So let's try and breathe some life back into it with my long(ish) range efforts!

The rifle is my 1985 HW77 in .177", recently fitted with Steve Pope's V-Mach kit and still bedding-in. The scope is a Nikko Stirling Diamond 6X42mm acquired from Baz. Pellets are Superdome, unsorted and carried in a pocket in my shorts until needed.

The range is circa 90 yards. I don't have a laser range finder and I'm sure as hell not going to measure it with my fifteen foot tape. I estimate the range because I know that 42-3 of my paces cerry me a measured 45 yards, and the target was 85 of my paces away from the firing point - a pile of cushions on the bonnet of my motor.

The range is on the side of a hill and the wind is therefore capricious - it is typically from behind the firing point, yet at anything up to ninety degrees to that halfway down the range. Stands of trees either side of the range create all sorts of interesting vortices, eddies and sideways gusts.

Conditions were light wind from the firing line in the general direction of the target, doing it's own thing as per usual for the latter part of the trajectory.

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My first group was 1.44" edge to edge 1.26" (32mm) c-t-c, with one flier (high), and I was pretty pleased with myself and not a little smug. By the time I'd walked the 180 yard round trip to the target and back, the wind had picked up a little and my subsequent group sizes opened up to 3"-6"

That set the pattern for the next week of attempts. I and another BBS member shot many groups using a number of HW77s and two PCPs but none came close to my first.

Until this morning.

Very light wind in the usual direction, just after 9:00am.

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Again, one high flier, which I put down to velocity as the rifle is, at around 500 pellets since fitting the V-Mach kit, still running-in. The remaining four shots are .26mm c-t-c - a fraction over 1".

In both groups, the pattern is an inverted crescent, suggesting that rifle cant was the reason the pellets did not fall closer together. I didn't measure the vertical spread of pellets in the first group but, in the second, it is 8.5mm c-t-c (about 5/16"), which is staggeringly good IMO from a very well used hunting outfit.

I think that, with a higher power scope, more concentration on keeping the rifle upright () and light wind, I could improve on these groups.

Hope someone finds this of some minor interest.