Thread: Air rifle advice

I finally got to the bottom of why the Stoeger RX20 would not shoot accurately on an ongoing basis
I have had four recent shots at rabbits about 15m away – they all ran off – dog couldn’t find them so must have been a clean miss
I decided to take it down to my range spot to have one more try to get it accurate with some new Gamo hollow point slugs – but thought I should check a variety of screws on the rifle and the scope – the rifle had come loose in the stock – the scope rings were also loose and there were signs that the scope had been sliding forward – I tightened them all – particularly the rear scope ring that was very loose
Down to the range and into a target on a box at 10m – it was about 75mm right and 75mm high – not that long ago that I had it reasonably accurate so something had moved badly – slowly got it into a nice group around the bull and then it went about 75mm right and 75mm high again – I checked the scope rings – the rear ring was loose again and the scope was still sliding forward – tried a couple more series of being accurate to being way out again – either the rear ring is stretching or the screws are stuffed
I resisted the temptation to try Loctite or similar and decided to take it back to Tauranga H&F where I bought it two years ago.
By chance, the Guy who sold it to me and set it up two years ago was at the firearms counter – other than some initial muttering about no warranty after two years – he decided to take the scope and rings off a new Stoeger that he had just set up and fit it onto my gun. After about twenty shots through their indoor 10m tunnel – we jointly agreed it was very accurate and very stable – nothing was moving!
Rob said they sell heaps of them and have no problems. He was going to try my scope out on the new gun and if it moved, he would do a warranty claim.
So how is that for good H&F service and a bloody good salesman! – well done Rob – you are a good buggar!
So I went down the hill to my range spot and put about 30 shots through it – I had to adjust it a bit to suit my hold and my eyes – but I got it into a nice group at 10m – I had to accept that Rob was a lot better with it than me – but the next rabbit that shows up at 10 – 15m is in for a surprise.
I have also switched to Gamo hollow point slugs – they look much more fragile at the front end that the Gun City Javelin hollow point slugs that I had been using.
I had managed to get a couple of back bone hits on rabbits using the Gun City slugs – they deformed a lot and did a heap of spinal damage – but was not humane kill – see picture of two deformed slugs
The trigger is still horrible – it is like a three stage trigger – initial slack – then a long sticky creep – then when I flinch it lets go – I wish there was a solution for the trigger