Air rifle humane kill range

[matt_hooks 188]

Sorry Simon and Si, I wasn't suggesting you didn't know what you were on about, far from it! I was just clarifying the point for the newbie. I read it at first as "never rest your rifle" so I guessed it could be confusing.

[pianoman 3,587]

No apologies necessary Matt bud! I left out details as I figured I'd be merely teaching grannies to suck eggs by now! As long as a post or thread contains workable facts and not twaddle, that's the main thing!

 

All the best

 

Simon

[Jonophilpott 0]

Sorry to go off topic a little but any idea in which the power of my bsa meteor would be sufficient to what distance providing my skills are up to it??

 

Anybody want to take up the daunting task and help explain to me Holdover etc too

 

Thankyou Please

[pianoman 3,587]

Hi Jono.

BSA Meteor was never a real powerhouse hunter but a darn good little plinker. You need to have your rifle's power checked out with a chronograph. If it is producing around 10,5 to 11.3 foot pounds muzzle energy, it's good for hunting up to about 30-35 metres range alright but, the next thing to consider is you, the shooter. You must never shoot at a living creature beyond the range at which you are able to GUARANTEE a clean headshot on the brain.

 

Ask yourself this honest question.

If you had to bet £1,000 of your own money on the MAXIMUM range at which you can put ten shots from your rifle through a one-penny sized hole, how far away would that be?

 

That's where you should be shooting from and no further.

 

Holdover is used to project your shot accurately onto a target at a distance beyond the range at which you zeroed your riflescope.

 

Let's say you zero your scope at 25 metres. The pellet from your rifle will arc in a very shallow curve of flight called trajectory and come down to hit the target centre on your crosshairs. Because of the curved nature of pellet trajectory from your air rifle, a .22 pellet fired at a precisely zeroed target range of 10 yards, will also fall dead on at 35 yards. Hits 10 on the rise and 35 on the fall. That's a trajectory curve.

 

Now. if you wanted to hit a target beyond 35 yards; to 45 yards distance say, you would have to raise the rifle and scope slightly higher than your zero-aim and effectively "Lob" the shot onto the target. To shoot in holdover with precision, you need to know exactly what your rifle's trajectory path is in order to adjust for it in holdover. And that means bags of practice with more of your scope reticle's lower stem half coming into use on paper targets, tin cans, anything but fur and feather!

 

This is where mildot reticles are a help

 

Hope that gives you a point of departure Jon!

 

ATB

 

Simon

[Squirrel Shooter 5]

Scientific calculations of external ballistics are only accurate to a certain degree (even with sub-sonic air rifles .) I was going to write my own program for air rifles, for everyone on the forum to use (I did something similar for muzzle-loaders a while back,) but I stumbled across this program: Chairgun Pro it is quite simply excellent, it's completely free and they haven't omitted any features I can think of...

[zini 1,939]

Yes its a good program but like any arm chair software you put inaccurate shite in and you get shite out.

 

Nothing is better than actual self calibration where you shoot out all inaccuracies for scope height, velocity, pellet BC and weight etc.

 

I know the INS and outs if chairgun very well but I will never get a perfect 100% answer from it.

 

You will get very close but not bang on.

 

Do the calibration yourself and you can't go wrong.

 

Si

Edited February 22, 2011 by zini

[pianoman 3,587]

To be honest, and with the greatest of respect, I cannot possibly comprehend how a computer programme can accurately give you every variable from shot to shot. Other than Si's experience and get a reasonably close-to-the-mark avarage perhaps. But not the whole deal.

 

I know only one way to get a shooter's accuracy sorted with the best computer in the world. The one between your ears and behind your eyes. Put a rifle to the shoulder, sort the breathing, trigger pressure and hold; and start practicing on a target. It's the best method with the best computer of all so far!

 

Simon

[Squirrel Shooter 5]

To be honest, and with the greatest of respect, I cannot possibly comprehend how a computer programme can accurately give you every variable from shot to shot. Other than Si's experience and get a reasonably close-to-the-mark avarage perhaps. But not the whole deal.

 

I know only one way to get a shooter's accuracy sorted with the best computer in the world. The one between your ears and behind your eyes. Put a rifle to the shoulder, sort the breathing, trigger pressure and hold; and start practicing on a target. It's the best method with the best computer of all so far!

 

Simon

Oh no it can't, especially with complex variables like wind. But it can use Physics to map out, to a reliable degree, things like the parabolic trajectory of bullets when shooting at different angles and the effect changing various variables will have on it - which can save you a lot of trouble, although the results obtained can only ever be as accurate as the variables inputted!

 

After, there must be a reason that all of the major companies developing munitions and the military forces which utilize them, use more advanced versions of these programs extensively!

[pianoman 3,587]

Sure there are R&D programms going on in military shooting and precision accuracy at extreme ranges all the time. That's necessary developement work.

 

But that's a world away from getting an everyday air rifle pellet covering anything up to 60 yards/metres average downrange onto a target accurately. Seems a bit of a sledgehammer cracking a walnut to me. But if people are happy to use their computers to work a bit of science out what they can use in the field, God bless you, it's not for me to quibble it

 

ATB

 

Simon