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Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) https://www.airgunforum.ca/forums/topic83973.html |
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Author: | Joatmon66 [ Mon Oct 21, 2019 9:08 pm ] |
Post subject: | Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Greetings all. After 2 years of reading, watching videos, getting my PAL and hunting certificate, I finally took possession of my first 'real' firearm. I picked up the new TX200 just before Thanksgiving. I've posted a few pictures in the gallery section. The guys at AGS in Peterborough were great and got me all set up. Kirk was nice enough to chat to me for about 30 minutes on the phone one day about the TX and the best starting point for optics and pellets. Travis filled the order and walked me through all the equipment. I'm fortunate that I'm not too far from Peterborough, so I was able to stop by the AGS shop to pick up everything. I spent a couple of days before Thanksgiving getting the scope mounted. It was a bit tricky as there are no flat mounting spots to use as a level reference. I had to get creative, but it seems to have worked out OK. I ran some patches through the bore but there was very little residue to remove. I was ready for Thanksgiving weekend at the country property. With the chores finished up on Saturday and Sunday, and an extra day taken as vacation, I had all day Monday to play with my new toy. It was pretty chilly out in the morning, so it was close to 10 before I had everything set up and started shooting. Here are some pictures of my initial shooting setup at the property. I have a new workshop with a lean to off the back that will eventually be closed in. For now, it makes a great covered space to set up the table. I end up shooting to the west, so the lean to provides shade until early afternoon (longer in the summer). For the first shots, I set up a large piece of cardboard with some dots marked on it at 18 yards. I set up two pellet traps that I got from AGS at 25 yards and 35 yards. I just used this folding plastic table and an old office chair to start. I'm not at the ideal height for comfort, but it worked pretty well. There's noting but 4 kilometres of bush behind my targets, so no worries about any misses or pass through from this angle. I was firing Air Arms Diabolo Field pellets. 4.52mm - 8.4 grains. I just grabbed them from the tin. No washing. lubricating or weighing. My first shot at the cardboard was pretty level for elevation and about 6 inches to the right. I pretty much hit the dot to the right of the one I was aiming at dead on. I though that was quite funny. I took a wild guess and dialed in a bunch of clicks on the windage turret and took another shot. I was now about 12 inches to the right of where I was aiming and pretty much hit the second dot to the right of where I was aiming....bang on. After laughing my buttock off, I reversed the direction on the windage turret and my third shot was pretty close to where I was aiming. I proceeded to take a total of 25 shots at the cardboard getting used to the gun and playing around with the elevation and windage. My first 'real' gun with my first 'real' trigger was quite impressive. It's a very light pull to fire than anything I've shot before. I proceeded to drop a sighting in target into each of the two pellet traps. I started at 25 yards and took about 7 shots to slowly work my way toward the bullseye with another 3 shots pretty close to the centre. I swapped the sighting target out for a proper target and 10 shots were fired (shots 46 - 55 from the gun since new). Here is the result of my first ever target. This was measured at just under 1" at the widest. I was quite impressed and excited with how well the gun worked as I'm just a newbie at this. I put all the theoretical knowledge I gained to the best use, but I know that the gun/scope combo set me up for a good result. I was surprized at how tight my very first grouping was. Bouyed with that result, off I went to 35 yards. I took 10 shots at the sighting target with the last few being close to the centre, and then swapped it out for a proper target. I took 10 shots at the target from 35 yards away (shots 66-75 from the gun since new). Here's the results of second ever target. This was measured at 1-1/8" at the widest. I was pretty blown away by the accuracy for my first time out. There was some gusting wind that morning that could have shoved the pellets around a little bit, but I know that most of the variability is my firing process which I hope gets much better with time. After a few more shots while wearing a grin from ear to ear, I pulled out the FX pocket chrono to see what kind of velocity I was getting. I fired 10 shots for the chrono which were shots 80-89 from the gun since new. Here are the results: Shot count: 10 Low: 905 Hi: 916 Avg: 910 Spread: 11 STD Dev: 4.3 909 909 905 916 905 905 907 912 912 916 I haven't come across any data for 4.52mm 8.4 grains from a TX200, so I'm not sure if this variability is good or bad. Any comments or opinions would be appreciated. I'm assuming at less than 100 shots fired, I still have some time before the barrel if fully broken in? Everyone says that the TX platform is the best tune you can get from a factory. Will I get more consistency with a tune kit? More research to be done. I was so happy with the accuracy out to 35 yards, that I thought I'd try to turn a good day into a great day. I could hear the chipmunks nattering away, and my wife and I were quite angry with them as they broke through both roof vents on the garden shed and made a mess inside. Some heavy duty steel mesh fixed the vents, but now it was time to see if I could deal with the "root cause" of the problem. I was able to reduce the chipmunk population by three and gave a really good scare to two more!! I was so happy that my target plinker will do double duty for pest control when needed. As everyone said, this is a heavy gun to be walking around hunting with. I'd want something much lighter if my main goal was dispatching critters. After walking around stalking the little buggers carrying the gun, it took quite a bit of effort to hold the gun steady enough when shooting off hand. If the critter shooting becomes a regular event, I think a pair of shooting sticks would be a good investment. All in all, Thanksgiving Monday will go down as a highly successful first day of shooting. I couldn't be happier with the performance of the TX200 and the Airmax scope. Looks like I'll just be getting one more shooting day at the country property before Christmas, so I'll get things dialed in for the short distance shots and see about dealing with the squirrels here in the subdivision. Next spring, I'll start working the targets out to 55 yards and see what I can do at the longer distance. Happy and safe shooting everyone. I'm glad to finally be part of the shooting community!! Cheers. Gary |
Author: | pistolero [ Mon Oct 21, 2019 9:39 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
congratulation for a nice shooting area. |
Author: | DocGadget [ Mon Oct 21, 2019 9:55 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
I'm jealous. I've been thinking about moving to the country more and more just so I can shoot whenever I want. |
Author: | sillymike [ Tue Oct 22, 2019 8:37 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Nice setup! I think the chrony results are pretty impressive. |
Author: | MacG [ Tue Oct 22, 2019 9:28 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Great choice, the people at AGS are great to deal with and have certainly steered you in the right choices. I find the only problem with the Air Arms products is that if you don't hit what you are aiming at it wasn't a problem with the gun. I hope it doesn't get too tiring putting pellet on pellet in the target. |
Author: | Daryl [ Tue Oct 22, 2019 11:18 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Well done, Gary. Even more impressive with the bench and chair you used. Good speeds from that rifle, too, considering an 8.4gr. pellet. |
Author: | Joatmon66 [ Tue Oct 22, 2019 9:19 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Thank you gents for the comments and feedback. Greatly appreciated! After reading IanV's recent posts about his grouping at 30 & 35 yards, I have a long way to go. His surprize shooter shot a 3 pellet group at 55 yards with 0.53" spacing with his TX200. Now that's a goal for me to shoot for. Part of the advantage of having a lot of acreage with bush and fields is to have this kind of flexibility to try different things in retirement (and a little before retirement). Lots of room to putter around. It will be nice to just walk out to the back of the property to practice when the mood strikes me. Unfortunately the country property is about 2 hours from our house in Whitby, so it's not that convenient to just pop down there for a couple hours of shooting. It's all good though. I'll bring along the gun when we visit on the weekends and have some fun. We'll hopefully be down there full time in a few years. The next goal will to get a table set up at the proper height for comfortable shooting. More research, and maybe a trip to the Prince Edward Rod & Gun Club to say hello and to see what they have set up on their range for their members. MacG, your comment about the Air Arms is bang on. I wanted to make sure that I had a gun that is capable of 1/2" groupings at 55 yards so that I know if I'm missing the target it's because of my shooting and not the equipment. I'll have to see if the scope is up to the longer range or not. Even at 35 yards, the bulls eye is still pretty small at 9x. I know that I'll get the occasional flyer pellet and have to deal with wind, but I know the TX200 accurate and consistent, so I can just focus on my shooting technique instead of chasing equipment variability. I'll get some more pellets through the gun and then take some more chrony readings. AGS also threw in a tin of JSB RS Exact 7.33 grain pellets as they said that some people were having good success with them. I'll shoot some of them to see what happens with accuracy, and I'm interested in how much faster the FPS will be. Cheers. Gary |
Author: | gbmarsh64 [ Wed Oct 23, 2019 2:04 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Oh wow there's some nostalgia for me! My family had a piece of farmland on County Rd #4/ Old Belleville Rd. back in the early 70's. Dad taught me how to shoot there and we built some great memories there as a family. Where is your property(roughly)? "The County" holds a special place in my heart to this day. Cheers, Geoff |
Author: | Joatmon66 [ Wed Oct 23, 2019 4:50 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Hi Geoff. The County is a nice area for sure. Our property is located about 5 minutes south of Picton up on the limestone plateau. The locals call the area "Greenbush" as all that seems to grow there from a tree standpoint are the Eastern Red Cedars that you see in my photographs (which are technical in the Juniper family). I'm not sure the last time you were in the area, but if it hasn't been since the 70's, then lots has changed over the years. The County has been growing like crazy due to all the alcohol producing facilities. There are about 40 wineries, 2 distilleries, 5 cideries and 6 micro breweries. It seems like the County has become the alcohol tourist capital of Ontario. It's a hopping place from June to September, then all the tourists and campers go home and it's pretty quiet for the rest of the year. Cheers. |
Author: | leadslinger [ Wed Oct 23, 2019 7:16 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Nice jealous. I'm hoping to do that in the spring. Start work on a lean too shed off the back of the garage. That I plan on putting a shooting bench. Since it gives me a clear lane out to 60M. Where my current position is only 18M, then a fence. |
Author: | Joatmon66 [ Wed Oct 23, 2019 7:22 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
That sounds cool leadslinger. The lean to sure is nice to keep the sun off of you so that you aren't baking away while shooting. It also works well if it's spitting rain and you don't want to get your equipment wet. Good luck with your construction project in the spring! Cheers. |
Author: | CBS shooter [ Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:09 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Nice shooting, you would do ok at a field target match now. As for hunting down those critters do not chase after them. there are much better ways. watch a youtuber call Edgunleshy his table for one vids should put you on track. |
Author: | gbmarsh64 [ Wed Oct 23, 2019 11:20 am ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Joatmon66 wrote: Hi Geoff. The County is a nice area for sure. Our property is located about 5 minutes south of Picton up on the limestone plateau. The locals call the area "Greenbush" as all that seems to grow there from a tree standpoint are the Eastern Red Cedars that you see in my photographs (which are technical in the Juniper family). I'm not sure the last time you were in the area, but if it hasn't been since the 70's, then lots has changed over the years. The County has been growing like crazy due to all the alcohol producing facilities. There are about 40 wineries, 2 distilleries, 5 cideries and 6 micro breweries. It seems like the County has become the alcohol tourist capital of Ontario. It's a hopping place from June to September, then all the tourists and campers go home and it's pretty quiet for the rest of the year. Cheers. Down towards Cherry Valley? Beautiful area to retire to that's for sure! I have been back many times over the years as I have 2 sisters that live in the Quinte area and yes the changes are astounding Enjoy shooting your new toy(s). Cheers, Geoff |
Author: | IanV [ Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:48 pm ] |
Post subject: | Re: Finally!! I'm shooting!! :-) |
Superb! And that TX isn't even broken in yet. And all things considered, that mystery shooter regularly joins PRS competitions and was using a heavily modified TX, your groups are fantastic. Congratulations on the personal range. What some of us wouldn't give to have one. Best regards -Adrian |
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