TheDodge Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 (edited) This post was in another forum I visit. It has caused me a lot of thinking In this months AirGunner Steve Price claims that by tilting your rifle slightly to make the vertical crosshairs line up with a target you can improve your chances of hitting the kill zone. The example given is a pigeon sitting in a tree, if you imagine a line through the middle of its brain right down the neck and to the heart you would cant your rifle to match the line and thus increase your chances of scoring a kill. Now is this correct or is it not? 1st Answer was this: right, barrel is below scope by an inch or so, pellet must fly above sightline to make zero at 30 yards or whatever, gravity pulls straight down, they are all facts, so if i cant my rifle left my muzzle sits low and right of my scope, the pellet shoots to the left (or high if i wasnt tilting gun) but then gravity continues to pull it left (or down if i wasnt tilting) and becuase gravity doesnt pull it back down it stays in the top part of the vertical cross hair. it will strike roughly high and left by an inch if the gun wasnt tilting but as it is it will strike left but be about spot on hight wise, so i based this on a pigeon facing left but sitting side on, i'd say you'd miss infront of the bird by 1 inch See pic to help explain, red line = imaginary line blue dot = muzzle yellow dot = high point in trajectory black dot =point of impact ................................................................................ ................................................................................. ...................................................................... Then I took a target (I hadn't got a pigeon so used a squirrel) and set it up at 26.5 yards. I fired two zero shots at the top left and bottom left corners of the small box behind the squidge. I then fired x3 shots centre target on the squidges head with my rifle on the tilt so my verticle crosshair ran down the line I'd drawn from the brain passed the heart. I finished off with two shots, aiming normally, into the area behind the squidge, these two shots left one hole. Can anyone explain how a writer in a magazine can make such a claim when in reality I couldn't get within 3" of bull? Edited October 6, 2008 by TheDodge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
young airgunner Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 never heard of that before :S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewis Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 Alot of bullshzzle if you ask me... The pellet will always drop vertically no matter which way the air rifle is tilted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harnser Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 In target shooting circles canting the rifle is a no no . Thats why a spirit level is incorperated in the front sight . Harnser . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southernlad Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 Sounds like total tosh. It's would be a great idea if you could ignore the laws of physics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbithunter2008 Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 The muppet has a bent barrel if you ask me Should we tell him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saltashshooter Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 i read that aswell mate like the others say a load of bull Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njc110381 Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 (edited) Can't see it working myself. If you cant the rifle to the left for example, then you will lose initial lift on the trajectory, instead sending the pellet to the left. Instead of gravity counteracting the movement like it would if it was vertical, the pellet will move more to the left the further it travels. You will also lose a percentage of the lift on the pellet, as it is wasted going sideways. For that reason I'd expect it to hit low as well. Edited... to say I wonder if this guy is anti hunting? If you aim like that on a pigeons head you'll never hit it because you'll miss under it's beak Edited October 8, 2008 by njc110381 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_commoner Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 i read it and couldn't get my head around it, although i have heard of canting a shotgun ................ my favourite article had to be the mirror though that you take stalking, soz to hijack the thread but anyone read it ? i think the ones tested were £250 and £350 each, i thought it was a joke at first !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southernlad Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 It doesn't matter which way you hold your gun, canted, upright or upside down - the pellet will ALWAYS drop straight down with gravity. It certainly won't go to the left or the right depending on your gun angle! If your scope is zeroed with the sights level, the only way you will be bang on when you shoot at quarry is with the gun level. Don't try this canting business, it's complete twaddle. Concentrate on your accuracy out to the max of about 35 yards and forget about trying daft tricks that have no basis in fact against live animals. Shotgun shooting is another ballgame because you're pointing at moving targets while moving your gun, not aiming at something stationary, though I haven't come across any advice to cant your gun from an instructor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDodge Posted October 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 It doesn't matter which way you hold your gun, canted, upright or upside down - the pellet will ALWAYS drop straight down with gravity. It certainly won't go to the left or the right depending on your gun angle! If your scope is zeroed with the sights level, the only way you will be bang on when you shoot at quarry is with the gun level. Don't try this canting business, it's complete twaddle. Concentrate on your accuracy out to the max of about 35 yards and forget about trying daft tricks that have no basis in fact against live animals. Shotgun shooting is another ballgame because you're pointing at moving targets while moving your gun, not aiming at something stationary, though I haven't come across any advice to cant your gun from an instructor. I'm afraid you're wrong. canting the rifle does send the pellet left or right depending on the cant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klunk Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Utter nonesense. Up is still up, and down is still down, regardless of whether someone cants his rifle or not. Any inanimate object on Earth, unless supported by something will fall straight down, air gun slugs included. Unless possibly you have an air rifle so huuuugely enormous that it exerts it's own gravitational pull. That might work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southernlad Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 It doesn't matter which way you hold your gun, canted, upright or upside down - the pellet will ALWAYS drop straight down with gravity. It certainly won't go to the left or the right depending on your gun angle! If your scope is zeroed with the sights level, the only way you will be bang on when you shoot at quarry is with the gun level. Don't try this canting business, it's complete twaddle. Concentrate on your accuracy out to the max of about 35 yards and forget about trying daft tricks that have no basis in fact against live animals. Shotgun shooting is another ballgame because you're pointing at moving targets while moving your gun, not aiming at something stationary, though I haven't come across any advice to cant your gun from an instructor. I'm afraid you're wrong. canting the rifle does send the pellet left or right depending on the cant. Nice having a chat with you earlier Dodge! - Not disagreeing with you really here, just don't think I've made myself clear on the above point though - canting the rifle may make the pellet appear to hit to the left or right of the vertical reticle but the actual pellet is still going downwards with gravity. It's your scope reticle at a different angle which causes the illusion. Unless you're shooting in a high wind which would have a similar effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airssassin Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Canting an air rifle is not going to achieve the effect described but it will mess up your accuracy. As has been said, gravity is the thing which affects tragectory, not which way the crosshairs are pointing. Anyone who disagrees that this theory is cobblers is welcome to try it out for themselves (on paper targets) to confirm that it doesn't work. Shooting a springer with a cant will cause some strange results due to the recoil but I don't think they will be advantagous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave-G Posted October 9, 2008 Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 (edited) It doesn't matter which way you hold your gun, canted, upright or upside down - the pellet will ALWAYS drop straight down with gravity. It certainly won't go to the left or the right depending on your gun angle! If your scope is zeroed with the sights level, the only way you will be bang on when you shoot at quarry is with the gun level. Don't try this canting business, it's complete twaddle. Concentrate on your accuracy out to the max of about 35 yards and forget about trying daft tricks that have no basis in fact against live animals. Shotgun shooting is another ballgame because you're pointing at moving targets while moving your gun, not aiming at something stationary, though I haven't come across any advice to cant your gun from an instructor. I'm afraid you're wrong. canting the rifle does send the pellet left or right depending on the cant. Nice having a chat with you earlier Dodge! - Not disagreeing with you really here, just don't think I've made myself clear on the above point though - canting the rifle may make the pellet appear to hit to the left or right of the vertical reticle but the actual pellet is still going downwards with gravity. It's your scope reticle at a different angle which causes the illusion. Unless you're shooting in a high wind which would have a similar effect. Canting the rifle WILL make the pellet go to the left or right of the target you are pointing your crosshair at because the crosshair takes account of the initial rise of the pellet through the secondary zero till it falls to the primary zero. Since the rifle has been tilted the pellet will not fall to the desired zero line that it would if used upright. It is not an illusion. The pellet falls to the left of the target by an amount comensurate to the distance from the target. Assuming the rifle is tilted 90 degrees to the left, with the scope 1.5 inches "above" the barrel the pellet leaves the barrel at 1.5 inches to the right of the target, passes the vertical centre line of the target at approximately the secondary zero distance and keeps going to the left... while falling. Edited October 9, 2008 by Dave-G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDodge Posted October 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2008 I have the target pics I used when I did the experiment but I cant post the pics here in the chat window, I can only post a link. I fired two zero shots, one was spot on and one was 2mm off. I then fired 3 shots at a cant at my target, I missed it completely. It wasn't a big enough target to say how much I missed by but my target centre was 3" from the edge of the paper it was printed on. I then fired 2 shots in an open area and made one hole. So, my gun was spot on but at a cant 3" off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewis Posted October 11, 2008 Report Share Posted October 11, 2008 I have the target pics I used when I did the experiment but I cant post the pics here in the chat window, I can only post a link. I fired two zero shots, one was spot on and one was 2mm off. I then fired 3 shots at a cant at my target, I missed it completely. It wasn't a big enough target to say how much I missed by but my target centre was 3" from the edge of the paper it was printed on. I then fired 2 shots in an open area and made one hole. So, my gun was spot on but at a cant 3" off! So to sum up he is talkin utter B******* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southernlad Posted October 12, 2008 Report Share Posted October 12, 2008 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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