HW40 any good ?

[The Birdman]

Just ordered a HW40 for a laugh and bit of Rat murdering, Are thay any good ? Seen rave reviews in the past.

[Paul Hudson]

Light, accurate, brilliant trigger, excellent sights, comfortable grip, a bit tricky to cock and load until you get the knack.

I guess you could say I think they're alright .

Paul.

[fullmetaljacket]

Some will probably argue that hunting rats with a pistol is unethical enough, let alone a low powered one like the HW40

[The Birdman]

Perhaps I'm out of order ? May get slaughtered for this ? But who cares about Rats ? They surely are the ultimate vermin and disease spreader ?

[fullmetaljacket]

While rats are undoubtledly vermin that need to be removed, surely this doesn't mean they don't have the right to a quick, clean death, which most will agree is easier to achieve with a 12 ft/lbs rifle than with a pistol running at less than 3 ft/lbs.

[The Birdman]

True, Think this one would be for the Animal Rights luvvies ? It doesn't have to be a 12fpp rifle to sort the little-uns out though, Sure that 6fpp is more than enough ? I think the standard factory Ratcatcher rifle is only between 6-7fpp anyway ?

[fullmetaljacket]

Don't get me wrong, a rat's skull isn't made of of layered kevlar and titanium and your average 8 grain 0.177 pellet doing 400 fps (which is just about what the HW40 is capable of) will punch right through it - but this doesn't give you much margin for error.

Since a rat's head is a relatively tiny target, you're going to have to be pretty close to it to guarantee a head shot.

[The Birdman]

True, Gotta find the S@ds first as well.

[Mark A]

The HW45 with stock fitted would make a better rat killer, as good at close range as any 12ft/lb rifle.

Mark

[TCooper]

The HW40 is a wonderful pistol. I have had mine for 5.5 years and still enjoy shooting it. I mounted a 3-9X scope and tested average accuracy at .25"ctc at 10 metres with Crosman Premiers, from a rest. I also checked accuracy at 20 yards and grouped 5 pellets into the following:

.40", .55", .50", .75" - Ave = .55" ctc

Velocity is still around 382fps with 7.9gr Crosman Premiers. I'm currently testing JSB Exact pellets and they seem to be just as accurate from this pistol.

My HW40 currently wears an old Interaims OneV30 red dot sight. I really like this combination.

After more than 5 years and more than 20,000 pellets, my HW40 finally needed a minor repair. The larger of the two hairpin springs inside the grip broke. The repair took me about 5 minutes to do the parts exchange. No issue at all.

I don't hunt rats so I cannot give info on the subject.

Todd

[bsaman]

If you hunt you should at all times try to achieve a clean kill. Rats are tough little buggers that often run after being hit with a full power .22 air riffle. A low power air pistol however good (and the Hw 45 is great gun, I had one in .177) is not an appropriate weapon with which to hunt any kind of vermin.