Welcome to the test issue of the new Airgun Gurus online magazine and thank you for taking the time to have a look. The fonts and colours will change as we get feedback coming in and the next issue may look very different but in the meantime we hope you enjoy the most important thing which is the content. There is a full screen button which makes the magazine easier to read and it should also work on mobile devices. As this is a test issue let us tell you what you are likely to see in future issues and what we are all about. This online magazine is written for air gunners by air gunners. We will only put articles on that have been suggested by you or things that we think will be of interest and we make you this promise. “We will never do any reviews that are in any way biased. We know that people work hard to pay for their kit and if something is in our opinion bad we will tell you exactly that”. We are not writers or journalists and we can’t promise that our writing and grammar skills will be correct but we will do our very best to make sure that there will be something of interest to you in every issue and that all articles will be as accurate as possible and written by people who are active shooters. We might do some daft stuff but at the moment we are just testing the waters and we will listen to your feedback. We will be putting in some advertisements to test it can be done and all the ones in this test issue have been done for free and we have received no income whatsoever. That’s the introduction bit over so have fun with the magazine. We have no clue if this will even work or if we will do another but it has to be worth a go. Thank you for dropping in to have a look and if you can share the magazine link on your social media pages to help us get started we would very much appreciate it. We will be changing the page background colours and fonts as we get feedback and we will look less basic as we go along. fingers crossed.
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Cover
Ian Beer’s daystate pulsar and Nitesite Rtek
Page 2
Introduction to our test magazine
Page 3
AGG visit to SACS HQ
Page 7
Tech corner home made night vision
Page 13
Technira night vision review
Page 15
Your letters
Page 16
Active targets review
Page 17
HFT behind the scenes
Using the online magazine There is a button on the bottom right of the magazine that you can click to view the magazine in full screen. It looks much better that way and we hope you can read it easily. As this is a test version we will change the size of the fonts and background colours as feedback starts to come back in Should we do another magazine we will be working on better backgrounds but at the moment we want to make sure it is as clear as possible. Your feedback is very important and all comments are welcomed. If you can take the time to give us some feedback or wish to write an article just email us team@airgungurus.com
AGG MEET WINNER KYLE HAMPTON Ian Beer, Kyle Hampton, Jim “digger” Bucket, Gaz Edwards
AGG VISIT TO SACS HQ The Scottish Association for Country Sports has very kindly given Airgun Gurus a syndicate membership so we decided to pay them a visit to see what they were all about and to find out just why they seemed to be so airgun friendly. After a quick phone call to make sure it was okay we headed up to the sacs offices which are on a beautiful country estate which just happened to be getting roadworks done and we couldn’t get in. Not the best start but a quick phone call and Alex Stoddart the sqacs director popped down in his 4x4 and took us on a rather adventurous off road trip which wasn’t in the least bit hair raising for him. To us though it was slightly different and we decided that adult sized pampers would be required for the journey back. We were met with the warmest of welcomes by Jules Stoddart the sacs policy guru and of course Tex the sacs pest controller who decided he wanted to play. No huge glass fronted expensive offices for sacs but an old cottage in beautiful grounds with just enough room to fit in all the techy stuff needed to run an efficient association. We do know Jules and Alex rather well so it was no surprise that the first thing they did was get out their new Sandwell field sports imp to have a play with and an old BSA mercury. It’s great to know that these guys are really into their airguns. We were aware of the sacs membership numbers and locations but it may come as a surprise to some people that despite their name they have thousands of members in England and Wales and are Northern Ireland's largest country sports association and have many members from abroad. They even have American airgun gurus member Tom King on board and although Tom says he will most likely never shoot in the UK he wanted to join to show his support for all the good work they do. So we asked the question. What work do you do? Jules and Tex Apart from providing the best shooting insurance on the market which is why a lot of people join sacs are incredibly active fighting for the rights of all country sports and on the day we visited they were working on the tail docking consultations which they have just been successful with as well as lobbying in both the Scottish and Westminster parliaments and being involved in consultation with wild fisheries reports, Lead ammunition directives, and so much more. sacs are the “go to” people for advice on the new Scottish airgun licensing and their guidelines and documentation have been grabbed by everyone else due to the thoroughness of the work done. There is so much more they do and not enough space here to tell you about it. They were currently dealing with over 200 member cases involving firearms but due to data protection which they take very seriously they could not divulge exact detail and we liked that a lot. That’s the way an association should act.
So why is airgunning so important to sacs ? All the sacs staff are on the airgun gurus facebook group and take a very active part on it. That alone shows their commitment to airgun shooters but they have also taken part in an hft competition and sponsored an hft masters event and they even held their annual general meeting at an airgun club and their members were given an introduction to hft after the agm finished. SACS have also ensured their insurance fully covers air gunners. We asked the question “Why are airgunners so important to sacs?� We were rather surprised by the answer. (the bit below are our words taken from our conversation and not a direct quote from sacs) At sacs we treat airgun users exactly the same as everyone else, we don’t treat air gunners differently from small and large bore shooters, shotgun users, or members who do dog work or deer stalking. We are air gunners ourselves and we realise that air gunning is a way into olympic and commonwealth target shooting and we are very aware that target competitions and pest control are very important to country sports. No matter if you like to plink at a range or take part in full on target competitions air gunning must be fully supported both as a sport and as a pastime as well as a vital way to control pests. That will do for us then. We missed saying hello to Beth the very hard working sacs administrator as she was out of the office but we will no doubt see her at the next HFT shoot. The days in the sacs office can be very long and the phone never stops ringing but gets answered quickly every time. Sixteen hour days can be the norm and to the sacs staff it is not a job it is a calling and their passion for their members is easy to see. Airgun Gurus would like to thank the sacs staff for constantly being on out facebook page and allowing us to be a sacs syndicate and all the discounts and benefits that provides. If you are looking for insurance or are renewing soon please contact us for your sacs Airgun Gurus syndicate deal details team@airgungurus.com
A special MTC discount code for airgun Gurus members. can’t be bad. Look out for a review of some very special kit coming exclusively from Drew’s Labs. You will not have seen anything quite like this before and we will get our hands on it as soon as it comes out of the development stage. We have already had a sneak peek and you will like it a lot. It made us say “WOW” If any of you guys ever use crossman.com to buy things they very kindly sent a discount code to the Airgun Gurus twitter account so if you buy something off their website you can use the following code at checkout to get 10% off TENFERTWITTER
Homemade near eye HD recording night vision. Having started shooting around a farm with a .Mk1 22” BSA Meteor, accounting for many rabbits, pigeons and rats, I moved on to 22LR and 7.62mm target rifle shooting from 25 to 1200 yards and then joined cadets & the TA so the air rifle was left in the back of the cupboard whilst I went off to play with bigger & louder toys. Move 20+years on and I’ve returned to airgun shooting. My job is designing parts on a computer all day and I find myself in my spare time designing bits for shooting and making pieces in the workshop. I’ve found the technology available to us now is amazing! One thing that’s come a long way is night vision (NV) and I read about these with great interest. The 2nd generation low light scopes I used in the TA were amazing, (especially on a cloudless sky for star gazing!) and thermal imaging machines that used to be the size of a small fridge and needed a bottle of high pressure air to cool the chip are now replaced with hand held scopes that detect body heat. They’re fairly expensive but the night vision looked like something I could build at home. Most hobby level night vision systems use a small video camera mounted onto the scope eyepiece with a length of silicone hose the same inside diameter as the scope ocular bell. An IR (Infra Red) torch provides illumination which the quarry cannot see very well, and the camera needs the IR filter removed to see the IR light. This then feeds a video signal to a screen about 3 to 5” across mounted above the barrel, which some builders have incorporated battery packs into, or a separate battery pack is used. I chose not to pursue this design as I didn’t want to be stalking around a field with a TV screen lighting up my face, although I’ve since learnt that covering the screen with a red filter cuts down glare to an acceptable level. These designs are not image intensifiers, but IR cameras, so they’re not bothered by bright lights being pointed at them or being used in daylight. A camera with the IR filter removed can still be used in the daytime, but as visible light and IR light have different wavelengths they need refocusing between daytime & night-time use, and because the IR filter is removed, the image can show strange colours and look over-exposed in daytime use. The IR filter is a thin sliver of glass with a blue/red reflective tint which goes between the lens and camera imaging chip to prevent IR light from passing. Luckily you can buy cameras with the filter removed, and some have the filter stuck on the back of the standard wide angle lens (which will need to be replaced anyway). This pic shows IR filters glued to back of lenses. Anyway…enough lecturing about IR… Not wanting to go down the traditional route, I looked at what parts would be needed to build a ‘near eye’ unit (with an eyepiece to look into, rather than a screen). I started looking at different designs on the internet and found lots of really useful advice, and with so many options on offer I broke my requirements into 2 sections: ‘must have’, and ‘want’. Must have: be portable, lightweight, be stealthy (not give out any light), work well, mount & unmount easily onto the back of a scope so the rifle can be used with out the NV gear, not too expensive, easy to fix parts, have repeatable camera position to avoid parallax issues. Want: it would be a bonus if it could record footage, connect to a TV, upgrade-able, self-contained with minimal trailing wires & plugs. So now I knew what I wanted, it was time to find the bits and build... • Prototype 0: I bought an old camcorder with the aim of using the viewfinder eyepiece to see the image from a separate camera. It took a while to get the wiring information, by which time the project had moved on... • Prototype 1: I looked at getting a camera, screen, battery pack and recorder but then realised that my car dash-cam had all these parts already built in. All it would need is a battery pack and a way of attaching it to the scope. After building a rough looking prototype with bits of plastic & waste pipe to see if the idea worked first-hand I swept the swarf off the lathe & mill and followed tradition by machining a large adaptor from aluminium the same diameter as the scope eyepiece & pushed it into a length of silicone hose to attach to the scope eyepiece. This worked ok, but I found the zero moved considerably if the unit moved up/down or left/right.
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Model 1: I decided to mount the camera more rigidly for the second design and used an upside down weaver scope clamp just in front of the scope zoom ring. Onto this was mounted a length of Weaver scope rail about 5” long with a matching weaver scope mount mounted on the far end so the centre is concentric with the scope. I bought some 1” ally bar and drilled a hole through it for a tight fit on the lens. This then fitted into the rear weaver mount and ensured the camera lens was in line with the scope. All going good so far but this meant the camera was screwed onto the rigidly mounted lens and all the camera weight was taken by two small screws connecting the small plastic box around the camera sensor chip to the camera PCB (printed circuit board). It will easily take the weight of the camera but probably not take too well to my clumsy size 13’s tripping around in the dark so that one was shelved.
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Model 2 : This is more or less the current one – I machined up a block of ally with a 1” dia stub on one end to go into the scope mount. The wider end of the block was screwed direcly to the dash-cam body. It’s given a solid mounting that has put up with 6 months field use so far. The camera needed to be stripped for this – some designs are easier than others and there’s the risk of damage involved. Just go slow & be very careful of the flat wide cable to the screen soldered at each end. Some smaller ribbon cables have a connector that can be unclipped fairly easily.
• Other parts needed to be made for model 2: there’s the bracket to hold the switch and the magnetically mounted eyepiece, so I used steel - but later resorted to the hot glue to stop it falling off. The switch is simply a case of cutting an inch of insulation out of the middle of a 90° right USB mini to 90° down USB lead and breaking the power wire with an on/off switch. Luckily when I stripped the camera I found the IR filter was not glued to the imaging chip but was pressed on to the back of the wide-angle lens, so I didn’t need to use a soldering iron & scalpel to heat the filter & flick it off. Other Parts Lens: The lenses have a fine M12 x 0.5 pitch thread around them that is screwed into a plastic holder mounted around the sensor chip, adjusting the focus. The standard lens with a dash-cam usually covers a wide angle so this needs to be replaced. I found some nice lenses at 12 and 16mm but they have a wide head on them, so I made a holder for the lathe to turn the outer diameter down. They have quite a large lens about 7mm diameter at the front to let in more light than a small one. I came across a problem with clones of the camera having different height plastic holders that the lens screws into. Some of these needed an additional adaptor to mount the longer focal length lens further away from the sensor. Pic: lenses – top row as received. Bottom row: after turning down in size with the lathe. Eyepiece: This is meant to be used on the rear LCD screen of a digital SLR camera but fits the camera well. It does add 3” to the length but increases the size of the image through a magnifying lens approx. 1.5” across. Ideally the camera would have a smaller, higher resolution screen and only need a 2” long eyepiece but I haven’t found either yet, and it’s not a problem if the scope is mounted further forward than usual or a longer butt pad used. Pic: View through the eyepiece covered with red filter. The information on the screen shows – clockwise from top right: file film duration, resolution, SD card recording, external power, time & date, exposure, file length (3min), filming mode, recording sound too.
Torch: I use a T20 torch with 850nm IR LED. The T20 is probably the most common IR light source used with short range NV. The 850nm is the wavelength – the light just appears as a dull red glow to us. A longer wavelength (940nm) IR can be used which can’t be seen at all by the naked eye, but the camera sensor chip is less sensitive to this so it’s not as bright for the same power output. A useful feature on the torch is 3 brightness settings. For close up use (up to 20 yards) and around long grass and overhanging trees I used the lowest power setting to reduce the brightness shining back into the unit and save the battery. For spotting use off the camera or longer ranges on the rifle (over about 40 yards) I used the brightest setting to get maximum range on the eyeshine. I say that in the past tense as my torch now only works on full power for some reason. Battery: The camera has a small internal battery to keep track of the date and take some short footage if it senses movement or the car has a shock load whilst parked but it only provides a few minutes of operation. The USB battery supply for the camera lasts about 3.5 hours so I may add a 2nd battery on the other side and swap the cable over when required. I found a round USB battery shaped like a small tube containing a single 18650 battery. This mounts in a weaver rail 1” holder (once some tape is wrapped around it, and has a visible torch built in. It can also charge my phone if I need it too. Disadvantages The current near eye lens moves my eve position 3” further back so either the scope has to move 3” further forward or the stock butt has to be spaced out. I’ve used a reach forward extender on my RWS Scimitar which mounts very well on the generous section of scope rail forward of the magazine. (Other manufacturers please take note.) Photo of unit on RWS Scimitar with reach forward mount and a small 4x32 scope. When the unit’s been tested on other rifles like a Logun Solo, Falcon FN12 and Air Arms S410, the section of scope rail in front of the magazine is very short (about 1”) so I’ve used single piece mounts but sawn them into 2 pieces. I cheated with the Logun & modified the stock by swapping the very squishy butt pad (in my opinion fairly pointless on a PCP) onto a recoiling HW90 and took the opportunity to add a spacer at the same time, so that works well. Improvements: I found a setting in the menu to increase exposure by 2 stops– this either uses a longer ‘shutter’ time a the imaging chip to increase light sensitivity or just increases brightness of the display (I suspect the latter as the recorded images don’t seem brighter) – but either way it gives a much brighter image on the screen which helps see rabbits further away. In some ways this brighter image though is possibly too bright – so I’ve added a sheet of red acetate over the screen to reduce glare and improve night vision after looking away from the screen. The camera is designed as a dash cam – so it normally record short files of 1, 3 or 5 minutes, eventually fills the memory card, then over writes the oldest file. There’s a button on the rear to lock a specific file so it doesn’t get overwritten which I’ve found handy when I’ve had a good shot Performance: So how does it work? Well I’ve been really impressed by the performance of this little dash-board camera. With the usual T20 torch I’ve been using I get eye shine at over100m, good hunting range up to 45m. I’ve enjoyed watching rabbits at play and also seen foxes and badgers going about their business which I wouldn’t have got the opportunity to see without night vision. I’ve often just watched the smaller rabbits & left them alone, preferring to go for the larger ones. I tried a larger T67 torch and almost doubled the range I could see eye shine at and recognise an animal. (Thanks to Ian McCloud from the NV forum for the loan of the torch) The size of the imaging chip is very small in these cameras – much smaller than the board cams that people use for NV, so the 1080 resolution may interpolated from 720p. I’ve seen some very sharp NV images from other builders using the board cameras on YouTube. Saying that though, I’m very pleased with this unit and the features it offers for the price. Pics: Fox & rabbit pics both taken at about 25 yards. Looks like I need to loosen that mount & straighten the crosshairs...
Operation: Before use, charge the T20 torch & USB supply batteries, and download the last footage from the memory card, either through the camera USB port or from the card. Make sure the card’s in before you set off, (believe me... after driving 30 mins to the shoot & finding it not there, you’ll check every time afterwards!), check you’ve packed spare batteries, and the rifle’s zeroed. I normally check a moon calender to make sure there’s not a full moon (or I’ll stick out like a sore thumb) and the BBC weather app to check for cloud cover and that the wind direction will be blowing from the field towards where I park my car so I don’t spook the rabbits when I arrive. The field I currently shoot in belongs to a horse owner who doesn’t need rabbits digging holes everywhere which could cause injury to the horse. I pack my NV sight separately as it’s too large to fit in a gun slip, so I carry it off the rifle. There’s very squeaky steel gate to get through into the field that seems to make a horrendous screech in the middle of the night so I squirted the hinges with some motorbike chain lube spray grease a while ago and this has helped no end. Sound seems to travel so much further at night without the noise of traffic & animals, and the wind always seems to die down in the night too, often requiring a change of stalking direction. Once I get to the shooting field, I use the NV off the rifle as a monocular to look around, and search for the tell-tale glowing reflections from the rabbits eyes. Operation is fairly straight forward: turn on the torch and flick the side switch up to connect the 5v USB supply to the camera and after 5 seconds it starts recording automatically. Have a look around, find the direction and distance you need to go in, then turn torch and USB switches both off and it will stop recording after about 5 seconds. I normally see a few rabbits around when I arrive but are they in range or not? Well rangefinding at night is a lot more difficult than daytime. To me, everything looks about half the distance again further than it actually is, so I may think that something is 35 yards away but it’s actually only 25yards. I’ve mapped the field out so I have a better idea now, and I also use the scope mil-dots against the rabbits head at full mag so I know 1.5 mil-dots is 35 yards. I started out at the beginning of the year ambushing rabbits on the field from one spot, so I went there during a day and had a good session shooting targets at various ranges and then cut strips of reflective tape the same length as the holdovers at the different ranges and stuck them to posts & buildings at those ranges to make instant guides that reflect back from the IR – this is a useful method for holdovers too if you don’t have a mil-dot reticule. I’ve also now switched to .177” on account of the flatter trajectory and zeroed at 30 yards. I’ve found the smaller pellet a lot easier at longer range with no drop in effectiveness. I also found that at night with a silenced PCP rifle and the wind towards me, if I’ve been really stuck at measuring distance, I could shoot safely into the ground a few feet to the side of a rabbit to check zero and the rabbit wouldn’t move – the base of the pellet reflecting the IR torch light back to the camera, making the pellet a form of IR tracer round. Webley Accupels are good examples of a very reflective pellet as there’s a flat surface inside but I haven’t had much luck using with them in magazine mechanisms though as they seem to get pushed to one side & stick. The good thing about NV gear is that you can have a good look at what you’re about to shoot and choose a fairly big one for the pot. I leave the small ones as their small heads mess up my mildot rangefinding method so they look further away than they are so I save them for another time, although that’s just my personal view & I understand they’re as much of a pest. Hopefully the next stage is to shoot the rabbit, and after determining the range and keeping calm and deliberate this should be relatively straight forward. If the grass is long then unless the rabbit drops down stone dead, there‘s a chance it may move away from the immediate area. They’re fairy easy to spot though, and for those of you who haven’t shot a rabbit at night it always surprises me how much they seem to stick out against the grass at night afterwards when on their sides. Improvements: I try to go night time shooting every couple of weeks, and every time I go out with the unit I come back with some small modifications to do to improve it, so it’s steadily evolved. The mount is overhung on one end but it seems strong enough so far. I have some Quick release mounts which will make mounting / unmounting much quicker but I only need one at the front. So far I haven’t managed to find a weaver mount of the same height. Last time out I adjusted the camera focus & mounted the T20 torch on the rail to make the unit self contained with no trailing wires. It means it can be used as a separate NV viewer, which is very useful when shooting with a wider field of view and means I can use the unit off the rifle to check for rabbits in directions that I don’t want to point a rifle as there are a couple of houses to one side of the field where I shoot. NV spotter: I’ve also made a handy NV spotter. It’s just another dash-cam from my first prototype, a 12mm lens, an eyepiece and a battery. I found a lot of rat droppings in my shed so I’ve baited the area with the old favourites peanut butter, chocolate spread and some smelly cat food and left a mains powered IR security light
shining on the area so I don’t need an IR torch on the spotter. I’m currently using the unit to keep check on the baited area, but the rat hasn’t appeared yet. I’ll connect it to a mains power supply and set it to ‘movement activation’ and leave it to record when it sees something move. Above: IR NV spotter with silicone hose
In summary, I’m really pleased with the unit! There’s been some lathe work, fabrication and wiring involved but it’s been fairly straightforward. It
certainly does what it needs to do and accounted for lots of rabbits, and has lots more extra features than I’d originally hoped for. The only downside is that it feels a bit like cheating! If you’ld like to know more about NV kits, you’re bound to run into the following guys with really useful websites containing lots of advice and information: Pete Dodsworth and Eddie StClare, both of the Night Vision UK website (nvuk.co.uk) & Facebook page with over 10,000 members, Ashley Splatty of Customriflescopes.uk and there’s a good page at nightvisionforumuk.com with good info on all types of setups including camcorder viewfinders type devices which is what I meant to build in the first place. Well I hope you’ve found this article interesting - I’m on the NVUK facebook page if anyone wants to contact me about this scope you can find more info and photo’s by searching that page for my username ‘Jim Bhangar’. In the meantime, I’ve charged the batteries, cleared the memory card and I’m off to check up on the shed rat…
Technira IR rangefinder review
Sometimes a bit of kit comes along that becomes your “must take with you” piece of equipment and this one is most definitely mine. This bit of kit just works. It could have been invented by apple because you can just take it out the box and the controls are intuitive and very easy to use and the performance for the price is exceptional. The model I use is an early one and cost £180 but it has now dropped to around £140 but it was worth it to get my hands on it early. So what is it used for and why is it so good? If you have ever used an airgun at night either lamping or using a night vision device you will most likely know that it can be very difficult to range find in the dark. This can be very important when using a sub 12 air rifle as your holdover between 35 yards and 45 yards can be as much as 1 mildot and that’s not enough margin of error to ensure a clean dispatch and that’s where the technira comes in A single button switches on the IR and you can simply switch through three power levels. All you need do is look through it and put your crosshairs on your target and press a button and the range will show up on your screen and in our test it was accurate to within three feet. It can also be used in daylight up to 400 yards and at night it is good for a minimum of 150 yards and in good conditions can go much further. It is very easy to use and the controls light up and are chunky enough to use with heavy gloves on. The best thing about this kit is that it can be used as a spotter and this saves you from having to scan your airgun around all night getting sore arms and if you put it on low power it easily spots eyeshine. The display is like something out of a star wars movie and the only problem you will have is trying not to scare the bunnies away by making light sabre noises. It has to be done at least once once. It’s very hard to resist. The display shows distance, incline, temperature, direction, battery level and even air pressure. Most of which you will never use or even care about but it’s nice to have anyway. Incline might come in a bit handy but you would need to be aware of the difference in holdover on steep inclines anyway and if you already know that it would come naturally anyway (shoot lower) The display colour can be changed as can the reticle and you will find one that you like. The laser can be used by a one off button press and you can set it to do a constant readout if you wish. The rangefinder picture is colour in daytime and switches to black and white when the IR is switched on and the eyepiece can be adjusted to suit your vision. The technira has multiple zoom levels too. Good points. Very well made with chunky easy to use buttons and does exactly what it is meant to. Great display and accurate. Bad points. Virtually none. The lens covers keep popping off and are not a good fit but that’s a very minor thing. Overall. Get one, You won’t regret it
Your letters and feedback We haven’t got any. Well it’s a test issue. We did get one email we will put on anyway with permission. If you want anything to appear in this section just drop us an email team@airgungurus.com and we will get it on. I was out with my shooting partner once on a perm that we had. The target was woodies and there was a couple of trees they favoured so I set up in a hide opposite and my buddy was postioned in amongst thick undergrowth near the base of one of the trees. As we were sat awaiting the woodies I noticed a middle aged couple walking down the natural pathway straight past where we were hidden. As they approached where my partner was they stopped and had a quick smooch. I knew my mate was right behind them by only a few feet and I was in full on stifled laughter mode. The couple then went to walk on but only managed a couple of steps before they stopped and started to engage in what can only be described as a spot of groping! Now at this point I've tears rolling down my face and trying not to laugh out loud, imagining what's going through my mates head. It was then that the couple were interupted by the bush behind them that said in a stern voice "Excuse me, this is private property!" The startled lovers quickly hotfooted it back the way they had came, rearranging their clothing as they went. � Peter Muir
What's the difference between a hunter and a fisherman? A hunter lies in wait. A fisherman waits and lies.
Active Targets Rotational target review John Lau Comsa the owner and designer at active targets brought some of his kit up for us to review and he was rather confident we would like it. He wasn’t wrong. The rotational target system does exactly what it sounds as if it would do. A sturdy metal case with some very clever electronics holds a rotating target stand that gets put wherever you like and you press a button and it does its thing. If you have ever tried to reload a single shot air rifle take aim and fire in under eight seconds we feel your pain. It’s really tricky. The good news however is that the system is programmable and you can set the timings for whatever you like and it all works with a rather nifty remote control and the new version can even be controlled by your smartphone. If you were to have a few of these on your range you can have hours of fun with it and we reckon it would get used a lot. We didn’t have time to try it but we reckon it would be even more fun with pistols and the kit operated flawlessly. There are different games pre installed which will suit all types of air rifle and pistol shooting and the hardware is top quality. The range that we used was so impressed they are looking to buy a few sets as soon as they have the funds. These are ideal for clubs and have already been installed in a few and they have gone down very well indeed. We took some video of them working and will get it up on the airgun gurus facebook page.
Target closed
Target opened
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HFT BEHIND THE SCENES In case you don’t know what Hunter Field Target shooting is, it is basically people shooting metal bunnies out in the middle of nowhere. It has become a full on target sport and very popular indeed. There is a 30 target course and you or your airgun must shoot from and touch a peg. Target distances and kill zones are unknown and you cannot adjust your scope in any way. We will do a full HFT article at some point but this time we are looking at what goes on behind the scenes and what it takes to put one on. Turning up at an HFT shoot and going round the course and taking part is great fun but a lot of things have to be put in place to allow us to do that so we decided to give you an idea of what gets done behind the scenes to allow us to take part in this fantastic sport. If you haven’t tried it yet get down to a local one and give it a go. You will get hooked. It’s a great day out. Course setting is a dark art and much work needs to be done. The grass on the lanes needs cut to ensure shooters have a clear line of fire and the targets must be set out and checked that there is the right amount of positional shots and also that the kill zones are the correct size for the target distance. It’s a lot harder than it sounds as targets must adhere to strict guidelines and they must all be able to shot by both left and right handers and juniors. Pegs need to be set and strings attached usually on the morning of the shoot. Firing lines must be in place and trees and bushes trimmed. The time taken to set up an HFT course can run into weeks. The course setters often use devious methods of making life difficult such as range and trajectory traps and they can be very sneaky indeed. A common trap is to set a log or other object between you and the target and when you look through your scope the target is lovely and clear and very easy and you miss. You totally miss. The reason being that although you see it clearly through your scope the devil spawned course setter has made sure that although your scope is pointing at your target your barrel is pointed at the log and your pellets trajectory means it hits the log. These people are all going to hell. Experienced shooters will suss it out but many shooters won’t. Course setting is a skill although some consider it a dark art but it can take many hours of preparation and that’s only part of what goes on behind the scenes.
The first thing that happens at an hft shoot is the signing in. It’s very easy. The preparation is a bit more difficult. The host club has to get all the different paperwork sorted for each class, Open, ladies, juniors 9-13, juniors 14-16, recoiling, .22, and veterans. Shooters need to be given lanes and it takes a fair bit of brain juggling to make sure lanes are not filled with members of the same club. By the time the shoot starts whoever is doing the sign in is usually knackered. The clubs normally set out zeroing targets and paint the range targets for their guests to practice and marshals have to get hi viz and sometimes walkie talkies and are usually kept busy. They have to amend scores while keeping everyone safe while making sure everyone sticks to the rules. Luckily most hft shooters soon get to know the rules and stick to them. A mandatory safety brief has to be read out and off you go. HFT is a great fun sport and can be as competitive or non competitive as you wish. You can be a new shooter and you will be given the warmest of welcomes and you will want to go to the next one. You can also be super competitive and there are many top class shooters who practice a lot. They will guide you and keep you right and it won’t be long before you are helping others. While you are shooting some unlucky “volunteer” is getting ready to do the scoring. That’s where the headaches start for the scorer Once all the scorecards are in the scorer has to log them onto the class sheets and determine the first three places. You often find them saying a quiet prayer hoping they get it right and that there are no shoot offs. If there are shooters in medal places that have the same score the scorer and hosting club have to have shoot offs to determine the top three winners of each class. Sometimes there can be shoot offs for 1st, 2nd and/or 3rd place and it starts to get tricky. Every now and then shooters will toss a coin and answer the scorers prayers. Prize giving is next then back to the course to take in strings. Car parking, catering, raffles and all sorts of other things have to be done. There is an incredible amount of work that goes on behind the scenes at an HFT shoot and we take our hats off to the hard working volunteers who do all this on their own time and for free to help us just drive up, sign in, and shoot. When that course setter puts out a 30mm kill zone at 39 yards along two lines of bushes and you think you have done your homework and you KNOW its 45 yards and miss. Don’t be too hard on yourself as you see him/her standing behind you with a grin on their face. They have put a lot of work and thought into getting that course ready for you and we couldn’t do without them and all the other people in the background that have worked so hard to give you a fantastic day out.
Airgun Gurus Gear Our Airgun Gurus gear is now online and available and the feedback we have is that the gear is great quality. We went a bit over the top and got some really good gold embroidery done as well as the normal three colour embroidery. We have added AGG AIR stuff too which is not embroidered and you can see what that looks like in the pic on the left. The AGG GEAR store has polos, tees, Hats of all kinds, Jackets, hoodies, trousers, bags, joggers, Hi Viz, rugby shirts, and a great range of ladies and kids gear too.
Just click on the button that says “PRODUCTS� to go to the store and add them to your cart. There is a fast paypal checkout on there to save you putting in your details but the store is safe and encrypted and delivers fairly quickly. You can to the store by clicking the link below
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Well that’s it. Our test issue of the Airgun Gurus online magazine. Our website articles get read by over 5000 people and we hope this does too. We will be doing lots of changes as we get to grips with things and depending on feedback we might start to do more. Your feedback is very important to us and if we do another one of these we will incorporate as much of your feedback as possible. We hope our advertisers liked their free submissions and that you get loads of visits and hopefully some business. We promise our readers that we will not swamp the magazine with adverts and that we will do out best to make sure our articles will be as interesting as we can make them and that the AGG magazine will always be free. Thank you for taking the time to look at our test magazine and who knows we might end up doing more. If you wish to contact AGG you can do so on the links below. Happy shooting. AGG FACEBOOK GROUP
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