tor from Anschutz was installed to fit the front bag. With everything together, the rifle felt stable as long as it didn’t slide too far back from recoil (which I doubted would be the case). The stock has a steep transition from the toe to the pistol grip, and that could result in some vertical stringing on the target. Along with the rifle and bench gear, I brought along my dive tank, DIN valve, and a wide selection of pellets. NOTES ON PELLET SELECTION During the testing process, I was
rather shocked to see such a consider- able difference in accuracy between pellets. Even though there is a seeming endless pellet variety on the market, ranging from flat-nosed wad cutters to radical hollow-point openings and unusual alloys, it seems that the qual- ity control of manufacturing is about 75 percent of the accuracy game. While I was waiting on the rifle to
show up, I spoke with Jim over at Preci- sion Air Guns and he sent over a good selection of pellets that would be used for both hunting and target shooting. Jim mentioned that it was best to try a variety of pellets, but chances were
that the JSB 18.1 grain pellets were going to shoot the best, and when he shipped the rifle over, he included a few different tins of the JSBs. Something else that Jim noted was that pellets also are labeled for head size, and to also test which size my rifle favors. On the bottom of the JSB pellet tins, there is a lot number and a head size. One tin listed 5.53mm and the other was 5.52mm. This is something that you can further test once you find a pellet that your rifle likes. Now, ready for the great part? A
tin of premium pellets, like the JSBs, which are sold 500 pellets per tin, is $14.00. Yep, $14.00 for 500 pellets. Com- pare that to 500 rounds of Eley Tenex at $180.00, and it’s a pretty darn good deal. NOTES ON POWER
Most air rifles’ power is measured
in the unit of Joules, not foot pounds of energy as we are used to seeing with modern firearms. As many of us in the U.S. are familiar with the measurement of foot pounds of energy (fpe), and its equation: mass (in grains) multiplied by velocity (in feet-per-second) squared, divided by 450240 (gravitational con- stant).
So for the fpe of this Steyr, it mea-
sures out to 18.1 grains x (937 x 937) = 15,891,239. This then divided by 450240 is: 35.29 fpe. If you compare this to a common .22 LR subsonic load, such as the PMC Moderator (38-grain bullet traveling at 980 fps, resulting in 81.05 fpe), you will see that this air rifle is de- livering a little less than half the power of a standard subsonic .22 LR round. You could also see that just half
the bullet weight results in half the power on the target. If you want to have the measurement in Joules, which is popular in Europe, you take the fpe number and multiply it by 1.36. This will give you the rough number for Joules.
TEST RESULTS Once I got all the testing gear set
up, I settled down to shoot some prac- tice groups to get a feel for the rifle. I noticed that this rifle performs best with a gentle hold, like you would a traditional smallbore sporter rifle. Not a death-grip, but not free-recoil either. There is almost no movement
in the bags, with just a slight recoil impulse rearward. I kept my shoulder
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