Dan......honestly, that is a question I have been asking myself every day for a while.
I have wondered if the conditions here were enchanted compared to other places. After going down to TX to shoot at Bob Z's place, I don't think it is the conditions. I really didn't see anything much different, there. I didn't shoot as well as I do here (I think I had a pair of 743's), but I think I did OK for the first time there. I was shaking like a leaf. I'm sure I will probably always shoot better here. I had very little confidence going over there to shoot. I had been shooting at Frank Tirrells house in TX for a few days prior, and the outdoors swirls, updrafts, downdrafts and every other thing a shooter hates must originate at his range. My gun even shot terrible in his tube. I fiddled and farted with it so much, I actually had no idea where it was anymore. I should have just left it alone. I was very happy to have it shoot OK when I got to Bob's. It was definitely not in top form, though.
Most evenings I shoot 3-6 cards outdoors at the range here. I'm always alone for practice. None of the other guys I shoot with practice at all. I think I will have an edge over the other guys here unless they start practicing, too. I try to shoot whenever there are terrible conditions here, and am usually disappointed when I get to the range and it goes calm. To be truthful, I very seldom see my gun do anything unexpected. When it does, I can usually trace it back to a squashed pellet that I shot anyway, or a weird condition that I missed. I shoot indoors once a week or so right now....just to make sure my rifle is still in shape and to make sure the groups haven't opened up for any reason. If I did not have an awesome indoor place where I could shoot anytime a few miles away, I don't think I would have gotten my rifles to perform like they do. Without indoors.....I could never tell the difference outside between a rifle that groups .030", or one that groups .200". As you know......even when things seem unbelievably still outdoors......there is still plenty going on that will affect a pellet. Indoor shooting once a week gives me great confidence in my equipment when I go outside. If a shot goes somewhere I'm not expecting outdoors.....I can say with probably 99% certainty that it was not my gun. That lets me look for other reasons.
I typically shoot cards in 8-10 minutes outside. Sometimes I might take 15 minutes. I'm holding off out in the black fairly frequently. That doesn't bother me at all. I don't wait for perfect conditions.....I shoot whatever will hang around for a bit, and when it's there i'm shooting a pellet every 10 seconds. I view the last shot as the best indicator of the next shot. I do not click my scope for conditions. It is always perfectly centered from indoor conditions. I have had no one to teach me what I should do, so I have arrived at this style by trial and error. Everybody here that shoots with me.....shoots like I do.
I have shot very few other guns......actually just one PCP. Nobody that I shoot with has ever shot anything else. I only have the numbers I see from other shooters to tell me how my rifle stacks up to the rest. I haven't been focusing on my rifle lately, it's been all about learning the wind. I can tell you that I shot a 750 69x indoors about a month or so ago. JSB heavies right out of the tin. I usually don't shoot multiple cards indoor at the moment, but the singles are almost always 20+ X counts. I honestly don't see the current 59x standing longer than the first indoor match this season.
I have not sorted pellets for a long time. I don't wash them, lube them, or look at them prior to shooting them. The JSB 8.44's have been very good for me outside. In fact they shoot better for me outside at 12FPE than a 28 FPE .22 rifle using JSB 18.1's I was playing with that would typically shoot 250 14-16x indoor.....and sometimes as good as 20x.
I think indoor says a lot about the rifle, and outdoor says a lot about the shooter and the rifle. It seem that the average upper level indoor rifle may shoot in the 45x range from what the scores posted on the scoreline say. Maybe there are a few better, but most are much less. I suspect there are a ton of outdoor shooters that have no idea what there rifle is capable of indoors, and would probably be disappointed when they found out. I cannot see how even an amazing outdoor shooter could overcome a rifle that will not group well indoors......but it seems that relatively inexperienced shooters can shoot pretty well outdoors if the rifle is very tight inside.
I guess the real answer is that I don't know.....I'm traveling out to Joe's to shoot at his regional next month. Maybe some answers will come from this. I really want to know how I stack up against other shooters and equiptment in other locations.
Mike
JSB 8.44's at 795fps.