What to do with some new toys

[SAHunter 0]

For a while now I wanted to supplement my Theoben MFR in .20 with something in .177, partly so that I can have a second rifle for the times when the missus wants to join, and also just because I had an itch that needed scratching. The requirements were specific. It needed to be light, light enough for the girl to handle comfortably, needed to be short to make handling in the field easy, and lastly, it had to be pretty,,, cough,,,, I know….

 

So with the above in mind, we headed off to the shop to try a few out. Upon entering the gun room, a S510 SL in hunter green stood out with the glory associated with anything AirArms (or it might just have been that the light made a spotlight effect on it…). Like moths to a light, we hovered around it while waiting for the sales guy to unlock it and give us a feel. I have to say, that little rifle is everything you can ever want in a field gun, light, compact, manoeuvrable, and above all else, a dark shade of green, beautiful. With our minds made up, we decided to do some telephone work to find out where we can get the best deal from the shops in the area.

 

After a few weeks of research, checking finances and being away for a work trip overseas, I jumped in the car and headed off to Simpsons of Newmarket. I cannot give these guys enough praise! Excellent service and even better prices. While waiting to get everything together, I got offered a coffee and a nice chat about everything air rifle. It is nice to have such a personal experience with shops, and I will definitely return.

 

With a goody bag consisting of a brand spanking new S510 in hunter green, a cheap but good enough Hawke Sports HD for the Theoben, and Hawke Map Pro for the Air Arms, I was pretty chuffed when I arrived home. With the kettle going in the background for a cup of the most wonderful caffeinated drink known to man (no, not tea, the other, better one), I measured a 12 meter (for the Theoben) and 15 meter (for the AirArms) range in the back yard, and started with the mounting. The reason for the above ranges are that these are roughly where the trajectory will intersect the sight line for a 30 meter zero on my 2 rifles, making zeroing a bit easier when I get to my permission (my back yard doesn’t allow for a 30 meter range).

 

Now I’m a little bit of a perfectionist, so I like my scopes to be close to optically centred on zero, not to the dot, but within 10-20 clicks if possible. I know this is a bit pedantic, but hey, each to their own. With most mounts not achieving this in the vertical plane, you have to lift the back of most scopes to bring it up. Not doing this will require you to do nearly 100 clicks just to get it to where you want to pellet to drop. This time was no exception. Both rifles with their new scopes had an initial drop of around 10-15cm from the aim point. Strangely both were only around 1.5cm to the right on the horizontal plane on 10/15 meters.

 

Now, as I’ve centred the scoped before hand, I knew that to lift the impact point would require me to spin the elevation dial like a free wheel, and that is exactly what I wanted to prevent. In Afrikaans (my home language) there is a saying “Boer maak ‘n plan”, translated to “Boer/Farmer makes a plan”, and that is what I did. With trail and error, I figured out that 5 rectangular cut pieces of paper stacked between the scope and the back mount, will give me enough elevation to bring the impact point close enough to the target (4 for the AirArms).

 

With the scopes mounted and zeroed to their respective ranges, I figured that the factory setting on the S510’s trigger is just not something I’ll ever be able to get used to. I’m quite gentle on the trigger, so any play between where the 2^nd stage starts and the shot going off means more time for me to make a good aim a bad shot. My MFR does not have any noticeable play between where the 2^nd stage start and the hammer being released. However, with the S510, it felt like a mile, with me wondering when the bugger is going to release the pellet to its final resting place in the back stop. After playing with the trigger setup for quite some time, I got it to a stage where it is a near match to that of the MFR, which is great!

 

Having done all that, I managed to just have a go at the target. With an average of 766 fps between 180 and 150 bar, with only a 8 fps difference between highest and lowest, I was quite impressed. I still want to do a full charge to see where it starts to taper off, but I think I’ll keep it between 180 and 110 as recommended by other AA owners.

 

The report of the S510’s shrouded barrel is a bit louder to that of the MFR, but still quiet enough for what I need it to do. I’ve got the additional moderator for both rifles for circumstances where silence takes priority over manoeuvrability, but for now I’m mainly out for rabbits, and the extra length just gets in the way when stalking, and to be honest, if you are 30 meters away from the rifle going off, you can barely hear it. The pellet striking its intended target makes more of a noise than the rifle.

 

At the time of writing this, I’ve already taken it out for some field work, but that is a tale for a different time. For now, the only thing left to say is that I can now understand why people rave so much about Air Arms rifles. They are truly amazing.

[Flow 18]

Film negatives are good shims for the scope, they wont compress over time like paper could.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Flow

[Lewis Ste 245]

Nice looking rifle that bud! I think my dream rifle would be the s410 in hunters green because you can get the bolt swapped over for left us like myself, the s510 is the same as the hw100 action so is no good. I'm quite jealous I'm not a righty

 

Atb lewis

[SAHunter 0]

Thanks Lewis, you definately should try and get one. A friend of mine's got a S410 Classic (he is a lefty too), and he is very happy with it.

 

I was thinking I'll give paper a go first, to see if it needs replacement. However, I'll keep the negatives idea in mind for the next try. Thanks guys!

[Tron 173]

SA Hunter, if you have to raise the back of the scope then use shims cut from plastic milk bottle containers! after the initial compression they hold zero for ever.

[ghillies 209]

lefties is a bad sinario, you pay more to buy one and get less s/h cuz no one wants them?

 

buy ambi and ooo thats worth more.. and anyone can use it.

[matt_hooks 188]

The paper WILL compress with time, causing your zero to wander. Whip them off and replace it with negative. It's dimensionally stable so your mounts will stay where you put them. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to stop people getting rid of guns because they won't hold zero, because they've shimmed the mounts with something unstable.

[Mawders 595]

I am probably being dim, but why on earth would you need to stick shims under your scope? What is the benefit? Why do it? I've been airgunning for years and years and never ever had to do it although I as mentioned don't understand why you would need to. Maybe someone could explain, how do you know you need shims?

[Flow 18]

Because having your adjustment turrets at the extremes of their adjustment is more likely to cause your scope to go off zero. The idea is to shim your scope to as close to zero as possible, then fine tune it with the elevation and windage turrets.

Edited July 19, 2012 by Flow

[ghillies 209]

and to add...look down the side of a magnifying glass.. does the image distort? hmmm 13 odd lenses through the scope when its not looking at it straight? its definaitly a posability.

Edited July 19, 2012 by ghillies

[Tron 173]

It all really started with Weirauch break barrel Rifles in the 70 and 80s, their imports had "Barrel Droop" certainly the HW 35 and models was imported with a bit of droop on the barrels to make up for wear as the years past. Unfortunatly the Jap scopes from that era could not be adjusted enough to obtain zero UNLESS the rear mount was packed up to compensate. in extreme cases wallies went overboard with their rear mount packing which resulted with dents being introduced into the scope tube! I remember in the ,s being present, AS A FELLOW TUNER, in one Top?? tuning house to witness a HW barrel being bent in a vice ?? to compensate for the droop. my protestations that it should be done by a universal grinder on the barrel stop block was greeted as being too long ? when a quick jank on the barrel was all it neede?? FFS, at least I never did underhand jobs.