Hi All,
Well after having it for a while now, I thought I would attempt a quick review of my HW100KT.
Out of the box I noticed it had a lovely looking ambidextrous stock (light grained walnut) and as soon as I picked it up it felt at home in my hands. The quality of the wood is superb for a factory spec stock. The metalwork is sound and has a nice deep blueing. Exactly what I have come to expect from Weihrauch
The left hand side of the action has painted in white the manufacturers name and model, whilst on the right is the pellet type and the usual ‘read your instruction booklet’. Also on the right hand side is the cocking lever and magazine mechanism, more detail to follow.
The air cylinder has various information stamped including date of manufacture, swp’s etc and at the top end has the pressure gauge. I personally think this is not the best place for the gauge as to look at it, the rifle is pointing directly at your face. Accidents do happen! The air cylinder is 100cc and manufactured from stainless steel, so very strong and it won’t corrode. It has the easy quick fill system fitted, that is plugged when not in use by a thick plastic pin that is sealed with o rings. This is easy to remove and does a good job of protecting the filling assembly from dust and grit.
I fitted the supplied silencer and it finishes off the look of the rifle nicely. I did fire the rifle off without the silencer fitted and trust me it is the loudest crack I have heard from any PCP. The excellent Weihrauch silencer however does the job and I feel it is one of the best on the market. Reducing the crack down to nothing more than a slight silent gust of air.
Even with the silencer fitted the rifle has superb ‘point ability’ and feel that I have not come across that in any other rifle. The balance of the rifle is so good you could almost use it one handed (not that it would be safe to do so). I am left handed and normally struggle along with so called ambidextrous stocks that are really right handed ones with slightly less right handed chamfer. This is not the case here, the thumbhole stock is perfectly symmetrical. People criticise the stock as looking like a plank of wood. Personally I like the simplicity of it, when you pick it up it feels just right and I for one would not change it in anyway. The fore stock has grooved finger rails and feels solid and square to aide grip and stance. The trigger area is stippled for added grip and the angle suites my large hands. The butt pad is standard fair and an adjustable one would have been a nice touch.
The trigger unit is fully adjustable from 1st and 2nd stages (grub screws accessible easily enough), along with the tension of the trigger. You have to remove the action from the stock to adjust the overall tension, but as this is just two screws, very quickly achieved. Finally the trigger blade can be adjusted backwards and forwards by loosening an Allen bolt. This again is a nice touch. The feel of the trigger is a definite two stage, without any creep visible. It is a very smooth action and inspires confidence when taking that hard shot we all get.
The cocking mechanism is second to none, being light, quick and it won’t allow you to cock the rifle twice. The magazines (3 supplied as standard, 2 x 14 shot and 1 x single shot) are held in by a small side lever. Once the rifle is cocked you can apply the safety switch that lies just below the cocking lever. There is no automatic safety, however the multi shot magazines would prohibit the effectiveness if one was fitted.
With the single shot fitted, when you draw the cocking lever back, the spring loaded mag comes out to the right hand side. Pop in the pellet and push the mag back, push the cocking lever forward and that’s it job done. The gun will not allow you to cock again until the shot has been fired, so you can never accidentally double load the gun with two pellets.
With the 14 shot mag loaded with pellets, you can fire off all 14 shots in less than 30 seconds (not very accuratley though!!). The action is smooth and quick. The cocking lever is held in place by spring loaded ball bearings that give a nice click. The 14 shot mags have a marker on the edge so you can see when you are coming to the last few shots in the mag. This is without doubt the best multi shot / single shot magazine system I have ever used. The quality feel is wonderful, along with the fact you get 2 x 14 shots and the single shot as standard.
I fitted a 3 – 12 x 50 AGS Swat scope, no problems apparent with mounting and zeroing (5 shots and it was spot on). I think I will be investing in a single mount system for this rifle though as it will bridge the two distinctive parts of the action, possibly giving more stability.
I sat with the rifle resting just it the crook of my arm and started firing away. It feels very clinical, especially compared to a springer. However the noise is no more than the twang of a large elastic band, followed by the pellet striking the target. The trigger is smooth and very squeezable, but can be adjusted to just about any combination to suit anyone’s style. The first 10 shots after zero were almost pellet on pellet at 40 yards. The rifle instils more confidence in my shooting as I know the pellet will land where I want it too. I’m using JSB Exacts and they seem well suited to the rifle. I use the Weihrauch F&T’s for chronographing the gun. The only thing to let the rifle down is my breathing technique and the odd gust of wind!
The 14 shot magazines were both emptied in no time, then I switch to the single shot system. This again is the best I have used, cycling the rifle within 5 seconds is easy. The rifle was charged to 200 bar prior to use and shots didn’t tail off until the built in gauge was registering 70 bar. The tail off started at the 50 yard target after 61 shots. However the 35 yard zero was still true for another 5 shots after that. Weihrauch quote the working pressure for full power shots to be between 90 and 200 bar.
I used the rifle for a few weeks quite heavily (shooting about 1500 pellets) and chrono’d it again, as some 100’s have been known for power creep. It was still doing 11.4 ft/lbs with Weihrauch F&T’s, exactly what the factory cert said. So no power creep although it is still early days.
Filling the air cylinder was an unspectacularly easy job, out with the protective pin, in with the adaptor (included along with various others for filling the cylinder if it is off the rifle), turn on the air and watch the air fill and push the gauge up. The HW100’s gauge is more accurate than the one fitted to my bottle rig!.
Overall, I am pleased as punch with this rifle. I could not want more out of a PCP rifle. I am taking it hunting in the next few days and I will report back to let you know how I get on in the field with it. I will also post some pictures in the near future too.
Please feel free to comment on the review and if you have any questions just drop me a pm and I will do my best to answer them.
Thanks for reading and don't be too hard on me please!
Chris.
Photo's as promised
http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/n...ic666/HW100KT/
Originally Posted by Neomagic
Hi All,
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