Mapping Pellet Trajectory

[milegajo 595]

With the rain dampening all except spirits, I nipped out between cloudbursts to sling some lead.

 

Here's my lil experiment.

 

HW95k .177, AA Fields 8.3 grains, 764.8fps, Kneeling (because of the mud and the most used position when out), 19:45.

 

 

Pretty appalling shooting quite frankly. Certainly not the rifles fault. Haste and poor light for some of those 'groups'. I did still get two usable readings and a pretty good picture of what could be going on down range.

 

The 'constellations' are me trying to salvage something from the mess. turns out I was pretty close too. Chairgun has .0210 @ NTP and my reading was .0216 @NTP.

 

 

 

Keep in mind this is a rush job. I would advise that this be done with more care (and I intend to at the earliest opportunity). For the purposes of illustration, this has been useful. It can also serve a purpose for those who do not have, or refuse to get to grips with, Chairgun, and wish to find their optimum zero.

[HW 96.5 11]

Interesting post. I have a HW95 in .22 in a 98 stock and love it.

 

Maybe I am wrong here but some of the above numbers do not seem to add up. This could be a bit misleading to others not so hot with the software. The card target is upside down so what needs to be pellet drop look like rise. Also the zero range in the corrections window does not match the zero in the main screen. Looking at the results you have used the same zero for both as your bc numbers are good.

 

From what I have tested you need to have the FPS, distances to target, pellet weight and drop distance all spot on to make accurate corrections to the BC. I tried pacing the distance at first and this mangled the BC badly enough to realise that one ot 2yds in this intstance is a big error. At least the learnig curve was fun to do.

 

Enjoy the HW 95 and by the way thanks for some great late night reading on your blog.

 

Steve

[milegajo 595]

Interesting post. I have a HW95 in .22 in a 98 stock and love it.

 

Maybe I am wrong here but some of the above numbers do not seem to add up. This could be a bit misleading to others not so hot with the software. The card target is upside down so what needs to be pellet drop look like rise. Also the zero range in the corrections window does not match the zero in the main screen. Looking at the results you have used the same zero for both as your bc numbers are good.

 

From what I have tested you need to have the FPS, distances to target, pellet weight and drop distance all spot on to make accurate corrections to the BC. I tried pacing the distance at first and this mangled the BC badly enough to realise that one ot 2yds in this intstance is a big error. At least the learnig curve was fun to do.

 

Enjoy the HW 95 and by the way thanks for some great late night reading on your blog.

 

Steve

 

No, some of the numbers certainly don't add up . My fault though. And well spotted, the zero displayed is after I clicked the Optimise Zero Range tool.

 

Cheers Steve, glad you enjoyed the blog

Edited August 17, 2012 by milegajo

[ghillies 209]

ok..if you want the real macoy, you'll need some bench type apparatis, and set up 5 yard markers with a tape measure, shoot three in the same hole at each target from a aim point line, i.e. same line on every paper, same height on every target, preferable all at a horizontal same leval..brick line will help. then get a gragh, mark out distance and height..plot away.

 

dont change the mag though..or twidle turrets .

 

reasons for this way are, scope angle gun barrel gun difrences... holding away from statick changes everything, especialy on a springer.

 

if your young and fit i'd say do ALL your shooting from standing, and use sound methodic methods to set the gun up, then learn the 'true line/hold', then after those theres the kneeling sitting and prone.. they all vary, if you do it the other way and set to how you shoot in the early days.. it'll always be out.

[ghillies 209]

ahhh hear goes..

 

the scope needs to be centered, count the clicks all the way in (not to stupid though as it gets stiff stop..or break it.) wind all the way out counting every click, do it right first time or suffer..

half the clicks, thats how many to wind in to the mid way, then same on tuther turret.

 

heres the fun bit, some scope havea little uirk, they need to be dun so that 5 clicks on one turret the 5 clicks on the other and endlessly walk the ret glass to center, if not, you'll find theres a little wander every so many shots because the slide has binsed up.. 10 shots bang on, 2 clicks out on the 11'th..re tweek, 15 shots then it goes out and so on.. its only marginal but you'll notise as yuo improve and get your 'eye in'.

 

now its centered you want the gun on a stasionary surface, a horizontal line out front or plumb bob line..spirit leval on the gun.. put the scope on..

 

heres the real fun bit lol.. or an hour or so, put up three target, say 5 yard 30 yard 50 yard, shootthree at each, if theyre all over the place and not grouping you need practice..benched or whatever, theyre all a seperate skill in the beginging untill your fluent, thats a matte of hours in.

ok..the centered scope untweeked, aim at the same point on each taget (a verticle and horizontal line on the whole target sheet).

then go see...

5 yarder target has a grup one side, mid target another group and furthest another hroup, where are they to the verticle line? they should all be on the same side or on the line, but.. guns being guns, and mass production producing varients... sods law sais near will be different to far, thats now 'cant', even if it was plumlined and the gun spitit levaled, theres the odd thou of an inch here and there that all add up you missed and dont know why? you do now lol. (twist the scop on, one way or the other till the cant is now lined with the center of the bore..

 

meanwhile, which of the targets has the group closest to the horizontal line? move that target untill the pellets land on it, thats where your scope is centered on, i.e. where its looking at in the center of the lenses, or where it should look to have least or perfect light transmision without distortions..(the ideal).

 

heres where the fun starts, yu can even fettle your mounts or the dovetails untill the centered scope is actualy center, and/or shim up the back or front to move the true horizontal, or...zero in the verticle the hrizontal should be on that target you moved..(unless you got a money tree lol..zero in).

 

now do the 20 target out to 55 or 60 yards. and yes from like 1 yard..you'll have something there sooner or later, even if you think you wont lol..you will!

 

do the gragh thing..hurray, theres your exact tragectry on paper...

 

oh yus...USE A TAPE MEASURE and keep that line straight...for the gragh it dont make didly squot what the numbers say, as long as it is accurate, because everything from here on in is worked to it, if you sort of be the cool dood and round it tothe nearest yard, gues what mr cool..you waisted your time lol. cleva dick! lol.

 

 

some added bonuses are velosity and foot pound readings.. you'll have everything then,

 

so? what to do with that gragh? well, you could chose where you want the zero distance to be..e.g. so the same above and below at 10 yard to 45 yard, or stick on the 30 yards ansdd beleve all pellets will be on a dot half a dot like wat the mags and big boys tell yu...yawn.

 

fit it to the ret is the clue.

 

move the gragh line with a pencil so it looks like the arc shape.. choose a distance. then try the paper out again for a second gragh, and, you know know exactly where your pellet is on paper..

 

all thats left is to mark up a little range at the same horizontal height and shoot away untill you suss it.

 

the angle of inclansion you'll notise more the further from your 30 yard or what ever zero..(use the further zero because one click at ten yards will do diddly squot to the poi..at 50 its a pererbial inch..up to you though lol.)

 

for the more wanting, you can shim the scope now..and do it all a third or 4'th time untill your happy with it 'there' and YOU know where everything is.

 

 

the rest? its time in.. a fair hint is every day for 20 minutes max is worth more than just wonging pellets off for three hours straight, its ok for getting shot of the rsty faize when you've been hot, but, be warned, your eye ball changes with constant looking through the scope, you get tyred and pick up bad habbits and fix false distances into your brain box...can feck a learner right up very quickly.

10-20 minutes morning and night if you can lets you consentrait better and set in more.. but more importantly it reduces the bad habbits in the first place.

 

or....set it up to how you shoot and wait a couple 3 years to get your eye in, then realise ahhh yrh, this that the other but you'll be to set in your ways to change, and go back 3 years to the drawing board and start all over again.

 

thats comeing from some one who didnt use a yard, didnt know what a yard is but got very hot...then re learned everything... easiest way start right.

 

 

ok, so youve been in the yard three month, your hitting the pellet hole, what to do now? go let lose (safely) some where.. the game now is, one shot only at that one thing only..

now forget that, walk about and hit something else, if your missing loads set up a range with a tape measure, and find the miss's...relax, then the next, then walk about again.

some folkks will find theyre paper foabs...erghh dont worry about it, shoot items instead, gives you a better 30D perseption any way lol. learn where its hitting and what it does to the item..like that flerts it left, that hardly moved it, thats a proper center wack etc, it'll come in handy for live targets later.

 

have fun...

[pianoman 3,587]

Gentlemen. If I may add to this interesting thread...

 

If you do not have frequent access to a computer Or Chairgun seems a bit baffling. Don't despair. This is my method of Trajectory Mapping; I've used it for more years than I know of and it never fails me.

 

In a nutshell. The whole point of Trajectory Mapping is to clearly establish in your mind, exactly where your pellet is actually flying-to and hitting, when shot down range, at varying and accurately paralaxed target range distances in your scope.

 

That's all there really is to it.

 

So, beginning with an accurate read-out on a chrono of your rifle's muzzle-power and pellet's true vellocity and variation spread, you next then, zero your rifle at your preferred range. You can use your preferred Mag setting but, I find a low-mag like 6x to 8x gives a great result across varying target distances downrange.

 

 

 

Now, with the weather ideally dry with as little wind as can be, set up a series of targets, measured with a tape, at 5-metre intervals. ranging from, say, 10 to 50 metres out and commence shooting from a base-zero of, say 25 metres, or whatever you prefer. DO NOT GUESS THE RANGE; MEASURE IT!

 

I repeat it's best used on a low mag setting and shoot all targets spot on the crosshairs, so you can aim with a degree of clarity on each target-centre and shoot 5 rounds (to be absolutely sure) on the reticle, as perfectly as you can.

 

Here you will see precisely and in real-world terms, where your pellet is rising and falling downrange on your reticle.

 

Make a visual reference "map".

Make a series of 9 drawings of your reticle type (to illustrate your 10, 15, 20, 25, 30-zero, 35,40, 45, 50 metres shot in sequence for example.) is needed. Each one in a seperate page of a small sketch book or sheets of A5 and mark clearly where each shot is hitting. Clearly noting the paralaxed range and mag setting on each drawing you've made. You can of course use and keep the paper targets you've shot, in a file but, I prefer to use those with my own drawings as a definitive graph.

 

Whichever method you prefer, memorise them as clearly as you can. In time this will become second nature for hold-under to hold-over shooting. And that's the whole point of all this rangework.

 

Shooting with a deflecting crosswind effect will become easier to adjust and correct for with experience of mapping your pellet's flightpath.

 

To make a diagram drawing of your reticle. Simply draw a circle around an evenly-rounded template like a pellet tin lid. A crosshair meeting/bisecting as close to centre with a ruler/straight edge. Then follow your reticle layout of mildots, SCB Ladderscale, Duplex 30-30; whatever it is, as accurately as will allow you to mark your shot -fall clearly and precisely. This is very important.

 

This is how I've mapped and calibrated my 30-30 Duplex reticle scopes with my pellet ammo for many years. I do not need Mil-dots or SCB ladderscale reticles and I'm never lost. With practice and experience you can adapt it to help your natural rangefinding ability develop accurately.

 

I do miss the odd Rabbit/Crow/Squirrel?Pidgeon on a hunt now and then... But not much.

 

If, after a period of time the shots are deviating from the drawings, the rifle has probably lost or gained some grunt and you need a new chrono reading and retesting downrange as described above. If the shots are deviating left or right of the targets closer to or, further away than your zero range, the scope is canting and needs re-levelling with the action.

 

Works simply and beautifully. Above all, accurately. And that's all you should need.

 

Pianoman

Edited August 18, 2012 by pianoman

[Skot Ruthless Teale 1,701]

Thats what i used to do without chairgun set loads of targets up at different ranges to see how high to hold over/under

[pianoman 3,587]

Still the best way Skot.

[Skot Ruthless Teale 1,701]

yep chairgun is another shortcut in this lazy society

 

[villaman 9,983]

Some times the old way is the best way

[ghillies 209]

when you know the old ways chairguns pritty handy as a starter for 10 minutes to finished lol.

[pianoman 3,587]

There's nothing wrong with Chairgun, Gentlemen, I've used it myself and it works.. In conjunction with a Hawke scope with an SR12 reticle and a little of your own know-how, brewed from experience, it can be astonishing...for as long as your rifle is maintaining the FPS Chrono reading you originally set it by. And that can change at any time.

 

So it's not a perfect science that can be reduced to a formula for precision accuracy; and your shooting still remains an art as much as anything.

 

But as FPS power/chrono readings change and the Point Of Impact on your reticle changes as a result, you are always back to calibrating it again.

 

What this " Good Ol'Fashioned method" does that Chairgun doesn't is tell you exactly, where you are, in that split second moment when you have a rabbit run from out of cover outside of your neatly set ranges. Have you ever known a rabbit or anything living oblige you by appearing at precisely your neatly set and calibrated zero range all the time?

 

When you have learned from the ground floor up, exactly where your shot is rising and falling on your reticle over your likely hunting ranges and the distances in between, every time you go into the fields, your game bag starts filling up a bit more often..

 

It is using guesswork of course, but it has a very educated instinct behind it that makes the hunting shot even more rewarding when you whack a rabbit or whatever, stone dead. And unlike Chairgun, you have your brain working with you when you hunt and it never crashes!

 

I know I'm a long-winded old windbag next to some of you young tykes but, some of us here were hunting with an air rifle before You, laptops and Chairgun programmes got involved!

 

We needed a failsafe method of trajectory mapping from somewhere.

 

Honky Tonk Upright Pianoman.

Edited August 19, 2012 by pianoman

[ghillies 209]

i like your wording pianoman..its precisly that, 'an art'.

 

how you go about it is 'your art'...

 

i learned by shoot that there, i had a shit hot memery back there...i remembered every shot and learned, today? ffff chairguns wicked lolol..but the seat of yu pants has an definate advantage..why not put the two together?

 

hmmmm tecno foabia! lmao.. cant that its maths lol.. yes yu bloody can, the second the shop short changes yu carol vauderman is a queen and your way up there with her lol.

[Daz 7 563]

Gentlemen. If I may add to this interesting thread...

 

If you do not have frequent access to a computer Or Chairgun seems a bit baffling. Don't despair. This is my method of Trajectory Mapping; I've used it for more years than I know of and it never fails me.

 

In a nutshell. The whole point of Trajectory Mapping is to clearly establish in your mind, exactly where your pellet is actually flying-to and hitting, when shot down range, at varying and accurately paralaxed target range distances in your scope.

 

That's all there really is to it.

 

So, beginning with an accurate read-out on a chrono of your rifle's muzzle-power and pellet's true vellocity and variation spread, you next then, zero your rifle at your preferred range. You can use your preferred Mag setting but, I find a low-mag like 6x to 8x gives a great result across varying target distances downrange.

 

 

 

Now, with the weather ideally dry with as little wind as can be, set up a series of targets, measured with a tape, at 5-metre intervals. ranging from, say, 10 to 50 metres out and commence shooting from a base-zero of, say 25 metres, or whatever you prefer. DO NOT GUESS THE RANGE; MEASURE IT!

 

I repeat it's best used on a low mag setting and shoot all targets spot on the crosshairs, so you can aim with a degree of clarity on each target-centre and shoot 5 rounds (to be absolutely sure) on the reticle, as perfectly as you can.

 

Here you will see precisely and in real-world terms, where your pellet is rising and falling downrange on your reticle.

 

Make a visual reference "map".

Make a series of 9 drawings of your reticle type (to illustrate your 10, 15, 20, 25, 30-zero, 35,40, 45, 50 metres shot in sequence for example.) is needed. Each one in a seperate page of a small sketch book or sheets of A5 and mark clearly where each shot is hitting. Clearly noting the paralaxed range and mag setting on each drawing you've made. You can of course use and keep the paper targets you've shot, in a file but, I prefer to use those with my own drawings as a definitive graph.

 

Whichever method you prefer, memorise them as clearly as you can. In time this will become second nature for hold-under to hold-over shooting. And that's the whole point of all this rangework.

 

Shooting with a deflecting crosswind effect will become easier to adjust and correct for with experience of mapping your pellet's flightpath.

 

To make a diagram drawing of your reticle. Simply draw a circle around an evenly-rounded template like a pellet tin lid. A crosshair meeting/bisecting as close to centre with a ruler/straight edge. Then follow your reticle layout of mildots, SCB Ladderscale, Duplex 30-30; whatever it is, as accurately as will allow you to mark your shot -fall clearly and precisely. This is very important.

 

This is how I've mapped and calibrated my 30-30 Duplex reticle scopes with my pellet ammo for many years. I do not need Mil-dots or SCB ladderscale reticles and I'm never lost. With practice and experience you can adapt it to help your natural rangefinding ability develop accurately.

 

I do miss the odd Rabbit/Crow/Squirrel?Pidgeon on a hunt now and then... But not much.

 

If, after a period of time the shots are deviating from the drawings, the rifle has probably lost or gained some grunt and you need a new chrono reading and retesting downrange as described above. If the shots are deviating left or right of the targets closer to or, further away than your zero range, the scope is canting and needs re-levelling with the action.

 

Works simply and beautifully. Above all, accurately. And that's all you should need.

 

Pianoman

 

The way i was taught and still the only way i Calibrate my combo's as i'm shite with computers so i'll stick to what i know.

Don't have to worry about Chairgun as i do it in real time not virtual, Don't get Me wrong all these gizmo's will help.

But i get more satisfaction with trail and error of pacing measured targets out than looking at a computer screen.

 

atvb Daz 7.

[pianoman 3,587]

You and me both Daz. By the time I've got the bloody thing switched on I could be tightening up my group on the second target