The 77 does it again!!!

[TonyL]

Oh yes indeedy, young Rhys; I see you're really starting to get this spring thing now matey.

Nice and simple. Just grab the gun and some pellets and you're ready to go.

Nice and easy to work on yourself, too, which is such a major bonus. Having said that, I'm not one of those that is continuously pulling them to bits and trying new things. Once fettled, if the cycle's nice and it's accurate that'll do for me and I just leave well alone. One of the guns that I took along this last weekend was a HW95 in .177. Bought new in the mid 90s. It remained totally bog standard until I gave it a little loving and fitted a V-Mach spring, guide and top hat four years ago. And it's remained like that ever since. Last week I thought I'd just give it a quick check over as it hasn't been used for maybe a year and a half. No loose screws or mountings, nothing required at all. A few shots down the garden to confirm all was well and that was it. And it behaved impeccably.

I had quite a few shots using some JSB Exact Heavies that the lovely Phil, Rickenbacker, had brought along. In the side winds, these were grouping beautifully at the 30 yards plus zero plate and were bang on point of aim. Very impressive. The FTTs that I usually use were still grouping tightly in the strong-ish side winds, but were being blown about an inch to the left.

The .22 'Domes through the Vipermax were being blown about 2 1/2 inches to the left!

The impressive performance of those JSB Heavies reminded me very much of a similar comparison many years ago when I was using the old 9.3 grains Silhouettes through a '35 and they behaved impeccably, whereas the .22 Wasps through a friend's '80 were all over the place in the strong winds.

Be great to see you in September my Boingery Young 'Un.

[rhyslightnin]

Oh yes indeedy, young Rhys; I see you're really starting to get this spring thing now matey.

Nice and simple. Just grab the gun and some pellets and you're ready to go.

Nice and easy to work on yourself, too, which is such a major bonus. Having said that, I'm not one of those that is continuously pulling them to bits and trying new things. Once fettled, if the cycle's nice and it's accurate that'll do for me and I just leave well alone. One of the guns that I took along this last weekend was a HW95 in .177. Bought new in the mid 90s. It remained totally bog standard until I gave it a little loving and fitted a V-Mach spring, guide and top hat four years ago. And it's remained like that ever since. Last week I thought I'd just give it a quick check over as it hasn't been used for maybe a year and a half. No loose screws or mountings, nothing required at all. A few shots down the garden to confirm all was well and that was it. And it behaved impeccably.

I had quite a few shots using some JSB Exact Heavies that the lovely Phil, Rickenbacker, had brought along. In the side winds, these were grouping beautifully at the 30 yards plus zero plate and were bang on point of aim. Very impressive. The FTTs that I usually use were still grouping tightly in the strong-ish side winds, but were being blown about an inch to the left.

The .22 'Domes through the Vipermax were being blown about 2 1/2 inches to the left!

The impressive performance of those JSB Heavies reminded me very much of a similar comparison many years ago when I was using the old 9.3 grains Silhouettes through a '35 and they behaved impeccably, whereas the .22 Wasps through a friend's '80 were all over the place in the strong winds.

Be great to see you in September my Boingery Young 'Un.

It's interesting as your talking pellets, it is making me think that the next 77/97 purchase of mine should be a .177, just for sheer choice of pellets... I really like the full length 77 but I can't help wanting to try the k version and I say to myself "what's the point you may as well have a 97 if you want a carbine" so really I just need to decide if I want a full 77 or a 97k in .177..., And at the moment I'm thinking a 97 would just make things that bit more different.

[TonyL]

Sounds very much like a good plan to me, Rhys.

Forget any jibes you may receive from some quarters over the smaller calibre. They're great. And, as you say, a massive, massive choice of such diverse ammunition in seemingly endless styles to play about with - even match grade wadcutters for close range stuff. Cheaper too.

Let variety be the spice of life matey and I'm sure you'll find testing the smaller calibre opens up lots more interesting avenues for you.

[bullet boy]

As much as I love my Huntsmans I do love shooting my HW77 on times and I’ll never get rid of it!
Its definitely a keeper!
Well done lad!

[rabbitwrecker]

Nice one, Rhys...