New scope on the Ripley AR5s

Some of you will think I am daft for doing this but today I have swapped the £800 Swarovski Habicht 8x50 scope off the Ripley and changed it to now be wearing a £50 Richter Optik 3-9x50AOE scope!

The new scope (not my picture)

The reasoning behind this madness is there though - I wanted a mil-dot scope on the rifle.

The Swarovski had a much clearer picture even without parallax adjustability and it never seemed to need it either to be honest. But, having said all of that, the new scope does the trick nicely. I zeroed it in earlier at 50 yards and I only need to aim half a dot below for 30 yards which is perfect for me as quite a few of my shots are at less than 50 yards.

The Richter Optik scope has an adjustable objective lens for parallax, an illuminated reticule and a 3-9 variable zoom which is all I personally need. 

Next on the cards is a new scope cam mount seeing as the one I am using will only fit on my Logun Solo and was home made by me out of Polymorph. It just isn't cutting the mustard when it comes to shooting with it on and I can't do any hunting with it until I can shoot accurately with it on.

Before anyone asks... The Swarovski hasn't gone to waste, it is now sitting on the .22lr

Happy hunting everyone!

How to make homemade airgun spinner targets!

As promised, here is the tutorial for making your own spinner targets like the ones in the picture below.

I will do a tutorial for how to make the 20mm spinner target but the size can all be adapted to make them bigger or smaller.


Materials list:

• 3 or 4mm steel plate minimum of 20mm x 50 mm - ideally a bit bigger to allow you some room to work
• 1 x Coach bolt 80mm long by 6mm (see picture below for a better guide as to what you need)
• 2 x washers big enough to fit over the coach bolt.
• 20-30mm of aluminium or steel tube that will fit over the coach bolt and still be able to spin freely
• Paint

Tools list:

• Drill and 7 or 8mm drill bit
• Bench vice or clamp of some form
• Hand files - half round and flat
• Hacksaw
• Adjustable spanner
• Marker pen

1. Use your marker pen to mark out the shape of the target onto the steel - I drew around an object that was 20mm diameter and then drew a "tab" at the top. The "tab" will be the part you drill through that the target will spin on. 

Something like this shape will do nicely

2. Place the steel plate in your vice and cut out as close as you can to the lines with the hacksaw, just don't cut past your marked out lines. It is easiest to cut lots of straight lines that cut as close as possible to the marker lines, leaving any rounded corners for the file later on. (see picture below for clarification)

The cut pattern for the hacksaw

3. Swap the hacksaw for the half round file and file away the metal at points 1 and 2 in the picture below to make the concave shape around the tab

4.  Now use the flat file to file the convex edges of the target until you have reached the marked out line all the way around. 

5. Drill a 7 or 8mm hole in the top of the tab like the picture below.

6. Turn the target upside down and tighten the tab in the vice. only put it in the vice as far as the hole in the top.

Tighten it in the vice as far as the line in this picture

7. Take the adjustable spanner and open the jaws just enough to be able to slide it over the rounded part of the target. Now turn the handle of the spanner 90 degrees to put the twist into the tab.

Imagine the thick black line to be the spanner. This is the positioning you should be aiming for

8. You have now made the target part of the spinner. Just slide the components onto the coach bolt in the order shown in the picture below and you are ready to screw it into any fencepost, tree or just a piece of wood you can knock into the ground.

Have fun testing your DIY skills out and have fun shooting the targets. Please email me pictures through my profile if you make any your self I would love to see them.

New camera!!! :-D

Some great news for any followers or soon to be followers! I now have a new camera which has a 40x zoom on it. This means that I can now set it up next to me and zoom to the target whilst still having the scope cam on the rifle.... well... that is, if I can get the parallax issues sorted out with the camera/scope interface.

I will try and get a new video out over the weekend or maybe next week and I will try and include something different and maybe include some hunting on the scope cam. However, I wont be doing any scope cam hunting until i am 100% sure about the accuracy while using the scope cam.

See you all in the next vid!

Target shooting at 30-55 yards with the Logun Solo

Well, I rushed through the editing of some clips so that I could get a new video out to you all. It is the longest video I have done so far so I hope you don't all get bored!

I start of with the 45 yard grouping shots with the new Falcon accuracy plus pellets that I mentioned in the previous post. Then I move on to some of the more fun targets. I love shooting spinners because you get a positive ping when you hit it as well as the obvious spinning effect that means you can easily identify if you hit the target or not. 

I make all of my spinners my self and have done a lot of trial and error to try and find the best and cheapest way of making them but making them strong enough to take a heavy impact from the FAC air rifles. I am also going to test some rimfires out on them just to see if they hold up. The other biggest problem is the fact that getting them to spin very freely was a little tricky at first but I have also solved that issue as you can see from this new video when compared with one of the original videos I did with the old spinners. The old ones also couldn't take the power of the FAC rifles. 

Anyway, without further delay here is the new video!!

Check out my YouTube channel for more of my videos 

My YouTube page

Testing out a different brand of pellets

Today I tried some new pellets out in my Logun Solo. They are the Falcon accuracy plus 15.9 grains and all I can say is that I am glad I spent the money on a full tin of 500! They shoot fantastically out of my Logun. I was punching one hole groups at 30 yards and equally impressive groups at 45 yards! I am now swapping permanently onto these pellets for the Logun and the best part the swap is that these pellets are £2 per tin of 500 cheaper than the Daystate Li that I had previously been using.

I didn't take any videos of the 30 yard test but seeing the results from this swap I think I might do a pellet comparison test video. I will test a number of different pellets through all of my guns (except the Logun MK1 Professional) and see what results we get.

I have a few minutes of video of the 45 yard test but will edit that in with some other target shooting to make a fuller video. I will also take some photos of the 30 yard results to post up to show the difference between the two pellets.

I won't be testing anything other than Crosman Accupell in the Logun  MK1 professional because the magazine system was designed around these pellets and it seems to jam up a lot if you use anything else, even if you adjust the shim to fit. Luckily the accupells shoot very accurately in the MK1 Pro so we have no need to look for an alternative.

Logun Solo and Ripley AR5s target practice

The first shooting video on my page HERE is just a small compilation of me shooting some home made spinner targets and some CO2 canisters.

I am using the .22 calibre Logun Solo at 12 ft.lb with the camera mounted behind the scope so that you can see exactly what I see through the scope when I'm shooting. The scope is a AGS 3-9x40 Cobalt and the pellets are Daystate Li.

The Second video on my page HERE is me shooting some more of the same targets with the Logun Solo and then moving onto testing some grouping shots with the Logun solo again and also the Ripley AR5s running at about 32ft.lb. The Ripley has a Swarovski Habicht 8x50 scope on top and is shooting Bisley Magnum pellets. as you can see from the grouping shots, they aren't great groups. These grouping tests are what encouraged me to test out some new pellets in both guns and I have some MUCH better groups now using Falcon accuracy plus pellets in the Logun and using Air arms 16grain pellets in the Ripley. Keep your eyes out for the next videos showing the new grouping tests as well as some new targets that I have made that are not only smaller but much stronger and will take a hell of a beating without deforming. Also they will be at a mixture of ranges going out to at least 50 yards and maybe even further if I can find a good place to set up.

Purpose of this blog!

Hi all, just a quick post to explain the purpose of this blog.

It will be used alongside my YouTube page (link here) so that I can post photos to go along side my videos, better descriptions and generally just to add a new, deeper element to the videos. I will be showing you how I make my targets, how I set up and use my gear and hopefully loads more interesting stuff.

One thing you will all learn quickly is how much I cant stand just shooting plain paper targets over and over. Sure, they are great for testing your rifles grouping ability every now and then and zeroing in your rifle but lets face it, seeing a target spinning round or exploding when you shoot it is much more interesting for both me and you guys watching! So to save us all getting bored but to save me some money I make my own reactive targets such as spinners, flip flop targets and use other stuff that is lying around the house or garages that looks like it would make a good target.

At the moment I have a handful of air guns which I use:
Falcon FN19 single shot in .177 shooting at 12 ft.lb of power (currently awaiting a new filler valve seal so out of action)
Logun Solo 10 shot in .22 shooting at 12 ft.lb of power
Ripley rifles AR5s in .22 shooting at 32 ft.lb of power
Logun professional MK1 in .177 shooting at somewhere around 17-21 ft.lb of power (I need it running over a chronograph to re-check)
Weihrauch HW80k in .22 shooting at 12.ft.lb of power
Crosman Ratcatcher in .22 shooting at 9ft.lb of power (also needs a new seal kit)

Both the Falcon and the Ratcatcher need seals replacing, so, when I do this I will make a video on it and follow it up with a blog post.

I will also be doing some pellet tests on all the guns soon to find the best pellet for them.

Please leave comments on here and my YouTube page/videos giving suggestions for future videos etc... and I will do my best to accommodate your wishes.