There are so many great airguns available right now it staggers the mind. The majority are sporter airguns meant for hunting or plinking. The designs coming out are interesting both as stock rifles and as potential hot rodders. They're all very accurate and they're all really nice. You could say they've grabbed our attention.

I've watched and read as many here (me included at various times) have purchased airgun after airgun. Sometimes the first hasn't arrived yet and the next model is already being considered.

Makes me wonder just how many almost new airguns will come onto the used market between now and tax time. I wouldn't be surprised if most of these near new looking airguns haven't been shot a thousand rounds.

Its the exact came game I found myself in a few years back. Buying airguns when the ones already here hardly got through the break in period. I can tell you there's a minty HW55 that's not even close to having been shot a thousand rounds.

Granted I thought I shot quite a bit. But how much better a shooter would I be had I stopped somewhere along the line and reevaluated what the point was that I should be after. More airguns kept coming in the door and that meant the beauties I already had were getting shot less and less all the time.

I caught myself in mid stream. Its more fun to shoot than collect. Pellets are a lot cheaper than the next desireable airgun. So the point came back to me. Shoot as often as possible with a select airgun, transfer what you know to the others. Slowly see if some of those airguns really need to be here anymore. Time will tell.

It dawned on me that a really solid ten meter rifle would teach me the most about the process of shooting. I measured out the range, got a decent pellet trap and bought quality match grade pellets. Oh, and lots of ten meter targets. A cheap ranging scope on a camera tripod gives me feedback from the line.

At first I was bad. I almost gave up. Posts and replies on the yellow forum kept my spirits up. Internet friends emailed with advice. I kept at it. Still, the process can be frustrating if the shooter lets it get to him. Ten meter air rifle is more than difficult. It shows you every mistake you make. It multiplies them when you start to tire at the line. Why then would I continue to beat myself up trying to shoot at lower competition levels?

The thing that keeps me at it:

I get a real kick out of hearing an airgun fire. Don't know why, but the process of the thing going off tickles the right nerves. My wife sees it as a kind of therapy. Something about the discipline of gaining total self control seems to steady my demeanor.

Dedication, time and patience. Those are the three things which seem to balance the scales to better shooting. Frustration kills it. In order to become a better shot than one is, one has to lay aside those emotions. Forcefully if necessary.

In the last few years I've realized that it may take as many as forty shots just to warm up. Its a proper frame of mind thing. Its also a mind over body thing. You have to settle down to shoot well. Self control. The mind clears, sometimes quickly, sometimes more slowly. You could say that the process of shooting, the airgun itself, is merely the vehicle I chose to get me in a better frame of mind overall. A form of meditation? I won't go that far but I'll bet someone reading here has already thought of it that way.

Once a shooter can settle into that state of relaxed control, its simply getting on target and placing the pellet. Simply. There's really nothing simple about it and dreaming that getting there means suddenly zinging each pellet into match target perfection just isn't going to happen hahaha.

No, what you're looking for is that state of mind. Control of body through unencumbered focus of the mind. Where the pellet went seems to become less important than reaching that mental frame of settled peace.

I shot poorly at first but I chose not to sweat it. Just enjoyed the process of shooting. It was fun no matter where the pellets flew.

As the calm moments during the shot process increase the shooting improves. I had to learn these points: Don't focus on any one thing. Just remember follow through. If the image in the sight line is close to what it was when the sear was released its good enough. That's the right track. But it takes time to get there. You really have to enjoy the shooting process of your airgun and just keep enjoying it no matter where the pellets fly. Dedication, time and patience.

Lastly, I want to say it seems possible to concentrate too hard. Focusing on one aspect of the shooting process almost always allows another aspect of the shooting process to fall out of line. You focus on trigger control and you forget to control some other part of the process. Get on target, allow yourself to enjoy that trigger as it breaks and make it a loose (at first) goal to have the samew sight picture as you did just before the shot was fired. The target in your sights is going to bobble and float no matter what. Unless you're so good you should be in competition, it just isn't going to be that perfect for forty rounds or more lol.

I do it for the enjoyment of the process. An art, really. I'll never be great. I wouldn't call myself good either. But it offers me a really neat vehicle to find that quiet place in my mind. In a very real sense ten meter shooting is a type of discipline. Peramters, oundaries. Self control,
meditation. Finally, peace.

Yes, its a mountain. But the view up here is incredible!

Harv

I really wanted to change that last paragraph.

It should read:

Yes, its a mountain. But the view gets better the higher you climb.

Ah, Harv...

How about "the higher you go, the higher you get!" lol

The Zen of airgunning.

D.

how to be accurate anymore. I thought I was until I let my wife shoot the 350 .22 today!

We set up 2 paper targets 20yds away with 1" bullseyes and large dark circles taking up most of the 8.5x11" paper. One was hers one was mine. 20yds is the closest tree on our back yard from our fenced-in area behind the house. We were within the fenced area and opened the back fense door. We were shooting through it at a 4-5" diameter long limb that had fallen a few days ago. That's where I taped the paper targets.

We were using CP's (die#7) w/the 350 free hand. Her 1st shot almost 1" high from the bullseye but she had the windage dead on! I told her to aim a little lower because I had it sighted in at 14yds for my indoor range and the pellet was still climbing at 20yds before leveling off probably around 30yds. I 'm thinking not bad for her 1st shot. Her 2nd shot right on the line of the bullseye! 3d shot on the bullseye line again but on the lower end of the 1" circle with her windage still dead on! She started getting tired holding the 8.5lb 350. I was sweating profusely by now

I took 5 shots at my paper and only 2 out of 5 touched the bullseye outter circle and they were the opposite sides of the bullseye circle - left & right. So my windage was off by 1". The other 3 were within 0.5" of the bullseye circle, mostly around the top. She took another 3 shots or so and 1 pellet was mostly inside the 1" (bullseye) circle still touching the line just a little! and the other 2 about 1/4-3/8" outside. I was like dang! she got the first true bullseye! It took me another 3-4 shots before I put one right next to hers mostly in the inner circle. She had 3 great shots out of 5 and I had 3 out of 8 or 9! She was ahead of me! She shot a couple more and went back in before I got the bipod. She came back out 20-30min. later and I had put at least another 12-15 pellets in the 1" bullseye (out of 30 or so?). I can definitely shoot better with that bipod than off hand, but my wife seems to shooter better off hand and it was mostly because I found out she held it very loosely and didn't even push it hard into her shoulder. I tend to put moderate pressure to my shoulder - maybe that's why I 'm not as accurate off hand. Anyway it looks like my wife kicked my butt by 1 out of 3 pellets of hers shot better than mine! I demanded a re-match tomorrow and asked her if she tells anyone anything she 's dead meat!

if you have kids don't make the same mistake as I did and put a chain link fence in your back yard to keep the children inside. I now have 10yds of fence behind the house, and another 19-20yds of lawn between fence and woods.

My back lawn is about ~29-30yds between house and the treeline. When my son was 3yrs old, it was my wife's idea to fence off an area the length of the house (~48ft) by 30ft (10yds) with 5' chain link fence so my son could play in it without us worrying about him running off somewhere and we could watch him from the rear windows of the house. Well by the time they are 5 they figure out how to unlock the doors which is not easy. They have to slide the notch back on the clip (swivel-like or key chain looking thingie) and remove it entirely from the hole of the door and the fence post. So anyway $1,700 out the window for <2yrs of use. Now I 'm stuck with this ugly looking chain link fence that's also hard to shoot squirrels when they 're walking outside on the grass along side of the fence, although I did get one between the openings in the links without hitting metal
Don't spend your $ on a small fence just for the sake of keeping the kids in. They cry when you leave anyway, or eventually figure out how to get out, unless you use a real lock pad which I wouldn't do because it would take a while to get it opened in case you had to run in there fast. So that the lesson for today boys & girls. We learn from our mistakes - always!

studied and pondered the book many years ago. Popped into my head
as I read your post Harv

I'm down to a small 'airsenal' now and I'm also down to being a
"springer dude". I've got lots and lots of pellets. Feels good!

My small 'airsenal' may seem odd, strange to those who have been
around awhile and know about many of the airguns I once owned.
Here's my 'airsenal':

2 QB6 .177 side-lever springers with barrels cut to 8". Both
with Beeman MBs and Millet SP-1 red-dots. Both tuned/tweaked
by me. Both like Beeman Silver Bear HPs (7.1 gr) and shoot them
quite accurately at 595 fps MV.

1 QB57 .177 side-lever springer with Beeman MB and Leapers 3-9x32
AO/MD scope. Shoots CPLs (7.9 gr.) quite accurately at 635 fps MV.
Also likes a few other pellets.

1 IZH MP513M .22 break-barrel springer with barrel cut to 12". It
has a Beeman MB and Millet SP-1 red-dot. Shoots CPs (14.3 gr) quite
accurately at 750 fps MV. Also likes several other pellets.

1 Webley & Scott Xocet .22 carbine break-barrel springer with JM Apex
MB and Leapers 6x BB AO/MD/IR scope. Shoots CPs (14.3 gr) quite accurately
at 650 fps MV. Also likes several other pellets.

1 Diana 460M .22 under-lever springer. Scoped with Leapers 3-9x32 AO/MD.
Shoots JSB E. Express (14.35 gr) quite accurately at 860 fps MV. Also likes
several other pellets.

1 Gamo Hunter Elite .177 break-barrel springer. Scoped with Leapers 3-9x32
AO/MD. Shoots CPLs (7.9 gr) quite accurately at 900 fps MV. Also likes
several other pellets.

I'm shooting and enjoying myself

Herb

Herb, you'll totally understand when I say that a mid powered sidelever is getting damn close to what I think the perfect rifle is. It would go a long way to explaining my deep interest in shooting the Diana 75. A sporter version such as a Diana 48 or 52 with just a little less oomph seems to be the ticket.

Or I could be dead wrong. We'll just have to see.

Harv