Flynn

If you filled in what part of the country you were in, SnipersEye, you might well find that someone in you neck of the woods would give you a shout to come over and try a selection of rifles with a selection of scopes so that rather than rely on anecdotal evidence, you got first hand experience. If you're in anywhere near me, feel free to shout up and come out for a plinking session. From personal experience, I can vouch for Simmons and the couple of hawke scopes if I have. Saying that, the bulk of my air guns are PCP and have a selection of MTC, Hawke and something I can't remember but it was as cheap as chips. I only have one springer that I know works (a Cometa 300) but I do have an HW35 (in bits) which was gifted to me. It has a scope but to be honest I'd rely on open sights rather than the tube of **** it's sporting...

Barrels down - no sock or anything - just enough oil to keep them safe for a few months and they're good to go.

Emtec Noisebreakers.

What model of Kingston SD card is it? Do you have a model number? Size? I would hazard a guess that the card is simply not up to the job of writing so much changing data quickly enough. If you can determine the model and size of the card, there's a good chance you can find it at http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/sd-cards-2014/benchmarks,168.html, determine the speed (and if you decide to replace it, know what to replace it with).

It's a tool designed to squirt lead in *that* direction. Use it, Dry it, Clean it. It will last longer than you. Be more concerned about your health than the state of some tubes and a lump of wood.

Miroku MK38 perhaps... I paid 1400 for a grade 5 gun, and I'm delighted with it.

I don't think I have hairy ears but I don't think it'd be an issue to be honest. When you're being fitted, they slide a small foam pad deep into the canal (really deep - don't try this at home!) with a couple of threads (much like a tea-bag) to remove the entire thing. Then an expanding foam style material is squirted into the canal and around your outer ear to get the precise shape. The foam is then sent off to make a mould and the silicon plug is made from this mould. Any ear hair doesn't stick to the expanding foam and it just gets pushed flat when you insert the silicon plus and pops back into place when you remove them. If you're after some moulded plugs and this is putting you off, rest assured - it won't be an issue.

I initially found that when I lifted the gun and got a good solid cheek weld, the pressure on my cheek would move my ear a little and make the plug feel like it was coming loose; same effect as you - cracking the seal, so to speak. I was disappointed but elected to just live with it . However, I've since found that it was me not actually putting the mould in correctly. I insert the ear canal bit into the appropriate cavity but I then make sure that the rest of the ear mould it actually sitting in my ear shape. Tricky to describe but I basically slide my finger around the external part of my ear, above the ear canal and make sure that all of the crinkly bits have a piece of of the fitting in them - effectively making sure that the external ear is holding the entire mould in the right place. This makes the plug much more comfortable and means it absolutely does not move, shift, break the seal or generally give me any grief when I'm walking, beating, shooting, whatever. I can wear my noisebreakers for hours on end, in total comfort ,whereas after an hour or so of them not being fully seated, they'd start to get irritating. Now, I can't feel them after wearing them for 10 minutes.

I use Emtec noisebreakers for all of my shooting, whether it be down at the clay club, in the pigeon hide, rough shooting or on a pheasant day. 90 quid moulded to your ear. Obviously there are over-the-ear defenders which are much cheaper and electronic plugs which are far, far more expensive, but these strike a nice balance for me between price and comfort and protection. I'm a spectacles wearer, which is why the muffs are a literally a pain. Despite them, I still miss clays, pigeons and pheasants without breaking a sweat, all day long.

Metal bonding to plastic - Araldite or a two-part epoxy. A "superglue" will be poor. Let it cure 24 hours at least.

Pitting and/or corrosion within or on the outside of the barrels or the chamber. Splits/cracks in woodwork. Chokes - are they seized in? Checking that it goes bang if you possibly can. Does the safety work and does it change to the second barrel after the first has fired (dry-fire the first barrel onto a snap-cap and give the butt a sharp tap if it's inertia driven) Firing pins clean and not corroded? I'm sure there are plenty of other things to look out for (serial numbers and suchlike) but if it looks clean, it IS clean and it goes bang properly that's pretty much it.

Yes - I find they sound ok. I can hear conversations perfectly, but the crack of my 12 going off is substantially reduced. I was measured up for mine at a hearing aid place in Cheltenham (Imperial Hearing, I think). They made the mould, sent them off to Emtec who had them ready and back with Imperial Hearing in about a fortnight. Went down their, made sure they were a good fit (I got one red and one blue) and everything sorted. I believe I paid 89 quid all in for them (i.e. including the cost of the moulds being taken) The case them come in has my "number" written on the side so if I lose one I can quote the number and get a replacement sent out immediately. I too avoided the CENS offerings. Too rich for my blood, although "hearing is hearing and never comes back", and I was concerned about having to service the electronic and perform battery replacements back at HQ. There's not much can go wrong with the Noisebreakers other than physically lose one.

Yep - I wear them on the clays and when pigeon shooting. Not so much when doing walked-up rough shooting, as I miss some of the rustling movements in the undergrowth that say a pheasant is about to give me a heart-attack by rising up a foot in front of me. Additionally, my pheasant syndicate is small enough that I may only take 3 or 4 shots a day. No excuse though - I know I should wear them anyway. I find them quite comfortable, other than the right one feeling as though it's been loosened in my ear when I get a good solid cheek-weld. It hasn't loosened of course, but it may have move and now feels different for a minute or two before settling back into full comfort. Saying that, I shot clays on Sunday morning and completely forgot they were in, only realising when driving home.

What is the capacity of the battery? Obviously it'll take longer to fully charge a 5,000 mAh batter than it will for a 2000 mAh battery.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=700+atm+to+bar 700 atm = 709.3 bar

They are simple enough to make yourself. An IR camera, a small screen, a battery and some cables/mounts and you're good to go. If you can wire a plug you can make one without any hassle. Expect around the 150 - 200 quid range if you have to buy everything, and that comfortably should get you out to 100+ yards. You'll get dedicated NV help should you need it, even down to a parts list and build instructions on the nightvision forums (http://www.####.com/ S.

The pressure in the barrel after a shot always falls back to ambient air-pressure. Doesn't matter if it's got rain, smoke or fog in there, it's going to be roughly 1 bar. Your next shot wont be affected by ambient pressure by any measurable degree unless it fluctuates a lot. "A lot" is subjective but if the sun comes up and you get a few degrees change in temperature, or you climb/fall a few hundred feet then you'll see a change in POI but realistically, that's not likely to happen.

When you find something that fits, works and suits your requirements, that's all you need. so long as you hit the thing you're aiming at, then it's a win. Also, Miroku... Japanese for magnificent.

Well, obviously hearing protection never hurts when you're chucking lead around at high speed, but I would imaging that there's little benefit to wearing plugs when you're shooting subsonic .22 LR though a quality moderator. As for eye protection, again it can't hurt, but there's little danger of being hit by exploding rabbit bone from 80 yards away but what about a ricochet... What if something goes wrong in the breech and there's a small explosion which tears off a splinter of wood from the stock and sends it spiralling backwards into your left eye? Granted, the chances are (very) slim but that happened with m'colleagues shotgun. Fortunately the wood splinter missed him but it does go to show that weird stuff does happen. I recall seeing a Youtube video of someone in the states firing a (.50 cal maybe?) in a quarry. Round goes down range, hits something and comes straight back at the shooter, hitting his hearing protection and knocking them off his head.

You will always want to wear ear protection when shooting. Once your hearing is damaged, it never repairs itself, so it's downhill all the way. I wear Emtec noisebreakers myself as I can wear them all day, still hear speech clearly whilst protecting my hearing. I find that a full set of cans presses my glassses into the side of my head and makes them uncomfortable. Eye protection is always a good idea. It's particularly useful on a clay ground as you have bits of broken clay driting about all over the place. Probably not quite s important in a pigeon hide but useful nevertheless. I wear specs so I'm sorted everywhere.

Personally, I have a couple of Opinel for out in the field but for butchering in the house I use a VictorInox 3" paring knife; One of these in fact It comes with a great edge, it holds it very well and the blade has some flex in it, so when I'm slicing away at anything from a pigeon to a pheasant to a goose, I can feel where the breastbone is and perform surgical removal of all of the meat. I really can't recommend the VictorInox stuff enough - it's quality kit and, as so often isn't the case, cheap.

I have a Boker which is UK legal (blade is precisely 3 inches), it holds an edge and can be opened single handedly. You can also move the thumb catch "thingy" to several positions making it easier to open the blade. The only thing it doesn't do is lock, but if does have a deep finger choil, which may or may not be of use depending on how the guy holds the quarry as he's skinning/threading it. I bought it from Heinnie Haynes but it and equivalents should be available anywhere that stocks decent knives. http://www.heinnie.com/boker-plus-knives-xs as an example.

All is not lost. If you really like the scope, you can alter that default PX, to something a little more convenient for short range air-rifling... I did a quick google for "how to re parallax a leupold scope" and found quite a few lads on the airgun BBS discussing how to do it, reporting success. Hopefully, a link is acceptable to post... Mods feel free to remove the link if this is verboten.

If it s a scope designed for a .22LR and upwards, you'll almost certainly find it's minimum parallax is set at around 100 yards - maybe a little less. You can re-parallax some scopes (many of the probably, with varying degrees of ease) but it involves removing the front lens and winding it outwards towards the muzzle. In all honesty, if it's a decent quality scope you'll reduce it's value by altering it. Probably much easier to go and drop 60 quid on a reasonable air-rifle scope and be done with it.

Noisebreakers? None - they are completely passive. They consist of a moulding of your ear which fits into the ear canal and your external ear. The have a small insert with a pin-hole drilled through it which slides into your ear canal. The small aperture allows much of the normal conversation into the canal and thus your ear drum whilst still keeping the crack of a shell being fired out. There's a nice 3d spinning model of a single plug on their website: http://www.noisebreaker.com/ No batteries to replace, no servicing. Just wash them when they get a wax build-up. Not as sophisticated as your 600 quid active plugs, but then again cheaper to buy and cheaper to run. I should point out I'm not affiliated with emtec - just a user.