Clinton Jones Scores Record ELR Air Rifle Shot at Whittington Center
Eve Flanigan 09.29.23
Clinton “Ton” Jones, known to many as a reality TV star, set a new extreme long range record for air rifle on Sunday, September 10th, 2023. What’s even more remarkable than a 2,058 yard (1.16 mile) hit from an air gun is that the attempt wasn’t even planned until the night before. Clinton Jones then went on to accomplish that very feat.
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Clinton Jones, a competitive air rifle shootist, was on hand at a gun media event, Lucid Optics Ballistic Summit, to demonstrate the latest wares from Rapid Air Worx and Airforce, topped by Lucid products. The event is held annually at NRA Whittington Center in New Mexico. In 2022 and 2023, invited media attendees were able to get hands-on experience and personal tutelage from the celebrity shooter.
For the past five years, one of the recreational activities following work time at the Summit has been to gather at the high-power silhouette range and take a whack at Whittington’s famous white buffalo steel target. It’s set at 1,123 yards and is about the size of the side profile of a Smartcar. The twist: shooters get five tries with a 9mm pistol. Until this year, the buffalo has remained unscathed by 9mm, but that is a topic for an upcoming review of Rob Pincus’ Avidity Arms PD10. Clinton Jones is always up for a fun time at the range, and joined the fun with his air rifle, only to make one of the two hits ever scored in this friendly fundraiser/contest.
The unexpected hit on the white buffalo hatched a new idea: why not see what an air rifle would do on Whittington’s extreme long range (ELR). Plans were already in place to head there the following morning with the wares of APF Armory and Accurate Mag anyway. Adding an air rifle to the mix was both tantalizing and convenient.
Not long after daylight, vendors, including Tyler Partner of Pyramid Air, one of Jones’s sponsors, media reps, and Lucid Optics representatives set up on the craggy point that is Whittington’s ELR site. Jones set up his .308 caliber Airforce Airguns Texan on the lone shooting bench on this fairly austere range. Priced at $971.95, it is surely one of the least expensive complete rifles to grace that range in recent times. This gun is fitted with a 34-inch, 1:14 twist Shaw barrel, which incidentally is the same twist rate as the factory Lothar Walther barrel.
The ammunition was a 155 grain slug from Mr Hollow Point. Average estimates for its muzzle velocity are 880 feet per second, however with the long barrel and higher than average pressure, this one was surely traveling at least a little faster. Of course, there’s more to the package, and that includes a carbon fiber air bottle capable of charging the Texan with up to 3,625 psi. To add a bit of context to this feat, 3,000 psi is what he usually runs for 100-yard shots.
Optics are no small part of precision shooting. For this occasion, Ton mounted a Lucid Optics MLX 4.5-18×44 first focal plane scope, on a riser rail, maxed out for elevation at 120 MOA. With the scope zeroed at what is, in retrospect, 1,400-1,500 yards(!), Ton still had to hold over 65 mils, better than halfway down the X axis of the MLX’s reticle. This trigonometry accounted for a 300-foot drop of the projectile: not exactly a large game-killer, but also not something I’d want landing on my noggin.
It was the fifth attempt at the distant steel that made it ring and rack up what is, unofficially, the longest on-target air rifle shot on record. A combination of supreme skill on the part of Jones, the team that called shots and developed the gear, as well as a little luck with a rare humid and relatively windless morning in northern New Mexico made for the shot of a lifetime.
In Jones’s presentation to media attendees two evenings before the record shots, he extolled the virtues of modern air guns. The collection he brought for display included the Texan plus more common hunting-length-barreled rifles, and this year there was the exciting addition of a pistol caliber carbine air rifle, ideal as a truck gun for farm/ranch use, with the advantage of being quiet without the bulk of a suppressor. It’ll deliver at least four on-target shots before pressure loss makes point of impact less predictable. Jason Wilson, owner of Lucid Optics, says he carries one as his own truck gun. I queried him regarding how the carbine does in the wildly fluctuating temperatures of Wyoming, where he resides. He replied that the carbine holds pressure for at least months at a time with no apparent effects from climate.
Jones and his Lucid Optics hosts did a fine job of proving a number of points from his formal presentation. Air guns have come a long, long way from the Daisy BB models most of us knew in our youth. They are fully capable, and overall much more affordable, than rifles for target shooting and hunting. And, at least for now while legislative heat is focused on firearms, air guns are unregulated in these 50 states, leaving the user with a wide berth of choices.
Again this year I had the opportunity to fire one of Jones’ Airforce airguns under his patient tutelage. While the experience shares much with precision rifle shooting in terms of knowing DOPE and pressing the trigger (incidentally, this one was set at a whisper-light three ounces), some parts were different. Jones advocates sitting at a relative right angle to the gun rather than straight behind it, and rather than having a firm cheek weld, keeping the lightest possible physical contact with the rifle. It was fun to get a glimpse into the world of competitive airgun shooting in the mini-tournament he designed for us media folks. Congratulations and thanks to Ton Jones, Lucid Optics, and all other equipment sponsors for the learning experience and a shot that will surely stand as a record for a very long time.
If you’d like to see the record shot caught on video, check it out here.
Thanks to Tyler Patner of PyramidAir for providing most of the tech specs in this article.
