I thought I'd post a bit more from our Saturday shooting expedition as I've got loads of stuff here...


This was our shooting camp set-up. I've got the Prairie III on the table while Gary and Jim are shooting from inside the trailer. It was a fantastic day except for the wind which was cooking along pretty good. I started to notice a remarkable correlation between gusts that I thought might blow over the canopy and when my finger approached the trigger! It was so windy that shooting for trophy groups was a discarded idea immediately after un-packing the gear. I had brought along my FX Monsoon .22 hoping to do some long range shooting but that was not in the cards. I was able to catch a lull later that allowed a rapid fire group of ten shots into a half inch at 50 yards but I never had a chance to shoot 100 yard groups with it. I didn't even spend any time dialing in the P3 for 100 yards, I just noted where the slugs were hitting and used that to sight in on the critter targets.

It is a lot of fun to shoot the steel targets, especially at long range. Long range is relative to the rifle of course. We always end up in some competition or race to get the critters. If we're using powerful bench guns like the Delta .45 and the P3 .32, we get serious at about 100 yards but always end up setting the critters out to 125 yards and over to make it tougher. One time we got to where we were shooting at critters at 175 yards! This time we got hung up at 130 yards because the critter had a very heavy base and was set on a steep part of the hill making it very hard to knock down. That's good because the long walk to set up the targets gets old...

Oh, it just occured to me to note a couple amusing things: Shooting outside the trailer meant that Jim and Gary could not see when I was changing a set-up or gun while they were shooting. I pulled out the Monsoon and after taking a couple slow and deliberate shots and noting that one of my kids had screwed up the windage on the scope, I blasted a quick rapid fire sequence into one of the near targets. Just as I finish the 6-7 shot string and the ping-ping-ping off the target has died down, I hear from inside the trailer "what the Heck is he doing out there? What is he shooting?" The second thing is that the Monsoon with a measly 28-29 FPE was just bouncing pellets off of a 40 yard distant steel critter that any of the other guns there would have tossed into the air with one shot. A regular .22 pellet moving at 900+ FPS is nothing to sneeze at in most situations but compared to the big lead from the other guns there, it was a pipsqueak.


Gary and Jim have assumed their shooting positions after unloading or arranging all the gear and setting up a field of targets. The trailer cuts down a good bit on the "making ready" time but there is still a good bit of work that goes into a great range day. For instance: someone has to go place all those steel targets Gary made and someone has to set-up the generator and fill the coffee pot and someone has to get the gear tables out...


This was the initial target field. In the forground you can see the steel slug trap at about 20 yards or so that was set there to sight in the Hoss pistol. The trap was later rolled out to 50 yards to be a table for the poor putty gopher... You can also see the 50 yard target board and the 100 yard board. In this picture there are 2 steel critter targets out at 100 yards and one (barely visible) at 114yards. Naturally the critters migrated up the hill as the day went on...


After Gary got the great hit on the critter at 130 yards (actually laser measured at 131 yards), I had to try. Gary ran the camera as I took several shots at the critter up the hill. We were running out of air and light. You may notice in this or the other videos that the Woodsman is tethered for these shots. I usually don't shoot the Woodsman tethered but I had drained the air tank down to the lower operating pressure for the Woodsman and dis-connecting was now just wasting more air, so I left the gun connected and we just dealt with the ever decreasing pressure. Anyhow, is that a cool video or what? I love the huge blast of condensing air and then watching the slug come out of the cloud and head towards the target. Note that even though the muzzle velocity of this gun/slug combination is pretty slow by the standards of guys shooting high power small bore airguns, this slug is not aimed skyward in order to hit a 130 yard target. Yes, there is a pretty good trajectory there but this heavy slug is not drifting off wildly with any passing breeze. It was amazing how well the big slugs tracked from the smoothbore barrel. The biggest problem we had was getting the hold-over correct. We would hit a bit short or go over or just barely miss the skinny target time after time. You might note that the steep incline didn't help any either. Because the view is fore-shortened, you might have the slug go a couple inches high and hit 4 feet behind the target but the dirt would appear to fly up only inches behind... Nonetheless, I thought this near miss video would be fun to watch.

Stills from the video:


The blast condensation happens so fat that we never noticed it while shooting. The video really shows it off though, frame by frame views make it seem like it lasts forever!



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We ran out of light for high speed video but Gary took this HD video of my best shot on the 130 yard critter. We heard the sound of a hit but I think I just got it on the base as it only moved a bit but did not go down like it did when Gary hit it square. I pretty happy with the shot though and it makes a decent video.

I hope you've enjoyed the re-cap of our weekend shoot. Hopefully, you get to do some shooting soon too!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2009 04:03AM by Jerry.

Great videos Jerry. Really neat to see the muzzle blast and slug in flight.



Gary

Nice video Jerry! it's nice to see the big slug streaking down range in slow motion. good job! thanks!

Yeah - looks like a missle tail stream .... hahah.

One enjoyable topic again. It is fun to see those shots... I check them over and over again.

There is something INTRIGUING in watching that cloud of condensation and big slug taking its journey to the target... especially when knowing what happens when PCP gun is fired.

good shoot gray and jim. that is very good hobbies for us. I will put here next week my hunting videos.

Thanks guys. I really like seeing the muzzle blast condensation in the higher speed videos. In the HD video it appears small and quick and in person I never even noticed it, especially when shooting as the recoil and looking through the scope draws attention elsewhere. In the 420fps video it looks like everyone would have seen a huge cloud appear though...

Readers: It's my understanding that ...

The cloud is the dry air from inside the reservoir, expanding and reacting with the moisture in the atmosphere.

Jerry, you recall I mentioned (at the time of this video) ... that we were gonna soon have to start folding it up. And ... that the air was getting damp, and making me achy. I suspect that (since I noticed it) the air was indeed getting very wet. And the cloud might have been even larger than normal.

Now ... take today, for example. It poured rain all night. It's been raining steadily all day. So ... when Kelly called my cell, to tell me a neighbor had reported my truck's driver side window completely down .... it was yet another wonderful opportunity to experience super saturated conditions.

Sunday, I'd thought I needed to go pick up a couple of gallons of paint. I moved the War Wagon, unhooked it, backed it in the shed ... and temp. backed the truck into a parking slot ... "outside". I was going to town very soon. I went to examine the project needing paint ... and my cell rang. I talked for awhile ... decided not to go to town. Forgot the truck. And ... it promptly started raining.

So, if you'd fire a PCP today, say ... in my truck ... ... the dry air from inside the reservoir, would react with the super saturated leather seats, and probably produce a cloud much like old London down by the warf at night!

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2009 09:10PM by barnespneumatic.

Jerry,

can your write your camera makes and model ???

Thanks
ALi

Ali,
I'm using a Casio EX-FH20. Casio also has a more expensive model that offers a bit more speed (1200fps) and better resolution but less zoom and resolution for still pictures. I'm happy with the less expensive version.

Quite clearly that is a cruise missile going down range. Your boys casting those now are they??

Unlucky missing that long shot that Gary made (reckon hes had a few more years practice than us!! )

Those kind of camera angle shots are still my favorite by far

What'ya mean MISS? We definitly heard the "tink" of a hit. Just not as good a hit...

I don't want to get into any trade secrets but maybe there is some secret propellent cast into the base of those slugs...

ANOTHER AWESOME VID jerry. Love the over the shoulder shot and seeing all the action from the shot. The slug in flight, the condensation cloud, the recoil of the gun...You are so gonna make me get that camera

It's nice to see the flight of the slug, its traveling, indeed t is...

I rarely see my slugs. I guess I have to shoot much heavier slugs to get the velocity enough low, or is it the size of the slug which makes it visible in shots like this?... Well, could one see the flight of the 45 caliber slug ever, I mean when shooting? I guess it is quite rarely seen, the flight of .45 caliber slug, or do I happen to shoot overly light slugs? When it is possible to see the flight? I mean in what caliber or with what guns it is usually possible to see the action, in what speed of the bullet?

I guess that there is no exact rules, but there is some facts about our eyes and nerve system and workings; and then some guns, with certain speed of bullets will match to those conditions of us (human beings) and those guns will set bullets so tha we could see their flight.

Could man see the slug of bigger caliber guns (from .58) much easier in relatively high velocity (over 700 fps), or is that a special characteristic of just Woodsman and Justice (with huge slugs and velocity below 700 fps)?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2009 08:21PM by sepeteus.

I rarely see the slugs when I'm shooting. Sometimes when I'm in the right position and someone else is shooting, I catch a glimpse. The video camera has the advantage of staring at it's whole field of view....

Most of the reason is that the videos are being played in slow motion.

The other thing is, if you are right behind the gun, and not shooting it yourself (like the camera sees things) then you don't loose sight of the slug during recoil. And, the slug going away from you, appears to slow down ... because it's position is not changing much relative to the background.

And, sure ... larger slugs are easier to see. Their bases reflect the light.

Gary

Looks like you guys had some serious fun! Great videos Jerry. Love seeing the slugs fly
Neil

The vapor cloud is pretty easy to explain, it's because the sudden expansion of the air charge cools the air immediately adjacent the muzzle to a temperature below it's dewpoint. For a split second the conditions are just right to form a cloud, but since the volume of air released is so small compared to the atmosphere as a whole it almost instantly mixes and dilutes, warming up and reverting back to it's original (non cloudy) conditon. It's the same process that forms clouds over mountain ridges and in thunderstorm tops; cool air holds less moisture vapor than warm air, so the excess has to condense out to form minute droplets of liquid water (which we see as clouds or fog). It doesn't matter how dry the air in the reservoir is, when the air charge through the valve goes from 3000 psi to ambient atmospheric pressure all at once it's gonna come out of the muzzle freezing cold. Since it's being forcibly expelled from the muzzle it mixes rapidly with the ambient air, and when THAT air cools you're gonna see a momentary condensation cloud.

When I flew Cobras in the Army they used a primitive sort of air-conditioning based on the air cycle, no refrigerant other than compressed air. It's not very efficient compared to a freon-based system, but it's very simple mechanically and with turbine power you always have a source of compressed air. On humid days it would actually spit little snowballs out at you through the vents, a welcome relief in the cockpit since you were sitting under all that greenhouse canopy and you couldn't open any of the windows in flight. Unfortunately it took so much compressed air from the engine that we couldn't use it in a hover or at high power settings since it would make the engine overheat. In the right conditions you can sometimes see rings of condensation vapor trailing off the tips of helicopter rotors and propeller blades as the low-pressure vortex generated at the tips cools the air to it's dewpoint, it's pretty neat looking but not very common.

I'll bet that if you ever took a high-powered airgun out shooting in calm, cool, humid conditions that were just above the dewpoint (almost foggy, but not quite) you might see much longer lasting vapor clouds, and perhaps even "smoke rings" of condensation blasted out from the muzzle.

Hi Sean,

Excellent post - thanks. You made it very clear and understandable.

I have, indeed, gone to the range on a morning when it was hovering just short of rain. The air was wet and thick. And, every shot looked like you'd just shot a Civil War Musket! In fact, I wrote an article mentioning the range session. I suspect it was about the Alpine muzzle loader ... and I said I feared I might see glimpses of Civil War soldiers, back in the woods, thru the condensation clouds as they faded.

I have seen movie clips of that condensation trailing off of rotor tips Interesting to hear why that happens. Thanks.
Gary

great vids , it strikes a firm reminder as to the power when a normally high powered gun just goes pling , and a big old lump of lead sends them flying. the wagon is looking a bit on the tight side there mind , soon you will be opening a side and shooting out of it , and leaving the tail closed. sun looked nice while it was out though.

Obviously what we need is a proper RV with air conditioning, fans, leather shooting pedestals and hydraulic jacks to get everything level. A nice garage for targets and a built in sound proofed generator along with a water supply, refridgerator, proper facilities and maybe some assistants to help with set-up and play some music....

Yes ... the string quartet we had last time was a bust. And, my sandwiches were sliced across, rather that diagonal! If you can IMAGINE!!! Positively barbarian. It's difficult to shoot under "such" primative conditions.

But ... at LEAST we get out and shoot. heheh.

Gary

My daughter would disagree with you, her's have to be across. Dory

Well, she's young. There's time for you to work with her. hahah.

Gary