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The triumph of Mathematics.- Italy's WFTC's 2022      Part 3

8/27/2022

7 Comments

 

Or "Resilience"

After an early, and light breakfast, we drove over to the Range.
Range was about 40 minutes away from the "Villa Tuscolana", and it was somewhat hard to navigate the small roads that made the most direct route, so we found out how to trick the navigation to take us along the main highways, in the end, it took the same time, and it was much safer.
Italians think they all drive like "Emerson Fittipaldi" / F1 drivers, and between the cars, the buses, and the scooters, small roads require a lot of concentration and dexterity in driving.
No reason to get to the venue all frazzled up, better to take the longer, but more peaceful and safer, route.
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It was nice seeing some solid support for FT from DIANA, and the new "motto" is indeed a strong commitment.

Day "Zero"

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With the mandatory "shooters meeting" the first day kicked off.
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A 180 degrees view of the courses.
The courses were set out in an  "Inverted U" geometry. 5-6 lanes on the left leg, 5-6 lanes on the right, and the rest across the top.
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In squads of three, here are my squadmates for day 1: Ferenc Toth (Hungary) and Alexas Jaunias (Lithuania).
We started towards the middle of the course, but after only three lanes, and constant "cold lines" called, we were notified that shooting for the day would be suspended until the strings could be changed and some targets replaced.
This was source of much discomfort for some shooters, but those of us that had been to New Zealand were not fazed too much.

So, we went for a light lunch and returned to the range.

After getting to the range, we were told that the rest of the day was cancelled and that we would re-convene the next day.
I was happy that we DID have an extra day planned for contingencies, and this was a contingency.


Organizing a WFTC's is a LOT of REALLY HARD WORK. And more and more, the "social" aspect has become the predominant task.
Personally, I find it contrary to common sense, but  I am not fighting reality. I am just very happy that we could have a WFTC's AT ALL!

People, let's see the reality: we're back from a pandemic that has strung the world to the limit of endurance on all aspects. Supply chains are still not recovered, cost of shipping and freight is still through the roof. Situation in Eastern Europe is not helping either. And the Italians made a huge effort to put on the best shoot they could.
Problems emerged and they were faced. Perhaps not to everyone's liking, but after all the difficulties, we WERE together, we WERE shooting, and solutions were in sight.

It also has to be said that the organizers received some poor advise.
Someone told them to buy kite string, and that is what they bought. Whoever provided the "spec" forgot to mention either a "# lbs Test" number for the kite string, or a material and thickness.
Also, they WERE told to NOT use new targets, but to use targets that had been TESTED under competition conditions. Well, receiving a bunch of targets in a single shipment just prior to the match is not the ideal condition for a small team of organizers to test all the targets to be put in the match.
Next thing that needs to be said is that the WFTF authority granted approval for the setup with enough time; at least a full day BEFORE the representatives of the RGB's that were present had a walk-through of the courses.
In OUR case (Team USA), it was Mat Brackett the one to do the walk-through and he called the string issue in advance; and I quote from his message to us all through Whatsapp:
"Strings are very thin and stretchy. But we tested them and they work OK. We are allowed to use them for wind, but they catch on all the grass stubble."

Being un-politely honest, while it's true that the strings were on the thin side, it was a combination of a lack of leverage on the pull-post of the targets what compounded the problem. A slightly longer pull post on the targets would have been useful.
On the three lanes we shot on day "zero", we were successful in pulling up all targets with a smooth, even tension from a standing position.

So, I will re-hash here what I said when it was time to publish the results of the New Zealand's Worlds:
Ranting does no one no good.
If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.
​
I offered help to the organizers, but they told me they had the thing in hand.

And so, we went to our hotel and slept till the next day.

Day One

As our RGB delegate told us, after much discussion, on a vote of 10-11, it was decided to just continue the shoot.
I would have re-started the competition, but it seems some RGB's preferred to continue to keep the perfect / almost perfect scores of some of their shooters. Whatever the case, it was an agreement democratically achieved and so, we simply continued with the shoot.
What was really hurtful was that part of the agreement was that those shooters who had not protested targets would loose their chance to do so.
Given that the suspension was enforced without previous notice, it was not nice to see that the last targets that had not fallen to my shots on day "0" had been replaced.
Still, my Father taught me that a game is truly won by points, not by rules, and I just went along.
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Within the constraints of the land, there were some interesting shots. Behind the bales you can (not) see the "cliff" that dropped behind some of the targets.
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The lower numbered lanes were on the right of the Inverted U, and they were clear open to the wind that had not only a lateral component. Many shooters lost many points in this section of the course.
Personally, I was somewhat satisifed with the first day. Scoring just two points behind Ferenc (a World Class shooter in his own right), told me I was on the right road.
I did detect a few "unexplainable" misses, though and I decided to keep track of them.
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What I found out later, when talking to the team mates sbout scores was that I WAS in the "for score" section of the team. Sadly, one of our younger shooters (Nathan Thomas) had to withdraw last minute and so I was the next in line.
Nathan was missed.
With the day done, we returned to the hotel.

Day Two

On day two I was squadded with Alberto Martín, from Spain and Renie Scorfina, from Malta.

The day pretty much repeated itself for the first half. But after the first half I started to see more and more "unexplainable misses" and I started observing the ranging on the scope.
As the temperatures rose and as the day wore on, it was clear that the sun had affected the scope beyond all reasonable doubt. I started trying other methods of ranging (from pacing in my imagination the distance, to bracketing), but by the end of the day it was clear that not only the rangeing was off, the scope was not holding zero.
Since I do not click, it was fairly easy for me to define that. Targets that were exactly at the natural zero, would hit sometimes high, sometimes low.
So, scope was "toast", literally; something had melted inside with the temperatures that at times, reached the 48-49 C inside the scope, as it was hard to keep a hand on it.
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Some wind-flags are overly complicated, some are simple. In the end, the wind-flag gave little information
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See what I mean?
Pulling on all my experience I managed to finish with a relatively consistent score. But it really was an eye opener that results were better using other ranging methods and trying to figure out if there was some rhyme or reason to the wandering of the zero than in trusting the equipment, as from a line total of two I did manage to improve the other lines to 4. Not much, but at least I knew that I had to do something.
It was specially rewarding to do relatively well in lanes 1-5 that were where most shooters had real, serious problems.
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And so, on the way back I asked my team mates if anyone had a spare scope, but without luck.

I thought about my options real hard and then decided that, as part of the Team USA, there was ONE thing I could NOT do: Give up.

As soon as I arrived to the hotel and was able to connect to WiFi, I located a local gunshop and went there to look for a scope.

The best reticle I could find within the magnification desired in a reasonable budget was an Element Helix.

Because it was a 30 mm's body tube while the Tac Vector Continental was a 34 mm's, I had to buy some mounts. Mounts obtained had no droop, but I hoped that the scope could be adjusted to use the -5 mRad as the zero line.
​
The shop did not have a wheel that would fit, and so I decided to tackle the last day of the match with the sparse numbers in the knob (I hoped that the numbers were reasonably correct), and then use the now de-listed app (PP-Calc) to get as much solid information as I could in the brief time I had in next morning's sighting-in session.

I arrived back to the hotel with scope in hand, went to my room, and mounted the scope in the fixed mounts.

Somewhat troubled but totally decided to give my best, I went to sleep.
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Day Three

After the usual light breakfast, my team mates and I went to the range, I sat down, decided to do the best possible.
It was a great relief when I noted that windage wise, the scope was reasonably close to zero.
Sadly, it took more than a turn and a half to get the scope to shoot to the -5 mRad line we had set as a parameter.

But, in the end, with patience and serenity, we got to a workable situation.
It was very notable that the grouping capabilities of the gun/pellet combination had not suffered too much. This was a tribute to the stability and robustness of the DIANA 54 action on which the gun was based.
The heavy (9.56 grs) performed well with the 11.5 ft-lbs tune, even when the balance of masses had changed substantially.
MV's had been pretty consistent over the whole Match not changing more than a couple of m/s between days (and between chronos, as it was not the same chrono every time).

I was dismayed and disappointed by the complete lack of accuracy between the knob's markings and any kind of reality. So, I had to "calibrate" the markings with the marked distances in the sight-in range targets, and go by those numbers. I have no problem looking at the knob markings and estimating the ranges in between the marks using a log scale (thanks to my High School Mathematics teachers), but when the distance was 50 meters, the scope said "65"
SOOooooooo
​Once all the numbers were in, I clearly had a ballistic problem worthy of study:
- On one hand I needed the real distance numbers to calculate the right wind drift
- On the other, the knob markings bore no relation to reality.
A quick regression gave me a small table to "translate" between the knob markings and the real distances.

Then we had the problem of the lack of droop. Drops had to be calculated in relative terms and then that input into the app, so that the calculated drops were accurate. Then the reverse process had to be done so that the POA would have a physical correspondence in the reticle.

Once all the numbers were processed, I ended up with a table that had two "distances" for range, and one elevation point that started from -6 mRad, went up to -5 mRad (zero line)  and then dropped down to -7½ mRad again to describe the trajectory from 9 to 50 meters. Wind drifts had been calculated for a "unit" wind of 5 kph at "full force", meaning winds from 3 or 9 O'Clock, while I knew that, for the most part, we would be shooting in 15 to 25 kph winds coming from different quarters, as the lanes traversed from right facing to left facing as the lane number went up.
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My range card for the third day. The first column is the correlation between scope knob markings and real distances, the second column is the elevation POA, the third column is the drift needed at 5 kph
 And so, with a firm decision, I joined Team USA for the group picture and decided to have a good time.
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From left to right. Standing.- Myself Rear row: David Alsup, Peter Brooks, Manuel Morales, Garrett Kwakkestein, Edwin Tubens, Son Lu Front row: Matt Sawyer, Leo Gonzales, Lonnie Smith, Matt Brackett, Lauren Parsons, Jay Hannon Kneeling.- Cameron Kerndt
 The day was if anything, even more punishing than the previous two days.
The sun felt like a rain of molten lead.
The wind was relentless and constantly shifting.

I was putting all my attention to the match, every single shot became a one shot match. Did reasonably well in the first standers, and then also in the kneelers, but the longer shots with wind on the back still eluded me.
Lanes 1 to 5 were, for me, reasonably good. A tribute to the choice of pellet.
But lanes 21 to 25 were not so good. The broken winds that came from the left had me holding too much, rather than too little.
So, it WAS a hard third day for everyone.

Even under those conditions, Team USA performed admirably.

Worthy of note was the effort by Matt Sawyer that had suffered a relatively mild sunstroke on the first day and had somewhat recovered, but by the third day the fatigue overtook him and he was affected again. To the point that he could not hold down even room temperature water.
Luckily, one of his squad mates (from France?) knew what to do and gave him iced water, which permitted him to "muscle through" the day and shoot a very creditable score of 30.
With Cameron in the lead with an amazing 40, and the great scores posted by Matt B and Leo on days 1 and 2, the Team could almost overcome a bad second day.
​By three points (about 1%), Spain retained the lead to place first in Springer Team.

I shot a rather consistent 21
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On one side I was happy to have kept some semblance of consistency, even under hard conditions.
On the other, my mind went to those geniuses that gave us the basics to understand ballistics; how they worked also under hard conditions, conditions and situations that sometimes required secrecy.

Above all, it was, IMHO, a triumph for Mathematics.

If there ever was a reason for kids to really pay attention in Maths class, this is one.
Maths will enable you to keep on fighting, even when it seems that the world conspires against you.

After a few beers (more than I care to admit), I was almost putting away my gear when I was notified that I would be in a shootoff! 
Shootoff?? For WHAT?

It turned out that in the Veterans class, my friend Herbie Von Der Stein (English, believe it or not, and there IS an interesting story behind it!) had taken first, but my friend and squad mate from the first day Alexas Jaunias and I were tied for second.

Alexas was also surprised, but a shootoff was in order  and so, we took our positions, I "ranged", consulted my table, took aim, took down the long target, "ranged" the near one, checked the table, and took it down.
Alexas hit the long one, but missed the short one.

And so, I placed, as one good friend put it "the second best old man in the springer world". LOL!

With the shooting now really done, we all went back to get cleaned and spruced up for the ceremony and the dinner.

We had some time to fool around as a Team
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Jeeze how serious! Photo Courtesy of Rose Alsup
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Photo courtesy of Rose Alsup
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Naaah! Not really, LOL! Photo courtesy of Rose Alsup
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We even commandeered the ceremonial balcony! :O Photo courtesy of Rose Alsup
And just as we were being called to the Ceremony of closure Frascati gave us one of the best sunsets I have seen
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Photo courtesy of Rose Alsup

Epilog

After all the speeches and formalities, the awards were announced and granted.

I have to say that every airgunner in the US should be proud of what Team USA accomplished.
​
On the General Springer Scoreboard Cameron K came in 3rd just 2 points behind Jan Homan of Germany. First place went to Ismael Sobrino from Spain, with an amazing score of 112 points for the three days.
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The Top Ten Lineup: Konstantin Maximov (DE 4th), Matt Brackett (USA 5th), Istvan Fejes-Toth (HU 6th), Emilio Palomares (ES 7th), Luiz Barreiros (PT 8th), Marek Godlijevski (LT 9th) , Leo Gonzales (USA 10th) . Photo courtesy of Rose Alsup
On the PCP  side, Paul Cray placed 10th overall
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Photo courtesy of Rose Alsup
And David Alsup placed second in the Veteran PCP's.
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Photo courtesy of Rose Alsup
I was very happy to be part of Team USA, it has been years of hard work that have paid off.

Re-capping the history, Team USA has placed :
2nd in New Zealand
1st in Poland
2nd in England
and
2nd in Italy

There is still work to be done, there always is.

We'll see how things go for next year, it is scheduled to be in South Africa. But the world's economic situation is getting trickier by the minute.

For 2024, it is scheduled to be at Phoenix's Rio Salado shooting range in Arizona, USA.
So, if you have a springer, dust it off and start practicing.
Performing well at an international level in the name of one's country is an honor and a privilege that requires single-purposed minds committed to doing their best.

​Thanks to my Team mates for making such a wonderful memory possible.
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Photo courtesy of Rose Alsup
7 Comments

The triumph of Mathematics.- Italy's WFTC's 2022      Part 2

8/26/2022

0 Comments

 

Or "Resilience"

Let's continue then

Preparing the shoot

As I wrote before, Team USA had contacted Lazio Airguns with a view to have some "quiet time" to prepare for the WFTC's. We had done the same in Germany, New Zealand, Poland, and England; so we knew it was important.
​When we arrived, we saw a very well setup field. Mostly for HFT, but perfectly adequate to our needs.
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Targets were out, but strings needed to be run. As you can see they remain spooled at the gates.
Here are some more pictures of the excellent Lazio Airguns field:
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A permanent and well used Podium, clearly signaling to all who can see that the field is used often
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Some lanes are shaded
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Some are transitional
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Some lanes are in the open sun
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Positionals
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Some challenging locations due to wind and light differences along the pellet path .Do observe the "mast" target at rear.
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Shooting under 230 kV lines was particularly amusing for me, as an EE I have built a number of these lines, LOL!
For the next three days, this would "FT Shooting Home" and we were very grateful to have this opportunity.
Sadly, some of the members of the team were experiencing extreme delays in getting to Rome. Some shooters even arrived without a rifle to shoot, and so, some agonizing trips to the Fiumicino Airport ensued, trying to get hold of the guns.
In then end, "with a little bit of Luck" all shooters and guns showed up, in time for the official "Zeroing/Practice range" to open.

The two terrains

As originally planned, the shoot was going to take place in the mountainous region of GrottaFerratta.
GrottaFerrata is a small town in the "Parco dei Castelli Romani" that basically houses all the "Summer Manor Homes" of the most powerful families in Rome.
Next to GrottaFerrata is the well known (and famous for its wine) town of Frascati. Where the new "Social Venue" was located, Villa Tuscolana.

But the terrain between GrottaFerratta and Frascati is pretty similar:
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Mountains and trees, old orchards and vineyards. There is not a in² that is not owned by someone, and the region has a long history of agricultural development.
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The towns themselves, sit atop hills and are more distributed vertically than horizontally.
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From town to town, from Villa to Villa, deep ravines and manicured 100' tall trees show that the hand of men has been actively stewarding nature for centuries.
Now, compare the region originally intended for the match to the one that had to be used, given the difficulties encountered:
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Once moved to the final shooting venue, gone are all the possibilities of interesting shots. Only the challenges presented by the sun, the temperature and the ever shifting wind, remain.
As a long time Piston shooter, I have come to the conclusion that you should not fight reality. For sure, you are going to loose; and spend much energy doing so.
As soon as we could register our equipment and get it approved for competition at Villa Tuscolana, we adjourned to the range and took some time trying to learn the conditions.
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The sighting-in range line had a number of gazebo's.
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As time passed, the line filled up.
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And temperatures started rising. This picture is interesting because it shows how heat enters a scope through the objective and moves towards the erector assembly. ¿Do you REALLY think that an erector assembly that is subject to a few degrees difference between front and back is going to range with absolute consistency?
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It would have been difficult for us to travel across the Atlantic with an "umbrella'ed seat", those that were able to drive to the matches, and had more experience than us, did.
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We even had some celebrities around. For those that do not know him, this is Alessandro DiMaggio. He is a well known Italian blogger under "AleDiMaggio" handle.
Once the first day of "practice and zeroing" was done, and somewhat satisfied that everything was doing what it was supposed to be doing, we adjourned to Villa Tuscolana for a night's sleep and the first day of competition.
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The triumph of Mathematics.- Italy's WFTC's 2022      Part 1

8/22/2022

0 Comments

 

OR: "Resilience"

I have always been an admirer of the Italian "Rinascimento" (Renaissance).
The two and a half centuries that span the 1400 to the 1650 saw a number of absolutely genial minds come to grips with nature's mysteries.
We could write a book about the advances in Medicine, Anatomy, Astronomy, Physics, and Military Sciences, but the essence of this Blog is not so wide and the audience would get bored to death, so let's center on the basic knowledge base that is pertinent to us here: Ballistics

The earliest modern ideas/theories on trajectories

Towards 1495 Leonardo Da Vinci was writing in his peculiar "mirror image script" about what he thought the trajectories of projectiles were. He differentiated between "natural motion" (drop), and "accidental/violent motion"  (propulsed).
His incredible mind and eye for reality is astounding, even today, if we pause to analyze the correspondence of his graphics and reality. Let's just take a look at it:
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At first these do not seem to be too breathtaking, but let's see a quadratic parabola overlaid and the mirror reversed so we are more in tune with the "normal" left to right form of writing:
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Picture taken from: https://www.luminosoa.org/site/chapters/10.1525/luminos.79.f/download/3764/
As you can see Leonardo's curves always fall SHORT of the perfect parablola.
Which means that  Leonardo KNEW that a projectile is slowed down by air friction.
Leonardo never published these ideas (probably fearful of the consequences of contradicting the accepted Church and Inquisition concepts), though it is probable that his results were used by the Sforza's and later by the French King Francis I (both patrons of DaVinci at different points in his life).
Peculiarly, about half a century later than Leonardo, Tartaglia would publish the first ideas of the trajectories of projectiles.
In his mind, the "violent motion" of a projectile would come to an end, and when that happened, the projectile would follow the "natural motion" it had to follow, according to Aristotle, and then fall straight down to earth. This rendered some very peculiar trajectories:
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A bit more than a century after Leonardo, Galileo (1638) would pose a more formal explanation and in his theories he clearly outlined that projectiles with "Natural" motion would behave different from projectiles with "Violent" motion. And, not only that, he would lay the borderline at what we would call, in modern terms, about 400 fps.
He would, however, NOT take into account air friction and his tables published for bombardiers would be most helpful to those artillerymen who shot at very high angles and slow speeds (large caliber mortars were called bombards back then).
Galileo's experiments were conducted using inclined planes to "propulse" balls that would later fly off flat planes, while the trajectory was recorded.
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So, it is quite astounding that the most accurate depiction of reality was hidden from humanity because of fear of reprisals from the establishment.
Even Galileo, quite famous in his own time, was processed by the Inquisition for postulating that the earth moved around the sun.
But that is a different story
What is important here is that the three scientists that we are analyzing here understood that in the "human reality" things cannot appear and disappear, they move along under a CONTINUOUS motion. There are no breaks/jumps or discontinuities (it would take 300 years more of scientific development for humans to get into the quantic realm).
The next BIG THINKERS in Science's evolution would come 50 years after Galileo:
Newton would develop the differential calculus needed to describe in all precision the trajectory of a projectile around the 1690's and the first edition of "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" would establish the mathematical relation between physics and mathematics. We all learn the Three Newton's laws, but we seldom stop to think that the three laws are just specific aspects of the conservation of energy in a closed referential system  (and there is an equation for that).
Leibnitz would "invent" Integral Calculus (1675) and it was up to Euler (works in the 1734-1738 time frame) to use that (with improved notation to simplify things) to develop the tools to do the reverse calculations needed to find a drag curve and a BC from a trajectory.
So, when we say that we can only look far into the horizon because we are standing on the shoulders of giants, we truly mean it.
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The WFTC's 2022, the first World's FT matches after a two year hiatus

A few months after the 2019 World's in England (just 'google' the following string: https://www.ctcustomairguns.com "2019 World's"), CoVid struck. I was just returning from Germany when the World was shut down; in fact, if I had planned a return just two days later, I would have gotten stuck en route.
When the time came to hold the 2020 WFTC's no one was prepared, travelling was severely curtailed, and some countries were simply closed to all international visitors.
It was therefore, impossible to hold the 2020 WFTC's and the SouthAfrican's very properly asked if we wanted our registration money back.
I found no sense in getting the money back and decided to donate the funds to the clubs.
The world went into hybernation.
 A year passed, and then two, it seemed as though time had frozen.
So, when news came that the Italian FIDASC (Federazione Italiana D'Armi Sportivi et Caccia) was willing to put up the 2022 WFTC's we all jumped at the opportunity.
Details started to trickle in and when the initial venue was announced, I was somewhat surprised.
Anyone who has been in Rome during the summer knows that the heat is pretty high on the scale, going from "uncomfortable" into "unbearable". And a few kilometers distance didn't encourage the idea of a much fresher climate.

To the credit of the organizaers, they very clearly stated that we should be prepared and able to shoot at temperatures that exceeded the 35 C.

I took contact with the organizers and started arranging for some trigger time for Team USA that had to deal with the jet-lag, as well as all the other changes in a trip that takes you 7,000 kms, and 6 hours biorythm) from home, at the very least.
And so, we agreed to access a private range in the Lazio province.

As time approached the FT Team USA Whatsapp group started buzzing with flights and hotel information and as some members came on board and others dropped out, the final group was formed.
All in all, 15 shooters would be traveling to Italy under the US Flag.
I considered myself VERY fortunate to be able to go.

All of a sudden, we were informed that the venue had to change. As it usually happens, the rumors started flying and all sort of information and dis-information circulated.

When we finally got solid information, I was completely taken aback, Google World's topo map showed a plain, with barely 50 meters difference between the summit of the lonely hill and the lowermost point on the side of the match, and about a 100 meters to the BACK of the plot of land designated, where there was a "cliff".
A VERY challenging place to shoot airguns.

All the terrain research done over Villa Cavalletti, went out the window; the venue we expected with groves of old vines and some old orchards (the Agricultural preserve of Villa Cavalletti) where we would be shooting among century old trees over quite interesting differences of level, were gone; and in its place a plain. As flat as it could be.

Information from the local airgun club where we had arranged to practice, also revealed that the winds would be "vicious".

Preparations begin

Given the drastic change of conditions I decided to make a change of pellet, and shoot with a slightly heavier pellet, a decision I would later be very happy about.

I had also been working on turning the new DIANA 54 AirKing "Pro" stock into an FT stock, with some success. The addition of an adjustable cheekpiece; a better, target-oriented buttplate; ended in something that felt good in all positions.
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Shooting local matches showed that a hamster would be a good idea and so, it was added:
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I had also worked extensively and intensively with an interesting scope: a Tac Vector Optics Continental.
The 34 mm's body posed an interesting challenge.
On one hand the erector tube was not really "spring-piston compatible" Loss of zero was evident. This was solved with a custom made ZR Mount. I had to go through four iterations of the mount till I finally got all the points solved.
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What makes the scope very interesting is the reticle. With 1/5 ths mRad hash-marks, a "Xmas tree" geometry,  First Focal Plane, and a notable optical train built with German ED glass, it is truly an outstanding scope. It does have its limitations which we will talk about later.

Shooting in several local matches with the final configuration and having achieved good results, I decided to take this final configuration to Italy.

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Months before I had secured my plane ticket using miles, so, in essence the ticket costed little. The outgoing AA flights connecting through Charlotte proved a good decision, I arrived into Rome on time.
When I arrived, I went through passport control, and then directly to baggage claim, expecting to find the baggage services office there. I waited and waited and waited, and the gun didn't come out, so I went looking for it at the oversized baggage claim, but nothing was there either.
I inquired about where the BSO was and was directed to an AA  employee, who told me there wasn't any.
Somewhat reluctantly, I asked then where could my airgun be and I was told to look for it at the Police office which was, you guessed it, BEFORE passport control.

So, back and forth, I finally was able to find the police office and as I was going in there, I found Garett Kwakkestein.
So we shared the misery of having to get our guns through their own "passport" control.
Police issued new papers with stamps, seals and signatures all over and told us to go through the police office BEFORE checking our bags with the airline.
Getting to the rental car agency was an ordeal. A LOOOONNG walk through the airport, then two flights of stairs and finally I found the SIXT agency.
Of course they tried to "upgrade" me, but I refused. Italy is a conflictive country for driving, probably only third to India and Egypt (in my opinion), so I had purchased additional insurance.  By taking precautionary steps, the rental was not all that bad. In GENERAL, it is a good idea to look into supplemental insurance for many parts of your trip. From delays and cancellations to driving and baggage.
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After taking delivery of the car ( FIAT 500 G), we documented the state of the car (in case of future claims by the rental agency), and tested brakes and steering in the parking garage.
I then took to the road to find my lodgings.
For navigation I had decided to use my phone, but I had no local data service, so I prepared offline maps.
What I didn't think about was that map applications also take into account traffic, without traffic information, the app reverts to the most fuel efficient route, which usually means the shorter distance.
So, traffic and very narrow streets it was for a while.
After many turns, I arrived at Frascati and after an even bigger number of turns, I found the place where I should be staying.
Contrary to advertised features, the place had no onsite parking and that was a BIG problem.
So, after trying for a day to make it work I decided to forgo that reservation and move to Villa Tuscolana.
And here comes another lesson: If the place you get does not fulfill the specs you contracted, do NOT take delivery. Once you take delivery, you're stuck for the duration unless you want to forfeit the total cost.
I was so furious that I decided to forgo the contract and forfeit the full value. Yes it was THAT bad.
Another lesson: Do NOT use the booking apps in the market (from TriVago to Booking, and all of them in between); WHY? because you are not their customer, their customers are the hotels and lodgings that hire them to get your business. So, once you make a booking, the apps will not help you at all.
By all means use them to find out what is available, but for the final, actual, contractual, reservation try going directly to the company. And ask all pertinent questions before you make a reservation that cannot be cancelled or modified.
Anyway, there was a World's to be shot and we needed to get our act together.

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"Blue-Printing" a Walther LGV                                              ©

5/24/2022

11 Comments

 
In "gun-speak" blueprinting an action is understood as the modifications/alterations that make that action fit the specified dimensions of the design.

In this entry, we will use the verb as meaning that we are returning the rifle, as much as possible, to the "as it SHOULD HAVE BEEN issued" state.

It all started quite some months ago (Pre-CoViD) when I was contacted by a fellow FT shooter asking what was the potential in using a Walther LGV to shoot FT.

Since an LGV is my "back-up" gun for serious FT, I answered that a properly setup rifle could be accurate, precise and consistent enough to place well in a competition.

After that first conversation, there was no more talk and I thought that the whole idea had been forgotten.

BUT, in the last North Carolina Classsic, I met with the friend in question and after the first day of competition, he declared: "I'm done, take the gun and make it what it can be".

So, I came back with more guns than I took! LOL!

I will not go into detail about the tear down and the way the gun works, there are other entries that deal with that:

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/a-yankee-tune-for-the-walther-lgu 

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/a-yankee-tune-for-the-walther-lgu-second-version

Since the guns are identical, except for the cocking mechanism, what is said of one gun applies to both.

What was the difference this time as regards those first ventures into the LGU/LGV realm was that on this occasion I had NO IDEA of the provenance of the gun. It was an LGV Master. And I am sure it was bought in the USA, my friend purchased it "from a gentleman in PA", but that still does not justify what happened.

So, let's get into the project.
The Rifle.-  
My friend is a good shooter. He is, literally, Championship material, so if he says the gun is inconsistent, I tend to believe him, but inconsistent by how much was still a question, so . . . the first thing was to put the gun through the Chrono.
Testing with JSB's 8.44 grs./ 4.52 mms, gave horrible results, in a 20 shot string the ES was 27 fps for a Low of 735 and a High of 762, for an average of 750 ± 7 fps for 10.6 ft-lbs
CLEARLY something was wrong.

On disassembly, I noticed that the previous owner had applied the "Yankee Tune" principles to the "Tee". But the gun simply refused to yield the energy promised and even some drastic spacing forward and aft, did not provide the desired results.
Picture
Vortek unit with added spacers
It was also obvious that some effort had been made to tame the buzz through the liberal application of greases:
Picture
Gobs of grease
Complete disassembly showed the rear part of the powerplant train:
Picture
Rear Section of Powerplant
And I still had to find the heavily spaced TopHat which was hiding inside the piston.
The seal wasn't either an OEM one, being blue, slimmer and shorter than the original:
Picture
Non-OEM seal is slimmer
Picture
OEM seal's Bore Diameter
Picture
Rear Gap with Blue Seal
Picture
Piston with Blue seal is shorter
If the idea was to add a millimeter of stroke to the compression volume, the advantage was lost with the looseness and the gaps.
The Fix.- 
​
Still, the job was cut out and so, I replaced all parts for OEM parts (as wished by the owner):
Picture
Full OEM Powerplant
A new piston, a new guide and a new spring were installed, all OEM parts.

Observant readers will note that the OEM trigger has been replaced! Yes that is one of Eric Pianori's triggers:

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/new-super-custom-trigger-for-the-walther-lgulgv 

and it is superbly adjustable, consistent and reliable.

I thought that everything had gone "just peachy" till the chrono test:

With the same JSB's, the gun clocked 741 ± 4 fps

WHAAATTT?

Uhh-Ohh! I guess that, by now, I should KNOW that if a gun gets to me, it is because others have not found a way to make it work as the owner/customer wants, or as the gun is expected to perform.

Reading over some of my notes, I remembered that at one point I had refused to change the TP of an LGV, preferring to use a much more complicated solution:

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-walther-lgv-pushing-the-power-limits 

But the owner, in THIS case wanted to have the gun "blue-printed" and nothing is as non-OEM as a custom piston.
It had also happened that I had HAD to open a TP in some other break-barrels and I had made the tools to do it properly, so this time around, I did have the wherewithal to tackle the TP enlargement.

In brief: you need carbide drills to drill out the TP to the dimension you need/want, and also a way to remove the drilling burr from the INSIDE of the compression chamber that results from drilling from the outside in.
​
Carbide drills will cut a VERY precise and smooth hole in steel at slow speeds with mutton tallow lubrication, and that gives you control of the process, it also produces little burr on the other side of the drill, important when the "other side" is, in reality, the INSIDE of the compression chamber; where another surprise awaited us.
Picture
Deep Drilling Setup
Picture
Peeking into the Face
As you can see there is a gap between the end and the sidewalls of the compression chamber, where a ring of "gunk" forms. You can also see that the face/end of the compression chamber is not perfectly flat.
This gun will never achieve true "full power" because there is a "lost volume" that we cannot get rid of. A lost volume that even the excellent OEM LGV "power pulse" style seal cannot remediate.
It could be fixed with a custom piston, but then that would not be a "blue-printed" gun.

The other thing you can see in this picture (or better yet, you CANNOT see), is the normal burr from drilling the TP out from the OTHER side.
A larger drill was applied with the extension shown above and the burr removed.
Some have argued that the inside of the TP's should be "venturi'ed", IMHO, that is counterproductive because when air flows at the speed at which it flows inside these machines, a slightly turbulent flow is actually a better "lubricated" flow; a venturi style of entry would tend to reduce turbulences, which is something we do not want.
So, we only removed the burr and made sure that nothing was there to damage the seal in the second (or third)  landing of the piston.
Here is a detailed look at the TP and surrounding area:
Picture
A detailed look of the Face
So, with the TP drilled out to the MINIMUM required for the 12 ft-lbs requested by the owner, we tested different pellets and finally settled on a combination that seems to give very good results.
The barrel in this rifle is easily one of the best I have seen/slugged in any modern Walther, and it seems to prefer the lighter spectrum of pellets (7.9 grs), shooting them at 827 ± 4 fps for 12 ft-lbs on the dot (and the innards are still in the "running in" phase). Predictably, this rifle will settle in the 835-840 fps average and the extreme spread in MV will be reduced to single digit.
This rifle is destined to shoot AAFTA style Hunter Division, so a little over 12 ft-lbs is no problem at all.
The results.- 

To test this gun I installed a SIGHTRON 4-12X40 AO scope that has proven to be VERY reliable in an Accurized ZR mount:
Picture
Complete view of the LGV rifle
It was very nice to just mount the scope and to have no need of further regulation to get the rifle sighted in at the optical axis of the scope. And so, after some short range tests to determine if the JSB Xp was the right pellet and confirming that it was, I adjourned to the 25 yards distance and this was the result (target shot from the bottom, up):
Picture
25 yds Test
As for the non-OEM part, my friend asked for a light and creepless trigger, so I used Eric's trigger's middle screw (to reduce the back force of the spring) and adjusted to a bit less than 1#, this is the average of 5 trigger pulls:
Picture
Trigger pull setting
Overall, a very rewarding project, while the gun will not achieve the 17/23 Joules advertised originally, it is still yielding a good performance for the cocking force, and it is working as a "pop gun" in the "Olde English Air Gonne" parlance, meaning that the lubricants are kept to a minimum and there is no energy contributed to the pellet by moderate dieseling.
As ALL Walthers that are made to work in the "pop gun" region, it is a bit "ringy". If this bothers the user the solution is extremely simple: just add a VERY LIGHT coating of tar to the spring. To ME, the thermal aspects of how tar behaves between a cool 50 ° F morning and a scorching 90 ° F noon are not worth it but, to each his own.

There is  more to read about the LGV's in this blog, some of the entries have been superseded by newer materials and components, but I hope the readers will find them interesting:

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/swapping-the-walther-lgus-trigger


https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-walther-lgv-a-second-look 

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-gunsmiths-tune-part-14-full-power-walther-lgv 

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/the-gunsmiths-tune-part-24-12-ft-lbs-walther-lgv  

In the meantime, take care, keep well and shoot straight!







​HM                                                                                                                                                   © May 23,2022
11 Comments

An unintended coincidence                                                   ©

4/26/2022

4 Comments

 
PREAMBLE

Some weeks ago, a friend posted in a forum the difficulties he was having with an HW barrel in 0.20" cal.
I really do not know much about those barrels having used only one in my work and finding that the barrel I got had no choke. After the fact, it was noted that barrel blanks sold by HW to the US are unchoked, but it was a surprise for me. Since that experience, more than 20 years ago, I have used only L-W barrels. That particular HW barrel was mated to a PCP and a custom mould and shot those specific cast slugs very well, so the barrel was good, just not ideal for pellets.
Again, this was more than 20 years ago, and things change, all this to point out that I do not have too much experience with HW barrels.

Now, apart from the peculiarities of manufacturers about their rifling characteristics, there ARE things that are necessary in a barrel to be efficient, consistent, and accurate.
If a barrel is not uniform, it will not be efficient.
If a barrel is not uniform, it will not be consistent
If a barrel is not uniform, it cannot be accurate.

So, UNIFORMITY is what all barrels, regardless of maker, need to have in order to be truly good barrels.
You may forgive a bad efficiency if it is a short range barrel that is extremely consistent and uniform for the last couple of inches, but in a long range barrel or a hunting gun barrel, you NEED a certain amount of energy to break skin and penetrate, or simply fly to the target at 55 yards and beyond. THEN the last two inches is not "good enough".

And this was the case with the HW barrel in the discussion above mentioned. It had tight and loose spots, and the choke was overdone.

The maker was contacted and after a exchanging more than a few Emails, the barrel, breechblock, and linkage, are on their way to one of the distributors of the brand in the US. Hopefully, the local technician will accept the diagnosis and advise the maker to exchange the whole assembly.
The coincidence

By some quirk of fate, at the same time Midway put on a sale of a limited edition "Lawrence of Arabia" DIANA 34 EMS rifles. All in 0.177"

At the price offered (just a few bucks over $200), it was indeed a tempting offer and many friends took advantage of that sale.
Most have reported good results but, as in the HW case above, even the best makers put out a lemon now and then.
In this case, the rifle was not making even "F in Pentagon" (5.5 ft-lbs) power, so there were more than a few things wrong there.
The owner wanted anyway to have the powerplant changed to NTec (gas spring), and so we proceeded with the powerplant swap.
Picture
Powerplant swap
In the picture above you see on top, the OEM powerplant (two piece guide and spring), at the bottom the single NTec unit.
If you want to attempt the powerplant swap, you will need this kit:

Picture
The powerplant swap took all of 20 minutes, deburring the action, cleaning with acetone and then relubing with Ultimox 226, took another 20 minutes, and then testing begun.

Uhh-Ohh, not good, power was still very low, we exchanged NTec units, we changed piston seals and still no progress.

HMMMMMM So, we analyzed the barrel.

Good thing about the EMS is that everything is modular (as its name implies)
Picture
Once you remove the barrel hinge bolt (do note that there are Nord-loc washers on each side, so do NOT attempt to loosen the nut by itself).
​The barrel assembly can be taken out of the forks.
The cocking linkage can be removed with ONE SCREW (no cheap rivets here), and the side-bearing washers can be extracted with a magnet.
The barrel retaining nut can be extracted using the DIANA tool. 
Then the ORing falls and then the barrel can be tapped out. 
Picture
The block is NOT aluminum, but it is not a "hardened steel", so it marrs easily (previous experience, not this gun). Be careful if you want to work in these guns.
​
A long list of pellets were put through the barrel and a sad lack of uniformity was found that no lapping could repair. Looseness in the middle of the barrel is not something that is "correctable".

Picture
The full group of pellets tested
Picture
Deatiled view of some: PC FTT's, JSB H's, JSB Xact's
Picture
JSB's and Olympia
Picture
JSB 4.53/8.44
So, I sent the results of the tests to DIANA on April 6th, by April 7th I had the promise of a replacement barrel, by April 12th barrel was shipped.
We had to wait till April 25th to actually get it but, an hour after receiving it, the barrel had been "refined", was in place and shooting.
Fit was MUCH better, as you can see in these pictures:

Picture
JSB 4.53/8.44 on the left pushed to JUST BEFORE the choke, on the right pushed all the way through.
Picture
Same as above, but with H&N FTT's 4.52/8.66
The process of a barrel swap in the EMS is not complicated, but having done a few, I really have to admit that is not within the realm of the home tinkerer, not even the advanced ones. Things need to fit to each other within 0.0005" ; and keeping cylinders parallel to those tolerances is not easy when doing it with common tools.

While some may think that the "promise" of the EMS is not being followed through, the reality is that the EMS STILL holds substantial advantages for the shooter.
In this instance, a complaint that would take a month or more, was solved in less than 3 weeks. So, service is simplified and expedited.

It also opens the door for better, faster, customizations.

If you buy a LoA EMS at $207, and you want it in 0.22" that can easily be done for $100 more, you want it changed to NTec gas spring? $180 will get you there.

Hopefully, in the future, we will have more variety of barrels (short and long, threaded and not, etc.) and then it will be even more interesting.

In the end , it is all about what happens at the target ¿no? LOL!

Picture
Final test target showing part of the running-in and then 10 shot groups from the sitting FT position at 25 yards.
This barrel still needs some "running in" and I did not have time to test with GTO's which have proven surprisingly accurate in the latest DIANA 0.177" barrels.
But very clearly, the barrel shows potential, and at a little about 12 ft-lbs in an NTec config, it is an enjoyable gun to shoot all day, it has little recoils, no vibrations, and allows you to call and spot your shots easily.

As time goes by, the rest of the gun will also settle and all aspects will contribute to the shootability of these guns.

Keep well and shoot straight!






​HM

© 04/26/2022

4 Comments
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    Hector Medina

    2012 US National WFTF Spring Piston Champion
    2012 WFTF Spring Piston Grand Prix Winner
    2013 World's WFTF Spring Piston 7th place
    2014 Texas State WFTF Piston Champion
    2014 World's WFTF Spring Piston 5th place.
    2015 Maine State Champion WFTF Piston
    2015 Massachusetts State Champion WFTF Piston
    2015 New York State Champion WFTF Piston
    2015 US National WFTF Piston 2nd Place
    2016 Canadian WFTF Piston Champion
    2016 Pyramyd Air Cup WFTF Piston 1st Place
    2017 US Nationals Open Piston 3rd Place
    2018 WFTC's Member of Team USA Champion Springers
    2018 WFTC's 4th place Veteran Springer
    2020 Puerto Rico GP Piston First Place
    2020 NC State Championships 1st Place Piston
    2022 Maryland State Champion WFTF 
    2022 WFTC's Italy Member of TEAM USA 2nd place Springers
    2022 WFTC's Italy
    2nd Place Veteran Springers

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