Poor quality A/P practise and some new pellets

On a slightly cold range, a rushed 70-shot practise session at 10M air pistol. After the initial 10-shot warm up, ended up with the following stats for the session:

STATS
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Session total: 432 ex 600
Session Average: 72.0

Running Average: 79.2
Running Std. Dev: 6.83
BC: 1460

Did make some changes during the session: moved rearsight elevation 20 clicks H to lower the grouping;  moved rearsight5 clicks R to shift the group to the left slightly.

Also shot several of the cards with RWS R10 Match 4.49mm ammunition. This is only £8/500 compared to H&N Finale Match 4.49mm ammunition at £11/500. The
RWS R10 Match pellets have a slightly thicker skirt than the H&N, and are a little easier to seating when loading.

R8 = BAD

Very poor round 8 shot on a very busy, noisy and congested range. Managed only a 66.0 to increase the standard deviation to a truly massive 9.36.

The running average for the Kent competition is now a disappointing 77.3 with an std.dev of 5.43

Overall I am now running an overall 79.24 black powder average. 

Getting ahead with the Kent Black Powder Leagues

On a slightly warmer range than recent weekends, managed to shoot rounds 6 and 7 of the summer season league. Using the normal setup:

Pistol: .36 Mortimer
Powder: 10.1gns of Swiss No.1
Patches: 0.015"  Ox-Yoke prelubed
Balls: .350" Hornady
Filler: 6.5gns of coarse ground semolina

shot the first of the two cards, round 6, for an 81.0

This set the Std.Dev to date to 1.12 indicating a card shot very close to current average. Without a break, shot the second card, round 7, for an 80.0

Although there is a pair of keyholed shots in the 9-ring at 1 o'clock, the card suffered several flyers due to lack of concentration following an incident on the range mid way through the card. Whilst cleaning the barrel after shot number 7, the jag holding the cleaning swab, snapped off at the bottom of the barrel:

I was unable to extract it from the muzzle end, so had to try another [successful] method; remove the access screw from the percussion nipple housing, carefully drop in 3-4 grains of black powder, reinsert the access screw, cap the nipple and then fire carefully downrange. Thankfully the small 'explosion' ejected the remains of the jag and swab.

I then went on to complete the card!

STATS
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Session score(s): 81 + 80

Overall Running Average: 79.42
BC: 974
PB: 92.1

Kent summer season - shot average: 78.9
Kent summer season - Std. Dev: 3.60

End of the Hendon Leagues for the winter 2014-2015 season

Finally got round to shooting round 7 of the Hendon Air Pistol Winter Leagues. On a slightly warmer range, started out badly, but rallied by card 4 to end up with a reasonable 243.2

STATS
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Session score(s): 38 + 34 + 43 + 42 + 42.1 + 44.1
Session total: 243.2 ex 300
Session Average: 81.1
Std. Dev: 7.0

Running Average: 79.6
Running Std. Dev: 6.64
BC: 1390

The normal set-up is:

Pistol: Steyr LP10 [single-shot pre-charged]
Pellets: 4.49mm H&N Finale Match

Kent Summer rounds 3 & 4 with a new load

On the outdoor range with the air temperature initially at 14degC, shot round 3 of the Kent summer season with a slightly different loading setup:

Pistol: .36 Mortimer
Powder: 10.1gns of Swiss No.1
Patches: 0.015"  Ox-Yoke prelubed
Balls: .350" Hornady
Filler: 6.5gns of coarse ground semolina

Using an increased powder load, with the tighter fitting 0.015 patches. A low centered group resulted in a 75.1 score after a very heavy cloud-burst half way through:

As the temperature dropped, shot round 4. Although the card had several very wild flyers, managed to recover the card with 6 shots in the 9-ring for an 80.0 score:

STATS
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Session score(s): 75.1 + 80

Overall Running Average: 79.34
Overall Running Std. Dev: 0.47
Cards: 75
BC: 948
PB: 92.1

Kent summer season - shot average: 77.1
Kent summer season - Std. Dev: 3.69

Start of the Kent Black Powder summer season

Started off the summer black powder season with the following setup:

Pistol: .36 Mortimer
Powder: 9.1gns of Swiss No.1
Patches: 0.010" 
Percussion caps: Number 11 - Dynamit Nobel
Lubricant: 1:2:12 Lanolin:Beeswax:Neats Foot Oil
Balls: .350" Hornady
Filler: 6.5gns of coarse ground semolina

On a day when the range temperature was around 13degC, the first card produced too many flyers to give a good score:

Overall the card scored as a 72 ex 100 with none in the 10-ring.

For the round 2 card I decided to change the patch to a thicker 0.015 Ox-Yoke prelubed. I went with the prelubed as I didn't have any of the plain 0.015 J.T. Tanner patches with me.

Patches: 0.015"  Ox-Yoke prelubed

This resulted in a tighter group with the 10 scoring shots all touching or inside the black.

With the thicker patch, and slightly harder loading, the final card score was an 81.1

STATS
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Session score(s): 72 - 81.1
Session Average: 76.60

Kent season Average: 76.60
Kent season Std. Dev: 4.55

Running Average: 79.39
Barrel count: 922

For round 3 I will stay with the thicker patch set up.

A/P practise

Did some 10m air pistol practise by shooting round 6 of the Hendon Leagues. Again I made the mistake of shooting on a very cold indoor range. At only 4degC I quickly lost most of the sensation in my fingers. The result was a very poor session.

STATS
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Session total: 216.1 ex 300
Std. Dev: 6.62

Running Average: 79.5
Running Std. Dev: 6.62
BC: 1330

It was bad enough to drop my average below 80 once more!