Comments added with pics in blue

I just got at Wal Mart. I can't stand it .... Can't wait to get back to the field ....

I found, in the party section .... SQUARE paper plates in all sorts of brilliant colors



Couple of different sizes. And - nice card stock thickness - so they won't tear. These are going to be my default targets for long range. Wonderful stuff. And ... 16 count for $1.50 .... what a deal. I think the small ones are 7" and the big ones 9". They'll get small enough at 150+ yards.

THEN ... I was in the stationary section ... and found brilliant square post-its in mega packs. Couple of sizes. About 3 1/2" and 1 1/2" sizes I guess. AND THEN ... I found brilliant color loose leaf hole reinforcer stickers. Man - I'm gonna be set for near and far. The stuff was well priced ... especially compared to prepared targets which can seem unreasonable per target. I like the square4 format too - better for long range where the smallest drift matters.

Also got some 12 inch balloons to stake out at distance. Simulate groundhogs.



I went over to the range field last evening again. Had some fine results. I'm setting up my elevation knob on my Tasco Custom Shop 8 by 40 by 56 antique scope to just click for yardage from 10 to 180 yards so far. Shown are targets @ 50,100,150,182,200 yards. PC. of cake - and that's with the 188.12 grain slug. Even in it's "as cast" format without sizing at all - they seem very accurate. I'm pleased. Sometimes you design a slug that will work well - even when less than a perfect cast. Few wrinkles - little defect in a body area drive ring. If #2 and #3 slugs fly well - it's a golden design. Everything has to be just right - but when it is - it is.

At the end of the session ... when I went from 180 to 200 yards ... it started well ... then went bad. So - the barrel either needs cleaning after hours of long slug shooting ... or the slug fell off it's stability between 180 and 200 yards. The fact that I started getting good holes at 200 yards though, suggests that it's something with the barrel or regulator pressure. I have a bad gauge on the regulator - blew a plug and leaked it's glycerin all over the place in the war wagon. (I've since checked the barrel - it is clean as a whistle! ... will check other things).

Shown below will be my confirmation targets for various yardage for preliminary marking up of my elevation knob atop the scope. Yeah - I see the nasty holes for 200 yards ... but they were well placed. Thin paper tore a bunch - but I think they were still falling out of the air then. I might try shooting them faster and harder. The shop mule "pulses" it's blast of air. It's not a rebounding hammer design. Therefore; it uses a higher psi for a very, very short duration. Very miserly with air. I have to wind it up. I was shooting at 3,300 psi. I've run it at 3,800 before just fine. We'll see. And - those gauges on the regulator need to be replaced.

I also nailed a ground hog at about 150 yards last evening during setting up my scope. I didn't retrieve it - as it was able to scurry into brush/hole ... but it was hit hard. It did a bit of a mule kick, shook itself off ... and scurried away. I have to get better placement. Jerry's dead hogs stay put for the photo-op. haha.

Pics later. Gotta go pressure wash the back of my truck where my gas can fell over and leaked a bunch of gas thru everything. Great fun. Got that done now too. Off to the shop again.

So; how about those target materials Wal-Mart has laid in for us? Whoooo ... bet they don't even know it! haha. Hey - if you don't want to shoot some of those ... then you don't want to shoot! ;?)

Gary



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2010 08:38PM by barnespneumatic.

So there you were, walking through WalMart thinking to yourself "I could shoot that, hey, I can shoot that too...and that stuff, I can shoot it!"

That's right ... old American saying" ... "when you have an airgun ... everything looks like a target! haha.

GAry

Oh that plate NEEDS SHOT!

"when you have an airgun ... everything looks like a target!"

How twu.

Jerry,

I always look at life not through a prism but a rifle scope.

When I'm at Wal-Mart and the lady in front of me in line has 23 items in the 10 item lane the back of her head looks like..................................uh, never mind.

MY GOD, i seriously think we are all related here. Really, i do. I was just at Wally Mart 2day....lol. And everytime i've been there, EVERYTHING LOOKS LIKE A TARGET to me. This sport is becoming a sickness...lol.

GB, i like those plates for targets. Paper plates rule as a target and CAST iron skillets make good GONGS when you set them up at distance and punch em with a big bore. And, you cant tear em up either.

Don't kid yourself about how sturdy those cast iron skillets will be. Sure, they'd hold up forever and a day under impacts from a conventional airgun, but the stuff is surprisingly fragile when you start pounding it with big lead slugs at the energy levels that Gary's guns can generate.

In my experience, the ONLY material that is seemingly invulnerable to abuse by bullets of any sort is the treads from car tires. I once spent WAY too much time trying to convert a shed retread that I 'salvaged' from a roadside into a hanger straps for some metal targets that I flame cut out of 1/2" sheet steel. They worked as intended, but the 1/4"steel bolts that held them to the targets were surprisingly fragile, even when not hit directly. The targets themselves ended up being the weak point, as they resembled swiss-cheese in short order due to my fellow range patrons desire to use them as rifle targets instead of pistol targets as I'd intended. You need a lot more than just 1/2" of mild steel to stand up to even wimpy .223 bullets, let alone the more capable center-fire rounds. In fact, you need hardened armor plate to resist rifle fire for any amount of time, and it's not easy or cheap to get as salvage.

Not that I expect any airgun (even one of Gary's ) to punch metal like a 30-06, but I'd bet that a standard frying pan of any normal construction would be reduced to an unusable state in fairly short order by the larger calibers.

Any takers on proving that by the empirical method?

I'm willing to shoot any pan a member sends for video documentation!

There ya go.

Now ... right there ... WHO could ask for more than that? The man is a champion, I tell ya ...

Gary

maybe i'll go buy one and try it. THere are CHEAP cast iron skillets and there are GOOD ONES. And the good ones in any size as compared to a CHEAP one, OUTWEIGHS the cheap ones by a long shot. I bought my mom a real good one that was 15" and she can barely lift the thing...lol. SHe loves it but does not cook with it very often cause its just too heavy. I would simply love to see ANY BIG BORE AIR GUN punch that thing.

So, i'd be willing to test that theory brotha. I'd like to see for myself. And yeah, a regular kitchen skillet gets dinged up by .22 30 FPE airguns so i know they cant stand up to anything. Trust me, over the years, i've shot a lot of things, including things from kitchen ware to sides of beef....lol.

Don't tell my wife PLEASE!!!!!!!

Love the targets Gary! I've got the card stock covered with the scrap invoices I have, but I need to locate those hole stickers. And post it notes are a great idea.

Did you notice the hunting mojo isn't just you and me. Last post a couple of fellas made a trip just to shoot whistlepigs and saw nothing, you're out to just bang away and bag one. Shoot, I bet you didn't even have your Guillie suit on! And you saw the mule kick? Heard about that one, heart shot for sure!

Where was this gun when we were trying to ring the 200 yard bell?

Kent

Hi Kent,

I always wear my Gillie suit at the range. I sewed some old appliance parts into it too. Sometimes Jerry just turns around ... and I blend right in with the coffee maker ... the generator ... ya never know where I might be next. haha. But - I don't think that pig was lookin' at me. he was checking out the targets. "Now WHO left THIS here!!!

Yeah - I'll have to toss this mule into the war wagon and drive on down for another crack at that bell.

Glad you like the targets. Wal-Mart has laid in a whole section devoted to shooting. But some fool hung up a big sign that says "Party" over it. Guess they like to shoot ...

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2010 09:31PM by barnespneumatic.

Hey, now that the Supreme Court has FINALLY recognised that the 2nd amendment applies to the states just like all the rest of them, I'd say it's highly appropriate to have targets in the party section, hurray for common sense! Of course, the fact that any fifth grader could have told them the same thing from a cursory reading of the Constitution for the last 200+ years is cause for some frustration with the pace of events.

On the other hand, WallyWorld is about the least gun-friendly retailer that actually sells firearms. It's like they're psychotic on the issue; they want the money, but they don't really want to sell you a gun. Up here in AK they still sell handguns...BUT...it takes three days to get one even though the state has no waiting period. It turns out that every single gun in the case is display only, and has the firing pin removed or disabled. If you buy a handgun from them, it actually comes direct from a distributer instead. I'll buy discount bulk shotgun ammo from the mouthbreathers there, but for the high dollar stuff or an actual firearm, I go to a real gun store.