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melchloboo · January 12, 2009, 09:09 PM

I'll try to take things one at a time.

1. Sights. Partridge is the only way to go. You will find no other sighting system (for iron) on any type of gun involved in precision sports. 10m air, free pistol, bullseye. There is a reason nobody in precision pistol uses the fiber-optic/v-notch. It simply does not reveal the type of vertical and horizontal precision that the partridge system does. But it is fairly trivial to swap out the sights.

2. Red-dot. Keep in mind this is a fairly new innovation, and plenty of top shooters and the historical records with iron are still around. It is not true that all shooters will do better with a scope. Also, keep in mind that bullseye shooters tend to get involved in more than one discipline. If you want to shoot 10m air in the winter months or just to be indoors, that's an iron only event. To my knowledge, bullseye (nra conventional outdoor) is the only precision event that allows the dot. Now, if your eyes are such that special corrective lenses are required for iron, and you just want to have fun and like the dot, then go for it.

3. Ammo. At 25 yards it doesn't matter what ammo you use. Especially at your level. Buy the cheapest. SV, HV, it doesn't matter. If you have a match just use something you've proven reliably goes bang, or spring for a box of CCI Standard at most.

4. Feel. Many beginners to bullseye don't like to hear it, but you don't really know how to evaluate yet if a gun is right for you or not. If I were your formal coach, I would have no interest in how you think the gun "felt". There are certain ergonomics that I would look for based on your hand structure and base my evaluation on that. Not until about 6months of daily practice would I care about your opinion on how the gun felt. Because after a few weeks of practice, you'll adapt to the gun, it will feel right, and you'll wonder why you ever thought another gun felt better. Then we would talk about changing the grips. After about a year only then would I care what you thought about how the gun felt, and let you pick your own. The standard Ruger fits 90% of people adequately to start (the 22/45 fits many people poorly).

5. Right gun. You're not getting married to it. If you want to get serious in Bullseye then get used to the idea of trying a gun out for a while and selling it or shelving it if it doesn't work out. Rugers hold their value well, and most shooters keep their old ruger around no matter what, even after they move on to other target pistols. Maybe if you take up the .45 (required for NRA CP) then you'll want to go with a marvel conversion kit... Lots of maybes down the road. Again, you're not marrying the gun. Its like a golf club or tennis racket as far as you're concerned.

6. Priorities. Right now they are out of whack, its not your fault. Your focus should be on how to train, the pistol is relatively unimportant at this stage in your game. Can you get to a range every day? No? So really the priority should be on how you can train everyday, and your real question should be what is a good air pistol to do that with? Am I right?

January 12, 2009, 09:09 PM	#9
melchloboo Senior Member Join Date: October 2, 2008 Posts: 279	I'll try to take things one at a time. 1. Sights. Partridge is the only way to go. You will find no other sighting system (for iron) on any type of gun involved in precision sports. 10m air, free pistol, bullseye. There is a reason nobody in precision pistol uses the fiber-optic/v-notch. It simply does not reveal the type of vertical and horizontal precision that the partridge system does. But it is fairly trivial to swap out the sights. 2. Red-dot. Keep in mind this is a fairly new innovation, and plenty of top shooters and the historical records with iron are still around. It is not true that all shooters will do better with a scope. Also, keep in mind that bullseye shooters tend to get involved in more than one discipline. If you want to shoot 10m air in the winter months or just to be indoors, that's an iron only event. To my knowledge, bullseye (nra conventional outdoor) is the only precision event that allows the dot. Now, if your eyes are such that special corrective lenses are required for iron, and you just want to have fun and like the dot, then go for it. 3. Ammo. At 25 yards it doesn't matter what ammo you use. Especially at your level. Buy the cheapest. SV, HV, it doesn't matter. If you have a match just use something you've proven reliably goes bang, or spring for a box of CCI Standard at most. 4. Feel. Many beginners to bullseye don't like to hear it, but you don't really know how to evaluate yet if a gun is right for you or not. If I were your formal coach, I would have no interest in how you think the gun "felt". There are certain ergonomics that I would look for based on your hand structure and base my evaluation on that. Not until about 6months of daily practice would I care about your opinion on how the gun felt. Because after a few weeks of practice, you'll adapt to the gun, it will feel right, and you'll wonder why you ever thought another gun felt better. Then we would talk about changing the grips. After about a year only then would I care what you thought about how the gun felt, and let you pick your own. The standard Ruger fits 90% of people adequately to start (the 22/45 fits many people poorly). 5. Right gun. You're not getting married to it. If you want to get serious in Bullseye then get used to the idea of trying a gun out for a while and selling it or shelving it if it doesn't work out. Rugers hold their value well, and most shooters keep their old ruger around no matter what, even after they move on to other target pistols. Maybe if you take up the .45 (required for NRA CP) then you'll want to go with a marvel conversion kit... Lots of maybes down the road. Again, you're not marrying the gun. Its like a golf club or tennis racket as far as you're concerned. 6. Priorities. Right now they are out of whack, its not your fault. Your focus should be on how to train, the pistol is relatively unimportant at this stage in your game. Can you get to a range every day? No? So really the priority should be on how you can train everyday, and your real question should be what is a good air pistol to do that with? Am I right?