You know there has been a lot of talk about hold and form . This gun is HOLD sensitive! That gun is HOLD sensitive! I am not buying into all of it. I have several guns that range from plinkers to SUPER MAGNUMS. Each one is shot identical in the way I hold it. I either have good form or every gun I own is not hold sensitive. Now Don't get me wrong , each and every gun will have its own signature feel and shot cycle. but overall I have not had a rifle I cant get to shoot well. Some have better triggers that work to your advantage.

I have personally cut and unchoked many of my rifles too. I do agree taht a choke can help a sub par shooter but its more for pelet selection ease of choice in my book.

Now before all the target shooters get fired up. Im not referring to bench resting shooting. Bench shooting is a totally different animal. Chokes are needed for that last bit of accuracy. I shoot in a off hand standing up with NO trees and no braces. I let the gun rest lightly in my cupped hand and find its natural balance point and fire away. Its not out of the ordinary for me to take game at 50+ yards free hand. I can hold 1/2 inch groups at 25 yards all day long, then its just steady hold at 50. How I get the best out of every gun is the set up

I set the scope up by closing my eyes with the scope in the mounts and bring the gun up to shooting position . I assume my balance point and then open them to see where the scope is. If it needs to be adjusted for eye relief, do it now, and try again until its dead on. Then tighten it down. This will give you the exact balance point for that gun. It then is second hand nature when drawing the weapon up to your shoulder. Hunting is all about repeated learned muscle motions.

After that get a few pellets that you like and shoot a 5 of them. Do not concern your self where they hit you are just looking for groups. See what one groups the best then go about adjusting your scope. I try and optically center most of my scopes if possible. Some guns like certain pellets. some don't. I have had two of the exact same guns that hated the same pellets. Like polar opposite twins. Look exact but act 180* different. So be it, find the pellet that groups well in that gun and shoot it.
To many people fall for the pellet marketing game. Paying $15 for a tin of plastic pointed tip pellets that do nothing more than a good round nose one. ITS SHOT PLACEMENT ! If you are depending on your pellet to make up the damage for a poor shot you better stay home.

Round nose pellets are going to give the best accuracy usually as they do not plane or wane from a pointed tip being a tad off dead center. However; I have shot several animals with pointed and Poly tipped pellets. Pointed tend to blow throw faster. If its a head shot who cares. The poly tipped or Hallow points tend to expand if you have a Magnum class rifle. This can be fun as they do A LOT of damage with a good hit. These pellets need some power to get them to open up on impact. Yes they do damage and create a huge wound canal. However a poor shot is a poor shot. I have had fly offs or run away's with every pellet.


Holding techniques.

1. Light grip, like they say with golf. hold it like your holding a rabbit. Do not squeeze the gun.

2.Use a open cupped palm to REST the gun in not HOLD the gun.

3 Relax all muscles in your arms and back and neck. You should not be uncomfortable in a drawn stance. If so re adjust the scope or add but pads. The gun should feel like a extension of you !

4. Find a aiming method. Some draw the cross hairs down on target , some draw them up. Take a deep breath, relax, aim and PULL the trigger, do not pluck at it as this will cause terrible groups.

5. Hold the shot . DO NOT LOOK FOR THE HIT. Springers need time to get the pellet clear. If you hit the game you will hear it and watch it fall.

6. Shoot at live game. You can paper punch all day but live game is MUCH different. Its more difficult as its moving and there is no dot to aim at.


Here are a few tips when setting up a new gun.

1. If you can open it up and de bur and properly lube and inspect seals. Many guns come from the factory dry or with damaged seals. If not get someone who is QUALIFIED to do this. There are many so called tuners out there so be carefull and tell the tuner EXACTLY what you want to get . Its your $ and you should get what you want not what he wants.

2. BUY a GOOD AIR GUN SCOPE> (Without this your wasting your time) Mount the scope , as I stated using the blind drawing method. This is a good time to optically center your scope, that is counting the total number of turns on each turret and dividing that by 2 and clicking back to that 1/2 point centering both the right to left and up and down on the cross hairs. This gives the best use of a scope. It will tell you right away if you need any special mounts to compensate for DROOP.

3. shoot a 5 shot string at a big piece of paper with a 1 inch black dot on it from 10 yards. See where it groups with each pellet. Remember you are just looking for groups. Resist the urge to adjust the scope. Adjustments at 10 will be way off at 25 where you want to be dead on.

After you get the pellet that groups the best bring the right and left adjustment to center on the scope. This will be damn close to where it will stay. After that adjust the up and down until you are 1 inch low at 10 yards.

4. Move back to 25 yards and shoot a 5 shot group. Adjustments on the scope at 25 will be very minute compared to 10 where you may have had to make bigger ones. If you did all the steps chances are that at 25 you will be real close and only have to tweak the up and down a tad.

Most guns that are 900 fps will be dead on at 25 this way and again at 50 as the pellet hits its apex and is on its way down. Now all you have to do is hold usually a mil dot high at 10 or past 50. I have several guns that are 75 accurate with this technique. Bigger calibers and heavier pellets help with down range wind drift but this will get you close.

Remember to get out in the wood and shoot well and shoot often.

Nice write up! Should re read after a few months to keep this info fresh in your head!