Sunday, June 04, 2006
The Benjamin
Sighting in my father's Benjamin took a little time.
Unlike my two airrifles, both of which are spring-piston, the Benjamin is a pneumatic airrifle. Pneumatic rifles are a lot easier to shoot because there is absolutely no recoil whatsoever. Spring-pistons tend to snap and cause jarring. Because a pellet is moving so slow, the recoil can actually affect your point of impact. Follow-through is absolutely necessary. I've run into hard-core air guys (mostly British) that find a spring-piston airrifle to be more challenging than a .30 caliber bolt.
Regardless, the Benjamin is old school. It has a bolt, single-shot action, and pumps with the forward handguard.
My problem sighting it stemmed from the fact that I had previously fucked up the sights. It's an old, solid design, but with that comes old, weird sights that I didn't understand at the time. On top of that, I've been shooting like shit for several weeks, so my groups were less than indicative of the rifle.
Below is what I shot after 3 other groups. The point of aim was the bottom of the red diamond, so I figure it's about alright.
I should also mention that the Old Man uses this rifle to kill Scrub Jays in his suburban backyard. The rifle maxes at 800 fps and I was probably firing at 400. These are good speeds to be using a .177 pellet in an urban environment.
Listen to the link for Scrub Jays and see if you would like to be woken up by that at 5:00 in the morning.
Unlike my two airrifles, both of which are spring-piston, the Benjamin is a pneumatic airrifle. Pneumatic rifles are a lot easier to shoot because there is absolutely no recoil whatsoever. Spring-pistons tend to snap and cause jarring. Because a pellet is moving so slow, the recoil can actually affect your point of impact. Follow-through is absolutely necessary. I've run into hard-core air guys (mostly British) that find a spring-piston airrifle to be more challenging than a .30 caliber bolt.
Regardless, the Benjamin is old school. It has a bolt, single-shot action, and pumps with the forward handguard.
My problem sighting it stemmed from the fact that I had previously fucked up the sights. It's an old, solid design, but with that comes old, weird sights that I didn't understand at the time. On top of that, I've been shooting like shit for several weeks, so my groups were less than indicative of the rifle.
Below is what I shot after 3 other groups. The point of aim was the bottom of the red diamond, so I figure it's about alright.
I should also mention that the Old Man uses this rifle to kill Scrub Jays in his suburban backyard. The rifle maxes at 800 fps and I was probably firing at 400. These are good speeds to be using a .177 pellet in an urban environment.
Listen to the link for Scrub Jays and see if you would like to be woken up by that at 5:00 in the morning.
