2012 4H Nationals - AIR RIFLE SILHOUETTE Question

[duderacer9999]

Below is what reads for the rules for the Nationals.
Can anyone confirm that this is correct?
I have not shot air rifle silhouettes that far.
If so what guns do people use?
We have a Daisy 888 and an Air Arm that we shoot 3P with, but I don't think they will work well that far out?
Any Help??

2012 4H Nationals - AIR RIFLE SILHOUETTE
TARGET 1/10 scale, metallic silhouettes
DISTANCE AND COURSE OF FIRE
10 chickens at 20 yards,
10 pigs at 30 yards,
10 turkeys at 36 yards,
10 rams at 45 yards in banks of 5 targets and shooting from left to right on each bank of targets

[skehm]

Those distances are the same as last year. When it comes to guns you will see a little of everything, but mostly break actions with scopes for the silhouette course. Hope that helps.

[jhmartin]

888's, 887's, XSV-40's and T200's will indeed get out that far with PLENTY of oomph to take down the rams.
In addition, you will be shooting indoors in Nebraska.

Your main issue is that silhouettes are the last of the 3 events air rifle shoots and this pretty much makes it necessary to have a separate rifle for that event, or learn to shoot with the aperture sights. Trying to mount and re-zero the scope between day-2 & day-3 is not a good idea.

If you have extra guns you can take, mount the scopes and learn on them.
In any event shoot on paper first at those distances to learn where you are missing.

Here's a page with some targets to practice on:
http://vc4hss.com/Air_Rifle/info_docs/V ... ACTICE.pdf

[SRichieR]

Ditto jhmartin.

Also, we had to shim our scopes quite a bit to get enough elevation on the rams using 888's.

[CRSSAteammember]

I am also going to nationals in air rifle we are using the daisy xs40 valiants. The 888s cannot be aimed high enough can but will not be accurate we are taking seperate rifles for the 3 p and standing day than silhouttes. The t200 and xs40 have more than enough to hit them. We arre sending rams flying. Good luck and hope to see you there what state are you representing?

[jhmartin]

I am also going to nationals in air rifle we are using the daisy xs40 valiants. The 888s cannot be aimed high enough can but will not be accurate we are taking seperate rifles for the 3 p and standing day than silhouttes. The t200 and xs40 have more than enough to hit them. We arre sending rams flying. Good luck and hope to see you there what state are you representing?

Dissenting Opinion here.
888/887 are as accurate out past 50 yds as the XSV-40/T200's. Many times this is a selection of pellets (mfgr lot or maybe even diameter ... many of our 888/887's really seem to like 4.49 pellets ... talk to our host here)

Velocity ... these should be approx the same ... if the T200's are a lot faster than the 888/887's then they have been cranked up and may be outside the scope of the 3-P and Standing event velocity limit (600fps).
A 350 fps pellet will easily knock off a RAM at 45yds.

Yes, you may shoot a gun that has a faster velocity in Silhouette, but:
1) If it's over 600fps it's an illegal gun in the 3-P and Standing events, so you would need 2 guns ... one (under 600fps) for the 3-P and Standing events and another (>600fps) for the silhouette
--and--
2) If you damage a silhouette target (most likely a chicken) you will be disqualified ... the so called "1000fps" break rifles will indeed damage the chickens firing regular pellets. If you shoot the very light pellets (are there any that are flat or domed (hunting tipped are illegal)) there may not be damage ... have not played with those.

Motive Force: (Air versus CO2)
The next 2 years the event in Nebraska will be shot indoors to my knowledge, thus, there is no disadvantage to a CO2 rifle. If it was outdoors, in the sun, then yes, you would have to keep the rifle/cylinder covered when not shooting.

Shimming the scopes.
Yup on <600fps velocity rifles (888/887 specifically) using common 3-9X scopes you'll have to shim the scope in the back rings ... usually 1 or 2 coke can thicknesses of shim under the scope in the back ring.
Me, I prefer to teach my shooters a hold over/under technique with the same sights (aperture) on the rifle rifle sighted in standing at 10m. This is done the day before at 4-H Nationals as they fire the Standing event the previous day. Practice on paper 80% of the time so they can see exactly where they are hitting ... especially at the event during training the day before ... altitude does make a difference ... again, wind won't be a factor ... you're indoors

[jhmartin]

Just for info, if anyone wants it, here is a PDF file that we use as starting points for hold on our 887's with aperture sights ... we normally use 4.0 clear apertures in the front sight and the dotted lines on the last pages are where they would use the aperture itself as a sighting device. Note that Chickens is a dead on hold.

http://vc4hss.com/Air_Rifle/images_AR/8 ... ouette.pdf

First few pages are paper targets, next few are some to determine how close to normal pellet drops are, then the starting points.

Note that all rifles will be slightly different, so give the kids copies of the one with all 4 on it to draw out what their actual sight picture --for their rifle-- looks like and have them keep in their journals so that they can refer & modify them as they are practicing/competing.