TargetTalk

In standing my air rifle averages are climing to the top; However, I find my smallbore scores haven't. does any one think that air is simply just easier, or am I not doing it mentally?

From asking others who have been great they say that one can get away with a whole lot more in air rifle than in smallbore. Although I have been haveing slight trouble with my trigger and I simply think that the air rifle has a superior trigger. the whole problem is within my release.

What are your thoughts?

I curious as to what gun you shoot for both disciplines. There are two things that jump to my mind right away. One being is that depending on your air rifle you must likely will have a short barrel with a muzzle extension. Sometimes, as is the case with my Feinwerkbau P700 Alu. There is an external muzzle tube but also if you look down the barrel the rifling actually stops about 1/3 of the way down. If you have this kind of setup it would explain why your air scores are higher because a shorter barrel allows you to make a decent shot with few minor flaws in position. whereas your smallbore rifle is probably all rifling with only an external muzzle tube(if any) and if you measure it versus the air rifle you will see a difference. The other thing is, once again depending on you rifles, you may have the air rifle adjusted differently and in your case better then you small bore, giving you a better more relaxed positions. Just because the guns look similar adjusted doesn't mean that they are. Different guns have different adjustments.
Let me know if either of these are your case and I'll help you out I went through the same thing.

Your exactly right "10.9" my barrel situation is exactly as you predicted; Although, the speed of the pellet traveling out of the ballel of my air rifle is much slower than the speed of the bullet traveling out of my smallbore rifle barrel. You make a very valid obsevation about the the length of the rifleing in the air rifle barrel v.s. the length of the rifleing in my smallbore barrel. You may be right, but today I realized that everyone on my collegete team shoots beter scores in air standing than in smallbore standing.
You asked what my course rifles were. I have a aluminum 2013 with a 20inch barrel all anschutz with three diffrent buttplates and all sorts of palm rest, but I use a fist variation and don't really get into the full palm rest like lanny basham does in his videos. My smallbore is set up in such a way, so I can go straight into Air rifle. In air I shoot with a 2000 alu anschutz. My position is very low for me because I'm 6:3 and have a long neck, so I reach my neck forwards. My position is not koscher to the older shooters, but it is a position that the top dawgs are starting to use.
Shane Barnhart of the A.M.U. is one of the first shooters to turn me onto such a position when he came to our campus. And even though it looks kind of strang to a highpower Joe it is more stable. and my hold sits still during air the only flaw is releasing the shot.


who do you shoot for "10.9" ? I shoot for the zips.

Well, I find the reason for lower smallbore scores in the target itself. Set a blank smallbore target next to a blank air one. I think you'll find that the ring sizes and the size of the black are very similar. The problem with this is that the size difference isn't proportional to the distance difference between 50ft and 33ft(10m)

Look closely and you will see the rings sizes are larger on the AR target. That , and being closer, gives about an 11% advantage on AR compared to smallbore.

Well, I can't really tell you much unless except that what Pat said Is 100% correct. Air rifle since it is closer and has larger rings is more forgiving.

Also with that you are probably shooting a USAS50 target for 50 foot small bore, so just know that the difference in score between the older A-36, which is the air rifle equivalent 50 foot small bore target, is roughly 6%. The actual size of the black is smaller, the rings are smaller and the nine ring is slightly smaller yet. So just the target change in small bore alone will help you lose some points. Not that that is what you are after.

I am currently still in high school and shoot for local clubs with the hope of going on to collegiate rifle.

Cody,

Tell your brother that I am impressed with him. He was a stand-up guy when an e-bay purchase/deal went bad. He made up for it and wrote a very nice letter to me with a heartfelt apology.

He does makes wonderful rifle sling equipment.

Also, your dad mentioned your shooting career to me, and since then I have followed your career. You sem to be doing very well. Congratualtions.

My take on air vs smallbore score differential:

Pile on the weight to the SB rifle (get it to the maximum allowed in the rules), then do the work to get in shape to handle the extra
rifle weight. In all cases with my team, that has closed the gap between air and SB.

I think it has to do with an inherently un-steady position with the addition of a recoil pulse (missing from the air rifle) upon firing.

Rifle weight reduces recoil transfer.

Good luck.

IBIS wrote:My take on air vs smallbore score differential:

Pile on the weight to the SB rifle (get it to the maximum allowed in the rules), then do the work to get in shape to handle the extra rifle weight.

lol...i guarentee that he's fit enough