Idaho April F/T match results

May 21 2008

Crosman Field Target Match

By Ron Gill

THE VISION:
The Idaho Airgun Field Target Club held its Crossman Match on April 19 in Pocatello, Idaho. We had been planning his match since last November. We weren’t sure how well our guns would shoot so we decided to remove the KZ reducers and set no targets beyond 35 yards. We chose April because March is hostage to cold weather and April was about as long as we could bear the wait. Since November, it has been a long winter. Even in April we met under snow filled clouds. Getting ready for this match generated more fun and we learned more things over the past winter than in any other off season I can remember. We had four shooters and each one is as individual as the guns they shoot.

THE SHOOTERS:
If we were back in Jr. High School, George Gardner would have gotten a gold star on his homework assignment. Ordered from the Crosman Custom Shop, and set off with a brass trigger shoe and muzzle cap, George’s 2250XT was the most tricked out air gun there. He had made further modifications replacing the 88 gram air source cartridge with a 19 oz CO2 tank, trimming the stock to allow room for the tank and adding a shelf to the bottom of the pistol grip to balance the gun on his knee.

About the CO2 tank George said, “It costs the same to fill this tank as one 88 gram capsule and I figure I can get as many as 900 shots”. CO2 has its dark side. At our last shoot the temp plummeted from the very low 40s to the high 20s. In the snow and cold, his gun’s velocity dropped like a rock dropped into a puddle of liquid CO2. George’s score dropped with the velocity when he lost his zero. This time, George did his homework. He had printouts for expected trajectories for 40, 50, 60, and 70 degrees taped to his scope. Furthermore, in a classic case of over kill, George mounted a Bushnell 6-24 4200 Elite scope. George’s 2250XT clocked at a high of 510 and a low of 490 feet per second.

Ash Covey earned the nickname “Old School Pumper” when he arrived with a 1960s vintage Crosman 140 that he had resealed himself. For this match he added a 3-9X Daisy Power Line scoped without objective focusing mounted with a B-Square mount made for an IZH pistol. The B-Square mount fit the barrel and it didn’t put pressure on the pump cylinder forcing the barrel away from the cylinder. Removing the original rear sight held an additional surprise. The two screws that held the rear sight on were drilled and taped clear through into the bore! Ash had to shorten the screws to put them back in.

Ash was concerned about the number of times he was going to pump the rifle during the match. At ten pumps per shot he sighed in relief when we stopped putting out targets and tallied the number of shots at 45. “That’s 450 pump strokes for me,” he said. As the match went on the piston seal felt dryer and dryer as he pumped for each shot. He came to me and asked, “Do you have any Pelgun oil?” I did not. “I never like to over lubricate things,” he went on, “but I should have put more oil on the felt piston wiper.” On the last lane he swapped the 140 for a Crosman built Benjamin 392 with a peep sight. “I bought this rifle to make up for the two Benjamins I wore out as a kid.” He made 3 hits out of nine shots on that lane. The rest were face plate hits that really rocked the targets.

Ron Roberts’s rifle was as stock as the motorcycles he rides. He shot a 2240 with an attached butt stock. He was going to shoot this gun in our march batch, but he set this gun aside when the velocities proved too slow in the cold temps. Today, he used two 12 gram capsules during the match and never had any low shots. “How did you know when to change power lets?” asked Ash at our after match lunch. “I counted the shots starting with the ones I took sighting in.” I had noticed that he left the sight range after only a few shots. “I figured I would get about 26 shots per capsule.” His gun was stock, including the plastic breach. With nearly 50 degree temps, the warmest this week, the 2240 recorded velocities from 400 to 425 feet per second.

I shot a 1760SE that I ordered from the Crosman web site. Back in November when I told George and Ron about it, the idea for this match arose instantly. My dedication to bling is less than George's, but I had modified my air gun. I added a bulk fill kit and a reservoir extension tube from Brian and Associates. I did this because I wanted to use compressed air in the colder months to overcome the low velocities from CO2.

We chronographed our guns and mine was running around 610 fps. I had the only .177. With 7.9 gr. pellets @ 611, that works out to only 6.5 foot pounds. I had thought it would go faster, but there it is, I left two targets standing and they didn’t look like splits (shots on the edge of the Kill Zone that soak up the pellet’s energy before it hits the paddle). Since all the other targets went down, I think the two targets that did not fall needed a little oil on the works, but 6.5 foot pounds means I need to do a little more work on this rifle.

WHAT DID WE LEARN:
At the post match meeting of the experts we went around the table with our thoughts. Ash said he missed parallax adjustment the most. He could see the shift with every movement of his head. George put it this way, “A few loving touches, sort your pellets well and you have a very creditable air rifle.” Ron Roberts missed his HW99. I found out that my rifle’s velocity and energy wasn’t up to Field Target shooting yet.

THE SCORES:
George Gardner 2250XT Bushnell 4200 6-24X40 .22 JSB 40/45
Ron Gill1760SE B.S.A6-24X44.177 CPHP30/45
Ron Roberts 2240 BSA4X15 .22Cros.17/45
Ash CoveyDaisy 22 / Benji.3-9 .22 15/45

At next month’s match the gloves come off, the KZ restrictors go back on and targets go out to 55 yards. Which Crosman guns return to compete remains to be seen.