American Airguns Blog
Friday, December 02, 2005
Clickity Clack
I was looking at a Central Texas Airgun Club website the other day, they have a nice simple Excel spreadsheet that calculates trajectory for field target. One thing that it calculates is the click value for a given distance. Clicks are a funny thing. Most scopes are rated for a number of clicks at a 100 yards to move the crosshairs a minute of angle (MOA). It is very common for the MOA to be equated to 1" since the value of a MOA at 100 yards is approximately 1.0472 inches. For most applications, 1" is a close enough approximation.
However, for us anal types, the difference can't be ingnored. For me, the only time it really matters is for Field Target competition. I have uses a computer program to calculate the trajectory of my rifle for years. Most programs will calculate the click setting for distance and the difference between 1" and 1.0472" can make a difference in the click setting of the turret. Albeit, the difference may only be 3 or 4 clicks at 50 yards which amounts to about the height of a pellet but, hey, it may as well be right. My Bushnell 6-24x scopes are 1/8 MOA which equates to .131" per click at 100 yards.
Not all scopes actually perform to the rated clicks though so it is important to check the scope to be sure it really is 1/4 or 1/8 MOA before using those values in a trajectory program. If you don't, the values may not match very closely to the program output. The old Burris 8-32x RA scope were pretty bad in that respect, I had two of them years ago and both were about 1/6 MOA. Most scope are usually pretty close to the rated value and it really only makes a difference if you plan to shoot competition or change settings in the field.
However, for us anal types, the difference can't be ingnored. For me, the only time it really matters is for Field Target competition. I have uses a computer program to calculate the trajectory of my rifle for years. Most programs will calculate the click setting for distance and the difference between 1" and 1.0472" can make a difference in the click setting of the turret. Albeit, the difference may only be 3 or 4 clicks at 50 yards which amounts to about the height of a pellet but, hey, it may as well be right. My Bushnell 6-24x scopes are 1/8 MOA which equates to .131" per click at 100 yards.
Not all scopes actually perform to the rated clicks though so it is important to check the scope to be sure it really is 1/4 or 1/8 MOA before using those values in a trajectory program. If you don't, the values may not match very closely to the program output. The old Burris 8-32x RA scope were pretty bad in that respect, I had two of them years ago and both were about 1/6 MOA. Most scope are usually pretty close to the rated value and it really only makes a difference if you plan to shoot competition or change settings in the field.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Holiday Fun
I managed to spend some time over the weekend playing with my airgun targets and shooting a bit. We had a very nice Thanksgiving and I ate a good bit of turkey. I saw a very interesting TX200 on my classified ads page that had a Dragon target stock and contiplated buying it but, alas, I was too slow and another airgunner got it. I kept the pictures of the stock, it was beautiful but the thing I noticed most about it was the way the forearm was slanted and not flat like most other target stocks. I thought this very interesting so I decided to try a slant on my FT rifle.
I took a piece of 2x4 and cut it to about a 10 degree angle and taped it to my red target stock. I ran out back to give it a try and found that it seemed to offer a bit more control of the rifle. One nice thing with the slanted forearm is that I could slide forward or backwards on the forearm to raise or lower the aim point. It was an interesting experiment and I may make a removable piece to fit the stock and try it for a while.
Over the weekend I also managed to get some time playing with a couple of my targets. Since it was the end of the shooting season for our club I had all of my targets sitting on the garage floor. So I took the opportunity to sort through them all and sort out any that needed some attention. I reorganized them all and put them away. I now have a whole bunch of targets sitting on shelves in my garage! I still have whole shelf full of wood targets I made about 8 years ago.
I found an old gravity fall target and decided to try a new target design that Wade Sutherland turned me on to. This design is the same basic design as my wood target design(http://www.airguns.net/woodtarg.html) except that instead of having a spring from the face to the base the spring is placed from the rear back bottom of the target arm to the face. I tried this design on an old prarie dog target and it worked out really well. The nice thing with this design is that a reset string doesn't have to go through the face plate to the paddle arm. The face can be pulled up and the spring will pull up the paddle arm. I may write more on this target later after I test it some more.
All and all it has been a fun holiday weekend. I had a good 4 days off for the holiday, I had to work a bit around the house but I didn't have to go shopping! And to top it all off I got to play with my toys!
I took a piece of 2x4 and cut it to about a 10 degree angle and taped it to my red target stock. I ran out back to give it a try and found that it seemed to offer a bit more control of the rifle. One nice thing with the slanted forearm is that I could slide forward or backwards on the forearm to raise or lower the aim point. It was an interesting experiment and I may make a removable piece to fit the stock and try it for a while.
Over the weekend I also managed to get some time playing with a couple of my targets. Since it was the end of the shooting season for our club I had all of my targets sitting on the garage floor. So I took the opportunity to sort through them all and sort out any that needed some attention. I reorganized them all and put them away. I now have a whole bunch of targets sitting on shelves in my garage! I still have whole shelf full of wood targets I made about 8 years ago.
I found an old gravity fall target and decided to try a new target design that Wade Sutherland turned me on to. This design is the same basic design as my wood target design(http://www.airguns.net/woodtarg.html) except that instead of having a spring from the face to the base the spring is placed from the rear back bottom of the target arm to the face. I tried this design on an old prarie dog target and it worked out really well. The nice thing with this design is that a reset string doesn't have to go through the face plate to the paddle arm. The face can be pulled up and the spring will pull up the paddle arm. I may write more on this target later after I test it some more.
All and all it has been a fun holiday weekend. I had a good 4 days off for the holiday, I had to work a bit around the house but I didn't have to go shopping! And to top it all off I got to play with my toys!
