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Went into the city, this afternoon, to shovel sidewalks at the house on Mooney Avenue. Some areas of Central New York got up to 40" of snow from the big storm, but that was probably at higher elevations such as in the "Tug Hill Plateau" region.
Around here, we probably got around 15-18." Not too bad, but definitely the densest, most moisture-laden snow we've gotten this year and therefore the heaviest. It was definitely a workout and so I felt justified, tonight, in skipping my daily fitness routine.
While I was there, however, I retrieved the old Crossman pump-up air rifle that I'd gotten for the two older girls some thirty-odd years ago. It's the only one, of the several we had, that my son didn't manage to steal and probably sell to support his pill habit. But do, please, pardon my sentimental digression down memory lane.
Anyway, it was sitting on a shelf or ledge on the front basement wall, old, rusted, and maybe just unnoticed, and so I brought it home. I did try it, to see if it could still be pumped-up and, at least theoretically, fired and everything appeared to work.
Yesterday, my son-in-law had a rare Saturday off and my daughter came over, ostensibly to do some paperwork for her mother's estate, when we decided to get out the new Benjamin Trail NP-2, "just to look at it," but somehow ended up going to the basement to actually try it out on our not-yet-completed target range.
We'd been planning some semi-scientific ballistic tests to find out which material might be useable, and how much of it might be needed, for backing if we used the old, homemade target box instead of waiting for the one that's been placed on back-order at PyramydAir until freakin' June 6th. (Not their fault but I'm, you know, anxious, lol.)
I had painstakingly cut about 30 pieces of corrugated cardboard to exactly fit a paper grocery bag but, having heard that the BT's .22 pellets would go completely through a sheet of 3/4" plywood--and then embed in whatever was behind it--I was a bit skeptical of our chances with the cardboard, even though a grocery bag is a full 7" from front to back.
However, because she and I tend to jokingly "egg each other on" when we're sharing these adventures, we set the bag up in the target box, leaned a half-sheet of 3/4" plywood against the non-ballistic curtain (actually carpeting) behind the box and let one fly.
I had previously said that I was going to give her the honor of taking the ceremonial first shot with the new gun, but then added that if anything bad happened I could then tell the cops, with a straight face, that my daughter had done it, lol. At that, she laughed and insisted that, no, the honor was all mine.
So I sent one downrange--all of 25' from muzzle to face of target--and then, not having heard anything like lead hitting the basement wall, we walked down for the "observation" part of our experiment.
In fact, we found the target box and back of the bag intact and, upon counting the cardboard pieces stacked inside of it, found the pellet protruding from the back of the 20th piece. Which gave us a margin of about 10 more before it came out the back of the bag.
After that, we did one more experiment using a piece of the 3/4" industrial stair tread that I'd found on sale at Home Depot and was considering stacking inside the target box in place of the bags full of newspaper or cardboard. The only thing was, I was uncertain about what the pellet would do once it hit the tread, which is very dense and made out of recycled car and truck tires.
Once again, I offered Beck the first shot and once again she deferred to her probably not-too-bright father, lol. My concern was owing to the fact that I'd actually been looking for a heavier but less-dense material which would, as the cardboard had done, absorb the round to a certain depth before stopping it. The question being, would it ricochet off the tread and come back at us?
After joking about building a cement block firing position in the basement, or at least hiding behind the washing machine to do this safely, she covered up, I put on my safety glasses, and let another one fly, this time at several thicknesses of the heavy-duty stair treads.
Upon inspection, we found that the pellet had fully embedded in the first layer of stair tread. Which means I'll probably use those, stacked inside the target box, as a more durable and lower-maintenance alternative to the laboriously cut and stacked cardboard.
After that, it was totally "playtime"--as if we'd been hard at work before that, lol--and we took turns shooting at the stick-on targets I'd gotten at Wal-Mart.
One thing we quickly discovered was that the sighting-in that I'd paid for either hadn't been done properly or had been degraded during shipping. Our groupings were fine--both shooting within quarter- to half dollar-sized groups--but all were consistently low and to the right. (To be fair, another possibility might be the difference in the pellets used during the "sighting-in" compared to what we're using now.)
The scope, a decent but lower-priced 3-9x30 CenterPoint, which I'd thought about upgrading before it was shipped, doesn't have the more precise mil-dot reticle, and this makes it harder to exactly compensate for windage and elevation once you're in the field--or anywhere that you don't have a bench stand to hold the gun exactly in position after the test shot.
However, we each managed our first bull's-eye with "Benny," just compensating by eye. We shared a laughing "high-five" after we'd both accomplished that, lol.
The other thing we discovered, before either of us had even taken our first shot, was that the cocking effort needed to compress the nitro-piston spring, which powers each shot, is no joke.
I had chosen this gun specifically because, while highly rated, it was spec-ed at 28 pounds cocking effort--the lowest in its class--and I wanted something that an old guy, and maybe the grandkids, could easily handle.
Turns out, my daughter and I can just about manage it but there's no way that an 8- or 10-year-old is going to. Hence the pick-up, and contemplated refurbishment, of the old Crossman.
In anticipation of which, I spent my unused workout time, tonight, running to Wally-World to pick up cleaning patches, 80-pound test fishing line to draw them through the bore, gun oil, and .177 pellets, as well as metal bluing for the outside of the barrel which is badly rusted.
And that, my friends, along with rebuilding and painting the target box and designing and building a permanent shooting station, should keep me out of trouble for at least a day or two...
LPK
Dreamwidth
3.4.2018
Around here, we probably got around 15-18." Not too bad, but definitely the densest, most moisture-laden snow we've gotten this year and therefore the heaviest. It was definitely a workout and so I felt justified, tonight, in skipping my daily fitness routine.
While I was there, however, I retrieved the old Crossman pump-up air rifle that I'd gotten for the two older girls some thirty-odd years ago. It's the only one, of the several we had, that my son didn't manage to steal and probably sell to support his pill habit. But do, please, pardon my sentimental digression down memory lane.
Anyway, it was sitting on a shelf or ledge on the front basement wall, old, rusted, and maybe just unnoticed, and so I brought it home. I did try it, to see if it could still be pumped-up and, at least theoretically, fired and everything appeared to work.
Yesterday, my son-in-law had a rare Saturday off and my daughter came over, ostensibly to do some paperwork for her mother's estate, when we decided to get out the new Benjamin Trail NP-2, "just to look at it," but somehow ended up going to the basement to actually try it out on our not-yet-completed target range.
We'd been planning some semi-scientific ballistic tests to find out which material might be useable, and how much of it might be needed, for backing if we used the old, homemade target box instead of waiting for the one that's been placed on back-order at PyramydAir until freakin' June 6th. (Not their fault but I'm, you know, anxious, lol.)
I had painstakingly cut about 30 pieces of corrugated cardboard to exactly fit a paper grocery bag but, having heard that the BT's .22 pellets would go completely through a sheet of 3/4" plywood--and then embed in whatever was behind it--I was a bit skeptical of our chances with the cardboard, even though a grocery bag is a full 7" from front to back.
However, because she and I tend to jokingly "egg each other on" when we're sharing these adventures, we set the bag up in the target box, leaned a half-sheet of 3/4" plywood against the non-ballistic curtain (actually carpeting) behind the box and let one fly.
I had previously said that I was going to give her the honor of taking the ceremonial first shot with the new gun, but then added that if anything bad happened I could then tell the cops, with a straight face, that my daughter had done it, lol. At that, she laughed and insisted that, no, the honor was all mine.
So I sent one downrange--all of 25' from muzzle to face of target--and then, not having heard anything like lead hitting the basement wall, we walked down for the "observation" part of our experiment.
In fact, we found the target box and back of the bag intact and, upon counting the cardboard pieces stacked inside of it, found the pellet protruding from the back of the 20th piece. Which gave us a margin of about 10 more before it came out the back of the bag.
After that, we did one more experiment using a piece of the 3/4" industrial stair tread that I'd found on sale at Home Depot and was considering stacking inside the target box in place of the bags full of newspaper or cardboard. The only thing was, I was uncertain about what the pellet would do once it hit the tread, which is very dense and made out of recycled car and truck tires.
Once again, I offered Beck the first shot and once again she deferred to her probably not-too-bright father, lol. My concern was owing to the fact that I'd actually been looking for a heavier but less-dense material which would, as the cardboard had done, absorb the round to a certain depth before stopping it. The question being, would it ricochet off the tread and come back at us?
After joking about building a cement block firing position in the basement, or at least hiding behind the washing machine to do this safely, she covered up, I put on my safety glasses, and let another one fly, this time at several thicknesses of the heavy-duty stair treads.
Upon inspection, we found that the pellet had fully embedded in the first layer of stair tread. Which means I'll probably use those, stacked inside the target box, as a more durable and lower-maintenance alternative to the laboriously cut and stacked cardboard.
After that, it was totally "playtime"--as if we'd been hard at work before that, lol--and we took turns shooting at the stick-on targets I'd gotten at Wal-Mart.
One thing we quickly discovered was that the sighting-in that I'd paid for either hadn't been done properly or had been degraded during shipping. Our groupings were fine--both shooting within quarter- to half dollar-sized groups--but all were consistently low and to the right. (To be fair, another possibility might be the difference in the pellets used during the "sighting-in" compared to what we're using now.)
The scope, a decent but lower-priced 3-9x30 CenterPoint, which I'd thought about upgrading before it was shipped, doesn't have the more precise mil-dot reticle, and this makes it harder to exactly compensate for windage and elevation once you're in the field--or anywhere that you don't have a bench stand to hold the gun exactly in position after the test shot.
However, we each managed our first bull's-eye with "Benny," just compensating by eye. We shared a laughing "high-five" after we'd both accomplished that, lol.
The other thing we discovered, before either of us had even taken our first shot, was that the cocking effort needed to compress the nitro-piston spring, which powers each shot, is no joke.
I had chosen this gun specifically because, while highly rated, it was spec-ed at 28 pounds cocking effort--the lowest in its class--and I wanted something that an old guy, and maybe the grandkids, could easily handle.
Turns out, my daughter and I can just about manage it but there's no way that an 8- or 10-year-old is going to. Hence the pick-up, and contemplated refurbishment, of the old Crossman.
In anticipation of which, I spent my unused workout time, tonight, running to Wally-World to pick up cleaning patches, 80-pound test fishing line to draw them through the bore, gun oil, and .177 pellets, as well as metal bluing for the outside of the barrel which is badly rusted.
And that, my friends, along with rebuilding and painting the target box and designing and building a permanent shooting station, should keep me out of trouble for at least a day or two...
LPK
Dreamwidth
3.4.2018
