Updated thinking on air rifles for training.

(Okay, so all this week I have been just giddy with the success of last weekend's introductory gunhandling sessions with Feral Daughters One and Two, which culminated not only in reliable hits with the Airsoft 1911 from about five yards, and also not only with exemplary attention to safety and basic handling, including load and reload...but also with conspicuous smiles.  More on this effort later;  for now, that's the context of my starting to think again about the broader context of airgunnery for training.)

I wanted to set down a couple more thoughts about the use of precision pellet guns for training, as the landscape has evolved a bit since I last did that.  I've now been freshly reminded of the viability of using appropriate Airsoft replicas for true gunhandling, and really for any training in which the gunhandling is more important than great precision in marksmanship...but in the end, there will also remain a need for low-cost, high-volume training using something more precise.

Previously, I've written on the Scout-Rod concept, and I'm still keen on making this happen.  The problem of course is that even aside from the ridiculous "safety" on the otherwise-excellent Benjamin Marauder base gun, there would still appear to be much custom work to do to get it up and running in full form, and of course along with the base gun, that's expensive.  But then I noticed the Diana Stormrider, which seems more promising in several ways, especially with the ability to add an additional barrelband for the possibility of a true Scout Scope setup without extensive gunsmithing.

And then today, I happened to notice both the Diana Trail Scout, and also the Diana Mauser K98 repeater.  Both of these are at the very least, interesting options!

The Trail Scout is clearly a derivative of the Stormrider, with the same bolt and breechblock, magazine, trigger and safety group, sight setup, and presumably it would accept the same second barrelband, if possibly requiring some stock inletting.  The Trail Scout seems to be about half the cost of the Stormrider, runs on CO2 instead of HPA, and currently only comes in synthetic stock garb.  Would CO2 be the way to go?  It sure might.  The Stormrider produces velocities, in .177" caliber, high enough that you can (maybe) start to lose some precision, and it seems to get about 20 good shots on a fill, with attendant blast for the not-strictly-necessary oomph.  The CO2 gun advertises much more sedate velocities, and 100 shots on a fill, using three standard powerlets.  Presuming the CO2 powerplant is as accurate a platform as HPA, this lower cost option might be a great training tool!  (Hell, might need to have both...)

The K98 Mauser replica was also a pleasant surprise.  I'd seen Tom Gaylord cover the single-shot version of this rifle before, and hadn't paid it much attention because I've already got a wonderful trainer for single shots in the Air Venturi Bronco.  But this one is a repeater...and hmm, look at that bolt!

I'm pretty sure that is the closest I've seen to a full-size rifle bolt on a non-Airsoft airgun.  No, it's not going to duplicate a real Mauser bolt in travel or even in feel, but it is so much closer than anything else I've seen, at least in a precision, rifled pellet gun, that it immediately becomes a serious contender for a precision trainer.  It's not cheap, by comparison to other HPA alternatives like the Stormrider, and it will have some of its own flaws--for starters, a true scout scope is going to require true custom work, the "safety" is a...let's call it comically primitive crossbolt in the trigger itself (good gawd, people!), and it probably will fit the same 20-shots-per-fill, 200-bar fill pressure, 20-foot-pound envelope as the Stormrider.  But hmm...that bolt, plus the onboard sights, the friendly stock (for shortening and mounting a Ching Sling), and what appears to be an overall excellent base platform...well, I now need to meet one, and am glad that the option exists!

Finally, I'm also curious to dig a little more into what SIG has been doing with EBR-pattern, semiauto rifled pellet guns.  This seems a distinct "third", in terms of training importance (where "first" would imply Airsoft blowback replicas capable of precision gunhandling and gross marksmanship, and "second" would imply rifled pellet guns capable of gross gunhandling and precision marksmanship), but those lines are of course at least a little blurry.  But still, to have the ability for some real rifled-pellet precision, in a semiauto*, AR(-ish) pattern carbine, would seem to be quite useful, and certainly worth the initial investment for inexpensive trigger time.

Anyway, SIG seems to have some options in their MCX and MPX rifles, and boy, I'd love to meet those too, to get an idea of what they're like.  (Tom has covered both an MCX variant and an MPX variant, and I'll cogitate further on the idea.)


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* In the pistol realm, I already went through this thinking a bit ago, though I don't seem to have written about it specifically yet;  the core idea is to come up with a faithful replica of a "semiauto" design that can shoot rifled pellets rather than Airsoft or steel BBs--to be able to work on precision, across multiple shots.  Pistols are difficult for this, at least for 1911 lovers like me:  no pistol design I've yet seen seems to have been able to combine both rifled-pellet feeding, and a single-action trigger.  However, what is available--and what I would argue is viable enough for the concept--are a few designs employing a small internal rotary magazine, against a "double-action" style trigger (technically, this is really a CO2-powerplant revolver, in the guise of an auto pistol), and no blowback.  It's by no means perfect--I'd want the blowback and reciprocating slide if I could get it, and of course I'd want the option of a 1911 design as well--but then I stopped and considered the S&W M&P 45 variant simply on its own terms...and I think it's worth pursuing.  Whether or not the 1911 might be a preferred platform, this still captures a good base gun to train on (the M&P is well-established) and the long trigger is a good exemplar of striker-fired pistols like my own beloved Kahr.  I figure:  use it for precision singles and doubles;  the long trigger roll is the focus of the exercise here, and requires the same sort of sight-settling focus that blowback provides, without needing the actual blowback.  No, it won't combine with authentic reloads or clearance drills, but it is pretty clearly the best option for precision work in a pistol that is anywhere close to ergonomically authentic to a design you'd want to train for.

Chronography note.

Had a brief chance (everything's brief, with a seven-week-old in the house) to set up the new chrono and run a string over it with the TalonP set to absolute minimum power on the power wheel.

Some notes, mostly for myself, in no particular order:

• Used the chrono without skyscreens at all, based on a Tom Gaylord comment I saw recently.  This seemed to work well in the direct sunshine.
• I tried a very close distance-to-chrono this time;  about one foot.  Mostly this was in order to do it fast, rather than perfectly;  I will want to back off to about three feet as there is noticeable muzzle blast from the TalonP, and one foot seems kinda rude.
• The .25 pellets may be less susceptible than the .177s to get "missed" by one or both screens unless they are "close enough" down to the top of the chrono unit, but it can still happen.
• Power wheel was set to absolute minimum;  I wanted to see what the gun did here.  AirForce owners would refer to the setting as "1.1" on the wheel, and I understand that this is highly individualized to each gun;  that is, a setting of "8.11" on one gun is not going to translate to a second gun sitting right next to it.  It's a relative measure for that gun of how wide open the valve is.  The shooter uses it to make his own notes.
• Top hat was also set to the most polite setting, and over 20 shots later it is still tight.  We'll see how long that continues!
• Performance was interesting.  It was much more erratic than I was expecting, and it may be that this is my first taste of what Tom Gaylord calls "finding the right power curve" for a given gun and pellet.   Here's the string data--note some wide variations between successive shots:

#    FPS / FT-LBS

20    657 / 30

19    673 / 31

18    690 / 33

17    898 / 56

16    727 / 36

15    739 / 38

14    848 / 50

13    774 / 41

12    ERROR 3

11    ERROR 3

10    806 / 45

9    811 / 45

8    829 / 47

7    ERROR 3

6    847 / 49

5    850 / 50

4    791 / 43

3    846 / 49

2    791 / 43

1    793 / 43

Average: 786.5 FPS

SD: 68.6 FPS

Min: 657 FPS

Max: 898 FPS

Spread: 241 FPS

Starting fill was about 2900psi (two un-chronoed shots down from a 3000psi fill), and based on what the Hill pump told me when refilling afterwards, the end pressure was about 1200psi.  I was deliberately shooting until I could clearly see the gun dropping off, and after shot #17 threw me for a loop (how did that happen?), the next three pretty clearly showed the trend I was looking for.  These guns are known for maintaining a pretty tight spread over their ideal "shots per fill", and owners of TalonP and Escape models (which use the same 210cc air tank) seem to confirm a very reliable 10 full power shots per fill--sometimes more, but almost never less--once you've found the right setting(s).  (Interestingly, the ideal string of tight-spread, full-power shots doesn't necessarily begin with shot #1, but sometimes after a few "wake-up-the-valve" shots.  

It's quite possible that this "absolute minimum" setting is just not right for the gun, and next time I am going to try going up to "2.1".  (Of interest:  the test-fire data from Pyramyd Air, when I bought the gun, with a different pellet and power wheel setting at "4.6", showed a much tighter ES (118fps) and SD (42fps) for their 10 shots, with a clearly linear pattern of slightly-descending-velocity for each shot.)  

I'm interested to see what this gun's "miser mode" (whatever that turns out to be) can give me in terms of shots-per-fill;  also what "max power mode" (whatever that may be, and it may not be "full open", either) will yield, and finally I suspect I'm going to settle on whatever setting gives me the tightest spread for the 10-15 shots I think I can expect from the piece.  (For anyone reading this who is new to PCP guns:  there are many PCPs out there which can get many more shots-per-fill than this one;  AirForce's own "Talon" rifle, with a different valve and tank than the "TalonP", is one of them.)  The attraction of the TalonP, for me at least, was 1) short carbine length, 2) adjustable LOP, 3) more power for its size and ergonomics than anything I have yet found, and 4) "quickly" and easily topped off (refilled for a new string) with a hand pump.  The idea of having 10 shots at hand for hunting or pests, and then hand-pumping a refill in a matter of minutes, is just fine for what I wanted.  (Once I can afford a SCUBA tank and/or a 3000psi compressor, it could get just plain addicting.)

And jeez, look at the power at this minimum setting.  An It's actually so high that I again wonder if this is out of the valve's optimum range, and I might see some more sedate performance with the power wheel set a little higher.  At any rate, I was figuring that even at minimum wheel settings this gun (known for its gonzo valve) would have power to spare for whatever I'd want to do, and--yeah, you could say that.  That last shot, at 30 foot-pounds, is still pretty whopping for a smallbore airgun;  if my charts are correct, it will still retain about 12 foot-pounds at fifty yards.  

Thus all the testing.  Ultimately,  I don't know how serious I'm going to get or be about maintaining a statistically tight spread over those 10-15 shots, but I do want to see the data myself and maybe start to develop a spidey sense with it.  At heart I'm a functional guy:  I'll obsess over data just long enough to find the pattern I want.  And here, what I want is:  1) enough field accuracy to hit that 1" squirrel brain at 50 (yes, that's gonna be through glass), 2) enough power to anchor a snowshoe hare at the same distance, and 3) enough consistency from shot to shot that I can learn one trajectory and lean on it.  I suspect that the TalonP is going to provide multiple pellet options that can do a half-inch at 50 off the bench, leaving me a little wiggle room to guarantee the inch from a field position when it counts. 

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I also ran a string through the Bronco with the half-pint-milk-box wadcutters from Crosman (mostly to test the chrono before firing the .25s over it) and learned only afterward that the otherwise nice iOS app for the "Ballistic Precision" chrono does not allow you to capture and save a string in arrears--you have to declare that you're going to save the string before you shoot it!  Okay, so this is a minor matter and I'm glad I figured it out now rather than later, but you should have seen this string!  Other than a few errors when I got the tiny pellet too far above the screens (this is becoming a consistent pattern), there were probably 20 shots in the string and the extreme spread was less than 5fps (first standard deviation was under 2!)  I was impressed, and will have to try that again to see if it was a fluke.

I'd like to construct/fashion, if I can, a "plug-and-play" bench for doing chrono testing with the airguns, since I plan to do a lot of that:  something that I can quickly lay the chrono and the gun on and have their alignment be very close to ready-to-go.  The initial thought was a simple board that would "mount" the chrono, on a small tripod, at a height in the middle of the tripod's adjustment range, and at the other end perhaps mount my "Site-N-Clean" cleaning vise/rest to match it.  In theory, small elevation adjustments for different guns could be handled by the tripod's vertical crank, and I would just point the aligned shebang at a suitable target, permitting me to do both accuracy testing and chronography at the same time.  (Not so much an issue for the Bronco, where pellets and powerplant are both cheap, but right now at least--still looking for work--.25 pellets do cost noticeably more, and as marvelous a device as that Hill pump is, I'm not going to be able to do hundreds of rounds at a time with a hand pump only.  :-)

It begins.

After all the crazy that has been happening around here of late, I sniffed a chance to do something meaningful with the girls in the short space between naps and making dinner.  So I rounded up the Air Venturi Bronco, the girls got their safety glasses, and we went out onto the porch for a bit of "chicken-and-sheep".  That's the game in which one of the girls calls a target, and from Standard Ready I mount and hit it.  (It started with two rimfire spinners at 10m, one a chicken, the other a sheep...and now it has expanded to include a second spinner sheep at 25y, self-sealing Newbold targets at 10, 25, and about 40, a paint can lid and a few soup can lids hanging in the spruce trees.)

Both girls got chances to load and call, and then we wound up with a variation in which each girl called which target they wanted me to hit at the same time, and if they didn't call the same one, I had to hit the target closest to the midpoint between them.  A good mental processing exercise, with that many targets available!

After a bit, the 3yo decided to go back inside, and the 6yo then got her first chance with a manual stopwatch, timing my shots from her call to the hit, which she seemed to enjoy.  And then I offered her the chance to take her first shot.  She got a bit wide eyed and said sure.

Conditions were good.  Vibe was good.  We rested the Bronco's fore-end on the railing of the front porch/deck in my right hand, and she got pretty comfortably behind the rifle without having to lift it. We went through exactly what she was going to do with sight alignment, safety, and trigger, and I provided whatever elevation adjustment she needed with my right hand as she figured out how to look through the aperture and hold the post on the big yellow disk.  Okay, ready?  Breathe.  Safety to Fire position. Back on post.  Find trigger blade without pressing.  Still on post.  Okay, now start slowly pressing while staying on post, a little wobble is okay, slowly more press, slowly until--POP-THWAP--the trigger breaks.  An obvious hit at the 10m line.

Finger straight.  Smiles.  She even asks me if we should put the safety back on before opening the action.  (You do neither with this spring-piston breakbarrel design, but still, "A" for attitude!)  We conclude and she goes in to tell Mom.

And so it begins.

Excellent!

Functional chronography at last?

The replacement chronograph arrived from Battenfeld Technologies, and today I got to set it up and try it out.  By which I mean "conduct a very rudimentary test";  this was no sort of dedicated session.

However, I'm encouraged at the results.  I had the deck stacked up for it to fail.  To wit:

• Today is the winter solstice, at just about 60 degrees north latitude.  It wasn't fully overcast, but certainly cloudy.  I shot at 3pm, one hour before sunset.  This is not what you'd call "ideal light".  (Temp was 27F and humidity was 64%, for my own documentation.)
• I had the standard screen shades on the unit.  (When they sent me the replacement, they actually sent me the "deluxe" kit, which includes a pair of infrared skyscreen shades intended to improve performance in diffuse light.  I now have that option, but I tried it without first.)
• I tested with the tiniest projectile I will ever shoot over the screens--an 8-grain .177" diabolo pellet.  (Even Airsoft BBs are bigger than this.)

The test string was 18 shots (the capacity of my "pellet pen" loader/seater).  I did record two errors on shots 4 and 5, but suddenly I had an odd hunch that maybe I should cause the pellet to pass lower, closer to the screens.  I tried this and the error, and the "fix", seems to be repeatable.  Interesting.  I'll be curious to see if I get the same effect when I pass a 31-grain .25" diabolo pellet over the unit, or if maybe that tiny little 8-grain pill is just that much harder to pick up that you have to "help" it a bit with proximity.  Or, maybe this is where the IR lights start to become valuable.  More testing, of course!

Still...every time I put a pellet low over the screens (call it the bottom 1/4 of the presented trapezoid, rather than the middle half), even in minimal, flat light and using the standard screens, I got a read.  And the simple interface and export options (this chrony is notable for interfacing with a smartphone) seem quite promising.

All of which makes me pretty happy.  Here soon I'll try to wring it out more thoroughly at the house (using .177" pellets in the Bronco, Airsoft BBs in the gas 1911, and .25" pellets in the AirForce TalonP), both to learn more about those guns themselves, and also to get ready for range testing when the now-completed 03 Springfield arrives. 

I'll keep fingers crossed that this is going to work out the way I'm envisioning it.  And in that vein, today was a much better start than the first time!  :-)

Did I mention I love my Bronco?

Got just enough quality time today with the Air Venturi Bronco, with the new sight riser in place, to get downright excited about this here airgun adventure.  It may be fair to say that I actually started training with the rifle today--not precisely structured training yet, but it had the distinct feel of purpose, and accomplishment to go with it.

The goal today was to see where I am with snapshots.  Right now, using the front deck as a firing line, I've got two .22 steel spinners (chicken and ram silhouettes) at 10m, and a third (ram) at somewhere between 20 and 25 yards.  About with that third spinner is a hard-to-see (red, against the spruce trees in winter light) 4" self-sealing disk, and finally there are two more-visible disks, at about 25 yards (6" orange) and...somewhere between 30 and 40 yards (8" yellow).  If I move up and down the deck, I get a variety of looks at these targets, some of which are visible only in certain lanes, and there are even a couple of post rest options for practicing that most useful position.  The steels obviously make a "pink" sound when hit, and if you listen carefully there is a distinctive "thwap" when the self-sealing disks take a hit.  So, there's good feedback and no need for target resets.  The deck is a nice firing line, with only the limitation that I really have to stay standing up to get over the railing.  (For other field positions, I need to get down off the deck and onto the ground, which is easy enough.)

So, snaps.  And singles, of course, since this is a single-shot rifle.  I worked a variety of start positions, always with eyes off and the rifle somewhere other than shouldered, and often involving moving into the lane appropriate to the selected target.  Acquire, mount, sight, press.

It was outstanding.  With the sights improved, it really is just like mounting and firing singles from a firearm;  the Bronco's safety is ergonomic, the trigger just exactly what it needs to be, and there is even a tactile recoil impulse from the piston releasing to fire the shot.  This is just exactly the rifle I was hoping that it would be--and I haven't even got "serious" yet about seeing just how accurate I can be with it, either.  (I suspect that pursuing that goal will be worthwhile--that there is plenty of room in the system to satisfy the small-groups interest, as well as the "hit fast" interest.)

And I was even pleased with me, too.  I was hitting so well that I actually realized I needed to speed up--and did, too, until the balance started to tip the other way.  Without a shot timer I could only guess at what my times were, but right now I'm interested in solid fundamentals and smooth, consistent motions anyway, so a timer is of mostly academic value.  Suffice it to say that I ended the day faster than I started, and hits were just as fast as I could make them.  I'll take that and build from there.

And boy, I think that is what is so encouraging about this enterprise:  the ability to build, with real trigger time, on short notice and at low cost.  I was able to fit the session into well less than an hour, before dinner, right on the porch, with no noise or setup.  I'm sure I shot somewhere over 100 rounds from the rifle, and at a list price of $12 for a tin of 500 match-grade pellets...well!  (It can be better than that, too:  going forward, I will probably stick with the pellets that I now know the gun likes best, which are also match grade and can be had 1250 to a tin for $26.)

It was good time, too.  I don't think I'd have got anything more out of the session with a rimfire or a centerfire.  For basic fundamentals work on single shots, this is turning out to be a very encouraging idea!

There will be more of this.  Much more.  :-)

Bronco update.

Also in the Airsoft box came a little package I have been much anticipating.  It's a sight riser set for my Air Venturi Bronco's front sight. 

Looks insignificant, but it isn't.  You may recall that the only thing about the Bronco that I didn't immediately fall in love with was the need for a crush cheek weld for a sight picture, making true speed mounting nearly impossible.  These riser plates elevate the front sight enough that after adjusting the rear sight commensurately, the relationship between sights and comb is back to what I know as normal.

I confirmed this today by adding the riser plates, adjusting the rear sight and re-zeroing.  And now, with everything confirmed and screwed down tight, there is no more mounting problem--at all.  With the excellent design and ergonomics of the Bronco, true snapshots should be eminently feasible.  This makes me very happy.

I also think I'm going to like the new "pellet pen" and seating ram for this rifle. 

The "pen" holds about twenty .177 pellets that go almost too easily into the breech (it is possible to double-feed, which certainly isn't the disaster it would be with a firearm, but is annoying nonetheless), and the seating ram is screw-adjustable for depth.  (It seems that often a consistent deep-seating of pellets can contribute measurably to accuracy.)  What I also really like is that it should work famously with heavy gloves.  (I assure you, in Alaska winters it can get a bit chilly trying to manipulate individual .177 diabolo pellets with exposed fingers;  the ability to load with precision while using gross motor movements is welcome.  :-)

Anyway, I'm psyched about this update to the Bronco.  With the mounting/sighting problem solved, an efficient field loading device and a couple thousand more pellets to shoot--all for not much more than fifty bucks--how could I not be? 

Pellets on steel, through snow.

Snuck another opportunity to have not-quite-four-year-old Sabre call snapshot targets for me out on the porch this weekend.  The snow and cold arrived here with a wham! and suddenly there was a good 8" on the ground;  the little chicken spinner I've been using got covered with snow and fell-over grass until you could barely see the frame it hangs from.  So, I had a unique opportunity to try and hit a small target through foliage--not a bad thing to test yourself on from time to time.

The extra bonus was that she wanted to learn more, and in addition to calling, she actually loaded for me.  She figured out all by herself which way the pellet goes into the breech, and did a fine job.  For grins, I also tried the old instructor's trigger trick, but backwards:  after watching me a few times, I'd have her wait for me to settle into a position and then press the trigger for me.  She delighted in pressing, feeling the gun recoil (yes, spring-piston air rifles do have perceptible recoil--it's from the piston, not the pellet), and then hearing the ping! sound of her hit.  She'd quickly bore of this if we did it a lot, but the novelty value was there and she enjoyed it, so I'll call it a win.

Also brought out the Scout, just to do some dry fire on the same targets.  Sabre asked "are you going to load that one too, Daddy?" and I had some fun with the response.  I put a 7.5 grain .177" pellet on the railing, and said "you know what this sounds like, and it's not loud at all."  Then I popped a round out of the Scout's spare magazine,  and put it next to the tiny pellet.  "That, however, is really loud...way too loud for the neighborhood, and way too loud for our ears without earmuffs."  Her eyes got suitably big, and she nodded.  We agreed I'd just do dry-fire with "the gray one".

And that was interesting in and of itself.  Even without the feedback of the hits pinging on the spinners, she seemed quite fascinated just watching me mount, press, and snap the bolt on the "real" rifle.  She'd call her preferred target ("Chicken!" or "Sheep!") and I'd dry-hit that one, snap the bolt, hit the second one, run the bolt again, and then on-safe and go to Standard Ready.  Great practice for me, especially right after running the pellet gun...and just priceless to be doing "serious" work with my little girl.

I may have to take her up to the counter the next time we're in Soldotna (don't get me started about gunshops in Homer;  I'll do business with people that obviously want my business, thanks) and see just how far she has to go to fit the Chipmunk / Crickett stock honorably...

And now I can't wait to try out an Airsoft 1911.    :-)

The three-year-old match director.

Today after lunch, to give Cathy a few minutes before handing the girls over and going back to work, I went out on the porch with the new Bronco air rifle*, figuring that it might amuse Dee and that Sabre (whose initial reaction last week was that it was somehow loud and therefore scary) would go around to the other side of the house to play on her own.

Not at all.

Dee amused herself with sidewalk chalk, and Sabre took a keen interest in what Daddy was doing.  (I suspect that today, she actually listened and figured out that it's not loud at all.)   The clanks and pings of the pellets against the little steel swingers made her grin, and ditto when I pointed out that she could watch the little orange chicken and ram move when they were hit.   Shortly it even became a game:   I'd break the action, load a pellet, close the action, rest the buttstock on my belt in the ready position, and look over at Sabre, who would then call out "chicken!" or "sheep!" on her preference when she was ready.  I'd acquire the selected target visually, mount (hitting the safety on the way), and fire the snapshot. She learned the difference in sound between a miss (a thwap into the mud) and a hit, and learned that I sometimes have to slow down to make sure I get the hit.

Among "happy Dad" moments, this one is right up there with the bestest. Having her call the target like that is actually quite fantastic practice for me, but the making-it-fun-for-her part is priceless. I cannot reasonably expect that she'll take the interest I have, and will do my best never to push beyond simple, safe competency...

...but I'm savoring this. :-)


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* Another point of praise for a gun I like more with every shot:  I cannot imagine a better piece to have had in hand when this opportunity arose.  It is perfect for this role:  both in its attributes (great trigger, excellent sights, ergonomic safety, fully ambidextrous, and easy to run), and also in its concept.  I was able to focus wholly and completely not on running the gun, but on engaging my audience and adapting as necessary.  For anyone who is a teacher at heart, this is gold!  A deep tip of the hat to Tom Gaylord (amusingly aka "B.B. Pelletier" on his really excellent blog), who designed and brought it from idea to reality--and also who educated me on so much background before I even went to purchase.  Anyone who knows me personally can tell you that design is deeply meaningful to me, and this is a designed rifle.  I'd recommend it to anyone, and everyone.

Mounting: Bronco v. Marlin

Just to document:  Yesterday, I brought the Marlin (45/70) out on the porch along with the new Bronco, just to see how it compared when mounting at speed.  You may recall that on a right-hand mount, the Bronco seems to have a noticeably high comb, causing me to have to crush my cheek down or hold my head much farther back toward the buttplate.  (Oddly, no such problem seems to attend a left-hand mount, which gives a perfect sight picture with no effort at all.)  I was curious to see if I'd have the same problem on the Marlin, which I haven't worked with in a while.

Nope.  The levergun's ghost-ring sights land just where I remembered, with a very comfortable cheek weld whether I go perfectly erect or take a more aggressive mount for managing recoil.  Of interest, it was also obvious that the length of pull on the Bronco is longer than the shortened Marlin stock;  I do like my LOPs at between 12 and 12.5", despite conventional wisdom, and I've had cause to be happy about that when in the field, shooting prone, with a thick jacket on.  :-)    I just have to think more consciously about mounting the Bronco, with the right hand at least.  I'm certainly getting better at that, but it struck me as odd.  I'll not rule out some stock work to shorten the LOP and maybe increase the drop at the comb just a little bit. We'll see.

And boy, I do love my Marlin.  Dry snaps reminded me of just how...unbelievably magnificent the trigger is on this piece.  Part of it was just the lucky coincidence of a really good M1895 trigger to begin with, part of it was the ministrations of the 'smith at Gunsmoke in Denver, and part of it was the truly amazing NP3 finish from Robar, but still...daaang.  Lever guns simply do not have triggers like this, but there it is anyway.

Anyway:  duly noted on the sight alignment during mounts.

I should get the chrony out before long and see how consistent the Bronco is.  Wee!

More on 'why airguns?'

(Thanks to MamaLiberty, for inspiring these comments in the last post.  After writing them, it seemed appropriate that they be in a separate main post.)

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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.  As of this writing, 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 pellet rifle 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, look here:

To go directly to the shooting part where you can see the piece in action, either scroll to about 4:26 or click here to watch it on YouTube. 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.

Now that's how you do lunch.

That's what a lunch should be like.  A quick bite, followed by probably 50 pellets off the porch, at paper and a small steel spinner.  (Range is probably a little over the airgun-standard 10m.)

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.  :-)

The airgun adventure begins.

I am now the simply giddy owner of a spankin' new Air Venturi Bronco air rifle.

This came about as the end choice of a couple of months of self-study, much of that at the simply splendid Pyramyd Air website.  (Pyramyd Air was not the first airgun resource I came across, but it so quickly overtook everything else that there was no question of where my business would go.  These are folks I am happy to go back to for all things airgun.

The package came early, and the boy in me was absolutely powerless to resist trying it out right away. After just the first ten pellets, I am so happy I made the choice I did. This rifle is pretty clearly going to be everything that its designer and promoter says it is.

I have much to learn about airgun-fu, and intend to, but within a simple ten-shot string I have now learned how to compensate for the high comb in mounting, figured out how to manage the trigger and safety designs, and in general have now seen first-hand how to run a breakbarrel springer.  Squee!

At the fourth or fifth round I dispensed with the rear-sight aperture insert, creating a true ghost-ring arrangement, and will be much happier with that. I may yet experiment with it some more, but my eyes like a sight picture that does not obscure the target. The first three pellets (offhand, at about 10m, onto a shoe box with no fixed aiming point), which had felt cleaning wads in front of them, went into about an inch, which tickled me greatly. The next seven grouped a little higher and tighter, and it will be interesting to see how things improve with a little familiarity and some attention to a deliberate bull. (I make no claim to outstanding marksmanship;  this piece should be capable of far greater things than my skills can reveal.) And with this rifle, the safety is ergonomic enough that snapshot work will be excellent practice for "real" rifles.

Next up:  more getting to know this trigger and sights, position shooting, learning the "artillery hold" that all the serious airgunners talk about, and some time with both a bull and a chronograph.

Since I can only learn it the first time once, I intend to enjoy it with complete abandon. This rifle is going to make that really, really fun.

Here goes!