260 yard shooting FX Royale 400 a" Smidge 2 far"
I had to move my target because I was hitting the lower limbs of the Doug Fir tree.
With a mid range trajectory of 8 feet and a 260 inch drop you have to have nothing above the target. A .223 shooting a 55 grain Spitzer at 3100 FPS will have this same drop, with a 100 yard zero, at 800 yards.
It takes 1.5 seconds to hit the target with a 18.1 grain Exact at 900 FPS, the sound of the hit takes 2 3/4 seconds to travel back to me.
The pellet is not quite buried flush in the Doug Fir plywood and is hitting at 4 FPE.
With a 50 yard zero I have 75 MOA of elevation left on the Leupold VXIII 4.5×14 30 MM Long Range, this means I can dial to 230 yards, and use the 15 MOA mark on the 21 inches MOA on the reticle to hit the plywood.I have not shot any groups yet, just getting the zero so far.
Very few scopes will do this because of the lack of adjustment.
Wind is a factor, 1 MPH blows the pellet 12 inches, I have two wind flags I use, one at 200 and one at 50 yards.
I plan on putting up a two tiered gong, the outer ring will be 24 inches with a 12 center cutout. The 12 inches that is cut out will be suspended over the center by hanging cables, this will give me three different noises from the two gongs and the plywood backing to let me know where the hits are.
No real practical value for killing anything at this range, not enough accuracy or power, but just hearing the thwack puts the fun factor off the scale.
Regards,
Roachcreek
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Sounds like your having fun Charlie . Just a comment about your target if I can . With my eyes I can see the gray mark of a bullet better on a white backing than back . And with a big black back surface miraging might be a problem . Enjoy and good luck .Marvin
Yes it is the ST barrel, and not regulated.
RC
RC,
You are defiantly better off with a .25 caliber rifle for these ranges, I personally didn’t know what’s the big hype surrounding the Rapid but after trying it, I can tell you it out shoots all the rest I have & I have a few.
I read that Theoben are using LW barrels now & I am not sure how these compare to the older barrels, the BSA is also one of the best barrels in my opinion but the one I have in .25 is sitting in America & I’m trying to figure out a way to import it now that they stopped PCP rifles imports.
If I could, I would surely go for the new Evanix, the auto is a little too much but the great thing is that you can always disable it & just shoot in semi. So far I’ve seen a lot of good things about it.
Is your 400 using the ST barrel ?
Naser,
I am not sure they can import them either, it may be against US law to do so.
I really think that putting up 4 peices of thin sheet steel 19×24 inches to cover that target board, paint them black with a white bull, so that I get a white mark on a black background or vice a versa, will allow me to be my own spotter.
I can easily see the bullet marks on the 5 gallon propane tank which is now painted dark green, but it does have to be in the sunlight.
Which is where my scope has a flaw, it is a 40 MM and does not draw as much light in as it should for that 30 MM tube. It would not make a good early morning or late evening hunting scope, but it has too much power for what I would want in a hunting scope.
OPINIONATED SCOPE WHORE. Uh huh. 😳
I thought about just buying a good spotting scope, but it takes time to shoot and then look at the target, in a everchanging wind that is self defeating.
While I was doing my uphill power walking this morning, between potential coronarys, 😆 I was thinking about the ideal rifle for this long range air gun game.
I need to shoot between wind changes as all ong range shooters have to, remember 1 mph is a 24 inch drift, but I am expelling a full magazine. The Fx Royale 400, while being smooth suffers from two problems, one it is 22, which does not hold up at the longer ranges I fear and 2nd, it takes time to cycle that side lever.
Then it dawned on me, the Evanix Conquest. It is showing superb accuracy so far, and enough veocity to propel the heavier pellets over the 1000 mark. It would allow a shooter to get off a full magazine on semi auto before the wind switches.
Still don’t know what I would do with full auto tho.
Which reminds me of once when I had a fellow long range shooter up to my house on the mountain, we were riding in my 6 wheel polaris up to the 700 lb steel buffalo when he said “this black powder shooting is really inexpensive per shot.”
I replied, yes we are riding up to my 200 dollar steel target on a 120,000 dollar piece of property on a 7500 dollar Polaris to see where our cheap shots hit out of our 3000 dollar rifles. “Yep this real ecomonical.”
Fine glass and fine rifles take a lot out of the budget. And it is hard to justify, but then do we need to?
Regards,
Roachcreek
5 shots group at 190 Yards with Rapid .25 JSB @ 900fps, covered by JSB tin.
RC, I defiantly agree that the scopes we use are no where as good as the Leupold, in fact after all the hype about the tactical Hawke, I went & bought 4 of these & I can tell you that they suck badly & not clear at all & I regret getting them & on top of that they don’t offer a lot of adjustments.
What I was saying was a little higher Magnifications but I’m sure you know better, maybe I’m just too spoiled with 32X, it just makes targets a lot easier to see at 200 yards plus.
And I love that reticle on the Leupold, the problem is they don’t sell them here 🙁
Naser,
I have yet to be convinced that a cheaply made high power scope is going to be better than a 1250 dollar Leupold with a custom reticle made up precisely for long range shooting.
Examples I have seen of Leapers and Hawke et al., have poor quality resoulution on high power. Which is probably why, other than the air gun community, our professional snipers and serious big game hunters use a better quality of glass.
While I can make out 22 caliber holes at 150 yards and perhaps 200, very few scopes will give clarity to do it at 260 yards.
And after a career of long range shooting and competetion, I have yet to be convinced of the value of ultra high power even in the expensive scopes, while I do concede that in benchrest it is different. I can easily hold a 1inch or better at 260 yards, the problem is that the diablo pellet design and variations in wind are the culprits we are dealing with.
The scope I am using is a Leupold VXIII 30 MM Long Range SF with the Hollands MOA reticle. Here is a picture of the 30 MOA reticle, mine is only a 21 inch MOA which actually gives me a hold over to 24 MOA. I am maxed out on adjustment to around 230 to 240 yards and hold on the 15 MOA line to make hits. The scope has 106 minutes of elevation adjustment and I am using .40 shgims. I hope to improve the set up with Burris insert rings when they become available.
But that is just me and my opionion based on my personal experience.
Regards,
Roachcreek
RC, if you can get a scope with higher Mag than it would make it a lot easier, I am using 25X with the Hawke at 200 yards & I just swaped my 14X Hawke on the Rapid to a 32X Leapers & it’s much easier to see where I hit, I also had to shim the Leapers to be able to zero at that range, now I can shoot a lot further using the mildots.
So defiantly a better scope in terms of magnifications.
P.S: Just shot the Rapid again at 190 Yards and it’s a LOT better than the Edgun gun with ST barrel, I’m going to try groups at that range again with the new scope.
Keep us updated.
I used to have a 1100 yard range with a steel buffalo at end, so your are right thereis no turning back.
I got a 50% hit ratio yesterday, the best so far.
I am hoping once the target is clad in steel and painted where I can see the hits, I can correct for the wind, right now it is as if I am shooting without a spotter. I have never had luck not having a spotter or being able to see my hits.
Sounds like you do a lot of great shooting also.
Regards,
Roachcreek
RC,
260 yards is crazy and 12-18 inch groups is very, very good for .22 at these ranges, my only rifle that does great at 190 yards was the Rapid, the best group I got at that range was 3.8″ with a .25 @ 900 FPS.
I fitted my Edgun with a ST barrel & I am getting great groups upto 150 yards, I haven’t shot it in ages but at 200 yards I’m running out of adjustments on my Hawke scope.
Once you start shooting long range there is no turning back.
Kazz,
I have a Ranger 45 I am dying to shoot further than 100 yards. At 100 yards I regularly get groups under 100 yards.
I need Burris insert rings in 30 MM so I can put that Leupold with its 106 minutes of elevation adjustment on it to give it some long range legs.
The problem is unless I have a very good backstop, I don’t want to try it.
The problem with groups moving from wind changes while I am going down to check the target, will get solved this next week. I am going to buy 4 pieces of 18×24 inch steel and cover the target backstop. Then I will paint it black with a white bull or maybe the other way around, that way I will be able to see my hits from 260 yards thru the Leupold.
Regards,
Roachcreek
There are new BigBore’s here in Europe and they’re testing at 300m (+300 yards).
Groups of less then 20cm were shot.
Fantastic 🙂
Keep up the good work mate!
Great shooting. pushing the envelope with pellet gun , thats what its all about . The challange.
I spent the afternnon shooting at the 260 yard target with the Royale 400.
I would shoot one or two magazines, sometimes three, go down and check the target, and put up new butcher paper on the board and go back to do it again.
I would get two or three hits per magazine on the 5 gallon tank, now that tank is 12×18 roughly, the remaining shots would be in a group that would have lateral stringing and be about 12 inches wide.
Problem is the wind was shifting all afternoon, and one magazine would be high printing above the tank, the next too the left and the next to the right.
I filled often to 300 bar to keep the string consistant, I was not using bags, but the gun was hardly moving at the shot due to the good rest I had on the railing.
1 MPH of wind blows that pellet 12 inches at this range. Add to that, any velocity deviation is severely amplified at this range.
Perhaps it is the design of the diablo pellet, but this appears to be too far. Next I will try 150 yards again and 200 yard shooting, and at those ranges, I can also dial my 5×15 3200 Tactical/Condor in with Kings and compare the difference between the 22 and the 25 at those ranges.
Bottom line a lot of shooting with very little “tinks” for the effort. 😆
Regards,
Roachcreek
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Marvin,
Yes Ihavebeen rethinking that, Also when it is in the shadows of those big doug firs, it might show up better as a white target.
RC