Henry Rifle Forums

Most already know I just got this Airgun Monday afternoon. Been posting about it in Airgun section.
Here’s todays results. Just a 5 shot group. That rubber mat is flattening them pellets and some are ricocheting. Got to change that. Maybe cardboard?

Nice group! What was the target distance? Go to a Dollar store and look for those foam core poster boards. They used to be a buck a piece and work very well for my target backers. Rubber not good for slow speed pellets or BB's. Picture below showing foam core poster board.

Don't use any material that ricochets, ever. If you get a ricochet, stop shooting and determinate cause.

With pellets, you must use a target that flattens the pellet, completely, as in totally flat, not rounded in any way. Another option is to use a material such as ballistic buddy or rubber mulch that traps the pellet and holds it. Those pellet in your pic have not completely flattened and I'd say that rubber backing is the culprit.

You can continue to use that plywood as a backing, but one thing that would help is to tilt the top forward a bit, as in this pic of our backstop when we were building our backstop. This will funnel the pellets down to the ground. You can face it with metal for the sake of durability, but not with soft material, other than a thick layer of ballistic buddy. You can get ballistic buddy from air gun suppliers, but I much prefer just using hard backstops for less maintenance.


One of my favorite options, though, is a rimfire rated bullet trap. You can set one up anywhere and be safe. The only maintenance is to empty it now and then. This is what I use for my indoor shooting at 10 meters. I usually hang a bit of old carpet for a piece of cardboard in front to keep the lead from splattering out on the floor, but I've never had a ricochet in years and years of shooting. You can also get these at pyramid or AoA and sometimes even at your local gun shop.

Looks like I got to fix a target and back stop just for pellets. Forty, I'll check out the poster board. I got a bunch of cardboard. Would that work for target backing? What about my dirt backstop? I don't want anymore ricochets. Wouldn't they ricochet off plywood? I hope to get out tomorrow and get a good, safe target setup.

One thing I have done for BB's is get a sheet of the black insulating sheathing panel which is used on home construction under the siding. Put that over plywood and the BB's would get stuck in the insulating board and not bounce back. That insulating sheet is about 1/2 inch to 5/8ths thick or so.

A dirt backstop would work fine. Just make sure it is all dirt, with no rocks.

I am having the same problems with richochets. My solution was to go to bullet traps just like NCG mentioned. I also like the idea of tilting the backstop foreword. In my case that’s not to practical because I shoot uphill requiring the tilting to be to much.

Tell us more about the HW 30S. How do you like it? What distance and size of the group?

Rain overnight. If it’s over, I will work on target and backstop for the Airgun today. Will use same dirt backstop I use for the .22’s. Looks like main thing is changing the rubber backing I attach targets to.
Don

Got the target taken care of. No more ricochets. After adjusting windage 4 clicks left, shot these two 5 shot groups. Left target, wish I had last two shots back. Right target, wish had first two shots back. Still better than I been doing but I had moved in to 10 yds. also. One I shot with yellow tinted safety glasses, and the other with 1,50 readers.

Don

Keep up the good work. That's one of the things I love about the HW30. You can shoot it all day long. Not something I can do with the big, heavy air guns.