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!

Another cold shoot

Another 30-shot practice session completed on the cold 10m range at the club. Using my normal Steyr setup, the first two cards were poor as I hadn't warmed up or done any stretching exercises before starting, and the last card, although reasonable, started to spread out as the fingers on my right hand got a lot colder.

The last card - 85.0 ex 100

Ended up with the following stats:

STATS
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Session score(s): 70.1 - 72 - 85
Session total: 227.1 ex 300
Session Average: 75.7

Running Average: 79.9
Running Std. Dev: 6.43
Barrel count: 1270

The poor session has resulted in the running average dropping below 80.0 [bad], while pushing up the standard deviation [bad].
 

Practise, practise and more practise

Completed a 40-shot practice session at the range today. I am still being affected by the coldness on range (it was 7 degC), as was shown in the scores achieved. A good (ish) group on the second card showed that my 'natural' sight picture was putting the shots about 10mm high. Adjusted the rearsight by 5 clicks 'H'. This seems to have worked in terms of elevation in the subsequent groups.

STATS
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Session score(s): 73.1 - 84 - 84 - 77
Session total: 318.1 ex 400
Session Average: 79.50
Std. Dev: 4.7

Running Average: 80.0
Running Std. Dev: 6.39

Had hoped to shot my average, but several flyers resulted in the below 80 cards.

Round 10 - the end of the Kent Black Powder winter league

On another very cold morning on the outdoor range, finally managed to shoot round 10 of the Kent winter Black Powder Leagues. Using the standard setup, managed to shoot on the first detail and score an 83.1 with a slightly high grouping.

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

STATS
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Session score(s): 83.1

Running Average: 79.47
Std. Dev: 2.57

Kent season shot average: 80.0
Kent season Std. Dev: 4.57

Finally, managed to gain my main objective and shoot an 80.0 average for the competition. Hopefully the next seasons competitions will see the running average also climb to over 80.0