TargetTalk

I'm an older rifle shooter trying to switch over to Bullseye Pistol after our club lost its rifle segment because of lack of participants (smallbore rifle is too expensive, most newbies believe....). I currently shoot a Ruger 22/45 with VQ mods and a Millet Red-Dot, and I'm thinking of a Marvel Conversion for the used Wadcutter .45 with Clark Slide and a Ultra-Dot I acquired for the coming outdoor season. I'm currently carrying only a 255 average and need a lot of help!

I also practice SF a lot at home with an older RWS Model 5g recoiless air pistol, but the trigger reach is too long for my hand, it can't be scoped, and I'm looking for a replacement. Any suggestions on using airguns for Bullseye practice? Which pistol? How to practice?

Welcome to the forum and Bullseye shooting. I can't help you on the air pistol but I will be watching others respond to your question. As long as your Ruger has a good trigger and is reliable it will take you as far as you want to go in this game. Having said that - I love my Marvel. Good luck.

I can tell you that the International Pistol shooters have long known how good a training tool air pistol is since it's one of their (and Olympic) events.

For some reason it's difficult to convince the Bullseye (2700) shooters how good it IS. I think they like the bigger bang of their firearms.

I got into AP for the same reason you are interested and it got me started in International to the point I rarely shoot Bullseye anymore.

Anyway, do a search in the Olympic Pistol forum and you'll find a mass of info on the subject and the pistols used. This is also a good source of info:

http://www.nygordprecision.com/notes.htm

and here:

http://www.scatt.com/articles.htm#Dynamic

There are a variety of options for pistols, across a range of prices.

such as the ...

IZH 46M - a popular and reasonably priced SSP that will accept optics.

Drulov DU-10 - a C02 autoloader w/ an integrated mounting rail.

Daisy 747/717 - inexpensive SSP pistols w/ good accuracy, but no mounting options.

Steyr LP 5 / 50 - PCP 'repeaters' that can accept optics using an aftermarket scope rail.

What's your budget? - that's a significant factor, because the prices for the above range from about $150 to over $2000.

about 80% of my training time is spent at home with my air pistol or just dry firing my bigger guns. At the Winter Air I was shooting pretty consistently but not as well as I felt I could. This last week or two I really worked at applying my air pistol technique to the 45 for slow fire. I keep the trigger on my air pistol at around 650 grams so I actually have to pull the trigger to get the shot off, as I find that shooting with too light a trigger tends to give me chicken finger when I pick up the 22 and the 45 with the heavier legal trigger weights. At the 2700 I shot yesterday, it was going pretty well and my slow fire scores started out at about 87 and got progressively better. I shot a 93 and a 94 in the 45 Cal slow fire match to finish with a 187. It would have been a match winner on most days but one of my better friends also had a very good slow fire day and won the match with a 190. He also shoots Air pistol for practice at home. I think a lot of training with iron sights will make you a better shooter with the dot but I can't say I really think it goes the other way. Shooting the dot exclusively will hinder your results when you pick up a gun with iron sights. If I wanted an AP just for training that was also suitable for a high level match and not too expensive I would probably go with the IZH although I have heard it is heavy compared to the Olympic guns. The best AP for simulating a standard gun would probably be the Morini or Styer shorts as those two guns have a balance similar to a traditional handgun and don't have the muzzle heavy balance and very long sight radius that can be disconcerting to those who shoot bullseye. Good luck, Kate

Thanks so much, everyone, for your replies.... I'm learning..... I doubt I'll ever be a competitive or even mediocre International shooter, although I once shot pretty fair high power military rifle scores (iron sights) while in the National Guard. And with a little Knoblock help, I'm shooting irons now with my RWS air pistol.... But I'm sixty eight, with horrible astigmatism, and I think red dots are definitely my only option! My eyes are so bad that I even use a Knobloch adjustable iris to clear up the red dot! Lol..... When and if I get cataracts, I might ask the eye docs to whittle me up some 20-20s again.

Also, most of the pistol game here is NRA Bullseye. So, a cheaper gun that can be mounted with optics is probably my best bet..... the Russian seems the safest bet. If I could mount some optics, I'd be satisfied with my old RWS......

None of you mentioned the Beeman P-1. Why not? Not accurate enough?

My apologies: That was me, above.... I forgot to log in!

I thought it was very grip sensitive. Much more so than my 1911. I had to hold it with top top finger and thump pinching the grip to get accuracy. So with a grip much different than a 1911 it just wasn't working for me. I shoot a nice matchquality precharged air pistol now with the trigger weight turned up. I mainly work on shot process consistency. I really like AP. Maybe more than bullseye. Just wish there were more match opportunities.

The 46m is a great pistol. Had one. Liked it but thought it was a bit nose heavy. I also liked the gamo compact but trigger is not near the match quality of the 46M. Had a 747 too. Never liked the grip. Upgraded to a wider wood grip and like it better but still not great. Daisy trigger is not as good as the 46m and about the same as the gamo.

> Any suggestions on using airguns for Bullseye practice?

If the price won't spoil your day, consider the FAS 604. It's close to the size of a bullseye cartridge pistol and handles about the same. Airguns of Arizona offers the 604 with ambi or match grip.

http://www.airgunsofarizona.com/FAS.htm

I can email you the manual and some info about seal maintenance.

The Beeman isnt a matchgun by far. Thats the reason probably.
the IZH is very good, but we cant feel for you what suits yóu best.
By the w, with good shooting glasses, I doubt you'd need a red dot.

Thank you very much, everyone..... good forum, this. I've gone with the IZH, and ordered an optics mount with it just in case I can't get my eyes dialed in. I figure I won't be out that much, and if I can get my slow fire scores up above 80, it will be more than worth it! Thanks again