Henry Rifle Forums

We've had record high November temps this week, even high enough at 70 degrees to make for good CO2 air gun shooting (CO2 air guns are temp sensitive). Time to do some air pistol silhouette shooting, then, with the Crosman COs air pistol, the 2300S (S for silhouette).

For those of you not familiar with air gun silhouette, it's pretty simple as shooting competition goes. You shoot at smaller 1/10 scale size chicken, boar, turkey and ram metal silhouettes. 10 shots at each one for a possible score of 40. Knocking over a silhouette counts as a hit. If the silhouette remains standing, no score. Since these silhouettes are very light, the really go flying when hit. Lots of fun. Here's a pic with the distances in yards for both the pistol and the rifle competitions.


Now if you think this is easy, note that the standard air gun competition is done from a standing position, no rest of any sort. There are some versions that allow shooting from a rest, but this shooting sport is all about shooting offhand.

And here's my 2300S with a 3x Burris scope with an AO. Some competitors actually mount a rifle scope on their pistol, but whatever scope you choose will need to have an AO or SF to deal with parallax. And, of course, there are iron sight only classes, hence the excellent Williams open sights on this pistol.


And here we see that the Crosman 2300S is a very capable silhouette air pistol.


This is a fun way to shoot and, especially with air pistol silhouette, you can easily set up a range in most backyards. Give it a try. Enjoy.

Holy cow! Or should I say holy ram that is some good shooting. This is something I could set up in my backyard. What is the cost for a good setup for CO2 and how sensitive to temps and humidity?

CO2 guns start to lose pressure a lot once you get down below the 60s. You can still shoot them, of course, but you'll need to readjust your sights for the drop in POI, caused by th drop in pressure. I'll be doing a lot of indoor shooting over the winter with CO2, but couldn't resist getting outside to shoot one more time before winter comes back.

This Crosman is a target grade CO2 gun, expensive as CO2 guns go, thanks to the included Williams target sight, Lothar Walther barrel and so on. Pushing $300. There are definitely some less expensive choices in target CO2 pistols and rifles, though. For instance, Crosman makes a plainer 2300T target pistol for about half the price that would still be very accurate.

The most popular CO2 guns, these days, are the repeater reproductions of powder burning guns. These are fun to shoot, but they won't have the accuracy needed for target competition. I've been thinking of getting one of the single action revolver versions just for plinking.

One of the plusses for going CO2 is that the CO2 cartridges are cheap and easy to find.

Thanks. So if I were to constantly shoot at say 40 to 50 degrees I could expect reasonable accuracy? I really need more options on what I can shoot in my backyard. I was looking at CO2 in the last Natchez catalog.

Yes, you can shoot CO2 at 40 or 50 degrees. Some shooters do, but most save CO2 for warm season shooting or indoor shooting. The loss of pressure with temp change with CO2 isn't really worth messing with when you don't have that issue with other types of airguns. I can shoot my spring piston guns, my classic pump ups, single stroke pneumatics and our PCPs all year long without having that loss of pressure issue and having to adjust sights, accordingly. (In frigid winter weather, I do have to take a few shots with the spring piston guns (my favorites) to loosen them up, primarily because of the lubricants used, but once done, I'm good to go, same as in summer.)

Wow that is good shooting.

Thanks, RR. It's great to be able to step out our for to shoot with these airguns and pellets are cheap. There has been a run on air guns and pellets with the pandemic, but nothing like the run on powder guns and ammo. At a local auction the other day, bulk grade 9mm ammo was bidding at over a dollar per round. Just nuts.

I have just the plain Crossman pistol 2240. Its 22 cal. I like it alot but you can only use the iron sights on it. Great shooting NCG I know how hard those silly wets are to hit I have 2 sets of those. There a kick to plink at and even a challenge with the rifle. Gene I see now Crossman has a 2240xl in 22 cal that you can put a scope or a dot on. Might need to get one of those myself. I just have a hard time with my big fingers and .177 caliber

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 08, 2020 12:04 pm

I have just the plain Crossman pistol 2240. Its 22 cal. I like it alot but you can only use the iron sights on it. Great shooting NCG I know how hard those silly wets are to hit I have 2 sets of those. There a kick to plink at and even a challenge with the rifle. Gene I see now Crossman has a 2240xl in 22 cal that you can put a scope or a dot on. Might need to get one of those myself. I just have a hard time with my big fingers and .177 caliber

I’ll take a look at it.

Thanks, Al. Yeah, those little 77 pellets can sometimes be a pain to handle, especially in cold weather.