PANSAL 2014

Idaho Hosts International Squirrel Shoot

Airgunners from several pacific northwestern states spent the first weekend in May attended the Pacific and Northwest States Airgun League, PANSAL, spring brake squirrel shoot west of Boise Idaho. This informal gathering has been an annual event since 2003 This event has gone from an idea two guys had on a fishing trip to a tradition for air gunners in the pacific and northers rocky mountain states. This place abounds with ground squirrels. On each of the three days folks spread out from the camp to pick out sites to sit and wait for squirrels to show themselves. The squirrel hunters didn't have to wait for long.

PANSAL is an international event. Despite the fact that all the participants are from the USA, The air rifles themselves are form all over the globe. All those countries that we first associated with high performance were there plus a couple form the United States. Lets have a short role call of the countries represented by rifles.

United States of America

Rapid Air Weapons

This particular Rapid is a .25 with a 12 shot magazine. Purchased used the bolt is stiff, but not rough, from apparently never being shot by its former owner. Someone said, “Who would never buy a Rapid and not shoot it”? This rifle was made in Tennessee.

Sweden

FX

Another rifle with a gorgeous stock. Also a Fortner styled straight pull action.

United Kingdom

Air Arms EV-2

This rifle has a custom stock made by the owner to go hunting with out worry over nicks or bumps. I shot this rifle. Three quarter inch spinners at 25 yards were no problem to hit over and over.

Republic of Korea

Evanix Rainstorm bull pup

Foreword looking design this rifle sports an after market moderator.

United States of America

AirForce Condor

This shooter may have attended all of the PANSAL events since the start in 2003.

These are only a few of the rifles that their owners brought to the shoot. Next year I am sure there will be a lot more to see. What can I say after I say “Cowabunga, I am ready for next year”!

There is more to read and photos to see on the PANSAL website:  http://www.pansalairgun.com/


Ron 

The new Marauder gets a scope

My new Gen 2 Marauder now has a scope and is sighted in for 25 yards.

It took a while because the Millet mounts I used are wendage adjustable thru the clamps that hold the mount to the mounting rail. Putting the scope in usually results with the mounts not in alignment with the barrel. It takes a few shots and some adjustments with an allen wench to get it aligned. The good news is that when I swapped scopes, the new one was within a few MOAs.

The mounts ate high mounts and the Simmons 6.5 to 20X has a 50 mm objective. You can see that the scope to barrel shroud clearance in minimal.

How Dose It Shoot?

At 25 yards, In sitting I hit 5 out of 5 1/5 scale chickens.

For now this Marauder is a one clip wonder. At 50 yard hits on the target past ten drop like a rock. Fortunately, the Marauder is highly adjustable. More on this to come.

Generation 2 Marauder

My new Marauder arrived. It is a member of the black plastic generation. I wanted one with a wooden stock, but they are not projected to come out until July. Any doubts I had about the synthetic left when I picked up. Not only is it a pound lighter, but it fits my hands, especially the grip to trigger relationship, much better then the Gen 1 wooden stock.Blindfolded your hands can tell the difference.

Over all the stock is slimmer with a flaired portion on the bottom of the fore arm to fill your palm

There are other differences, but one I noticed is the bolt probe is a smaller diameter. The old probe was a flow through design, and I felt it made seating JSB kings harder then it should be.  MOre on this later when I have had a chance to shoot some Kings.

More then the design changed, the question is how does it stack up to my old marauder, after comparing each gun's performance, one is going to be tuned to 24 shots in the mid 30s FPE and the other for 16 somewhere in the 40s.

It ought to be an interesting story.

Ron

75 Yard Chickens

A couple of weeks ago I went to the range to shoot my half scale chickens at 75 yards. They would be fun and also good for working on my benchrest form since the body was about the same size at the paper bull on the 75 yard target at Extreme Benchrest in Arizona. Each chicken weighs a two and a half pounds and their weight makes for a slow motion fall that connotes power. My rifle is a ,25 caliber Benjamin Marauder. And yes, it will down a half scale chicken at 75 yards.

It will only down all the chickens I can hit, and on this day I was bating 500. I shot about 40 pellets and only brought down just over 20. With a 24X scope I can spot all my hits and misses, but about half of my misses threw up dirt from behind the bird suggesting that those misses were passing just over the bird's back and doping out of sight before hitting the berm about 4 feet further on.

What to do?

To look for the suspected high shots on my next trip to the range, I took a half scale ram target. It is OK to shoot at chicken targets to test your marksmanship, but when you are testing a supposition, the target needs to be far larger to capture all the high or low shots. I could have taken paper but the sound of the pellets on steel is too good to pass up. I shot at 75 yards since my goal to shoot BR at that range, but also because, variability in velocity brought on by changes in pressure in the gun's air cylinder are more apparent at longer ranges.

Results - Some good some not so good.

I shot four, 24 shot sequences. Each time the starting pressure was between 3000 and 2900 psi and the ending pressure was between 2000 and 1900 psi. That's one clip more then I thought I was going to get when I bought the gun. Airgunners are always happy when their precharged gun has a longer then expected shot count.

But, there were high shots. More then I expected. The first, eight shot clip shot to the point of aim (POA), but the second clip went 1 ¼ inch high, and the third clip worked its way back down to the cross hairs. The 24^th shot would go three inches low. This cycle repeated itself in each 24 shot string. A few shots went high or low, but the procession of hits stayed the same. On the fourth string I compensated by holding low on the second clip and shot a better. Those hits are in the middle of the shot pattern on the pig in the photo. The horizontal stringing on the pig and the ram are the effects of the wind. Beeman Kodiak Match pellets were used.

This time my Marauder showed the potential to put all shots into three inches at 75 yards. My goal is to shoot 25 shots into a two and a quarter inch circle at that range.

Ron

Super Airguns

Air rifles on the firing line at the Extreme Benchrest in Green River Arizona.

Read my article" Super Airguns" on Western Shooting Journal.

http://westernshootingjournal.com/productreviews/super-airguns/

Ron

Yellow Forum Competition

Steve in CT, owner of the Yellow Forum, has proposed a match where contestants submit 3, 5 shot groups each spanning one inch or less, shot consecutively at 100 yards with pellets. The first five to do so wins 5 tins of pellets from Wild West Airguns.

For Steve's post see:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/79537/message/1390432461/Here+is+a+Yellow+Forum+Competition+I+want+to+do+and+it+will+be+limited+to+first+5+shooters

What a great idea. There are far too many posts boasting of this group or that group that seam incredible. It is about time somebody gently called for some accountability.

Aside from tweaking those who inflate their accomplishments, Steve’s standard of accuracy is significant challenge for a marksman. Many times I have shot on ranges that did not allow your condition of light and wind to remain unchanged for 15 shots. If I read his rules right, you cannot return to the sighting target once you have started the 15 shot sequence.

The target above is one I fired at 100 yards with my .25 Benjamin Marauder with Beeman Kodiak Match pellets. The match rules were the NRA's High Power Sporting Rifle. The target shows 32 hits fired in Sitting and Standing. I can't always get into prone. And five sighers. It was fired with one 3000 psi refill after 21 shots. It is a good representation of how well I could shoot the rifle on that day although standing was a mess and accounts for most of the shots outside of the eight ring. The ten ring is 3.3 inches wide. A full set of dimensions can be found in the rule book for High Power Sporting Rifle on the NRA web site. Usually, we set up ½ size targets at 50 yards for air rifles, but at that match I was the only one, so I shot at 100.

Steve's match will be interesting to follow. Three consecutive one inch groups an 100 yards with pellets is a high standard.

Gee I’d be thrilled with 24 shots into 2 inches at 75 yards with unlimited sighters. 

Ron

Your comments are appreciated

If you are on Google + you can comment with a minimum of difficulty, and we get to see your avatar. If you are not a Googlonian, or do not wish to reveal your mane, I *have heard* that you can sign in as a guest.

One advantage of a blog is that the blogger gets to engage the audience. So comments are important to me. Comment away! Please.

I am working to see if there is a way to facilitate comments, but Google+ is a work in progress. Tomorrow may bring a solution we do not have now.

Ron