Air rifles for my offhand work

[North Country Gal]

In my recent Cowgirl post I mentioned that I do most of my offhand shooting practice with scoped air rifles, so here are a couple of my favorites. Both rifles have in common that they are light in weight and softer on the recoil, since they run in that low to mid level velocity range. That makes them the ideal basement 10 meter range guns, but I also shoot them outdoors, quite bit, too. Both guns wear the same scopes in the excellent Nikon Prostaff EFR 3-9x which I typically use at 4x at 10meters in the basement, but outdoors at 50 yards, I do crank up the magnification.

First up is the HW30S Laminate. This air rifle is an absolute delight to shoot in every way. Very light on cocking effort and very soft on recoil ...


... and, oh, so accurate.



Next is one small step up in velocity and gun size with the HW50S. Bit more weight and cocking effort, but still a gun with the size and feel of a good 22 LR bolt rifle like a CZ. Every bit as accurate, of course. The extra velocity with the 50S - around 800 fps, compared to 650 fps for the 30S - is very helpful for bucking the wind when I shoot past 30 yards. Takes an absolute calm day for long distance work with the 30S, but when a breeze comes up, I can still shoot the 50S at a distance.




Out there at 50 yards, using a rest on this one


The beauty of using air rifles for my offhand practice, of course, is the low ammo cost, plus the fact that I can shoot right in the house or backyard. That great affordability and convenience is a huge plus for the amount of practice needed to shoot well from a standing position using a scope.

Okay, now you know my secret.

[Sir Henry]

Was that HW30S score a 100 (9x), or a 100 (10x)? Great shooting out at 50 yards. That is hard to do with a firearm let alone an air gun.

[North Country Gal]

That 100 is for 10 shots. That outlier did break the 10 ring line, just barely, but it's hard to see in the photo. That's part of the problem when using domed pellets for scoring work - they leave a smaller and fuzzier hole than wadcutters do. A wadcutter pellet would have more cleanly broken the ring. Not that it really matters, since this is just for my own personal amusement. Nothing official.

[Sir Henry]

I face that fuzzy hole thing all the time shooting .22LR.

[RetiredSeabee]

Ma'am you are an amazing shooter. Now don't be humble and say it is the gun that makes you good. I couldn't shoot either of them on my best day even half as well.
I need to move to Wisconsin to learn from the master.

[North Country Gal]

Aw, shucks. Hey, come for a visit, anytime, lesson or no lesson.

[ace73]

A couple of nice looking 'secrets'!

[North Country Gal]

Thanks. Actually, I'd be lost without our airguns. With our northern climate, shooting airguns is the only way I can shoot on a regular basis, all year round. April 27th, today, and it's snowing.

[daytime dave]

That's funny, NCG, we hit 80 f here. I like my airguns as much as the powder burners. Your two rifles featured in this thread are beautiful. Excellent shooting. Thanks for sharing it.

[Les]

Thanks for another great post, NCG. I'd be happy to shoot like that off a rest, never mind offhand!

[Henry88]

The Weihrauch's always seem to rise to the top. The HW50S is $400 at Pyramid, or $100 more than the RWS34.

I have a feeling NCG would advise me to spend the extra $100 for the Weihrauch

[North Country Gal]

Yes, I would. The RWS trigger is good, but not as good as the HW trigger and overall fit and finish favors the HW. The RWS34 is one of the great bargains own the air gun world, but the Weihrauchs (HWs) have always been considered a cut above the Diana (RWS). The stock on the current HW50S is especially nice, by the way. It won't have quite the power of the RWS34, but it is a smaller, lighter and trimmer gun and a sweeter shooter. One of my favorites.