Enter the Crosman 2300S, the S standing for silhouette. Airgun silhouette is a miniaturized form of silhouette using tiny metal silhouettes at reduced ranges. Chickens are shot at 10 yards, Pigs at 12.5 yards, Turkeys at 15 yards and Rams at 18 yards. To give you an idea of scale, the tiny 10 yard chicken has a body mass area slightly smaller than a dime. Not an easy target at 10 yards, offhand, with a pistol.
Out of the box with the Crosman 2300S, we have an air pistol designed to compete in this game. Features include an expensive Williams micrometer finger adjustable rear sight, an adjustable trigger, a premium grade barrel and a grooved metal receiver should you prefer optical sights (and I do). Power can be varied to give you between 40 and 60 shots per CO2 cartridge which covers the 40 shots needed for a silhouette match. I set my power just below max and am getting 40 plus shots per cartridge.
So, how does 2300S shoot? Does the Crosman 2300S have the accuracy needed to compete? I decided to do all my testing and sighting in at 18 yards, since this is the max range for air gun silhouette.
From a rest with the excellent Williams open sight. Good.
From a rest using a Bushnell TRS-25 red dot. Better, but the 3 MOA dot covers up that tiny Chicken too much.
From a rest with a rare vintage Burris 3x adjustable objective handgun scope. Best. Perfect scope for this work.
I really don't like shooting any handgun from a bench, off of a rest. I only do it for accuracy testing and rough sighting in. MUCH prefer to use a handgun without any support other than good old me. I'm a bit rusty using a handgun with a scope, so I pulled a couple. I do like using a scope on a handgun, though. Once I got in the groove, I had to smile. Bring on those 18 yard Rams!
My first CO2 pistol and loving it. The Crosman 2300S
