Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i Airgun Shooter

HUNTING SPRINGTIME SHOOTING HUNTING & FIELDCRAFT Winter can provide some good grey squirrel shooting while the woodland is stark and bare. However, I must confess that after a few months I yearn for the change in seasons. The arrival of spring is always welcome and is a lovely time to be out in the woods. The dreary atmosphere of the winter is transformed into a place full of new life. The songbirds are busy and noisy, and the glorious carpet of bluebells can be a sight to behold. At this time in the year, it is an experience worth having. As stunning as it can be, for the airgunner looking to continue keeping the pressure on the grey squirrels this period also poses some challenges. One challenge is that once…

AIRGUN SHOOTER PRENTS TARGET SHOOTER INSIGHT AND EXPERTISE TO HELP YOU RAISE YOUR GAME SUPPORTED SHOTS What's the best type of support for shooting benchrest? It's the one you can afford, argues Andy McLachlan Considering the vast number of airgun clubs that are available for us all to make use of these days, it should come as no surprise to anyone to discover that the majority of shooters will be involved in either formal or informal supported shooting activities. By supported, I mean that a suitable bench, either indoors or out, offers the individual the best and usually the most comfortable means of fully supporting their rifle. This in turn allows them to get the maximum accuracy from their chosen combination. Having spent half a century shooting mostly outdoors and…

VINTAGE AIRGUNS FEATURE TELL II The Tell II is possibly the smallest spring airgun ever made, and almost certainly the cutest! At 5.4in long and weighing only 13oz, the clever concentric design of this little pistol means that it can still accommodate a 5in .177 barrel. It was made by Venus Waffenwerk (Venus Weapon Works) from around 1927 to 1936 in the German region now known as Zella-Mehlis, famous for gunmaking and where Walther and Anschutz both originated. The top of the cylinder bears the rolled-in inscription ‘DRGM Tell II DRP’. Either side of the model name is a logo combining the letters V and W for Venus Waffenwerk. DRGM indicates a form of design registration, while DRP signifies patent protection and appears on many German airguns of this period. There's…

Last time we looked at the time-consuming preparation necessary to underpin a stock-refinishing project, but now we progress to the visibly rewarding stages, completing the work and creating a finish that will help to preserve the wood for years to come. WOOD STAINING You may be happy with the colour of the wood. During the sanding stage, when the stock was wetted to de-whisker it, the wood would have given you an idea of the final colour if the stock is not stained. But if you wish to darken the wood or change the colour, there are wood dyes available. If the stock is made of walnut, then you can use a spirit dye or a water-based dye. If it is a beech stock you should use a water-based dye,…

There's an ongoing debate about whether it's better to learn to shoot with a PCP, but for many people a spring piston rifle is where they'll begin – and for others that's all they'll ever want or need. The BSA Comet has fulfilled this latter role for decades, and the tradition continues with the very latest incarnation of this venerable springer, the Comet SE. As we saw recently with the Meteor Super, BSA has brought the production of its springers back to Britain, or more precisely back to Birmingham, which is glorious news. The rifle on test here is in .22 calibre, wears a synthetic stock and comes equipped with open sights with fibre-optic inserts, orange at the front and green at the rear. Interestingly, the muzzle has been threaded…

TESTING STATION FIELD TEST HAWKE VANTAGE RED DOT KEY SPECS MANUFACTURER: Hawke Sport Optics (hawkeoptics.com) MODEL: Vantage Red Dot PRICE: RRP £99 LENGTH: 69mm WEIGHT: 120g MOUNT: Weaver I ‘ve long been interested in red dots as an alternative to the traditional telescopic sight for specialist applications, but to be blunt most of those on offer in the past were poor performers and badly made. In their defence they were cheap, but not what I was hoping for. This was true for me in airgun handgun competition use. If you were really rich you could buy an American-made sight designed for combat use, but at well over £300 they were not in my league, so I searched far and wide for one that would suit my needs and my pocket, with…

THE GUN ROOM Before World War II, EM-GE was owned by Moritz & Gerstenberger based in Zella-Mehlis, Thuringia, a prominent gunmaking region in Germany, and it was there that the distinctive Zenit pistol originated. Post-war, Gerstenberger & Eberwein owned the EM-GE trademark with the factory now in Gerstetten-Gussenstadt in West, rather than East, Germany. From the 1950s, the air pistol produced was a very different design. Instead of an all-steel and walnut product, the LP3 adopted a modern approach with zinc alloy die castings in evidence. The shaped grips were plastic mouldings. The barrel comprised a rifled steel tube threaded into an alloy casing. Even the piston was made of zinc alloy. That said, as long as it was handled and maintained with mechanical sympathy, it was a capable and…

Many people will tell you that the Red Wolf is one of the most accurate guns you can buy, which explains its popularity in benchrest-style competitions. Its mapped compensated technology (MCT) can deliver accuracy at long range every time while eliminating the power curve that can cause problems in lesser actions. However, competitors will always want to take their guns further to squeeze just a little bit more performance from them, which is why Daystate has teamed up with Precision Rifle Systems (PRS) which has designed a machined metal chassis. This offers an incredible range of adjustments to truly customise the stock to your own physique and competition needs. Pairing the best action to a super stock is how the Red Wolf Grand Prix was born. At around £3,500 this…

FIRST IMPRESSIONS The ever-creative team at The Shooting Party have excelled themselves with excitement about their latest product, JTS Dead Center .22 pellets. They explained that a new team at JTS has created a proprietary manufacturing process that they reckon will make the best pellets you can buy. They believe this is the next step in the evolution of pellet manufacturing. This unique process produces very clean pellets, aiding consistency and therefore accuracy, and feel sure that this is a big step forward. They also worked on making them compatible with as many types of airgun as possible, from a simple break-barrel sporter to a top-end competition PCP. Only time will tell if they live up to the hype after testing has been completed, but they look very neat and…

Whenever I speak to readers, the number one topic is always airgun hunting. It seems every shooter I meet wants to get into the field and be involved, but with the freedom to hunt comes responsibility. The first thing to remember is that ALL birds are protected by the law – unless they appear on one of the general licences issued by the Government. To be clear, if you shoot any bird that does not appear on that list you are breaking the law and could well receive punishment if caught. Each year, they will look at the situations where birds are causing problems and agree on the appropriate actions. For us, that means being legally able to own an airgun and having the written permission of the landowner to…

Readers often email me to ask my advice about whether they should buy this air rifle or that, and while it's great to see people reach out for someone else's opinion, it remains just that – an opinion. Of course there's the usual raft of factual data that I can give, especially if it's a rifle that I've reviewed here in Airgun Shooter. I can quote things like a rifle's dimensions, its point of balance – at least with a certain scope on top – and its weight, and can offer my findings about an airgun's accuracy potential. What's harder to do, because it's so very personal, is talk about how an airgun touches my soul. I have a good friend who can really relate to me on this matter.…

TARGET SHOOTER SCOPE SELECTION Those of us who have been shooting with rifles of one sort or another over the years will have often faced the dilemma of finding a suitable scope to balance the rifle, allowing the user to make the most of the inherent accuracy of their chosen combination. Let's face it, there are many variables that mean we cannot choose just one scope to do everything. There's also the fact that if like me you own numerous rifles that all require some form of sighting system, you will have to put your hand in your pocket to fund the acquisition of suitable optics for the intended application. When you have collected an armoury of guns as I and many of my friends have done over the decades, this…

VINTAGE AIRGUNS FEATURE REBUILDING A WEIHRAUCH HW35E I have a dear friend called Charlie who has a rather large garden that he loves dearly. He has pretty areas full of flowers and patios, another of fruit trees and a very large vegetable patch. What he also has is an overabundance of squirrels that come in from an adjacent wood. The damage they cause drives him mad, and he was keen to find a way to reduce their numbers just as fast as he could. He asked me to lend him an airgun, but not having confidence in his gun-handling skills I dodged the subject. However, another pal offered him one, and that's where this happy story really begins. His mate owns a lovely Weihrauch HW35E, the gun of my dreams as…

BARREL CLEANING MEET YOUR TEAM OF AIRGUN ADVISORS MIKE MORTON EDITOR Mike taps into his vast reservoir of airgun expertise and gets stuck into answering questions about barrel cleaning, wooden stocks and range estimation RAY GARNER RAY's been there, seen it and done it, but while he enjoys shooting older airguns, he's got a taste for more modern hardware too PHIL HOOPER PHIL loves maintaining, restoring and shooting older airguns, particularly pistols, and this time offers some tips for tweaking an HW45 Q I've read a lot about barrel cleaning in this magazine and elsewhere, and am left more than a little confused. There look to be so many different ways to go about it and some people don't appear to do it at all. Surely there's a ‘best’ way?…

GET A GRIP! Daystate's Aim Grip is a novel bipod that looks like the perfect accessory for the current crop of bullpups in both form and function. It's been designed and built to be both lightweight and heavy-duty. The construction is all carbon fibre and aluminium alloy, so looks just right on bullpups. The legs can be extended from 165mm to 216mm, yet it weighs just 434g, so won't affect the rifle's balance too much, plus many bullpups benefit from a bit more forward weight anyway. “IT UTILISES THE UNIVERSALLY POPULAR PICATINNY RAIL SYSTEM” Where the Aim Grip stands out from the crowd is in its central vertical grip, which can double up as a monopod when you're really in a hurry to get a shot off. This style of…

Some years ago I chose to go down the route of applying for a Firearm Certificate with my local police force so that I could for the very first time exceed the 12 ft-lb limit. Like many airgun hunters, I was keen to know just what all that extra power could deliver. I assumed the difference would be like night and day, but that was far from the truth. As a journalist, I also applied to become a registered firearms dealer (RFD), which meant that manufacturers and importers could send me airguns at any power level, and I wasted no time in testing any and all of the high-power guns that were offered to me. Some were .22, some .25 calibre, then .30 arrived, then .35 solid slugs came along…

TARGET SHOOTER COMPETITION Well, if you haven't heard, I went to EBR courtesy of Airguns of Arizona last year, and boy did I have a blast! Now this was totally new to me, because I am used to shooting Hunter Field Target and have been lucky enough to shoot my beloved HFT all over the world. EBR, on the other hand, is held in Phoenix, and that is an amazing place to go. Firstly, it's hot, and I mean really hot! When I arrived I was greeted with 32°C temperatures right off the bat. Even the airport was incredibly hot, and I don't think the air conditioning was working at all. But despite all the physical discomfort I was feeling due to the heat, I am counting the hours until I…

There is a great deal of satisfaction to be had from taking a worn rifle stock and refinishing it superbly, but there are pitfalls for the unwary. As with many such jobs, preparation, patience and attention to detail are essential for a professional result that you can be proud of. I am still learning, but I hope that the following advice, based on my own experience, will help you achieve this, and these techniques work just as well on modern wooden stocks as vintage. My first venture into this activity was many years ago, when I restored my Dad's boyhood Haenel air rifle. This was followed up by doing the same with Grandad's .410 ‘poachers’ folding shotgun (which, incidentally, accounted for my first rabbit) and later my BSA 12/15 .22RF…

TESTING STATION FIELD TEST ACCUMAX S1 Whatever sophisticated technology has come along in the world of airguns, the break-barrel springer is still the top choice for anybody looking to get started in shooting. They have many lovely features to offer those just wanting to give airguns a try. They're simple, reliable, easy to understand and often inexpensive. We see all those features in the Accumax S1 on test, with a few appealing extras to make it even more desirable. First appearances are striking, with the deep finger grooves on the pistol grip being notable alongside the angled slots in the ambidextrous cheekpiece. This slopes down towards the rubber butt pad. However, I found that it was set at exactly the right height for me when using the novel open sights. KEY…

TESTING STATION PELLET TEST JTS DEAD CENTER If you carry out a generic internet search for airgun pellets, you'll come across an incredible number of different makes and types. However, when it comes to finding truly high-quality airgun pellets, the results are far fewer. But while most of the airgun pellets that serious shooters use come from a handful of manufacturers, one Chinese brand, QYS, has managed to muscle its way onto the list, and I think I've just discovered another in the shape of the Dead Center pellet from JTS. JTS is based in the city of Katy in Texas, and works in partnership with The Shooting Party here in the UK. JTS is the company that recently gave us the Airacuda Max PCP, and is now offering Dead Center…