Air rifles are weird.

Rimfire bolt action rifles, lever action, pump action and self loading rifles. Air rifles.

Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 13 Jan 2019, 12:34 am

I bought my first, and last, air-rifle in 1980 for PCYC competition, in .177.
My memory as a thirteen-year-old kid shooting his very first rifle was that it was pretty neat, but I don't think it struck me as being particularly potent.
This week I bought my second air-rifle, also in .177. It seems to pack quite a decent punch!

When I decided I wanted one I had a look at some forums to see what was being said about various springers. I can't be bothered with scuba tanks and pumps, and I have no interest in trying to get .22LR levels of power out of it, I have eight .22's I can use for that. And I don't see any real value to a magazine repeater for the same reason. I figured something that comes with a factory-fitted scope would be good as it saves me having to research air-rifle scopes, and decided on the Gamo G-Magnum 1250 in .22. A dealer gave me a price of $450 but the distributor was closed until January 7th.

I mentioned to my (now-retired) dealer, while collecting other things, that I was ordering an air-rifle in a few days and he mentioned he had one he could do me a great deal on. Sounds good to me, a great deal on a rifle, and I help him out by taking it off his hands. Having said yes to this one though, I asked him what else he still had to dispose of, and promptly bought two more rifles as well. Of the three, I had seen pictures of one (Ruger Precision Rimfire), but hadn't heard of the air rifle, or the manufacturer of the third one (Dickinson). I went home and Googled them :-)

The air-rifle is a Crosman Slayer in .177, 18ft-lb, with a scope, "Nitro Piston" rated to 1200fps with alloy pellets. I've seen the term "alloy pellets" a bit and I think they mean aluminium, or a hybrid of aluminium and polymer. I have found a Youtube video of a quick test, and that's it. I'm starting to think it must be called a different name overseas or something. A customer ordered it in some time ago, and never showed up again, as all too often happens to retailers.

I'd forgotten that part of my reasoning for the .22 was that I already have some .22 pellets, so I neglected to grab any .177 ammo for it. I've ordered the Gamo and H&R samplers, but the RWS pack is out of stock just now. Until the sample packs arrive next week I went into town and picked up a pack of Alcock & Pierce Pro-Pell pellets. I weighed them at 8.3gn and they're a round-nose design.

I mounted the scope yesterday, which didn't look promising, and fired a few shots at a sheet of steel plate at about ten meters to zero it. The steel was ringing impressively! Then I set up some targets at 30m and put about 100 shots through it fairly informally. I'm assuming it'll need some lead down the tube before it settles, so I just want to get this can of pellets through it to be ready for the sample packs. The scope is abysmal, I Googled it and found them for $14! The vertical hair is fine, but the horizontal is impossible to focus and is a double-vision line regardless of the focal adjustment. It quickly settled into groups around 65mm, pretty poor I think, although I wasn't trying to shoot really well. As a kid, prone, unsupported, with open sights, my targets were always a single ragged hole at 10m. I am surprised by the amount of upset when that big piston lets go though, and I think it'll take some practice to shoot well with this. And I need to learn about cleaning and maintenance as well.

The trigger was very heavy, although a fairly clean break with good feel. But it is adjustable, although the adjustment is different from what the manual describes, making the screw quite difficult to access. It's supposed to be a slotted screw that aligns with a hole in the trigger guard for a screwdriver. Mine is a phillips screw that is not aligned with the hole. The manual stresses that tiny adjustments are easily felt and quarter turns are all you need. After two full turns I finally started to feel a little difference, another turn and I thought I was feeling some improvement. I want to drill a hole through the trigger guard for fine-tuning it so I settled there. I shot a few five-shot groups around 50mm at 30m. I dug through some boxes and found a Chinese Bushnell 6-24 scope, jumped online and found it listed as air-rifle compatible, so I mounted that today.

I was setting up this arvo to zero the scope and shoot some groups off a proper rest to find out what this little beast is actually capable of with this pellet. My eye was caught by a big, very dark-brown fox dawdling across the paddock in front of me, about 60m away! He was oblivious to me while I sat and watched him until he disappeared behind the house. I fired about a dozen shots to zero the new scope, then I figured I should go and check that he hadn't ducked around to our rabbits. I put the air-rifle away and pulled out the still-unfired Ruger Precision Rimfire that I'd mounted an AR Optics 4.5-18x40 on last night.. I pulled the bolt and sighted down the bore at the wire fence at 60m. The scope was about 900mm low, so I'm wondering if the RPR might come with a canted rail on it? I wound the dial up, but the windage needed no adjustment at all. I was confident for a stationary shot on a fox within about 30m and loaded the magazine, then went for a walk down around the house. Rabbits were quiet and no sign of Ol'Red. The adjacent paddock is two-feet deep grass just now so I thought he might be in there somewhere, and sneaked up to the fence. Pop! The little prick was lying in the grass about twenty-feet away, leaped up and bolted for the road. I wasn't happy with the zero against a running target so I made some whistles to make him stop, but he kept going. He reached the road fence and melted into the grass. I stood watching figuring he was watching me. I thought I saw a flicker about ten meters further along the fence and think he crawled away before ducking under the fence. Oh well, I can wait :-) On the way back I put some rounds on steel gongs to confirm the zero was in the ballpark, which it is, only about 30mm high-right at 50m. Tomorrow I'm hoping to do some proper shooting with it and the Crosman.
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by Noisydad » 13 Jan 2019, 7:16 am

I cant even understand how a projectile that miniscule can overcome friction through he air!
There's still a few of Wile. E Coyote's ideas that I haven't tried yet.
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Post by Stix » 13 Jan 2019, 10:47 am

Yea noisy......when you put it that way...

Now thats irony for you...!!

Tthere you were on a farm, with a rifle in hand, a fox saundering across your path & you still couldnt shoot it. :|

And good on you for not letting rip at it with the air rifle too...! :thumbsup:
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 13 Jan 2019, 4:09 pm

Stix wrote:Yea noisy......when you put it that way...

Now thats irony for you...!!

There you were on a farm, with a rifle in hand, a fox saundering across your path & you still couldnt shoot it. :|

And good on you for not letting rip at it with the air rifle too...! :thumbsup:


It does feel strange as we get foxes quite a lot around the house, and generally just have to stand and watch them. When I was a kid I pretty much always had a rifle with me wherever I was on the farm, so any fox I saw was pretty much cooked. I shot one once from my bed one morning! I don't think I've ever taken a fox unless I have a rifle with me, if I have to go and get it they're gone by the time I'm ready for them.

If I don't have a kill shot I endeavour not to let them know I'm around. I don't want to scare them off from coming back. This guy was clearly old and careful, probably lost lots of buddies to the spotlighters around here. He took off and wasn't stopping for anything!
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 13 Jan 2019, 4:11 pm

Noisydad wrote:I cant even understand how a projectile that miniscule can overcome friction through he air!


Agreed :-)
I do want to see how it shoots at longer ranges, but I'm not sure I'll ever have that calm a day here. Blowing a gale today so I won't bother trying to shoot groups with it today.
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by Sergeant Hartman » 13 Jan 2019, 9:55 pm

The ruger has a 30moa rail
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by brett1868 » 13 Jan 2019, 10:14 pm

One of the joys of 22 pellets is that you can launch them from a 22 using a ramset cartridge....allegedly :)
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by TassieTiger » 13 Jan 2019, 10:21 pm

You can put a drop of diesel in the skirt of the .177 1000 FPS air rifle and farkin BANG!!! Straight threw the sound barrier(1200fps)...diesel ignites under pressure and the little explosion just boosted your air pellet exponentially - doubt it does seals any good...or penguins for that matter lol
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 13 Jan 2019, 10:37 pm

Ziad wrote:The ruger has a 30moa rail


Yes, I discovered that myself Ziad :-)
Would be perfect with a 20MoA rail mounted on top of it :-)
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 13 Jan 2019, 10:38 pm

brett1868 wrote:One of the joys of 22 pellets is that you can launch them from a 22 using a ramset cartridge....allegedly :)


Or by pulling a bullet from a .22LR round, that's why I happen to already own .22 pellets ;-)
Another reason I wanted a .22 was to see if .224" bullets can work effectively in them, anybody else tried this?
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Post by bladeracer » 13 Jan 2019, 11:27 pm

TassieTiger wrote:You can put a drop of diesel in the skirt of the .177 1000 FPS air rifle and farkin BANG!!! Straight threw the sound barrier(1200fps)...diesel ignites under pressure and the little explosion just boosted your air pellet exponentially - doubt it does seals any good...or penguins for that matter lol


I have seen that mentioned, not something I think I want to subject a rifle of mine to though :-)
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Post by TassieTiger » 14 Jan 2019, 12:48 am

Yeah, I didn’t want to do that either...but after a thousand shots of confusion, it wasn’t going to make mine worse lol.
Was bloody entertaining - I also made some home made tracers for it as well lol
All this talk...starting to miss it lol
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 14 Jan 2019, 9:11 pm

I managed to spend some time today with the air-rifle, too bloody hot to do anything else!

I continued playing at 30m with the Alcock & Pierce to get more lead down the bore. I couldn't zero the Chinese Bushnell scope so I dragged out some different mounts and scopes to play with. Remarkably, a $4 Chinese 4x20mm gives me excellent groups! I bought it some years back to mount on a spirit level as a rudimentary dumpy level for shooting levels for contour plowing the paddocks. The lenses are atrocious, giving everything a reddish tint, but it's clear enough, gives me a zero, and lets me shoot fairly consistently :-)

With 170-odd shots down it I shot a single large group of fifteen into a 48mm circle, large, but no fliers and fairly even distribution. Although it was windier than I'd like I decided to try some Gamo Rockets as well, putting five into 33m, quite promising.

Then I confirmed zero with the Ruger Precision while I had the rest set up.

I thought maybe 30m might be a bit of a stretch for consistent testing outdoors, so I closed it up to 12.5m and put up a fresh target.
Three five-shot groups of A&P Pro-Pell gave 52.5mm, 49.5mm and 37mm - a best of 10MoA at 12m.
Three groups of Gamo Rocket gave 24.5mm, 24.5mm and 25mm - excellent consistency and 6.75MoA.
Three groups of Gamo Red Fire gave 15mm(!), 21.5mm and 21.5mm - wow - 4.1MoA (I pulled one miles off target).
And a single group with Gamo Armor and Gamo Raptor gave 21.5mm (6MoA) and 28mm (7.7MoA).

The Gamo Raptor's were a real surprise. Definitely supersonic which echoed down the valley. I'm sure they were significantly louder than the CCI SV I had been shooting minutes earlier. Everything else was roughly in line with the CCI SV regarding noise.

The Alcock and Pierce Pro-Pell were $14 for 500.
The Gamo Performance Pellets sampler was $30 with 150 each of the Rocket and Red Fire, and 50 each of the Armor and Raptor.
Looking online, the Rockets are $13 per 150, Red Fire are $16 per 125, Raptor are $21 per 100 - I didn't see a price for the Armor but in the US they are 60% more expensive than the Raptor - which would be about 34c a shot here.
I'm surprised at the cost of these performance pellets, they're more expensive than most .22LR ammo, lack the range and precision of the .22LR, and yet are just as loud.
I am quite impressed with the Gamo Red Fire, but at $128 per 1000 compared to CCI Std Velocity at $110 per 1000 I don't see me shooting them much.

H&N Sampler will be next.

Anybody feel free to suggest any pellets I should give a try?
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by Daddybang » 15 Jan 2019, 6:34 am

If im plinking I use the gamo pro match ($10 for 500 up here) with the flat nose.I wouldn't use the winchester rnd nose in the red box if you want any sort of consistent accuracy.
If ya care about the rifle DO NOT diesel it ..yes its fun but will f@#k the rifle in very short time. My new bsa took around five hundred pellets before it settled down. :thumbsup: :drinks:
25 mtrs off hand open sights with the gamos! :thumbsup: :drinks:

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Post by Dossa456 » 15 Jan 2019, 9:27 am

Good little write up mate; I’ve got the Stoeger x10 quite like the air rifle I shoot it open sites; and can shoot drawing pins with it all day and is very accurate, okay trigger safety drives me bonkers; however I often find myself grabbing the $50 norica mod.73 for some plinking fun. Something about using an old sluggie to plink away reminds me of the show and is a great deal of fun. I shoot the Diana pointed .177 for fun and the polymag predator
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 15 Jan 2019, 2:06 pm

Daddybang wrote:If im plinking I use the gamo pro match ($10 for 500 up here) with the flat nose.I wouldn't use the winchester rnd nose in the red box if you want any sort of consistent accuracy.
If ya care about the rifle DO NOT diesel it ..yes its fun but will f@#k the rifle in very short time. My new bsa took around five hundred pellets before it settled down. :thumbsup: :drinks:
25 mtrs off hand open sights with the gamos! :thumbsup: :drinks:

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Thanks for the tip, DB, I'll chase some of those up.
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Post by bladeracer » 15 Jan 2019, 2:08 pm

Dossa456 wrote:Good little write up mate; I’ve got the Stoeger x10 quite like the air rifle I shoot it open sites; and can shoot drawing pins with it all day and is very accurate, okay trigger safety drives me bonkers; however I often find myself grabbing the $50 norica mod.73 for some plinking fun. Something about using an old sluggie to plink away reminds me of the show and is a great deal of fun. I shoot the Diana pointed .177 for fun and the polymag predator


Can you post a photo of the Norica?
My competition air-rifle was a Norica but I can't recall which it was. It was full-size and relatively bulky compared to most others the kids were using.
I'll chase up both of those pellets.
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 15 Jan 2019, 2:22 pm

Can anybody tell me the purpose of the barrel shroud/sleeve/brake thingy that covers the entire barrel?
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Post by Supaduke » 15 Jan 2019, 4:15 pm

I use H&N Field Target Trophy in .177 to great effect.

Knocks minor birds for six and groups extremely accurately.
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Post by Dossa456 » 15 Jan 2019, 4:52 pm

Nothing flash mate
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Post by bladeracer » 15 Jan 2019, 5:01 pm

Dossa456 wrote:Nothing flash mate


I think that's it! In fact, I'm certain that's it, I remember the plastic grip plate.
Norica 73 you say.
I'll have to do some research to see if they had other models that look similar, but I think I'll be looking for one of these very soon :-)
Thanks for taking the time to do that.

And you're in SA, it might even be my rifle, but I don't have any paperwork from back then :-)
I think it went to Victor Harbour about 1986.
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Post by Dossa456 » 15 Jan 2019, 5:16 pm

That’s okay mate; here is a snap of the receiver
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Post by bladeracer » 15 Jan 2019, 7:42 pm

I just spent another hour in the gym :-)
I don't think more than 200-shot sessions are a good idea with a break-barrel springer!
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Post by bladeracer » 15 Jan 2019, 9:18 pm

Very hot again today so I sat in the shade and shot some paper at 12.5m.
I started off with the A&P Pro-Pell and fired five sighters before putting groups on paper.
Three five-shot groups of 19.5mm, 38mm and 25mm.
Then Gamo Rockets gave me 23mm, 18mm and 29.5mm.
Gamo Red Fire gave me 19.5mm, 25.5mm and 23mm.
H&N Baracuda Hunter Extreme gave me 18.5mm, 23mm and 23mm.
H&N Crow Magnum gave me 25mm, 15mm and 17mm.
H&N Field Target Trophy Green gave me 19.5mm, 15mm and 27mm. These shot well to the right by about 45mm over everything else - quite astonishing deviation over just 12.5m range.
H&N Field Target Trophy gave me 12.5mm, 17.5mm and 19mm. This one put the first shot on the aiming dot, then four in a group low right. The next ten also grouped low-right. I thought maybe this pellet needs one down the bore before it would group, so I went and put another one onto the first target and discounted the first shot. Including the first shot would make this group 26mm instead of 12.5mm.
H&N Hornet gave me 28mm, 22mm and 38.5mm, but I'm sure I remember pulling the last shot low - discounting that one narrows the group to 19.5mm.
H&R Baracuda Power gave me 25mm, 28.5mm and 22mm - these shot very high, about 35mm higher than everything else.
Gamo Armor gave me 13mm and 15.5mm.
Gamo Raptor gave me 24.5mm and 17mm.
Then I finished off with eight more groups of A&P Pro-Pell at 19.5mm, 30mm, 26.5mm, 59.5mm, 38.5mm, 38.5mm, 32.5mm and 53.5mm.
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The H&N Sampler pack cost me $26 and provides 30 of the Hornet, 35 of the Barracuda Hunter Extreme, Baracuda Power and Crow Magnum, and 40 of the two Field Target Trophy Pellets.
Prices online are:
Hornet $33 per 225.
Barracuda Hunter Extreme $24 per 400.
Baracuda Power $18 per 300.
Field Target Trophy $19 per 500.
Couldn't find prices for the Field Target Trophy Green or Crow Magnum.

The outrageously expensive Gamo Armor seems like an excellent choice for accuracy, but it's way out of my price bracket, and may not even be available here outside of the sample pack. The H&N Field Target Trophy deserves further testing I think, and I found Safari Arms do Geco pellets for $6 per 500, but are out of stock. At that price they are certainly worth trying. And I want to try the Eley and RWS offerings. And move the range out again to see how they go at longer ranges. Some of the H&N pellets are apparently optimised for 50m!

I think I'm getting a feel for the trigger, and improving my ability to shoot the thing. I'll hang onto the remains of the sample packs for when I have a nicer scope for it. I think I have about 450 pellets through it so far.
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by Sergeant Hartman » 15 Jan 2019, 10:32 pm

I can imagine after a couple of weeks of this your right arm will be all muscular........ atleast you are not single and 15.

But great and interesting and informative thread mate. Love the info ib this site everyday find something new
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Post by Daddybang » 16 Jan 2019, 6:32 am

If you haven't already ya at the point where running a screwdriver over the action screws to make sure they haven't loosened up might be worthwhile. .I ended up putting loctite on mine. :thumbsup: :drinks:
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 16 Jan 2019, 2:53 pm

Ziad wrote:I can imagine after a couple of weeks of this your right arm will be all muscular........ atleast you are not single and 15.

But great and interesting and informative thread mate. Love the info ib this site everyday find something new


Towards the end yesterday I was having to use both arms to cock the damned thing :-)
For pellet testing somebody needs to invent a cocking winch like crossbows use!

I'm finding it interesting myself, I don't recall noticing the step from the springer air rifle to .22LR and .222Rem when I was a kid, but I'm now thinking those three years of air-rifle competition probably played a huge role in my future abilities with rifles. I can't recall shooting any air-rifle since 1985. Going backwards is a wake-up, this is almost like shooting the muzzleloader with the slight hesitation between pulling the trigger and the gun firing. I haven't looked inside it yet but the piston must be somewhat representative of a massive firing pin in a bolt-action rifle, something that weighs 500 grams and takes a very long run-up before hitting the primer :-)
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 16 Jan 2019, 2:55 pm

Daddybang wrote:If you haven't already ya at the point where running a screwdriver over the action screws to make sure they haven't loosened up might be worthwhile. .I ended up putting loctite on mine. :thumbsup: :drinks:


Very good point DB, I'll do that.
I've backed the trigger adjusting screw out about five turns now and it's getting pretty wobbly. I've been keeping an eye on that expecting it to fall out.
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by wildcard6 » 18 Jan 2019, 12:34 pm

Couple of quick things. Yes, Air rifles are weird. One trick I've learned is not to hold the fore-end tight [almost not at all is best], because accuracy suffers if you hold onto it like a cartridge rifle. Second little thin, I started long-range rimfire shooting with a Hawke Vantage 3-9X scope [configured for HV ammo], but upgraded to a Vortex. I contacted Hawke Optics in UK who said I could use that Vantage scope on a spring-type gun without destroying it. It lacks the AO you get on an AirMax scope from Hawke, but it does the job okay and I already had the scope, so saved me $330 or so for ANOTHER scope. My air gun is a Diana 340 N-tec gas-ram gun and it shoots the H&N Terminators like you wouldn't believe. H&N pellets get my vote. Last thing; yes the RPR rimfire has a 30MOA rail!
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Re: Air rifles are weird.

Post by bladeracer » 18 Jan 2019, 5:24 pm

wildcard6 wrote:Couple of quick things. Yes, Air rifles are weird. One trick I've learned is not to hold the fore-end tight [almost not at all is best], because accuracy suffers if you hold onto it like a cartridge rifle. Second little thin, I started long-range rimfire shooting with a Hawke Vantage 3-9X scope [configured for HV ammo], but upgraded to a Vortex. I contacted Hawke Optics in UK who said I could use that Vantage scope on a spring-type gun without destroying it. It lacks the AO you get on an AirMax scope from Hawke, but it does the job okay and I already had the scope, so saved me $330 or so for ANOTHER scope. My air gun is a Diana 340 N-tec gas-ram gun and it shoots the H&N Terminators like you wouldn't believe. H&N pellets get my vote. Last thing; yes the RPR rimfire has a 30MOA rail!


Thanks Wildcard6.
I won't be spending a hundred bucks on a scope for the air rifle :-)
The eight-dollar scope I have on it now actually does everything I need it to do already, and if it were all I had I could certainly live with it. I'd like something with some nicer glass, but restricting the range to about 30m obviates the need for anything really good or anything other than a simple crosshair, or even a variable focus. I particularly dislike AO scopes, I much prefer a side-focus adjustment, but for shooting in a window of only about 20m at most I don't see any need for the adjustment at all.
Practice Strict Gun Control - Precision Counts!
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