Air Venturi

Out of Sight

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Out of Sight

When black sights won’t work and how to fix them

By Dennis Adler

Seeing is believing (and hitting the target) so to make the Air Venturi V10 (rear) and Weihrauch HW 75 a little easier and faster to get on target I added a white dot to the V10’s front sight and a red square to the HW 75’s. Life gets easier if you do this, and it isn’t a permanent change (like nail polish or paint), just one that works.

There are all types of sights for handguns, some you can change and some you can’t, and sometimes you have to play the hand you’re dealt. Or do you? With the series on single shot pneumatics completed, the topic of sights, in particular those on the Air Venturi V10 and Weihrauch HW 75, was brought up, because while fully adjustable, they can be hard for some people to see. I can vouch for that because I’m one of them.

Black rear notch, black front blade, black target, and old eyes. It’s easier to fix the sights.

At some point in life most people end up wearing glasses, others have been wearing them since they were kids. I was fortunate for the first 50 years of my life to have had 20/20 vision. That changed in my early fifties to glasses for reading. Add another decade and it was glasses for reading, driving, and yep, shooting. Shooting glasses are a necessity, prescription shooting glass are as well. But even with glasses and adjustable sights, if you are putting back on black sights (rear notch and front blade) on a black target like a simple Birchwood Casey Shoot-N-C it is hard to tell if the sights are perfectly aligned. I do this three times a week and sometime five, so I’ve learned to compensate; that’s a fancy word for putting a piece of masking tape on the front sight to make it easier to see when I have trouble. I’ve mentioned this a few times with certain airguns in the past. It’s a quick fix. Sloppy, and of course, I never photograph the guns with masking tape left on the front sight. Most of the time the guns go right back after the article is done and I don’t want to make any changes that would be permanent, like using nail polish or paint. I’m pretty much that way on airguns I own, too. Like them left as they were. However, there are better things to use than masking tape if you want to make a semi-permanent change to the front sight. Here are two of my favorites, and they are easy to do with simple items you might have around the home or office. read more

Target Pistols and Target Shooters Part 3

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Target Pistols and Target Shooters Part 3 Part 2 Part 1

Shooting the Air Venturi V10

By Dennis Adler

The Air Venturi V10 is absolutely capable of being used in entry level 10-Meter ISSF sanctioned shooting events. The grip design is based on 10-Meter styles although it is somewhat unique in its rough wood grained finish. This gives you superb grasp but rough edges need to be smoothed out for a comfortable grip by using a wood rasp. In this shot I have already adjusted the contour where my middle finger rests behind the triggerguard.

You can spend a lot of money for a 10-Meter pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) competition pistol like a Morini MOR-162MI (one of the most expensive with an MSRP of $1,900), a Hammerli AP20 PRO (one of the more affordable at just under $1,000) or a Walther LP400 (around $1,700), and they won’t feel much different in your hand than the Air Venturi V10 single shot pneumatic. A 10-Meter air pistol is built to a competition standard with mandatory grip designs and a generally similar configuration. Most PCP models look very much the same, as do modern single stroke pneumatics like the Air Venturi V10. The differences are speed and accuracy. A PCP pistol is faster to shoot, a single shot pneumatic slower, but the V10 is definitely competitive at the entry level, and at under $300 you can afford to get into training, even if you never intend to get into competitive shooting. (This also opens the door to Match Pistols, which I will begin covering in Part 4). read more

Target Pistols and Target Shooters Part 2

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Target Pistols and Target Shooters Part 2 Part 1

The Air Venturi V10

By Dennis Adler

A modern update of the Gamo Compact, the Air Venturi V10 is an entry level 10-Meter single shot target pistol using a stainless steel pneumatic air cylinder, oil stained walnut target grips, a 2-stange adjustable target trigger, and fully adjustable rear sight.

The Webley Hurricane is a very old air pistol design established in 1930 by Webley & Scott as the Senior Model. It was replaced by the improved Senior New Model just prior to WWII, and remained in production until 1964. Not a bad run for an air pistol. The first model or “Variant 1 Hurricane”, an improved target version of the Senior New Model, was introduced a little over a decade later. The example tested in Part 1, is a “Variant 2 Hurricane” manufactured from 1990 to 2005. The shorter barreled Tempest model is the last of this historic British Webley design. read more