American Airguns Blog
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Weekend Shooting and My New Toy
Last weekend we had our local club field target match. Scott Pilkington and Buck Parson from Pilkington Competition Equipment LLC came down from Tennessee to shoot with us. Scott has been around the competition circles for years and it was interesting to shoot with him during the match.
I found out that PCE is going to start manufacturing a line of match pellets in the near future. Scott said that so much of the cost of pellets from overseas comes from the cost of shipping them over to the states. He has purchased a pellet making machine that will make 10 meter Olympic grade pellets comparable to the European quality. He also mentioned that once he gets the 10 meter pellet line established that he may venture into making a domed target pellet like the JSB or Barracuda pellets. That could be good news for use field targets shooters!
Scott and Buck brought along several used match air rifles and one Anschutz .22 match rifle. A Walther LGR caught my eye as I looked over his equipment. I took it over to the firing range and new I had to have it. The LGR is a single stroke pneumatic match rifle that was a contemporary of the FWB300. It has as cocking arm that is hinged at the rear of the action so that the arm opens to the butt of the rifle and then closes to the breech. To me this seems to work better than the modern SSP match rifles that open towards the barrel and close to the back of the breech.
The pellet is loaded directly into the breech via a flip up loading port. Since the rifle was designed as a match rifle and has match aperture sights, the loading port doesn’t have any affect on scope mounting. The sight rails were cut for a match sight so they aren’t long enough to mount a long scope.
After I got home from the match I took the rifle into the garage and put a few rounds into my 6m trap. It really shoots nice. One quick pump and then it barely moves when fired and with almost no noise. A simple little spit of air and the pellet is downrange. I shot one group from a rest that showed that the rifle was still capable of single hole groups. The trigger released really well but I still made a few adjustments to the weight and first stage length. The release was what you would expect from a match grade trigger.
Later that evening I mounted a short 6x scope on the LGR and had a go at shooting a 3/8” kill zone field target in my garage. I shot standing so it wasn’t a gimme but when I did my part the target fell. The next day I took it out to the back porch to see how it did at longer ranges. I found that it was sighted in around 30 yards so I loaded in some Crosman Premiers and JSB Express pellets and shot a few groups. At 30 yards from a sitting position it shot under a nickel sized group. That wasn’t from a rest and without lubing the pellets. I bet from a rest and with a touch of lube it would clover leaf without much difficulty.
I spend the next 45 minutes just shooting at stuff. Paintballs, shotgun shells, 9mm casings and even some silhouette targets. None of them gave me any trouble at the 30 yard distance. I decided to try my luck at 50 yards and aimed high on a 2” target I had on my 50 yard stand. Down it went, as did the next one and the next one and so forth and so on! With the stock designed for match shooting, I decided to try my luck with a couple of pig and ram silhouettes at the appropriate distances. When I did my part, the targets fell. I was having such a great time that I shot so long that I was physically tired when I quit shooting.
The LGR was just such a fun rifle to shoot and just enjoy the simple fun of shooting again. I shoot/practice with my FT rifle a lot but this was just fun shooting with no real purpose in mind. When I bought the rifle I wasn’t real sure if I should, now I don’t regret it one bit. I am glad that I bought this rifle from Scott. It ranks right up there with my FWB300 and R7 for fun, accurate shooting. Scott has used FWB300s, LGRs and other match rifles frequently so if you are thinking of buying one check out the used equipment on his website under the ‘Used’ tab. If you ever get the chance to shoot an LGR, you will enjoy the experience!!
I found out that PCE is going to start manufacturing a line of match pellets in the near future. Scott said that so much of the cost of pellets from overseas comes from the cost of shipping them over to the states. He has purchased a pellet making machine that will make 10 meter Olympic grade pellets comparable to the European quality. He also mentioned that once he gets the 10 meter pellet line established that he may venture into making a domed target pellet like the JSB or Barracuda pellets. That could be good news for use field targets shooters!
Scott and Buck brought along several used match air rifles and one Anschutz .22 match rifle. A Walther LGR caught my eye as I looked over his equipment. I took it over to the firing range and new I had to have it. The LGR is a single stroke pneumatic match rifle that was a contemporary of the FWB300. It has as cocking arm that is hinged at the rear of the action so that the arm opens to the butt of the rifle and then closes to the breech. To me this seems to work better than the modern SSP match rifles that open towards the barrel and close to the back of the breech. 
The pellet is loaded directly into the breech via a flip up loading port. Since the rifle was designed as a match rifle and has match aperture sights, the loading port doesn’t have any affect on scope mounting. The sight rails were cut for a match sight so they aren’t long enough to mount a long scope.After I got home from the match I took the rifle into the garage and put a few rounds into my 6m trap. It really shoots nice. One quick pump and then it barely moves when fired and with almost no noise. A simple little spit of air and the pellet is downrange. I shot one group from a rest that showed that the rifle was still capable of single hole groups. The trigger released really well but I still made a few adjustments to the weight and first stage length. The release was what you would expect from a match grade trigger.
Later that evening I mounted a short 6x scope on the LGR and had a go at shooting a 3/8” kill zone field target in my garage. I shot standing so it wasn’t a gimme but when I did my part the target fell. The next day I took it out to the back porch to see how it did at longer ranges. I found that it was sighted in around 30 yards so I loaded in some Crosman Premiers and JSB Express pellets and shot a few groups. At 30 yards from a sitting position it shot under a nickel sized group. That wasn’t from a rest and without lubing the pellets. I bet from a rest and with a touch of lube it would clover leaf without much difficulty.
I spend the next 45 minutes just shooting at stuff. Paintballs, shotgun shells, 9mm casings and even some silhouette targets. None of them gave me any trouble at the 30 yard distance. I decided to try my luck at 50 yards and aimed high on a 2” target I had on my 50 yard stand. Down it went, as did the next one and the next one and so forth and so on! With the stock designed for match shooting, I decided to try my luck with a couple of pig and ram silhouettes at the appropriate distances. When I did my part, the targets fell. I was having such a great time that I shot so long that I was physically tired when I quit shooting.
The LGR was just such a fun rifle to shoot and just enjoy the simple fun of shooting again. I shoot/practice with my FT rifle a lot but this was just fun shooting with no real purpose in mind. When I bought the rifle I wasn’t real sure if I should, now I don’t regret it one bit. I am glad that I bought this rifle from Scott. It ranks right up there with my FWB300 and R7 for fun, accurate shooting. Scott has used FWB300s, LGRs and other match rifles frequently so if you are thinking of buying one check out the used equipment on his website under the ‘Used’ tab. If you ever get the chance to shoot an LGR, you will enjoy the experience!!
