Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i Airgun Shooter

For three days in February, the great and good of the shooting industry descended on the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham for the biggest and best shooting show of the year to date. The super-successful British Shooting Show was on, everybody was there and of course we were there too to have a look round and see what was new. BSA First stop was at the huge and impressive BSA stand, where I was shown the brand new Scorpion TS pre-charged rifle that is the firm's new entry-level gun. It will be selling for just £569, which is fantastic value for money. It has the superb cold hammer-forged barrel for top accuracy, and BSA proudly told me that the entire gun is made right here in Britain, including the stylish…

HUNTING & FIELDCRAFT Shooting grey squirrels on large estates requires a plan, a strategy, for approaching how you are going to target the woodlands effectively. A casual stroll may get you one or two, but it is far from effective in terms of serious control and conservation. I activate around three feeders in different woods at a time and rotate around them through the week so as not to overshoot any one of them. It also keeps the grey squirrels guessing and applies pressure across a broader area. Once the wildlife camera fails to capture images of greys, the food is not being taken and I don't see any greys across a small handful of sessions, I have enough evidence to suggest moving on to a new location. However, the…

TECH ADVICE FEATURE OPTIMISE YOUR ZERO This article is intended to benefit airgun hunters, but I hope it will prove useful to other disciplines as well, because it's all about understanding your pellet's trajectory and using the best zero distance for your needs. It's vitally important to understand that airguns kill with precise shots, and we cannot rely on the huge power that centrefire rifles produce to make up for misplaced ones. A pellet drilling through a squirrel's brain will kill it cleanly, but a shot through the nose or throat will see the animal run and perhaps die later. Precision is the key and anything you can do to help you shoot straighter is your friend. DOWNWARD CURVE Many people wrongly believe that their pellet flies in a straight line…

TESTING STATION FIELD TEST WEIHRAUCH HW45 BLACK STAR KEY SPECS MAKER: Weihrauch Sport (weihrauch.co.uk) MODEL: HW45 Black Star RRP: £360 TYPE: Spring-powered, single-shot ACTION: Over-lever, two-power settings LENGTH: 11in BARREL LENGTH: 6.7in WEIGHT: 2.6lb TRIGGER: Two-stage adjustable MUZZLE ENERGY: 5.75 ft-lb CALIBRE: .177 (on test), .20 and .22 Amazingly, the standard Weihrauch HW45 has been around for 37 years, but still remains the benchmark by which other spring pistols are judged. The Black Star version that I'm talking about here emerged rather later. But we may never have been blessed with this impressive pistol from the Weihrauch stable in the first place. Its origins are a tribute to the foresight of the late Dr Robert Beeman, an American airgun hero. As the major importer of European airguns into the United States…

TESTING STATION KIT TEST PELLETGAGER In order for a shooter to achieve reliable and repeatable hits on target, they need to use reliable and repeatable ammunition, and that means shooting pellets that are as identical to each other as is realistically possible. This means using pellets of exactly the same weight and, probably more importantly, of exactly the same head size. Whether the head of a .177 pellet measures 4.51mm or 4.52mm may seem inconsequential for the novice, but for those shooters who really know their rifle and its preferred ammo, that hundredth of a millimetre can mean the difference between success or failure, and that's true for hunters as well as target shooters. But how do you know exactly which head size your rifle prefers? KEY SPECS DEVICE: PelletgageR MANUFACTURER:…

VINTAGE AIRGUNS FEATURE ORIGINAL AIRGUNS In March 1963, as a birthday present from my parents, but partially funded by the proceeds from selling my Dad's old Haenel junior air rifle, I acquired a brand spanking new Original Model 35. It cost 12 guineas (£12 and 12s), equating to around £250 in today's money. This was a properly blued, adult rifle with decent power and accuracy. I was well chuffed! It had to be in .22 calibre to be taken seriously at that time, and the other rifles on my shortlist were the BSA Meteor Mk2, the Webley Falcon (not known to me at the time, but itself having Dianawerk origins) and the Relum Tornado. The BSA would have been a better fit for a skinny 13-year-old, but it had an enamelled…

There were several eminent air pistols produced in Germany in the 1930s, including the BSF S20, Haenel M28 and Tell 3. And made in the Dianawerk plant by Mayer & Grammelspacher, the Diana Target Air Pistol No 5 was one of the best of them. Over 13in long with a 7in barrel and weighing 2lbs 5oz, it is large but well balanced. A few were made in .22, but the majority were .177, with either a rifled or smooth-bore barrel. The design is of a cut-down, break-barrel air rifle. Materials are traditional with all-steel metalwork, and external surfaces are polished and blued. The stock is walnut with neatly impressed chequering and attached to the action with two screws either side. The piston seal and breech seal are leather. The rear…

I was pleased to see that ASG has a new replica of the fascinating Schofield revolver, wearing a silver finish and faux ivory grips. It's powered by a 12g CO2 capsule, so there are no surprises there, and it also employs the dummy cartridges that we all like. These are all realistic in terms of the size and shape, including the rim that locates the case in the chambers. Just as with the real firearm, the top strap of the frame unlocks to offer you all six chambers at once, into which you simply drop the loaded cartridges, close the frame again and you're ready to go. When you come to reload, you open the frame, swing the barrel down while the ejector mechanism extracts the empty cartridges from the…

ZEROING IN WHY WE SHOOT Back in the 1990s, I was invited by a friend to go lamping with him. I had never done this before and he lent me his Weihrauch HW95 break-barrel air rifle. Although I was unsuccessful, it was an enjoyable evening. My mate did a lot better, but I think it was possibly because he had a .22 rimfire! A seed was sown that evening and in the following weeks we had several more lamping sessions. I acquired a nice Venom-tuned Weihrauch HW77 underlever in .22 and this gun provided my family with a fair few rabbit stews. I still own it to this day, despite numerous offers to take it off my hands. In time, my shooting world expanded and I found myself the owner of…

Names, it seems, are important. This is probably something which marketing folk have known for a good long time. Words that sound right can help sell things. ZEISS, of course, was around long before marketing as we know it was dreamed up, making optical equipment of the highest quality. “ZEISS.” Say it slowly and listen. It sounds like ‘spice' or ‘nice' – phonetically correct with a shape to it. And when you add the word ‘zielfernrohr’ (telescopic sight) to it you are halfway close to buying one! ZEISS's most recent additions to the lines of sporting optics are the V4 and V6 range of telescopic sights, with ‘V' indicating variable magnification. There are five in the V6 series, the 1.1-6x24 being the smallest and lightest with an all-up weight of…

Imagine the scenario: you spot a rabbit near the hedgerow on the other side of the field. Ideally you'd like to close the gap to around 25m before taking the shot, so you look around for a suitable spot from where you can take aim. Having done that, you can then plot a stealthy route to get you within striking distance without being detected. But how far away is your intended quarry? And how much ground do you need to cover before you can get within range? Nowadays, most shooters would carefully take out their laser rangefinder and ping the various distances. But not everybody has one of these, and even if they do, batteries can go flat and rangefinders may get left at home or in the boot of…

TESTING STATION RIFLE TEST WEIHRAUCH HW100KT ADJUSTABLE LAMINATE KEY SPECS MAKER: Weihrauch (weihrauch-sport.de) MODEL: HW100KT Adjustable Laminate SUPPLIED BY: Hull Cartridge (weihrauch.co.uk) PRICE: £1,195 TYPE: Pre-charged pneumatic CALIBRE: .177, .20 (special order) and .22 (on test) MAGAZINE: Two rotary, 14 shots each SHOT COUNT: 50 in .177, 75 in .22 OVERALL LENGTH: 95.8cm, including HW moderator BARREL LENGTH: 31cm WEIGHT: 3.4kg STOCK: Thumbhole, laminate, adjustable LENGTH OF PULL: 37cm TRIGGER: Two-stage, adjustable TRIGGER PULL: 10.7oz SAFETY: Manual, resettable POWER: 11.34 ft-lb ACCESSORIES: Drop-down handle, Picatinny rail It's hard to believe, but the Weihrauch HW100 is celebrating its 20th birthday this year, and it's probably fair to say that while not all airgun shooters will have owned one of these exemplary rifles, almost all airgun shooters will at least have heard of…

KEY SPECS MANUFACTURER: Immersive Optics IMPORTER: Thomas Jacks (thomasjacks.co.uk) 01789 264100 MODEL: 14x50 WEIGHT (WITH MOUNT): 625g LENGTH: 154mm PRICE: £326.95 ALL MODELS: waterproof, shockproof and anti-fog KEY SPECS MANUFACTURER: Immersive Optics IMPORTER: Thomas Jacks (thomasjacks.co.uk) 01789 264100 MODEL: 10x24 WEIGHT (WITH MOUNT): 425g LENGTH: 122mm PRICE: £254.95 ALL MODELS: waterproof, shockproof and anti-fog Lots of the scopes we see today look very similar and the technologies they use are largely the same, so it's always interesting when something totally different comes along. Take the Immersive Optics range of scopes that you see here. You'd never mistake one of these products for a standard telescopic sight, that's for sure! They feature a prismatic optical system and zero eye relief, so sit in a very unusual place on your rifle. Clearly,…