Walther MaximaThor .22 - performance

Here comes the performance for a heavier pellet - the 21 gr Bisley Magnum which is simply a rebranded H&N Baracuda :



This is the complete setup of my rifle - with silencer and bipod:



All speeds were measured with the Combro cb-625 mk4 directly in front of the silencer, not feet away, so the data represent the exact real muzzle energy:

thanks for the link and linking my post in yours. 

And here we go with the heaviest of ´em all - the 25.39 gr JSB Straton Jumbo Monster - almost bang on with the manufacturers claim, the most powerful shot reached 43.74 footpounds or 59.31 Joules. Not too far away from Walthers claim of 60 Joules (44.25 footpounds). The rifle sure as hell has a lot of smackin´ power, even the lower powered shots are sufficient to reach out far and with good shot placement still make an ethical kill on small game up to a medium size hog. It still averages a good 75 fps faster with the heaviest pellet than my 12 footpound .177 springer with a light 8 gr Crosman Premier hollow point which leaves the muzzle at about 750 fps and still passes straight through a rabbits head at 15 yards. This is a purebreed and very well balanced hunting rifle which is on the heavier side of PCPs with about 11 pounds with silencer and bipod attached. I recommend a sling, carrying it all day might be tiring but with its Lothar Walther match barrel you will have a hard time missing your quarry. 



Here is the ammo of this performance test in its order from left to right: 



I am quite happy with the results - the most consistency comes from the last 2 magazines. When you know the speed increase of your rifle, you can make a diagram in Chairgun Pro and take it with you into the field - this way you have all 32 shots or 4 magazines covered and your accuracy will always be spot on from the first to the last shot until you need a refill. 

For hunting purposes I recommend the Predator Polymag up to about 40 yards and the JSB Jumbo or Jumbo Heavy for up to 80 yards. Those pellets are the most accurate ones of all tested. Beyond 80 yards, your grouping will probably start to leave the 1" kill zone but you might be more accurate than me and manage shooting at over a 100 yards. 

As I love a workout that makes sense instead of senselessly swinging dumb-bells, I have been charging my rifle with a hand pump - it´s a british Hill MK4 with an air filter - recharging takes about 4 strokes per fired shot. The Hill is a very solid and reliable pump which I can heartly recommend to anybody who plans on buying a PCP pump and doesn´t yet know which one. It is much better than for example the Hatsan model. It goes up to 300 bar (4.350 PSI) with only the last 25 bar (360 PSI) being in the red and comes with an air hose designed to withstand 425 bar (6.000 PSI) Thanks to the air filter I don´t have to worry too much about dirt and air moisture getting into my rifles airtank and it comes at an affordable price. You can even choose if you want to use it with or without the air filter though I see no good reason for leaving the filter out of the game. 

The next thing is the ballistic gel test. Not the best footage at 120 fps as I unfortunately don´t have a better camera but it can clearly be seen that there is some insane cavitation going on, especially when you stop the video at the right moment. I chose the 16 gr Predator Polymag for this and inserted beech wood 5 x 5 mm, spaced 5 mm apart to simulate ribs. Beech resembles bone in many aspects but the wood in this size actually offers much more resistance than any rib of a small critter. 

The pellet left the muzzle screaming at 981 fps, generating 34.19 fpe. The gel block was exactly 10 yards from the muzzle so the pellet entered it with a bit over 900 fps and least 29 fpe. The video of the second shot (exactly 1.000 fps) is not worth showing, same deal.

It is interesting that the Polymag loses its tip almost immediately (see photo) and it generates its own small wound channel. And note that the pellets hit with such force that they broke the wood 2" away from the impact point, even outside of the block (the "beam" holding the ribs together - see photo) in both cases.

Judging by the size of the gel block (slighltly larger than 3" x 5" x 6"), the temporary cavity was almost 2" in size. The pellet stopped just before exiting and mushroomed to 7/16 of an inch, penetration was exactly 6".

Here is the vid:

http://vid50.photobucket.com/albums/f321/Pope_on_Dope/VIDEO0431_01_zps7qwoko1l.mp4

And here are some photos: 

Yes, this gun is not regulated but it is superbly accurate when you learn to shoot it. Today, I downed a pigeon at 98 metres (= 107 yards) with a JSB Jumbo 15.89 gr. Unfortunately, I don´t have a scope cam - must get me one. But if you are still looking for a .177, this gun is only available in .22 and .25

I can recommend you the Walther Rotex RM8 - the gun is regulated and it is just half the price of the MaximaThor (around 450 Dollars) - but also only half the energy (which is still very effective for hunting small critters). It is basically the same gun with a bit shorter barrel, you can check it out on the net. 

Here the same thing again but I took care to get some better lighting, now the cavity can be seen very clearly.

That´s one mean pellet - the cavity has about 2.5" in diamater just behind the "ribs", getting progressively smaller. This particular pellet left the muzzle at 1.047 fps with 38.95 fpe, the target was at exactly ten yards again, so the gel got hit with plus minus 960 fps and over 37 fpe. Penetration: slightly over 5.5"

Thank you, I appreciate it. I am quite happy without the regulator as I started to adjust my aim after the chrony analysis and it is quite easy when you take a look at the pressure gauge (which shows about 10 bar more than there is in reality). When you learn to shoot the gun, it really is amazing - I´m slowly getting really used to it now after a month and about 2.000 shots but when I take into account that the Rotex RM8 is basically the same gun and comes at half the price (!!!) with a regulator it is annoying, yes. But it comes at the big tradeoff of half the energy. Walther found the cheapest way to get a 2.900 PSI gun to shoot at 44 fpe, simply leaving out the regulator. But to their credit - the guns accuracy is still really superb and only the very long range shots are affected over the spectrum of half a mildot at 100 yards from full to empty so the adjustments are minor from shot to shot but quite huge from full to empty. But with some good consistency and this is what I really love about this gun: it delivers the pellets with authority even over the longest of ranges - and with very, very good accuracy. I can recommend it to anyone who is willing to learn how to shoot without a regulator or used to it, anyway. It can be seen as an additional challenge.

I would love to tell you about the distributor but I guess it won´t be very helpful for you as I live in Czech Republic. In Europe, the rifle comes with a classic two year warranty and as I live in a country directly next to Germany, getting spare parts is no issue for me.

But what I can tell you generally is that the rifle comes with only one magazine and a filling adapter - this is a little weak from Walther. I also don´t like the plastic trigger blade (the trigger guard is metal, though) but the trigger mechanism works flawlessly, is smooth and breaks predictably and very clean between 2 and 3 pounds. The trigger is excellent, I absolutely can´t fault it. The first stage is adjustable from "almost no first stage" until pushing the trigger almost completely to the rear before the second stage sets in. I adjusted it as far to the rear as possible as I like a very long first stage - i don´t use the safety very much so this together with my finger is my safety. The trigger weight itself is not adjustable. The bolt action seemed a little rough in the beginning but after a few hundred shots, it works like butter. The bolt feels great and solid, they improved it since the Rotex RM8 where it basically was just kinda some "sphere on a stick".

The Minelli beech stock is top quality and almost a work of art if you ask me. I really love it - it has a very nice, smooth semi-glossy finish and the checkering provides a firm grip - no bad words for this. It feels great to the touch, like... yeah, like a well made wooden stock Its very ergonomic and the cheek rest is the perfect height for me as I put the scope as low as possible for obvious reasons. The stock is fully ambidextrous, so no problem here, either. And it has a nice thumbmold on the grip (visible on the photos). It simply is very comfortable in any possible way of holding it and I love the "english hunting style" form. It gives the gun a really stylish and elegant look. It somehow reminds me of a horsefoot bent to the rear as if it was kicking. I took some photos from more close in so that you can see it better:









It is interesting to note that this is probably the only gun with a safety on its safety (works similar to a Glock trigger) - you first need to depress the small plastic part in the middle before you can disengage the safety. The gun has no auto-safety. See here:

Here comes the last part of the performance test which is a kill shot. Ballistics gel doesn´t tell you much more than cavitation in a solid, homogenous mass so I shot this dove. It happened to be at 63 yards. A lot of distance for a Predator Polymag but as I already had the magazine in, I gave it a try and the pellet went dead center 1/2" below my point of aim (lower neck) and entered just above the breast bone.

Now look at what the pellet did at this distance... it entered in front of the bird below the wing and exited at the back just left to the spine. The internal damage is INCREDIBLE! Look at the internals of the upper part of its body, the Polymag absolutely shredded the lungs to beyond recognition. nothing left but tiny bits and pieces. Although the pellet completely missed heart, liver and spine, the dove dropped on the spot - not a milisecond of any type of reaction. It broke at least three ribs when exiting. 





The dove was fed to some kittys at the local farm. As I had it already half dissected, I fed them the breast meat and threw the rest away as I was concerned that it might contain pellet fragments and/or the plastic tip of the Polymag. I saw the Polymag fragmenting several times in ballistics gel. 

Hi NevadaRocks,

congratulations - yeah, it´s a sweet little gun. A far as the cylinder is concerned: Walther doesn´t recommend it, that´s right - but it can be done with ease. Just unscrew the mini screw on the underside of the barrel band (the thing with the "T" on it) with a metric allen key (its a 2 mm one, I believe). If you don´t have one, a small screwdriver should do the job but be careful - if anybody notices that the reservoir was unscrewed, it might void your warranty. Better ask your dealer how he looks at it.

Then turn the reservoir counterclockwise. I had one MaximaThor in my hand where is was very easy and on the other one which is my own it was a pain in the @$$ to unscrew it - you will not lose any air so the reservoir can be filled, no problem. Be careful to return the reservoir to its original position (the screw should have left a mark on the air reservoir). 

I recommend you to get a new longer air hose because with the low shot count, it will soon become annoying to unscrew the dang thing every single time. 

Concerning the article in the Australian magazine - it is clearly not correct. See my chrony test above, the Walther MaximaThor is clearly NOT regulated, no way a regulated gun would give you an increase of speed with practically every shot. And Walther specifies that this gun is not regulated. 

You´re welcome, no problem. BTW - I don´t know if you noticed but it´s the same deal with the barrel weight. You can easily remove it if you opt for a silencer but my silencer is quite light and the gun is still well balanced so I just let the barrel weight in place. 

I´ve had that rifle for about 1.5 months now and put over 2.000 shots through it. I really love it and the trigger is amazing - the action seemed at little rough in the beginning but now after the break in period it has become smooth like butter. I downed a pigeon at 107 yards and I just have the .22 version... but it does its job perfectly - it´s a one shot gun. Never needed a follow up shot yet as long as I didn´t miss.

Maybe I should have gotten the .25 as mine is firing really hot so I need to stick to the extra heavy pellets for long shots - but still. The accuracy is amazing with 1/2" groups at 50 yards and the drop from full to empty makes just half a mildot at 100 yards so the adjustments from shot to shot are very minor, with good software like Strelok+ and Hawke Chairgun Pro absolutely no problem. It maybe wouldn´t be the ideal Benchrest or HFT gun but it sure as hell is the perfect hunter with a whole lot of smackin power - those pellets hit with authority every single time. 

I´m just a happy as you that the safety is not automatic, I seldom use it - if at all. Either the gun is unloaded or I´m in the field with the finger on the trigger guard ready to fire at any time - the real safety is your brain and finger!

If you can, please post chrony data for the .25 version. I´d really be curious to see what it can do. I´m looking forward to hearing some performance and hunting reports with your gun. Have fun and shoot safely! Cheers.