for the rifled .308 barrel (about 87 grains and 93 grains) and a custom 579 grain monster for the smoothbore in .62. In deference to Garys long-standing policy of not giving away all his intellectual property for free on the internet, I won't be posting close-ups of the slug designs. Since my smoothbore barrel is stainless, it's a slightly different diameter from Jerrys Woodsman and it needs its own slug diameter/weight.

Due to the fact that my lovely wife bought me a multi-punch pass to the new indoor range in town, this shooting session was fired at about 18 meters / 54 feet, the max distance in the underground range. The facility is also a gun store, brand-new and very nice, but since they also rent machine guns by the magazine-load you do want to bring your best hearing protection, it's LOUD down there. You'll note that many of the targets I shot were sideways, since that orientation works best when clipped to the fancy computerized target hangers that zip up and down the shooting area. I've marked 'this way up" as appropriate.



The first target is the lighter .308s. This is the first time I've shot those, still working on the ideal seating technique, haven't even started on the ideal fill pressure, don't have a chrono yet so don't ask me how fast they go but there's no perceptible impact delay at 54 feet. I should also note that my Nikon 3.5 x 10 scope won't focus closer than 50 yards, so the aim point was the orange blur in the center. This is not an ideal setup for top accuracy, though Gary has given me a tip about using a small diameter aperture on the "input" lens to focus closer than the scope is designed for which I'll definitely be using. I'll be either getting a closer-focus scope or shooting at longer range next time.



This grouping is the heavier .308 slugs, about 92 grains. By this time I was getting the hang of centering the "orange blur", and the longer slugs are a bit easier to seat consistently. It's a nice group, and they do hit the steel backstop with some authority. The rifled insert will be seeing a LOT of these in the future. Garys .308 slugs seat much more easily/consistently and show much better accuracy than the commercially available .308 powder-burner slugs that I have been using up till now. I will be trying lots of other designs, but I need to get a sizing die since the "as cast" diameter of pure lead slugs can vary quite a bit and it's important.



Now we get down to the "big boys". First, unscrew the rifled insert at the muzzle and just pull it out, it's o-ringed at its base and there is a bit of friction. Same point of aim, center of the orange blur. The big 579 grainers load and seat very consistently and as you can see they show both very good accuracy and are surprisingly concentric with the groups from the insert. No scope adjustments. Seems that somebody knows how to line up their boresight and machining tolerances; most centerfire rifles would shoot moon and stars different if you changed to a load with slugs over six times heavier than than the last shot. I can tell you that the recoil is significantly different.



Here I decided to "shoot the corners" since one big ragged hole doesn't give you much information about where the shots are falling. Harder to set a consistent point of aim, since the orange corners were just as blurry as the big orange dot was. The first four shots are the big square, all from one fill. The last three are from the next fill, aiming at the left bottom corner of the inner square. Three shots is the max for the .62, as the fourth shot emptied the remainder of the reservoir with significantly greater recoil and noise, notice that one went high despite being the last in the series.



Here's a closeup of the earlier 92 grainer target, with a dime by comparison. The diameter of a U.S. dime is .7 inches, or about 18mm for you sensible metric types. The shots are numbered in sequence in the circled area, looks like the first four shots are "in the zone" but without a clear point of aim and a lot more trial and error I wouldn't say for sure.



Here's another closeup of one of the .62 holes. Notice the slight lead smear around the edges, with the dime for size comparison. The range attendent/babysitter was very impressed with the gun and particularly with the glint of those big, bright lead slugs flying downrange, though I couldn't see them through my scope. Next time I'll be watching for it. The last photo is another shot of the earlier target with a darker background so that you can see the holes more easily.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2015 09:06PM by rotorhead.

Way to go Sean . To bad on the knee but hope all is better now. The set up on that rig is surely going to be most enjoyable . I would say by the time you get dialed in , a hunting season of small or large game will be at your mercy .

Very nice! Its always nice when you can do some shooting. Glad you got out before the surgery. All the best as you recover. Been there, done that.

Pedro

Thanks for the well wishes guys. As far as surgery goes getting a knee "scoped" is pretty minor league, but getting drugged unconscious is definitely still a first for me. That evening and most of the next day I was thinking "what's the big deal?", but by the following morning the rest of the local had worn off and the swelling started to kick in. It's a bit "uncomfortable" now, and has gotten pretty stiff. Working on the range of motion is when you want to have the Tylenol or the ibuprofin already onboard.

I've gotten a hold of some plastic shot cups / wads for reloading regular 20 ga. shotgun shells, going to try some shotgun action next time too. All I've got for now is number 8 shot, going to see if I can track down some number 4s or bigger to see how that works. I'm thinking that I could use Garys technique with paper wrapping or even just use a little folded packet of aluminum foil to hold the shot together. As long as it stays inside the plastic wad I figure it ought to be OK. Don't want it dribbling out the barrel if I point the muzzle down.

Super post! Thanks very much, it's nice to see some stuff in action.

OMG!

I'm ....


Glad you got out. When you get your scope sorted, everything will tighten up a bunch. Looks like the gun wants to play.

Enjoy. Thanks, very much, for the post!



Gary

Nice to see someone shooting a air rifle, and great job.