cliveward
09-12-2006, 07:44 PM
Hi All,
Finally got round to trying out my new .177 HW100K today, only been sat in the box under my desk for 5 or 6 weeks...been rather busy to say the least.
Just to put this review in perspective for all you serious Airgun enthusiasts reading....I'm not...lol...I'm primarily a shotgun, rimfire/centre fire shooter, but since a lot of my customers use my products on air rifles I thought I'd better get one. I started with an S200 which was very good but then the bug bit I guess and I wanted a more complete package for hunting.
Having now used an air rifle properly for a while, I find it an invaluable tool for clearing ferals from buildings and bunnies in more geographicly challenged areas where anything else would be unsafe or undesirable.
So this review is from a hunting perspective and not a target one.
First impressions are that the gun is very well made and the stock is a nice matt walnut thumbhole affair. The gun came with all the required bits and pieces for filling and 2 x 14 shot magazines as it should.
I fitted my simmons 1.5-5x20 scope using low QR burris rings with my 3/8"-weaver low profile adapters on the receiver. Some people have commented that they dislike the thumbhole stock but don't let it put you off. The gun comes up to the shoulder and feels perfectly balanced in any shooting position and the cheek weld with a low mounted scope is more like a shotgun type fit...spot on.
Filling was no problem either, just remove the plug and insert the filling probe. I use a hand pump and due to the reasonably small air cylinder...filling, even from empty to 200 bar was no huge chore.
Loading the magazines is easy...a bit like a large version of the umarex CO2 pistol magazines, but unlike the CO2 pistols the pellets are tranferred into the chamber of the barrell before firing. There is an o-ring on the outside of the mag to retain the pellets securely via the waist and an index mark on the outside of the magazine.
Loading the magazine into the rifle was again easy. Pull back the cocking lever and magazine latch, insert magazine and push magazine latch forward. rotate magazine by hand to get the index mark to a convenient location and then push the cocking lever forward to chamber the first pellet. The design of the Weihrauch magazine system makes it impossible to load more than one pellet into the breech. The action also features a safety catch on the right hand side.
I got a rough zero 1st at 14 yards with a couple of pellets, and then moved back to 35 yards.
The first things that struck me were how very good the trigger was and how quiet the gun was. From my firing point, all I could hear was the 'tink' of the hammer dropping.
The target was a 3/4" square of black gaffer tape on a white background. Just for fun I shot the first 6 shot group on 2.5x mag as apparently with an air rifle you can't hit anything at low mag. That group measured 1/2" centre to centre :rolleyes: then for the second group I lavished myself with the luxury of 4x mag and that 6 shot group was one perfect hole, probably just big enough to poke a pencil through :D . The simmons scope has a pretty thick cross hair so I left the mag on 4x so that at least some of the target will be visible at the longer air gun ranges. A few minor adjustments and a few more shots and it was spot on dead centre at 35 yards and single hole grouping. I did a bit more paper punching till I really got bored and the reservoir gauge and shots indicated the power was just starting to drop off. This took 56 shots or 4 magazines worth.
I refilled the reservoir which topping up was very easy, I would say about 50% more work than the S200 I had previously...and grabbed a combination spinner target and set that at 45 yards.
As a guess for hold over I aimed for the top of the 1" spinner and rang it every time for a whole magazine. To stave off the boredom again I dispensed with the rest (lol it's just too easy shooting this rifle prone from a rest as I had been doing, obviously to zero it in). I shot another few magazines at the 1" spinner prone unsupported and kneeling and only missed a few times. Not bad with only 100 pellets through the rifle.
The pellets I used are JSB exacts, good job they work well in the rifle as I still have a few thousand of them left :D .
From 1st impressions I'm very pleased with the rifle...but then for nigh on £700 I expect to be. It does everything I expected it to and took a while choosing. It's compact, quiet, excellent trigger, has a more target orientated stock, multi shot, decent shot count and unobscured top rail for mounting day and night scopes.
Cheers
Clive
Finally got round to trying out my new .177 HW100K today, only been sat in the box under my desk for 5 or 6 weeks...been rather busy to say the least.
Just to put this review in perspective for all you serious Airgun enthusiasts reading....I'm not...lol...I'm primarily a shotgun, rimfire/centre fire shooter, but since a lot of my customers use my products on air rifles I thought I'd better get one. I started with an S200 which was very good but then the bug bit I guess and I wanted a more complete package for hunting.
Having now used an air rifle properly for a while, I find it an invaluable tool for clearing ferals from buildings and bunnies in more geographicly challenged areas where anything else would be unsafe or undesirable.
So this review is from a hunting perspective and not a target one.
First impressions are that the gun is very well made and the stock is a nice matt walnut thumbhole affair. The gun came with all the required bits and pieces for filling and 2 x 14 shot magazines as it should.
I fitted my simmons 1.5-5x20 scope using low QR burris rings with my 3/8"-weaver low profile adapters on the receiver. Some people have commented that they dislike the thumbhole stock but don't let it put you off. The gun comes up to the shoulder and feels perfectly balanced in any shooting position and the cheek weld with a low mounted scope is more like a shotgun type fit...spot on.
Filling was no problem either, just remove the plug and insert the filling probe. I use a hand pump and due to the reasonably small air cylinder...filling, even from empty to 200 bar was no huge chore.
Loading the magazines is easy...a bit like a large version of the umarex CO2 pistol magazines, but unlike the CO2 pistols the pellets are tranferred into the chamber of the barrell before firing. There is an o-ring on the outside of the mag to retain the pellets securely via the waist and an index mark on the outside of the magazine.
Loading the magazine into the rifle was again easy. Pull back the cocking lever and magazine latch, insert magazine and push magazine latch forward. rotate magazine by hand to get the index mark to a convenient location and then push the cocking lever forward to chamber the first pellet. The design of the Weihrauch magazine system makes it impossible to load more than one pellet into the breech. The action also features a safety catch on the right hand side.
I got a rough zero 1st at 14 yards with a couple of pellets, and then moved back to 35 yards.
The first things that struck me were how very good the trigger was and how quiet the gun was. From my firing point, all I could hear was the 'tink' of the hammer dropping.
The target was a 3/4" square of black gaffer tape on a white background. Just for fun I shot the first 6 shot group on 2.5x mag as apparently with an air rifle you can't hit anything at low mag. That group measured 1/2" centre to centre :rolleyes: then for the second group I lavished myself with the luxury of 4x mag and that 6 shot group was one perfect hole, probably just big enough to poke a pencil through :D . The simmons scope has a pretty thick cross hair so I left the mag on 4x so that at least some of the target will be visible at the longer air gun ranges. A few minor adjustments and a few more shots and it was spot on dead centre at 35 yards and single hole grouping. I did a bit more paper punching till I really got bored and the reservoir gauge and shots indicated the power was just starting to drop off. This took 56 shots or 4 magazines worth.
I refilled the reservoir which topping up was very easy, I would say about 50% more work than the S200 I had previously...and grabbed a combination spinner target and set that at 45 yards.
As a guess for hold over I aimed for the top of the 1" spinner and rang it every time for a whole magazine. To stave off the boredom again I dispensed with the rest (lol it's just too easy shooting this rifle prone from a rest as I had been doing, obviously to zero it in). I shot another few magazines at the 1" spinner prone unsupported and kneeling and only missed a few times. Not bad with only 100 pellets through the rifle.
The pellets I used are JSB exacts, good job they work well in the rifle as I still have a few thousand of them left :D .
From 1st impressions I'm very pleased with the rifle...but then for nigh on £700 I expect to be. It does everything I expected it to and took a while choosing. It's compact, quiet, excellent trigger, has a more target orientated stock, multi shot, decent shot count and unobscured top rail for mounting day and night scopes.
Cheers
Clive