Posted by mako on August 22, 2001 at 01:36:36:
Can one get valid
ammo/grouping feedback by shooting a pistol off of a sandbag or one of those
plastic pistol rests? I'm talking about a free pistol at 50 meters or standard
pistol at 25 meters.
Five shot groups ... how many five shot groups. Should
one clean and shoot in a barrel between types of ammo. How many shots to shot in
a cleaned barrel...
Posted by RML on August 22, 2001 at 03:58:05: No, sandbags etc. does
not sound like a good idea. If you change the angle by moving the front or the
back of the pistol only 0.5 mm, that means 6 cm (more than two inches) on the
target at 25 meters. I even had problems testing .22's in a Ransom Rest. If the
plates of the rest did not fit the frame of the pistol 100 percent, it would
show on the group.
For air and .22, I now use a wise for ammo-testing. But
even with a wise we had problems testing a Hammerli SP20, because the paint on
the barrel weight made it difficult to make it stable in the wise (without
leaving ugly marks on the pistol, off course).
5 shoot groups is not enough
when testing reasonably good ammo. With 5 shoots, you may be lucky, and the ammo
looks better than it is. Use 20 or 30 shoot groups to decide the best batch
(really bad ammo will, off course, be possible to find with 5 shoot
groups).
I have tried to clean the barrel very carefully between each batch
of ammo. I then fired 5 shoots with the new batch before the groups (10 shoot
groups). There was an indication that the second and third 10-shoot string
produced a better group than the first, but the difference was not enough to
make any conclusions (I should have fired more than 10 shoots...). This could,
however, indicate that 10 to 15 shoots should be fired after cleaning the barrel
and before shooting the test-group. This would also make sense, because we would
like to test our ammo in the same conditions as when we shoot a
competition.
And the barrel is not clean when shooting competitions....
RML
Posted by mako on August 22, 2001 at 04:36:47:
I use a vise for testing
my AP's, see LINK below, but it doesn't seem like one can really do much with
our limited addition target pistols unless one really once to go through the
trouble of making up ransom rest "holders." At our "local" (local for Los
Angeles, 45 minute drive one way) Prado Olympic range there is a Ransom Rest set
up ... if one has the inserts. :-(
Posted by RML on August 22, 2001 at 11:04:03:
I got some of the new Eley
Tenex Ultimate today, and plan to test it in my Pardini SP22 later this week.
I'll make some pictures of our test-rig and put them on the web. RML
Posted by mako on August 22, 2001 at 13:18:38:
Keep us informed with text
and photos. That's exactly what I'm doing ... testing a new Pardini SP and a
Walther GSP. What does your Pardini like so far.... ?
Posted by RML on August 22, 2001 at 15:45:51:
My Pardini seems to be OK
with most kinds of ammo, but RWS R50 has been the best so far.
But mostly I
use Eley ammo, with Eley Target Pistol being the practice ammo (not to expensive
and good groups).
RML
Posted by mako on August 22, 2001 at 20:36:44:
Do you find the Eley wax
gums things up...
Posted by RML on August 23, 2001 at 08:42:47:
I have had no problems with
the wax on the Eley ammo, and I have used it for years in both Pardini and FAS.
Actually, it makes the barrel easier to clean. I tried to shoot my Pardini SP22
without cleaning it, to see how long it would be working OK (using Eley Target
Pistol). After about 2000 shoots I got the first malfunction. I find this
acceptable.
Posted by Jerry on August 22, 2001 at 08:38:15:
Heh,heh, you can always
tell when people are from the LA area, they always state how "long" it takes to
go somewhere as opposed to how "far" the destination is...
--Jerry
Posted by mako on August 22, 2001 at 13:16:53:
It's true ... I wonder why
that is? Perhaps because even fairly close destinations can take a while,
especially with the ever worsening traffic.
Posted by David M on August 22, 2001 at 18:04:29:
No, sandbags are a
quick way to test only. To test with a sandbag a good sighting system is needed,
i.e. a scope mounted on the pistol.
Testing in a rest is the best way to go.
I use a rest similar to a ransom and build grips or inserts for each pistol,
time consuming but you need them if you want to get reasonable results.
Also
if you a Vice to barrel clamp a pistol, protect the finish on the pistol with
thin leather inserts on the jaws (car wash chamois works well), or better
replace the jaws with nylon jaws.
The rest will only be as good as its
foundation; it is no good mounting it on a wobbly table. Some clubs have a
concrete block for mounting the rests.
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