Today's lessons: this rifle is completely ambidextrous, and I'm fascinated that I don't have to work on my cheek weld for the left-side at all, even while I continue to fight the right side. Left-hand mounts are consistent and natural, and the hits follow..."weak-side" me woulda beat the snot out of "strong-side" me today, in a formal competition. Groups were tighter and more on point of aim--in fact the only thing limiting me on the left side is the need to close the non-dominant eye.
On the right side, IF my mount is good, I can keep both eyes completely open and hit quickly, but I have a strong tendency to crawl the comb and have to fine-tune the mount when I do, slowing things down considerably. As I work with this a little more I'll do some dry-fire with the Marlin in parallel (which also employs ghost-ring sights) and maybe something will suggest itself.
The Bronco's trigger is excellent. It is so good it is clear to me that I need to raise my game in order to better appreciate it. Very well then, will do! And the operation of the "auto-engaging safety" is clean and positive too. These are two items that are very important to a training and practice regimen, and those are some of the reasons I went with the Bronco in the first place. Gratifying!
With a dedicated airgun spinner of a little higher visual contrast, this "off-the-porch" thing is going to be really, really nice for daily practice throughout the year. The porch provides both rain protection and vertical post options for practicing the tree rest.
I've started thinking about an effective way to carry this piece on walks (breakbarrels are challenging on traditional slings and are probably even worse for Ching Slings), and am intrigued at the back-scabbard option here:
Beyond that, I'm envisioning a few accoutrements like the "pellet pen" which may prove its weight in gold on really cold days, and figuring out what the right backpack or fannypack combination might be.
We'll see. For the nonce, I'll start with lunch tomorrow. :-)
4 comments:
I'm glad you like your air rifle. I've not spent much time with mine yet. One of the first things I did was lose the magazine that holds the pellets..
AGHHHHH
Need to send to the company and get a handful of them. They are small and easy to lose.
I also need to get a container of BBs.
Anyway, I shoot off my back deck sometimes too... at rabbits. Good moving target practice. :) Used to do this with the .22 pistol and rifle, but the pellets and BBs are even cheaper.
I'd really much rather be shooting my "real" guns, however. Just me.
Sometimes necessity really is the source of invention. I think I may have waited so long with airguns simply because finding the time to shoot the "real" ones was never a problem before now (kids, different environment, etc.)...it really was a classic epiphany moment when I first thought, "why not?"
Cost is certainly a plus point for airguns. A tin of 500 (.177) pellets--and quality ones, at that--goes for well under $10; where I'm at even .22 rimfire brick ammo is at least $20 per 500; if you want good stuff it approaches $10 per 100. Centerfires, of course, start almost an order of magnitude above even that, and continue.
Noise is another selling point. Not everyone lives in a place where it's realistic to take two steps out your front door and start hitting steel with a firearm, but airguns give me lots of options.
And I'm intending to try out Airsoft as a "serious" training aid, as well. This breakbarrel springer will be excellent for marksmanship fundamentals, and some basic gunhandling skills (this type of action is so much handier than the tedious multi-pump varieties), but if I'm understanding things correctly, Airsoft can get you authentically there, if you're careful when shopping.
If you can keep your gorge down when watching*, consider this video review of a 1911-clone Airsoft gun. For the whole review, click here; to go directly to the shooting part where you can see the piece in action, click here. Note that the magazine and pistol should fit any standard leather, and between the low relative cost of Airsoft BBs and the several different gas-charging options available, this may well become a great "everyday" solution between dry-fire and live-fire exercises. I could get up and running with a piece that is functionally identical to the one I carry most of the time, with two or three magazines, gas and a supply of pellets, for under $300...and feeding it thereafter should be cheap. Some (but not all) of the Airsoft guns do appear to be just like the real thing, with the gas not only powering the pellet, but also cycling the action.
And the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that there is an important middle ground between dry-fire and live-fire, that this idea should cover well. For example: training in your own house with live fire is certainly going to be messy, and dry-fire is limiting because you can't realistically engage multiple targets. But the Airsoft option would allow you to do that, either without or even with the plastic BBs, if you have suitable backstops. Others will point out the actual force-on-force options that Airsoft makes possible as well, to train in tactics beyond the square range. It's intriguing.
Thus far, I believe I've found such an Airsoft trainer for both the 1911 pistol and the M14 rifle (other possibles like boltguns, leverguns, revolvers and the Kahr auto haven't been as fully vetted yet), and when I get around to each I'll be sure to post findings here.
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* Explanation for that carefully considered statement is at the bottom of this post.
Gr. It looks like the second link didn't copy properly. The shooting part of the video should be available here.
And with that, I think I'll put those thoughts as a separate post anyway; the thoughts are probably useful to share at that level.
Thank you, ML, for prompting them! :-)
My pleasure. :) I live to encourage discussion, even toss monkey wrenches into things occasionally.
I have more to say on this... but will do so on the next post.
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