Airgun World – Summer 2019

http://www.airgunshooting.co.uk AIRGUN WORLD 75

THE ACID TEST

I

’ve said it before, and no doubt I’ll say it
many times again; the ultimate test of a
sporting spring airgun in my opinion is HFT,
especially HFT shot over undulating ground,
such as the slopes we are blessed with at
Nomads, and that’s why it seems entirely
appropriate that Nomads should be the
birthplace of the UKAHFT National Recoil
Championship on Sunday 26th May, 2019.
Perhaps because Recoil class HFT is very
challenging and, at the top level, very
competitive, participants seek every last
advantage, real or imagined, to improve their
chances of winning, and so it’s little surprise to
discover that few of the rifles used are factory
specification; most are modified to some
degree. One of the most exciting things about
the National Recoil Championship is, it’s the
only occasion that most, if not all, of the
modifications currently in vogue will be
represented and, perhaps uniquely, put to the
test, head to head, and against more traditional

TECHNICAL AIRGUN

The UKAHFT National Recoil Championship proves a

great test ground for tuned springers

»

and less radical modifications.

What makes recoil HFT at Nomads so

challenging is the terrain; situated on the

east-facing flank of Berrow Hill overlooking the

vast Severn Valley, the one section of level

ground is by the entrance, which is used only

as a car park, and the areas where courses are

situated are anything but level. This means that

for the vast majority of shots, which are taken

in the prone position, it is extremely difficult to

replicate exactly the same rifle hold from one

peg to the next, and that translates into pellet

point of impact (POI) shift for the unwary.

HOLD SENSITIVITY

The propensity of a spring/piston airgun to

suffer POI shifts as a result of small changes in

rifle hold is referred to as ‘hold sensitivity’, and

there is a general presumption that hold

sensitivity is a simple function of recoil; the

greater the recoil, the greater the hold

sensitivity and, to this end, the aim of most

airgun tuners is to try to reduce recoil to a bare

minimum.

I personally started to doubt that the

relationship between recoil displacement and

hold sensitivity was as simple as everyone

thinks it is some years ago, when I reduced the

recoil of my old HW77 to a whisker under

4mm, which is much lower than any

production recoil springer, and found that the

accuracy deteriorated as a result. The

reduction in accuracy was not slight, but very

marked, turning my HW77 from my most

accurate rifle of the time to one of the least.

During the following years, a friend asked

me on two separate occasions to look at

radically modified spring airguns with even

lower recoil than my HW77; both had seemed

superb to everyone who tried shooting them

from the bench, but both proved sadly wanting

away from the bench on an HFT course,

resulting in my friend recording his lowest ever

HFT scores, and it was this that finally

Take a mildly modified TX200, add a custom stock, stir in a large dollop of talent, and you have a recipe to win championships.