This is just plain pathetic

[smokeythecat]

For fun, I bought a .22 air rifle, the kind you cock and then load and fire. Nice, heavy thing. With a 4 x 32 scope. So dumbstuff here either can't figure out how to sight in the scope, or is just losing it. And on top of it all I read the directions. I used to be pretty good, however....40 shots later with a 2' x 3' target, and I figure I MIGHT be able to hit my car from 50 feet away.

Talk about the broad side of a barn!

Maybe I should try video games instead!

 

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[BagLady]

Take the scope off and see how you do.

 

[Lucky Eddie]

Yeah you won't hit squat with a 4 x 32 scope on a air rifle. Typically that would be on a .22Rf or better. Normally you need a parallax error corrected scope for short range air rifles...

One possibility that's quite common on air rifles(because the release of the air ram is so violent) is that cheap scopes the scope reticule hairs (cross hairs for aiming) will come loose inside the scope under the heavy spring recoil after repeated use & when that happens the scope can't be adjusted for elevation or windage accurately, in fact the position that the vertical and horizontal hairs cross each other will move with each repeated shot... so that no matter how hard you aim to hit the target you will shoot like lightening and never hit the same place twice.

You actually have to buy very specific and thus expensive / robust scopes for air rifles but because they are short range and usually cheap to buy - most folks just buy a non parallax corrected el-cheapo scope for a .22 rf & bolt it on, and expect it to perform on the air rifle, which sometimes it will for a little while until something lets loose inside the scope.

Often times people will assume the barrels shot out of the air rifle or there's something else wrong with it thats affecting accuracy and sell it, not realizing the gun itself is fine, its just the scope that up & quit!.

My suggestion is take it into your local gunsmiths and get them to check it with a bore scope. They can dry fire it and check if the adjustments on the scope reticule moved after each shot, on the grid screen of the bore scope and if thats the case they can set you up with a scope designed (parallax corrected) and constructed to fit onto a air rifle and continue working.

Most likely you will end up with a tack driving air rifle for your efforts / expense!

 

[lloydmoser]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[kcm]

Eddie nailed this one! My first rifle was a .22 cal air rifle, but it didn't have a scope. I could poke a strike-anywhere match on the bark of a tree and light it from 35' away almost every shot. Also would regularly hit a 1' x 1' target from about 200' away with ease. There was no such thing as these V-nose pellets back then. Everything was flat-nosed, which was not good for aerodynamics.

If ALL you want it for is plinking fun, it'll be fun once you get the scope situation fixed. However, if you ever have varmints that need taking care of, you might consider a Co2-powered air rifle. There are several manufacturers now that make high-power air rifles specifically meant for long-range shooting, and can take down a coyote at 300' with ease. If this is something you might be interested in, I'd probably go with .177 cal as the pellet will travel faster. However, the .22 cal is a little heavier, which means a harder hit.

...Is your .22 the type that shoots after cocking one time? With mine, I had to pump it up 10 times before firing. ...And it shot even farther when pumped up 15 or 20 times! ...Although I didn't do that very often, as it would eventually cause damage to the internal components.

My eyes aren't good enough anymore for shooting rifles, so now I'm pretty much stuck using a .410 long bore shotgun. Still lots of fun though!

 

[smokeythecat]

Mine shoots after 1 "pump". I wanted it just to basically play with. I might take it to a gunsmith to either sight it in or get another scope. Thanks for the input. BTW it's new. Took a couple pot shots at a brick and those pointed nose pellets hit HARD. I had a really tight grouping about 6" down and 6" to the right. Then started trying to adjust it. Then couldn't hit the LAWN!

 

[kcm]

...Guess you need a bigger target?

Try moving closer to the target until your shots show up. Then you'll know which way to adjust your scope. Just remember - adjust it opposite of what you did last time. In other words, if you tried to lower your shot before to make it shoot high now, then you'll have to "raise" your shot (opposite of what you did before) in order to lower the shot. ...Is that making ANY sense?!?!?

And remember...if all else fails, read the instructions!

 

[Lucky Eddie]

You do know about the scope adjustments? Normally they are 1/4 minute of angle indents (clicks).

That means that one minute of angle subtends roughly 1 inch at 100 yards!

So for a .22 air rifle - your not going to be sighting in at 100 yards, coz it likely hasn't got that range, more like 100ft

This means that 4 clicks right or left (or 4 clicks up or down) at 100 yards will raise or lower, or move left or right 1 inch.

But at only 100feet, 4 clicks will only move the point of impact 1/3rd of an inch (So about 8mm)

In essence at 100 feet every 1/4 indent click moves point of impact 2mm (3/32dnths) of an inch (up or down / east or west).

Not ALL scopes are graduated in 1/4click indents. SOME are marked in 1 MOA increments, so you said that you were 6 inches down and 6 inches to the right but you don't say at what distance?

How MUCH did you move each scope adjustment turret clicks?

If it were me, I'd move the adjustments back until its midway between each extremity on windage and elevation (i.e. zero setting on both turrets).

I would START trying to get a grouping at say 30 feet for a start, (Maybe inside a hallway with a good back stop so there's no effect from wind).

When you can adjust it onto point of aim at 30 feet the extend to 50 or 60 feet and repeat process - getting it dead on line left right but 1 inch high, then lastly do same again at 100feet & it should be pretty close to spot on.

If you follow that trajectory graph for a .22 air rifle, you can see that bullet drop is quite rapid at relatively short distance with an air rifle so you have to be aware that when adjusted for elevation correctly that by sighting n to be dead on height wise at about 8.5 - 9 meters, the air rifle will shoot about 1 inch high at 20 meters and zero again at about 33 meters (100feet).

At 40 meters (120 feet) you'd have to hold over about 2 inches high...

Half the battle sometimes is actually understanding how scope adjustments work and what the ballistic trajectory of the projectile really is!

The effective useable range then of such a pellet gun is about 100 - 120 feet max.

Hope that helps and makes sense.

Cheers

 

[Chadeaux]

So for a .22 air rifle - your not going to be sighting in at 100 yards, coz it likely hasn't got that range, more like 100ft

The tips for sighting in were right on, however, I'm not so sure you're talking about the same type of air rifle as Smokey.

I have a 177 air rifle that exceeds 1200 fps velocity and will penetrate 1/2" of plywood with lead "hollowpoint" pellets. I'm pretty sure Smokey is talking about something similar.

Which gun are we talking about Smokey?

 

[kcm]

Same kinda gun, but much shorter effective range than a .22 rimfire. Most air rifles are only good for 200 max. After that they lose accuracy pretty quickly, especially without the V-nose pellets. I had the old rounded-nose lead pellets, as it would still be many years before the new style would come out.