Hatsan Nova 177 has landed

[AmBraCol]

Yes, indeed.  We shall see how it goes when next I get a chance to play with it.  It's pretty close to what I was looking for velocity wise, now to see about accuracy.

[AmBraCol]

Well, this afternoon my wife and I headed out to the new gun club property to give AirBenchrest a whirl. ACTP (Asociación Colombiana de Tiro de Precisión) was doing their first "simultaneo" of 2017, with folks participating in various departments around Colombia. I tried to get different people to come, but only one of the other gun club members was able to come and participate.

My wife and I arrived and carried the equipment downhill about 100-150 yards or so to the space that eventually will become the 50 meter range. We set up a folding table, a couple of chairs, the chronograph and a couple of PVC target stands I built. I then proceeded to record info on my two rifles as I didn't know for sure which one I'd be shooting for record. Both are running in the sub-12 FPE category, the Hatsan Nova surprising me as I wasn't sure how much it had been turned down from the original factory tune that was above the speed of sound.

After some initial putzing around I put up some practice targets and proceeded to check them out. The Hatsan was not grouping well at all with the heavier pellets, but didn't improve very much with the lighter "standard weight" either... but the Air Arms ProSport did not take to shooting off the bags so the Hatsan was decided on. About that time Jaime showed up so we proceeded to check his rifle - and found that his fill station would NOT hook up to the SCUBA tank a friend had loaned me. So he ended up shooting the 2 year old air in his Hammerli AR20FT without topping up.

Once we got the preliminaries taken care of we settled down to business. After taping an official target apiece up on the frames my wife called "TIME!" and we were off with a "pfft". Well, the Hatsan sounds more like "boingfft" and his Hammerli had a bit more bite to it, but it's real fun to shoot without needing ear muffs or plugs.

By the time we'd run through all three cards for the match (25 rounds for score on each one) he was WAY down into the yellow zone of his air tank - but the Hatsan still has another 100 or more shots in it, judging by the gauge. And that in spite of my goofing around prior to starting and shooting at least 3 magazines at each card (those practice bulls need love too!) I'm guessing that at 12 FPE it's going to put out over 200 shots.  Lovely!  I'm going to try bumping it back up and try it again to see how it does around 20 FPE.

Something's not right with my setup. In spite of a consistent sight picture, no flinching and fairly consistent trigger pull, this rifle was throwing some weird fliers. This cost me a lot of points as there was no way to judge when it would throw them nor in which direction. If I tried to compensate because it appeared to be walking in a certain direction and I'd hold off for the next anticipated change - it was sure to put the shot where the crosshairs were, not where it "should" have been according to the previous three or so shots. I soon learned to hold on and let 'er walk where she would.

Now to go over the rifle, check for any clipping in the QE guts, go over the pellets to see if there's inconsistencies in weight, pull the barrel, give it a good cleaning and then perhaps clean up the crown. This rifle's a HOOT to shoot at 12 FPE off the bags - but it'd be a lot more funner if it would shoot consistently in the accuracy department.

We had a great day at the range. Need to get out and relax like that more often.

[AmBraCol]

Well, this morning a little something I've been waiting for for the past couple of months has landed...

On the left is the 15 grain "Sniper Magnum", followed by a more typical H&N "Field Target" 8.49 gr and a 7.56 grain Gamo "Match Target" Wadcutter. Sorry it's not clearer, it looked good on the cell phone screen!

Now to find time to get the Hatsan Nova to the range and see what it will do with these pellets. They just barely fit the magazine, something that leads me to suspect that H&N had the Hatsan rifles in mind when they developed this pellet.

[Rallyshark]

I don't shoot .177 very often, but my Gamo Accu177 hates the Gamo pellets,lol!  It does like the Crosman 10.5, and the H&N Barracuda Hunter Extreme 9.5s...

Did you ever find out if it was clipping the shroud, or get your accuracy figured out?

[AmBraCol]

I don't shoot .177 very often, but my Gamo Accu177 hates the Gamo pellets,lol!  It does like the Crosman 10.5, and the H&N Barracuda Hunter Extreme 9.5s...

Did you ever find out if it was clipping the shroud, or get your accuracy figured out?

I haven't had time or opportunity to fire a shot since then.  Just got back from a ministry related trip to Bogotá on Friday and have been "playing ketchup" since then.   I REALLY need some range time.

[Rodeo]

Check the transfer port hole in your barrel.  My Nova (.25) had a fairly large bur there and the trailing edge of the hole was rough. 

[AmBraCol]

Check the transfer port hole in your barrel.  My Nova (.25) had a fairly large bur there and the trailing edge of the hole was rough.

Thanks.  I'll definitely have to pull that barrel one of these days. All it takes is time - which seems to run in short supply around here, at leas for the  "wanna do" stuff. The "hazta do" always gets first shot at it...

[Rodeo]

I absolutely hear ya!  "Stop the world I wanna go shooting" usually falls on deaf ears.

[AmBraCol]

Today I rebelled and took the time to shoot a few shots indoors, around 9 meters or so.  Too close to get a good clear sight picture with my scope so used the top right corner of the squares as an aiming point (aim small, miss small) which accounts for a couple of the groups being along the side of the target box.  The group on the top right was shot with H&N Sniper Magnums.  Not sure of the velocity, but the rifle was shooting JSB 8.4's at just under 12 FPE.  Not being satisfied with the group I pulled the shroud and shot the group at the top left. Point of impact definitely changed - and the group got more ragged. 

Out came the allen wrench, off came the barrel.  Removed the o-rings, gave it a thorough cleaning.  Re-installed the o-rings, re-inserted the barrel, re-installed the shroud, loaded another 10 Sniper Magnums in the magazine and the bottom left group was the result.  A bit better (the shot at the bottom right was the first from the newly cleaned barrel) but I want to take this rifle back to the factory tune and give these a try at longer range.  All it takes is time and a chance to run out to the gun club...

Now that the barrel's clean I need to try the JSB's again.  Oh, and try the Pellet Gauge out on them first just in case.  The Sniper Magnums are all VERY uniform, haven't had a chance to try the gauge on anything else yet.

[AmBraCol]

Yesterday the Nova got hauled out to the rifle range.  It's a 50 mile round trip past an expensive toll gate so we don't get out there as often as I'd like.  The goal for the day was to see how the construction is doing and then run the Nova and the 2240 over the chronograph.  The Nova was set to run 8.44 gr pellets at just under 12 FPE.  The 15 gr H&N Sniper Magnums were running between 12 and 15 fpe.  WAY too variable for good groups. Anyway, pulled the stock off to adjust the power and the power adjuster would NOT budge.  Fiddled with it a while and finally got it to move. Cranked it up to just under 1,000 fps and reassembled.  Ran a string and it STILL wasn't grouping like I'd like.  Was shooting at around 21 meters.  Definitely need to pull the barrel again and recrown it to see what happens.  It's got a satisfying THOCK to it when shooting my pellet trap.  And even though it's running fairly hot it's not that loud with these heavier pellets. There's a noticeable BOING sound from the air tank on firing, but am not sure how to do a "de-pinger" for this bottle tank.  It's really nifty to be able to run as many shots as I did yesterday without having to refill.  Those 500 cc's of air last a LONG time at low power!