Rapid Fire Silhouette
Last November, I hadn’t realized what
I had gotten myself into in the rapid fire match. I knew that the
object was to knock over 16, 1/5 scale silhouettes in the least time.
Targets were set from smallest to largest at 30, 40, 50 and 60 yards,
respectively. I had no idea how fast the pace of fire would be. I
started with chickens and, about the time I got to the rams, they
called time. The winning time was 1 minute 5 seconds. If you look at
video of the match https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYJsK-cFrvw
you will see how fast it really went.
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| EBR 2013 photo by Arimo Dave |
My S400 Extra Fac
My .177 FT rifle was accurate and
powerful enough for the match, but the tiny pellets and high
magnification scope didn't work in my favor. My solution is a .25 Gen
2 Marauder tuned to about 35 foot pounds, twenty-five caliber pellets
to fit my fumble fingers, and a hunting scope set 6.5 X.
Of course, every air rifle has some
traits to overcome. The Benjamin Marauder is magazine fed and single
loading is slow, slow , slow, unless you use single shot tray. The
tray fits into the space in the mortice for the magazine. Without
this raised groove, single loading is nearly impossible. Crosman has
stopped making their tray for the .25 and existing stocks are hard to
find.
Wicked Airrifles
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| front facing surface with cut out for barrel |
I ordered a .25 single shot tray from
Wicked Airrifles, https://www.wickedairrifles.com/ . On the web site it
says, "Wicked Air Rifles is the exclusive distributor of Marmot Militia Machine Works parts and accessories." You can read all about it on Widked's site. The tray, in a business letter envelope, came through the mail
unharmed.
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The tray is made from delrin, and does
not snap in like the magazine. It fits very snugly in the magazine
mortice. The one I received was a little too snug and would not go
in. A file would not bite in to the delrin but a new sheet of 100
grit sandpaper did the job in less than ten strokes. Once the tray is
in, the bolt moves without binding. You have to be careful to make
sure that the pellet lands in the trough with the point facing
forward. The steep interior sides help insure that pellets do not
have to be placed exactly into the trough which would slow down
loading speed.
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| rear facing surface with sanding marks |
It is possible to get the pellet in the
trough backwards or point down, but that happened only when I was
sloppy about dropping the pellet into the tray. The tray's high sides
are steep, and the pellet rolls to the bottom, making it hard to see
the pellet. Shooting fast, you can't take your cheek away from the
stock and look down into the breach to check pellet alignment.
How Fast Could I Shoot?
The first time out using clips, my
time for 16 critters (I think it was 18 shots) was 4 minutes 4
seconds. Loading the clips took nearly two minutes. Arimo Dave helped
by hiding behind me going “Bang Bang” while I loaded. With the
tray, my times ran from 10 to 12 seconds per hit. My goal is 16
targets in a minute and a half. At Extreme Benchrest you start with
empty magazines, so if you take the time to load your magazines, the
match will be over before you get through your chickens.
Wicked Airrifles Single Shot Tray
I like the single shot tray from Wicked
Airrifles. It works just fine aligning the pellet with the barrel
without binding the bolt. The high sides and steep slopes work with
my rapid fire technique. Sanding to make it fit my Marauder was easy.
The design is simplicity itself and the material is first rate. I am
looking forward to more products from Wicked Airrifles.
50nYard Target
I'll write about this target on the
next post.
