Weihrauch HW100KT

[heath]

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/

very interesting has helped me decide what to buy just need to find a second hand one looking for full set up cant wait . cant get on sales bit yet sure it wont be long any help apreciated heath

[Big Shrekers]

Good review! Im returning to the sport after an eight year break. How things have changed! i will hopefully be getting the hw100 standard one if i can persuade the wife.

[pintosal]

One very minor point, I bought a swivel/tilt bipod for my HW100.

The gun is slightly heavier on the side of the cocking lever, so just be aware of potential canting problems.

Mine tends to want to turn slightly clockwise when you hold it in your hand or on the bipod. So I always try to check the alignment with a vertical or horizontal object.

[Jparker]

Excellent review, really considering buying one of these

[Milo123]

Great review

[Riffler]

Bought a 2nd hand one yesterday.
Chrono'd it today.

50 H&N FTT shots from 200 bar = 762 to 769 fps
50 shots with just 7fps variation.
Impressive.

[CameronWilson]

Having used one in .177 for some time, there are a few things that I'd like to see addressed in future revisions.

Firstly, the two-piece breech assembly. Mine had the habit of closing-up slightly over a 1,000 shots or so, the result being that it became very difficult to insert/remove the magazines. This could possibly have been addressed by the use of a one-piece mount (possibly).

With the 14-shot magazines, I was enjoying shooting the HW100TK that much, that I was putting an average of a tin of pellets down range every day, so this breech problem became a real nuisance.

Secondly, the cheekpiece of the stock is too low, inviting parallax errors. I know that Weihrauch recently updated the stock with a higher/fuller cheekpiece, so they've obviously had similar feedback from other users – but it's still not high enough, IMO. Also the length-of-pull is quite short, but that will vary from user to user anyways. All of the HW100 shooters that I have met in competition, have either replaced their factory stocks with something like the CS1000, or made their own cheekpiece adjuster.

And thirdly, with regards to accuracy, there is still a large discrepancy between the magazine and the single-shot HFT adapter. Again, IMO, you only get the rifles true accuracy when you are using the HFT adapter.

Over a period of about 6 months, I was pulling my hair out trying to get my HW100TK to group properly. I tried about every single brand of pellet out there, bipods etc. It wasn't until I screwed on a Choate cheekpiece, and switched to the single-shot adapter using JSB Exacts, that I managed to achieve pellet-on-pellet groups at 45yds.

Once I arrived at this ideal configuration, the rifles accuracy was phenomenal – as good as the Steyr I bought to replace it! The HW100TK is still the best handling rifle I've owned, but unfortunately, by the time I got it sorted, I had already agreed to sell it to a fellow club member!

I've often considered buying another HW100TK in .22, so that I could compete in the .22 class at HFT shoots. If I were to go for another one in .177, I would probably go for the full-length version because of the increase shot count.

[Parabuteo]

[QUOTE=rotekz;2810002] A small gripe might be that it can't be de-cocked. You have to fire it to do that.

QUOTE]

Yes it can, pull the cocking lever fully back, remove the mag, squeeze the trigger and push the lever forward with the trigger held (like most bolt fed PCPs).

Obviously you will have to put the mag back in on the empty chamber and load or you will put 2 up the spout.

They are that quiet that you may as well just fire it off safely

[Parabuteo]

Having used one in .177 for some time, there are a few things that I'd like to see addressed in future revisions.

Firstly, the two-piece breech assembly. Mine had the habit of closing-up slightly over a 1,000 shots or so, the result being that it became very difficult to insert/remove the magazines. This could possibly have been addressed by the use of a one-piece mount (possibly).

With the 14-shot magazines, I was enjoying shooting the HW100TK that much, that I was putting an average of a tin of pellets down range every day, so this breech problem became a real nuisance.

Secondly, the cheekpiece of the stock is too low, inviting parallax errors. I know that Weihrauch recently updated the stock with a higher/fuller cheekpiece, so they've obviously had similar feedback from other users – but it's still not high enough, IMO. Also the length-of-pull is quite short, but that will vary from user to user anyways. All of the HW100 shooters that I have met in competition, have either replaced their factory stocks with something like the CS1000, or made their own cheekpiece adjuster.

And thirdly, with regards to accuracy, there is still a large discrepancy between the magazine and the single-shot HFT adapter. Again, IMO, you only get the rifles true accuracy when you are using the HFT adapter.

Over a period of about 6 months, I was pulling my hair out trying to get my HW100TK to group properly. I tried about every single brand of pellet out there, bipods etc. It wasn't until I screwed on a Choate cheekpiece, and switched to the single-shot adapter using JSB Exacts, that I managed to achieve pellet-on-pellet groups at 45yds.

Once I arrived at this ideal configuration, the rifles accuracy was phenomenal – as good as the Steyr I bought to replace it! The HW100TK is still the best handling rifle I've owned, but unfortunately, by the time I got it sorted, I had already agreed to sell it to a fellow club member!

I've often considered buying another HW100TK in .22, so that I could compete in the .22 class at HFT shoots. If I were to go for another one in .177, I would probably go for the full-length version because of the increase shot count.

Greta review but...

Not just me then...

The 2 halves of the action can also move laterally....this can chuck the zero out the window.

I used a 1 piece mount or bridging clamp to lock both halves and the zero stays put.

The bluing on my barrel left a bit to be desired.

The stock...long since gone, I have gone GinB FT01

The worst and most heanous crime IMHO was fitting the stock to the barrel band, which also held the cylinder.

The last thing you want or need is wood (which changes with temp and humidity) being coupled to the barrel.

The first thing snipers of old did was to get rid of the wood round the fore end of the barrels for this reason (and also for harmonics but that came later).

My rifle had the BTAS treatment which did away with this alltogether, although my barrel band had long since gone.

Fit a bipod and that could make things even worse, lean on it a bit and it all goes up to the barrel, the O ring can only do so much.

The safety can also play up, the spring is only held in its channel by being peened and this can let go, safety goes floppy and does it's own thing.

Oh yea, and the design of the valve and seat means that they go hot sooner or later (whether they have addressed this I dont know) and with AT fitted...that is a pain.

That said....

Out of the box, if you get a good one, they are very, very good. get a friday afternoon job

Mine is still the most accurate, consistent rifle I own, in spite of my attempts at interfering with it.

I would buy another, but it would be off to Ben again I am afraid...but no one spends money improving junk do they

[Parabuteo]

Thinking about it...

With the ambi stock, why on earth dont they fit an adjustable ambi cheek piece (it need not be ambi, just symetrical and reversable) and an adjustable butt plate...problem solved

[hunter64]

i find this rifle phenominal, ive had loads of precharged and this knocks them all into a cocked hat, the only thing in my eyes that would make it better would be a contoured adjustable butt pad

[Korium]

would be a contoured adjustable butt pad

Mine had one of the Bisley adjustable ones fitted which worked quite well.
Definitely a worthwhile improvement, and companies like Hydro Graphics can cut the stock to convert it to an adjustable cheek-piece.

[simon1977]

I'm in love again, bit the bullet and got a new hw100kt .22 and dropped a front stock bipod stud and very impressed by its pointability and accuracy now just see how it fares with feather and fur, the mag system to that of my rapid is nice especially the anti double loading, something which theoben could benefit from however bit cautious of the gauge on the front of the tube, a cap of sorts would be nice to protect and camo this would be nice. found the ambi thumbhole stock nice and just right for my eye relief etc but would benefit from an adjustable comb/butpad like my rapid for fine tweaks.
on the whole very impressed and looks like a long term keeper.

[Anjow]

I can't tell from pictures of this gun, but would it be usable with a one-piece scope mount?

[geo pitchford]

super review mate iv had mine a month and absoluteley made up