Senior moment?

[Mzee]

I don't know if I'm experiencing a "senior moment", but I can't make sense of something & am hoping one of you gentlemen can de-confuse me please.

Yesterday I decided to take my recently acquired alte Frau, a 1931 Haenel IV fitted with a BSA
19a thin ring & blade front sight to the club & try her out over longer distances than my little garden range will allow. At my home 8 yards maximum I needed a bit of hold under, as expected, so I thought I'd make a crib sheet out to 30 yards & then go and have some fun on the HFT course, trying to hit the plates. This is where my confusion began when I discovered the hold under increased with the distance to the target, rather than decreasing as I'd expected - thus
10 yards 2" hold under
20 yards 4" hold under
30 yards 8" hold under

The rear sight is wound right down as far as possible, raising it increased the hold under needed to hit the target card, as expected. The rotating front sights, blade & ring, both give the same impact point, when set in the correct upright position.

Am I losing me marbles or does this lovely old girl defy the laws of gravity?
Yours in confusion,
Glyn

[Jimny4x4]

A micro barrel flaw to the crown directing pellets awry ?
Try the ear bud test , drawing a bud out the barrel slowly to see if anything snags the cotton and drags it .

[vbull]

I'm not all that familiar with the Haenel but a quick search showed it's a break barrel so have a look see if the barrel and cylinder are aligned properly when the gun is closed. Sounds to me like the barrel is tilted up a bit or perhaps even bent.

[Mzee]

Thanks for your replies, chaps.

Jimny, I've given it the cotton wool bud test as you suggested & couldn't detect any snags or burrs in the crown.

vbull, actually the Haenel Modell IV is a tap loading underlever, apparently based on the LJ type BSAs, so the barrel is pretty well attached to the rest of the gun. I've put a long straight edge along it & it's perfectly true. In fact, it would take a bit of effort to bend it as it's a good 0.6" diameter along its slightly tapering length, with a 0.177 bore.

Thanks again though, both.
Glyn

[series2a]

Wierd
Good website here for Haenel owners

http://www.waffencenter-gotha.de

[Phil Russell]

Yes ... a puzzle. Thoughts: is the rear sight original? Could barrel have an upward lilt where it fits into the cylinder? The visible barrel might be perfectly straight but the join to the cylinder could be a tad out? Could the barrel bore not be central?
Certainly a puzzle as you would expect the issue to self correct with distance, assuming the 8yd point of impact is akin to the primary zero, as it were.
Cheers, Phil

[RobinC]

The sight line and bore line converge, and cross at less than 8 yds.