Henry Rifle Forums

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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. 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

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............

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.

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

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.

Al, lots to consider in a choice for a backyard friendly air gun. Very much depends on what you have for a backyard and neighbors, especially if those neighbors are not gun friendly kinds of folk.

Thanks for the comments, thoughts and conversation. The main reason I went with this rifle is that I have a feral cat hanging around and fighting with my cats, and while my neighbors aren't sensitive in any way about firearms, they are close enough for me to be concerned about the safety of shooting a .22 in town, and the report of a 12 gauge may be a little shocking. (I realize that a pellet gun is also a dangerous weapon, a little quieter though) So, I had some Cabela's points to burn up and I thought that this would be a good way to use them
Another thing that I do like about this rifle is that it shoots Crossman pellets really well which are readily available at Wallmart and Gander Outdoors.
ALSO, It's kind of cool to buy a firearm with no background check, no hassle, free shipping even!

As far as suburban shooting, it's not just the reduced noise, or even the reduced velocity of the pellet gun, but foremost the difference in the mass of the projectile. Your average .177 hunting pellet is about 8.5g. Compare that to a 40g CCI Quiet

North Country Gal wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 27, 2019 9:38 am

Al, lots to consider in a choice for a backyard friendly air gun. Very much depends on what you have for a backyard and neighbors, especially if those neighbors are not gun friendly kinds of folk.

Yes agreed NCG. I only have a close neighbor on the east side of me and he has pellet guns to. Matter of fact he talked about opening the gate and shooting through both yards. So Im good in that area.

You are lucky to have such a neighbor. I've had the other kind at various times over the years. If anyone does find themselves in a situation where noise versus power is a factor, know that PCP really is the way to go when it comes to quiet, power and keeping the gun light in weight. Our inexpensive Crosman Discovery PCP in 22 cal with its add on moderator is not only quieter, by far, than any of our springers or pump up guns, it's more powerful and considerably lighter, too, than our most powerful spring piston gun.

North Country Gal wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 28, 2019 11:06 am

You are lucky to have such a neighbor. I've had the other kind at various times over the years. If anyone does find themselves in a situation where noise versus power is a factor, know that PCP really is the way to go when it comes to quiet, power and keeping the gun light in weight. Our inexpensive Crosman Discovery PCP in 22 cal with its add on moderator is not only quieter, by far, than any of our springers or pump up guns, it's more powerful and considerably lighter, too, than our most powerful spring piston gun.

Yes, I am very thankful that we live in a pro-firearm area. Just about everyone I know grew up with firearms, and are very familiar and comfortable with firearms. It's really nice.
I am curious, what does it take to get into PCP air rifles, how do you fill them? etc. Where is a good place to start?
I sure appreciate your knowledge and willingness to share with us all!

Glad to help. PCP stands for pre-charged pneumatic as opposed to classic pump up rifles like Crosmans, Benjamins and Sheridans which are also pneumatics, but require you pump them up after every shot. A PCP runs on a reservoir mounted on the gun, under the barrel. The reservoir runs at high pressures, anywhere from 2000 psi up over 3000 psi. Depending on the size of the reservoir and power setting, you can get anywhere from 20 shots on my Disco rifle to over 150 shots on a low power 10 meter PCP pistol like my Steyr. The typical PCP rifle runs 40 to 80 shots per fill, though.

And filling is the thing. This is where our people balk about going PCP. To begin, you cannot fill these air guns with a conventional shop compressor or your bicycle pump. Neither develop the needed pressures. That leaves you with three options.

The first is a special PCP hand pump. Looks and works like a bicycle pump, but develops the pressures needed. Be advised, though, you better be in shape. We're talking 50 pumps to 100 pumps and not easy ones at that. Obviously, getting your heart rate up like this is not conducive to good shooting, so a lot of folks do their pumping the night before. These pumps run $200 to $300 or more, but are actually your cheapest option for refills.

The next is to fill from a scuba tank with special adapters for your particular PCP rifle. This is currently the most popular. It's what we use. Refills take only a minute - you're done and can continue shooting. (We keep our scuba tanks in the garage.) That's the good news. The bad news is that scuba tanks aren't cheap and then there's the hassle of filling your scuba tank at your local dive shop. Some shops will fill your tank for the purpose of air gun shooting, but some won't for reasons of liability. Note, too, that tanks have to be certified every so many years via a pressure test. Another hassle and expense.

The last way is to buy your own high compression compressor. These are called shoebox compressors that run in tandem with a conventional shop compressor and act as pressure boosters. They're now coming down in price to the point of being competitive with buying a scuba tank. There are now even run alone compressors specifically made of PCP air guns. We'll be investing in one of these options when our scuba tanks run dry.

So what do you get for all this extra expense and hassle with a PCP?

For one, the best accuracy you can get from an air gun. The amount of air used for each shot and the pressure can be very precisely controlled and regulated. In fact, some of the most advanced PCPs have onboard computers to do this very thing, not to mention highly sophisticated electronic ignition systems. In short, the most advanced PCP air guns have more sophistication and technology than most powder burning guns. PCPs rule the roost in all air gun competition. All other types of air guns need their own division.

Ease of shooting is also a huge plus for PCPs. No special technique needed, as for shooting piston guns. Shoot a PCP just like your 22 rifle, though you still need to develop proper follow through. No special scopes needed, either, since there is no recoil.

PCPs are definitely the quietest air guns. No spring and piston noise and unlike pump up air guns, no pumping noise between shots. PCPs are also the easiest to setup with moderators and shrouds for the sake of noise reduction. PCPs can be so quiet, in fact, as to be a little spooky if you've been shooting piston guns for awhile. With our Daystate PCP rifle, for instance, the loudest sound is the pellet hitting the back stop. Actually hard to believe that you've just sent a pellet downrange with more velocity than the hardest-kicking piston gun. No recoil. Just phhttt! and the pellet is gone.

Power is another huge plus for PCPs. The average PCP rifle develops more fpe than the most powerful piston gun and it does it without the weight or the cocking effort needed for "magnum" piston guns. This power, along with excellent accuracy and lack of noise really make PCPs the ideal rifle for hunting.

Lastly, PCPs offer very practical repeater capability, via special pellet magazines. You basically operate them like any bolt gun with a magazine. Pretty neat.

In the air gun world, those of us who have been shooting traditional air guns like spring piston guns and classic pumpers sometimes tongue-in-cheek refer to "going over to the dark side". This is a shooter who has gone PCP on us. Sometimes they never come back to the traditional stuff. Me, I like them all, so I shoot them all.

Thank you for the great reply. I may look into them someday!

Ive done alot of research into the PCP gun choice. Id love to have one. NCG knows way more than I do about them as she has them and I dont own one yet. I really want one of those more than a springer but when you look at the initial investment of the gun scope and the compressor it makes you think about it for a while. Those shoe box compressors are pricey not to mention the PCP guns are right up there to.

North Country Gal wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 28, 2019 6:24 pm

Glad to help. PCP stands for pre-charged pneumatic ~~~ And filling is the thing. This is where our people balk about going PCP.

In the air gun world, those of us who have been shooting traditional air guns like spring piston guns and classic pumpers sometimes tongue-in-cheek refer to "going over to the dark side". This is a shooter who has gone PCP on us. Sometimes they never come back to the traditional stuff. Me, I like them all, so I shoot them all.

Never would have thought so much is involved. Great info/presentation about "the air gun world."

I know there are different "worlds" within the shooting sports "universe." Like I've just barely crossed over the neutral zone into the realm of BP shooting. It sure takes a lot of knowledge, time, and $$$ to enjoy the different sport offerings. Guess that old saying is valid: "The sky is the limit!"

Thanks for your excellent input, NCG.
PT7