Need some advice.

[tricrown]

Tested 6 different pellets in a new (200-300 rds) .177 cal Air Arms TX200 off the bags today. Bags were a Caldwell Tack Driver front and a regular rabbit ear rear with doughnut. Leapers 3-9x32 scope. Unsorted 20yd 10 shot groups with best 9 posted averaged:

Premier Light Domed- 1.30”, 1.08” 4 groups.
F&N Finale match- 1.33”, 1.17” 2 groups.
JSB Exact Diablo Heavy- 1.61”, 1.23” 5 groups.
Gamo Match- 1.69”,1.33” 4 groups.
F&N Barracuda Match- 1.90”, 1.51” 2 groups.
Air Arms Diablo Heavy- 2.19”, 1.72” 2 groups.

I was expecting about half that. The JSBs & Air Arms had only about a ½” horizontal and strung out up and down on all their groups. Other pellets had more of a round group. But the Finale match tore the paper as if they were tumbling. It seemed like it wanted to shot a bunch of times. Then just went and opened back up. Thought it may have been the scope. But it showed no signs of moving and the great horizontal on all the JSBs & Air Arms have me thinking not so. Funny thing is it seems to shoot better from a hold. I fired 5 with elbows resting on the bench and they grouped near a 1/2” even though I was moving around on the target more and it hits 1.5" swingers at 20 yds. near all the time. Any help as to where I start, or if I do, appreciated. Any tricks to make loading easier for a guy with bigger fingers?

 

[lead head]

groups

The groups sure seem large to me but you may have to tune it a little more and then again it may just not like any of the pellets that you have tried. Also did you use any kind of lube on the pellets?
I've never tried to group my Mac 1 under 25 yds but it likes the jsb heavies @about 10.2/10.3grs. You also want to inspect the skirts really well as you get lots of pellets with deformed skirts.
And last but not least it may just be the gun.
Larry

 

[therealld]

TX200 requires pretty good technigue to get decent groups with ANY pellets

First, clean the barrel a little by PULLING a half dozen patches through it from breech to muzzle. Clean the barrel between tests when switching pellet types.

Now make sure the stock screws are tightened correctly, and the scope mounting is secure. BTW, though 9X will do, 12 or 16X would be better, and for the standard 25YDS, 20X or even a little more would be my choice.

When you shoot, use almost NO contact between cheek and stock, and don't grip the forend. Hold the gun lightly, just enough to control it so its not tippy.

Shoot five shot groups (no need for ten shots til you are under 3/8" ctc) with the front rest in various positions from quite close to the trigger guard to near the forend to see whats working. Now do it again with the rear bag, moving from right behind the gripcap to even with the butt.

Don't use pellets heavier than 10gr ... not good for that gun. Get a good gem scale and weight sort pellets to within the same tenth or so grain.

A good TX200 with pellets it "likes" can deliver half inch edge to edge groups with fair consistency.

 

[tricrown]

Wow!

After reading these posts and talking to Rob Hawkins at Spring Gun Tunes I set up my rest bags sideways and placed some folded up silicon gun socks on them so the TX could move as it wanted while I switched to free recoil. I couldn’t believe the difference! While all pellet's groups fell, the JSBs now average .6” for 10 shots at 20yds. and one of the groups was in the low 3s except for one flier that blew it out to .66”. The Crony showed standard deviations right around 5FPS. Boy these things are a different animal!

Thank you.

 

[blades]

Yep springers make everything else look like child's play. I will stick with the PCP units, I just can't handel any more insanity as I play with the rimfire toys also.