JDM Legends Grand Opening

Well a new shop is opening up in North Salt Lake.  It called JDM Legends.  They import, restore, and modify 25+ year old Japanese cars.  It is owned by Trey Cobb of my former employer Cobb Tuning.  And while I really hate to endorse anything from him for many reasons having to do with my previous employment, it is being run by a great guy.  Eric Bizek is the guy in charge of operations there and as far as I know, he is the only employee.  I worked with him at Cobb and he is a great guy with a great work ethic, and he has incredibly good taste.  And like many of us, he has a great love of old school JDM that most of us can’t afford to do anything about.  So while Trey can suck it, Eric is awesome.  So if you want an old school JDM car, I guess I would have to suggest getting it through JDM Legends.

At their grand opening, a bunch of very cool cars showed up.  And Trey brought out most of his personal cool car collection.  Although I was disappointed he didn’t have his FD RX-7 there.  But he had his R32 GTR, R33 GTR, R34 GTR, R35 GTR, Datsun 510 with SR20DET swap, a couple early ’70’s Celicas.  And my personal favorite, a Nissan S15 Silvia.  Oh man, what a beautiful car.

S15 Silvia

S15 Other Side

Ikeya Formula suspension

S15 Ikeya Formula Front

This S15 as you can see, has Ohlins coilovers, Advan RG2 wheels, Full Ikeya Formula control arms front and rear.  I have no idea what else is done to it.  But damn it’s yummy.  I think the suspension alone cost more than all 3 of my current cars are worth.

And here are a couple more pictures of Trey’s cars.  I didn’t take pictures of the Celicas or his 510.  Here’s the R32, R33, R34, and R35:

R32 GTR (dark gray) R33 GTR (silver)

R34 GTR (blue) R35 GTR (white)

And here are some various other cool cars that showed up to the event.  Including what I am told is the most expensive Datsun 510 in North America.

Datsun 240Z

240Z Engine

Datsun 510

260Z

Widebody Mini w/B16 Honda drivetrain and coilover suspension

Biggie's S13 wide body Thunder Dome

And here is Eric Bizek.  He is the manager and currently sole employee of JDM Legends.  Great guy, great work…  In the picture he is standing next to Alan “full size” Anderson.  He is our local Datsun 510 Expert.  I failed to take pictures of his 510, but it has a built VG30DE engine in it.  Pretty cool little car.

JDM Legends manager

Great F1 tech video

This one really does not need any commentary.  This is for those of you that know what is going on in Formula 1 with regards to the rear diffusers, but do no know the specifics of the designs in question.  Here is the Brawn GP rear diffuser design video:

TruGlo 6-24X50 review / .22-250 Reload data / Sako L579 Forester

So my favorite rifle has been a bit neglected lately. It’s a Sako Forester in .22-250. It has the L579 action. As close as I can tell, it was imported from Finland back in about 1973. It was a gift from my dad to my mom back then and seeing as how my mom is not a fan of guns, she never shot it and decided to save it for me. So it sat in my grandpa’s gun cabinet for about 18 years. Then once I hit that magical age my mom thought was old enough for me to have it it became mine. Every time I would visit grandpa’s house I would sit and look at that gun through the glass on the front of his cabinet tempted to take it out on his farm and have some fun. But I wouldn’t risk never getting it by trying to have it too soon. So there it sat. Right next to his Savage Model 99 lever action 300 Savage. There’s another cool old gun.

Sako Forester L579

My grandpa gave me that Savage shortly before he died. I never expected anything from him when he died. He was not a wealthy man fiscally speaking. And he had probably 130 or so children, grandchildren, great grandchildren when he died. So I was happy with just my memories of him. He was such an amazing person. I won’t go into the story of him on this post, but needless to say, I was shocked and honored when he passed that Savage down to me. So yeah, no matter what that thing is eventually worth, it will be my boy’s when I die. After all, my boy is named after that amazing man.

Back on topic… Since I moved back to the city, I have not had access to reloading equipment. So I pulled my Tasco World Class 3.5-10X50 (we’ll give that scope a 2.5 out of 5) off the Sako and put it on my 10/22. I always planned on getting a nice high power scope for the Sako. I needed something that would be worthy of putting on a gun that can twist bottle caps off at 100 yards (when I have it in a rest). But I was not in a hurry since I never really shoot the Sako anymore anyway. Well, now that I have got back into shooting a bunch I had to get something.

I have been reading about scopes on a bunch of forums. And typically everyone on the serious forums won’t even look at a scope unless it takes an entire paycheck to purchase it. While I have used Leupold which seems to be the “low cost” favorite, I have also used a lot of garbage scopes. I have used Tasco (cheap and expensive), Leupold (not mine), BSA, Bushnell (cheap), and even a Firearms International Corp (bet you have never heard of that one). So most of my experience is with cheap scopes and while I liked the expensive scopes I honestly couldn’t tell much difference between them and my Tasco World Class. Where the Tasco fell short was no focus. That sucks. The reticle on the Bushnell eventually started to spin inside the housing. Center seemed to stay ok, but good luck adjusting it right. The BSA was insanely herd to zero. It seemed some adjusting did what it was supposed to while sometimes it just wouldn’t move POI at all. To the best of my knowledge, the International is about 50 years old, has a nice fine reticle and seems to adjust as it should. I don’t expect to work as well as it does at 50, so it’s a mutha f’in winner in my book.

So while most of my experience is in cheap crap scopes, I also recognize their disadvantages. I just choose to accept them and pay my bills rather than get some uber fancy Schmidt & Bender and end up homeless because of it. And I have never missed a target due to a crap scope not doing it’s job. I won’t be winning any competitions no matter what scope I use.

So I was looking for something in the sub $300 price range with a minimum of 16x and a minimum of a 44mm objective. I was very tempted to give the WOTAC scope a try. Then someone mentioned Natchez having great discounts on good scopes. So I checked them out. I found my victim. A TruGlo 6-24X50 with mill dot reticle. It has the nice target turrets to make adjusting elevation and windage on the fly very easy. The only thing I would have liked to be different on the functionality front was the focus would have been nice to be on a 3^rd turret rather than on a ring around the objective lens. On the aesthetics front, I hate the TruGlo logo. It’s fine for a box or ads, but the colors are way too obnoxious to put on a scope body/ But this is supposedly a $244 scope on sale for $59.86. So I figured I could deal with the short comings. I tried to find out more about the scope on TruGlo’s website, but this particular scope is not listed on there. So I assume it is a discontinued item. No idea why it’s discontinued, but what I don’t know won’t hurt me At least not yet.

TruGlo 6-24x50

After waiting for a week for the scope to get her, I pulled it out of the box and immediately began playing with the turrets. Both of them adjusted easily with an audible and tactile feedback. I was glad to see that as a co-worker had also bought a couple TruGlo scopes recently and the elevation turret was pretty stiff and the feedback was soft on it.

Turrets

Turrets from front

Another angle

I looked through the scope and all appeared to be just fine. So I mounted the scope into my existing rails on the Sako. No problems at all. This scope only has a 1” tube, but I actually wanted that since I didn’t want to have to get rid of my expensive rings. I paid more for those rings 17 years ago than what this scope cost me today. So once it was all mounted up, I made sure the reticle appeared straight, and from my living room pointed outside and made sure the focus adjustment and power adjustment worked. Sure enough, all is well.

The next day seemed to take forever to get here. I finally get to go to the range. Been a long time since I went to the long outdoor range. Been spending all my time indoor lately. I got there and bought some targets with a 1” grid on them. Checked in with the range master over on the 100 and 200 yard range. He threw me on lane 11. First thing, I went out and mounted up 2 of the targets. Came back to my station and pulled out my toys. Today I only brought the Sako and the Savage. Friday night after mounting the scope I went and bought the last box of 40 rounds of Winchester .22-250 varmint ammo. There is not a lot of info on the box about this ammo other than it is 4,000 fps with a 45gr. bullet. So I had those and what loads I had left over that I made about 10 or so years ago. The magic load that this gun seems to love is CCI cap, 40.5gr. of Hodgden Varget powder, and a 40 gr. Hornady V-Max moly coated bullet. This makes for a round that shoots at about 4,400 fps, and when in a rest will typically shoot 3/8” 5 shot groups at 100 yards. That’s why I love this gun so much.

Winchester poo ammo

With my reloads

So after firing a few shots I realize that I am so far off the paper I will never be able to get sighted in without some help. Luckily the range master does some sighting in services for free/cheap. He bore sighted the scope for me for free. I went back and was closer, but still not on the paper. So he offered to get it closer for me. The range master has a beefy steel rest that is formed into the concrete and his own lanes with spotting scope. So after a couple shots he got it sighted in and asks if these Winchester rounds are all I have. I tell him hey are just my sighting in rounds. He tells me they are not shooting well and suggested trying the good rounds. I was a bit concerned that my Sako was suffering. So after getting the good rounds, he did a small group from the rest. All holes touching. That’s right, my girl is still feeling good.

So since I am a total amateur shooter with a great built-in vibrator, I didn’t bother bringing any kind of rest. Typically my days at the range are trying to better myself rather than my setup. So anyway, back to the scope…

Changing power through the range from 6x to 24x, never cause 0 to move. Spinning the turrets lock to lock and back to zero did not alter the zero point. The focal point on 24x is fairly small, but not tough to find. It actually seemed larger than the Leupold 16x I have used before. I could tell at 24x the clarity went away just a little. Kind of like it just wasn’t transmitting quite as much light. Everything was in focus, just not as bright and clear as as lower power levels. At 16x, everything was just as clear as at 6x. I was actually surprised by how well the focusing ring actually worked. It’s a little stiff, but that’s fine since I wouldn’t want it moving on it’s own. Rotating it just a mm or 2 was the difference between in focus and annoyingly out of focus.

The reticle…

Not a fan. The bars are too thick. Especially between the mill dots. I honestly have no idea if the mill dots are even the proper distance apart. But even if they are, they block out too much of the target. If they do their job, then it’s a small price to pay, but the actual cross hair needs to be about 1/3 the thickness it is. And the thickest part on the ends needs to be shorter. They just take up too must real estate.

Here is some shots I took with my point and shoot.  You can’t judge the quality from these but it gives you a good idea of what the different magnifications do for you.

6x

10x

16x

24x

I was at the range shooting for a solid 3.5 hours. After the Sako barrel would get too hot to touch, I would switch to the Savage and shoot that until it was too hot to hold. I did this until I was out of ammo for the Sako. And at the end of the day, with a barrel too hot to touch I shot a 6 shot group with one flier, the other 5 were about 3/4”. For reference, I think the best I got with the Winchester ammo was a 2.5” group. Again, this is with no rest with the scope set at 24x in a wind that was blowing toward me and to the right at about 3 mph is all. It was a beautiful day for shooting.

Well, after shooting about 100 rounds through it, the scope is still on zero. And the Sako is still rocking with the groupings. On a side note, I absolutely love the trigger on the Sako. Only trigger I have felt that stock felt this good is an Anshutz. I love my Ruger trigger, but I had that one worked on to get it feeling that good. The Sako feels like maybe a 2 lb trigger with almost no over travel. The Savage still gets some attention at the range and shoots that ammo that was probably loaded 30 years ago just fine. I love lever actions. I get to live out childhood cowboy fantasies. I am a total tech nerd/geek but I still love the feel of a lever action.

So to summarize:

TruGlo 6-24X50 = good buy for anything under $200 (Get them at Natchez while you can for $60)

Clarity – 4 out of 5 (slight haziness at the edge, light source dims at high magnification)

Turrets – 4 out of 5 (would have been higher if to zero them I didn’t need an allen wrench)

Reticle – 3 out of 5 (straight but thick)

Focus – 4 out of 5 (works great, but tough to adjust while looking through it)

Build quality – 3.5 out of 5 (will go up if it proves reliable)

Value – 5 out of 5

Sako Forester L579 .22-250 rifle = amazing accuracy even after 40 years of neglect

Best load I have had in my gun = 40 grain moly coated V-Max bullet, 40.5 grains of Verget powder

Savage Model 99 in 300 Savage = Classic style, rugged good looks, owned by the best person I have ever had the privilege of knowing.

And here is some gratuitous shots of my 1973 era Sako Forester L579:

Cheekpad

Trigger

Bolt

Shooting the S&W 22A

So I got to hit the range with a friend of mine today to test out the new gun for the first time.   I was using some cheap Federal value pack high velocity and some CCI Blazer high velocity.  I have been warned that both of those types may have feeding issues in the gun, but that’s what I had.  I was shooting at targets that are some “official” 25′ slow fire pistol targets.

First clip, all of them score on the target, 3 are 8 point or better.  Next clip, 9 of the 10 are pointers.  3 are 8 or better.  Then I tried some rapid fire.  3 were not pointers, I think 1 was an 8 pointer.  The only feeding issues I had was a user issue (I think).  On a fresh clip, the first shot would fire and eject fine but the follow up shot would not feed in.  I believe I was not pushing the clip in far enough.  Because after doing this a few times, I tried exerting more effort on the clip and had no issues.

My friend that was with me seemed to love the hell out of it.  We brought a few guns, but he always wanted to shoot the S&W.  He shot much better than me.  I guess pro photographers are a bit more steady that professional milk shake machines like me.  He had one 10 shot group on the same targets that had 8 at 8 points or better.  This gun sure can shoot.  My only sort of major complaint, and I will blame my poor performance on it, is the sights lack any indicator.  It’s a flat black board with a flat black blade.  In the indoor range with very little light I had problems lining up the sights.

Plus side:

• Crazy accurate
• Feeds reliably
• Handle fits amazing in the hand while shooting
• Trigger is very uniform and not overly stiff for a factory trigger and the shape is just right
• Balance feels nice
• Immensely easier to clean than the wife’s Walther
• Very little muzzle rise

Down Side:

• First click on clip is not enough, extra effort needs to be made to seat it well
• Sights are not Steyr sights (although they are adjustable unlike Steyr)
• With a handle this big, you should be able to have a 20 round clip

Sorry, no pictures to go with this post.  But in conclusion: For under $300, this gun is awesome.  Value: 10/10.  Highly recommended to anyone, but especially first timers that are afraid of the kick the bigger pistols have.

Father’s day is likely my favorite day…

So This year for father’s day my wife bought me another gun.  This year I got my present early thanks to Cabela’s having a $20 off coupon.  So after calling around a week ago, nobody had the gun I wanted in stock except Cabela’s.  So when this weekend rolled around we made the drive down there (maybe 20 miles is all).  Turns out in the week between when I called and when we went shopping, they sold out of this particular gun.  So after calling around again, we found it at Impact Guns.  They have a great website with a ton of guns (not this one though) and their West Valley store is very close to my house.  Their website makes you think their store would be some 30,000 square foot warehouse with maybe some sort of small store front.  But really it’s a crappy little run down building in the ghetto with bars on the windows and maybe a couple thousand total square feet of store.  But they do have a decent selection of anything from 10/22’s to Barret M82’s.

Anyhow, back to this bad boy…  It is the Smith & Wesson 22A-1 with the S&W factory wood grips.  According to S&W it is a target pistol.  Like a .22LR would be for anything else…  The S&W sku # is 107431  I really wanted the wood grip model due to the fact that the wood grips are a $75 option that adds nothing to the retail price of this gun.  Plus they look great, and appear to be very similar to the Model 41 grips only with a bulkier bottom end.

S&W 22A with wood grips

This gun looks similar to the Model 41 which is a great target pistol S&W sells to serious shooters that have immensely more budget than I do.  I just wanted a .22 for the cheap thrill.  I love being able to shoot all day for $15 worth of ammo.  But I can not see myself ever paying around $1,000 for a .22 which is what the 41’s cost.  Other reviews I have read hint at  the only problem with the 22A is feeding.  Some say no ammo feeds well, some say blunt tip ammo doesn’t feed, some say only high velocity stuff feeds well.  The same shit was said about the Walther P22 we got for Lori, and so far not a single problem on that gun with feeding.  However, after looking close at the gun I can see where there could be feeding issues.  here is a shot of the action open with rounds in the clip:

Feeding close-up

As you can see, the feed ramp is at about a 45 degree angle. Which is much sharper than I personally would have designed into it.  The round is sitting at about a 3-5 degree angle.  Which is fine, but with the feed ramp at 45 degrees, it doesn’t compensate much.  Due to the angle of the clip they would not have been able to move it back without making the angle of the handle as terrible as the Neos by Beretta.  However, it looks like they could have made the angle of the clip more vertical and the exit of the clip more horizontal and moved the entire clip rearward about an 1/8″ and then the feed ramp could have been closer to a more reasonable 30 degrees.  Now obviously without disassembling the gun, this assumes a lot in the design and likely there are some variables that may keep that idea from working.  However, I am curious with it being so close in design to the 41, why not just copy that feed and ramp setup?  I have never heard of people having any issues with them.

Now here are some features of the gun…  First off, here is a shot of the handle.  It’s very smooth, not porous at all, and I love the color.  It would fit people with longer fingers than mine a bit better, but is not bad at all for me.  It looks like it is being held on by 4 short screws.  The bottom is bulky and feels great.  It is pretty thin at the rear on the bottom, but not thin enough to worry about breakage.  It has the mag ejector at the front of the grip in the middle.  It’s actually very nice to push on.  Also, in this shot you can see the slide catch and release lever and the thumb safety.  And at rear sight which is adjustable for elevation and windage.

S&W 22A handle

The trigger is flat and fells pretty nice.  It has a rather pronounced parting line on it.  I would have liked that to be smoothed out, but I understand that when you are trying to keep a price point low you have to cut some places and that is a perfectly acceptable place to cut corners since your finger doesn’t ride on the part line.

S&W 22A trigger

In the previous 2 pictures you can see the slide.  I am not a huge fan of how they made it.  It seems to be a sand casting with a very heavy layer of powder coating on it.  It actually reminds me of a bb gun I bought at Shopko for $15 when I was like 12.  That POS shot bb’s about 30 feet at the most and at 10 feet had an accuracy of maybe 50 MOA.  So while this slide I am sure works fine, I would have liked to see it be maybe a permanent mold casting or something with finer details on it and hard anodized instead of black powder coat.  But again, when trying to hit a certain price point, certain concessions must be made.  So while my personal history skews my view of this particular issue.  I still view it as a non-issue.

S&W 22A in the case

The barrel is a “bull” style.  Personally I normally don’t like .22 handguns with bull barrels but the way the 22A integrates it, it looks pretty good.  The rail on top I hear may need to be machined to fit most optics.  However, I am not much of an optics on handguns guy.  The gun comes in a blue plastic case with 2 big gray latches.  It comes with a lock, 2 clips, a bunch of papers, 2 spare recoil buffer pads, and a spent shell from the factory test fire.

I am taking it to the range today for some testing.  I will report how the 2 styles of bullets I have feed and if there is any noticeable accuracy difference between them.  But until then here are some more gratuitous shots of the gun.  Remember there should be larger versions if you click on the picture in the post…

White background

Action open

S&W Logo

Action open again

Our New Supreme Court Justice

Yes, I know she has not been confirmed yet.  But since we now have a fascist majority in the House, there is no way she will not be confirmed.  I will not go into Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s ruling record as there are other people more well informed on that than me.  So since I do not know every fact involved in every case, I will base my opinion soley on her public speeches.

I am sure Obama is super stoked that he has this opportunity to put someone like her into office.  I really can’t blame him for doing it.  She is perfect for the world he wants to create.  One with no rich people, and no poor people, no freedoms or rights whatsoever.  A world where racism, lack of morals, and an uneducated trendy view of current affairs is not only endorsed, but rewarded.  And first and foremost, a world without that pesky Constitution.

I will leave my opinion at that.  But in closing let me leave you all with this quote.  It seems to be the most direct, blunt, yet truthful statement I have seen about her.

“Why make this complicated? President Obama prefers Supreme Court justices who will violate their oath of office. And he hopes Sonia Sotomayor is the right Hispanic woman for the job.” — Jonah Goldberg

Comparison of different pellets through Gamo

So I decided to get a better idea of how the different brands of pellets compare though my Gamo Whisper Varmint Hunter.  So I stuck the target at 25 feet.  Got me a blanket and layed prone for this test.  The 25 foot tests were 8 shot groups, the 50 foot tests were 5 shots.  The 25 foot groups were done with the scope on 3x since that is where it was in focus (not adjustable on the standard scope) and the 50 foot groups had the scope set at 5x.  I did not adjust the scope point of impact for the different groups.  That is why the 50 foot were so far off target.

First up was the Crossman hunter Walmart stuff.  These pellets are nothing special to look at.  I have no idea what weight they are.  Even Crossman’s website doesn’t say.  When shot through the Whisper VH they are silent.  The gun is still noisy, but the pellets make almost no noise.  Even when they hit the metal pellet trap.  Their 8 shot group was 0.56″.  Not bad at all.

Next up was the Gamo Raptor PBA gold plated ammo.  These pellets weigh in at 5.4gr.  They are much faster than the Crossman.  They also do a lot more damage to the metal case of the pellet trap.  Due to the extra speed, they are not as quiet as the Crossman ammo.  Their 8 shot group (actually 7) came in at 0.44″ if you don’t count shot #8 that I yanked due to the poo trigger on these guns.  I love the gun, but that rigger is going to go soon.

Comparison target

And finally was the Gamo Hunter Magnum pellets.  I had high hopes for these since the Crossman’s shot well and cost nearly nothing.  But the result wasn’t all the impressive.  The 8 shot group came in at 0.91″ which is about twice as large as the PBA ammo, and still much worse than the Crossman ammo.  These rounds are 7.9gr and are still slow enough they are silent from the VH.

Now it was time to double the distance.  I moved the target out to 50 feet and didn’t bother with the Gamo lead ammo since the 25 foot group was so bad.  First up, the PBA.  The group was about 1.5″ high and maybe 3/8″ farther to the left.  Group size was still only about 0.97″  So with the PBA ammo I got about the same size grouping as with the Gamo lead ammo on the PBA was twice the distance.  That PBA ammo may be expensive, but damn it works well.  And I like the noise it makes.

Finally the 50 foot group for the Crossman.  It was much closer to being lined up on target compared to the PBA at this distance.  The first 3 shots were higher than the last 2.  Not sure if this was my fault or maybe the barrel warming up.  But anyway, the group size ended up at 1.29″.  Not bad at all.

Conclusion:

If you have too much money, buy the PBA ammo from Gamo.  It’s faster, more deadly to rodents, sounds cooler, doesn’t get your fingers covered in lead, and gives you the cool factor of saying your ammo is gold plated.

If you are just wasting time in you back yard like me and don’t have a huge budget, get the Crossman ammo from your local Walmart.  It’s cheap, quiet, and fairly consistent.  Yes, I know, my last test showed inconsistency from this ammo, but that very easily could be my shakey ass standing up while shooting.  I trust the results of this test much more.  No wind, prone, etc…

Steer clear of the Gamo Magnum and likely any of their lower grade ammo since I am sure it’s all made the same way.  And definitely still stay away from the Daisy ammo.  It was so bad in the last test I threw it away.  So it was not included on this test.  But it’s crap, stay away.

The gun…  I am very happy with it.  It is not designed or marketed as a target rifle.  And even if it was, there is a very good chance I would not shoot any better with it.  For what this gun is designed to do, it seems to be a great gun.  The trigger needs help.  But supposedly there is a very good aftermarket one I will test soon.  The scope isn’t great, but I have never seen any air gun with a good scope.  It is just overkill.  The laser sight is meh.  It loses center pretty easily, and the dot it makes is pretty big.  It sure looks cool though.

Prova short shifter for Subarus

So I decided I haven’t been posting often enough.  So I figured I would post some more pictures of things I designed before they fade into history since my former employer will no longer be making them.

Here is a couple shots of the Subaru short shifters I designed for a Japanese company named Prova.  It was kind of flattering that they wanted us to produce the shifters for them because they are fairly well known in the Subaru market for their high quality parts.  The shifters are the same as the COBB version other than the color combination and I changed the material for the lower ball section.

Prova STi short shifter designed my ME

Prova WRX Shifter designed by ME

I really like the color combination I did for them.  I think it looks better than what I did for COBB.  I ran into color issues with COBB stuff a lot.  Blue is a terrible company color.  It’s hard to match on anodizing.  There is no good way of doing blue to steel parts other than powder coat.  Nothing goes well with blue other than black or gold.  And it clashes with any car that isn’t black or white.

Another advantage of the Prova version of this shifter is the steel for the lower ball section.  I think it made for a more solid feel compared to the hard anodized aluminum lower section on the COBB shifter.  It also has better harmonic frequency specs so less noise is transfered into the cabin.

Gamo Whisper VH test results…

Well, to give my 3 or 4 die hard viewers and idea how this bad boy shoots, I set up a Beeman pellet trap at about 30 feet.  The targets I used claim to be an “official” 25 foot target.  I sighted in my scope on the expensive PBA ammo from Gamo.  But today I was shooting some Crossman Walmart specials that were $4 for 300 of them.  Obviously far from match grade.  These shots were done with me standing up leaning against the railing 0n my back porch.  I am one shakey SOB, and this gun still shot pretty good.  Funny though the shots all grouped up into 2 groupings.  The one loner shot was all my fault.  I yanked the gun when I pulled the trigger.  Also the rip on the upper left was a ricochet out of the pellet trap.

Pellet trap target at 30 feet

Again, this would obviously be better indoor with a rest or at least with me prone.  But I’m pretty impressed for me shooting about the cheapest ammo I could find.

Another new toy (my wife is awesome)

Well, next Tuesday is my birthday.  So my wife ordered me a new toy.  She can’t stand to wait on things like that so of course as soon as I got home from my business trip to Couer d’Alene Idaho she gave it to me.  I had a pretty good idea what it was, but she got me the super pimp version which I wasn’t expecting.

It’s a Gamo Whisper VH (Varmint Hunter).  It’s a .177 caliber pellet gun that has a sounds suppression unit on the end of the barrel.  And being the VH version, it comes with a 3-9×40 scope with full duplex reticle, a laser sight, and a flashlight.  The laser and flashlight can either use an on/off button that comes with them or you can choose to use the provided remote switches which you hold down with your fingers.  I chose the remote switches to save battery life.

Gamo Whisper Varmint Hunter full side view

Better view of scope

Close-up of scope (made by BSA)

The Gamo Whisper is a break barrel design which means you only pump it once and you do this by using the barrel and a lever.  It has a composite stock that is a thumb hole variant.  It fits me OK, but not great.  It definitely designed for younger smaller kids than me.

Some of the other nice features it includes are: bright neon fiber optic sights with hood on the front sight and windage and elevation adjustment on the rear sight.  The barrel is made of a composite with a steel rifled insert.  The barrel is fluted.  The entire gun is light enough to be easily handled, but not feel cheap.  It also comes with 50 rounds of Gamo Raptor ammo.  These shoot very well, but unfortunately are the most expensive of the ammo I tested so far.

Ammo:  So the Gamo Raptor shoots very consistent and with very good velocity.  Next best I tested was Gamo Magnum 7.87gr ammo.  It was consistent but shot high and right of the Raptor ammo.  Next was the Crossman premium grade ammo.  It did not shoot consistently and was typically left of where the Raptor stuff shot.  Finally there was the Daisy precision Max ammo.  Avoid it at all cost.  At 25 yards I was lucky to even get it to hit the paper target.  And every shot sounded like a miss-fire.  Absolute shit ammo.  Luckily it was also the cheapest so it’s no big loss to just throw it away.