10m shooting? Gotta be a couple other folks that do this casually. Hard to discuss some places without judgement on lack of skill.

I have a 10m FWB P70 rifle and a Steyr LP2 and i’m proud to say that I’m not competing with anyone, not even myself really.  

I suffer from a bit of anxiety and I find that when I end up with one to many airguns, I kinda find that I get a little obsessive about this one not doing this perfectly and that one not doing that perfectly....

It’s largely unconscious but Ive learned over the years that when I resort to shooting 10m more often than 100y... its time to thin the collection and refocus on what shooting is really of most interest to me at the time. Only point there is a bit of an explanation on why you might be seeing me on the classifieds more often.

So back to the original tread topic... lets think pistol. Again, not competing against ANYONE or really even keeping an actual score, but I am curious... Over the past 5ish years, I gone from 5 out 10 in the black (on true NRA B40 10m airpistol targets) to an expected 8, probable 9 an occasionally 10 out of 10... in the black. 

Yes I shoot 10 per target and yes black includes the 7 ring. Regardless, I’m still rather happy when I get 9 or 10 within the black.  Anyone share the 10m bug even without comps or expectations of .25 inch 10 shot groups for 10 open sight one handed shots... 🙂

I do better with the rifle, just stuck with the pistol here cause that’s the one I keep grabbing...

Jeff,

I am a decent shooter, having shot a lot as a local and federal LEO, and having gone to some really high-speed courses over

many years, but all of that means absolutely nothing when I am aligning my sights on my 10M targets.  I keep my on-the-job

skills honed by shooting at the black, and I don't really care if my groups would be laughed at by the 10M purists, because they

and their opinions couldn't mean any less to me than they do.  I enjoy trigger time and a decent 10M match gun makes me feel like each shot

I take makes me a better shooter, even if it's not a 10x.  Just shoot and have fun, because that's what our airgun passion is

all about - TRIGGER TIME.  Tell the others to hate the game, not the player.

IMHO from Florida

Jim

p.s. I have been an instructor since '96 and I only let my best students shoot my match air pistols and every single one is

amazed by the incredible precision that we often take for granted because of our lofty expectations we have with our equipment.

   For me, one of the reasons 10M  rifles are so much fun is that you can scope them for 25 yd bird pest control or plinking at sycamore balls and other targets of opportunity. The high quality of 10M rifles. is also an attraction.

   Same for pistols -  fine quality and accuracy. However rather than paper, most of my fun is derived from trying to hit incredibly small targets at appropriate ranges with either platform.

   Participated in a few NRA 10M competitions at the Club and found, to my surprise, that it is a lot of fun. Nice folks willing to let you try a variety of  interesting rifles and pistols. No one cares if you are a serious competitor or not and it is low pressure. Even got lucky and won my class (one time only!) using an old Crosman MK II. It turned some heads! You might want to give it a try and could find that you like it too.

I would like to make a suggestion:

Get a very low end springer, MSP, or even a BB gun from Walmart.  Get something so cheap that you have no expectations from it.  Take it out and shoot aluminium beverage cans.  Laugh when you hit it and  just reload when you don't.  I think you need a reset to learn to enjoy airguns again.

David Enoch

many years of small bore competition- needed some way to practice at home which of course led to the air rifles- First one was an RWS75. Suffered some stroke damage in  90 needed to pt a lot  on the right hand side led me to Air pistol . Means to an end, along the way I got very very good with pistols all types enough so that many awards were garnered and son 0f a gun it also helped the rifle end as well. 

To be perfectly honest, most of my shooting is done in the basement workshop where I only have 25 ft available.  I shoot by myself on weekends, while doing laundry and stuff.  I love 10M guns, and have owned a few classics: FWB 300S, Anschutz 250, Walther LGR, Diana 66, Haenel 3.121, Hammerli Model 10.  The ones I currently own are a Tau 200, Daisy 753, and a highly modified AR2078B in a Steyr Match laminate stock.  The most accurate one of them all is believe it or not, the Daisy.

A few years ago, I realized two things:  I was becoming too dependent on a rest, and frankly these guns are pretty boring when rested.  So I started shooting almost exclusively off-hand.  I only use the rest when swapping sights to get things lined up, or when testing pellets.  I've gotten pretty good, and have actually held my own in a few informal silhouette matches with shooting buddies who compete regularly.

I'm as much a fan on 10M sights as I am of the guns themselves, and have enjoyed countless hours trying to adapt the target sighting systems to all manner of sporting airguns.  I even once did a Benji 397 with a full length integrabase rail and 10M sights.  I had a Cannon 737 with Anschutz sights that was a real surprise in the accuracy dept on 4-5 pumps.  Most any gun with 11mm grooves will take a 10M target sight.  The real challenge is usually finding an adaptable front globe sight at the right height.  The Airforce target sight set is probably the most adaptable thing out there.  You can even take the rear diopter out of the mount and put it in any 1" scope ring.  One half of a BKL 2-piece cantilever mount will get the eye relief right, but then you're back to messing with the front sight height.  And on and on...

I like the older 10m guns for there classic lines and history. Plus they shoot so well !

I have a FWB601, a Walther LG55 Tyrolean, And a FWB150 that I just rebuilt this weekend.

They all shoot so much better than I do, but are great practice and give such pleasure which gives me more trigger time. It always amazes me how accurate quality peep sights are, great triggers help also !

I have 9m range in my basement and a tuned vintage FAS 604 with Rink grips. For a few years I shot it with a C-More but astigmatism turned the dot to a blob. (Which still worked but was inelegant.) So I went back to the OEM iron sights. 

Which is hard indoors in mediocre light and shooting bifocals. All my competition powderburners have nice Dawson fiber optic sights that I strongly prefer. 

What I'd love is a fiber optic front on the FAS. I know it's an easy gun-smithing job ~ I may even have the parts downstairs ~ but I haven't gotten around to it yet. 

I guess the other thing I'd love is a bit more authoritative option for outdoor 25 yard shooting with a .177 target pistol. The last one I tried, an HW45, looked great and shot well but we just didn't hit it off (and the FAS outshot it in general). I'd readily drop a grand or more on the perfect pistol but the latest PCPs have been like the Atamann and the new HW, only 20 shots per fill and only 22 I think? I much rather have a 177 and 50% more shots. 

What was the question? Yeah 8 to 10 in the black is pretty average for me too, loose rules. I really can't imagine spending hours at a competition, this is something I do in 3 to 30 minute intervals. I probably spend more time working on my outdoor range (it's good exercise, I made a trail loop, etc.) 

Years ago I belonged to an informal Monday-night 10-meter league and that was a lot of fun. It instilled a life-long love of compressed-air target hardware, for sure. None of us were very good (80% of your pistol shots in the black would have stood you in very good stead in that bunch), but we had a lot of fun and everyone was very generous in letting others play with their toys!

We even went to a few formal competitions. Best I ever did with a pistol was 512/600 with a mighty Gamo Compact, most other times I wasn’t even close to that though!

Nothing at all wrong with doing 10-meter work informally. There’s nothing like shooting paper to keep you honest about how good you really are (too easy to ignore those flyers when you’re just plinking in the back yard!) and to help you get better.

On the other hand, David’s post has a lot of wisdom! I feel like a lot of guys obsess over details of accuracy or group size or velocity or whatever, to the point the joy of shooting can get lost. Sometimes it’s fun to JUST SHOOT, enjoy the gun, and absorb the zen of the moment, LOL. Over the years I’ve accumulated a lot of old, pre-recoilless era target hardware, and those guns seem to excel in either mode.

What I've found is that as valuable as competition may be for honing your skills, the brutal fact is that you spend most of your time standing around or resetting stages. To spend 4-12 hours for a few minutes of actual shooting is the trade off for the adrenaline rush of being on the clock or bull. 

I think if you are strong mentally you can somewhat recreate those conditions competing against yourself, to do your best and improve. Which saves a lot of time and is probably what the champions learned to do early on. 

Thanks all. Just to be clear, andI may not have expained it well, 10m shooting is my fall back for ‘simple’ enjoyment. While I’d like to improve, I’m happy with hitting in the black. We just rarely see conversation on anything other than competitive 10m shooting and that’s certainly not here. Not complaining about that was just curious if others non-competitive 10m folks did the same.

I also use my 10m stuff to shoot silhouette and while I have been sidetracked, I have a pistol build in process that should extend this to the back patio and plinking while enjoying the fire pit, or at least beyond my garage/driveway. BTW, I’m averaging 5 chickens in 8 shots with my LP2.