poguemahone

its just air rifle barrels behaving as air rifle barrels do. they're all different, and will shoot different pellets differently if you shot brand x pellets from a dozen identical guns you'd get quite a variation on accuracy and power levels.

they'll learn eventually

which seal/seals are leaking did you over fill it, or did they/it just start to leak as you were filling it???

looks like its already in one a real mother in law of an air rifle if ever i saw one.

tubs of pellets, boxes of matches etc. do work. problem is they require MOVEMENT to operate em. the slightest movement and magpies is not a good mix maybe this is why you've not had much success. if you take magpies on out in the field, you're taking them on in their back yard. much better to take em on in the farmyard or around farm buildings if possible, and get hidden and comfortable, well back inside the building a dead magpie is the best thing to "bait" them with by a country mile.

the only way to determine the maximum effective range for ANY gauge shotgun is to pattern it. i do a fair bit with .410, and the pattern with 2 1/2" carts will kill reliably @ 20yds, but wound reliably @ 25yds. using 3" eley carts the pattern is ok out to 25 yds. anything after this range will result in more wounding than killing. thats just my gun/cart combination though, and i'm trying a few different 3" carts at the moment. think its just a matter of being honest with yourself and accepting the range at which your pattern begins to fail.

aye up mate, you might as well do the job right first as last, as it'll save you a lot of hassle you need to do a full chrono string, then you know exactly where to fill to, and how many shots you get from the "sweet spot" of YOUR gun, and not anyone elses because the gun is 2nd hand i'd give the barrel a clean, and if the gun is pre anti tamper, turn it up a fraction, but remember that power level readings need to be taken from the shots in the "sweet spot" before any adjustments are made. what cal. is it (not that it matters, i'm just being nosey)

point your finger at summat keeping both eyes open. then close your left eye and your finger will still be on whatever you're pointing at (assuming you're right eye dominant) then close your right eye and your finger will be off the target. whether you shoot with both eyes open or not, you'll still get the same picture, its just whatever is comfortable/best for you. (if that makes any sense)

yes, 100% right paul the best british guns at the time were doing 9 - 10 ft/lbs, and some german and american guns were doing around 16 ft/lbs as standard. manufacturers protected their own interest and got the limit imposed. i'm only 99% sure of this, but the limit was originally 10.5 ft/lbs (which is roughly what british guns were doing) and was later set at 12 ft/lbs to allow some leeway, when they realised that using different pellets affected the power output. in a court case a few years ago, someone was appealing against a police order for a gun to be destroyed for being just over the limit. he got an ex-world champion, and various other big names in the air rifle world to plea for leniency, and explain that the gun was only marginally over, because of different pellets etc. ( it was under the limit with some pellets they tested) their plea was rejected and the court ruled that there was in fact a 1.5 ft/lb "margin" in place to allow for this.

had a webley & scott bolt action for years, but it was a 20yd gun really. eley fourlong no.6 gave very even patterns @ 20yds, but failed @ 25yds. eley fourlong no.7 were good to 22/23 yds, and lyalvale 2 1/2" no.6 were about the same. i traded it in 18 months ago for a baikal single .410 with 3/4 choke. its similar to the webley with eley fourlong, but doesn't like lyalvale at all. with the eley 3" extralong no.6 its ok to 25 yds, and a bit less with gamebore 3" no.7, although they pattern very evenly. i.ve been playing with the 19gm eley .410 trap cartridges, and results look encouraging. i was hoping to try no.7 or 7 1/2, but i could only get a couple of boxes of 8's, and although i haven't patterned em yet past 20 yds, there's certainly plenty in the pattern to suggest it would be effective much further. think the 7's and 7 1/2's could be useful on live quarry beyond 25 yds, but i wont know til i've patterned em. i think the .410 is a cracking gun, as long as you work within its limits, and patterning the cartridges is the way to go. until i get a cartridge that patterns dense enough for reliable kills further than 25yds, then i'm happy enough with that

i think the 84 yard brigade will always be the 84 yard brigade. each shooter should determine his own max hunting range by firing 10 bench rested shots at an 18mm kill zone. get all 10 shots in, keep moving the target 5 yds further out until you fail, simple. when you've established your absolute maximum hunting range, its worth noting that out in the field, you'll more than likely be shooting under less than ideal conditions, and probably wont be shooting bench rested either, so your range would/should be reduced accordingly. also worth noting that the 18mm kill zone is for an adult rabbit, so if you're shooting 1/2 grown rabbits, or head shots on birds, then your kill zone would be about 12mm. be interesting to hear what other shooters, honest maximum hunting ranges are. many long range superhero's will fail well before the 84 yd mark, but they'll still shoot live quarry at 84 yds. they'll just argue their case for a 40-50mm kill zone instead of 18mm

les "rifles de air" avec pour shooteur 40-50 metres avec les shooteurs de sensibles. les shooteurs attempte au 70-80 metres c'est une "numpties" sil vous plait

you're never alone with schizophrenia stoogey

there's a couple of seats left on the blue bus, if anyone else wants to get on :wacko:

calm down timmy, have a drink or 2