what the lighting conditions happen to be. It is also fast to use and more rugged than a scope. Scopes may be a lot better for
The author, center, with his grand- sons: Jett (left) and Ian (right).
extra thickness was planed off, leaving a little extra wood in that dimension. A local gunsmith/machinist duplicated the inletting of the old stock with his milling machine. Using files, rasps, sandpaper, and finally steel wool, I got the wood shaped like the old stock and the wood was much better than expected.
MECHANICAL REBUILD The seals leaked so I sent the rifl e
to MAC1 Air Gun for a rebuild which included the “Steroid Kit.” Seals were replaced and some of the old parts were replaced with new heavy-duty parts. When new, the Sheridan was limited to a maximum of eight pumps. After the Steroid Kit, it can be pumped up 14 times. However, that requires some real heavy-duty pumping, well beyond the capability of any 12-year-old. SIGHTS
The Sheridan came with open
sights. When my brother and I bought it, a peep rear sight was a $5.00 option. We did not know how much better a peep sight was so did not get one. MAC1 Air Guns added one for around $30. What a bargain! Peep sights are much better than
most shooters realize. A peep sight is much more accurate than an open sight for most people. The human eye can very accurately center the top of the front sight in the center of the rear peep sight. Unlike an open rear sight, the location of the center of the rear peep sight appears the same no matter
Page 148 July — September 2011
aiming precision in a ½ MOA rifl e, but in a two or three MOA air rifl e, the dif- ference is insignifi cant. Scopes magnify the wiggles one makes shooting from the standing position, making it more diffi cult, and I would guess that most small game is shot at from a standing position. Also, at close range, the path of a pellet will be much lower than the crosshairs of a scope mounted 1.5 inches above the bore compared to the line of sight of a peep sight ⅝ -inch above the bore. That’s important because a kid with a pellet rifl e shoots a lot of stuff at close range. PELLET SELECTION
I tried out four .20 caliber pellets.
The prime criteria for pellet selection were accuracy and having a round nose. Round-nosed pellets have the best ballistic coeffi cient at air rifl e velocities. They seem to have much more killing power than pointed pellets and about as much as fl at-nosed or hollow-point pellets.
One pellet which did not work
out well was the Predator pellet. It has a pointed plastic tip, looks very stream- lined, and is very high priced. I was told that it is generally very accurate but it did not shoot well in the Sheridan. The Beeman Crow-Magnum which has a hollow point also did not shoot well and I think that at air rifl e velocities, hollow-pointed pellets are more for looks than performance. Two pellets were accurate. Both would typically give ⅝ -inch or better groups for me at 20 to 25 yards. One of these pellets was the
Beeman Kodiak which is relatively heavy at 13.8 grains. It has a good bal- listic coeffi cient and should be good for tougher animals like squirrels at longer distances. The other accurate pellet was the Beeman Field Target pellet which weighs only 11.5 grains. It shoots faster with the same number of pumps and so would be a good pellet for targets and birds. These two pellets can be used with the same sight setting and they tend to hit at about the same point, which is not always the case. The Crow-Magnum and Predator pellets hit off to the side of the Kodiak and Field Target pellets.
PELLET VELOCITY AND ENERGY With three pumps, the Field Tar-
get pellet’s muzzle velocity is 460 fps and the muzzle energy is 5.3 ft-lbs. That muzzle energy level is about the same as for pellets shot from my 300 FWB target air rifl e and I have killed a lot of rabbits with it. With seven pumps, the Field Target pellet’s muzzle velocity is 680 fps and the muzzle energy is 11.9 ft-lbs. That is almost identical to the muzzle energy of pellets shot from my 124 FWB pellet rifl e and I have killed quite a few squirrels with it. The Kodiak pellet with a mini-
mum of fi ve pumps might be better for squirrel and rabbit hunting. With fi ve pumps, the Kodiak pellet’s muzzle velocity is 540 fps and the muzzle energy is 8.9 ft-lbs. That is 30 percent less energy than the FWB 124 at the muzzle but their remaining energies are about the same at 25 yards, about 7.3 ft-lbs. In spite of energy differences at the muzzle, I think the pellets from the Sheridan would kill better at any range because of their heavier weight and greater diameter. Eight pumps may be a practical
maximum for the Sheridan for my grandsons, as it gets diffi cult to pump more than that. With eight pumps, the Kodiak’s muzzle velocity is 650 fps and the muzzle energy is 12.9 ft-lbs. The re- maining energy at 25 yards is 10.4 ft-lbs. That is more than suffi cient for squirrel hunting. Although not needed, with fourteen pumps the Kodiak’s muzzle velocity is 780 fps and the muzzle en- ergy is 18.6 ft-lbs. The remaining energy at 40 yards is 13.2 ft-lbs, more than the 124 FWB has at the muzzle! SIGHTING IN
Pump air rifles are more of a
challenge to sight in properly because the velocity varies, depending on how many times they are pumped. Pellets at different velocities have different trajec- tories. However, it is neither practical to pump the gun only a certain number of times nor is it practical to readjust the sights for different numbers of pumps. The sight setting needs to be useful over the full range of power that the air rifl e will be used. This is a task which was accomplished with the aid of a chronograph and a computer ballistics program. I measured pellet velocities at the muzzle and at 25 yards with both selected pellets and differing numbers
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