Henry Rifle Forums

Ever have one of those guns that is your go to gun, your never lets you down gun, your old reliable? This under lever spring piston HW97K air rifle in .177 with its blue laminate stock is mine. It's an expensive gun, but not my most expensive gun; it's a beautiful gun, but not my most beautiful air gun, but from day one, it has been my most reliably accurate air gun.


For those not familiar with airguns and their accuracy, this gun will shoot half inch groups at 50 yards on a calm day. Most groups will be between a half inch and one inch, but this gun does it on a regular basis. At 10 meters, it will put ten shots in the same hole when rested. This was my sight in target, first day with the gun, couple years, back.


This is a heavy gun even without the Bushnell Trophy 4-12x on it. Weight is a good thing for bench work, but for offhand work, I usually grab a different gun. My rule for indoor shooting, though, is standing, only. No shooting from a rest. The way I manage to shoot my usual ten shot groups with a heavy gun like this is to sit down and rest between shots. Takes a long time to shoot a group that way, but my patience is always rewarded with this gun.

Shot one ten shot group to relight the gun at 10 meters for my winter indoor season, then shot this one. My Blue played Santa for me, this afternoon. Guess I've been a good girl.



Merry Christmas, everyone!

Merry Christmas indeed .... that is a very accurate air rifle and you clearly handled it expertly

That's a very cool looking, very accurate air rifle! Thanks for the photos and for the range report. I'm impressed, again. Good girl!

Nice looking Rifle...Good shooting.

No blues sung about those POIs!!

Absolutely beautiful and very good shooting!

NCG, I have a HW97K too, and it is definitely my go to gun as well. When the PCP's have run out of air, the 97K is still going strong. They are probably the Cadillacs of the airgun world.

Mine is wearing a plain brown suit, and can't compete with yours for looks, but I still love it.

With the HW in the model name I'm thinking this is a Beeman? Was it made by Beeman or just sold by them? I would bet it is made in Germany?

Great shooter and nice looking stock.

Sir Henry wrote:With the HW in the model name I'm thinking this is a Beeman? Was it made by Beeman or just sold by them? I would bet it is made in Germany?

As far as I know, a Beeman is a rebadged Weihrauch, and yes, they are made in Germany.
http://www.weihrauch-sport.de/?lang=en

Thanks, folks.

Les, I also have the standard HW97K for my dedicated offhand work shooter, since it is a lighter gun than the Blue. Also have the HW77K for iron sight work. Guess you might say I like HW under-levers.

Gene, as Les indicates, Beeman is, and always has been, an importer. They've never had a factory of their own or made guns. Beeman has had a long and very strong relationship with Weihrauch (HW), but not all Beemans are HWs. They've also had other companies make guns under the Beeman name. That said, the sport of airgun shooting in this country owes a huge debt to Beeman for bringing fine European rifles into this country. I remember, very well, drooling at all those old Beeman catalogs, back in the day, and marveling at those amazing air guns. Now I'm fortunate enough to own some.

As for the Beemans that are HWs, they often differ in the stock and, sometimes, the sights. Traditionally, Beemans have been scope only versions of the HWs. If you wanted a gun with sights, you opted for the straight HW version.

Les wrote:

Sir Henry wrote:With the HW in the model name I'm thinking this is a Beeman? Was it made by Beeman or just sold by them? I would bet it is made in Germany?

As far as I know, a Beeman is a rebadged Weihrauch, and yes, they are made in Germany.
http://www.weihrauch-sport.de/?lang=en

That is what I thought. I have a Beeman HW70 made by Weihrauch in Germany. Speaking of which this thread just prompted me to shoot at some cans in the back yard. If you look closely you will see a squirrel on the bottom left nub. These larger items are easy for this pistol to hit but off to the side are some much smaller ones that are more difficult. I know its sacrilege to plink with this but I enjoy taking a few shots here and then without much hassle. I was out in back anyway checking on my teardrop. See the hardwood floor install.

Plinking is not sacrilege. It's actually the way I started shooting air guns with our old pumps ups.

Oh, yeah, one of the sometimes overlooked pluses for air gun shooting is that an air gun doesn't spook game. Have had deer walk up between me and a target at 25 yards during a range session and I had to yell at it to get it to move.

North Country Gal wrote:Les, I also have the standard HW97K for my dedicated offhand work shooter, since it is a lighter gun than the Blue. Also have the HW77K for iron sight work. Guess you might say I like HW under-levers.

A friend has recently bought a new blue laminate HW97K, and I saw it for the first time last Sunday. To say I was impressed is a bit of an understatement. Probably like saying that the One World Trade Center is quite tall!

I have had a 77 and a 77K, but I just couldn't get along with them for some reason. The 97K is a very similar rifle, but it feels so different. Mine has a Delrin buttoned piston and compression tube, plus a few other tuning bits, which help to make it a very smooth shooting beastie.

Just out of interest, what is the power output of your 97K? We are limited here to a maximum of 12 foot-lbs of muzzle energy or less for air rifles, and 6 fpe for pistols. We can get higher powered rifles, but they have to be added to a firearms certificate. We cannot get higher powered air pistols.

North Country Gal wrote:Plinking is not sacrilege. It's actually the way I started shooting air guns with our old pumps ups.

Oh, yeah, one of the sometimes overlooked pluses for air gun shooting is that an air gun doesn't spook game. Have had deer walk up between me and a target at 25 yards during a range session and I had to yell at it to get it to move.

Why is it a bulls-eye intimidates me? A three inch dot at 20 yards makes me miss yet I can hit a same sized tin can. I'm thinking with a paper target I'll see how wide my spread is and with a tin can I don't. I either hear the plink for a hit or don't for a miss and I can hit the can almost every time.

Les wrote:

North Country Gal wrote:Les, I also have the standard HW97K for my dedicated offhand work shooter, since it is a lighter gun than the Blue. Also have the HW77K for iron sight work. Guess you might say I like HW under-levers.

A friend has recently bought a new blue laminate HW97K, and I saw it for the first time last Sunday. To say I was impressed is a bit of an understatement. Probably like saying that the One World Trade Center is quite tall!

I have had a 77 and a 77K, but I just couldn't get along with them for some reason. The 97K is a very similar rifle, but it feels so different. Mine has a Delrin buttoned piston and compression tube, plus a few other tuning bits, which help to make it a very smooth shooting beastie.

Just out of interest, what is the power output of your 97K? We are limited here to a maximum of 12 foot-lbs of muzzle energy or less for air rifles, and 6 fpe for pistols. We can get higher powered rifles, but they have to be added to a firearms certificate. We cannot get higher powered air pistols.

Les, what we have for sale, over here, are what you would call the FAC (firearms certificate) versions of these HW and Air Arms spring guns. The HW97K, without a tune, is typically a 13 or 14 fpe gun. On the other hand, a lot of my airgun pals will typically tune them down to 12 fpe or less to tame the recoil a bit. A lot of my spring piston shooting pals have also taken a lesson from you folks and learned you can do a lot of hunting with air guns rated under 12 fpe. I no longer hunt, myself, but may also drop one of my Air Arms springers (my lovely ProSport) down to 12 fpe for the sake of my target shooting.

Sir Henry wrote:

North Country Gal wrote:Plinking is not sacrilege. It's actually the way I started shooting air guns with our old pumps ups.

Oh, yeah, one of the sometimes overlooked pluses for air gun shooting is that an air gun doesn't spook game. Have had deer walk up between me and a target at 25 yards during a range session and I had to yell at it to get it to move.

Why is it a bulls-eye intimidates me? A three inch dot at 20 yards makes me miss yet I can hit a same sized tin can. I'm thinking with a paper target I'll see how wide my spread is and with a tin can I don't. I either hear the plink for a hit or don't for a miss and I can hit the can almost every time.

That, of course, is something only you can answer, but I absolutely agree that they are two very different shooting games. I, too, find it hard to switch gears when changing from one type of shooting to the other.

Les, what we have for sale, over here, are what you would call the FAC (firearms certificate) versions of these HW and Air Arms spring guns. The HW97K, without a tune, is typically a 13 or 14 fpe gun. On the other hand, a lot of my airgun pals will typically tune them down to 12 fpe or less to tame the recoil a bit. A lot of my spring piston shooting pals have also taken a lesson from you folks and learned you can do a lot of hunting with air guns rated under 12 fpe. I no longer hunt, myself, but may also drop one of my Air Arms springers (my lovely ProSport) down to 12 fpe for the sake of my target shooting.

Thank you for the info, and I totally agree that sometimes less is more. Too much power from a springer often leads to excessive recoil, with a subsequent loss of accuracy.

I don't hunt either. My main goal is to get the best accuracy that I can from all my rifles, whether they are airguns or powder burners. The sad part is that most of them are capable of shooting a lot better than I can, but that's all part of the enjoyment. If it was too easy, it wouldn't be half as much fun.