Are ssp anschutz,fwb etc rifles over the top for bell target shooting?

[StayOnTarget]

I fancy a nice side lever ssp rifle for bell target and general target shooting and wondered if any of the above mentioned would be suitable or ott.I would really appreciate anyones advice.
As always thank you for your time

[JLB]

Personally I like the idea of those webley/BSA undelever's from the 40's & 50's or earlier, nice & traditional. But anything that get's people together shooting & putting the world to rights is also fine with me, regardless of the technology.

John

[cooper_dan]

Not at all. 80's onwards 10m match guns are very popular in bell target. You certainly wouldn't be out of place with one at most clubs

[yorkiets]

When we started bell target I used my fwb601 and Walther lgr.

It became apparent fairly quickly that it’s a bit too easy with proper target rifles, and because they are not cheap or readily available it put potential bell target recruits at a big disadvantage.

We unofficially decided on Hw30s instead. Cheap, available and a level playing field.

If you use an SSP or PCP you’ll get bored of ringing the bell after a bit of practice.

Just my opinion

[StayOnTarget]

Well that has given me food for thought.So maybe a very nice ssp for general target and a open sighted plinker for bell target? I try to keep my eye out for a ssp but they get snapped up very quickly on this site.
Thank you all for your time and guidance

[zooma]

When we started bell target I used my fwb601 and Walther lgr.

It became apparent fairly quickly that it’s a bit too easy with proper target rifles, and because they are not cheap or readily available it put potential bell target recruits at a big disadvantage.

We unofficially decided on Hw30s instead. Cheap, available and a level playing field.

If you use an SSP or PCP you’ll get bored of ringing the bell after a bit of practice.

Just my opinion

My HW 30S is a lovely little rifle but the small straight sporting stock demands a crouched shooting position that is awkward for me to hold for an extended period as I am just under 6 foot tall - and suffering with a bad neck does not help much either!

As I really like this little rifle I am going to find a pair of riser blocks to fit under the front and rear sights so I can shoot it in a slightly more "heads-up" position that will be more comfortable for me.

I have seen various types of rear diopter sights fitted to these rifles and the original front tunnel sight easily takes what ever size of front ring element the shooter prefers to use so it is an ideal rifle for 6 yard bell target shooting - and at a very good price too!

We shoot bell target at 10 meters at our local club and this rifle is accurate enough (and powerful enough) to ring the bell at 10 meters so it is more than good enough for use at 6 yards so this inexpensive little rifle gets my vote - and buying one may just leave enough cash in the kitty to get that SSP at some time in the future too

[vbull]

As already said above, you'll get bored using a 601 or similar, no real challenge, get a nice old BSA IMP Mod D or something like that.

[hwtyger]

Belltarget is vintage so I use vintage:
Webley mk3 supertarget, Osprey Supertarget, Walther LG55
Imo, the modern stuff should not be used. Its far too easy to get full score with those
So imo, no recoilless stuff

[NeilnrLincoln]

Another vote here for HW30 or a nice classic/vintage springer. I love my HW30 for bell target, but I've used someones well fettled BSA Meteor & it was equally good.
There's a chap I shoot with that puts in very respectable scores with a couple of 1930's springers.

[StayOnTarget]

Right sorting out a HW 30 going to put a diopter on it and an adjustable butt plate?
You lot are brilliant i love reading your comments and opinions on this site
Thank you!

[series2a]

Pure spring only just another example of tech spoiling a discipline
Like rediculous guns in HFT.
I'd like to see tech guns in the field getting banged up. Lol never.
😡

[rancidtom]

It all depends on what league you shoot bell target in, some such as South Wales and Newport have much tighter scoring due to the fact that most of the competitors use at the very least a FWB300 and there are many modern PCP's. In such a league you would be very hard pushed to get anywhere with a break barrel springer such as a HW30 without at least having dioptre sights.
I shot for years in Swindon league, the competition is shot on paper derived from the original Birmingham/Black Country bell target but scored differently, I used an Original Mod 75 for regular matches against the modern rifles but every year we had competitions for specific rifles such as the FWB300, Original Mod 50, BSA Airsporter/Webley Mk3, and pre WW2 BSA underlevers, all these were conducted to keep alive the "milestone" guns used in in bell target leagues countrywide.
Swindon League shoot 6 targets, scored to 10 so a perfect or "possible" score is 60 on a card which must be shot in 5 minutes, you are allowed a "sighter" shot on a non-scoring ring on the target but this is included in your 5 mins, so the pressure is on for any gun that is slow to load. As far as difficulty goes it's difficult to shoot regular 60's with even the most modern PCP's.

[hwtyger]

I must add that ofcourse some vintage target rifles like the mk3 and Osprey ST are getting more and more rare to buy
SSPs and other recoilless more modern guns are easy to find.
HW30;...dont know..they're great guns, had one, our gunclub has 2, but they dont strike me as vintage for bell target.
HW55 maybe if it has to be HW? Allthough also rare.
Old target rifles already have peeps fitted. Aftermarket fitting of peeps on rifles not originally made for peeps may give you adjustment issues.(height). Especially at short 6yrd range.

[cooper_dan]

I shoot in the Midlands and there is a good league going in and around Hinckley. The format in our club is 6 shots, with a bell being 5, so maximum of 30.
There are a couple of people who can get 29/30 quite regularly but they are very good shots and have been doing it for a long time. Most people using SSP's or recoiless springers will see 4 or 5 bells as a good score. This is a high percentage of bells, but then the challenge changes and you have the higher pressure shots of trying to get all 6 bells.

If you are doing it more for fun than competition (like me) then use any gun you want and challenge yourself. My scores with the guns I use would be something like:

Diana 75 = 28 or 29 on a good day
Diana 66 = 27 or 28
Anschutz 335 (probably similar to the HW30....) = 26
BSA Cadet Major = 25
BSA light pattern = 24 or 25

I find the main differences leading to higher scores are the stock fit, and the trigger pull. The recoil doesn't bother me much

[DAVALI]

As we run a Vintage rifle comp most of our members have pre 1939 Rifles so, we also run a Bell target coupled with a 10yd Target comp so, to keep as level of playing field as possible we restrict rifles to open sights only, no diopter, no semi recoiling pcp,s. Etc.
We don’t shoot Bell target in any form of league so we can make up our own rules and have a tremendous fun doing so,

DaveM.