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LASSO 2012

by B.B. Pelletier

The Longrange Airgun Silhouette Shooters Organization (LASSO) 2012 meet last Saturday was a lot like the blind men examining the elephant. What it looked like depended on where you were. It was a renaissance fair of airgun gatherings, and I don’t say that lightly. I have been to all but one of the five events they’ve held, and this one was the best by far. Promoter Eric Henderson has delegated many of the organizational functions to the right people, and each took their responsibilities seriously.

The shoot was held on Terry Tate’s ranch, several miles south of Sulphur Springs, Texas. The land is flat, open and perfect for this kind of event; and Terry and his wife went out of their way to be gracious hosts. Weather is the one variable you cannot control, but this day was nearly perfect. It was a little breezy, but that just sharpens the competition. And it also keeps the bugs at a minimum and the hot Texas sun at bay.

The event exists to give big bore enthusiasts the opportunity to shoot their rifles (and a couple pistols) against one anotherand to see what’s happening in the world of big bore airguns. So, it’s not surprising that shooters drove in from Chicago, Kentucky and other regions equally far away. Driving over a thousand miles for a one-day event like this separates the serious from the tire-kickers, and these boys and girls were serious.


This telephoto shot of the big bore range shows targets out to 300 yards. The pond begins about 40-50 yards from the firing point. The first ram is at 100 yards.


The shooters were ready for a big day!


Chase, Clint and Chris are big bore shooters who drove all the way from Chicago to the LASSO shoot. The guy in the black hat is also a big bore!

Girls? Yes, this year we had our first female shooter on the line. Regina Williams asked for no special consideration and was just as competitive as the rest of the shooters.


Regina Williams was the first woman to compete in the LASSO match. She placed astonishingly high!

The big deal of the day
As Rosanne Roseannadanna said, “It’s always something!” This year, it was our most fundamental rule. What is a big bore airgun, you ask? Well, there are four smallbore calibers — .177, .20, .22 and .25. Anything larger than .25 caliber is considered a big bore. But this year, someone showed up with a .257 rifle made by Jack Haley that launches 75-grain bullets at 1,100 f.p.s. They develop over 200 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle.

For those who are unfamiliar with caliber designations, .25 caliber measures .257 inches in diameter. So, here was a gun in a caliber we have always called a smallbore but shooting much heavier bullets and developing big-bore energies. What to do? There was much hand-wringing the evening before the match, but in the end promoter Eric left the decision up to the shooters, who agreed to allow the rifle to compete to win. If they hadn’t, it might have been like ignoring the guns of another Roy Weatherby.


John Bowman shook everyone up with his Haley .257 rifle. We’ll see his picture again. I’ll bet he’s going to have the same impact as Weatherby when everything settles down.

I talked with John Bowman, owner of this scandalous rifle, and was informed that he lapped the bore himself after talking to Dan Lilja, no less. He claims the rifle will group inside two inches at 300 yards. We will hear more about this rifle in a bit.


Ed Schultz, Crosman’s head engineer, competed with his Rogue.


Chase used a shooting stick for his Quackenbush.


Not everyone used a support for their rifles. This is the classic military seated position.

The rifles that competed were by Quackenbush, Benjamin, Haley and AirForce. There might have been one or two other makes that I missed. The AirForce gun was a Condor converted to .308.

The smallbore range
Not everyone owns a big bore airgun, so blog reader David Enoch organized a smallbore component at this event for many years. This time, he had a beautiful 100-yard range set up with metal reactive targets from 20 yards all the way out to 100. And Jerry, who’s a new reader of ours, brought his faithful CZ 634 out to the range so everyone could see why he loves it so much. I had a chance to shoot it, and I see that this tuned Slavia springer is much better-behaved than my untuned 631. Jerry also brought out his new TX200 and started what I think will become a lifelong love affair with the rifle. The trigger was not adjusted and did have some creep, but the action and accuracy were pure TX200 — which is to say the best there can be.

David set out some quadrant sight-in targets at 35 yards, so people didn’t have to shoot at paper to get sighted in. They were a one-inch bull, a three-quarter-inch bull and a half-inch bull. You started on the one inch and worked your way over to the half-inch bull. By the time you were spinning the half-inch bull, your rifle was a good as it was going to be at that distance. David bought his targets online from Steelplinkers.

The giddy guy
I noticed a young man at the AirForce booth asking questions about the Condor, so as usual I butted in. Greg is from just north of Austin, Texas, and he drove out because he was hoping to see and handle some smallbore PCPs. I glommed onto him and took him over to the smallbore range, where he proceeded to have the time of his life! I started him with my Talon SS and learned that he had never looked through a scope sight before this day.

He was startled to see the crosshairs move, despite all he did to control the rifle. But after all of us assured him that it happens to everyone, he settled down and started shooting well. Reader new2this complained about a Talon SS in yesterday’s blog comments. Well this new guy, Greg, was hitting half-inch spinners at 35 yards in a strong breeze. Not just now and then — every time. He almost got bored from his success, once he figured out the gun. He was torn between a Condor and a BSA Hornet, which another shooter happened to have on the line, so he got to try that one, as well.

I know he shot a lot because I was refilling his air cyinders all day long. Greg was so caught up in the day that he reminded the rest of us what it was like, and we intentionally made certain that he got to try everything. He even hit a 75-yard spinner in the wind with a .177 Marauder! Now, that’s some real shooting!


Greg came to LASSO just to see a couple airguns he had read about. He wound up shooting his two top picks — this BSA and an AirForce Condor (as well as my Talon SS) and was completely satisfied. After an hour of shooting on the smallbore range, he was hitting half-inch spinners at 35 yards and full-sized spinners at 75 yards in the wind!

I mentioned Greg was a young man. Well, to me he is. But as youthful as he appears, he’s 50 years old. He’s a boxing instructor and boxes 72 two-minute rounds each week.


The smallbore range was just as active as the big bore range. David Enoch, left, ran it.

Lunch
Lunch was a bar-b-qued pig shot on Terry’s ranch the day before. Everyone loved the spread and it was part of the $10 entry fee for the match. For the same money, you also got a door prize ticket for valuable drawings. Among the prizes donated were a Sam Yang Dragon Claw big bore rifle from Pyramyd AIR, a scoped Condor from AirForce Airguns, a Benjamin Marauder from Crosman and a Shoebox air compressor from Shoebox.


Jim Lowder was the lucky winner of the Sam Yang Dragon Claw big bore rifle.


Ron Robinson won the Benjamin Marauder .25 caliber. He almost dropped it in this victory dance! His brother Kim won the shoebox compressor!


Wes Fry won the AirForce Condor.

Winners
Someone had to win this match, and I told you we would be seeing John Bowman, again. That little Haley .257 of his won the day. So now all us silverbacks have to give up room on the branch to this upstart who dared to buck the system. But I’m warning you, folks, this will be the absolute last time we bend the rules for anyone! 😉


Eric Henderson, LASSO’s promoter is on the right. Next to him from right to left are John Bowman — 1st Place, Joey Tidwell — 3rd place and John Crumpley — 2nd place. The .257 Haley big bore took first and third place. A Quackenbush .308 took second.

This was a wonderful event for all who came and participated. It was a drive of over one-thousand miles for some, but they were glad to be there and will be returning next year.

author avatar
Tom Gaylord (B.B. Pelletier)
Tom Gaylord, also known as B.B. Pelletier, provides expert insights to airgunners all over the world on behalf of Pyramyd AIR. He has earned the title The Godfather of Airguns™ for his contributions to the industry, spending many years with AirForce Airguns and starting magazines dedicated to the sport such as Airgun Illustrated.

52 thoughts on “LASSO 2012”

  1. B.B.,

    This report struck many chords in my being.

    A big bore gathering is a dream of mine since I’ve not taken this expensive, air consuming plunge and would like to know what I’m missing for free. The smallbore range out to 100 yards that David Enoch has organized is a terrific compliment and worthy of the trip itself. The Jack Haley .257 seems worthy of a blog. I’ve done several airgun deals with Ron Robinson. Haven’t seen a picture of him since at least 20 years ago. In Airgun Revue I think??

    What really struck a chord was the 50 year old youngster named Greg. Do you know why at 50 years of age he came to a big bore airgun shoot? He seems a novice and I’m interested in knowing what attracted him enough to this hobby to drive from north of Austin to attend this event.

    kevin

    ps-I haven’t seen you for over a year. That picture is confirmation that you have fully recovered. Kudo’s to you and Edith for working through the ordeal together. Praise HIM.

    • Kevin,

      Good morning! Greg called around and was told that AirForce would be at LASSO, and he wanted to see and hold a Condor before making the buy this weekend (the one that’s coming up). That’s why I glommed onto him. I knew he didn’t just want to talk — he wanted to shoot.

      I had my Talon SS with the 24-inch barrel that gives 40-45 foot-pounds of energy on high power, yet also gives about 40 shots. So that’s what he shot, of and on, all day. He also shot the BSA shown in the pic, and a Marauder. He also got to shoot my Diana 27 that I took for me to shoot. And I think Jerry let him shoot the TX 200 and the Slavia 634. I wasn’t with him all the time, so he probably shot a lot more than that.

      As for that pic of me, I put it in just to show everybody where I am.

      B.B.

    • I was really impressed that Greg would make a 5 hour drive up from near Austin by himself to an event where he knew no one. Greg has had an old Chinese springer with open sights but that was the only airgun he had ever shot. I was so glad that BB latched onto him. All of us enjoyed watching BB show him how to shoot. BB was very patient and gave instructions in a way that clicked with the new shooter. By the end of the day he was shooting as well as anyone there. It would have been a perfect day if he had won the Condor!

      David Enoch

  2. B.B.
    This is only a little off topic and I probably already know the answer, but which springer do you consider the most accurate “long range” air rifle presently available from PA?

    I bought my FWB 601 last Fall and my Izzy the year before and am starting to plan for the Roanoke show again this year. They are superbly accurate, but lack the range I crave. Also I am not about to modify my almost mint 601 to accept a scope. I am wanting to replace my CFX this year (which I still have not sold, although admittedly I have not put much effort into it).

    I have even considered getting a FWB 300 and tuning it up to 12 FPE or a RWS 54 and tuning it down. Some may suggest a PCP and I have one in mind, but when you throw in the cost of the required accessories…

    • RR,

      Yes, I think the TX 200 is the best long-range spring-piston air rifle. Is that what you thought?

      Don’t try to tune an FWB to 12 foot-pounds. I have heard of such projects and they don’t turn out well. People do it because they think the 300’s barrel is more accurate, but it really isn’t. The TX 200 is ready to go right out of the box.

      And as for tuning a 54 down, you probably can do it, but why would you. Use a Corvette as it was intended and use the Ford Focus for trips to the grocery story.

      As for the PCP you have in mind, if it’s a Marauder then I’d say get it. That is the absolute best value going right now. If you were inclined toward black rifles I would suggest a Talon SS with a 24-inch barrel like mine, but the Marauder gives you accuracy and quiet with a superb trigger. What’s not to like?

      B.B.

      • I was indeed thinking of the TX200 for a springer.

        As for a PCP, I was leaning toward the Talon SS in .177 for two reasons. First, it is a tinkerer’s dream come true. You can start with a really good rifle out of the box and then turn it into a true big bore or anything in between. Secondly, it is made in USA (pause for the Flag waving and The Star Spangled Banner).

        Yes, the Marauder is an excellent buy for the price, but I would not be happy with it the way it is and it is not made in USA.

      • Hello, B.B. and all,

        I very much enjoyed your comments and photos about LASSO today. You captured the event nicely.

        Those of us on the smallbore range listened with interest as you patiently showed/explained to Greg your AirForce rifle, and were tickled to watch him take two hours to go from his first sighting with a scope to hitting the 40+ yard spinners nearly every time. He was having a blast, and we all got a kick, too. Pretty sure he is soon to be a Condor owner, and

        Regarding smallbore long-range, My new TX200 MkIII (.177) was pretty reliably (wind, etc.) hitting the 100 yd target (a 10″ steel plate) with about 5 mil dots holdover. I was using 8.4 gr JSB pellets. Perhaps not an amazing shot, but the guys with PCP and much more power than my 14.5 fps were not doing a lot better. The CZ-634 rifle you referred to does extremely well out to about 40 yds, but the trajectory and stability of the Air Arms springer is better.

        I do like the new rifle, and appreciate your comments about the trigger adjustment, I will work on it. Maybe a call to Pyramyd is in order.

        An interesting discussion going on about what kind of “long-range” shot competition we might set up for the future, I feel sure it would draw a lot of interest.

        For me, it was a great novelty to see those bigbore rifles, though. How impressive. Air rifle thunder.

        Thank you, Terry, Eric, and all the sponsors and competitors!

        • Jerry,

          Thanks for telling us about your TX 200. Tomorrow I start a report on that rifle and I will show you how to adjust the trigger.

          Greg’s enthusiasm was epidemic. Wherever he went I noticed that people opened up to him and told him anything he wanted to know. I think he has the makings of a great air gunner.

          B.B.

  3. BB,
    Looks like fun. The “.257” doesn’t surprise me — I’ve always thought that a 6mm’ish bullet (6.5? in this case) within the limitations of big bore power might be useful for short range BR work and be a more lucrative market long term than big bore hunting rifles. I bet the real work was in the bullet selection and optimizing twist rate to velocity produced with it.

  4. Looks like another reason to call Texas a great place to live! Looks like it was a outstanding event. Well done, Dave E. and Terry Tate. Thanks for reporting on this and great photos, BB. Tell me, what was your favorite rifle at this meet?

    Fred DPRoNJ

    • Fred,

      I actually BOUGHT my favorite rifle at this meet! Dennis brought a .308 that was uncommitted and he said it was a blem. Well, this time even he could not find the blemish. And it has a special fast-twist barrel. So I bought it, after firing several rounds at 100 yards.

      I will write about it for sure.

      B.B.

  5. kevin…

    Got out to shoot this morning. Not much wind, so I set up with the wind at my back.

    Starting with R7#1… .177
    20 yds RS about 1/4″.

    30 yds R9 .177 FTT 4.51…
    About 3/8″.

    Was trying too hard at first. Got twitchy. Finally got my finger working right. Should have started with the R9. The trigger is stiffer and hard to adapt to after the R7.

    One of the FTT seemed to load a bit easier than the rest, but it did not make any difference. POI was a bit to the left of what it had been with the 4.50.

    The groups I was getting were at least half my fault. I was not very steady, and wobbled about the size of the groups. I would say the groups would have been cut in half if I could have been on solid.

    Both kinds of pellets seem good. You might want to be careful that you don’t get a little POI change with the slight size differences in the pellets. Groups were about 10 shots. Did not count. Just shot a bunch.

    twotalon

    • twotalon,

      Thanks for that great report. Impressive groups. My primary interest was whether the jsb rs pellets had a design change or whether it’s just the tin design that has changed. Based on that shooting and looking at the jsb rs pellets do you think they’ve changed?

      kevin

      • kevin..

        There is a little difference on size. The new tins are just a bit tighter in fit. Not by much, but it is noticeable.
        I don’t think it is a different design. Just a different batch ? Maybe a different die, or the older die has some wear making them a bit larger. Maybe even a difference in the temperature of the die. That can change the size by a bit.

        Did not weigh any to see if there is any weight difference. Have seen different tins of other pellets change in size and weight from batch to batch.

        Just consider it as a different batch that may need checked against the older ones for any POI difference. I would not mix the two without checking this first. Or maybe just shoot all the old ones first, then correct as necessary with the new ones. As long as your rifle is not too touchy about the slight difference, it should not be a problem. At least they did not change by a whole lot (in either direction). You could try a new tin to see how it will go, and buy more if they are acceptable. If so, then get some more before a different batch hits the shelf.

        twotalon

  6. BB, Some of us are kicking around the idea of adding a small bore long distance competition to LASSO next year.

    My idea was 50, 75, and 100 yards.
    .177-.25 caliber
    I feel that there needs to be a max. power level for small bore. I don’t know where it should be set. I was thinking 40 fpe but others would like it higher.
    Two classes, springer and PCP.
    My idea is to use the same time limit and rest as allowed in the big bore competition.

    These are just my ideas for now and open to suggestions. I just thought a long distance small bore competition would add to LASSO.

    David Enoch

    • David,

      I wondered how long it would be before this happened. I think it’s a great idea.

      Forty foot-pounds is a lot of energy. I would say we need to think about it. There are ways of leveling the field.

      I would like to see a long-range match where competitors shoot for the smallest groups. Ten shots at 50 yards or even 75 yards for the first year would be a good place to start. Set the max power at 20 foot-pounds and add one-eight inch penalty for every five foot-pounds over that limit. In other words, if a guy shot a one-inch group with a 23 foot-pound rifle he would be credited with a 1.125-inch group because of the penalty. Someone else who did the same with a 27 foot-pounds gun would be credited with a 1.25-inch group. Just a thought.

      Give each competitor a time window of 15 minutes to shoot his group, so they can wait out the wind and have five places on the line so five shooters can shoot simultaneously. Allow shooters to bring their own benches, rests and whatever the first year or two. That’s how you’ll find out what works and what doesn’t.

      I know AirForce has been wanting such a competition for years, so maybe they would like to sponsor it?

      B.B.

  7. I love events like this! Reminds me of the shooting matches I competed in. I’ve played lots of sports, but the shooting crowd was second to none in terms of things like sportsmanship and camaraderie.

  8. B.B.

    Some info on my project.
    Trigger parts and cocking assembly are being produced right now.
    I remember some comments a couple of years ago on Russian”garage industry” – well, I’d like to have a earthmover-sized garage of this kind of industry!
    The thing is that today I received a letter – guys seem to be too tired of milling trigger parts – so they just threw some metal into CNC plasma cutter, then into CNC milling machine, tempered parts and then laser-welded softer-metal bushings onto the surface. They asked me if I’m ok with this kind of technology, or would I insist on milling. Now I’m trying to understand where’s the catch and what’s going to happen to poor old world if things will develop along this way.

    Good news on receiver and bypass – they are confirmed OK for production. Still waiting for bypass control and piston interceptor assemblies – workers seem to test my patience. However by this day I can say – all the parts are either made or being made. If all the production tolerances will be kept, there will be not very much fitting and sanding and soon it will be done.

    Gave another session of polishing to the “engine”. A hard and very unrewarding work. I doubt if I’ll ever achieve JW’s kind of luster as he seemed to use OD machine 🙁 Well I won’t cry if it would be Russian way – rough and tough, but I’ll make yet another attempt to approach the needed “mirror”.
    Bought 25 mm 7075 DOM pipe for barrel shroud and redesigned muzzle cutoff device after re-reading some books on pressured gases aerodynamics.

    duskwight

    • duskwight,

      As the older machinists die off we are left with the kids who don’t know or don’t want to know how to do the work. But you may have to take what you can get, I guess.

      The type of metal determines how nice a finish it can take. Maybe yours is the rough, tough kind?

      B.B.

      • B.B.

        Kids seem to know only how to get the result. I think it’s ok as long as they get it for me :), but I don’t know, some part of me feels something is not quite right about this way. Too little hands touch?

        Parts out of CNC laser or water cutter – they are perfect, but they seem somewhat not quite right, without the proper amount of work in them. Same thing about CNC machined parts – yes, they are beautiful, even cutter marks form a perfect “circle net” picture, but that’s some kind of “cristaline” beauty, devoid of life. Old-school work looks solid with its own tempo and rituals and we still cannot believe that parts can be made with _this_ little effort and the actual “touch” is in our head

        I’ve read about some ultra-religious Jews – when they buy a new electrical kettle or a microwave, they call for a Jewish technician, he comes and disassembles it and then assembles it back again, so the thing becomes “made” by a Jew and so it’s ok for them to use it and make food. This perhaps is an extreme example of “touch”.

        About the metal – it’s quite soft steel. I guess it’s the softest steel in the whole machine, С1035 with hardness no more than 30…32 HRC, and it must take polish well. I think it’s rather me being lazy and too short-tempered. Well, I should give it yet another try and then decide.

        duskwight

        • Just a little at a time on the polish. Don’t let it wear you out, duskwight. No hurry to get the luster you want. Just do a 1/2 hour a day and put it aside. A lot of people (including myself) get impatient and want the polish done NOW! Working at it a little each day is how I have found to get around the impatience… That and don’t be afraid to go back to a coarser grit to get the deeper scratches out if need be.

          /Dave

          • Thanks, Dave. I’ll try this way.
            In my case that would be a bit carrollean – to keep the pressure just to keep things going at normal rate, and to apply it three times harder to make a little push forward.
            Sometimes I think that if I had to christen my rifle – that would be “Patience” 🙂

            duskwight

        • When I was a kid we lived in a really religious jewish neighborhood, the jewish kids weren’t allowed to play with us “goy” kids but I remember when our neighbor forgot to turn off his oven, he was quite happy to have us as neighbors. We were kids, we didn’t understand what all of this was about, all we wanted was to play together 🙁 stupid adults and their rules.

          J-F

  9. All,

    I recently bought a box of around 2000 pain balls for plinking. Boy, they’re a lot smaller than I thought they’d be. Never actually saw one before I opened the box. Any suggestions on how to use them as targets?

    Here’s what I plan on doing (one idea, at least). I found some large washers with an opening just larger than the paint-ball itself. I’m going to buy a hard-wood board, and drill holes just large enough to snugly hold the paint-balls. I want the pain balls to be seated so that almost half a hemisphere sticks out. I want to center the hole within the larger washer, so that my wood opening isn’t destroyed by the pellets. I’ll probably want at least 20 such individual targets per board. For longer reuse of the whole target system, my thoughts are to use two layers of wood, with a metal sheet in between. This means that I’ll only need to drill holes into one layer of wood.

    Having such a target system for paint-balls, I can then hold Top-Shot-like contests at different distances. At, say, 5 yards, give shooters a fixed number of pellets to shoot the 20 paint-balls from the off-hand position, and maybe 10 seconds per shot (including cocking and loading). At, say, 10 yards, let them shoot from a rest. It would be nice to have two sets of targets, so that teams can shoot side-by-side. I know that with some of my air-rifles I can hit them at 50 yards, but that wouldn’t be fair for friends and family who rarely shoot.

    We found that shooting clay pigeons can be fun. Those are best left for further distances, like 75 and 50 yards. Maybe 25 yards, if you do it for speed. I also saved a bunch of aluminum beer bottles that can be knocked down (I don’t want to leave a bunch of broken glass, even in very secluded desert).

    Any other good ideas for targets? I want targets that are reactive, and generally fun for non-airgun afficionado’s to shoot. We also like to place spent shotgun shells on weeks, making them look like Christmas trees. Of course, I also like to place paper targets out a various distances, for verifying how the guns are sighted-in at those distances.

    Thanks,
    Victor

    • Victor,
      For Muzzleloader shoots, we put paintballs on golf tees (stuck in board with holes drilled in it) maybe 10 yards away. No points if you hit the golf tee; very difficult.

        • BG_Farmer,
          Right, I don’t expect this to be easy for most, especially at 10 yards, which is why I suggested from a rest. And, yes I agree that a scope is necessary. This is also why I suggested 5 yards for offhand. I know that most airguns have the accuracy to make these shots at up to 10 yards with no problem. It will mostly come down to the shooters ability. But if you make this a competition, then you’re not really expecting that these paint-balls will get hit 100% of the time. In some circumstances, maybe even under 50%. It needs to be challenging, but not impossible. More importantly, it should be fun!
          Victor

          • I don’t like the golf tee in a drilled board, “someone” told me that you often could hit the tee (because of the rifle of course, not because “my friend” wasn’t able to aim correctly) and when the golf tee gets hit all the freaking paintballs fall down from the other tees if they’re all pined to the same board BUT you can do as I (I mean my friend) do, and get extra long tees (the cheapest ones of course since they’re only used to shoot at) and I cut the grass shorter where the tees are so I can clearly see tha paintballs.

            J-F

            • J-F,
              Interesting. We “call” our tee and shoot it (none of the others counts), but none of the others has ever fallen off as far as I remember — guess the board is solid? It is in some kind of frame that also supports the crossed rubber bands that we cut; could be dug in with posts. My .50 isn’t loaded for bear on that shoot, but it will whack things pretty good, so it should shake it. I’ll check when I am there next if I can remember.

              • When you shoot your tees they just cut off? COuld it be due to the highest power/velocity of your rifles? Remember I only shoot sub 500fps rifles and pistols. Maybe it pushes the tee too much instead of just cutting it? When I shoot one of the tee, the whole board moves and all the paintball fall down 🙁

                J-F

                • J-F,
                  I can see how board movement would create problems like this. Didn’t think about that. Have you tried clamping the board down to something with a C-Clamp or other similar clamp? Do you think, even with it clamped, that vibration would cause them to fall off? Also, they make golf tees out of some soft plastic like material that doesn’t break. I wonder if that would make them more reusable?
                  -Chuck

                  • I don’t know… BG_farmer probably just cuts them clean of, where my pellets just hits it and makes everything move around.
                    I haven’t tried clamping it to anything.
                    I did try a version of Victor targets with his condiment packets duct taped to the target using paintballs, I kind of make a little duct tape/paintball ravioli that when shot send the paint blowing and oozing everywhere. Quite entertaining, the shooting season is just around the corner here. We should be done with the freezing until next winter 😀

                    J-F

                • J-F,
                  I’ve been playing around with the idea of buying a painters drop cloth to put beneath my indoor target area so I can shoot at condiments and paint balls. That sounds like a lot of fun, but I’d probably have to have something more like a tent, though. You probably get 360 degree, spherical splatter.
                  -Chuck

                  • Oh I wouldn’t try to pull that off inside the house. When you wack those paintballs it can really go everywhere. If it’s warm the “shell” is softer and will more backwards when it’s colder the outside will be harder and will behave like an egg and the shell (with the paint) will spray in all directions.

                    J-F

  10. I discovered that Jim Chapman has made yet another book available for download, this one about small game hunting in Africa using a Marauder.

    https://www.americanairgunhunter.com/crosman_book_070809.pdf
    I have written directly to Jim to thank him for his generosity.

    Of course, I thank B.B. for what amounts to ongoing chapters. I know I am benefitting in a rather brief span of time years of accumulated knowledge.

    Thanks, B.B. for the write up and photos. These and the video are certainly great appetizers for the next LASSO entrée.

    Ken

      • Hi Pete, I think recovery is coming along well. I see the neurosurgeon next week. I won’t think about shooting before then. I know I will shoot but I want to be reasonably sure that the bone has grown and that the titanium screws are going to hold fast. I am looking forward to cocking my springers as well as saving up for a PCP (right now the Discovery seems to be the easiest entry to PCP as long as I can handle the manual pump, otherwise I’ll need to save some more to get a carbon tank and connectors; my wife is a radio volunteer at our local fire station that is a short walk away and they have the means to fill the tank).

        How about you; how are you feeling?

        Ken

        • I went through the choosing of a tank agony in late 2010. My thoughts turned to a small SCUBA tank. I can no longer lift a heavy tank. I frankly decided a carbon tank was too dam’ expensive, and all it did was reduce the number of trips to a dive shop. Unless you’re planning to shoot big bore air, I don’t think it would matter. Particularly if you’ve got a friendly fire station near by.

          You may also find that your neck limits your use of a pump.

          The post-op pain is gone, except for an odd jaw problem because of how the tumor came out. That will go away in a couple of months. Thanks for asking!

          • Pete, I’m glad to know your already getting some relief from the problem and the cure.

            Thanks for the info about the SCUBA tank. I would love to shoot big bore but that will come later, if at all. Therefore, a small SCUBA tank may well be all I need in the near future.

            Ken

        • Crosman’s new pump (if it is on the market in time) might alleviate that problem. Some sort of odd lever system (hope it works, otherwise my legs would get in the way).

          The Discovery is a 2000PSI gun, no? That’s still in the “arm only” range on my AirForce labeled pump (I’m sure it’s the same pump Crosman has been selling, just a different QD fitting on the hose). I find it’s the 2500-3000PSI range that needs me to lock my thumbs into my lower belly [upper hip height], and drop my knees to manage a full stroke. (The 2000-2500 range needs the knee drop, but I can lock my elbows sufficiently to manage the pump handles; over 2500 I’m using my body weight on the handles to make the stroke… A Marauder isn’t that bad, but a Condor tank gets tedious — what is is: 15 stokes per 100PSI on the Condor, ~9 per 100PSI for the Marauder, and ~5 strokes per 100PSI on the Silhouette pistol).
          .

          • Wulfraed, thanks for this information. Yes, that is the butterfly hand pump B.B. told us about when he reported on SHOT. I do wonder about it and I do hope it is successful.

            With regard to making it easier to fill a gun to a given PSI or bar I suspect it may take longer with the butterfly hand pump. I base this on my rudimentary knowledge of pulley systems and levers. Usually, we can make the job require less of our bodies energy if we are willing to allow the job to take longer to complete.

            Or, we can get the job done faster with greater energy available (e.g. having more expensive equipment to do the hard part for us, or paying someone else who does have that more expensive equipment, like the dive shop to fill a more expensive carbon fiber tank).

            Thanks for adding to my knowledge.

            Ken

            • Wulfraed, thanks for this information. Yes, that is the butterfly hand pump B.B. told us about when he reported on SHOT. I do wonder about it and I do hope it is successful.

              If that took place between the last week of November and the third week of February I probably missed it. That’s the span I was using a $50 for 30days/1GB data card in a laptop, and stuck to strictly text based forums (SMTP/POP3, NNTP) — the only HTTP sites I hit were those for employment and housing…

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