Test Goals

Test for high power silhouette impacts resulting on target fall as if it was hit on kill zone (false positive hits). Test made on stock factory produced field target targets. This is a private and independent test with no direct or indirect influence or promotional relation with any commercial organization or brand.



Test Targets


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The test was based on two stock factory produced field target targets, one from GAMO (rat silhouette, photo on the left) and another from NOCKOVER (squirrel silhouette, photo on the right). The targets were setup at 40 meters.



Test Rifle and Pellets

Air Arms S410E Caliber .22" / 5.5mm

   Dae Sung, 30 grain, energy upon target of 32 ft.lb
   H&N Baracuda Match, 21 grain, energy upon target of 26 ft.lb
   AA Field, 16 grain, energy upon target of 24 fl.lb



Test Results

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The GAMO target (left) was hit with a total of 15 pellets on the silhouette, 7 of them using the 30 grain Dae Sung . The NOCKOVER target (right) was hit with a total of 15 pellets on the silhouette, 7 of them using the 30 grain Dae Sung.

With the single exception of the two shots near the rat's ears, all shots on the GAMO target (including the ones on the base structure resulted on fall-flat false positive. All shots on the NOCKOVER target result on no fall (no false positives).

One additional hit was made on the GAMO target using a low power setup based on a Air Arms TX200 MK III Caliber .177" / 4.5 mm with AA Field 8 grain pellet, with energy upon target of  10 fl.lb - it also returned a false positive result (target fall when hit upon the silhouette).



Part II - Testing Field Target Targets
Gamo Target Tuned   
May, 18th, 2006
Report and photos by Rui Vilhena
Edited and published by Pedro Mateus 
Copyrighted, 2006. Written permission required for reproduction.



After the false positive impacts on the GAMO target a "work on it" approach was assumed in order to make possible, with reasonable effort and cost, to upgraded it to a level that could improve it's performance. Three points of tuning effort were made (please refer to photos bellow, from left to right): (i) repositioning of the back support orifice, (ii) cut down on bottom support element to allow the front panel to be repositioned on a more stable stand and (iii) extra plate around the kill zone (reducing area and strengthening the plate around the practical critical impact zone).

 
   [ Please click on the photos for higher resolution ]

With the GAMO target positioned at 6 meters, it was shoot on the silhouette using the same Air Arms S410E Caliber .22" / 5.5mm with 10 AA Field, 16 grain, energy upon target of 31 fl.lb and with 10 Dae Sung, 30 grain, energy upon target of 45 fl.lb . No false positives. Additional test shoots were then made on the killzone to ensure the actual positive results.

 [ Please click on the photo for higher resolution ]

With reasonable effort and cost it's possible to tune up the GAMO target to prevent false positive impacts that were faced on the standard production model. The NOCKOVER target, in another hand, offers a overall better quality (base materials and finishing) and standard based performance with no false positives.