My Target Shooting Hobby

I grew up with my dad teaching me how to shoot his target air pistol in the backyard. We used to shoot some old milk cartons and plastic containers. I can still remember being afraid and looking away right when I pulled the trigger past the initial travel. We still have the gun, but the piston spring's worn out -- it won't compress air anymore.

Since then, I've gotten different air guns:
1. Daisy model 1200: semi-auto CO2 pistol that shoots .177 ca. BB's at 294 ft/s.
2. A generic Chinese "over-under cocking" air rifle that shoots .177 ca. pellets at around 700 ft/s, but is terribly inaccurate due to its poor sights and crappy bore
3. Crosman: "true" semi-auto CO2 rifle that shoots .177 ca. wadcutter pellets (fed from a revolver-style magazine) at 370 ft/s. I also mounted a 4x24mm scope for pretty good accuracy
4. Gamo Compact : competition-level pistol with rifled bore, single-loading, .177 ca. match-grade pellets at 394 ft/s, position- and weight-adjustable trigger, adjustable "palm shelf"
5. Gamo 890S Carbine Magnum : break barrel magnum rifle that shoots .177 ca. pellets at 1000 ft/s! I've always wanted to get a high-quality, sporting rifle for target shooting. The 890S is a great bargain that carries Gamo's great reputation. It comes with a BSA 3-12X40mm scope. There's even a muzzle brake on the barrel.

The Gamo Compact is my most prized air gun. It's so accurate that if you mount it in a vise, every pellet you shoot will go into the same hole at a 10-meter distance! 3 years ago, my family and I visited some relatives down in So. Cal. that I'd never met before. One of them, my Uncle Boy (it's a Filipino thing!) turned out to be on the Philippines' Olympic target shooting team! Needless to say, we got along really well! When I first entered his house, I saw that he had a spotting scope set up. What really got my attention was his air pistol--to this day, I haven't seen "regular" gun stores that carry the Steyr air match pistol. It's waay more accurate than the Gamo Compact.

He asked me if I wanted to try, but I was right next to him, ready to grip the pistol sooner than he finished asking the question! His pistol was balanced perfectly -- other general-use guns have some barrel-heavy traits. Of course, a $1600 Steyr air match pistol should be damn-near perfect! The target was a regulation circular "bullseye" type for a 10-meter distance. He put a fresh target in the trap for me -- all the better to have a nice record of my bad shooting skills! Hahaha! Anyway, my first group of 3 always ended up above the #9 ring (#1 is bullseye). My uncle figured out I was using the sights wrong--instead of putting the entire circular target "on top of the sights," I only put the center of the target on the sights. With that corrected, I shot some more groups and was surprised that I got most of the pellet onto the bullseye!

The scary thing was, I grouped most of my shots around the bullseye for the rest of the session. Before my family left his house, he gave me the Gamo Compact so that I could practice and hone my skills with it. I still target shoot now because it's one way of relieving my stress from school. It takes a lot of concentration to steady yourself and put the pellet exactly where you want it... Right on the bullseye, of course!

I've since "moved up" and bought a few pistols. Getting used to being "on target" with the air pistols and rifles definitely helped transition me to the conventional pistols. At some point, I'm gonna need to invest in a reloader like the Dillon RL-550B since feeding my target shooting habit with new ammo at the range can get pretty damn expensive.