A bit of calm weather and a few hours to spare today so I though I’d have a crack at this long shooting lark. I’ve had a few goes before, but as I live right near the sea, calm weather isn’t often available. My efforts in the breeze have convinced me that long range shooting and strong wind do not mix.

I measured out 70 yards with my surveyor’s tape and got my ‘bench rest’ set up. It comprised two bags of B+Q lawn treatment (one on top of the other) and a gardener’s kneeling cushion on top of that. I got down prone behind my stack and eyed things up.

70 yards is a long way, but the image was nice and clear through the scope and it seemed quite do-able. Here I have to declare my belief, that to have any legitimacy, long range shooting must be (providing the weather conditions are suitable) consistent, accurate and repeatable. I’m not knocking anyone who uses the following method, but for me, aiming at a cross or dot and then landing the pellets a couple of feet away from what you are aiming at is of limited value. If you can’t predict where the pellets will land, you can’t hit a target and target shooting is about hitting a target! Also, shooting 20 or 30 pellets and then picking the 3 or 5 that group together nicely seems also to be a flawed technique as too much luck could effect such a small number of shots.

So my method was as follows, shoot 50 consecutive shots at 45mm circles (with 30mm black bulls) in five groups of 10 shots. I was trying to hit the target as many times as possible but not necessarily to group the shots. I had a wind flag, so when it moved I would make small adjustments to my point of aim with the intention of counteracting the wind and hitting the target.

The first group of 10 all went into the target (just!) with one shot wide to the left but just cutting the line to still score. The second group started really badly with a wild flyer almost off the page to the right but the nine shots that followed were all beauties, this would have been the best group of the day but for the flyer. The third ten all landed nicely enough but one went a bit on the high side but luckily it was still safely in, this turned out to be the best grouping of the day. As I stared shooting group four, the breeze picked up. It pushed the first two shots wide to the right and produced my second miss. I made an aiming adjustment and landed the rest of the shots safely in the target but somewhat scattered around. The final ten were up against an unpredictable and shifting breeze. I shot the first three with the same windage adjustment as the last target and saw them group tightly in a string low and left. I adjusted and landed the next two in the bull. The wind then freshened a bit and pushed the next five shots left. Three landed in a nice string inside the target but two missed wide and right. Very annoying!

By now I was knackered, I couldn’t believe the concentration that was required for this sort of shooting. My neck was sore and my eyes were watering from staring hard at the targets. But I was very pleased, out of the 50 shots, 46 had hit the targets they had been aimed at, with 30 of the 50 hitting the 30mm black bull’s-eye. As a percentage I had achieved a 92% hit rate against a 45mm target at 70 yards. If anyone had offered me that before I’d started shooting, I’d have had their hand off!

My cap is off to the guys who are getting results at 100 yards because 70 yards seemed a very long way to me. As I’ve said, I wasn’t really looking for groupings but even my best one (from target three) was around 35mm, so over the magic inch even at my reduced range. Judged on those criteria, my attempt was a failure and a failure 30 yards short of the mark! But I don’t look at it that way, and I’m still well pleased to be able to shoot a spring gun at this range and still have a high level of accuracy. BUT it’s all down to that wind, the barest whisper today was the difference between hitting and missing and even ‘perfect’ weather holds surprises that are guaranteed to have the long range shooter tearing his hair out!

I’ve included 2 pictures, one just photographed normally and one back lit so the holes are more visible. I’ll get a couple more pics put up tomorrow of my range and the set-up I was shooting from. My equipment was a v-glided hw97k in .177 flavour and running at 11.3 ft lbs, trigger was a v-mach semi-match unit with a flat polished blade and it all sat in a GINB l/h thumbhole stock. Scope was the MTC Viper 10X44, pellets were JSB 4.51 washed and lubed but not weighed and sorted, that’s probably why I got the flyer!

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...rs/70yards.jpg

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...s/70yards2.jpg