Pistol testing rig

[rapidboy1]

Just been playing with a new pistol test rig and thought i would share some pics.

[ashf9999]

Great rig. And shows just how good budget pellets have got over the last few years - those Excite econ II & RWS are spot on…

[zooma]

The RWS Basic pellets have always out-performed their price.

The late (great) Ian Jones used nothing but these pellets in his match pistols and shot live 50 ex 50 with them on our club range and had plenty of really tight groups to support his "possibles".

[rapidresponse1]

Nice rig bud

[bootneckbob]

I did a similar thing years ago and thats when I went from R10s to Geko. My pistol 'captain' was horrified when he found out, but I went on to win Devon indoor 10m AP and 20 yard outdoors. Repeated the exercise a couple of years later as Geko were going up in price and the Econ 2 were also as good as R10s in my pistol. Someone challenged my one perfect hole with 10 shots, and said I'd get a flier using cheap pellets so I did it again with 30. Still a single perfect hole. After that I said I'm not wasting anymore lead or time.

[gtpkeeper]

interesting setup

[Claretsmad]

Very impressive set up. Not sure I can tell what the insulator blocks are made of. The manufacturers rigs are very complex and take all the vibration elements out of the pistol or air rifle. In essence to reproduce steady perfect hands. We are the insulator when shooting. It is very difficult to perfect. Even with a PCP. You may find other types of insulator improve the grouping still. In theory it should go through the same hole. However if it is only for pellet comparison then by all means ignore.

[rapidboy1]

The jaws are made from high-density polyethylene which will absorb a certain amount of vibration, i also have some neoprene rubber sheet to protect the air cylinder which will also absorb some vibration.

There are 8 black weight bags, each filled with 2.5kg of lead pellets to add weight and absorb vibration.
All told with a pistol it weighs 42kg so its not going to blow away !

It's a compromise it had to be portable enough to transport between different clubs, heavy enough to work without permanently attaching it to the bench and it had to accommodate as many different pistols as possible.
Im sure groups could be improved with a different design if absolute accuracy was the goal but this is for pellet comparison.

Im just home from rimfire ammunition testing, batch testing Lapua and SK in my old Anschutz benchrest rifle.
The test rig they use is bolted to the concrete floor.
The action is removed from the stock and fitted into an alloy block, barrel tuners are removed.
Testing is done in still air at 50m and shots recorded on electronic target.
They work through various batches of ammunition, if a 10 shot group falls below a standard they discard and move onto the next batch, any 10 shots group that shows potential is recorded and then another 10 shots fired to create a 20 shot group.







Examples of 10 shot groups that became 20 shot groups

SK Rifle Match





Lapua CenterX





Groups can be tighter in shoulder than in the vice but again the vice is much more consistent for a straight ammunition comparison.

SK Rifle Match, £160/1000, (was £100/1000 3 years ago)
Lapua CenterX, £270/1000, (was £160/1000 3 years ago)
£110 / 1000 to shrink a 20 shot groups by 5mm makes me appreciate my air pistol and £5 / tin for Excite Econ II ....