Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2019 i Airgun Shooter

PAO OFFERS BIGGEST MAG YET A new scope with a large 6-24 magnification range has been added to The Shooting Party’s Professional Airgun Optics line, with the scope focusing down to 10 yards at maximum magnification. The PAO 6-24 x 50 IR PA Rifle Scope has external Push-LOK ¼” MOA turrets, a red/ green glass-etched illuminated mildot reticle, a 1” (25mm) body tube with a 50mm objective lens, pre-fitted two-piece mounts and front parallax adjustment from 10 yards to infinity. Opaque flip-up protective lens caps are included, with a screw-in detachable 10cm sun shade. The scope is 39cm (15.5”) long, weighs 635 grams and retails for £119.99. For more details, contact The Shooting Party (www.shootingparty.uk) on 015 4348 0361. A BIT OF A HARD CASE Range-Right has introduced an Italian-made,…

Sywell Airgun Sports Club has held an invitational 50-target Field Target shoot called the Sywell 50, with competitors taking on targets at a venue notorious for its challenging wind. Sywell, which is located between Northampton and Kettering, is a friendly organisation, and invited people from other clubs to come and take part in the contest, which was supported by BSA Guns, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) and Airgun Shooter. Club secretary Phil Hollis explained: “We started the day around 9.30am with 31 shooters in attendance. Knowing Sywell, with its reputation of a difficult wind to contend with, we placed the first 22 targets in what we call ‘The Garden’. This is an area with unpredictable wind directions. “Then the next 28 targets were well placed on ‘The…

ALTHOUGH MAT USUALLY makes his own squirrel feeders, he’s trying out one from Squirrel Management UK on this site, and it certainly seems to work. Made by grey squirrel control experts, these feeders are available in a variety of designs, and prices range from £25 for a sub-12 ft-lb version with a 4.5kg feed capacity to £35 for a super-tough FAC model with a 9kg capacity. Proceeds from their sales are donated to the Cornwall Red Squirrel Project, which is working towards the reintroduction of this endangered native mammal. These wooden feeders are reinforced with wire mesh to stop grey squirrels chewing through them, and have a tough metal face plate to safely deflect pellets. They incorporate a clever lockable lid, and a feed tray and shelf arrangement that helps…

Having spent the past couple of months concentrating upon improving my benchrest shooting, I have not spent any time keeping my HFT shooting skills up. Like all things that we enjoy doing, once the basic skills have been learned, it is easy enough to in our case pick up the gun combination and try our best at an organised competition. As many competitors will be aware, however, just picking up your gun and expecting to shoot at your own normal standards is slim. The main reason for failing to perform well again first time out, after even just a short break, is obvious – a lack of practice. Presuming that we haven’t changed either the gun, scope or settings, the outfit should perform just as well as it did the…

BENCHREST SHOOTING involves a precision rifle being shot at a paper target, with the shooter sitting at a table or bench, and the rifle being rested on some form of support, hence the term ‘benchrest’. This is in contrast to most other shooting disciplines, where the shooter will either hold and aim the rifle without the benefit of any type of rest, or else they will use a bipod. Benchrest shooting originally involved the use of centrefire and rimfire rifles, but airguns are gaining in popularity, with some competitions allowing a mix of rimfires and airguns being shot together, while other contests are airgun-only. Competitions may be scored on group size, measuring precision, or proximity to the 10 ring on the target, measuring accuracy. The World Benchrest Shooting Federation, the…

I started using the Zbroia Hortitsia because I wanted to prove that you don’t have to have super-expensive hardware to get good results. Regardless of the kit I use, my approach to hunting remains very traditional, and that means that fieldcraft always comes first. This little gun costs about a quarter of the price of the Red Wolf, and certainly has helped me to achieve great results with affordable kit. It has more than exceeded my expectations – I thought it would be a decent performer, but it’s actually a fantastic performer. I went for the 330/180 model, which, with a 33cm barrel and 180cc air cylinder, is shorter and lighter than the 450/220 option. Overall length is a compact 89cm, and it weighs a comparatively light 3kg. It’s stated…

The basis for any accurate shot is a stable platform and without a doubt the humble bipod is the ultimate accessory when it comes to helping you get the most from your rifle. There are plenty of options out there, and many of the successful innovations have been adopted by other manufacturers. As a result, costs have been driven down and there’s a product for every budget. Like anything else, consider what you need from a bipod. For example, give some thought to the environment you shoot in. If you’re a hunter with a bowling green permission, the chances are a short, non-tilting bipod will be sufficient. However, if your landowner lets the grass grow a little longer, you may well want the option of a model that offers plenty…

Q Do I need to use a gun safe when children are around? Will a trigger lock do when my nieces and nephews come to visit? A The key issues concerning the security of air weapons are covered in the Crime & Security Act 2010. From 10 February 2011, this Act made it an offence for a person in possession of an airgun to fail to take ‘reasonable precautions’ to prevent someone under the age of 18 from gaining unauthorised access to it. The storage of airguns must be reasonable ‘in all of the circumstances’, so airgun owners must take appropriate steps to prevent young people gaining unauthorised access to their airguns. ‘Reasonable precautions’ will depend on the particular circumstances present in each individual case. They could be a locked…

Affordable PCPs aren’t just getting more numerous, they’re also getting better, and over the last five years, the Walther Rotex RM8 from German gunmaker Umarex has established itself as a top choice for hunters who want recoil-free performance without breaking the bank. A few months ago, Umarex unveiled the RM8 Varmint in its new UC, or Ultra Compact, guise. There’s no denying that the original is going to be a tough act to follow, but with more and more shooters developing a taste for stubby airguns, I can see the shortened version being a big hit. The quality and features that have won the RM8 its loyal following are still present, but I think the UC’s shorter dimensions make it kinder on the eye and even more pointable. And its…

The Walther Lever Action is a .177 CO2 multi-shot, designed around the same eight-shot pellet magazine as used in most of the pellet repeaters that have been released by Umarex since the late 1990s. Somebody came up with the idea of using the historic Winchester design to create a new air rifle to take this magazine. A flip-open magazine cover is released by pressing the fake original Winchester loading gate. Operating the lever action is faultless – this rotates the magazine, and also cocks the hammer back by applying pressure from a rearward travelling top slide. Variations appeared with full-length and carbine options, like the one featured here. Cosmetic finishes later included brushed stainless and brass effect. However, only two distinct versions exist. This, the original version, takes two 12…

Brocock has just started production of its latest precharged air rifle, the Concept Lite. The new rifle was launched at the IWA trade show in Germany earlier this year, and has rapidly become one of the most asked-after rifles in the Brocock range. The company expects this lightweight Huma-Air regulated rifle to be in full production in late July. The rifle seen here is the first production gun, shown at Brocock’s new outdoor test facility, the ART range at Tinsley Park in Nottingham, which allows field test rifles all the way out to 100 yards. This little gun is unashamedly tactical in both form and function, with an AK-style drop-down pistol grip and an AR-15-style adjustable stock that can be extended or shortened to offer the shooter optimum length of…

The Commonwealth Games Federation’s executive board has rejected pleas to add shooting into the line-up of sports that will feature at the Birmingham games in 2022. The decision was made despite Birmingham being the birthplace of the British gun industry, and still home to huge names in the shooting world including BSA (Birmingham Small Arms) and ammunition manufacturer Eley. The organisers argued there was no local facility to host a shooting element at the games. But Bisley in Surrey was used as the shooting venue for the Manchester Games, and the 2022 cycling will take place at the London Velodrome, which is the same distance Bisley is from Birmingham. There have been protests from a number of Commonwealth countries who won medals in shooting, such as India and Bangladesh, with…

The Game Fair promises to deliver a host of exciting new features and attract 120,000 visitors and nearly 1,000 exhibitors when it returns to Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. The festival of the great British countryside, which runs from Friday 26 to Sunday 28 July, offers an exciting programme of interactive, educational and fun have-a-go events. Starting with a bang, a 61-gun salute in the main arena on the Friday will get the 61st annual festival underway and signal the scope and scale of the event to shooting enthusiasts. Here are some of the highlights. HAVE-A-GO Whether you’re new to the sport or want to test your skills, the Airgun Zone boasts purpose-built airgun ranges, with an array of guns, scopes and pellets for you to try out. Enthusiasts and experts…

Athletes from all over the country have put in some impressive performances in the Target Sprint South West Championships – with many competitors having only recently taken up the fast-paced sport. Exeter School hosted the event for the third year in a row, with this year’s competition being split into the Super League held alongside the regular National Series qualifier. Callum Fricker, who travelled down from Manchester, took the Super League Junior Men’s category in style, with local athlete Jonathan Williams from North Devon taking silver. Emily Shawyer continued her success in the Junior Women’s event by winning another gold, with Katie Robbins coming in a close second. Many of the competitors who qualified for the National Series Final were relative newcomers to Target Sprint. Included in the new arrivals…

Four airgun calibres have established themselves for use in non-FAC, UK legal-limit air rifles: .177, .20, .22 and .25. When taking a typical pellet of a typical weight from each of these calibres, they will all trace very different flightpaths. Muzzle energy is not the same as velocity – it’s a function of both pellet weight and speed, so a lighter pellet can travel faster than a heavier pellet, while having the same muzzle energy. In the case of a fast-flying .177 pellet, that speed translates to a flatter trajectory, as gravity has less time to affect the pellet, meaning there is less of a need to compensate for ballistic drop-off than with the .177’s larger, heavier and slower rivals. some very specific data, however, such as muzzle velocity, the…

It was one of those very rare mornings when I was reminded just how fortunate we are to live in a relatively pleasant climate. A warm sun with a nice breeze was the order for the day as I travelled east with my son James to my favourite shooting ground – Emley Moor, located in West Yorkshire. We arrived bright and early to shoot a round of the famous Emley HFT Extreme course. This is like normal HFT, but with some ridiculously small targets at very long range to contend with. If you attend a shooting ground with an HFT course laid out to national standard rules, to many shooters, including myself, this represents challenge enough. However, the courses laid out by the members of the Emley Moor club really…

One of the finest handguns ever carried by British and Commonwealth forces was the Webley Service Revolver, which was in use from 1887 to 1963. Webley produces several airguns based on this famous pistol, and has sensibly focused on the most well-known variant, the Mark VI. Webley’s Mark VI handguns come in either BB-firing or pellet-firing format. The one on test here shoots .177 pellets, and has a rifled barrel. These guns are available in different finishes too. There’s a Black Finish, for that straight out of the factory look, and a Battlefield Finish, with a worn and distressed appearance to simulate heavy use in the field. Then there’s the Exhibition Finish, the subject of this review, which is nickel-plated and looks like polished steel. The overall metal finish is…

Entry level airguns are constantly improving in terms of quality and affordability, and anyone with £200 to spend on a no-frills springer will find themselves spoilt for choice. And now there’s another contender to add to your shortlist: the AirForceOne Sirocco from The Shooting Party. This Turkish-made spring-powered break-barrel has a retail price of just £119.99 if you go for the basic model with open sights. Or you can upgrade to a combo package, which includes a telescopic sight, mounts, gun bag and a tin of pellets – and still only costs £179.99. That very affordable kit covers everything you need to hit the range, and it’s what I’ve been testing over the last couple of months. Pick up the Sirocco, and it looks and feels like a decent piece…

Ask a shooter to think of an airgun that comes with open sights, and most will probably conjure up an image of an entry-level break-barrel springer. Weihrauch has other ideas, however, which is why the premium HW 77 underlever has been in its inventory for such a long time. But just because a product has been in production for decades doesn’t mean it’s not subjected to a few upgrades and innovations from time to time. Special editions of this model were released a few years ago in two different laminate stocks, a green-based Summer Forest and another called Autumn Forest, with more red tones and a slightly different overall shape. But now there’s another version. This latest laminate is different again, being the same shape as the old Summer variant,…

Airgun shooters wanting to keep up to date with Gamo’s latest releases are in for a treat, as the Barcelona-based gunmaker has just launched a UK version of its website. Information about Gamo’s newest models can all be found on the site, including the Boxer – a bullpup PCP that runs a 10-shot magazine. This particular rifle is made in England, with a cold hammer-forged barrel that ensures accuracy, a full-length shroud and a pressure gauge. It’s a rifle we’ll be looking at in detail very soon. The site also includes the lowdown on Gamo stalwarts such as the Maxxim Elite, the world’s first break-barrel multi-shot gas-ram, and the Phox Silenci pack, the company’s budget-busting PCP combo. The site is easy to navigate, with separate categories for its PCPs, gas-rams,…

The site near Grimsby opened in 1912 as a base for the Royal Flying Corps, and remained in RAF use until the 1990s. A base for Bristol Beaufighters, then the Bloodhound missile during the Cold War, the 25-metre range was originally built by the RAF. Purchased from the Ministry of Defence 25 years ago, extra facilities have been added for all shooting types. The club’s facilities consist of a 25m covered range with eight lanes, a 40m outdoors with four lanes, and a 100m tube. Two new ranges are under construction, offering distances of 10 and 20 metres. The clubhouse and kitchen serve hot drinks and the famous NCB bacon butties. Membership currently stands at about 1,500, with 200 new members joining each year. Members of the club can get…

ENFORCER PRO PIGEON SHELL DECOYS £69.99 (pack of 12)  www.djdecoys.com Finished with Mattblock paint for extra realism, remarkably lifelike, and also tough. Their shell design is lighter than full-body decoys, and they pack into each other to save space. These even come with a set of adjustable spring rods which make them bob in the wind like real birds. MAXI DECOY BAG £47.95  www.jackpyke.co.uk This 120-litre backpack from Jack Pyke can swallow up a lot of decoys and accessories. Adjustable padded shoulder straps make for pretty comfortable carrying. Constructed from Cordura with a camouflage finish, and features two seven-litre side pockets and a compartment to hold hide and floater poles. FLOCKED CROW DECOY £6.95  www.jackpyke.co.uk This full-body decoy is a great imitation of a feeding carrion crow. Very conspicuous, its…

The only way is Pete’s? Well it is in Essex, and I couldn’t think of a title that was clever and catchy, but what a place it is! So Pete’s Airgun  Farm – what’s it all about, and what can you do there? Let me tell you, if you want to shoot sub-12 foot pound airguns, then there’s nowhere else you need to go. It has literally everything. So, let’s start from the top. It has two massive ranges – one is 50 yards long, and the other is 35 yards long. Both ranges are heated, and that is most handy in the winter, I can assure you. There is a shop that sells everything you could ever need for airgunning, including targets, pellets of all sizes and Best Fittings…

This is a sub-12ft-lb airgun, and it’s all the more versatile for it. It’s all very well having the extra wallop of FAC power, but it comes at a cost. Not only is the risk of ricochet and carry increased, high-powered airguns also get through a lot of air and are usually a lot louder than their legal-limit counterparts. My Ultimate Sporter is the original version, not the new regulated model. It is still very consistent, churning out just over 11ft-lb with a very good sweet spot of around 60 shots. It loves Air Arms Diabolo Field pellets, and in calm conditions will land one on top of another at 30m. This gun is .177 calibre – my favourite choice at sub-12ft-lb, as I like a flat-shooting gun. I liked…

It’s that time of year again. No more shivering away in the corner of a barn somewhere, waiting for a rat to put in an appearance. It’s summer! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and rabbits are causing havoc by digging holes and eating crops. For many, that means only one thing – it’s time to set up that ambush. Today’s air rifle is a super-accurate and effective hunting tool, especially when paired with a decent scope. A good air rifle and scope combination zeroed properly will hit the mark 99% of the time. The only weak point in the equation, and you know what I’m going to say, is the squishy organic thing behind the trigger – that’s you and me. Yes, we’ll get the odd dodgy…

What is it used for? A pellet seater is a type of probe that’s traditionally used to push a pellet into the bore of a break-barrel springer at a pre-determined and repeatable depth. The idea is to provide an identical launch point for each and every pellet that you fire, boosting the consistency and accuracy of each shot. Some seaters are made shorter so that they can be used with underlever or sidelever springers, where finger access is normally restricted. How is it used? After a pellet is pushed into the breech with your finger or thumb as normal, the seater is then used to push the pellet even further into the bore, until it’s seated at a constant depth. By this point, both the head and skirt of the…

Our pellet test is a bit different this time, because we’ve picked up two seemingly identical tins of .177 JSB Exact Heavy – but with two different head sizes. The Exact Heavy is a pellet we looked at in detail back in issue 104. It’s known to be an extremely good performer, so I was hoping any change in the results achieved this time round would be down to the size difference between the two. The object of this particular test was twofold, First, I wanted to confirm that manufacturing quality was consistent across both the 4.51mm and 4.52mm head sizes. And secondly, I wanted to see how much of a difference that hundredth of a millimetre variance really would make to accuracy. “I WANTED TO SEE HOW MUCH OF…