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Thread: HW80 Venom / Bigtoe Hybrid!!

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    Farnham, Surrey
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    HW80 Venom / Bigtoe Hybrid!!

    Well, after repeatedly viwing the sales thread for this http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....nham-HW80-.22; , I finally purchased Rogers HW80
    This is an older 80, low 100`000 serial number, which has had a factory fitted stage 1 kit-trigger housing machined to accept a spring guide, short mainspring with machined guide and Venom piston seal.
    The previous owner to Roger, sent this rifle to the BBS's spring-guru, Mr Bigtoe. Tony didn't want to copy Venoms Lazerglide, so he turned the piston down to true, then carried out his o-ring conversion and reassembled.

    http://www.airguntech.com/?p=267



    I had contacted Tony prior to purchasing the rifle, asking a few questions, he informed me that the rifle was nice to shoot and with a M.E circa 11.4.
    The first thing I did when I got the rifle home, was to fire 30 shots into a backstop, then chrono the rifle. Using JSB Exacts, it was very consistently putting out 11.7 so it has obviously risen slightly.

    SO-the million dollar question-how does the rifle shoot?? Well, when I travelled to Roger's to purchase it yesterday, the first thing that suprised me, was how lightweight the rifle felt, in the walnut tyrolean stock-more akin to a 95 than an 80. Personally, I prefer a heavy rifle-a product of shooting custom stocked Anschutz, Walther and Daystate pre-charged rifles for the last 8 years-"heavy is good, heavy is reliable"-to paraphrase our friend Boris-the-blade
    Now, it may be that a lightweight, pointable 80k is manna-from-heaven to many shooters, personally I would prefer more "heft"-an extra pound or so would suit me fine. I have predominantly purchased the rifle to satiate my curiosity-how does a Bigtoe rifle feel-although this is not a full-on Bigtoe conversion, he has merely "breathed" on it to improve the firing cycle and consistency, if-and it is a big IF, I decide to keep it and use it in anger, I will probably change the stock-I fancy a cs1000 or GNIB FTno7, OR have a brass spacer made and fit a more target orientated butt-pad, also a muzzle weight-although to be fair, muzzle flip is negligible.

    Cocking the rifle takes very little effort, Bigtoe's description of a short, sharp spring was about right. The trigger release is very nice-I imagine venom have polished the sears when they carried out the stage 1 conversion-no creep, nice first stage follows by a very positive release-a good example of the Rekord unit. The firing cycle was the SECOND thing that suprised me about this rifle-please be mindfull that the last hw80 I owned was over Twenty years ago, also a .22 calibre, I remember that was a fairly slow action, a predictable kerrr-dunk into the shoulder, with a little mechanical twang-as expected on a straight from the box 1980's HW. This is very different-it has a very, very fast lock time-feels more like a .177 HW77 than an 80. The action is silky smooth-very much like a Lazaglided rifle-maybe a little less refined, but this gun needs to be shot in-I imagine 2-3 tins of pellets and it will be on song I doubt whether it has had more than a hundred shots through it before I purchased it.
    With daylight running out, I managed a quick session on my range, using the open sights. Once I got an Aim Point for 30 yards, I was consistenly knocking over a 40mm kill target-so obviously no accuracy issues

    This is obviously a "first impressions" type of review-once I have had the opportunity to shoot it more extensively, I will report back
    Last edited by Baxterbasics; 12-02-2013 at 07:10 PM.
    Never go off half cocked....

    All lies matter

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
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    aberdare s wales
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    Nice review, please post more when you can.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    Farnham, Surrey
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    Well, shortly after purchasing / reviewing this rifle, I picked up a fully Lazaglided HW80-1980's old school venom. After much deliberation, I put this up for sale. Just to make sure everything was perfect for a potential new owner, I chronoed it-it was consistently just over the legal limit (very cosistent, I may add- +/- 2 fps
    I withdrew from sale and removed the mainspring. The only other suitable spring I had in stock was one taken out of My .22 Zephyr 77-so I installed this. 10.5 fpe. Added 2 washers and put 50 pellets through it- it was running 11.9. Removed a washer and shot 50 pellets through it is now running very cosistently at 11.4
    So-how has changing the mainspring altered the characteristics of the rifle? Well, it is an absoloute doddle to cock and the firing cycle is smoother still.
    Shooting on my range with open sights, I can consistently knock over 40mm killzone tagets at 35 yards from a free-kneeling position.

    The only other thing I have done is to completeyly strip the stock, steam out small dents, sand/wet and dry it down and apply 8 coats of true-oil and 3 coats of wax-it feels like glass now and is more comfortable on the cheek, also, the true-oil has darkened the stock colour somewhat and enhanced the beautiful grain.
    I have yet to scope this one up for a full accuracy test (have been busy refinishing various other stocks)
    Last edited by Baxterbasics; 26-02-2013 at 07:14 PM.
    Never go off half cocked....

    All lies matter

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    saxmundham
    Posts
    2,365

    hw80

    Quote Originally Posted by Baxterbasics View Post
    Well, shortly after purchasing / reviewing this rifle, I picked up a fully Lazaglided HW80-1980's old school venom. After much deliberation, I put this up for sale. Just to make sure everything was perfect for a potential new owner, I chronoed it-it was consistently just over the legal limit (very cosistent, I may add- +/- 2 fps
    I withdrew from sale and removed the mainspring. The only other suitable spring I had in stock was one taken out of My .22 Zephyr 77-so I installed this. 10.5 fpe. Added 2 washers and put 50 pellets through it- it was running 11.9. Removed a washer and shot 50 pellets through it is now running very cosistently at 11.4
    So-how has changing the mainspring altered the characteristics of the rifle? Well, it is an absoloute doddle to cock and the firing cycle is smotther still.
    Shooting on my range with open sights, I can consistently knock over 40mm killzone tagets at 35 yards from a free-kneeling position.

    The only other thing I have done is to completeyly strip the stock, steam out small dents, sand/wet and dry it down and apply 8 coats of true-oil and 3 coats of wax-it feels like glass now and is more comfortable on the cheek, also, the true-oil has darkened the stock colour somewhat and enhanced the beautiful grain.
    I have yet to scope this one up for a full accuracy test (have been busy refinishing various other stocks)
    pics pics please. ps a nice gloss black scope looks lovely on this rifle.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Farnham, Surrey
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    12,192
    Never go off half cocked....

    All lies matter

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    tunbridge wells kent
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    1,119
    Quote Originally Posted by Baxterbasics View Post
    yeah but tyroleon stocks are sooooo 1980's! no really i love those stocks and that one looks especially beautiful. more please on the review graham when you can. loving it.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    saxmundham
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    Quote Originally Posted by Baxterbasics View Post
    WHERE'S THE REST OF IT.looks nice, go on show us.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Ashford In Surrey
    Posts
    2,984
    Cracking Venham

    But seriously looks like a nice bit of kit, love the stock.

    I guess two reasons why it wasn't snapped up quicker.
    1. I don't think any guns are selling well.
    2. .177 and .20 sell better.

    If .22 is for you, then you had a winner there

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