the air arms comp(or how i got thrashed at fletching...)

[gurtwurz 792]

hi lads, as some of you may know, davy(t63)and chas(lighthunter) were down this weekend for the air arms rsn10 comp at fletching, so they turned up on saturday afternoon and we headed up to the valley for a serious zeroing, calibration and plinking session as my usual range was out of bounds while the shoreham airshow was on.

 

we headed down the steep sided valley and set up at the bottom, where we proceeded to set up a 60yd range with knockdowns, spinners and pellet catchers set at 5yd intervals and random ones chucked in just to cause confusion and happily played with the guns for a few hours until we decided to take a look at another permission of mine at a livery on top of the south downs with amazing 360 panoramic views and, as it turned out, rabbits that were the spawn of arnold shwarzennegger, as we all got a couple but we all had at least one do a runner into the bushes after what seemed perfect headshots.

 

i should have taken that as a warning regarding the competition...

 

a few( ) beers and vinos that evening and we popped off for an early night(ok, maybe not that early, and possibly more than a few...)

 

so, the following morning we set off to the shoot, and got ourselves rezeroed again, ready to go. i was having a couple of issues with my normally reliable sr12 scope that i hadnt noticed with the knockdowns previously, in that having rezeroed the scope at 30 yds instead of the 25m that is my norm, i found thaty at any distance apart from on primary and secondary zero i'd be shooting to the right by about 1/4". i'd been trying the scope at this setting for about a week and it seemed to be bang on with an aimpoint for every 5 yds with knockdowns but on the comp zero range it was slightly out, and having worked in wales all last week i hadnt had a chance to get out and really get to know the new aim points. never mind, i thought, i'll be alright...

 

no i wasnt!!

 

the comp itself commenced, after a bacon buttie supplied by the organisers, which was nice! and our heroic trio got on peg 11 to start with, chas taking first go. it went straight over for him, and then i took my turn, and promptly plated it, due to poor distance judgement on my part. davy knocked it over and so we were off. the rest of the course was extremely challenging(especially to a .22 rifle!!!) with some long shots and small killzones, and a lot of steeply angled shots, more standers at longer range than id seen at a comp before and some windswept micro targets to finish it up. dave and chas were shooting in fine style, with the sound of target falling over to be heard with happy regularity, or the ting of pellet on plate from a near miss.

unlike me, who couldnt seem to shoot a barn door from the inside for the majority of the course, i managed to get 4 zeros from missing completely and only knocked down about 5 targets overall, the rest being misses due to poor rangefinding on my part and not being familiar with my newly calibrated scope.

i think chas came away with 67ex80 with his pcp, davy had a very good 57 with his tx, and i managed a pitiful 42ex80 with my pro sport and we made our way home after enjoying a couple of fun games that were being held seperately on the grounds to a shoulder of venison and home made trifle that jax my missus had spent the afternoon cooking for us(thanks babe!)

 

it was a cracking course, very well thought out by some extremely malicious and calculating devils, and it had been stated on other websites that no way would this course be cleared by anybody(and considering that national and world champs were there then you should have some idea of the severity of it) and they were right, the best score of the day was 76ex80 by a young lad who was on fire all day, definitely someone to look out for in future. you'll probably hear much more in the airgun press, as terry doe, nigel allen and various contributors and video guys were there.

 

anyway, a great day was had by all, next up is the uk springer championship at the end of the month.

 

and the moral of the story is, dont f**k about with your scope before a comp, and if poss, dont work away when you could be putting some much needed practice in...

 

cheers, wurz

[PIL 7]

Nice write-up wurz wish I could of been there for the crack see you at THL meet

[pianoman 3,587]

Oh dear me laddie. Sounds like you went out there and forgot everything you knew.

 

So you had a cracking course, very well thought out by some malicious and calculating devils. So did Davy and Chaz have a hand in the design?

 

Never mind dear lad. You write very well and I enjoyed your write up John.

 

Now, what type of air rifle and scope was this young hot-shot using? .177 PCP?

 

Better luck next time old pal. And I dare say you didn't achieve the lowest score on the day....Did you?

 

Warmest regards.

 

Simon

[gurtwurz 792]

hi steve, shame you couldnt be there too mate, but we'll have a good crack at the meet buddy

 

lol i dont think i got the worse score simon, but you never know... just like i didnt forget EVERYTHING, but my scope issues definitely played havoc with my shooting- in having rezeroed it to a different distance all my aim points were different, so instead of just pointing the gun automatically to where i wanted the pellet to go, i had to stop and think about what i was doing with every shot, rather than feeling what i was doing due to being used to and comfortable with the set up.

 

i thought it'd make a change to write up a not-so-glorious day( shootingwise, the rest of the day was great fun!) since normally things go a lot better, but you know, sometimes you can go out there and miss everything youre shooting at for no real reason at all and other days youre on fire and bowling over everything you aim at...

 

still, the pro sports now been rezeroed to my normal aim points, so it should be an improvement at the springer championships at the end of the month but i'm away in wales again the week before so i may miss out on some desperately needed practise before it, unless anybody knows of somewhere with a 55yd range in pembrokeshire???!!

 

cheers, wurz

[stealthy1 3,964]

Next time Wurz

[Webby1 34]

Nice write up mate ...was Chaz using the 510

 

as for me never invited any where .......

 

Dave no mates is me lol

 

see you soon

[lighthunter 81]

hi wurz,cracking write up bud.you sumed the day up perfect buddy'i had a cracking time with you,and thank jax for the loveley home made grub'WOW that girl can cook.the hospitalaty both you showed was fantastic.take care and see you soon.

[gurtwurz 792]

cheers stealthy mate

 

dave, if you wanna trip down this way just give us a shout mate, youre welcome anytime

 

chas, it was a pleasure bruv, jax was pleased to find two more healthy appetites,we loved your company and if i can persuade her then we should have a chef at the next meet. unless its cold, in which case she refuses lol see you at the end of the month?

 

cheers, wurz

[Phantom 631]

Brave attempt guy's and a great write up Wurz

 

Tony

[davyt63 1,845]

hi wurz

thanks for putting chaz & i up.we really enjoyed it! the grub was great too! mmmmmm the trifle was mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

had a great time!

 

now to your shooting

you was just having one of those days! but you was hitting that 60yd spinner OK though! lets hope you get your zero sorted,and back to 25meters

i think we all could of done better that day,we all had our miss's chaz with the small kill zones,me with the longer shots,and you moving your zero from meters to yards.stick to what you know best as i know you are a better shot than you were on the day!

 

say hi to Jax,xxx no! there not for you there for jax.hope to see you at lea valley for the springer championships 2012 with some more members from here too

 

the zero range in death valley

 

 

 

 

thanks wurz & jax :thumbs:

[Skot Ruthless Teale 1,701]

'death valley'

[gurtwurz 792]

Cheers tony

 

Davy, youre more than welcome buddy, the pro is back to its normal setup so hopefully all should be back to normal now. Hopefully...lol

Death valleys a great name for it skot, you should try climbing back up it with a crate of knock downs,a rucksack and a rifle-not so easy lol

 

Cheers, wurz

[davyt63 1,845]

Cheers tony

 

Davy, youre more than welcome buddy, the pro is back to its normal setup so hopefully all should be back to normal now. Hopefully...lol

Death valleys a great name for it skot, you should try climbing back up it with a crate of knock downs,a rucksack and a rifle-not so easy lol

 

Cheers, wurz

 

hi wurz

it did nearly kill me! plus i dont smoke either !!

[gurtwurz 792]

That'll be your age then lol