 All right, where is that gun I'm looking for, whatever. Hey friends, how you doing? Tyler Patner, we're back again with another installment where Tom Gaylord and I, the Godfather of Airguns himself, talk all things air guns. Today we are talking about long range air gunning, where it started, where it's come to now, what long range was like 10 years ago when I got into this? Cause let me tell you, it's changed quite a bit. Anyway, settle in, hope you enjoy the video, throw us a like if you do, comment down below, let us know what you thought and don't forget to subscribe, we'll see you at the end. Now where's that gun? So, long range shooting, obviously it's become more of a thing over the last couple of years. You know, you got a bunch of competitions all over the place, 100 yard bench rest is now a thing. Money, money, money. Hey, you know, you gotta do something to bring the folks in, right? Makes it interesting too. But where did this all start? Well, Tyler, I would love to lie and tell you I know. But the truth of the matter is, it probably started a lot earlier than what I'm about to say. But I do know this, in the 1920s, center fire rifle ammunition was getting faster and faster and more and more accurate. The 253,000 had just gone or was about to go 3,000 feet per second. Oh boy, that was a big deal. The 22 Hornet, which is a 22 center fire, they were trying to shoot one inch groups at 100 yards. That was a big deal. And you could if you really worked at it. Well, as time went on into the 30s and 40s, the groups got smaller and smaller. And finally, today we have 35 pound rail guns that they talk about 10th of an inch groups. Okay, but that one inch group, that just seems to be the holy grail. So along comes the 22 long rifle. Well, they aren't shooting groups at 100 yards, but then they started to, maybe in the 50s and 60s, there were some target, well, the target guns were older than that, but guys were trying to shoot smaller and smaller groups and they just stretched the distance out 25 yards, 50 yards and the holy grail was 100 yards again, trying to shoot those one inch groups. Well, now we have air guns that are shooting one inch groups and better at 100 yards. Now it sounds like water under the bridge, nothing's changed, but the better fact we've gone from center fires to room fires to air guns, a lot's changed. I'll tell you, when I got into air guns like 12 or 13 years ago, you were talking about pre-charged guns shooting at max 50 yards. Right. And for anything to shoot sub one inch at 50 yards it was like, wow. And there were a lot of guns that could do that and do better than that at the time, your high end $1,000 PCPs, which was kind of the highest, as far as sporting guns go at that point in time, those were guns that were capable of three quarters of an inch, maybe half inch on a really good windless day. Exactly. And I look at in just a handful of years how far that got pushed and how quickly, where I've shot three quarter inch groups at a hundred yards indoors, no wind, you know? And it's just like, wow. Yeah, wow. Yeah. And look what it's done to the guns. I always talk about the four small bore calibers, one seven seven 20, 22 and 25, but we're shooting 30s. Yep. And we're shooting bigger. Yep. But the 30 is kind of like the new deal. The 30 on a nice day and the 25, they kind of vie for position, but the 30 is where most guys like it. Yeah, well, it does a really great job of consistency in the wind. And not to say that the 25 and even some of those heavier 22s don't do a good job of it. But the 30, at least in my experience is a bit more predictable in that wind, but there's so many great options. Now, I'm sure like the cost of the guns has come up. Some of the features on a lot of those guns have come up quite a bit too, with your adjustable regulators and just having a regulator and everything to begin with is a thing now. There are a lot of those features that have been really elevated to a point where the performance of the guns is consistent enough to be that good that far. And now you have guys, especially as we've seen airgun slugs come along, which not a competition thing yet, at least in bench rest, but that's really pushing what most of us, probably you, for me for sure, thought were even possible with a small board. Absolutely did, yeah. Yeah, slugs, are you kidding? 10 yards, maybe 20. But no, no, not 100 yards. My blog readers want me to shoot slugs at 100 yards. I just want to shoot at 100 yards. That to me is still a challenge. I do better with big boards at 100 than I do with small boards. But I don't do what some of these, and you talk about these guys and the guns how they've gotten better and better. How about these monster magazines that hold so many pellets? And the guns are now competition guns. And there's a focus on that because there's a lot of money if you're a good job. But it's hard to be consistent. You talk about people that think that take going from their backyard to a big competition like a Pyramid Air Cup and Armac and EBR, whatever. The same thing applies to any competition set, by the way. Like whether it's field target, 10 meter, it doesn't matter. What you're doing at home does not apply when you have game day nerves, big money on the line, some guy you look up to from the internet sitting right five feet from you shooting. Whatever the case may be, it's a completely different environment and a real game changer. So look, it's great to be able to shoot amazing groups in your backyard, but can you do it over a couple days of competition and end up in a money spot, right? It's very difficult. Well, I'll tell you what I see. I see the technology, the guns and the pellets has advanced because of these long range matches. I look at these raw guns. Oh my gosh, they're so accurate. I think I shot 10 shots in three 100s of an inch at 25 yards. I've never done that in my life, not with a 10 meter gun at 10 meters, but at 25 yards. And this is a 50, 60 foot pound, 22 caliber gun. Well, it's not just raw. There's FX builds good guns, Daystate builds good guns, Thomas and all the other names that we know. The technology is advancing and we're not all gonna drive Cobra's, 427 Cobra's, but because there is a 427 Cobra, we are gonna get a car that's fast and it'll be one that we can buy, one we can afford. And that's gonna happen in air guns too. Some of that technology is gonna fall off those guns and stay at the price points that we can afford. That's a really good point. You do start to see, I remember the Pyramid Air Cup 2019, when we first 100 yard Ventress competition that we hosted, Umarex brought a couple guys with some gauntlets, right? And everybody was kinda like, ha ha ha. Yeah, I was one of them. Yeah, sure, sure. You know, I shot those guns. Did you get some damn good groups out of those? Yeah, you do. But it takes work, right? It's, I think a lot of people forget that what you get with those higher end guns is a ease of use factor that I can't quite put into words. But there's something about shooting them where it's just easier to shoot well. But if you put the time in, you put the effort in, you really learn some of those less expensive guns, they can compete. And one or two guys, I think one guy actually made it into the finals. So, you know, made it out of his, you know, his group into potentially winning some money. I don't think he ended up doing it. But, you know, just to be in the final 25 people or whatever competing for that with what was essentially, I think kind of what turned into a gauntlet too, basically. So a four or $500 set up, you know, that's pretty intriguing. And to be fair, I remember the 2019 Pyramid Air Cup and we had a crosswind on that range. That's a nasty, nasty place. That was something else. It wasn't a 20 mile an hour wind, but it was gusting and it was hard to dope the wind. Sure, yeah. I've been to all the venues that host the big, you know, hundred-yard Ventress competitions and none of them are easy from a wind perspective and they all present their own difficulties and challenges. And the question is, where's the wind the worst? Is it when it's close to you or when it's down range? And guys will argue about that. For sure. They'll watch the wind flags and some of them are blowing this way and some of them are blowing that way. Yes, it's not so much about can you hold still? It's when are you pulling the trigger, you know? Exactly, exactly. I don't want to say there's a science to it, but there's definitely like, if you can pick out those right moments to put your scoring shots on paper, that's a big, big, big thing. What we've seen across the mid-bore game, you know, the 25s, 30s, 35s in some cases, is well on its way to being taken to a whole other level in 1.77 and 22 by some of these people and you're starting to see some of those folks engineer stuff into bigger caliber guns that are now getting used. I mean, for the first time, we saw a couple of Thomas guns at some of the competitions, you know, in 2021. It's a, you know, it's not a platform for everybody and predominantly has done really well in field target and in that more traditional bench rest, but now we're seeing guys shooting, you know, some of those 22, like JSB redesigns and doing quite well, making the finals, you know, doing a... And that's another good point. JSB already had a great pellet. Yeah. And then they redesigned it and I thought that was a joke. When people told me on my blog, you should shoot the redesign. Well, what the heck is that? So I look it up and oh, I'll be done. Why would they do that? I found out and that by the way is the pellet that that raw I talked about shot in such a tight group. Yep. And I come to find out that when they build the raws, that's the pellet. They build the 22 caliber raw around. Yeah. So the technology is moving forward because of the long range. Even if you don't compete in long range, you're benefiting by it. Absolutely. And I think the thing to understand for folks at home is that it's not... You are the limiting factor. But even more than you, the wind will always humble you. And like I said before, it's one thing to shoot at home, maybe in the evening as the wind's calming down and think, man, I'm gonna go shoot a 250. And you get out there and you're lucky to break 200. Right. Because the wind is... It just kicks all of our asses and that's what it's supposed to do. It's about who can manage conditions the best. And a lot of people are like, man, this is like a, you know, who's got the best super car? I don't think it's quite that. At the end of the day, the guy pulling the trigger is always the loose nut and always has nine times out of 10 anyway. The best shooter is the guy at the top or the girl at the top. Well, they seem to end up in the winner's circle all the time, don't they? Exactly. Yeah. What you notice, if you look across, there are a lot of people that are consistently making it into the finals. That's right. And what most of you don't see is how much practice these people do. And that's a very real thing. So if you put the time in, you're usually gonna get rewarded. I really gotta find this gun before this video's over. I wonder how long it's gonna be. I mean, geez, I hope everybody enjoys it. But heck, I gotta find this gun. I don't even remember what video number this is. I gotta find this gun. I hope we have enough for six. I don't even remember what gun I came out here looking for anymore. Hey guys, hopefully you enjoyed the video today. Thanks for watching. We appreciate it a ton. I did a ton of fun making it with Tom and thanks again to the folks down at Air Force for helping us get it all filmed. Giving us the location is pretty sweet. So hopefully you guys agree. If you do, throw us a like. We appreciate it a ton. Don't forget to subscribe as well because that keeps us going. And comment down below. Let us know if you agree, disagree, whatever. Let us know. We'd love to hear from you and continue the conversation. Peace out.