Shooting Times & Country Magazine
In pursuit of precision
remedy problems with accuracy.
It is always a good idea to clean the barrel of a new airgun to remove any factory lubricants and grime, and it is also a job worth doing if accuracy suddenly starts to deteriorate for no apparent reason.
Some of the tools and chemicals used for cleaning powder-burning rifles are too harsh for airgun barrels, so it is worth using specialist equipment. Felt pellets are effective but I would recommend investing in the Power Pull Through Kit from Napier — it contains everything you need for the job, including clear instructions, and will last for years.
Don’t be alarmed if your airgun initially appears to have lost accuracy after barrel cleaning. Most barrels need a thin lining of lead to perform at their optimum and you should see groups really start to tighten up after putting a few dozen shots through.
Scope mounting
The importance of mounting a scope properly cannot be overemphasised as it creates the vital connection between gun and optic. Begin by choosing a mount of a height that provides good eye alignment and ensure that eye relief — the distance between your eye and the scope — is correct and results in a sharp image that fills the sight picture.
Before tightening the screws in the rings that cradle the scope tube, make sure that the vertical element of the reticle is dead upright. When satisfied with the position of your scope, tighten the screws gradually, working to achieve an even tension at each side of each ring — be careful not to overtighten because this can damage the scope.
If you bought your airgun/scope combo already set up, don’t assume that the job was done correctly in the shop — even if it was, the position of the scope may not be correct for you. Recoiling air rifles can suffer scope creep as a result of the motion of the firing cycle causing the mounts to shift. A one-piece mount, which provides more clamping area, will usually fix this problem.
Pick the right pellet
Different airguns perform differently with different pellets — even ones that have rolled off the same production line. For this reason, it is worth experimenting with different types of ammunition to see what gives the best results from your gun. Buying lots of tins of pellets can be expensive but many retailers offer sample packs, or you could ask friends to give you a few to try from their stocks.
As a basic rule of thumb, most airguns shoot more accurately with domed (roundhead) pellets than with pointed or hollowpoint designs. Cheap ammo is usually a false economy so stick with quality brands if you really want to get the most from your air rifle. Pellets that are produced to a high standard and consistent in weight generally return the best performance and can bring a significant boost to the accuracy of any airgun.
The best way to test pellet performance is simply to set out paper targets at 25m and shoot fiveshot groups from a rested position. Experiment with half-a-dozen different types of pellet and it is likely that you will find one or two that group much better than the rest.
Trigger set-up
A very heavy trigger can spoil accuracy by causing you to pull your airgun off aim. Apart from
“Practice — nothing beats being familiar with your equipment and its nuances”
being dangerous, an unpredictably light trigger will also result in erratic shot placement.
Many airguns have adjustable triggers, enabling you to tweak the weight and length of pull. With a typical two-stage trigger, you are aiming for a first stage that comes to a clear stop, followed by a positive, crisp and predictable second-stage break. Trigger adjustment can be complicated and is best left to a gunsmith if you are unsure of what you are doing.
Technique
With the mechanics of your trigger sorted, you then need to concentrate on technique. Make sure that the pad of your finger is in contact with the trigger-blade, rather than the groove behind it — the extra sensitivity makes it easier to feel and predict trigger let-off.
It is wrong to regard pulling the trigger as the final step towards accurate shot placement.
Good follow-through is imperative so do your best to hold on target until the pellet strikes its mark.airguns powered by a spring and piston or gas-ram can generate a lot of recoil.
This motion tends to happen before the pellet has left the barrel and can have a serious influence on shot placement. It may come as a surprise to learn that a tight grip is not the solution.
It is impossible to strangle the recoil out of an airgun by tightening your hold, so the answer is to loosen up and allow the recoil to flow. Most importantly, you need to ensure that the recoil is always allowed to follow the same course because, if the gun always moves in the same way, each shot is likely to follow a similar path. It is all about consistency so adopt a gentle hold and do your best to support your recoiling airgun in the same way every time you shoot it.
Gun support
One of the biggest problems to overcome when trying to shoot a rifle with precision is the movement of the human body. If you shoot a recoilless pre-charged airgun, the use of shooting sticks or, better
Our curlew are back. If there is another bird to which landowners and land managers attach such ownership, I haven’t heard of it. It is always “our curlew are back”, not “the curlew are back”. Always ours.
Ours have been back for a little over a week. Later than many, but they always return the same week, within a few days.
I see pictures on social media and speak to friends whose curlew are back before ours. I wonder where they are and start to worry about them but, to date, they have always returned and we breathe a collective sigh of relief when they do.
Time was, locally, when every farm in the dale had nesting curlew, but they have slowly disappeared. Or, to be correct, had almost disappeared but now thankfully have started to make a bit of a comeback.
The increases on my patch are small but locally significant and due to several things: the way the man who farms the ground on which they nest manages his stock and his haylage fields; our putting up of electric fences around nesting sites to keep foxes, badgers, dogs and, dare I say it, people at bay; and the hard work put in by the keepers on the estate to reduce the risk of the predation of the eggs and chicks by carrion crows and foxes.
Curlew are no different from the young of any other birds in that they need a readily available food source, suitable nesting and brood-rearing habitat that protects them from the elements and freedom from predation to survive, thrive and, ultimately, fledge and reach maturity.
They are such long-lived birds that it is very easy to assume all is well when you see the adult birds in spring. But the sad reality in a lot of places is that, while the adults do come back and try to nest, none of their young reach maturity. Their failings are generally down to farming practices, unnecessary disturbance and, of course, predation.
Thankfully, people who were until very recently opposed to all forms of lethal predation control — but at the same time big fans of curlew and other farmland birds such as the lapwing — are starting to realise the benefits of timed, targeted predation control. They now understand its importance as a conservation tool.
The mistake many make is to confuse the historic reasons for a species decline with the things preventing its recovery.
A move from a grass-based system to arable, a change from making late-summer hay to three cuts of silage and the planting of woods on marginal ground that was the curlew’s preferred habitat have all played a part in the species’ demise.
The thing preventing its recovery in most instances, though, is predation. Everything else can be fine but if you don’t have enough birds to start with and you don’t have that critical mass, predation will reduce their chances of producing any fledged young.
Spread the word
It is no coincidence that curlew and other farmland birds are thriving and increasing on or adjacent to land that is managed for shooting. We know this but we need to help others understand it.
A good illustration of the importance of birds assuming that critical mass is the lapwings on the fields around our wetland.
When we had only a few pairs, they struggled to keep carrion crows away from the nests when they were sitting and away from the chicks when they first hatched and were running around the fields of spring corn like little clockwork toys.
“It is always ‘our curlew are back’, not ‘the curlew are back’. Always ours”
Now, they have increased sufficiently in number to be able to do a pretty good job of seeing off most of the crows brave enough to try to hunt the fields in which they nest.
That isn’t to say we shouldn’t or don’t need to continue to reduce predation by carrion crows and foxes. On the contrary, we should continue and hope our efforts lead to the expansion and establishment of other populations nearby.
To steal a phrase coined by the GWCT, it is a prime example of gamekeepers as working conservationists.