this is my first posting here, thanks to all who have contributed before and gave me valuable input.
One week ago I again made the mistake and visited the Kittery Trading Post. As usually I spent way more than what I've planned - one major reason was a 1000SB that caught my eye (together with a Beeman air pistol "designed and engineered in Germany" which I really can recommend, very accurate).
I sent a couple of hundred pellets through the 1000SB, did a lot of statistics regarding the grouping and decided that this air rifle could perform way better (in other words, I could do much better, standing offhands): The trigger pull is way too long, the recoil deadly to accuracy and the whole rifle some sort of muzzle-muzzle-muzzle-heavy and quite loud. It's probably the best buy in it's class, but there is a lot of potential for simple improvements.
Today I did the trigger job R. Sauer published on this forum. Thanks a lot for that great document!
Other than any recommendation, I did not stuff the stock with foam - I drilled a 10mm hole into the stock from the trigger case and filled it with (dry) concrete (powder).
Okay, the total weight now is 10 lbs, but get rid of that safety belt around the middle of your body and do some push-ups every morning and you can carry and handle a few more pounds easily.
The 1000SB is now well-balanced, the center of gravity now is two fingers in front of the trigger guard, most consider this as ideal.
The noise is gone - nothing takes away sound as good as pure mass.
The recoil... which recoil?? When I pull the trigger (which is a dream now, absolutely comparable to my Thompson Center), the shot breaks and the scope's cross hairs are still in place. Imagine that - you shoot your 1000SB and can watch the pellet cutting a hole into the target!
When I adjusted the trigger, checked the safety and the whole functionality after re-assembling the rifle, I fired the pellets more or less carelessly into a 1-gallon-container 20 metres away, just aiming somewhat at the center of that container. What I got: A 2,5cm group 4 inch below the center of the container, without any effort!
Obviously the muzzle jump from the recoil just went away, bringing the point of impact considerably down. Before that modifiaction, my best groups at 25 meters had a standard deviation of more that 3cm (groups of 70 or 80 cm) with proper aiming, breathing and so on.
As soon as the weather permits, I'll do some more serious target shooting to get comparable data about how much the groups shrunk.
Again, thanks to all who have shared their knowledge,
Scharfschuetze
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Way to go, Sniper! It's always good to hear from someone who makes a positive improvement on their 1000X. Mine holds a warm place in my heart because it's the only airgun of mine that has hit and killed a crow. I have yet to do Russ's trigger mod, or pull it apart for a lube and de-burr, but I'll eventually get to that so I can hopefully KILL MORE CROWS!
Bryan
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is meeting your expectations. Although they do require a little work to get there, they are fantastic guns for the money. I look forward to hearing more about your experiences with this gun.
Thanks for posting.
Russ S.
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I now punched a couple of hundred more holes into paper and another couple of hundred holes into defenseless cans and want to share my experiences.
My backyard range is 25m long, I shoot 10 shots into one target sheet (to get somewhat reliable statistics) and then measure the horizontal and vertical distance from a certain reference point (not the center of the target).
This data is then entered into a Calc-sheet and several statistical and algebraic functions are calculated to get the standard deviation, the group size, the klicks necessary to zero in the scope on the center of the target, the number of hits into the bullseye if the scope had been zeroed and so on.
Since everybody shoots .5 MOA groups online, I want to refrain from giving absolute data.
But here are some points that might help you in improving your shooting experience with the 1000SB:
- Doing the trigger job Russ documented is highly recommended. I am an engineer, but I never did gunsmithing before. It took me a couple of hours. My tip: The screws are made of very soft steel. Use your screwdriver with caution.
- Filling the stock with a heavy, silencing material (I used concrete powder) helps a lot: Much better balance, much less noise, nearly no recoil left: Shooting the 1000SB suddenly becomes comfortable. The 1000SB handles much better, the additionally gained weight is close to the body: Not heavy on the arm, the rifle still swings as good as before. The scope is not knocked out of zero any more. I guess the service life of the scope will be extended exponentially. My tip: If you use concrete powder, keep everything very dry, close the filling hole thoroughly (I used duck tape) and clean the stock with a lot of water and soap. Then dry it and rub it with any kind of oil to remove the ugly concrete dust.
- Try different types, brands and weights of pellets. Accuracy and point of impact is dependend on the weight as everybody knows, but to my experience much more depending on the specific pellet's geometry. A medium weight pellet which performs excellent in my Beeman P7 produces foot-wide groups in the 1000SB, another even lighter pellet performs good in both. Play around with it. I found that pellets that are easily inserted into the breech don't perform as good as pellets that have to be pushed into the breech with some force.
- Wind and rain: I shot several groups on pretty stormy days and did not see a big difference. When you are in an olympic competition with a 3500.- Feinwerkbau rifle, you might have a different view on this, but if you hunt with this 1000 fps airgun and don't hit, don't blame the weather :-)
- Temperature: The biggest influencing factor. When I stored the 1000SB in the garage at freezing temperatures I got a standard deviation 1.5 to 2 times larger than from the 1000SB at room temperature. Since we are talking about surface coverage with little holes, the difference in marksmanship between a cold and a warm 1000SB is a factor of 2.5 to 4 and that's a lot!
All in all, I am very happy with my Turkish 1000SB. With the 1000SB I get squirrels out of high trees even if I only see a leg. My APD (average plinking distance) changed to a minimum of 20m with this air rifle even for small objects. I already think about moving my favorite tin can (5 litres olive oil container) from 55m to something around 70 or 80m. My wife who shot the 1000SB today the first time hit that 55m/60yrds "one gallon" object with every shot.
My conclusion: The 1000SB is plain fun as long as it's fed with it's favorite pellets and kept warm enough. If you hunt or shoot a lot in cold weather, a springer like the 1000SB might have too many fast moving parts to be as accurate as under moderate conditions. The first ice-cold shot is usually 3 inches low at 25yards and then the grouping slowly climbs. If it's cold enough to make a squirrel freeze to the tree, you might hit it after a while - but I guess I have to discuss this technique in a shotgunning forum ;-)
Scharfschuetze
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NEVER FORGET: Only those who also defend the first amendment with their guns fully understood the second.
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for sharing your experiences with the 1000. Concerning the cold ambient operation, this is something that is encountered on all spring piston airguns to varying degrees. The synthetic seal hardens as the temperature drops and so do any lubes within the reciprocating assembly. As you shoot the gun the items warm and the seal improves and the lubes become more viscous. This is why I frown on the use of velocity tar in airgun tunes as it further compounds this problem. Sometimes applying a thin coat of moly to the compression area of the main tube will lessen the effects of this.
Good stuff, I hope you keep posting so we have the oportunity to learn more from your experiences.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Russ S.
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today I passed the range qualification test at the shooting club I joined recently. I now have access to a regular shooting range with benchrests and can do a more formal shooting.
First of all, it was funny to come to that range qualification test with the 1000SB. The other guys all produced their very manly smokepoles up to .308 and a 12gauge slug rifle, others shot monster revolvers that made my pants flutter from the muzzle blast. I shot in (nearly) silence a group at 25 yards that was as large as every single of their holes - I felt like a surgeon with a scalpel among logsplitters with their chainsaws :-)
See picture: http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2886422620102194895IBDhIO
Making use of the range, I also shot a group at 50 yards. Obvioulsy the 50 yards group is more than double the size of the 25 yards group, I guess that's because the scope is "only" 4x. That's a perfect magnitude for hunting and standing offhands, but for magic little groups from a benchrest a higher magnitude might be helpful?
But anyway, I am trying to improve my shooting skills in hunting situations, not from bench rests.
This is my private little shooting range in my yard.
* 25m target holder
* 40m 5 litres olive oil can
* 57m 1 gal Prestone coolant antifreeze
* 73m 3 litres washing machine detergent
* 81m small empty car / RV / boat fire extinguisher
The odd distances are a tribute to nature. Nature forgot in the past to place trees at distances of multiples of 10 metres. All shooting is done standing offhands.
My wife and I shot at the 57m target and found it a little boring, so we set up the 73 and 81m target. The 73m target still gets shot through, most of the pellets have enough energy to also exit the detergent container.
Out at nearly 100m it is hard to see if the target was hit, so it comes in handy that the fire extinguisher answers with a crystal clear high pitch PLINGGG a few moments after the shot. I hit the 81m target at a rate better than 75% (my wife doesn't hit it - finally the proof that I am the better shot!!).
This is a distance many consider at being at the edge for using a .22LR rifle. I'd say it's more than satisfying for an air rifle.
My conclusion: My modified 1000SB can't be bad. The Turkish know how to build a weapon. No wonder that they reached Vienna in 1529 and 1683 while the First Reich was weakened by religious wars and the pestilence ;-)
Scharfschuetze
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NEVER FORGET: Only those who also defend the first amendment with their guns fully understood the second.
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about someone else showing what these guns are capable of in the right hands. The fit and finish could be a bit better but you just can't beat these things for the money! Good for you that the wife shoots as well. Wish mine did. Heck, wouldn't even mind if she was better than me!
Nice job.
Russ S.
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