Air Pistol Velocities

I recently purchased a Steyr LP10.  The gun is immaculate and not so much as a scratch on it.  I bought the airpistol microphone for my Labradar and was surprised to see just how much variation there is from shot to shot.  SD is ~35 FPS and ES is ~120 FPS.  That is from a 40 shot sample.   

Those numbers seem high to me.... is that normal from an olympic level gun? This is my first air pistol so I have no experience but I was under the impression that high quality air guns are very consistent from shot to shot.  Maybe I'm misinformed?

mutley wrote:I recently purchased a Steyr LP10.  The gun is immaculate and not so much as a scratch on it.  I bought the airpistol microphone for my Labradar and was surprised to see just how much variation there is from shot to shot.  SD is ~35 FPS and ES is ~120 FPS.  That is from a 40 shot sample.   

Those numbers seem high to me.... is that normal from an olympic level gun? This is my first air pistol so I have no experience but I was under the impression that high quality air guns are very consistent from shot to shot.  Maybe I'm misinformed?

Mutley,

Were you able to hear a difference between the shots?  120 fps should be enough to be clearly audible if you're listening for it.  It's certainly not normal, even for an airgun of much lesser quality.

There are two possible sources for the variation here:  the gun and chronograph.  Personally I'd be more suspicious of the radar-based chronograph than the gun.  Have you tested the Labradar setup with any other .177 airguns?  

To really test your chrony results, do you have access to a light-based chronograph that you could use as a "proof" channel, or an Oehler 35P that has its own proof channel built in?  That would reveal whether its the gun or the chronograph in a hurry.

Best of luck,

David

That's a great point David!  There isn't much noise variation between shots.  A friend has light chronograph I'm going to borrow.  Its the only air gun I own but I think I find another I can borrow too.

This is a new Labradar and it seemed to do well with my pistol ammo.  Has anyone else used a Labradar to chrono air guns and have you seen similar variation?

Mutley, you might try www.targettalk.org it is a forum that does more of what you're asking. It's a great forum also.
 Stan

Well, how does it shoot? Much more important.

What pellets? That can matter but not a lot.

How did it sound? If it’s a p-tink vs a bzap then you might want to turn the velocity screw up a tad.

As others said, do you trust the radar? I have a pact model 1 that is perfect.

More than likely it is the equipment used to measure the velocity. Those guns will shoot one hole groups at 10 meters all day long.

Greetings,

Did you test with the LabRadar inside the house or out in the open air?

I tried mine in the hallway and velocities were all over the rainbow. Was getting echos off the walls.

Move outside onto the deck and velocities were more realistic. +/- 5 FPS.

I was testing a Steyr LP-2.

Cheers,

Dave

The Labradar folks said you need to shoot out to 15 meters at minimum to get an accurate reading.  I'm going to try it outside when I get a chance.  Hopefully that tightens things up.

fc60 wrote:Greetings,

Did you test with the LabRadar inside the house or out in the open air?

I tried mine in the hallway and velocities were all over the rainbow. Was getting echos off the walls.

Move outside onto the deck and velocities were more realistic. +/- 5 FPS.

I was testing a Steyr LP-2.

Cheers,

Dave

I think we posted at the same time but yeah, that seems to be the issue.  I was shooting in my basement.  Not enough range and to many things too close to it confusing it.