HW 45 Silver Star

[zooma]

In our quest to find the best non-recoiless springer to shoot in the MPL, we noticed one of the Rivvy shooters was getting some really good scores with an HW45 - something we have never been able to do - but we were encouraged to try again and spend a lot more time than we had done previously to see if we could get one to work as well as his.

John G was the best shot in the MPL in Round Two and acheived it with my old GAMO Centre, so we are now all enthused about finding the best non-recoiless pistols to take advantage of the MPL scoring system that penalises the recoiless pistols by scoring DOWN, but encourages the "kickers" by scoring UP - and giving a one point bonus per card as well!

We spent the whole evening with my almost new HW45 Silver Star, and the only conclusion we came up with is that we cannot yet understand how anybody can get a top MPL score with a pistol like this - whatever the secret is - we cannot find it!

John G also brought his HW 45 Silver Star (that he has never been able to get a good consistant result from) and we spent a lot of time adjusting the trigger and trying to get the best possible result from the pistol.

My Silver Star has had about a tin and a half of pellets through it before I bought it, and another good half of a tin last night - but the pistol still smells of some dieseling now and again so we guess it is not fully "run-in" yet.

The pistol is good to look at and good fun to shoot, but the groupings are not anywhere near good enough for this to be a genuine MPL competition pistol as far as we can see, but because it is so enjoyable to play with we will keep shooting it to run it in fully and test all the pellet types we can find until we get some sort of acceptable result from it.

In comparison, we took two GAMO Centre pistols that we bought s/h last week and that John had just rebuilt - freshly lubed - and they were both able to put all the pellets in the black even before they had "settled down" and burnt-off any excess lube etc - and the pellet choice made little difference.

There was no comparison in performance between the two - the HW45 Silver Star was a very poor second - so we are hoping things will improve with sustained use to try and get any sort of good result from our HW45 Silver Star pistols - but at this moment they look to be very dissapointing and we would welcome any advice that may help us improve the unreliable peformance and get some sort of decent group out of either of them.

The next task is to start testing various pellet types to find what works the best - so far we have used Meisterkugeln, R10, Eley Match, RWS CO2, Hobby, GECO, and all are able to put a few in the black and then spray several all over ( and out of) the card for no apparent reason!

Any ideas anyone?

[zooma]

I have taken Johns HW45 home with me to compare a well used and well lubricated example against my own almost new factory lubricated example - and already I can see that a JG prepared and lubed example is very much smoother than a factory issue.

Meanwhile, John has dug out yet another example of an HW 45 that had tucked away ( you can't say that we don't like them - only that they don't work very well as target pistols - yet!) and had been experimenting with a very loose grip (no comment!).

Turns out that this third example in the fleet is also a very nice and well prepared smooth specimen that is giving fairly encouraging groupings at 6 yards when shot with aforementioned "loose grip".

The real test would be to see how it performs at 10 meters, and to find out who amongst us has the most naturally limp (slack) grip to get the most out of this theory!

We have some idea - but are reluctant to say who this could be - so we may have to test the idea ourselves - even if it does not come naturally!

[gtpkeeper]

maybe the loose grip will help ,re let it recoil works on my hw97 not quiet the same i guess

[zooma]

maybe the loose grip will help ,re let it recoil works on my hw97 not quiet the same i guess

We are certainly going to give it a try!

We like the HW 45 Silver Stars and are determined to get some good results out of them - as soon as possible!

[pegasus]

Hi there, Her"s a tip I got on here a good while ago, When holding a hw 45 have thumb &trigger finger in normal position---next finger round butt---keep your remaning two fingers away from butt (they shouldnt touch it )---maintain as light a hold as you can with second finger & thumb when firing---it worked for me,perhaps if the OP reads this he could give some more advice

[zooma]

It was suggested that I try the following link to a fairly extensive reveiw of the HW45 spring powered air pistol.

http://my.tbaytel.net/coopers/HW45Review/review.html

I found it very interesting - what do you think?

[zooma]

Three HW45 pistols in the club last night - none of them able to hit the preverbial "barn door" - even with some good and experienced spring powered pistol shooters trying their best.

A quick return to the GAMO Centre and Falcon pistols saw the same shooters making holes in the black bits again.

We will keep trying but right now the question is:-- "How on earth can you get such good scores with an HW45 at 10 meters?"

[Fat stig]

I find the best way for me is a tight grip & shoot full power with r10s, I know this shouldn't work but it seems to work best for me. Hope this helps.

[zooma]

I find the best way for me is a tight grip & shoot full power with r10s, I know this shouldn't work but it seems to work best for me. Hope this helps.

I will give it a try!

[peteswright]

I have experimented with the 45 using loose hold, to death grip. It doesn't seem to matter anywhere near as much, as not letting the sights move off target and absolutely perfect trigger press. Try it from 10ft at an 8 ring. You can feel the good shots where everything went right. The difficulty is getting it right time after time. When you've proved that any hold works, start moving further away. The zeroing may need adjusting for light to hard holds, so just pick the hold that you're comfortable with, zero, and be consistent. I did this using a one hand hold. The same applies to a two hand grip, but if you grip a bit too tight with left hand, POI can drop a little, but if just right its the same POI. My testing was done on half power. The principal should be the same for full. ATB. Pete.

[zooma]

Gordon has finally got himself an HW45 - the first Black Star I have seen.

It looks reallly good - shame he can't shoot it - should see it tested over the Humber Bridge soon!

[gordon]

Gordon has finally got himself an HW45 - the first Black Star I have seen.

It looks reallly good - shame he can't shoot it - should see it tested over the Humber Bridge soon!

Tut Tut Bob, that was only the second time i had shot it,i got more in the black than out ,i think iv`e only put a couple of hundred pellets through, so don`t speak to soon

[zooma]

Tut Tut Bob, that was only the second time i had shot it,i got more in the black than out ,i think iv`e only put a couple of hundred pellets through, so don`t speak to soon

Yes I know the cellar is a little "dark" when you shoot so far away from the target holders - but I would not call it "black"


........but I agree you did get more in the "black" than on the target!

[gordon]

Yes I know the cellar is a little "dark" when you shoot so far away from the target holders - but I would not call it "black"


........but I agree you did get more in the "black" than on the target!

Go on Bob you know you want one, hopefully next week it will be back to black scores. .... might rename it the dark star.

[zooma]

Go on Bob you know you want one, hopefully next week it will be back to black scores. .... might rename it the dark star.

You are right - I would like an HW45 Black Star - I think they look really good, but I would not be so sure about what use it would have coz it ain't much cop at shooting (from what I have seen)

Maybe I could pair yours with my HW45 Silver Star and use them as some sort of decorative bookends - but I don't expect them to be too good at that either!


...but we could try some formation diving with them ( back to the Humber Bridge option again!).