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RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

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Greyhawk
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RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

Post by Greyhawk » Sat Jun 22, 2019 1:58 pm

Just got my first 'adult' air rifle. For it I chose a RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro in .177 caliber and today after installing the included scope I spent some quality time on the front porch throwing lead. It was fun!
Some things that I noticed:
Very heavy rifle, much heavier than any .22 rifle that I own
Pretty heavy cocking effort, but not terrible (I think it takes a heavier effort because it is quite a bit shorter than other rifles that I looked at)
I don't know that when you load all air rifles the safety automatically switches to 'safe' but this one does. It is a very nice feature, the safety is up top and is in a nice location for lefties. (which I am)
Verrrry nice, light trigger.
I like the wooden stock, just old fashioned I guess!
I'm not familiar with air rifle accuracy but I was very satisfied. The groups pictured are three shot groups, shot off my front porch while resting on the railing at 13 yards.
Overall, I think I'm pretty happy with it so far!

Happy plinking!
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ESquared
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Re: RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

Post by ESquared » Sat Jun 22, 2019 2:23 pm

Wow, very nice groups and great pics; and "flying the colors" is always good to see!

I know nothing about the air rifle category, as these questions will indicate:
Is that more or less a suppressor? Assume it's pretty quiet, but maybe that adds to the weight?
What does it weigh, would you guess?
What are the specs of the scope?

Looks like great fun!
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North Country Gal
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Re: RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

Post by North Country Gal » Sat Jun 22, 2019 5:26 pm

I do love seeing folks shooting any kind of airgun, but especially spring piston airguns (springers in airgun lingo). Great job, there.

Yes, spring piston guns have always had a safety that resets after every shot. That's been the tradition as long as there have been springers.

Yes, going shorter on the barrel makes for a shorter lever and that will up the cocking effort. Interestingly, though, going to a carbine length barrel on an airgun has no effect on velocity.

The shroud at the end of the barrel does reduce noise on a springer, somewhat, but springers are still relatively noisy air guns via their spring piston power plant. Not much you can do to reduce that source of noise.

One of the drawbacks to pistons as a power plant is that the mechanism gets larger and heavier as the power level goes up. By the time you're pushing a 177 cal pellet at 900fps, you're often dealing with a gun that weighs over 8 pounds and that's without a scope. For instance, my little HW30S (R7) shoots at 600 fps plus and weighs a dainty 5.5 pounds without a scope. On the other hand, my HW97K Laminate 177 develops around 900 fps and weighs an immense 9 pounds plus without the scope, not to mention needing twice the effort to cock it. Just the nature of the spring piston beast.
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Greyhawk
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Re: RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

Post by Greyhawk » Sat Jun 22, 2019 9:02 pm

ESquared wrote:
Sat Jun 22, 2019 2:23 pm
Wow, very nice groups and great pics; and "flying the colors" is always good to see!

I know nothing about the air rifle category, as these questions will indicate:
Is that more or less a suppressor? Assume it's pretty quiet, but maybe that adds to the weight?
What does it weigh, would you guess?
What are the specs of the scope?

Looks like great fun!
It weighs about 8 pounds. I'm not sure how much the 'suppressor' makes the rifle quieter, but it does make the cocking effort easier by giving you something substantial to grab on to. The scope and mount was included with the gun and seems pretty good. It is a 3x9 and is labeled RWS. If I had to buy a scope separately from the rifle I may have tried to find a fixed 2x power instead of a variable, but it will do the trick.
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North Country Gal
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Re: RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

Post by North Country Gal » Sat Jun 22, 2019 9:31 pm

A tip on scope selection for air gun shooting. Parallax is a serious issue at the very short ranges we shoot with our air guns. It's why that scope that came with the gun has an AO. I even get parallax with red dots at 10 meters and they have no magnification. At 13 yards, parallax issues can definitely open up groups and cause random changes in POI. Whatever you get, do yourself a favor and get a scope with an AO that can focus down to 10 yards. Remember, too, that it will need to be air gun rated for use on a springer and a lot of standard rifle scoops are not rated for use on springers and can shake themselves loose, internally, in short order.
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Re: RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

Post by PT7 » Sun Jun 23, 2019 7:51 am

Most interesting set of challenges outlined by NCG in this thread. I've never shot an air gun, and especially surprising to learn that an air gun could weigh in at 9+ lbs. The name air gun and weight are incompatible. :lol: I considered my first Henry BBB with the octagon 20" barrel to be a heavy dude at almost 8.7 lbs.

Anyway, glad you like your first 'adult' air rifle, Greyhawk. Especially that you had fun. :)
Thanks for the cool post.

PT7
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Re: RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

Post by Henry88 » Wed Jun 26, 2019 10:57 am

This gun or some variant is on my short list. Funny but this month Pyramid Air has them listed under Diana 34, where all along they had been listed as RWS 34. I've always been confused by the relationship. I know RWS is Umarex, not sure about Diana and whether they're the same guns. Maybe NCG can offer some insight into that.

In any case, Greyhawk, some seriously good shooting to start off with a Springer. It tooks me months to adjust, but that was a cheap walmart job that was extremely hold sensitive, but a good trainer in that regard.

It seems like the better the gun, the less hold sensitive, perhaps............
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Re: RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

Post by North Country Gal » Wed Jun 26, 2019 2:37 pm

Diana has always been the actual manufacturer in Germany. Diana built guns have been exported and imported to the U.S. by RWS for many years, but now Dianas are also imported via Umarex. Note that Umarex also imports many other brands, so not all Umarex guns are made by Diana. Note, too, that RWS was also an importer, so not all RWS guns have been made by Diana.

This confusion about brands versus importers has been going on for many years in the air gun world. For instance, the most famous importer in this country has been Beeman. Robert Beeman gets a ton of credit for introducing European air guns to shooters in this country. The most famous Beeman air guns have been made by Weihrauch in Germany, otherwise known as HW. In fact, Beeman, himself, collaborated on the design of the Beeman P1 with Weihrauch. However, Beeman was an importer and also imported a lot of other brands under the Beeman name, so not all Beeman guns were made by HW, just as not all RWS guns were made by Diana.
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Henry88
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Re: RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

Post by Henry88 » Wed Jun 26, 2019 10:39 pm

Wow, Don Adams (Maxwell Smart) would ask you to repeat the part after, "Diana has always....". LOL

But I followed that. It filled in the missing blanks. THX
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Re: RWS 34 Meisterschutze Pro review

Post by BigAl52 » Wed Jun 26, 2019 10:51 pm

Very nice airgun Grayhawk and good shooting to. I need one for myself as it appears here lately shooing in the back yard might be the only way I get to shoot.
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