The Parallax Predicament

I became a fan of air pistol silhouette competition as sanctioned by the International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association (IHMSA) as soon as IHMSA sanctioned it six years ago. The rules of the game allowed a shooter to practice his/her Small Bore and Big Bore techniques while having the advantage of no recoil and low noise both of which can mask shooter errors. IHMSA designed the game to emulate its other disciplines; so, shooters could shoot using both standing and freestyle positions. On the other hand, NRA sanctioned matches are shot from the standing position only. Both organizations allow scopes and iron sights.

Shooting a scoped air pistol from the standing position really isn’t a problem. There are many suitable rifle scopes with adjustable objectives allowing the parallax to be set down to 10 yards. You can spend a few dollars or over a thousand dollars depending on your budget.

Shooting an IHMSA match with a scoped handgun from the Creedmoor position is another matter. Some shooters choose red dot sights as eye relief is not an issue with them. However, the dot can cover too much of the animal and magnification is low or non existent depending on the model chosen. Several handgun scopes offer the necessary eye relief, but handgun scopes generally have a fixed parallax set at 90 yards. Leupold’s 2.5-8x32 and Bushnell’s 2-6x32 Elite Series both advertise twenty inch eye relief, and at least in the case of Leupold I believe that is an understatement. Both manufacturers state that eye relief remains the same throughout the power range. Burris does offer a 3-12x32 scope with an adjustable parallax from 25 yards to infinity. However, Burris states that eye relief is between ten and nineteen inches on low power and ten to twelve and one half inches on high power. This is just too short for most Creedmoor shooters.

The solution to date has simply been to mount a riflescope and shoot from the prone position. It is interesting that this position has been described as “The Flop” – hopefully Texas hold ‘em players will not feel disparaged by this use of the term. Shooters using this position generally cut the grip of the pistol down to ensure the butt of the grip does not touch the ground in violation of IHMSA rules. While this is perfectly acceptable, I’m old fashioned enough to want to shoot from the Creedmoor position. Thus, I just did not want to build an Unlimited Any Sight (scoped freestyle) pistol.

That changed in 2006. Two friends came up to Oregon from California for the Oregon State IHMSA Air Pistol Championships. Paul brought a new pistol, a MAC1 LD MK1. He had mounted a pistol scope on it and shot it Creedmoor. He let me borrow it, and even though the parallax caused the targets to be considerably out of focus, I was hooked by this great pistol and wanted to have an LD built and to find a solution to the Parallax Predicament.

The first step was to make a call to a local gun shop owner who I knew was an airgun shooter. I asked him if he had a Crosman Mark I or Mark II in his collection that he was willing to sell. As it turned out, he had a Mark 1, and we struck a deal. I then called Tim McMurray at MAC1 to discuss the project. The Mark 1 was shipped off to Tim with a detailed letter describing the work to be done. Tim was great to work with, and the pistol was back in my hands in what I thought was a very reasonable amount of time. Tim’s workmanship was excellent. The fit and finish was extremely professional.

The final piece of the puzzle was the scope. Was it possible to find one that would offer clear target definition at air pistol silhouette distances of 10 to 18 yards?

To digress a bit, my personal philosophy on air pistol silhouette is to try to do it on the cheap. One of the fun things about the sport is that you can participate at any level of investment that fits your budget. If you want to invest in a high end PCP pistol for $1,500 or more, there is a place for you. On the other end, a Crosman 2300S or Daisy AVANTI 747 will work just fine also. My Production/Standing/Unlimited pistol is a Crosman 2300S. I use an IZH 46M for Unlimited Standing. Other shooters in our club prefer Steyr pistols. There is room for everyone’s air pistol choice in IHMSA.

Much has been written about Leupold & Stevens products and the fact that the Leupold Custom Shop was doing some creative things. I had them build a 2.5-8x32 handgun scope for Small Bore/One-Fifth Scale with a parallax set at 60 yards, and it works well. I was thinking that Leupold might be able to solve the air pistol parallax conundrum. I was hopeful that parallax could be set at 15 yards. An e-mail to Leupold gave me the answer, but not what I was hoping for. The shortest parallax adjustment possible was 25 yards. Given that information, the solution now became a crap shoot. Would a 25 yard parallax make a difference and provide a clear, well defined image of those pesky 10 yard chickens? There was only one way to find, and that was to order a scope and give it a shot. The cost of adjusting the parallax was only $14.99. If the project didn’t work, it would be a simple matter to ship the scope back and have it set back to factory specs. The question then became which scope to select. Given the fact that the LD MK1 was reasonably priced, I did not want to invest an arm and a leg in optics. My final choice was Leupold’s 4x28 handgun scope. A fixed 4x seemed like a reasonable choice. My Unlimited Standing scope was an out of production Burris air rifle scope that is a fixed 6x, and it works very well. My concern was that more power at 10 yards would create other problems such as difficulties finding the correct target. Scopes have advantages and disadvantages over iron sights, and one of those is accidentally shooting the wrong target. Hitting target three instead of two as example will cost you two targets in IHMSA. You missed the one you should have fired at, and the next target is no longer available. Thus, 4x seemed like the solution. Additionally, the price of Leupold’s fixed 4x is significantly less than the 2.5-8x32. The fixed 4x can be purchased on the Internet for $299.95. The variable is $469.95.



The pistol scope arrived, and it was a simple matter to mount it on the LD. Then, it was off to my deck to sight the pistol in and give it a shot. Screwing the eyepiece all the way it allowed sufficient eye relief for the Creedmoor position, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the ten yard target was clear enough to be useable.

It was off to the range a few days later to finish sighting the pistol in at our indoor range. Under accurately measured distances and using both paper silhouette targets and metallic ones, the pistol was properly sighted in. Running through the four banks of animals, I was pleased to see that while the silhouettes were not sharp and crisp, they were certainly clear enough that the LD with the Leupold scope will be a real competitor at the range. In fact, a fellow shooter was so impressed that he purchased a Leupold 2x pistol scope and had its parallax adjusted down.

The bottom line is that the Leupold is the answer to The Flop. I’m now able to shoot the traditional Creedmoor position in all IHMSA disciplines.

Postscript: The JCSA Pistol Silhouette Club hosted an air pistol silhouette match shortly after this article was finished. I shot the LD and scored a 39x40 missing one ram. I felt that was a respectable score considering that I had not really rung out the scope sight settings yet. I did a little experimentation after the match to see if there was a way to improve the clarity of both the targets and reticle. I donned my Champion shooting glasses and adjusted the aperture to a mostly open position. Picking up the LD and assuming the Creedmoor position, I discovered that the targets and reticle were both perfectly clear. My prescription glasses had been the culprit! The Leupold scope is the perfect prescription to cure The Flop!

Post Postscript: I have since had my optometrist make a pair of shooting glasses with a .75 diopter and they work perfectly with the Leupold scope.