Unfortunately, my gunsmith did not finish the Pardini this week. I decided to skip the match at BCSA; the weather was terrible and it just didn't seem worth the ride to shoot one gun in the rain! I'm not planning to compete again until the 23rd of July - hopefully that is enough time to get my pistol back from the 'smith and get everything sorted out!

I mentioned that I wanted to start working Air Pistol into my training regimen. I hate dry firing, it bores me to distraction. I do it to warm up before shooting and before starting slow fire, but to sit in my house and click away at a spot on the wall leaves me cold. My plan - shoot Air Pistol! If it is good enough for Roberto DiDonna, it's good enough for me.

I had at one time purchased a Pardini K2S from Nygords, but I've sold it off - guns don't last long around me if I can't find a place to shoot them. I've picked up a Daisy 717 for just a few bucks - that will suffice for my needs right now.

I've set up both 10 meter and 6 meter ranges in my basement - luckily, I still have a Gehmann pellet trap and a "silent" pellet trap that I built from plans I found on the web, so no need to share between the two distances. I have to span two rooms for ten meter, 6 meter fits on either side of the dividing wall. My spotting scope will not focus down to 33 feet, which forces me to walk to the target to check status - this is more convenient at 6m than at 10m. I'll use the 10m range for postal competitions - "official" distance shooting. I'll practice at 6 meters. I've created a .pdf file of a reduced 10m target for 6m distance. I've used G. Gladyszewski's measurements from the High Noon postal site. Feel free to copy and use the file, it is a 1200dpi file that prints out very clearly.

I've created a custom page size on my PC to allow me to print the 6m target on 4.5" strips 170mm tall - I use a paper trimmer to cut up my used B40 targets after shooting them at 10 meters. I get two 6 meter targets from every 10 meter target using this method - 3 for 1 is very cost effective, and I don't have to put up with plain-paper targets that cut messy holes. I keep a supply of 170mm square target backers and tape the strip targets to the backers, then slide the whole shebang into my Gehmann target trap for 6 meter practice.

For now, I am using up my supply of Nygord pellets, 4.50mm heavies. I've read that it is better to use lighter pellets with SSP air pistols, but I've got a few thousand to burn up before I experiment with any other pellets..

The photo shows the Daisy 717, a reduced target, and the Nygord pellets.