Seriously...

I really need to get my ass to the gun range. I'm having serious recoil-therapy withdrawals.

At The Range

Brigid has a spectacularly jocular post detailing the .38 things she learned from shooting.

I can relate to #14: "The most skilled shooter at the range is usually not the talkative person with the fancy gear, $200 range bag and tactical clothing. It's that quiet guy or gal in the T-shirt with the ammo cans. Watch them and learn."

Now, I am not the most skilled shooter at the range, but I can hold my own. I usually like to go to the range alone. It is my quiet time, if you can call it that, what with all the bullets going off around me. But seriously, when I'm at the range, I'm zoned out. Nothing stands between me and the bullseye. Nothing except the voice of the range officer. Somehow, my ears are trained to listen for her voice, even with earplugs and over-the-ear muffs. I generally keep to myself and concentrate on my shooting form, unless someone approaches me for help. Otherwise, I find a secluded shooting bench and set up my gear. Then I go to work.

My serious shooters are my Browning A-Bolt .243 Win. and 7mm Rem. Mag. rifles. These are my hunting rifles and are sub-M.O.A. guns. At 100 yards, they make one ragged hole. Breath control is extremely important and I learned that from shooting my air rifles at home. The rifle is only as accurate as the steadiness of the person behind the trigger. Having good equipment to start with doesn't hurt either. Either gun was under $800 and I think I got the better end of the deal.

But, getting back to #14; the guy at the gun range in a t-shirt with the ammo cans and doesn't talk to anyone is usually me. Except that one time when I met up with Newbius and OldNFO in Virginia and we went to the NRA range together, I usually go to the range alone.

Crosman Airgunning

I finally had a chance to shoot my Crosman NPSS air rifle at the range yesterday. It's a .22 cal. break barrel air rifle with a Nitro Piston, instead of a spring, and a carbon-fiber-look synthetic thumbhole stock.

There's a bit of history with this particular air rifle that led me to learn how to tune and upgrade air rifles. The first thing about this air rifle was that there were spacers missing from the barrel's breach, where it pivots on the receiver. This led me to search high and low for correctly sized replacement spacers. I had called Crosman telling them about this problem, but they said that because I took apart the rifle, I voided the warranty. That's when I got angry, so I wrote a letter to the President of Crosman, who passed my letter along the head of their product development department. This gentleman was extremely understanding and accommodating and sent me new breach spacers, but by the time I received them in the mail, I had already found and installed brass washers (from Lowe's of all places) and installed them on my rifle. These brass washers were a perfect fit and had no free play whatsoever in the barrel. This led to the accuracy of the rifle printing 1.5" groups at 65 yards with Crosman Premier Hollow Point pellets. Prior to that, it was all over the place due to the missing breach spacers.

One thing led to another and pretty soon, I found myself frequenting the airgun forums and from there, I learned to build a spring compressor that I used to completely disassemble my NPSS. When I got the rifle apart, I found that the piston seal was seriously gouged from the burrs on the punch-outs on the receiver tube. So I got myself a deburring tool and proceeded to cut away the burrs so that new piston seal I put on the piston sleeve would not become gouged when I put the gun back together. The replacement piston seal came, courtesy of Crosman. I also ordered a replacement NCT trigger by Steve Woodward. This new trigger really made a huge difference in accuracy. It comes back nicely to a second stage stop and breaks crisply as you pull through the trigger. One other thing I did was take a small conical Dremel sanding bit and flare out the pellet loading port so that the pellet's skirts would sit flush with the back of the loading port (breach).

After I put the rifle back together, I proceeded to put 2 tins of pellets through it. In the meantime, I went and ordered a chronograph and a pellet trap. When they arrived, I proceeded to put some 14.3 grain pellets through it. I was disappointed when the numbers came back averaging only 650 fps on a rifle that's supposed to get 1,000 fps with 9.9 grain, lead-free pellets. Even though there's a 4.4 grain difference betwen what I shoot and what it was rated at, there shouldn't be a 350 fps difference. Then I found out what was wrong - the nitro piston was losing power. Cocking effort became way too easy and pellets were being shot at around 300 fps.

So, I called up Crosman and spoke to my guy there and he said it was okay for me to send him just the nitro piston and he'll send me a new one. Because of all the work I had already put into this rifle, I was not going to take a chance that someone there was going to simply replace the entire rifle. So, two weeks later, the replacement nitro piston came and I quickly installed it and promptly put some pellets through the chronograph. I liked what I saw - 800 fps with 14.3 grain pellets.

Okay, so I finally got it out to the range yesterday. Now, I knew that the gun was accurate to start with, after I worked on its improvements, but the gun was putting Crosman Premier Hollow Point pellets in a 1" hole (with a couple of fliers) at 100 yards yesterday. Holdover from zero at 20 yards was about 12", but once you figure out which mil-dot to put on the target, you'll be hitting whatever you're aiming at, minus the few fliers you're bound to get from a tin of pellets. Oh, I did clean the barrel with Goo Gone in between shooting 65-yard 1.5" groups and 100-yard 1" groups. That might have made a difference in accuracy too.

I am extremely impressed with this rifle and the excellent customer service I received from Crosman. Of all the airgun companies I have dealt with this past year, Crosman has, bar none, the best customer service ever!

Personally, I'd love to own a Benjamin Sheridan Trail NP XL, but the stock is a bit big for me. I could get the smaller version - the Trail NP, but I already have an 800 fps, .22 cal. nitro piston rifle. However, it's not out of the realm of possibility that I would go for this one because I like the stock.

Paper Tuning A Bow 101

This is a perfect tear through paper from an arrow shot off a bow that is perfectly tuned. It is one hole. The back of the arrow goes through the same hole that the point created. The 3 scraggly lines coming off the hole are created by the vanes.

This is an example of a bad tear from a bow that is not properly tuned. The point went in on the left and tore an elongated hole to the right where the back of the arrow completed the hole.

These two holes were created by the same bow. The problem with the bow were many - the cams were out of time; the drop-away rest was not correctly positioned at centerflight; the string suppressor was off-center and was shifting the bowstring to the right (and in turn, the nock end of the arrow) causing the back end of the arrow to kick to the right at the end of the shot cycle; the strings and cables were reaching the end of their life and will need to be replaced next year - the list goes on.

When a bow is paper tuned, windage will be consistent from 10 yards to 60 yards and beyond. If not, the arrow will shoot to the right or the left at further distances. In the example above, the bow before tuning will have shot the arrow to the right due to the string kicking the arrow to the right, at further distances, even though the shooter may have the bow sighted in at 20 yards.

Splitting Arrows And Other Things

For the past 7 years, I have immersed myself in my archery. I shoot with a compound bow with accessories only hunters use. I'm not into target shooting using scoped or magnified sights and I don't have use a 3-foot-long stabilizer, even though I own one. When I was first starting out, I knew almost nothing about bows. I bought the "best" bow that I could afford, which was a Reflex Grizzly. Reflex is the lesser quality brand by Hoyt. Mind you, this bow shot great for me, but not knowing anything initially about hand-shock, bow movement, bow noise, etc., I thought I had a really good bow for the money. (The Grizzly is on the right. My friend's Reflex Highlander is on the left)

I used to compete with guys at the range, one of whom was a real target shooter with all the aforementioned high-tech accoutrements on his bow. He was a real good shooter and would consistently score 300x on his league shoots every week. However, these shoots were no more than 20 yards. So he approached one night and bet me a dollar that I couldn't hit an M&M from that distance.

On my first attempt, I came pretty close, but I was just a hair away from it. And yes, the make it "interesting," the M&M was inserted into the foam targets, sideways. Well, for whatever reason, he didn't hit it either.

So, for the next half hour, we kept shooting at more and more M&Ms stuck into the target wall, until I finally hit it. Is it coincidence that it happened to be an "orange" M&M that I hit?

So I won a few dollars that night, but I was completely hooked on improving my game, so the speak. In the weeks, months and years to follow, I would continue to improve my shooting and increase my knowledge of archery. I eventually moved on to a better bow - the Bowtech Guardian. This was a radical new bow with a center-pivot design that eliminated 99% of the noise and shock when it was shot. This bow didn't move in my hand when I shot it.

Compared to the Guardian, shooting the Grizzly was like hitting an aluminum bat against a steel column. I quickly sold my Grizzly and stayed with the Guardian. It is one of the quietest and most shock-free bows I have ever shot. With this bow, I was consistently getting groups as tight as, or better, than this:

This is a paint chip of a cartoon character whose name rhymes with "Hickey House" from a big-box home improvement store whose name rhymes with "Dome Repo." It is about 1.5" in diameter with 6 of my arrows stuck in it from 20 yards. It was a real tack-driver, and before long, I was doing this:

This was my first "robin-hood" from 30 yards. There came others at different yardages with the most recent one from 80 yards:

This was shot from my Bowtech 82nd Airborne bow that you see me shooting in a previous post. I had just gotten a new set of arrows and these happened to be the first 2 shots I took with them from 80 yards. I was in the process of sighting in the bow at that distance, with my aimpoint being the bullseye on both shots. The 82nd Airborne is a really nice bow also, but it has something the Guardian doesn't have: speed. It is rated at 342 fps with a 300 grain arrow at 60# with a 30" drawlength. At my drawlength of 26.5", I can send a 300 grain arrow downrange at 303 fps. My Guardian only rated around 318 fps with a 300 grain arrow at 60# and 30" drawlength. A 300 grain arrow from my Guardian only gets me about 260 fps.

However, being the innovative schmuck that I am, I "improved" my Guardian with an aftermarket roller cable guard that helped increase my Guardian's peak weight from 62#* to 67#.

My saving grace that I didn't blow up the bow's limbs is that I am a short draw, so the limbs aren't as stressed at 26.5" as they would be with someone with a 28" or greater drawlength. Of course, in doing this modification, I voided the warranty on my bow, but I'm not concerned about that. If the limbs crack, I'll just get new ones that are 70# and change the roller guard back to the stock cable guide rod and slide.

Both of my bows are tack-drivers, but they woudn't be if I didn't have a professional bow tuner take me under his wing as an apprentice. Having been unemployed for over 18 months, I spend a lot of my time at the shop learning to tune bows and arrows between looking for a job (yes, arrows have to be tuned when you put broadheads on, but that's a topic for another day).

I also shoot a recurve bow with arrows fletched with feathers. Though they are not as accurate as a compound bow, a recurve's accuracy is mostly up to the archer. And I do have one "robin-hood" with my recurve at 20 yards, though I didn't take a picture of it.

* Bowtech's bows never come in at or below their 60# ratings, and are always 2 or 3 pounds over. At 67# and 26.5" drawlength, my Guardian shoots 385 grain arrows at 260 fps. The peak weight of my 82nd Airborne was 62# as well, when I first bought it.

Comments To Top Shot Episode 3

I have been getting questions regarding the archery episode, being that I am a quasi-archery pro.

Here is what I observed:
1) The arrows they used were fletched with plastic vanes instead of feathers. Shooting arrows with vanes from a longbow will throw off the arrow's flight due to the vanes unforgiving nature when it comes in contact with the bow's riser and shelf. Feathers are traditionally used with traditional bows because they yield to the contact with the riser and shelf and not cause much arrow deflection from its target downrange. This was the main reason that the contestants could shoot consistently.

2) Having addressed the issue of vanes vs. feathers above, shooting arrows fletched with feathers should have the "cock feather" oriented perpendicular to the riser, i.e.: cock feather out. The cock feather is usually a feather of a different color than the other two "hen feathers." The contestants were shooting their arrows with the cock vane either up or down, which means that the arrow's nocks were not oriented correctly to the bow. This incorrectly oriented vane would have had the lover right hen vane deflecting against the riser and shelf. Right-handed shooters will have the arrows hit high left; left-handed shooter will have arrows hit high right.

3) Some of the contestants also weren't nocking the arrows correctly on the bowstring - some were nocking them too low. If you notice on the bowstring, there is a piece of brass wrapped around the string. This is called the "string nock" and sets the location to where the arrow's nock clips onto the bowstring. Nocking an arrow too low from the string nock will cause the arrow to come off the bow at an upward angle and hit somewhere beyond the target.

4) Plucking the bowstring: a lot of the contestants were plucking the bowstring, which means that they were physically using muscles to open up their fingers when they fired their bow. This plucks the string and will cause inconsistent shooting. What should have been taught by their archery "expert" was to simple relax the fingers of the string hand when it reaches the face, while continuing the rearward motion of the string hand. Relaxing the fingers would have allowed the bowstring to naturally leave the fingers straight and without eccentric movement (plucking) of the string. Kelly and JJ demostrated the best shooting form in this episode.

If the contestant were given the proper equipment during the archery part of the competition, the shots would have probably been a lot closer than what happened in this episode. Whether this was intentional or not, that's something only the producer and/or equipment purchaser would know.

Shooting My Bow

This is my Bowtech 82nd Airborne I tuned a few days ago. I shot 2" groups at 50 yards.


Does my wallet make my ass look fat??

A Sixteenth Of An Inch

My Bowtech 82nd Airborne compound bow wasn't shooting the way it should when I first got it and set it up. I don't know what happened to it, but it would not paper tune.

Paper tuning is when you shoot an arrow, be it bare-shafted or fletched, through a sheet of paper, from 8 feet away, to see which way the paper tears. A perfect tear is when you get a single clean hole from a bare shafted arrow, or a single hole with three lines equidistant apart coming off the single hole with a fletched arrow. That's when a bow is tuned. If the hole is not "clean," then the accessories on the bow, or the bow itself, would have to be adjusted. Today, I did just that for four hours.

I checked the timing of the cams and one cam was off by a sixteenth of an inch, so I corrected that. Then I put arrows through the paper tuner again. No good. It was still tearing 1" to the left, meaning that the point of the arrow going through the paper was not the same at the fletched end of the arrow going through it. I kept adjusting the arrow rest, but it was too much. It shouldn't be out so far, so I moved it back to the original position. I tore the whole bow apart from top to bottom. I mean, I took the whole bow apart, checked everything, re-timed the cams and the arrow rest. I did things to the bow that I am not at liberty to say due to this information being proprietary. It was also entrusted to me to be kept secret. Then I shot it through the paper tuner again. Much better. The rest was just off a bit so I moved it a sixteenth of an inch to the right. Bingo! A perfect hole.

Next step: sighting in the bow. I took it back to twenty yards and let the first arrow fly. Off to the left about two inches and an inch low. Adjust the sight over to the left a sixteenth of an inch and down a sixteenth of an inch. Let another arrow fly. Okay, arrow is to the left by about an inch but elevation is good. Adjusted the sight over to the left another sixteenth of an inch and let another arrow fly. Bullseye! Sent two more arrows downrange and two more bullseyes. I locked everything down and tightened everything up on the bow. She's tuned. I'll have to get her sighted in at 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 yards on Saturday so we'll be ready to compete at my archery club's fundraiser on Sunday to benefit St. Jude's Children's Hospital. There'll be no losers at this competition; everybody wins!

Archery is one of my zens. When I'm out there shooting, everything gets tuned out. I focus on nothing else but the bullseye. It is the difference between breaking the line in the ten ring or missing it altogether and all it takes is a sixteenth of an inch.

Booger Hook On The Brain

It was Jay who complimented me on my finger discipline in my gun-handling at the NRA Convention when we were all fondling the Hollywood guns. It didn't register then, but it hit me just now as to why I automatically keep my trigger finger off the trigger when I hold a gun - archery.

You see, when I shoot my compound bows, I use a mechanical shooting aid - a release. The triggers on these releases are literally hair triggers. Touch them while drawing your bow and a disaster will most likely occur. There is no first stage pull and definitely no second stage. It just goes off with the slightest bump from your trigger finger. Trigger weight is about half a pound, and usually, your arrow is aimed at something other than your target while you're drawing back your bow. I've seen arrows stuck to ceilings; in walls; in the dirt; in a tree; in a forearm; in a hand; in people; etc.

The four rules of gun handling safety applies to archery equally. Getting skewered by an arrow is not the same as being hit by a bullet, but neither one of these things should ever happen by accident. This is why my trigger finger is always away from the trigger when I handle a gun.

Thanks, Jay, for the compliment.